“So, do you still want kids, Ret?”
Ret didn’t quite answer. He was busy scribbling things down. Nyssi, Tanos and Kayel on the other hand were mostly just chilling. They’d just gotten back from a Corruption Purge in the Ventra Expanse, and had somewhat missed the whole “Elksia’s egg hatching” thing. They’d also flown through a lump of Corruption and had to take Souldrainer’s Plight somewhere to be washed before they returned home. Either way, a few hours had passed, Elksia had shown everyone her new baby and there seemed to be a wave of relief washing over Savepoint.
“Hm?”
“Do you want kids?” Nyssi repeated herself.
Ret looked up properly, then rubbed his eyes. “That is a complicated question.”
“No, it’s a yes or no question.”
“It is still complicated!” Ret tutted. “Having a kid is a dangerous, messy situation. Kyr Elksia just proved that. Even ignoring the whole having to lay and waiting for the egg to hatch problem, it is a commitment for the rest of your life.”
Nyssi shrugged. “Yeah, it is, but you wanted kids before, do you still want them now?”
Ret hesitated, then nodded. “I do want a kid. But not yet. It is far too soon. Kuta and I have only been together for… uh…” Ret paused, then started counting on his fingers. “Uh… um… I do not know, but not long enough.”
“And you’d be the mother?”
“Probably.”
“How comes?”
Ret eyed Nyssi. “Why are you asking all these questions?”
“I’m curious. Plus, kids are no longer really an option for me, Tenuk or Kayel.”
Kayel suddenly looked up. “Hang on, we don’t know that for sure!”
“Yeah we do.”
Kayel tutted, then pointed at Tanos. “The ONLY person we know for certain is Tenuk here, because the other Spast isn’t a Spast at all and he’s also a dude so they definitely can’t have kids. I’m pretty sure I’m similar enough to, say, Psiksi, that if we fucked without protection, one of us would end up expecting. And I’m CERTAIN that you could have a kid with Fragiir if you wanted to.”
Nyssi stared at Kayel. “What the fuck are you on about?”
“You’re both Temthans. You have elastic DNA that allows all types of Temthans to breed no matter what. You don’t think Fragiir is different? Plus, if it was impossible, Sini would have said so. She wouldn’t be letting you experiment with Fragiir and insisting that you go to her Oasis and visit him all the time. Sini’s goal, or, like, one of them, is to make everyone have kids and she wouldn’t be constantly pushing you if kids weren’t an option!”
“Which raises a good question…” Tanos muttered. “Do you want kids, Nyssi?”
Nyssi frowned. “Well, yeah… but… like… I dunno if… if I could do it with Fragiir. We’re not close enough. Like, I like him, I like him a lot… but I don’t know if I like him so much that I’d have a kid with him. Gonna guess you feel the same way about Psiksi and Eksi and Kaytee and Ksar Teekay.”
“Um… Ksar Teekay isn’t related to us in any way. He’s singularly male the same way Tenuk is. And he has hair tendrils the same way you do. Sure, it’s just three but he’s only Threanic at a glance… But in all honesty? Kids were never on the table for me ever, since I was a Phantasma and we… kinda never considered kids as an option, since we were assassins.”
“Even after you left the cult?” Tanos asked.
“Yeah.”
“If you had kids, would you pass down your shadow powers?” Nyssi queried.
Kayel thought for a moment, then shook his head. “No, not at all. After all, All-Ksa Elkay was LITERALLY the Shadow of the Skyavok, the most powerful Phantasma alive, and he has grandkids and none of his descendents are shadowblessed. Retvik, would your kids have that weird making-motes-of-light thing that you can do?”
Ret had admittedly stopped paying attention a while ago, he was focused on whatever it was he was doing with the paper he had. “You… you mean the Family of Dawn trait?”
“Yeah.”
Ret shrugged. “I assume so. I do not know if it is guaranteed though.”
“How comes?”
“Uh… Relkir and I both have it, but I do not know if Rethais does not have the trait or simply cannot work out how to summon the motes at all, or if they just learned to do it later on and never told anyone. After all, it is not exactly a power us Rethainoi are known for or, like, care about. But I assume a potential kid would… Then again, I would be having a kid with Kuta. They might end up being able to shadowjump or have fangs.”
“Would that be bad?”
“No, of course not!” Ret grunted. “It would just be weird. But… after all that has happened recently, I want to wait a bit longer. And I want to get married soon. We are already planning a lot of it, after all.”
“I’m surprised you want to have it in, what, three… ev thingies?” Tanos exclaimed. “You want it done quick.”
“Well, not quick… I know Kuta would just put it off for ages unless we set a date, because they want everything to be perfect. And with Kyr Litvir helping us, well, the sooner the better, I guess…”
“So what are you doing right now?” Tanos asked. “Because you’ve been super distracted.”
Ret paused, then glanced down at his sheets of paper. “Well… in the next few… day thingies, we are going to the space mall, yes? Well there is a blacksmith there. I am drawing designs for my partnership dagger, to give to Kuta. I… just… cannot decide on a final design.”
Kayel scooted over to have a look. “These are pretty cool! Do you want some help?”
“Um… yes, I would like some help, please. I am not the best at drawing what I want.”
Nyssi and Tanos gathered around as well. “Of course we’ll help!”
“I appreciate the assistance…” Ret muttered. “This stuff is hard.”
“All you had to do was ask, Retty!” Nyssi grinned. “We always help each other, after all…”