Homecoming

                            By:

                         Fox Cutter

04/21/97:

"Fox." Sora said from a few feet away. I jumped in reaction,
bashing my head against the underside of the control panel I
had been working on.

Pushing away a few components, I slid out from under it and
look up at her. "Yes?" I asked, rubbing my forehead.

"Your friend is hear," she said with a smile.

"Wha?"

She took three steps to the side, reviling that someone was
standing in the hallway behind her. "Oria!" I said, shooting
up to my feet in a second.

Oria smiled, and walked in sitting down in one of the chairs
on the Command Deck of the ship. "The ship is looking good."
She said.

I nodded, taking my own seat. "Thank you."

Sora shrugged. "I guess you two are going to want to talk,
so I'll leave you alone." Then left the room before I could
say other wise.

"How are you doing?" Oria asked me.

I gave a smile, rubbing the back of my neck. "Now that the
sunburn has faded, better then I have in a long time."

She blushed a bit in her ears at that statement. Apparently
the lights that was used to keep the expelling room in the
temple hot also gave out some UV. As Oriana's species has
fur it didn't much matter to her. I, on the other hand, burn
easily in the first place.

"That's part of what the expelling is for." She said. "It
probably took some of your own guilt and pain along with
mine."

I nodded. "How are you doing?"

"Better, mostly. The training with Marn is going well and I
have a somewhat better understanding of what I've ended up
in."

I nodded again. "And your sister, how is she doing running
the House?" Oria had sent me home after we were done with
the expelling, telling me she wanted to check on her sister
by herself.

Oriana smiled. "She actually seems to be enjoying herself.
All of the employees seem to love her. There are even rumors
that she's seen a client or two." She broke into a laugh,
though it sounded strained.

I frowned. "Miss it?"

She nodded, sighing a bit. Then glancing down a the bits and
pieces at me feet, she changes the subject. "I though you
said the ship was done?"

I chuckled a bit. "Well, it is. I've just been fiddling with
it, trying to kill time before I launch it."

"Why?"

It was my turn to blush some. "I auh... wanted you to be
here."

This got Oria to smile. "That was sweet of you," she frowned
a bit though, "but you may re-think that in a few minutes."

I raised an eyebrow. "Oh?"

"Remember the little cruise we went on?" She asked.

The question was redundant actually. I remembered it quite
well, it was how we first meet Steven Mason and it also
ended up in Oriana owning the HammerHeads a favor. Not to
mention that I, for a time, considered the idea that she
broke her rule about only sleeping with her species. It
turned out that I was wrong, and the guy was the Bliss
dealer.

I nodded. "Yes, which reminders me, Mason stopped by a
couple weeks back looking for you."

She grinned again. "I can image why." She said to herself.
Then with a shake of her head, she frowned again. "That's
not the point though." She took a breath. "It's about the
Bliss."

My back went rigid. "Oh," was my only vocal response.

She nodded a bit. "I lied when I said I had to take a dose,
though I was given a counter agent. To be honest, I had a
special stasis box made up and saved the second dose."

I frowned. "Why?"

She sighed. "Think about it Fox, what is Bliss really for?"

I sat back a bit, thinking. As far as I knew, Bliss was some
type of base magic. A sort of general mix to provide a
strong center of magic for a spell. It was for apprentices,
allowing them to get into complex spells they needed to
learn to control there magic before they had enough magic
needed to do the actual spell. The narcotic effects of
ingesting Bliss is just a side effect.

I looked back up at Oriana, the look on her face made it
clear that whatever she wanted me to figure out, I was to
figure it out on my own.

I ran it over in my mind, trying to remember more about it.
Bliss could be used for people with little or no magic to
cast powerful spells. Certain spells more so then others. I
also vaguely remembered Ken once saying that certain other
chemicals can be mixed with Bliss to get it to do some
interesting things.

It suddenly hit me that one of the chemicals was
Ornathopter. Something Oriana had gotten before. It was used
for putting the essence of someone, or something into a
spell. If you had Bliss charged with an essence like that,
it would take (as far as I understand) only a few other
things to make up a one type of spell.

I looked up at her. "Your gift. You used the Bliss to
transform me."

She nodded, her ear setting down into her hair. "Originally
I was just going to change you into a lion-morph, but after
what happened... making you a fox seemed to be the best way
to use it."

I leaned forward a bit, resetting my arms on my knees.
"Thank you for that."

She smiled a bit. "Sadly, I can't do it again, at least not
for a while. It will take a few more months for it to work
out of your system."

I nodded a bit. "I can wait, I do have patients."

She smiled more. "I was worried you would be mad at me."

I shrugged. "Not really, I guess it makes us even in the
hidden things category."

She nodded, sitting up a bit. "Who is that bewinged lady by
the way?"

I chuckled a bit. "Um... she's a new sidekick I picked up on
my vacation."

Oriana frowned a bit. "I though you said my room was still
open?"

I jumped at this comment. "Yes, she's sleeping in my room."
I winched as I said it. "Not that I need it," I hastily
continued, "I still don't sleep. It's really more her room
now then it is mine now."

She grinned, standing. "Then may I come back?"

I nodded. "Please."

She stepped in front of me, then bent down, and kissed me on
the forehead.

Oria was coming home.

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This story is (c) 1997 by Fox Cutter, hardcopy reprints
limited to one a person, all other rights reserved. This
story may not be distributed for a fee except by permission
of the author, and this copyright notice may not be removed.