Rethais did their best not to growl as they slammed the door to their private office shut, then made their way to a simple desk. The High General normally did meetings in the Grand Hall of the Kentron, a colossal room with a massive glass wall that overlooked the city of Phos. But this was a somewhat more secretive meeting. A personal meeting. One that Rethais was trying to keep their cool for. Already present in the room were the four beings Rethais needed to talk to, and all of them were standing, waiting for Rethais to greet them.
“Sit.”
The Rethans all sat down, as ordered. Rethais inspected each of them in turn, then sat down themselves.
“Resil Vethalas, Rivtil Vethalas, Trimes Kelofton… Revan Rethianos…” Rethais almost spat that last name. “Thank you all for joining me at such short notice.”
Resil and Rivtil were somewhat older Rethans, both of them in their 120s. They were Designated Parental Figures, their job was to be foster parents for abandoned and orphaned Rethan kids, anyone who didn’t have parents. They would raise kids, from the ages of 0 to 5 years old, until they were old enough to go to Junior Stratos full time, and would continue to foster kids during fortnight weekend visits. By pure chance, they had been chosen as foster parents for Rethais, Retvik and Relkir when they were younglings, but they had been sworn to secrecy – not only were they not allowed to tell the Rethianos Triplets of their heritage until they were 17 years old, but they were forced to treat them in a very strict and cold way.
Neither of them had liked that, especially since they had only really been chosen because Resil had red plating and red eyes, similar to the Rethianos kids, and Rivtil was a higher caste Rethan with red eyes and dull gold strips that also matched, even though their plating was dark green. Rivtil in particular had never been that strict a parent, and it upset them that they weren’t allowed to give three cute little kids a proper upbringing.
That feeling though was also shared by Trimes. Trimes was a conventionally attractive higher caste Rethan, looking good despite being 109 years old, with red and blue plating, particularly sharp silver strips and also having red eyes. Red eyes were the third most common colour of eye, after orange and yellow. But it turned out that Trimes had a gene that could produce blue eyes. A gene they passed onto one of their kids.
The way Trimes was sitting though, they looked very, very uneasy. Despite the fact that they were a now retired General, living a comfortable life, married to Revan Rethianos. In fact, they had shifted their chair closer towards Rivtil, away from their partner. Rethais wondered if something was wrong, but, in all honesty, they were too angry to really consider that right now.
“Thank you for finally speaking to me, chil-”
“Shut up.”
“Manners!” Resil suddenly exclaimed, before abruptly apologizing. “Sorry. Force of habit.”
Rethais glanced at Resil, then shrugged. “No, no, understandable. It is rude to interrupt. You and Rivtil taught us that. And I will be blunt, I did not want to speak to any of you. But SOMEONE here has prompted me to do so, and I want to settle things once and for all.”
Trimes turned to Revan, then quietly tutted. “I told you not to.”
“How can I try and make amends if my kids will not speak to me?” Revan snapped back.
“You waited way too long. You are only coming back now because your power and strength are fading, and you want a golden parachute before you retire, even though you are not that old. You do not actually feel any remorse for what you did!” Trimes growled.
“And why do you think that?”
“You told me so.”
Resil and Rivtil both shifted awkwardly in their seats. They had been married for nearly a century, they loved each other dearly despite the ups and downs, and, to them, it was clear something was wrong. Rethais was also aware that something was wrong, and they decided to butt in and say what they wanted to say before Revan took over the conversation completely.
“I am going to get straight to the point. I was going to leave the past behind, and stick to being no-contact with my actual parents, and have limited contact with my foster parents. Admittedly, I was not aware that you, Resil and Rivtil, you were both told to treat us differently. While I am a little upset that you both just followed orders and did not step out of line to give me, Relkir and Retvik a normal childhood, I can understand the reluctance to do so, especially as you had been ordered to by the Master of Generals themselves.”
Resil lowered their head. “You are correct, on both points. We should have done more, but we were given a grave duty and we were genuinely scared of messing up. I am sorry.”
“I am sorry too!” Rivtil added. “You are very right. Just following orders is not an excuse.”
“I understand. At the time, things were less… stable. And all us Bloodline Rethans were at the mercy of High General Photis…” Rethais sighed. “And you did speak out when we were put on the chopping block. I forgive you both. I cannot speak for Relkir or Retvik, and my conversations with them suggests that Retvik is not even that angry at you, but I personally forgive you.
“Thank you, High General.”
Rethais sighed some more, then turned to their true father. “Trimes, I am somewhat angry at you, yes. You did not do enough. You-”
“I was not allowed to do enough. I was not allowed to speak to you!” Trimes protested. “I wanted to! I did not want to lose the kids I fathered! I… I am sorry, Rethais, I genuinely am. I wanted to do more for you all, but I was pushed back and I gave up and gave in. That was wrong of me, but Revan made things worse by not allowing me to speak to you, and I wanted to respect your decision to not speak to me.”
Rethais grunted. Trimes immediately closed their mouth.
