Chelen City: Chapter Sixteen, Part Two

 Notes: Some more "getting to know you" time.

Title: Chelen City: Chapter Sixteen, Part Two

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Chapter Sixteen, Part Two

 

The rooms were deemed acceptable. Pol honestly didn’t seem to think much of his one way or the other; perhaps he’d care once it was customized. He was far more invested in knowing that his mother would be right next door. “Can I sleep in your room?” he begged more than once, to a “We’ll see” from Xilinn. He also asked where Kieron slept, which—all Elanus could hope was that the kid didn’t try and get into their room at night, not because he’d be able to since locks were a thing, but because he got the feeling that explaining his relationship to Kieron wasn’t something that Pol had patience for right now. The little boy seemed on the edge, not happy like Elanus had hoped.

His mother seemed to key into that as well. “I think we ought to spend a little time relaxing,” she said, wrapping an arm around her son’s shoulders and pulling him in close. “Do you mind if I make something for us to eat in our rooms?”

“Not at all.” Kieron stepped in to show them the way to the kitchen, while Elanus decided now was the best time for him to step back. He let them go ahead, only to be surprised when Xilinn doubled back around the corner once Kieron and Pol were out of sight.

“I didn’t get a chance to thank you personally for this,” she said. “I know Kieron arranged most of it, but I’m truly grateful to you for letting us into your home.”

“Is Pol okay with it?” Elanus asked. He knew there were a hundred good reasons for the pair to be with them right now, but if the kid genuinely wasn’t going to be happy here he could make something else happen.

“He will be.” Xilinn sounded pretty sure about that. “He’s just…been through a lot of upheaval lately. Ever since we had to leave Trakta, he’s gone from one impermanent situation to another, with very few things staying the same in his life. First he had Kieron but not me; then he had me but not Kieron.” She sighed. “Plus he misses the rest of the family. Yesterday was Szusza’s birthday back home.” Fine lines of tension deepened around her mouth. “I was surprised he remembered it, honestly, but…he asked if we were going to talk to her, sing her the birthday song and do the dance, and I had to say no. That…well, it put things onto a poor trajectory for now.”

Szusza, Xilinn’s other child with Zak. There were two other parents in the traditional Traktan foursome who had children with each other, but according to Kieron they’d all been a big, happy, poly family…while Zak was alive, at any rate. Things had been different ever since his death, to the point that Xilinn’s other spouses hadn’t been willing to go to bat to keep her from being deported and sentenced to a slow death in space as a political prisoner.

And Szusza had refused to come with Kieron when he’d tried to get both her and Pol off planet.

That…sucked. Elanus wondered how Kieron felt about not being able to convince Szusza to come with them. Knowing him, he’d taken the perceived failure and tucked it into the back of his mind where it could continue to shred his psyche in a dozen tiny different ways.

What’s the old Earth saying? Pot, meet kettle?

“Do you want me to get you a communication channel with her?” Elanus asked. “Because I could do it. I’m pretty sure I could hone in directly on her implant, if you wanted me to.”

Xilinn looked startled for a second, then shook her head. “Mm, no, I think that would be a breach of her privacy.”

She was…maybe right about that, but Elanus also wouldn’t have cared. “But you wouldn’t know if she wanted to reach out to you under the circumstances, would you?”

“No…”

“I could probably open a channel of communication, but in a way that gives her the option of responding. So it would be her choice as to whether to talk to you or not.”

Xilinn seemed to waver. “If she reported something like that…”

“I can do it in a way that won’t let anyone else find out,” Elanus assured her. “Or, if you don’t want your kid to doubt her own sanity if she tries to confess and then doesn’t see anything—” The look that crossed Xilinn’s face was clear evidence that she didn’t want that, made sense. “Then we can make it something another person could see, but not be able to affect or double back along. We could get rid of it with no harm done at that point, but she’d at least know that you tried to contact her.”

Xilinn’s hands were folded calmly in front of her body, but she was using one of her thumbnails to worry the edge of another. “I think…that might be a good thing. Let me consider it a little more. I’d hate for Pol to get excited about it and then be sad all over again if Szusza decided she didn’t want to talk to us. Maybe…we could start just by sending her a happy birthday message. Do you think that’s possible?”

“With the girls, anything is possible,” Elanus assured her.

Xilinn beamed suddenly. “Oh, Lizzie is a delight,” she said. “I appreciate her friendship with Pol so much. Is your other daughter doing well? I think I remember hearing she’d been through some trouble lately.”

Elanus had to hand it to this woman—she was rolling with a concept that some of the greatest minds in Alliance history had difficulties comprehending, much less accepting. “Catie is recovering from a…” attack that could have unraveled her mind completely “…rough spot, but she’s much better now. Thank you for asking.”

“Of course.” She actually reached out and patted his arm. “It’s hard to worry about them so much, isn’t it? I think that’s been the hardest part of exile for me. I miss Trakta,” she continued, her eyes gone distant. “I miss my home and my work, and talking to my parents every Third-day. I miss being there with Zak—Kieron just brought him back, and then we had to leave him. I’ll never be able to enter the family crypt now, and neither will Pol, and I’m sad about that. I especially miss Szusza, and Filip and Ophred. But…” She sighed. “I don’t miss my other spouses the way I should. We had been drawing apart for years. And I don’t miss the politics, or the hatred, or the constant worry.

“Not that I’m not worrying now,” she said with a little shrug. “But it’s easier, in a way, to worry when I’m someplace so removed from my traditional responsibilities. Kieron is working on our behalf, and I trust in him completely. I hope,” she added, “that we’ll be able to trust each other like that again soon.”

Elanus swallowed. “Wait, you’re not looking for another…”

“Spouse? Oh, hell no.” She covered her mouth briefly. “I mean…not that you’re not very kind, and Kieron is a wonderful man, but…no. Absolutely not.”

Thank fuck.

“Mommy?” They turned to glance down the hallway at Pol, who was standing with a plate in his hands and Kieron at his shoulder. “Can we go see Lizzie now?”

“Yes, darling.” She went to join them, and when prompted by Kieron’s raised eyebrow, Elanus gave him a little smile. It had gone well enough. He wasn’t a miracle worker, but he hoped the pair would be happy here with them.

Something that was much likelier once he got a handle on all the threats facing them.

Time to get back to work.