Jenna had Ixy send Sardius the message that Josh would not release the footage Sardius had sent him.  

“Did he take the news well?” Jenna asked Ixy a few minutes later.

“No.  He’s pissed off.  He thinks Josh should have been able to make a fifteen second clip from what he sent him, and that he’s wasting everyone’s time being an artist when Sardius does not have any time to spare,” Ixy explained.

Jenna had never heard Sardius rant about art, but then she remembered hearing a little grumbling on the sidelines during her photoshoot with Favel.  She hummed to herself and after thinking it over, she asked Ixy, “How did he get all those gorgeous shots that he used to advertise himself as a space pirate if he hates having his picture taken?”

Ixy giggled.  It was an evil sound.

“Do you know something about that?” Jenna asked cautiously.

“Well, you must know that Sardius has been connected with loads of famous women,” Ixy said, the malicious sound of her voice sharpening.

“No.  I don’t know that.  How would I know that?”

“You’d know that if you had the brain of a turtle… or an Octavian.  He’s a famous revolutionary.  He’s charismatic and charming.  Of course, there have been scads of romantic rumors about him.  But the one about the pictures he uses to advertise himself are the most famous.  They say he spent two weeks at the home of Madeline Shivers, the most famous female photographer the Bonemen have ever had.  She capped off her photography career by taking those shots of Sardius.  When she was finished, she said she would never be able to top her work there and she changed lanes and started directing movies instead.  That’s probably why Josh has his panties in a bunch.”

“He’s trying to make history,” Jenna finished for Ixy.  She stood up and paced the room.  “Damn it!  Why am I surrounded by people who are trying to outdo everybody?  I am not even from here and I don’t know what everyone has even done.  So, I was dealing with Sardius’ man-sized ego, and now I’m dealing with Josh’s and if they’re going to fight about…”

“Sorry to interrupt you, Madam Diplomat,” Ixy said, stifling a laugh.  “But speaking of men and their egos, I just received a communication that Rold Xant’s ship has entered the Octavia system and he should be here tomorrow.”

Jenna groaned and stopped her pacing.  “There’s another bunch of men with humongous egos to deal with.  What’s it even like in the Rainmaker Palace?  Is Scion prepared to host his father?”

“Uh…” Ixy said, “I have been trying to stop you from going over there.  I mean, I have access to their cameras and I have never been happier to be in jail, but if you go over there, you might not be very happy with Scion’s setup.”

“You mean because he’s turned his palace into a boxing gym?” Jenna asked, drumming her fingers against her upper arm.

“Yeah.”

Jenna rolled her eyes.  “I’d better go over and have a look.  It can’t be that bad.”

“Well, it can be a bunch of shirtless guys working on their abs and beating the crap out of each other.  So, it’s pretty great.  Scion is stressing out about the woman his father is bringing him.”

“He’s bringing her now?” Jenna questioned.  “What’s she like?”

“Her name is Harlee Sitve.  She’s a stunner, but in a ‘floats like a butterfly, stings like a bee’ kind of way.”

“She’s a boxer?”

“No,” Ixy corrected instantly.  “In that she’s the kind of woman who looks like a butterfly, but will stab you in every single one of your vital organs kind of way.  She’s a suspected mafia princess.  Wanna see pictures?”

“Of course!” Jenna almost squealed.

Ixy brought them up on the screen in Jenna’s room.  In the first picture Ixy showed her, Harlee was wearing something close to a zoot suit.  It was a black suit jacket with wildly wide shoulders that cinched down to an impossibly small waist.  Her hair was twisted up off her shoulders and the cut of cleavage between her lapels said she was a little too busty for fashion.

“Is Scion excited or terrified?” Jenna asked.

“Apparently, he’s known her since they were children and it was always a possibility that he would have to marry her to satisfy his father.  He’s been arranging for a third wife, so that he can have a name and a face to give Harlee when she arrives, so that she doesn’t enter into a marriage with him without understanding clearly that he’s going to have a plaything.  He’s supposed to have babies with Harlee, but he doesn’t think he’ll be able to manage getting close enough to her to screw her.  Sorry, that last part was private, but you spent so long talking to Sardius over the feed that I got bored and started listening to Scion talk with his bodyguard.”

“Though it is a bit of an invasion of his privacy, it’s not completely out of line.  What kind of woman does he want?” Jenna asked curiously.

“He wants one that can be cleared by security as quickly as possible.  However, it isn’t the plan for Harlee to stay on Octavia Prime.  It’s only a visit.  She’ll either marry Scion before she leaves or leave as his fiancee.  Scion is looking into finding a third wife from among the people who already live in the Octavian system.  He’s got his eye on two women.  One is the daughter of a doctor on Octavia Five and the other is a woman is a rather famous mistress of a famous doctor on Prime.”

