Veeyel had taken to being the All-Ksa pretty well, all things considered. He had never believed he’d be All-Ksa, and was admittedly only where he was because the previous All-Ksa had been found chopped in half and his body had been stolen. Sure, Elkay was somehow brought back to life by the Allmaker and turned into a deity himself, but he didn’t really have time to also be All-Ksa any more, so Veeyel had taken his place.
Still, today, in this press conference, things were going alright. Veeyel had to be careful and not ramble, sticking to the notes that his staff had made, but now they were having some quick questions from the press and that always made Veeyel worried that he’d say too much. Thankfully, today, it was just Skyan press, which meant Veeyel could relax a little. That was until a question caught Veeyel somewhat unaware.
“What do you think about yet another assassination attempt on the High General of the Retha?”
Veeyel tutted. “Of course, no one should be assassinated or attempted to be assassinated, but I really don’t get why anyone would shoot mister Rethais. They’re an ally now and haven’t done anything mean or wrong or anything like that.”
“So you condemn-”
“Of course I condemn the shooting of, well, anyone! Next question, please.”
Another Skyavok raised their hand, they were wrapped up in pretty dark clothing. “All-Ksa, is the fact that the High General was saved by the Rethan member of the Twelve Anew the reason why the Shadow has been hanging around a lot the last few days?”
Veeyel shrugged. “I’ll be honest, I have my team of former Phantasma body guards, I’d much rather Elkay go back and do his normal work. But Elkay and I have been friends for a long time and I do like having the former All-Ksa around. Surely it’s a good thing to have the God of Shadows and Knowledge by my side?” Veeyel paused briefly. “And, like, wasn’t little Litty’s save mostly coincidental? From the report I was given, Litty was there to give the High General a birthday present, they weren’t working as a body guard, right?”
The Skyavok didn’t seem to buy Veeyel’s answer. “The former All-Ksa is literally standing behind you.”
“Well, yeah, because we’re friends, Elkay advises me occasionally and we plan to go out for cookies after this…” Veeyel paused again, then inspected the Skyavok. They seemed young and curious. “Do you want to come with us?”
“That… is a very strange question, All-Ksa.”
“Well, you seem very interested. Not every day you get to sit down next to the Shadow and some old former teacher and have a nice chat!”
Veeyel paused yet again, but for a different reason. Elkay had stepped forward and tapped Veeyel on the shoulder.
“My dear, I’m sure our little reporter friend has a lot of work to do. And we do as well. We ought to wrap this up.”
“What sort of work?” another Skyan suddenly piped up.
Veeyel tutted. “After our cookies, we’re meeting with Ayel to discuss data security between the Great Libraries and Elkay’s new library. Not the most fun of meetings, but it IS important. And I probably ought to wrap this up, so we have time for cookies. Anyone got any more very serious important questions before we head off? No? Good. Time to-”
Before Veeyel could finish his sentence, a Skyan sitting in the front row suddenly climbed to their feet and drew a gun. They rushed forward and pointed the gun at Veeyel, but Elkay diligently stood in Veeyel’s way to block the bullet.
A panic rippled through the room. Veeyel’s guards tackled him to the ground, and all the other Skyans present also dropped to the floor. Thankfully though, the gun misfired, and Elkay stood in front of the would-be assassin, rolling his eyes angrily. Summoning some shadowy tendrils, Elkay pinned the Skyavok down, forcing them to drop the weapon and dragging them closer.
“Fucking really?” Elkay snarled. “That was your attempt? Coming from THE assassin, that was pathetic.”
The Skyavok squirmed, then seemed to shrink. Elkay quickly realised that the Skyavok wasn’t a Skyavok at all, they were a Spast. That was how they got the gun into the press room in the first place, they had shapeshifted a pocket inside their body to hide the gun in. Luckily, Elkay knew how to deal with Spasts and although the Spast was trying to shrink themselves down into a smaller animal so they could escape, Elkay swiftly knocked the Spast out to stop them from doing so, by whacking them on the nose.
“Is everyone alright?” Veeyel asked as he shook off his guards and climbed to his feet. “My press friends, are any of you hurt?”
Veeyel’s guards inspected the room, and security started clearing everyone out. K-Class security and R-Class police had arrived to take the suspect away.
“I think everyone’s fine, old friend…” Elkay tutted as he dismissed his shadows. “Are you alright?”
“Oh yeah, I’m just dandy. And not sure why someone would want to murder and old friendly teacher like me. I’m more annoyed that I’m going to have to debrief and we can’t go out for cookies now.”
Elkay watched as R-Class officers placed the suspect inside a plastic box with tiny air holes in it. He was well aware that most Spasts could only shrink to about the side of a large rodent, so the Spast was unlikely to be able to escape. However, the colours of the Spast seemed odd. Green main fur with gold eyes and a golden mane. Very few Spasts were capable of holding both metallic fur and metallic eyes, outside of royalty and… a certain cult that was believed to be gone.
“Are we still on for cookies after this?” Veeyel asked, well aware that Elkay was distracted.
“I… I want to say yes, but unfortunately, I think I have work to do now. Got to look a few things up. I also think I need to speak to Kohra about a few things.”
“Ugh… Fine… when you’re done, can we do cookies then?”
“Yeah, sure…”
Elkay sighed, then wandered off, disappearing into a nearby shadow. There were things on his mind, things he needed to do research on.