“Vi- uh, General El… uh, ser, can we talk for a moment please?”
Elkay glanced upwards from underneath his sun hat. He’d been sitting in his inflatable rubber ring, floating in the still water, ignoring the world around him. Across the pond, Psiksi was picking flowers, while Itakay and Enkay were sunbathing in the midday sun. Of course, Teekay always had to come along and say something to interrupt the peace.
“What, Teekay?”
Immediately realising that he’d angered Elkay, Teekay started stuttering. “Uh, sorry, Vi… ser… I’ll come back later, shall I?”
“No, you’ve bothered me and got me curious. Out with it.”
Throughout their brief exile, Elkay had specifically told his Ksa that he was going to be a lot more lax with them, to the point that he considered them friends and family, rather than employees. The other twelve Ksa all seemed to get the memo, but Teekay was still acting, well, like a Ksa.
“I wanted to speak to you. About a lot of things.”
With a sigh, Elkay paddled to the water’s edge then inelegantly climbed out of the rubber ring, shaking his soaking wet wings as he did so.
“What things?”
“Our future plans. We need to make money. We can’t just sit here on our backsides all day and do fuck all. We need to get out there and make you Vice General again!”
Elkay tutted. Teekay had a look on his face that suggested that he’d been worrying about these things for a few days.
“We will. In time.”
“I want to know what our plans are! Why aren’t we doing anything now? How the hell do you afford a place like this? How are we going to keep ourselves afloat? I want to know! I’m worried! I know I always worry but still!”
Teekay seemed flustered. Elkay gently put his hand on Teekay’s shoulder. “I told you. I told all of you of one of my ideas last night and I’ve been mentioning bits and pieces. I have a lot of this worked out already. Yes, getting thrown out of a building was unexpected, but we’re coping.”
“You’re not answering my questions.”
“Oh. Sorry…” Elkay apologised. “Alright, listen. We can’t actively do anything until Jan 1st. I’m supposed to stay dead for six months minimum, you guys have a definite 3 month exile until Dec 31st. On Jan 1st, you can all start doing proper work again. Arkay will go back to doing his Dessaron stuff as normal, as that’s his little niche and that will bring in some good money. The Ξ-kids are going to try and get themselves a place in the Dessaron arenas, they’re pretty much perfect for that. The rest of you will be split between our plan of running a body guard and protection service, which Enkay will be running the finances for, and he and Itakay will be selling. We have a good niche, this is a good way to earn some money, and hopefully we can get the funding we need before April 1st next year, when I claw my way back to the top.”
Teekay still didn’t seem sure. In fact, he seemed slightly overwhelmed.
“Why?”
“We need to focus on that which we are good at. I wish we could start now, but we can’t, so we start fresh on Jan 1st. You can blame Photeianos for that one.”
“But what about our new home? How did you afford that? Or money for food and all this? There’s fourteen of us here!”
Elkay sighed. “I have always put money aside in case of things like this. Secondary accounts, accounts made under my Elkay-En alias, using Veekay’s account with his permission… Unfortunately I have ended up spending a lot of it, more than I wish I had to. But we have enough for now. Plus, we’re lucky that I already owned this property. A small piece of land I bought for cheap off our grandparents a long time ago.”
“You mean your grandparents?”
“My mistake…” Elkay exclaimed. “Kayel’s parents. They needed money… Long story… Anyway, you feeling happier now?”
Teekay shrugged. “I guess. But I do have one last question. What about all the ‘fun’ stuff we’ve bought in the last week or so? Arksi said that you stole some stuff…”
A grin grew upon Elkay’s face. “Normally, two wrongs don’t make a right, but considering how Photeianos was going to keep my comatose body locked up in his bedroom, I think I’m allowed to… borrow some of his incredibly expensive, over the top daggers…”
“Oh.”
After a small giggle to himself, Elkay straightened up. “Now, Teekay, go enjoy yourself. Things will be hard, come Jan 1st. We will have to prepare. But for now, take this time to relax for a bit…”