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Alex spun. He'd been trying to make himself understood from the Samalian who had been standing by the entrance, watching the people within the room, when he'd heard Tristan's name.

Tristan had wandered through the room, but kept away from the few people there. So he hadn't actively watched him. Now, another Samalian was close to him, and talking. Alex hurried to join them before things escalated to violence.

Like most Samalian, she--was she a female? She was slightly smaller than Tristan, and her frame not as massive as him, or the Samalian by the door, but that meant little. They had no obvious visible difference. And the kind of pants all Samalians wore were loose enough to make the crotch area kind of vague. His research on the Species had revealed they were similar to human woman there, but he'd need to see her naked to confirm.

They were speaking what had to be one of the Samalian languages. Alex had never heard Tristan speak it, although he was fluent in multiple human dialects. She glanced at him, dismissed Alex and said something that had Tristan's ears fold back.

"Okay, that's enough." He itched to reach for a knife. He hated the vulnerable expression on Tristan's face. He also didn't like how comfortable she was making him vulnerable. He could see tension in her body, so she had to know the danger Tristan represented, but that was going away.

She looked at him again, then over his shoulder. Right, Jacoby was with them.

"Who are you?" she asked. Her muzzle deformed the words slightly, giving her an odd accent. She said something in Samalian and Tristan looked at Alex, hesitated, then answered.

"I said that's enough." He handed the case to Jacoby. He needed a free hand. "I'm Alex, this is Jacoby, and clearly you know Tristan."

"I know of him," she answered, "Anyone who pays attention to what happens in space will know of him." Her accent was clearer as she spoke more, she enunciated every word properly, so it had to be caused by the shape of her muzzle.

"Fine, then who are you?"

Instead of answering she looked around the large room. Alex opened his pack. He caught Tristan flinch on of the corner of his eye, but couldn't see what had caused it. Not her since she'd been looking away.

"I am Mal'irtan. Humans would call me the head priestess of the House."

Tristan asked a question in Samalian. She nodded.

She motioned for a door between two of the alcoves. "Will you accompany me? I believe this will be best discussed in private." She headed there without checking if they were following.

Alex contemplated planting a knife in her back, but he needed information. "Are you okay?" he asked Tristan. He wanted to touch him, but he didn't want to set him off again.

Tristan didn't say anything, just looked at him, looking lost, then he looked to the side and growled something in a low tone. Jacoby was staring at him, then he raised an eyebrow to Alex. He shook his head. Tristan wasn't as well as he'd thought.

"Keep to the rear," he told Jacoby, "I don't want to risk him freaking out and running off."

He headed for the door.

The short corridor beyond it had two doors on each side, She waited in the one furthest from the door, on the left. She went in. It was a large room, a mix of an office and storage, by the desk in the far corner, and the crates set randomly about the room. One was open and contained emergency rations.

She leaned back against the desk and spoke to Tristan, in Samalian. Tristan hesitated, looked at Alex, who kept his expression neutral. He wasn't going to influence this bit of conversation.

Tristan looked back at her, then away. "He's in charge." His words were soft, then his ears were folded against his skull, as is he was berating himself for not having taken charge.

The admission brought the priestess up, her ears forward. "I had heard Tristan was fierce. A killer. The humans call him a monster. Is this what he is truly like?"

"No," Alex said without hesitation. Then had to figure out what else to add at her expectant look. "He was captured, drugged and tortured." He pressed his lips together. "And he was bound by the Defender."

One of her ears tilted in confusion, but she waited.

Reluctantly he took his hand off the knife and out of the pack. He took the case from Jacoby and opened it. "This was taken from one of your temples."

"Houses," she corrected. "Our word for what this place is means a place of warmth, of belonging. From what I have read. Human temples have none of that. So the better word is House."

"Fine. It was taken from one of your Houses. And we want to return it."

"Why?" the question held disbelief. She looked at Tristan, who seemed distracted. He was turning one of the emergency rations over in his hand. She said a word in Samalian then stopped and considered. When she spoke again it was clearly so Alex was part of the conversation. "I was under the impression you had no faith, Tristan. Did not all survivors turn their back on the Source?"

Tristan looked away, but this time he seemed to be paying attention to something Alex couldn't see, not avoiding her gaze. He nodded.

"Then why do you care if he is returned?"

"I don't." Tristan's words were clear and he glared at Alex.

"I want to return it."

"Why?"

"Because I need a boon from him."

Her muzzle opened as if she was about to say something, then a series of barks escaped. She couldn't seem to be able to stop them, and Alex realized she was laughing. He'd never heard Tristan laugh like that. He'd never heard Tristan laugh at all. He remembered Jack laughing, but it had been a mostly human laugh.

The surprise passed and anger replaced it. She was laughing at him. He took the knife out of the pack and held it tightly.

Its presence helped her regain control. "I offer my apology," She said, between light snickers. "I meant no insult."

Alex didn't believe her, but he still needed whatever information she had.

She let out a sigh and still smiling, she said, "those are only stories. From a time before we understood the world was larger than what we saw."

"Are you telling me no one here makes promises over him anymore?" Alex growled, his grip on the knife tightening.

"They still do, but they are rituals, they comfort, they provide..." she trailed off, and mouthed a word.

"Structure," Tristan said.

"Yes, structure. There is no power."

"I don't believe you. Believe give the gods power. And plenty of people here have to still believe in them even if you don't."

