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by Taylor Neptune (Author)
Mina is a fair bit smarter than the other acolytes in the sacred temple, but her research and prophetic dreams are regularly ignored by the acolytes who have won the regular favor of the High Vessel, Arava. Mina is a halfling, after all, not a full-blood Sepiana. She's voluptuous and comely, thus not the austere sort of woman the priestesshood takes seriously. Mina is tolerated at best. Fortunately, she takes the star alignments and gory images in her dreams seriously enough to heed the warning of the ancestors she knows have been contacting her.
Ren is a sober-minded warrior involved in the invasion of the Sepiana planetoid. Having risen high in the ranks after tournament victories that caught the eye of the revered warrior Tershe, believed to be the voice of the warrior-god RaShu, Ren has been taught to believe that the Sepi acolytes are property of RaShu, according to their mythology. The RaShuna warrior ship lands on Sepiana to invade, just as Mina's visions forewarned her, though her words fell on deaf ears.
Ren realizes that Tershe planned on killing the majority of the Sepi acolytes, so Tershe could claim one that his own visions advised him will hold great, budding power. Ren makes an executive decision to rescue the most important daughter of the Stelshar, the ancients of the Sepiana people. After aiding a good portion of the priestesses and acolytes to hide in the lower, abandoned tunnels of Sepiana, Ren takes Mina and her psychic temple cat on an out-of-service shuttle through the tunnels. What follows is a high-octane game of cat-and-mouse that forces the pair to disguise themselves and hide as they find a course to meet with the Intergalactic Council, who are the only ones that can grant them sanctuary from the warrior class of the RaShuna.
