Descend- Seeing Stars by Sean Oswald (the ebook reader .TXT) 📕

      Jay realized at that moment that she didn’t trust him. How could she? He was an alien, literally. His people had come in and killed nearly a thousand of her kind in a battle that lasted less than an hour. Now she was being compelled to marry him out of a societal obligation. Yet despite that she took her duty so seriously that she put her life under his control.

      Jay hoped he could build on this. It might not be much of a romantic beginning, but it was a beginning. He just needed to show that he was trustworthy. Then he could build from there.

      Even with the differences, the work soon became automatic. He had done this so many times refining more than one hundred and fifty people, many of them over dozens of sessions, some even more. Doing the work by rote allowed him to focus more of his mind into other treks. A portion was dedicated to working out how he wanted this relationship with Eesa to go. Another part was trying to figure out how he was going to get to the Forlorn ships and the best way to combine Tamoori starfighters with overpowered evolved humans.

      Finally, one last partition was busy mapping out future potential changes to Eesa. He would have to wait to see how the current changes worked, but they had time. That was the entire point of giving himself six months with her. Well, that and he just wasn’t comfortable with the idea of a fully political marriage. There was no way he could treat her the same as his other wives if he didn’t get to know her.

      After four hours, Jay decided it would be good to let them both get up and stretch their legs so to speak. His skill level was so much higher now that he had managed to do three full rounds of refinements. If he was correct, she should now be about five times as strong as she was before. The problem was that he was reaching the limits of simply improving her muscles, bones, and connective tissue.

      “So how about we take a little break. Be careful at first because your body may not react quite like you are used to,” Jay said.

      Eesa tilted her head to one side slightly which he was coming to understand was the equivalent of nodding for Tamoori. She had been stoic in accepting the process of change. It had to have been painful, but she hadn’t let out so much as a whimper. “Yes, lord husband. Thank you.”

      As she went to stand up, he grinned when the motion turned into a leap that propelled her feet a good three feet off the ground. She landed gracefully and then leapt intentionally a few times sending her up into the sky. When she landed, she took off running and streaked around, even going so far as to swipe her claws at a foot wide tree, practically cutting it in half with the casual swipe.

      Then she ran back to him and did her typical submissive kneel, “Lord husband, I can never repay you for this. I am stronger than the grandest Tygar huntmaster and faster than fleetest of Civet trackmasters. This is amazing. How long will it last for?”

      Jay felt strangely happy at her bubbling excitement over it. No matter how odd the idea of this arranged marriage, Eesa seemed like a good girl put into a situation she hadn’t asked for. Giving her gifts that pleased her was pleasing to him. “These changes are permanent, wife.”

      With that she prostrated herself even more and let out a sound that was like nothing so much as a very deep purr. “You are too kind, lord husband. I know now that you will truly treat me as a treasured wife to invest so much effort.”

      “Eesa, if I can sort it out, I plan to make you much stronger and not just physically, but it is up to you. I know the process can be painful and I don’t want you to think that you have to endure it.”

      “It is your right as my husband to do with me as you wish. And because you are so gentle with me, I know that you won’t exercise that right with anything but my best interest at heart. If you believe this will improve me, then I will allow whatever you ask.  You have earned my trust.”

      “Thank you, I will not abuse it. Now, how about you show me how Tamoori fight. Become my instructor for a while. It will help me get to know more about your people and in turn will allow you to practice with your new body.”

      A toothy grin told him he might end up regretting asking for this but once again her glee made it worthwhile.

Chapter 26- To Be Tamoori

      Several hours later, he had been thrown and pinned as well as slashed and bitten repeatedly. So far, even with the upgrades, Eesa wasn’t strong enough to pierce his skin even without him activating Evolved Strength Forged Body. That wasn’t really surprising given that his base durability was now more than fifty thousand greater than a normal human.

      That never seemed to daunt Eesa though. She kept trying and as she became more comfortable with his sturdiness made more and more aggressive attempts to break through his defenses. Jay found that he enjoyed wrestling with her. Her fur was surprisingly sensual as she flipped him around. It wasn’t at all like dog or cat fur but more like silky hair. Eesa clearly took care of herself.

      “That was amazing. You are far heavier than I expected, lord husband, but I still had no trouble picking you up. I would