Jeanne G'Fellers - No Sister of Mine

blinked hard, allowing her eye lenses to settle back into place. Was this what her birth parents looked like? “Not that it matters,” she told the sharp-chinned image that talked back. “They were only Auts.”
Cance applied the dye pack’s contents then removed the combing stick from the package and pushed the color deep, the excess dripping into the basin and expanding as discolored rings on the water. Her hair completely saturated with color, she quickly rinsed it, then, towel wrapping her head, cast another long look into the reflective backing, eyes drawn to her neck until the ever-present anger spun into fury. “Damn you, Belsas Exzal!” Cance smashed her fist into the backing, denting the metal so it warped her image. “Damn you for the Aut-loving bitch you are! If we’d won the Taelach War, I’d be ruling over the Kinship, you’d be dead, and Chandrey would still be with me. Auts would serve Taelachs and everything would be as it should: MINE!”

Chapter Seven
The Hiding Caves are the essence of survival in troubled times.
—Taelach saying
The journey to Langus served as a sharp cultural awakening for LaRenna. She had never been outside Taelach lands except for necessary travel and that had taken place strictly at night. Taelach children were closely protected by their raisers in fear they would be taken in an ill-fated reunion with their Autlach birth parents. This rarely if ever happened, but the old warnings were still repeated, just as stories of alleged Taelach treacheries were passed down in Autlach families.
The launch stop proved an uneventful place, nothing more than a tiny burrow of a port set in the narrow northern mountain ranges of the Reisfall continent. LaRenna gave the pilot the travel card Master Yeoman Qualls had provided her and stepped aboard the launch. It was far from crowded, but she chose a seat in the rear anyway, pulling her head deep into her cloak. This probably wasn’t necessary, for the launch’s other occupants were ignoring her presence, but it made her feel a little more at ease.
With a short jolt, the passenger aerolaunch rose and the trip began. LaRenna leaned back in her seat, enjoying the vibrant scenery that had escaped notice on her nocturnal journeys. The launch followed the slow roll of the mountains until it reached the southernmost peaks, then it lurched upward, engines straining to meet the incline of the high passes. When they reached the summit, the pilot paused, allowing his passengers to take in their surroundings as the full wonder of Reisfall’s Glory Land made its awe-inspiring appearance on the horizon.
LaRenna had heard dozens of stories about the Glory Land as a child, but not one did it justice. It was an extreme combination of plains and canyon lands, buckling and breathing for thousands of kilometers. At its highest points it bounded with blowing flower grasses and countless wandering Sarian herd beasts. The lowest points hid among the deep canyons, some of which had never been mapped, at least not to the knowledge of the Autlach. There, buried deep within the Hiding Caves, lay the secrets of Taelach self-preservation. Chandrey had taught her how to read the ancient marker signs to locate them. They were the last strongholds the Taelach could flee to in times of peril.
It all passed by too quickly for LaRenna, for she was still lost in thought when Polmel’s dark skyline pierced the afternoon haze. At the sight of it, she felt a shot of nauseating anxiety. It was a spiraling, walled shell of civilization that buzzed with the traffic of Sarian commerce. Pollution reeked, the streets were crowded, and the din was deafening. She hated it. Yet, in the scheme of things, it served a vital purpose she had to grudgingly respect.
The launch’s maneuvering thrusters fired as they slowly descended to a docking platform. Passengers gathered their belongings and waited to disembark. LaRenna mustered her courage and retrieved her own bag from under the seat. “Well,” she whispered with a wary gaze to the platform below. “No one said this was going to be easy.”
A jolt signaled touchdown, the landing locks hissing and grinding as they secured to the platform receptors. The doors slid open and smothering humidity flooded the compartment. LaRenna gasped as the heavy air filled her lungs with suffocating pressure. An older Autlach woman in front of her turned back to speak, her forehead beading with moisture. “Polmel’s dampness can be unbearable, can’t it?” She seemed to take LaRenna’s appearance in stride. “Don’t concern yourself with your hood, my dear. Everyone in Polmel knows a Taelach when they see one. There’s almost as many of your kind here as mine.” LaRenna shifted uneasily at the unexpected attention. “You won’t be given any trouble while in public.”
They stepped off the launch and the woman showed the platform sentry her travel card. LaRenna pulled back her hood for identification, produced her card, and gave it to the sentry as well. He read it then passed it back with a salute to match his begrudged tone. “Have a good trip to Langus, third officer.”
“Langus?” The woman had lingered. “Well, young lady, that’s where I’m heading as well, at least a day or so.” She swiped at the perspiration that ran down her face. “My two youngest sons and their families live in a farming compound on the edge of the Balleye Breaks. I’m heading there for a quick visit on my way to Saria Proper. Beautiful country, the Balleye Breaks, you’ll have to visit them sometime during your stay.” She walked toward the archway at the platform head. Her left foot dragged along the ground as she moved, giving her an odd limp. After a rather amused glance back at LaRenna’s apprehensive face, she beckoned her to come closer. “The port at Polmel is near impossible to navigate if you’ve never been here. Carry my bag, child, and I’ll take us to our platform.”
LaRenna gratefully accepted the woman’s generosity, relieved to