"First" Flights of the Fate

Nothing like a flight to get the blood pumping. At least by some opinions. To Dritanys, it was little more than a publicity stunt. The recreational cavern on the Lower Inhabitant's Deck was no stranger to mating flights, but this would be the first time in the history of the ship that it would be outsiders--people who did not call the Kaster-sulat-Radesketkyl home--making use of the gigantic chamber.

Though the Seekers and other countless souls infiltrating the worlds of the "Nexus" did well at spreading the news of Dritanys's ship and the creatures born in its mage-labs, something about the words "mating flight" just summoned interested individuals in droves. And as far away as she kept her ship from public spaces (which was why the teleportation skills of Seekers were so pivotal to the collection of candidates) and as closed a community as the population of the Kaster was, they still needed an influx of fresh bodies upon which to pawn off those creations they didn't want to keep around.

In the end, she chose to approve three of the applicants, rather than the usual one. Her ship certainly had room enough to house them all at the same time, and as long as they stayed in the permitted areas and didn't do anything that warranted drastic retaliation, she didn't care what they got up to. They'd have their flight, settle their hormones and reproductive urges, garner further publicity when their eggs were ready for candidates, and be gone again.

And all Dritanys would take from them was an egg, handed over to the eager claws of her head lab-witch, Kednati Imoderi. It would be returned, of course, but not before being twinned in her mage-labs, and that twin would be crafted into whatever Kednati desired at the moment, if Dritanys had no guidelines for her.

Of course, the parents didn't know yet that that would be their "payment" for the use of her decks and caverns, but it wasn't as if the process would hurt the original egg, so why alert them ahead of time and possibly get them frantic over a completely harmless procedure? She wasn't going to go behind their backs, either, for Kednati would be all to happy to explain what she was up to when the time came for the spidery lab-witch to make her pick from whatever eggs were lain.

It was only fair that Dritanys be reimbursed.