“If I give him a whack of cash, can I get him to choose the daughter?” Jenna wondered snarkily.

“Maybe,” Ixy said.  “Neither of them seem that interested.  The doctor’s daughter is a bit young, but she’s agreed to visit and go on a date.  That might just be so she can create content for her followers on social media.  The mistress is two years older than Scion, but she has a way with men.  You’re right not to want her.  If we already have to put up Harlee, it seems a little unfair to have to put up with more scandal.  Hey, do you know what we should do?” Ixy said, suddenly sounding really excited.

“What?” Jenna asked suspiciously.

“We should have Scion take Vissy to visit Celestina while she’s here.”

“Vissy is the doctor’s daughter?” Jenna clarified.

“Yeah.  Just image it,” she said, pulling up a picture of Vissy on the screen.  “She’s this vain, empty little thing, but she wants attention.  If you simply dangle the carrot that she could ever be like Celestina, you’ll have her hook, line, and sinker.  Then, once she’s married to Scion, have Celestina brainwash her… I mean… Train her.  She’ll be Celestina’s protege more than Scion’s third wife.  Imagine it.”

Looking at the screen, Jenna could see that Vissy was like a flower child who knew everything about hair and makeup in a way that Harlee could only dream about.  She was this feminine creature sent from heaven in a pink floral dress.  She wore her delicate curls half up and her hair accessory that held her hair lit up to light up her hair and give her something very akin to a halo.

“Fetch!” Jenna said.  Jenna looked good in a mirror, but she didn’t look like that.  “Well, it’s not confusing why Scion wants to get together with her.  Has he shown a preference as to which woman he would prefer?”

“He’s at war with himself.  Part of him wants to get together with Vissy because falling into something so adorable would make him feel like a man in one way, but if he gets together with Starlett, that will make him feel like a man in another way.”  Ixy brought up a picture of the doctor’s mistress with a snap.

Jenna looked at the picture for a thirtieth of a second before turning away.  Even if she hadn’t seen that woman before, she’d seen that woman thousands of times.  She was the archetype that was especially popular on Earth before Jenna had been abducted by aliens.  

“But…” Ixy continued in a tantalizing tone.  “Another part of him wishes he was man enough to get together with Harlee.  Because he can marry her, but he can’t necessarily win her, but if he could, wouldn’t that show something about him that the other two women could never give him.”

“Very interesting,” Jenna said, putting the whole thing out of her mind.  “Now show me a picture of the photographer Sardius had the two week fling with.”

“Jenna,” Ixy hesitated.  “I don’t think I should show you that.”

“Are you following Sardius’ instructions before mine?” Jenna accused.

“Pissing off Sardius is not high on my list of things to do today… or ever.  I see now that I should not have told you the story about the photographer, but I thought you needed to know about his general aversion to taking photos.  However, taking you through a play-by-play of all his romantic conquests seems like a recipe for disaster.”

“Do it now,” Jenna said coldly.

“Fine,” Ixy said through clenched teeth.  Then she brought up the picture.

Jenna looked at the screen.  It wasn’t a woman like Harlee, or a woman like Vissy, or a woman like Starlett.  It was a woman with dark straight hair, with an angular jaw, and fine lines around her eyes.  The picture showed her hands.  They were hands that had worked hard, the skin pulled tightly over them like her bones were threatening to burst from her body.

Jenna approached the screen and looked at the image more closely.  “What does this mean?”

“It doesn’t mean anything,” Ixy said.  “It probably just means that he was using her and he did what he had to do to make her take the best pictures she could take.”

“So he uses women and so he’s probably using me?” Jenna asked, a little breathless at the idea.

“Oh, do shut up,” Ixy said, imitating Jenna.  “It’s not like you’re not using him.  I know you are using him thoroughly and he’s completely into you using him.  He brought you an army.  He brought you his heart on a plate.”

Jenna took the rebuke without saying a word.  What Ixy said meant something.  Sardius had tried to give her everything that he was, he just wasn’t being served in the way that suited her best, and she was feeling sore over it.  They had different circumstances and Jenna had been raised like a nun, not because of what the crown did to her when she was growing up, but because she chose to keep her innermost self private.  Whatever the picture of the photographer represented, it was over, just like her life on Earth.

Jenna looked at the picture one more time before she walked clean out of the room and down the hall. 

“Jenna’s on the move,” Ixy said over the loudspeaker.  She did that now that no one could come within six feet of her.  

“Announce me at the Rainmaker Palace,” Jenna said before heading out onto the deck.