Kayel’s communicator buzzed away to itself. He had declined to answer the first three times someone had tried to call him, but this time he decided to let it ring.
“Was it really that bad?” Veeyel asked.
“Yes. I never thought my own kid would be so… ignorant of us…”
Veeyel wasn’t sure what to say, so he turned to Ksiel, who was in the kitchen chopping vegetables. “You think that the High General doesn’t care?”
“Nah, I don’t think that,” Ksiel seemed not at all upset. “The kid’s busy running an entire race. He’s probably just got a ton of other things on his mind. If I was in charge of keeping Rethan society in check, I’d probably be too distracted to really care what my mum, who has repeatedly abandoned said society, is doing in Thrakian territory…”
“Fuck you, Ksiel!” Kayel shouted. “How dare you-”
“Now, now!” Ksiel raised his hands. “You know I’m right. You were the one who wanted to leave. We were the ones who left our old lives and came here. Now that we might potentially be in danger, you’re suddenly whining at your kid, demanding special attention!”
“Ksiel…”
Kayel’s communicator started buzzing again. He tried to ignore it, he was too busy being angry at Ksiel to answer.
“Pick up your comms.”
“No.”
“If that’s Psiksi, I’ll hit you. Cute little thing doesn’t deserve to be ignored.”
Kayel relented and answered his communicator. “Hello, Psiksi.”
The voice on the other end was worried. “Are you alright? Elkay’s worried about you. Thinks you’ve lost your mind. I’m worried too. You’re not acting right!”
“I’m fine. Elkay is the- HEY!”
Ksiel had suddenly rushed over and stolen Kayel’s communicator. He rushed back to the kitchen, out of Kayel’s reach.
“We’re fine. Kayel’s just incredibly tired and stressed out from our healing ritual and we’re still trying to work out the pros and cons. How are you, kid? How’s the partner?”
Psiksi seemed to perk up. “Oh, I’m doing great, actually! So’s Kass. We’re going out for dinner tonight. Are you sure Kayel is alright?”
“He’s fine. We’re all fine. We’re just tired.”
“Well… alright… As long as that’s just it…” Psiksi tutted. “I don’t like it when people act weird.”
“I know, I know. But we’re good. You go have a nice evening tonight, okay?” Ksiel smiled.
“Will do! Bye!”
The connection closed. Kayel glared at Ksiel, but Ksiel simply continued to smile and went back to chopping veg, throwing them in a boiling pot of meat stock.
“Why?” Kayel finally growled.
“Because you’re driving yourself insane, thinking too far forward!” Ksiel growled back. “Plus, we already have everything we need here. We have access to a place almost no one else can go to. We’re going to build our own little home inside the Umbric Realm and everything will be fine.”
“How though?” Kayel was not convinced. “We have no plans or anything!”
Ksiel grunted, then left the kitchen, disappearing into his bedroom. After about a minute of rummaging around, he reappeared, dropping a pile of large folders in front of Kayel. Both Kayel and Veeyel picked up a folder or two each and started scanning them. They were full of different plans and ideas, everything from food and water filtration systems to different types of government to economics and bartering systems to basic constitutions and lists of laws.
“I have it all worked out,” Ksiel explained. “If we just work on the basics, food, shelter, water, we could get something set up in, I don’t know, a couple of months? I just… need to get you all to agree…”
Veeyel looked at Kayel, a shocked but impressed look on his face.
“I’m gonna get the others. We need to discuss this, right now…”