“Which table are they at?” Nenth whispered as he and Arksi entered the very fancy restaurant.
“Have a look around and guess…”
With a nervous sigh, Nenth did as he was told. It suddenly became very obvious which table they had booked, since there was a large, red Banikan sitting at it. Also at the table were two Thanatians and a Vrekan.
“I feel dumb now…” Nenth muttered. Arksi smiled and took him by the hand, gently leading him to the table.
The Vrekan was the first to stand up and greet them. He was wearing heavy black armour laced with a glowing, red trimming.
“Arksi! Good to see you! And a pleasure to meet your friend…”
“This is my partner Nenth,” Arksi introduced his partner. “Nenth, this is Verlais, a member of the Myst. Over there are Ct’Era, the new Queen of the Burning Lightning Tribe and Kindya, the Royal Spy of the Thanatians. Who’s your friend, Kindyna?”
Kindyna glanced at the Thanatian next to her. “This is Tromeros. He’s my treasurer. I only brought him here because I didn’t want to come on my own.”
Nenth bowed slightly as Arksi pulled out the stools so they could sit down. “It’s an honour to meet you all!”
Verlais innocently patted Nenth on the head, then realised he probably looked a bit creepy. Nenth though didn’t mind, he knew that was what Vrekans did when meeting a friend’s partner.
“So, how are you all?” Arksi asked as he sat down. As he did so, a Vrekan waiter came along and brought everyone a glass mug of water, as well as several menus. The glasses were all very large and had a heavy handle on one side. Ct’Era was very happy that she could wrap her massive claws around her drink.
“Oh, we’re fine,” Verlais’s words were not very sure. “You though, you seem so darn happy! You two are like, the perfect couple!”
Nenth blushed. “Thank you. We have our own share of troubles, but we do truly love each other.”
“I heard you were not Ksa now?” Ct’Era quickly asked. “What happened? You are free?”
“We’re normal Rethan citizens now,” Arksi beamed. “Free to work any job we wish. I now work with Nenth in the Great Library. It’s a good job, hard work but rewarding. How about you, Ct’Era? Everything seems very quiet with the Banikans lately.”
Ct’Era smiled, her mouth full of large, sharp teeth. “I have been busy. I have a new tribe. You know of that. The Fire Tribe and I, we have made amends. A small union. Been working on a case. Reclaiming land from Cassids.”
As Ct’Era talked about what she was doing, Kindyna’s eyes fell. She looked distraught. Everyone swiftly picked up on it, but it was Verlais who finally spoke.
“You alright, Kindyna?”
“We might have made that worse…” Tromeros’s answer didn’t help. Kindyna sighed, then decided to explain.
“Us Thanatians were supposed to be working on that, with the Banikans. The… the deal fell through, thanks to some of my siblings…”
“It was not your fault!” Ct’Era smiled. “Not to blame for your siblings. We all have weird siblings. Apart from Verlais. He has weird other family.”
Verlais nodded in agreement. “At least I’m getting on better with my family now. They’re not all angry with me after I saved a bunch of people. And time and space. But no one really knows about that…”
“You’re not allowed to talk about it?” Arksi asked.
“Nope. King Ver’s advisors asked me to keep the space-time stuff… to a minimum. They believe that if everyone knew we went forward in time and stopped a disaster, then people would get scared.”
Tromeros looked at Kindyna, a worried expression on his face. “You never told me you went through time travel shenanigans…”
“Would you have believed me if I told you?” Kindyna snapped.
“Probably not…” Tromeros sighed.
“So wait, you’re saying I got access to… confidential information?” Nenth whispered as everyone else fell silent.
“Kinda?” Arksi replied. “I think it’s more… we can’t prove any of it happened, apart from the vok we saved.”
“That’s EXACTLY the problem!” Kindyna growled. “There’s no way I can prove that we travelled to the future and the four of us went to the north pole and saved a fucking dragon that made time go back to normal! They believed the Dessaron but not the Kronaron!”
“Uh,” Nenth awkwardly interrupted. “The Dessaron were imprisoned for several months until they were let out.”
“Oh heck…” Verlais gasped. “We could have ended up like that… Bitter and depressed and stuck in bad places…” With a blink and a shake of his head, Verlais changed his tone. “Sorry, that was rather down. I hate being the depressed one. Do it too much at home. Shall we order something to eat?”
As Verlais mentioned the word ‘eat’, a weird, rumbling noise echoed underneath the table.
Ct’Era looked down at her stomach, then grinned. “Yes. That is a good idea.”