“How are you feeling, Litvir?” Aster asked as he floated outside the hospital window.
“I am fine!” Litvir smiled. “I am a deity, of course I am fine!”
“You were, according to Elkay, hit by a fifty calibre bullet.”
Litvir shrugged. They were leaning on the window sill, looking for the ship they had briefly seen before they were shot. Behind them, their adoptive parents were asleep on Litvir’s hospital bed, but as Aster peered inside, he also spotted the High General and a second, blue-plated Rethan he didn’t recognise, both sleeping all squished up in an armchair by the door. There were also armed guards all over the place, but they knew Aster wasn’t a threat.
“I am fine. I really am. I am more worried about mama.”
“Which mama?”
Litvir gestured behind them, at the colossal Rethan on the bed.
“Mama nearly went Defensive Stance over me. I worked out how to stop them though. It is hard though. Risky.”
“I guess…”
Litvir glanced back at Aster. “Why are you here?”
“To make sure you’re okay. We’re friends, after all. And you did get shot. Like, I saw the footage-”
“What footage?” Litvir suddenly exclaimed. “There is footage of me getting shot?”
Aster nodded. “Yeah. Security footage. I mean, the High General’s chamber thing, the Grand Hall or whatever it’s called, they have security watching what’s going on. Elkay and Kohra have been studying the footage, trying to work out what happened.”
“Oh…” Litvir frowned. “And… you have no idea… oh… I did the mind reading thing again. I really must stop that.”
“It’s fine. It happens. You’re fine though, right?”
“Yes.”
“And your adopted parents are alright?”
“Yes. Mama calmed down. Dada is fine. My thie is alright as well, I saved them.”
“Thie? What does that mean?”
Litvir thought for a moment. “I think the word is aunt, if it is gendered? Or uncle? I am not sure. The High General is my aunt.”
“Huh…” Aster thought for a moment. “Makes sense, I guess.”
Litvir nodded again. “It is nice, having a family. But did you really not find any information on who tried to kill thie Rethais?”
Aster clicked in annoyance. “Elkay and Kohra are still working on it alongside your, uh, 10th and 151st Legions? I’m not sure which numbers. But we’ve got pretty much nothing to go on, apart from maybe the technology being Spast in origin. The bullet was Torr-made but that’s not really a surprise because the Torr do manufacture most guns and bullets around here.”
“What about the tiny ship I saw?” Litvir asked. “I gave Kyr Nanik the memory. Did she not find anything?”
“That’s basically where all the information we have came from. Elkay did some fancy maths to work out the angle of the bullet and where it was fired from, but that only gave us an odd idea of where the shot came from, not where the little ship thing went. Also, what you saw didn’t look like something that was piloted in person. Kohra thinks it was a remote-controlled drone, but that could have been controlled by someone in orbit around planet Retha, for all we know.”
Litvir frowned. “That… that is not good.”
“Yeah, it’s not good at all. And, like, sure, the drone was Spast-made and the bullet was Torr-made, but that doesn’t mean a Spast or a Torr was behind this. Anyone can buy a Spast drone or a Torr gun and bullets… Well, not anyone… but you get what I mean. And to make matters worse, no one’s taking claim for this, because everyone knows that you took a huge bullet to the chest, coated the Grand Hall with your blood and you kinda shrugged it off, and the High General survived unscathed. No one wants to take credit for a failed assassination.”
“Who would want thie Rethais dead anyway?” Litvir tutted. “Thie Rethais is a good person.”
Aster didn’t answer at first. “I guess. Don’t really know enough to comment. But… don’t tell anyone, but… well, I have… ties to darker parts of the Perpetual Abyss. Frankly, all Perpetual Abyssians do. We were self-exiling bastards. But I asked some of my old contacts and… they came up completely short as well. No information at all. And they HATE High General Rethais because they are a strong ally to Imperator Akah and the Frozen Scythes. Aesop has some dodgy contacts and friends of friends of friends and came up with nothing too.”
Litvir hesitated, then sighed some more. “That is bad. It all feels like a dead end. And since we do not know who did this, it will be hard to stop it if they decide to try again.”
“That’s what’s bothering me too. Sure, pretty much every leader now suddenly has extra guards just in case, but we’ve got no clues, no motives, no nothing, to better protect everyone.”
Litvir glanced up at Aster briefly before turning away and falling silent. After a moment though, they looked back at Aster.
“I… I have a question.”
“Sure, what is it?” Aster smiled kindly.
“Why do some people want to kill other people?” Litvir asked. “I understand the metal meanies and the evil black stuff. They do not understand being alive. They only care about themselves and eating and killing. And I understand wanting to kill animals for food, that is how we feed ourselves so we do not die. But why do some people just want to kill others not for food?”
Aster pondered Litvir’s question, but didn’t do so for long. “I’ll be honest, friend, I don’t know. The universe, the multiverse, all of existence is complicated. There isn’t a single answer or a simple answer.”
“Oh…” Litvir seemed disappointed.
“Sorry.”
“No. It is alright. It is a hard question. I should have guessed that there was no answer…” Litvir trailed off again, then glanced behind them, having heard movement. “I think I am going to go and hug mama and dada now. I think they need it.”
“Will you be okay, Litvir?” Aster asked.
“Yes. I am a good kid. I will protect them. Will you tell me if you find any information, please?”
“Of course. I’ll leave you to it.”
Litvir bowed. “Thank you, friend Aster. Please stay safe.”
“Will do!” Aster smiled as he drifted off. “I have border patrols to do anyway. You stay safe too.”
“I will…”