Nya has enjoyed her time on Arcros, mediating minor disputes and arranging marriages. She never expected that she had been offered the position based on her suitability to be a Draikynkyn mate, and that her soon to be lover was working his way through stone pathways to her side. Hyfor is not what she was expecting, but as she was expecting to work in obscurity, she wasn’t really prepared for anything. Mating with a dragon might be a good bar joke, but the reality far eclipsed the fantasy.
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Intact
Copyright © 2011 Viola Grace
ISBN: 978-1-55487-962-5
Cover art by Martine Jardin
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Intact
A Terran Times Novella
By
Viola Grace
Chapter One
Mediator Antonya Morris stretched and twisted, working her stiff muscles before she had to return to the meeting room. The negotiations had been rough, but she felt that she had managed the best possible arrangement for her client’s family. This was going to be one hell of a wedding.
Nya smiled as she thought about her client, Viisha Ordu. That young Evian woman had everything she wanted in life clearly outlined. There was no getting around it. Her husband was in for a hard time unless he mastered the phrase, Yes, dear.
The Ordu family had engaged Nya’s services to manage the mediation and contract signing, but it had hardly been necessary. Viisha had her mate-to-be well in hand.
With her break completed, she returned to the table where the families were sitting in a subdued silence. “So, are we all still in agreement?”
The families nodded. It had been two days of negotiations, but it had been worked out to everyone’s satisfaction. “When do you want to hold the ceremony?”
The Ordus sat up, their head feathers ruffling slightly. “Within a month.”
The groom’s side muttered in shock. The matriarch looked down her nose at the patriarch of the Ordus. “Unseemly. We have no means to arrange this within the month.”
Nya held up her hand, the mediator robes falling back to expose her forearm. The room went silent. “The Ordu family has already agreed to take on all extenuating finances. That will include organizing a rushed ceremony and all of the rituals leading up to it. You need only pay for the actual official performing the ceremony, as is custom.”
The Zenki family inclined their heads, their feathers smoothing to lie flat along their skulls. Viisha was still a little irritated, but her peacock blue feathers slowly receded away from the static halo. “That is not customary.”
“I am aware of that, but I am here to make sure that you both meet each other halfway. I am aware that Evian families tend to give all of the financial responsibility to the male, but with your agreement, Yargo will have plenty to take care of with finding you both a home to the agreed specs.”
Yargo Zenki nodded, his raven black feathers lying in a relaxed manner on his skull. He was the most mellow Evian that Nya had seen in her three months as Mediator. He had sat silently through the entire negotiation, his eyes on his blushing bride-to-be. For Nya, it would have been unnerving for that raptor gold gaze to be focussed on her, but Viisha fluffed and preened her feathers for the entire event.
Nya quickly completed the addendums to the contracts and slid one copy to each party to sign, including a file copy and then switched them before signing herself. “There. You are officially engaged in a mating contract. Congratulations on your nuptials.”
As per her Evian Mediation training, she lanced her finger with a quill and drew a line through all signatures in her own blood.
“I hereby ratify this contract by the laws of the Evian and the Alliance.” Nya pressed her finger subtly to the pad next to the quill, stopping the flow of blood.
The families stood, shook hands, took their copies of the arrangement and left her office. She breathed deeply and let her breath out on a low sigh.
Years earlier, she had never guessed that her ability to smooth over family dust ups would land her in the Volunteer program back on earth. Joining the Alliance export program had come as a shock to her, but her family had been all for it.
The Alliance planets called them Terrans now, a much more graceful term than the Earthers that had been proposed by some of their governments. Nya had done two years of general studies at an Alliance mediator-training centre and five years of rotating station duty.
When the post on Arcros was offered to her, she had jumped at the chance to be ground bound for a while. The Evian settlers were friendly, the planet’s avatar was generous with her stipend and being part of the colony and yet a completely different species was a challenge that she enjoyed.
With her clothing and shelter being provided by the planet itself, she had no expenses, so her retirement fund was rapidly growing to enormous proportions. Working with the Evian paid very well.
She grabbed the contract and scanned and filed it. It was her fourth wedding mediation, but fifteenth contract over all. The Evian’s kept her fairly busy.
She checked her calendar for any new appointments and when it came up clear, she giggled. It was time to get some food and have a charming night in.
The construction mediation was due to start in the morning and she was going to need fortification.
With her basket full of food ready for her delicate touch in the kitchen, she entered her small home and came up short at the sight of the avatar of Arcros sitting at her kitchen counter with a chilled glass of wine.
“Hello, Berenghetti. How are you this evening?” Nya walked into her kitchen and started to assemble her meal. “Would you care to share dinner?”
“That would be lovely, Antonya. You are a thoughtful hostess.”
Nya fished some more vegetables out of the cooler to supplement her shopping and started chopping. “What brings you to my humble home?”
“I was simply wondering how you were adjusting to life here on Arcros. Not everyone is able to work with the Evian day after day.” Berenghetti inclined her head and sipped at the wine.
Nya spared a quick glance to the avatar and noted the telltale signs of Arcros within his chosen vessel.
Berenghetti was an attractive female of Nyal extraction, her clothing was elegant and of a similar style to the robes that Nya was required to wear.
“They aren’t too bad. As long as you remember that they are simply interested in gemstones and money, they are a fairly easy people to get along with.”
Berenghetti laughed, a low, rich sound. “The feathered ones were very polite when they asked to start a colony here. Your presence has already had a bit of a calming influence. I thank you for that. It has been a rough two hundred years.”
Nya barked a laugh in response. “I can only imagine. How long have you been avatar for Arcros?”
“I am going on just over nine hundred years. It was fairly lonely until the Evian and then the frustration took over with a rapid surge.”
Nya smiled again and set up a pan to sauté thin slices of meat into a peculiar stir fry. It was hard to manage Terran-familiar foods, but with enough research and a few nights spent over her lav, she had managed to find blends that suited her palate and allowed her a balanced diet.
Berenghetti shared her fascination with attractive foods and this was not the first time that Nya had found the avatar nearby at mealtime.
Sharing just seemed the ideal method of learning more about the only other oddball that was walking this world of gemologists and jewellers.
Nya tossed the meat and sliced vegetables together and ran a light sauce across the whole brightly coloured mass. She dished it out onto both of her two plates and placed the eating prongs on them at an angle.