After leaving it alone for more than a year, I'm adding on a bit more to the Rescued Lives series. I just kept having ideas about how the relationships of the three hara would turn out and suddenly I had a plot outline called "Threesome" and, well, finally time to write it, done with everything else... so...

Characters
All original characters from the series: Dera, Fafara, Tishrana, Xela, Shridan, three harlings.

Spoilers
Obviously the previous stories in the series, especially Deliverance and That Was Then, This Is Now. No spoilers for any specific book in the Wraeththu trilogy, but it is imagined that this entire storyline takes place after the Ascension. There are still original incepted hara, but Wraeththu civilization has stablized.

Chapter 1

That first generation hara are different from second generation hara has become a Wraeththu cliché. I'm showing my age by even mentioning it, as by this point I have harlings of my own as well as grandharlings. Reading this, they'll probably all say "But, Dede, every generation is a little different!" Still, the differences between first and second generation could be rather striking at times, a thought that can't help but come to mind when I look back to the time shortly after I bore my third pearl, Devath.

The pearl had only been hatched two days before when my parents Xela and Shridan arrived from the north to visit me. A few weeks earlier I'd written them a letter letting them know I was hosting. The trouble was, I had not told them who the father was.

I was early spring as I sat the living room, Devath asleep in my arms. Fafara came in to announce my parents' arrival. Without even thinking about it, I hugged Devath just a little tighter. Of course Fafa sensed my anxiety. "Don't worry," he said. "Once they see their grandharling, it'll all be fine." He passed his lips over mine and transferred a small dose of calming energy. "Adelna and Ilish are out there with them now. I'll keep them entertained while you get yourself and the little one prepared."

I thanked him and a moment later he was out the door, whistling jauntily. I looked down at my harling, sleeping peacefully. He was so small then, nothing gave him greater comfort than to find himself pressed against his hosting's chest. It had only been eight days since I birthed his pearl and I was still tired -- or as Tishrana liked to put it, "feeling lazy." I'd sat with Devath in the bedroom or living room for most of the day.

As I rose off the couch to make for the bedroom, Tishrana entered carrying the very items I was about to go looking for. Wordlessly, he held out a harling blanket. Slowly, careful not to wake him if I could help it, I slipped Devath into Tish's arms, where he was quickly wrapped in warmth. I took the shawl Tish had thrown over his shoulder and wrapped it around my own. "You're worth your weight in gold," I told him. "Better believe it," he said, smiling as he turned towards the hallway. Pulling the shawl tight against my chest, I followed him outside.

Everyone was standing by the rose garden. The weather was slightly warmer than I imagined, and one-year-old Ilish was laughing and smiling in the arms of my hostling Xela. Adelna stood next to Fafa, who was chatting with my father Shridan. My parents had always gotten along with Fafa very well, a blessing considering he had been my second consort after Ilana, my first, had been killed. They even seemed to get along with Tishrana, another great relief since, where they're from, a household with three hara together isn't so common. Or accepted.

"Oh, Dera!" Xela exclaimed as soon as he saw me. Turning Ilish towards me, he raised the harling arms to wave at me. "Is that your hostling, Ili? Say hello to you hostling!" Ilish giggled and reached out for me just in time for Xela to hand him over.

Meanwhile Shridan had taken Devath, who promptly woke up and stared up at his grandfather in surprise. "Oh, what beautiful green eyes he has!" he cooed. Nothing like a harling to bring my normally restrained father to the point of goofy effusiveness.

"So much like yours!" Xela added, leaning in and stroking Devath's cheek with his finger.

"Or like Tish's," I remarked, for he and I had nearly the same eye color, as well as the same red hair, which Devath also shared.

"Of course," Xela murmured, "you two do look so much alike. Ah, well, what do you think, Ili?" he asked the harling in my arms. "How do you like having a new brother?"

Ilish, precocious even for a harling, was happy to pipe up an answer. "I like him! I like him as much as my whole brother Adelna!"

"Oh, well," I thought, "no going back now."

My father reacted first. "Your whole brother, Ili? What do you mean?"

"Adelna is my whole brother, but Devath is my half-brother," Ilish replied earnestly. "No difference, papa says."

By that point Xela had moved in. "And who's 'papa'?" he asked, looking at the harling and then raising his eyes to me.

Tishrana was just behind me, and as I backed up against his chest, he put his arms loosely around me. "Tishrana," I said.

Xela backed away a step, as did my father. "I can't believe it!" Shridan burst out. "You've had three pearls now, and all of them by different hara!"