Story in which a female and male character are on a quest to find the third partner to their couple. The third partner is a true hermaphrodite and is needed for the trio to be able to procreate. The third gender takes the sperm from the male inside them through coitus, fertilizes it and then delivers it to the female through coitus again. To win the third gender partner, they offer them a piece of jewelry that fits their male/female genitalia. They ride some kind of huge insect, I think. I think the third gender is named a tieran or something.
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1In roughly which year did you read this? Also, did the story take place in a sci-fi setting or more of a fantasy setting?– LogicDictatesCommented Jun 2 at 2:50
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1More like a literotica setting.– Miss UnderstandsCommented Jun 2 at 9:15
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1When you have a story with three genders, I first think of "The Gods Themselves" by Asimov. But the storyline does not appear to fit at all....– BasyaCommented Jun 3 at 8:55
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Read it in the late 80’s early 90’s. It reminds me a bit of Janet E Morris’ book High couch of Silistra. Read them at about the same time. I would say more fantasy than sci-fi. I thought Asimov or Le Guin but it wasn’t them.– RachelCommented Jun 4 at 18:42
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1 Answer
The description seems to match the description of this previous question.
Their answer was Delta, by Christine Renard and Claude-Francois Cheinnisse.
After reading through the story: it's mainly about humanoid aliens—Arcturians— with a three-sex reproductive system, that are living on Earth. The method of reproduction seems to match what you described, minus the insect-riding. I didn't see any insects involved.
The story focuses on a human girl, Elizabeth, befriending an Arcturian "bachelor couple", Irveille and Imonea, bachelor couple referring to Arcturians of two different sexes looking for a third to complete their triangle. Elizabeth moves in with them and they shower her with gifts and everything she wants, but thanks to her bubbled Catholic upbringing, Elizabeth has no idea that this is their attempt at inviting her to be the third sex in their relationship.
At a couple of points during a party with a bunch of Arcturians, Elizabeth mentions she's there with Irveille and Imonea, and the party goers respond with things like "oh I heard they had found a Terran [referring to a human from Earth]". And I'm guessing this is where you were thinking the third sex was called Tieran.
Additionally, this story was published in an anthology called Travelling Toward Epsilon, published in 1977, which probably coincides with you reading it in the 80's or 90's
