Just One More Night II

Cythia searched her face as if she was looking for some truth that might be revealed there. Leda meant every single word that she spoke. She would take her own life before she watched her siblings uffer for her crimes. But she prayed that it would never come to that.

Finally, the tension broke. Cythia turned away to sit back at the table which was covered in medication bottles of different shapes and sizes.

"Speaking of the alterants, I had to go to a few different suppliers to replenish. It’s getting harder and harder to buy enough without questions.”

It wasn’t illicit to sell the alterants or other chemicals that suppressed hormonal response. The pill had legitimate medical uses, often taken by Beta females as a form of birth control or birth-assigned males who wished to chemically alter their gender exhibition in preparation for surgical interventions.

But the quantities needed to completely restrain an Omega heat cycle we're enormous and making that large purchase at one time would arouse suspicion. Even with the extra dollars, procuring the hormonal alternate remained a delicate and dangerous process. So they had to rely on both legitimate and black market suppliers, buying small amounts here and there of different varieties and strengths, then guess at the appropriate mixture.

So far, it had worked.

“Do you have enough for tonight?” Leda asked, concern colouring her voice as she stared over her sister’s shoulder.

“I think so. The Zack’s closed down their apothecary after their daughter was married an Alpha from the political region. The Alpha had bought them a pleasant place on the middle levels so they have retired. So I had to find a new supplier for the extra.” Cythia answered.

“Who?” Leda asked, not so much because she minded but in the hopes that her sister would see how much leda valued her contribution.

" Did another shop open?” Leda had asked.

“No, I had to go to the marketplace.” Cythia replied.

Leda gave her sister’s shoulder a soft squeeze. Cythia hated the marketplace, the crush of people made her self-conscious about the scars on her face and anxious to be back in the safety of their apartment. But she had suffered it to get what they needed.

“Thank you.” Leda added.

Her sister shrugged her off, but a small smile twisted her unscarred cheek.

“A Beta male that I have never seen or met before, had set up a stand where he sells medical supplies. It was fortunate as he had a small amount of alterants. He was not very nice about it, made a big show of excavating around in his case for the right bottles and sighing the whole time. You should applaud me just for putting up with him.”

Leda slid into the seat next to her sister, Cythia and picked up the nearest bottle.

“At least he had some in stock.” She said.

“It didn’t look like he was much eager to sell anything at all.” Cythia replied as she began opening bottles and counting the pills inside it.

"In fact, he closed up shop right after I paid for the pills, and it was only noontime.”

“How strange.” Leda responded.

“These are very strange days. Have you heard that there will be another execution in the public square this week?” Cythia added.

Leda did not obsess over the newsfeed the way that her sister did, but obviously she knew of the political chaos that seemed to always rage in the city. She had heard stories of the widespread corruption that plagued every sector, even the highest levels of the government were not free of indictments.

She never paid much attention to it. She rarely have time for politics when she was so immediately concerned with basic survival. But Cythia appeared practically obsessed with the power players in the higher levels, she knew the names of every Senator and official of any importance.

“Do you know who?”

“Athena, for crimes against the crown.” Cythia’s voice had gone low and conspiratorial as if she was disclosing a secret.

“He was sentenced for murdering the prince, even though no body was ever found.”

“And which prince would that be?” Leda asked.

It was a common knowledge that King Zeus, with more figurehead than a true ruler, had a harem of Omegas who created his heirs. There were at least a dozen princes.

“Hector. Sky above, Leda, how do you not know this? His skycar malfunctioned and crashed over the Forbidden Zone and everyone knows that the engine was tampered with. It had to be Athena as he had made threats against Prince Hector in the past. He was sentenced fairly quickly and now they have scheduled his execution.”

Leda had not heard of this and it shortly distracted her from her own pressing problems. “Even without an evidence/corpse to show? How then do they know that the prince is not still alive?” Leda had asked.

“Apparently, it was a stunning explosion and no one could have survived it.” Cythia’s voice plummeted even lower.