Kayel was exhausted.
In the last few weeks, he had been all over the place, rushing around on both Rethan and Thanatian duties. He had done all sorts. Lots of healing. A little bit of diplomacy. A lot of fighting beings trying to invade private Thrakian spaces. Worst of all, he had helped heal a pair of Thraki who had been repeatedly stabbed by a horrible Cassid prototype. The Cassids behind that would soon find themselves filled with nasty illnesses. And probably maggots.
Now, he was sitting on a balcony in a cafe. It was a Bayvak cafe in Portalia City, and it had a really nice view. It was only accessible to beings that could fly, and because ‘free’ Bayvak only really existed in neutral regions and in very small numbers, the cafe was almost always quiet. Kayel assumed that they probably owned the land or had cheap rent or something.
Either way, he’d ordered himself some sort of honey drink and was quite content to just sit there and enjoy the view. Below him, beings were scurrying back home from work, and some were sitting in the cafes on street level. It was nice just being above it all. It would have been even nicer if Psivee-En was there, but he had always had trouble with cities. Even though he had been pardoned, Psivee-En was under the impression that everyone wanted to kill him or something.
But Kayel had other things on his mind as well. Ever since his son Elkay became High general, he was supposed to get extra security, just in case. Being a former Ksa, Kayel constantly refused. What made things more awkward was that he was supposed to be dead, and both he and Elkay were kinda keeping that secret. Still, Kayel appreciated the kindness from his oldest kid. His other kids were… well, just as wayward as he was. Most of them worked for Elkay, but little Psiksi, his youngest kid, was busy working as a diplomat in the Thanatian territories of Vriskera. Which was odd because he never saw the battle-ready Ksa to be into that sort of thing. His last kid was…
Well, Arkay was gone. Not dead. Gone. Kayel knew what had happened. He was at the hospital by his kid’s side as he slipped away. But he also knew of the broken promise. That his own son was now a servant of Death.
That bothered Kayel more than he wanted to admit. He took a sip of his overly sweet drink and tried to think of something else.
Psivee-En would like it here. Heck, if he could, he’d invite Vokulunax. Or maybe that nice Thraki Lokmah. Maybe he’d invite Arksi and Nenth next time they visited. All his kids would love it. Heck, maybe Kayel could make arrangements, get a day trip for his old friends in the L-Class. He did still owe them all a drink.
Suddenly, something tapped Kayel on the shoulder. It was a hovering Bayvak.
“Can I help you?” Kayel spluttered, not expecting to see a Bayvak for some stupid reason. Normally they just left him alone.
“No, I is helps you!” the Bayvak grinned. “You likes cold flavoured custard creams?”
“Pardon?” Kayel blinked.
“Uh…” the Bayvak hesitated, fluttered off to talk to another Bayvak then came back. “Ice creams! I means the ice creams! You likes?”
Kayel nodded. “I do.”
“What flavors you likes?”
“Uh, I don’t mind. Fruit flavours, strawberry, not fussed. Why?”
The Bayvak grinned some more then flew off, leaving Kayel alone and not answering his question. With the distraction gone, Kayel went back to looking at everyone wandering the streets blow him. It was weird how, in the space of about twenty minutes, everything had quietened down.
Suddenly, something tapped Kayel on the shoulder again. This time, it was three Bayvak, two of which were holding an incredibly large bowl of ice cream. They put the bowl in front of him next to his drink.
“Is Sunday! So we bring Ice Cream Sunday!” the largest Bayvak shouted with glee. “All for yous! On us!”
“Uh, thank you!”
The three Bayvak all grinned, did a weird spin then rushed off. Kayel waved at them, then looked at the gigantic ice cream. Finally, he picked up his spoon.
“This is awesome!” Kayel grinned as he happily shovelled ice cream into his mouth.