They arrived at the edge of the rocks now, and she and Anara sensed out for anyone who might be in a position to see their entry into the city. -We’re safe to go ahead- They sent mentally to Artem, who glanced back at them and nodded. He’d insisted on taking the lead, and she and Anara had decided to let him… for his own peace of mind, if for no other reason. It was just another part of a Kazon male’s sense of pride, Anara had assured her, though Kes had made the same assumption, having learned more and more how Tresit and Artem thought about things. She didn’t always relate to it well, or think some of the things they did and thought were necessarily justified or rational, but she did think she understood it much more.

They took a careful but quick pace through the city streets, having the confidence of Kes’s mental abilities to tell them which streets were safe to travel down at any given time and which weren’t. Kes and Anara’s only nagging worry was for long distance surveillance. Again, it seemed unlikely, but if the local leaders had taken a strong interest in Tulk’s death, Lingen and Artem’s disappearances, Kes’s thefts, or in all of those things, and if they’d questioned Miteza and Thalla, or a few other of the Kazon Kes had encountered, then it was just possible that it could be a legitimate concern. But their only options in that respect were to either risk it or not try at all. She and Anara couldn’t sense anything amiss so far though, so they were encouraged by that.

Kes and Anara did start to feel a certain kind of thrill from this, from the exhilaration of moving fast and acting in harmony together for such an extended length of time. It was hard not to feel a little giddy, and also, perhaps, hard to ignore a certain sense of emotional freefall, being so open and vulnerable to each other, especially in the midst of a potentially dangerous situation. Anara had a memory of sneaking out into the wilderness to go hiking with her brother Ralka for a few days when their parents had been away. They’d taken turns jumping off a short waterfall into the water below. It felt sort of like that in a way… Anara and Ralka had snuck out while Tulk had been out for the afternoon with Lingen and Yanjik, no doubt doing something stupidly cruel. When she and her brother had gotten back, Tulk had been cold to them, more so than usual. He’d told their parents about what they’d done when they returned, but their father had simply laughed and said that there had been no harm, and that he only wished he had more time for such things. The memory made Anara wistful but happy, and Kes felt privileged to share it with her. What they called their harmony state only meant that, to a great extent, they could feel, think, experience, and act in concert, in harmony with one another, it didn’t make them one being, or give them each other’s memories or learned skills unless they actively tied to share them.