“Am I a traitor?” Elkay suddenly asked as he swirled a glass of orangey drink in his hands.
“What?”
Teekay lifted his head up off the pile of cushions and glared at Elkay. He was sleepy and definitely too tipsy. Glancing at the nearest clock, he realised that he and Elkay had been drinking for at least a few hours.
“Am I a traitor?”
“Why are you asking such a retarded question?” Teekay tutted, trying to get to his feet. He wanted another drink, but he wasn’t sure whether he wanted an alcoholic one or not. After a little thought, Teekay decided he did want more alcohol and wandered over to the dining table where Elkay was leaning to put himself some.
“Well…” Elkay looked around the room. He took a deep breath, then looked around once more. He was clearly not happy. They had started off being quite happy but as the evening had dragged on, Elkay had become more and more glum.
“Well, what?”
Elkay sighed some more. “I have to be a traitor. There is no other way to look at it.”
Teekay sighed as well, not understanding what Elkay was on about. “Could you maybe stop being cryptic and explain? You were fine earlier and now your mood has soured. And your bad mood is giving me a bad mood as well.”
Another sigh. Elkay sipped his drink, sighed yet again, then started to speak. “I have abandoned Rethan society, disappeared into the aether and taken a head full of Rethan secrets with me. Instead of being dead, I ran away, hiding in Skyan territories. I could have gone back home and claimed that I was alive. I could have returned back to my kind. But I ran. I ran, Teekay…”
Teekay grunted and poured himself another drink. Unlike the previous drinks he and Elkay had, he downed this one.
“I did not know we were at war.”
“I…” Elkay hesitated. “I do not follow.”
“To be a traitor, you have to be at war with someone.”
“Yes but…”
“You could have gone home, yes, but let us keep in mind that you hurt and possibly killed several other Rethans while you were in that… funny state of yours. Had you immediately gone home and the truth had been discovered, perhaps you would have been considered a traitor anyway?”
Elkay suddenly snapped out of his mood, a surprised look on his face. “I… I hurt people?”
“Did Arkadin not tell you?”
“No…”
Teekay frowned. “You hurt some people. But to be fair, you were in a feral rage and were under attack. You could not do better. All that aside though, you are not a traitor.”
“I feel like a traitor though. I feel like a lot of things. All these… wrong things… Emotions I should not feel… Too many things drifting round a tattered, ageing skull like mine.”
“Should not, or do not want to?” Teekay asked.
Elkay looked away. “I… I do not know…”
“Do not know or wanting to know and holding yourself back?” Teekay pushed on.
Elkay though did not like this path of questioning. “I think I have perhaps had far too much to drink. I believe we should… lie down for a while…”
Teekay smiled, nodding on agreement. He got up and flung himself into the pile of cushions and pillows in the middle of the room. “I do agree, my good friend. Come, join me down here, maybe we can sleep off the drunkenness together…”