There was something about their recent escape from danger and horror that opened doors inside Selene. She had the curious sensation of lights being switched on throughout her body. She'd been so concerned with surviving, with recovering her life and physical functioning, that she'd forgotten this side of her, barely given it any thought. Its return was an unexpected joy. She wasn't simply a biological and biomechanical machine that needed fixing, that needed to consume food and expend energy to maintain tissues and bodily systems. She'd gone beyond that. Delight at the possibilities opening out, at the rush of lust flooding through her, sent a tingle across her skin as she returned Myrced's gaze.
She double-checked that her Ondo was dormant, unable to overhear anything she was experiencing or thinking. She said, “I can probably delay destroying Concordance for a few hours.” She set down her own drink and stepped into the woman's arms. Here, suddenly, unexpectedly, was a moment of refuge, a simple denial of Concordance and death and horror. Whatever the morning would bring, all that could be forgotten for a time.
Carefully, wary of her bruises, Selene took hold of Myrced's body. Her lips tasted of spice and the purple fruit as they kissed, cool in the night air. But her tongue when it found Selene's was warm.
Myrced led her by her hand to a narrow flight of steps in the corner of the room. The shutters in the bedroom upstairs were open, the cool night air breathing in, rich with the scents of night-time blooms and the strident chirrups of insectoids. The room was dominated by the double bed at its centre.
“Help me get my clothes off,” said Myrced. She couldn't raise her arms over her own head, so Selene did it for her. There came the moment when it was time to reciprocate. Selene paused, wary. It wasn't just the thought of showing her naked body to Myrced, it went deeper than that. There had obviously been no one since Maes Far, since her injuries, and the thought of another person seeing her as she now was seemed suddenly unbearable.
Myrced appeared to understand. She pulled Selene around in a half-circle in a move like a dance twirl, then pushed her gently down to sit on the edge of the bed. She began to remove Selene's clothes. Selene let her do it, moving her limbs to allow it to happen. When they were both naked, she stood, and they embraced, body to body, breasts and hips pressed against each other's. The night air across her skin was a delight, although the senses in the rebuilt half of her body were slightly muted by her artificial skin.
Myrced knelt to kiss her breasts. “I saw what happened to you, your injuries. You're fully better?”
“I am, but the skin on this side of me is temporary. A disguise like the masks.” Her nipples, a part of her mind noted, were responding in perfect synchrony.
Myrced kissed her more, tiny butterfly touches across her belly. “It's incredible. You wouldn't know.”
“The left side of my body is much stronger, but the temporary skin is less sensitive.”
Myrced's breath tickled Selene's skin as she spoke. “I'll be sure to keep that in mind.”
“On the positive side, my stamina is good.”
“Well, we'll see.”
Myrced climbed onto the bed and opened her arms, inviting Selene to join her. They explored each other, kissed each other. She'd thought of Myrced's skin as a rich olive brown, but in truth it was a variety of shades, each area she came to subtly different in hue or texture. Night-time birds of prey screeched from the trees and, distantly, the sounds of crackling fires and the lapping lake waters drifted through the night. The roar from the city was distant, muffled. Myrced was between her legs, her tongue flicking in and out of the delicate folds of Selene's body, when she suddenly stopped. She knelt up between Selene's legs to consider her.
“You need to let go, honey.”
Her words confused Selene. “Huh?”
“It's like you're there in the moment with me, but also not there. Like part of you is monitoring for threats. I can feel the tension in your muscles, as if you're held together with wires. It isn't going to work if you don't let yourself go.”
Was she doing that? Her augmentations were probably doing it automatically, assessing for possible dangers. They did so without her conscious thought. Or maybe it was her natural brain, still wary, her way of viewing the world marked by everything that had happened. There was another presence in her thoughts, too, another ghost. Falden. She was still alive, and he wasn't, and there was a heavy weight of guilt about that. With an effort, she set it aside. Falden had wanted her to live, too. The grief of their private parting had been one more open wound within her, but through his tears Falden had told her, just as her mother had told her, Live your life up there, Selene. I want you to live your life.
In her mind's eye, he looked at her for a moment, his brown eyes and the floppy hair she'd loved to comb her hand through while they embraced. Then he faded away, backwards into the mists. He would still be there in her mind, always, but now there was space for others as well.
Out loud, to Myrced, she said, “I'll try.”
Myrced shook her head, her ready smile returning to her lips. “No, don't try. Do the opposite of that. Just be, for a time at least.”
With a conscious effort, Selene instructed her environment assessment monitors to go into sleep mode. She wanted this. She would give herself up to these moments, this night. Concordance were out there, the Void Walkers and their agents on this planet, but she would forget them all for a time. She breathed in a lungful