“I was about to say, I am not THAT angry at you. Because, as you just proved, you have been bound to silence for a long time. However, again, I was going to leave the past dead, buried and silent. Up until Revan forced themselves back into this mess.”
“I just wanted to talk. Relkir overreacted.”
All of a sudden, Rethais leaped to their feet and slammed their fist down on the desk. “YOU STALKED RELKIR, TRACKED THEM DOWN WHILE THEY WERE ON OFFICIAL LEAVE, BROKE THEIR PRIVACY, THREATENED THEM AND TOUCHED RELKIR WITHOUT THEIR CONSENT!”
Trimes glanced back at Revan. “You… you did what?”
“I grabbed Relkir by the hand, because they were getting angry.”
“You threatened them!” Rethais repeated themselves. “Relkir called me and told me what happened! You went to Relkir’s holiday villa, heavily armoured AND armed, and when Relkir told you to leave and tried to head back inside, you GRABBED Relkir by the wrist!” Rethais paused, then took a deep breath. “Revan, let me put this to you another way. A fucking deity intervened, to make sure no one got killed. The Oath Keeper stepped in to make sure that General Gath did not wake up and genuinely hurt you, for threatening their dear partner, and that Relkir only stabbed you in order to make you let go of them!”
Revan snorted. “I do not believe you.”
“Whether you believe me or not, and you ought to, because I have an entire Legion dedicated to tracking these things and they got a statement from Relkir, who told me everything, that does not matter. You threatened Relkir. You hurt my little sibling, and I am furious. And on top of that? The last time you were here? Not only did you think you could waltz in here, but you disrespected TWO high ranking. Below Twenty Generals and insulted my poten-partner, to their damn face.”
“Congratulations on the poten-partner, by the way!” Rivtil smiled weakly. “Lysar is a very nice vok, very kind and dedicated, and I am glad you are happy with them.”
Rethais glanced at Rivtil, then turned back to Revan. “THAT is how you speak about your kid’s poten-partner. Thank you, Rivtil.”
Rivtil bowed their head slightly. “Uh, you are welcome. I wish you both a long, strong relationship.”
Revan seemed unswayed. “So why did you bring us all here, kid? Did you just want to shout at me?”
“No. I brought you all here to make it clear where I stand, and to see if any of you feel any real remorse. Everyone else here shows remorse, Revan. You do not. Because of this, I am filing for a restraining order against you. Once you leave the Kentron, you will not be able to set foot here again, until I am no longer High General. At the same time, you are not to willingly be within 500m of Relkir, Retvik or myself.”
“You… You have no right!” Revan shouted.
Rethais blinked. “You… you do realize you are talking to the High General, yes? I could have had you stripped of your rank, I could have had your assets frozen and seized. By the Light, I could have had you arrested for harassing and threatening the High Advisor. But I am the better vok and I am taking the high road. You should be thankful that I am who I am.”
Trimes raised their hand awkwardly, wanting to speak.
“What is it, father?”
Trimes stuttered, caught off guard by the fact that their kid had actually used the ‘f-word’. “May I say something?”
“Sure.”
After some hesitation, Trimes coughed, then turned to Revan. “I have been stuck underneath your shadow for decades. You denied me the right to speak to my kids. You ruined my chances of being a mother, you ruined the relationship I could have had with the three proud younglings I fathered and I am pretty sure you only married me for access and money. Also, you ignored my pleas to step in when they threatened to kill Relkir, who I have always been proud of and have been unable to say that for all of these years, because I walk on eggshells around you. I want a divorce.”
Revan stared at Trimes, but didn’t say anything. Instead, they snarled, then climbed to their feet and stormed out of the room, slamming the door shut behind them.
Everyone else remained silent, but Trimes breathed a long, deep sigh of relief.
“You have wanted to say that for a while…” Resil muttered.
“I did, yes.”
“Well…” Rethais grunted. “I have the number of some very good lawyers, if you need them, Trimes.”
Trimes lowered their head. “Thank you. I am genuinely sorry that I did not do enough.”
“It is fine. However, I recommend writing letters to Retvik and Relkir. They were hurt the most. They are the ones that need to hear your apologies. Resil, Rivtil, I recommend you both do the same. And perhaps accept the numbers of my lawyers too, in case Revan gets… litigious and vengeful. Anyway, I… I need to get back to work, I am the High General, after all.”
Rethais got up, then opened the office door. Trimes, Resil and Rivtil all stood up, bowed, then left the room.
Once they were outside, Rivtil shrugged. “That did not go as badly as I feared. Trimes, would you like to join us for cookies?”
Trimes frowned, then sighed. “Uh… Sure. I could do with something to eat. Because this was very stressful for me.”
“No problem!” Rivtil smiled. “It was stressful for all of us. But now we are free from that asshole Revan, perhaps Resil and I can help you catch up a little?”
“Sure, why not?” Trimes also smiled, feeling somewhat better. “I would love to hear about what my kids were like when they were little…”