Paths Trodden

So familiar. While it had only been an hour for the locals, months had passed since Lore was last there and yet still it felt like only moments. They followed a similar path to the one they had carved through the crowds on their first visit only this time they had a target and they knew a bit about where they were going. Although the city itself was a technological marvel, the peoples and buildings within it wouldn’t be too out of place in the medieval times of Earth. Buildings, rarely higher than two stories, stood with edges of wood and walls of clay. Surrounding those buildings, faceless people. Lore had noticed it the last time around but it became more apparent now that as they looked at the local populous, the local populous hid their faces. It was as if their gaze caused their heads to spontaneously evaporate in their helmets. About half way between the outer markets and the pub where they had first met Crait, their Breacher started to vibrate.
“Hang on.” Lore tried to shout out to Char but couldn’t see her anywhere. “She’ll notice I’m gone soon.” Lore nodded as they turned to follow the Breacher’s new path.
Their destination hadn’t been too far away as Lore was within spitting distance of Tay within moments. They weren’t the only ones. Down a staircase or two, on the lower levels of the city, there was a wide open space with mesh squares integrated into the stone floors. These squares could be raised to reveal cages barely large enough for a big cat but adequate for a human. Tay was attracting a lot of attention with many of her onlookers spitting and throwing things at her. Lore made their way towards the cage but for the moment only got close enough to read the above sign.
“Noraakk.” Lore scratched their head.
“It means pretender.” Char appeared from behind them.
“Bloody hell.” Lore climbed back into their skin. “Pretender? Does it say anything else?”
“Says that despite his pretending, he is a worthy worker and would make an above average slave.”
“He? Hmm must be a new capture. No time to replace the signage.” Lore inched closer.
“What’s the plan then?” Char kept close.
“I go in and talk to her, you get ready with a way out.” Lore smiled.
Lore’s proximity to the cell caused the nearby rabble to back away, giving them around thirty centimetres of buffer room between the cage and the crowd.
“You alright?” Lore leant in as close as they could.
“Been better. Been worse.” Tay paused and took another look at her bloodied and bruised body. “Trust me, it’s mostly superficial.” She winced. “Except that one.” She prodded her arm, releasing a small squirt of yellow fluid. “That’s properly infected. Damn Emraeh.”
“What’s going on here? How long have they had you?” Lore searched her cage for the answers to their questions.
“It’s been three days. And four since I last saw you. You and what happened in the Rexel system got me thinking, then I saw a pattern.”
Lore was taken aback by the parallels between their realities. “Four days? Wow.” Their eyes narrowed and brows furrowed. “Who did this to you?” Lore placed their hand onto their staff. Time slowed around them and the universe grew quiet. Only they were moving.
“The local warlord caught me sniffing around his place. He had other plans for me but I didn’t live up to them.” She sounded terrifyingly relieved. Lore’s stare grew more intense. “Well, when he found out what I was, he was less than impressed. Gave me my own sign and threw me in this cage.”
“What you are?” Lore took a moment. “Quatarrian?”
Tay looked to Lore as if they had drooled on her rags but quickly remembered who she was talking to. “It’s a bit of a long story but, for now, we seem to have the time.” She looked at the angered faces frozen around them. “When you were brought into the family, that shot KeKe gave you modified your DNA. That gave you a third sex chromosome, the Z or neutral chromosome. You and mum both have one and when you had me, your genetics determined that ZZ was the most advantageous configuration possible.”
“Sorry what?” Lore looked to themselves confused. They knew the shot had changed their DNA but they hadn’t thought too much about it.
“You were born XY right?” Lore nodded. “Well, because ‘Lana didn’t give her DNA, KeKe’s and mum’s Zs were compounded and passed onto you making you an XYZ or Gwryen , a neutral leaning male. It’s not that unusual for humans to develop pseudo-quatarrian genetic traits but… When you and mum… Had me, her XXZ and your XYZ came together to make me a ZZ.”
“Wow.” Lore was at a loss for words. “So you’re…” They stumbled over themselves.
“Before I was born, you decided that my prenatal care would be done by humans to limit how much you knew about me. You had no clue whether I was going to be male or female just that I was healthy. I was born on Quatarr, mum thought she had a baby boy and you weren’t too bothered either way. It didn’t take long to realise something was up and the doctors… at first they ran then, they started pressuring mum to make a decision. You pulled the father card so they stopped ignoring you and you got a vote. You told them that I would make the decision when the time came.” She smiled. “So there I was, something in between and the first Niwen born on Quatarr since before the second civil war. You raised me how you would have wanted, letting me try whatever I thought looked fun and wear whatever I wanted. Mum did too but she was worried about the stigma surrounding the Niwen.” Lore gave a puzzled look. “Niwen were at one point regarded as the peak of our evolution. We embody the best of both sexes but that lead to fear and hate. Mum was just looking out for me. When I decided at eighteen that I wanted to stay as I was, she nearly fainted but she understood. But you were always there, making me feel like me no matter what that meant.” Tay smiled. “Even helped me change my name.”
“Got to say, kind of jealous.” They both chuckled. Tay grabbed at her side with a pained smile. She coughed as she pointed behind Lore.
“You got any leads to get her out or you two just enjoying a friendly chat?” She scalded. Time had obviously caught up with them.
“We’re after The Warlord. Whoever that is.” Lore smiled. They quickly dropped their smile as they picked up their staff. Broken Chains.