I

The building was far less bare now than what i remembered. The waiting room was filled with girls. All of them sat in chairs that were bright colored. Humans were supposed to be influenced by colors. I found it hard to believe that bubble gum pink, lavender blue, and sunset red would do the trick. Some of those girls held the look of self pity. Others held hope. Prime Brides focused on matching females with races that seemed more primitive to most of us. If you were here it was because like me you had nothing to offer a future mate aside from breeding.

Most matching services wouldn't even look at those of us here. That is if we could even save enough money to apply to any of them. I had been here once before. For my initial interview. For some of these ladies it was their first time here. Poor bitches. The SolPads in their hands marking them as new. I let the terminal know I had arrived before taking my seat. Just as I had been instructed to.

I didn't want to be matched with a bird. Gods anything but a bird. Bird like species were a middle school girl's wet dream. I mean granted they weren't actually birds. Many assumed they were the reason behind angel myths. "Cora!" I looked up towards the voice. Case in point this man. Or rather this Cupion.

The Cupions were a telepathic and empathic blessed race of bird like people. They came complete with beaks, talons, and feathered wings. The colors their feathers came in had some verity but not much. A woman stood up and made her way to the Cupion. I knew from experience there were a handful of them here in the agency at all times. The teams switched out periodically. Allowing each Cupion to interview a few dozen candidates per week.

The Cupion over seeing this girl's case was shorter than the one I had been assigned to. His wings a pepto bismol pink. Every Cupion I'd ever seen was male. Almost like they didn't have females at all but that had to be impossible. Every race had males and females. Although unlike humans every other race had too many males. It was the main reason any planet with a large human colony was coated with matchmakers.

Prime Brides was one of over a dozen on this street alone. Ethem was settled by humans. On top of that the humans here were matriarchal. My mother had given me until my twenty seventh birthday to get the hell out or she would sell me to the highest bidder. As her youngest daughter I was already little cared for. The fact that I was also her last born child only made her contemp for me worse.

She hated that I refused to bow to her rules. That I would ruin every single match that was made for me. I wasn't the heir and I wasn't the heir replacement. I wasn't a male that could be sold off to make connections. No I was the family burden, an extra mouth to feed that could never return the investment. Would never return the investment. The few matches my mother had found for my hand were for others like me.

If I had started a family with them we would have had to fight constantly just to stay warm and fed. We would have to save for years to get any sort of decent housing. They knew it as well as I did and for an arranged marriage, neither of us had been willing to marry the other. Our families had simply wanted us gone. Once married late born children like myself were no longer our family's concern. As such they tried to get rid of us as fast as possible.

"Ava!" I stood as I heard my name. I looked towards the sound to find Gintya. He was the Cupion in charge of matching me. I'd learned on my last visit the Cupions weren't big on being formal. Which worked out fine for me. Gintya had large wings for his size as the bottom feathers brushed the ground. His feathers were a dark pink broadering on red with white tips on each feather.

Gintya gestured for me to sit as we walked into his office. His chair was backless now no doubt to be a better fit for his wings. The feathers on his head laid down right now but I knew they could stand straight up in a alternating pattern of red and dark pink. I'd seen them do just that while he and another Cupion had chatted in the hall.

"Hello Gintya," I said with a small smile.

"Hello Ava," the skin at the corners of his mouth pulled up a bit. "There's no need to be nervous. I called you because I have found you a match I think will be perfect." The breath I hadn't realized I was holding flowed out of me. If he'd had only bad news I would have applied to one of the battle fronts. That was better than the alternative.

"I'm so happy to hear it. I hear a but coming though."

"Indeed," he gave a nod and placed a Holocaust on his desk. A small palm sized hologram popped up. The match I found you belongs to the Asura race. He is a rare breed among his people so he has been unable to find a good match up until this point. My concern is if you will be able to get over the physical differences."

The 'Physical Differences' he referred to were a long curling tail complete with a fur tuff at the end but plated with scales. As the Hologram spun I saw that fur tuff ran all the way up the back of the tail and spine to his head. Two feathered wings wider than he was tall stood high behind him and brushed the ground. On his head were a eight horns. One set of them far larger than the rest. They spiraled up like a set of Impala antlers yet were wider and smaller than what you would see on the animal.

The rest of him appeared almost human. I didn't imagine he was the same color as us. He might be as white as snow or dark as space with no stars. His hands were clawed as were his feet. His feet were digitigrade which was a shock to me. Much like a dog or a cat.

I shifted in my seat. I had to admit he wasn't that unappealing to me. At least for now I could convince myself he was doing a cosplay. I found plenty of humans in cosplay. Now I would get to date a living breathing one. That idea made it easier. Many would kill for this opportunity. At least on the motherworld.

"I see my worry wasn't necessary." My focus went back to Gintya who had a wide smile, for him, and his head feathers high.

"I think with time I will get used to our differences," I say with a blush.

"I will make the arrangements. Can you be ready to go by tomorrow?"

"Tomorrow? Don't you need to check to make sure he will agree with this match?"

"No his grandmother is a powerful seer. They came to us because apparently he is meant to find his match in the human race. They have made it clear that he is willing to try any match we make for him."

Seer. A rare subclass found in few alien species. No matter which species said what none of them were to be ignored. "I will make sure I'm fully packed by tomorrow," I said. Most people didn't actually know what seers did. Since most the time there was nothing to see. I only about them because some long ago Blake was one.