Lysar tutted as she flicked through a glossy magazine. She never really understood who read these rather unsavoury tabloids, normally written by gossiping Skyavok or Cassian Temthans, but there were always tons of them in waiting rooms across Rethan territories.
This waiting room was particularly quiet, but that was because it was late in the evening. In a hospital, in one of the quieter cities. The entire incident had been kept quiet, and few people knew about it. Only families were allowed to visit, and even then they still needed permission, to make sure they weren’t interrupting anything important.
“Ser, you can go and see the patient now.”
The receptionist, a Rethan clearly too large for his desk, waved towards a room in the corner. With a nod and a thank you, Lysar got up and walked over, knocking gently on the door. There was a brief moment of hesitation. Confusion and the sound of moving things around were muffled by the heavy, freshly wiped down door. Eventually, the door opened inward, revealing the room’s only real occupant.
“Lysar! I am so happy to see you!”
Trismit, despite the smile on his face, looked awful. His skin was bruised and massive chunks had been hacked from his natural armour plating. A good quarter of his head plate had splintered and was missing, revealing more bruised skin underneath. His left hand was bandaged up and secured to his chest, just above what looked like a shallow stab wound that had recently been redressed.
“Please, come in! I have so desperately wanted visitors!”
Trismit struggled back to his bed, where a plate of food, some sort of pale-looking stew, was mostly untouched. A television screen was hooked up in the corner of the room, Trismit’s only source of entertainment.
“Are the medics treating you well, Trismit?” Lysar asked as she sat down on a spare chair. “No one knows what happened.”
“I told them what happened! They do not believe me!” Trismit’s mood was clearly all over the place. He was clearly in shock, but the medics had allowed Lysar to see him, so he must have been doing better than the other patients here. “I tell them over and over again. The dragon grabbed us and made us fight the gold things! There was a lot of stabbing and fighting and vok dying and it was awful! And then… I do not know what happened! Everything exploded and I saw every colour ever! I screamed a lot, Lysar, it was terrifying. The dragon said we would all die unless he sent us back and there was a lot of screaming and then… I was here, I guess.”
Trismit took a deep breath, then turned away, staring rather blankly at the plate of food.
“Are you alright, Trismit?” Lysar asked, getting up from his seat. He delicately placed his hand on Trismit’s shoulder, looking him in the eyes.
“No. The universe died…” Trismit paused, briefly lost in thought. “After I got out of the 11th Legion, I said to Retvik that we were kinda like gods. I think I was wrong though, I am not a god. It is far too horrible…” Trismit’s mood quickly perked up again. “But it is fine! The dragon said we could have some more years to make up for the horrors we saw! I will actually live to see one hundred and fifty!”
“That is… good to hear!” Lysar smiled back. While she didn’t believe everything Trismit had just spouted, she knew he had no real reason to lie. And, frankly, considering what reality had been like over the last couple of weeks, she didn’t want to question anything too much. The young Rethan who had saved her life was alive and healing from his wounds. “How long before you will be able to leave?”
Trismit shrugged. “A… a while. Medics did not say. I do not have any family to go home to finish healing, so I may have to stay here for a while. Especially since Retvik did not come back…”
“What… what happened to Retvik?” Lysar hesitated.
“I do not know. The dragon took him away, I think. I was… too busy screaming…” Trismit sighed, picking up his plate and pushing food around with a spoon. He wasn’t hungry, he just wanted some sort of distraction.
“Is he dead?”
“I think so. He stopped one of those golden things from killing me. I am gonna miss him.”
Trismit fell silent. He attempted to eat something, but quickly gave up. Lysar didn’t say anything at first. She watched as Trismit was clearly trying to hide his pain.
“Trismit… I was thinking… You said you had no family, yes?”
“Yeah…”
“Would you… consider adoption?”
Trismit turned back to Lysar. “Pardon?”
“Rethais and I cannot have any more kids. But we could adopt you.”
“Hm. Retvik… kinda suggested that he wanted to adopt me, to give me a family…”
“He did?”
“Yes, but then there was a coup and then we became political prisoners, then the universe blew up, then Retvik left. So I… gave up on that idea.”
Lysar leaned forward. “Kid, you deserve a family. I want to give you a family. All things considered, it is the very least we can do for you.”
Trismit tutted, then sighed. “Do I have to change my name to something that begins with R?”
“What? No. That is silly.”
“Well…” Trismit’s frown slowly turned into a smile. “That is good. I would like a family.”
“Then you shall get one!” Lysar smiled back, gently hugging Trismit. “You deserve love, after all. Just like everyone else…”