“It’s no problem, really.”, the woman smiled and shrugged her shoulders. “That medical degree ought to be good for something.”

At that comment, Nestira raised a delicate eyebrow. Rodulans stopped aging somewhere around their mid-twenties and only resumed the process when they bonded with another of their species. As such, it wasn’t uncommon to look young, but have decades of experience in the field of their choice.

But this one seemed younger than that. Felt younger. Felt… different than she would have expected.

Far less disciplined than Rixx, she allowed her own telepathy to poke and prod at whoever it was they had  in front of them, yearning for some sort of connection, but met with confusion and apprehension.

The woman’s smile flickered, and Nestira pulled back.

Rixx, the eldest of them by far, scanned the thoughts trailing off both women and turned towards the younger of them. “You appear confused. You sense something?”

In response, she drew back ever so slightly. She had been taught early on that it was impolite to attune to other’s thoughts and emotions – meaning that even if she had been able to connect, she wouldn’t have done it.

But that wasn’t the reason she now thought about an exit strategy.

Only a few weeks ago, Naeric had happened – the telepathic being that had kidnapped the crew of the Callisto to worship him as God, and influenced Eshrevi to abandon her – on an isolated island, no less.

Which meant that her impression of telepaths in general wasn’t a positive one.

“I don’t know what you mean.”, she said vaguely.

Rixx waved a hand lightly in the heat of the relentless Risian sun.  “Thoughts. you can hear them can’t you?”

“Not usually.”, she relented after a moment of hesitation. “Not with anyone I am not close to.”

And still, it had been why she had approached the two strangers in the first place. Something about them had felt different, yet oddly familiar. A pull she couldn’t explain.

He regarded her simply, openly, without judgement or malice. “It is not a bad thing.” He considered and ventured, “What is your name?”

“Alcyone… Brennan.” A distinctly human name for someone who, quite obviously, was not.   “And… I should be going.”

Running away from something that spooked her wasn’t the route she usually chose, but here and now, it seemed the best course of action.

Rixx reached out, almost as if he was going to touch her, but he was over half a meter away. “You don’t have to run…”

Nestira, who had remained silent, offered a telepathic nudge. “Be kind.”, she reminded him. But no, she too had no intention of letting the woman – Alcyone – escape just yet. It was so rare that they met someone like them.

For a moment Rixx spared a look at Nestira before his eyes locked back on the girl. And with effort, his tone softened. “We are alike, you and us. We understand.”

Maybe she didn’t want to be understood. But there it was, an open offer.

“Somehow I… doubt that.”, Alcyone replied, but stayed – at least for the moment. “I’m not like anyone”

It sounded like something a teenager would say. I’m so different, no one understands me! It’s not just a phase! 

But it was so much more. It was the understanding that she, biologically, was perhaps not unique, but rare.