Author's Note:
This story contains futanari (hermaphrodites, dickgirl, whatever definition works for you).
----
The twin moons of Suley and Imoran gazed down dispassionately on fields flush with blood and gore. Hekua of Five Burning Trees pulled her sword out of a gurgling Warinee, breathing hard as blood gushed up against her battle-warm skin. A Warinee; that people and hers, the Byluka, had once known years of peace. The Amayul Empire had absorbed the Warinee, the same way it desired to take in the Byluka underneath its widening shadow; it set formerly friendly tribes against each other.
Hekua staggered back as another combatant, dressed in the long grey robes of the Nyr-nyr, sliced at her with a glimmering sword, cutting right through the tough armour made from the back-pelt of
triops
, splitting it and the cloth beneath which she used to bind down her breasts for battle, straight down to leave a burning slice in her chest. No ordinary weapon should have pierced her armour like that; this was obviously a sword of Amayulan make. She bared her teeth and swept the Nyr off their feet with a sweeping kick, before raising her sword and bringing it down on the exposed neck with all her strength. The head rolled away in the dead grass.
She felt someone grab her arm and whirled around. One of her brood-parents, Salbret, didn't flinch as Hekua came within inches of decapitating him. Hekua stifled a cry of pain and leaned against Salbret as he dragged her away to a temporary shelter.
"General," Salbret said, wiping away blood which dribbled from a nasty gash in his forehead. The blood was shockingly bright against his dark skin. "We are losing."
"I am aware of that," Hekua said, and coughed heavily. She turned her head and spat out bitter gall. Carrion-birds screamed over dead bodies nearby.
"The Imperial Binary seems very intent on bringing the last free tribe to heel," Salbret said, almost casually. He raised his massive bow and let fly a whistling arrow. Something large exploded, and Salbret grinned. "Especially since the great Hekua has managed to beat them back time and again."
"And this is the last," Hekua said, heavily. "Sheer numbers, Salbret. That and those damned weapons of theirs."
Salbret notched another arrow in his bow. "Yes, General. Where you lead, we follow."
Hekua reached out, and placed her hand on the bow. She pushed down, shaking her head. Salbret's brown eyes watched her carefully.
"If we continue like this, they will destoy all of Byluka," she said. No more songs in the night, speaking of Suley and Imoran's legendary and tragic love; no more small Bylukan children shrieking as they descended the spiral stairs which wound around massive trees. When Hekua had been seen fourteen years of age, she had singlehandedly doused a fire which threatened five of these precious trees, which had housed no less than thirty families each. Her adult name had been conferred to her with great pride right after that incident.
"The Imperial Binary said that they would accept your surrender as capitulation," Salbret said. Hekua nodded, and then stared at the tattered huts which marked the camp of the Byluka army. She raised her left hand and clenched it, the corners of her mouth turned down. A slender figure emerged from one of the huts with a length of white material.
Hekua, the famed leader of the stubborn Byluka, was surrendering.
"Not for long, Hekua," Salbret promised.
"No," Hekua agreed, watching the herald streak towards them with the signal of surrender. "Not for long."
+
Umtra-Hekua walked serenely down the halls of Taral, the main castle of the Imperial Binary. Silken robes shimmered against her brown skin, and her hair cascaded down her back in gleaming dark curls. She could sense royal guards shadowing her every step, and she rolled her eyes. Without the slender golden bracelets on her wrists, she would have been able to dispatch with them quite easily, but the bracelets had been placed on her by the Imperial Binary itself, a symbol of the considerable weight of its magical persuasion on her will. The Imperial Binary called it
psychic influence
, but Hekua knew magic when she felt it. In the past year since she had been imprisoned in Taral, all her attempts at escape had resulted in a searing pain in her head and the uncontrollable urge to return to her room.
She came to the end of the corridor she traversed; there were three well-decorated silvery doors: one at the end, and two on either side.
"One moment, Umtra."
Umtra
was an Amayulan term, meaning 'honoured guest'; Hekua thought the use of it in reference to herself was simply one example of Amayulan dry humour. She turned, raising an eyebrow at the guard who had approached her.
"The Imperial Binary summoned me," she informed him. "I am allowed to be here."
"I know, Umtra-Hekua." The guard appeared greatly discomfited. "It was...only Umitere-Arez who had requested your presence."
Hekua felt both eyebrows creep up in amazement.
Umitere
was another word Hekua had picked up:
Great One
. It was a word that referred to only two people in the entire Empire of Amayul.
Actually, two who were
one
individual: the Imperial Binary.
It was a hard concept for Hekua to grasp. When she had been first made to kneel before the Double Throne, she had lifted her head to gaze upon two people who were differentiated only by the location of the simple bracelets on slender ankles: Arez wore the golden circlet on their right leg and Zaer wrote it on their left . For ease of thought, Hekua thought of Arez as
she
, since she was female-bodied, and Zaer was
he
, possessing the male organs of the Amayul. However, despite the duality of the physical form, the Imperial Binary, Umitere was
one being
.
"Hekua of Five Burning Trees," Umitere had greeted her in two low voices as she knelt. "Welcome to your new home."
Umitere did everything as a unit. They Imperial Binary fucked Hekua that first week, intensely curious about the Byluka anatomy. On this large planet (called
Lim
by the Byluka and the Warinee,
Evert
by the Nyr-Nyr and
Nove Terra
by the Amayul Empire), the Byluka were an anomaly. The duality of gender experienced by other races was not apparent in the Byluka. For example, Salbret was regarded as
male
by other tribes...and yet he had been the one to bear and give birth to Hekua; and Hekua herself possessed both male and female reproductive organs. Hekua thought about the six small children she had sired, and who now lived in safety in the Bylukan tree-cities. She was grateful to the spirits that the Amayul Empire honoured their agreements.
Now, Hekua looked away from the guard and gazed at the door on the right. Shrugging, she stepped towards it and pushed open the door. Four silent guards stood in a silent inner corridor. If Hekua could take on the outer guards with ease,
this
set would give her some pause. She strode past them, onwards past a wide arch and pushed away heavy curtains.
On the sleeping-dais, Arez lay sprawled on a pile of blue pillows, the same shade that Zaer possessed in his space. Hekua had been surprised to find out recently that there were separate rooms for each half of the Imperial Binary.
"Kua,"Arez said, stretching languorously and then sat up, reaching out. Hekua hated that pet-name, but nodded in greeting. She approached the dais and took the hand Arez offered to her. Hekua was of average height for Bylukan, but Umitere was tall, a good head and a half more than Hekua. Tall and slender, with straight dark hair and golden skin. Arez had long, thick eyelashes, just like Zaer. They were as alike as twins, but there was now one more thing that now differentiated Arez from Zaer.
Arez was pregnant, belly rounded in mid-parturiency. The robes she wore were translucent, revealing small breasts with large, dark nipples, a dark line that ran right down the middle of her stomach, and barely, the dark triangle of her sex.
