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What an utter horror. A black smear descended from the Voidsky, an extension of the Sever of Ties manifest here on her very own ship. The antithesis, the adversary, the end of all things, now appearing in the vague suggestion of a letrax holding a longrifle in one foot, the barrel at ominous rest over the impression of its shoulder.

Sasfsets could not process how dearly she loved Xixiviv. What other lover could inspire in her such absolute, guttural terror as one who could break the very shape of her entire being with a delicate touch of one single void-dripped feathertip?

"Hey, love," Sasfsets said. "Missed you."

"Nilivir," Xixiviv agreed. "It is a peculiar coincidence the idiot shapes for us."

Behind Sasfsets, Satarella's naked soul warbled its distress across the visible spectrum of colors. Sasfsets' princess was doing her best to hide behind her, and oh, how it bolstered her rapacious ego to be her comfort, her relief! But oh, how silly it must look, for such a shapely torfed to try and conceal itself behind a thing as slight as a dadal.

Of course, Satarella lacked crucial contexts for the situation. She didn't seem to prefer the Escalihaxim they were speaking, likely missed the friendly tone hidden in Xixiviv's monotone voice, did not know their history, did not know anything but a Voidblack beast had come for her life.

"Here for the princess' bounty?" Sasfsets asked. "That is pretty funny. Thanks for not shooting me from three leagues away."

"Yet," Xixiviv said dangerously, and all the fur on Sasfsets' back stood up in mortal thrill. "You are aware, then, who you are harboring."

"Princess Satarella of Somethingorother. Alofhom."

"You are aware of my job, still?"

"Voidwing Xixiviv, premier contract assassin! Voidsniper, Superlative Denier, death without apprehension of itself, the sever of ties, the breaker of bonds, the dark sky descended unfeeling and hollow to still the idiot's weavings, the very Nothing itself made manifest without mercy, who kills from three leagues away, my dear friend and lover who values our relationship very much so as to not shoot my guest out from behind me."

"As you say," Xixiviv agreed. Her gun remained pointed at the sky.

Satarella stomped a hoof in nervous mishandling of the marrionette of her own body. "Nilivir, what is going on?" she pleaded, in helplessly lost Brinnesch.

Sasfests was only delighted to elucidate in matching language! "Ah, what fortune, the World Soul theory has gained a proof, for the assassin sent after you is none other than my long-time lover, companion, a dear friend! She might be amendable to not murdering us all today."

"It's a Void monster," Satarella said.

"Only mostly, just as I myself am only mostly an Ocean monster. How smart you were to stay with me this whole time, princess, had you gone off on your own surely Xixiviv would have found you alone and found no reason to spare you! But for the moment I must bargain for our lives, if you don't mind."

"I don't!"

Sasfsets turned smiling back to Xixiviv's imposing black suggestion on the deck. "Now," in Escalihaxim again, "I have to know. Is this an open contract or were you contacted directly?"

"Directly," Xixiviv said.

"Delightful. On one shore that means we should not expect streams of assassins every cycle! On the other shore--ah it is going to be hard to convince you to let me keep her, isn't it?"

"As you say," Xixiviv agreed.

"Right. Fun. I do love fun. I love it, Xixiviv. We have so much fun, don't we? Let's establish the terms of our courtship dance. Are you willing to kill me to get to her."

Xixiviv, the swirling, eye-numbing mass of darkness in the shape of a bird, seemed to consider this a long moment, its white eye staring unblinkingly at Sasfsets. "The world would be much darker without you, and it would hasten my own hollowing to rupture you. Are you willing to kill me to defend her."

It was Sasfset's turn to think. "I believe I am very caught up in the moment. I believe I would make the attempt. I do have corpse-gold bullets on me and loaded. I own a denier myself now, actually, so, it's a reasonable precaution to have at all times."

"The advantage is yours," Xixiviv said, "for the moment. If I sniped her sometime later, would you forgive me?"

"Absolutely," Sasfsets said, "but only afterwards."

"Then we are even."

"As you say," Sasfsets agreed.

"What is she to you?" Xixiviv asked.

There was something fascinating about familiarity. The Void had sealed off so much of Xiviviv's soul that the black poured out of her body in excess, shrouding her in an unknowable veil of Not, and yet, what colors remained vibrant in the letrax's tapestry were so deeply entwined with the rainbow mass of Sasfsets' that the truth, raw and unprocessed and wet, came out before Sasfsets could even have a moment to examine it, alter it, or prepare it in a way more palatable to her tongue. "She's part of my collection." Bitter aftertaste.

The meaning was not lost on Xixiviv, who was very well educated in things most people should not ever be educated in. "Do you claim her under your nascent crown?"

With a glance back, Sasfsets asked, "Satarella, how capable is your Escalihaxim, how well do you follow so far?"

Satarella's face remained dead and expressionless but the marrionette wheel of her soul was emoting enough to make up for it. "Not well? My Escalihaxim is very unpracticed and you both talk so fast and with so many words I don't know--"

That was a sigh, a deep one, that poured out of Sasfset's body with reluctant surrender. In Escalihaxim, she intoned, "I formally claim this mortal as my property beneath my violet crown." Staring now at Xixiviv, "Beast-Ascendant-in-Black, do you lay your claim over this control?"

"Beast-Ascendant-in-Violet, I do not," Xixiviv said. "This pattern does not offend me."

"By the Silent Agreements of the Zero Court may this control move past our mortal forms, and may they justify this accord however the useless things can manage."

"On behalf of the Void, it is as you say."

"On behalf of the Court of the Rampant and Disastrous Princess of Lusts, so it is sealed." Sasfsets clapped her hands, meat and auroral both, together. "Well! That's all sorted out then! Xixiviv, did you know I found a hwual denier slave about to be executed and I rescued her? She's mine now, and she's doing so well at learning to be a disobedient disaster I worry I won't be able to control her much longer! Would you be interested in meeting her?"

"I would. I will also take tea."

"Oh, without doubt." She was forgetting something. "Oh! Satarella. Xixiviv isn't going to kill you. Isn't that good news?"