"You're certain of this?"

"Yes, Master."

"Don't call me that," I snap, padding around the edges of the open space of the warehouse.

The Grakkat was kneeling in the center of our shared home, their eyes following me back and forth as I paced. "Sorry, great Karagorn."

I roll my eyes but ignore the honorifics. Poor thing couldn't help itself. Give it another thousand years or so. "What did you see? What did he tell you?"

"That he was alone. Different. In control."

"And you spoke to his Vit?"

"I did, sir, yes. It was young. First host. No direct connection to the Hive."

"And it... They could shift?"

"Yes, sir. Like you. Well. Not like you."

"Yes, yes." My pace increases, and I dig my claws into the cold concrete beneath my feet. A few other Visharath across the room flinch in fear at the sound. I pause.

"Tell me what it looked like."

The Grakkat trembles in what looks almost like ecstasy. "It was... Majestic. Tall. Not as tall as myself. But it had a great crest upon their head. Tendrils which extended from the back. Sweeping blades on the wrists and shoulders. Legs not unlike your own back legs. A tail that must have been three to four meters long, with a multi-faceted blade upon it. The face was like a mask. Smooth, with forward-facing eyes. And the skin... I could not tell exactly what color it was, but it was unlike our own. They were not gray; they were dark. So dark I almost lost their shape, but they had these..."

"Constellations on their skin," I finish for it. "Whorls and swirls of stars, pulsing and glowing?"

"Yes," she breathes, her jaws parting slightly and her breath coming in soft pants.

I flop to the ground, nesting my nose between my paws. "So, it happened again."

I eyeball the Grakkat. "You are dismissed."

"Sir?"

"Yes?"

"I believe that finding this creature would be of the utmost importance."

I contemplate silently for a moment before speaking. "Notify the human leadership that I would like to speak to the Tracker's Alliance."

The Grakkat bows, and slinks away through the entryway.

I continue to lay in the same spot, thinking. The first time I encountered one of these creatures had been nearly ten thousand years ago.

It had nearly destroyed me and brought our Empire to the ground. It had come down to it, and I, alone, in the Empress' chambers. I had barely defeated it, and it had left permanent, genetic wounds on me. No matter the form I took, I was forced to carry a reminder of our battle - one torn ear.

"I should have let it win," I think to myself. "This time, it will be different. This time, we shall fight side by side. I wish I had listened then. This will be the last planet. Our people will stay and fight beside the creatures they have chosen to doom. No running, no hiding, no fleeing. Here, we succeed with the humans or fall with them."

A sudden noise grabs my attention, and I turn to see a group of young humans—two males and one female—open a door and walk in without hesitation.

The leader of the trio barely spares a glance to any of the hulking Visharath forms around it, instead opting to walk briskly and directly toward me. It amuses me sometimes to see how fast these creatures adapted. Of course, this individual had a different kind of steel inside him. I rise to a seated position and bow to it slightly as his companions form a semi-circle around me.

"Sir," it says, bowing in return. "You wanted to see us?"

"Kendall, I believe we have found what you are looking for..."

I wonder how much like his brother this Alec will be.