“Huh, did you know that Elksia Ksiou is the tenth richest Vrekan alive? Not only is she part of the insanely wealthy Ksion family, but her books about her time in the Dessaron have gone and made her nearly 500 million Evra?”
Elkay looked up from his bowl of cereal. He wasn’t a fan of the “crunch nut” brand that he was eating but they had run out of the nice, meaty-o cereal yesterday and Elkay hadn’t gotten around to going to the shop and buying more.
“No, I did not know that, Teekay.”
“Well, you do now!” Teekay smiled a little, sipping a glass of orange juice. He’d planned to have coffee but Elkay had accidentally finished off all the milk, and Teekay hated coffee drinks without them containing at least 50% milk of any sort. “But when you think about it, that isn’t very much.”
“Most Vrekans would be considered poor by Rethan or even Skyan standards. But I am sure it is more to do with the fact that Elksia is a famous Vrekan who definitely spends her money rather than tucking it away in a bank account.”
“What makes you say that?” Teekay paused. “And I thought you had work?”
Elkay shrugged, shovelling more cereal into his mouth. After a long, somewhat pained chew, he spoke again. “This cereal is too pointy.”
“It’s Crunch Nut, it’s supposed to be.”
“Well I do not like it. As for work, I went in, no one else was there and the one vok present said that today was ‘Cataclismos’ or something like that.”
“Ohhhhh…” Teekay smiled, then frowned, then smiled again. “Kataclysmos. The weird holiday we celebrate and don’t really know why. Being retired, the dates all just blur together!”
“What is Kata… what is this holiday?” Elkay asked. “It sounds not at all fun in any way…”
Teekay smiled, finishing off his drink. “Used to mark the middle of the year. Or floods. It used to be a date where we would prepare for floods. Frankly, there are loads of Skyan holidays that make no sense now.”
“And how long does this holiday last?”
Teekay hesitated, looking for the calendar on his wristband. “Until the 21st, funnily enough.”
Elkay didn’t really respond. He went back to his cereal, thinking how it would be nice to have a few quiet, relaxing days. He had been working a lot lately, doing extra hours in an attempt to repay Teekay for what he had done. It bothered Elkay deeply that Teekay had fed, sheltered and clothed him this entire time, reaching tipping point a week ago when Teekay took Elkay out armour and wrap shopping, to buy him some Skyan armour. Of course, Teekay had refused to accept the extra money and had instead put it in their shared ‘pot’ so they could buy things together.
Teekay went back to reading from the electronic tablet, scanning it for any interesting news. He then went back to the article about the four Dessaron. Suddenly, the tablet beeped, indicating that Teekay had received a message.
“What was that?”
“An email.”
“Huh.” Elkay went back to his meal, lost in thought. Teekay opened up the email, but had no idea who it was from. Reading the rest of the message, it was clear that the sender knew Teekay AND Elkay incredibly well. Almost… too well…
“Uh, dear?” Teekay asked, an uncertain tone to his voice.
“Hm?”
Teekay slid the tablet towards Elkay. “Do you recognise this address?”
Elkay looked at the tablet, then immediately sighed. “Curse you, Retvik…”
“That’s Retvik’s address?”
“One of them. I have no idea how he obtained your address. He wants us to go and visit them.”
“A family visit?” Teekay asked. “Or, like, something else?”
Elkay scanned the message. He was surprised to discover how friendly it was. “I think he just wants to have a get-together.”
“You wanna go?”
Elkay hesitated for a moment. He glanced down at his hands. “I do not know if he would… even recognise me… I mean, I am a very different being now… Why do you ask? Would you want to go?”
Teekay nodded. “I have literally no family. I’d love to meet yours. In a non-murder-y way.”
“Well…” Elkay sighed. “Alright. We have some free time anyway. I shall give Retvik a call and make some arrangements…”