Wand-Losing & Other Things You Shouldn't Be Doing

The seven city-states of Aletta are facing their first encounter with an off-planet force. It’s up to Max Maitheas, governor of the city-state of Anatolia (closest city to the alien landing) to embark on a diplomat journey to find out the intentions of the interlopers.

Captain Rezzu Ki Muselet leads the first Colviri-Human mission since Nova Gaia, a human planet, became part of the Colviri system. A recognizance mission to a remote planet where they hope to discover signs of life.

What Rezzu wasn’t prepared to discover was a thriving civilization and to become mesmerized by the eyes of the head diplomat in charge of receiving them. Green and wonderful like the sky of his home planet.

Both Max and Rezzu have secrets, and in their ability to surpass their deceptions, they might also find love.

This story was written as a part of the M/M Romance Group's "**Love’s Landscapes**" event. Group members were asked to write a story prompt inspired by a photo of their choice. Authors of the group selected a photo and prompt that spoke to them and wrote a short story.

**Photo Description:**

A painting of a handsome man in semi profile, part human part machine, looking at one of his hands. His machine parts and clothes are done in gold, copper and brass tones with clouds resembling cogs in different sizes surrounding him. He wears a top hat adorned with goggles and two feathers, one of a pheasant and the other of a peacock. He’s the embodiment of Steampunk imagery.

This story may contain sexually explicit content and is **intended for adult readers**. It may contain content that is disagreeable or distressing to some readers. The M/M Romance Group strongly recommends that each reader review the General Information section before each story for story tags as well as for content warnings.