She looked to be searching for something, then shook her head. "The Defender isn't a god. That is a human thing. The Defender is a part of us. An aspect of who we are. As if the Aggressor, the Thinker, the--"

"I don't care what you call them. All I'm interested in is if you'll take him back so I can get a boon."

She sighed. And stepped to the case. Alex watched her as she picked up the statue. She looked surprised at its weight. She hadn't believed him when he'd said it was real. She studied it, running her fingers over the statue with something like reverence.

She placed it back in the case. "He doesn't belong here."

"Listen here--"

Her gaze held such authority that Alex stopped.

"If you want a boon from him, he needs to be returned to his house, not some other house."

Alex reigned in his temper. "Fine, and where is that House?"

She leaned back against the desk again. She studied Him, Tristan and finally Jacoby.

"I will require payment first."

Alex growled. "If you think you can just play us."

"I know exactly which house is his. I also know they will be happy to get him back, he has been gone for a long time, but I will not give that information for free."

Alex took a step forward, raising his knife.

"If you think that threatening me will get you the information, you are wrong," she said, her tone firm. "I have already been attacked and beaten." She raised the vest she wore and her side was crisscrossed with scars.

He studied them. Some were old, others more recent. She hadn't been attacked once. She'd been attacked over and over, and the persons doing it hadn't wanted her dead. This had been about inflicting pain. He could see some of the scars going to her back. She noticed where he looked and she turned. Lifting the vest even more.

Someone was determined to hurt her.

A part of him felt sick at the sight, but he squashed it down. Her pain couldn't matter to him, except to show how he couldn't threaten the information out of her.

"Alright." He backed away. He took the sheath out of the pack and clipped it at his back, then sheathed the knife. "What do you want?"

"I want these corporations killed." The hate in her voice made him raised an eyebrow. "I want each and every one of them reduced to a fine powder and spread over the land so something productive will come from them."

Jacoby chuckled.

She glared at him, "You believe my anger unjustified?"

"How you feel isn't any of my--"

"They have come here and removed my people from this city. They have sent them to the mountains, the prairies the forests and jungles, 'so they can live how they were meant to,' they claim, all the while tuning this city into a place for their people. The few they allow to stay here have to remain hidden when not required for some tasks they want performed. I will not commit violence, that is not my way. But it is yours." She looked at them, panting.

"Let me see if I got this," Jacoby said. "You want us to destroy the corporations in exchange for telling us where that piece of rock came from? Alex, let's get out of here."

He watched her, the fire in her eyes. Violence might not be her way, but she wished it was. "What you want can't be done." She fixed her gaze on him, and he thought that there was a time he would have crumpled under such hate. "What you see here, isn't the whole, just a small part. You can't understand how vast the corporations are."

She closed her eyes. Forced her breathing to slow. "I know." The words were hard, as if she hated them as much as the corporations. "I know." He voice was smoother. When she opened her eyes the fire in them had died down to ambers. That is what I want, but it can not be the price I ask. What I ask for, in exchange for where this Defender's House is located, is for them to have to stop building in the city."

"That seems excessive, I don't know the extent of the work they're doing, but there had to be hundreds of companies involved."

Her ears shook and she took a datapad from the desk. "They put all the equipment into a guarded compound because they kept being sabotaged. Vandals the corporation say. But now they are well protected. No one can get to them." She pulled up a map of the city and indicated a large area. "They are kept there, under guard."

"How many machines?"

"Many. No one can go in to count."

"It's covered?"

"We can not get hovers. Only humans are allowed."

"What? This is your planet," Jacoby said. "How come you aren't doing anything to regain control?"

Tristan snorted.

"We try."

The scars. Someone wanted her to put a stop to it. Someone believed she was involved. Violence wasn't her way, but there were other Samalians, and not all of them would feel as she did. Some didn't mind using violence, and just like she was setting them on destroying the compound, she had set them on going the sabotage.

How long had this been going on? Part of him wanted to ask, but it wasn't important. She'd given them the price. Now the question was could he pay it.

"What's the security like?"

She brought up another file. She'd done her research. The guards' schedule was there, their routes, she even had pictures of them. She had the security company's name, their office location. She even had places marked on that building. Places where explosives would do the most damage.

"We destroy this compound, and you tell us where the Defender is from?" He took out his datapad and copied over the information.

"Yes." One word that carried so much eagerness Alex could have laughed.

"Alex, you can't be serious. There's got to be an easier way to get the information."

Maybe there was, but he didn't intend on wasting time looking for it. This was something concrete to get him toward what he wanted, and fortunately for them, by the time she realized that destroying this wouldn't even slow down the corporations, the Defender would be back to his House and Tristan back to normal.

"We'll come back once the job's done." He turned and motioned for Tristan to move. The Samalian looked at him in surprise and then left the room. He looked around once they reached the central room as if he was looking for something, but headed for the door leading outside. Alex followed, with Jacoby behind him.

"You can't seriously be thinking about doing that."

"I took the job."

"You're really going to go up against one of the corporations?"

"I expect multiple corporations store their equipment there."

"Even more reasons not to do--" He stopped when Alex rounded on him.

"I didn't force you to come. You made that decision. If you aren't happy with how I'm doing things, feel free to leave. You can even take the ship." If you can bypass all the security, Alex thought.

"I'm not leaving."

"Then stop arguing. We have more important things to do.