Upon Vestia: Chapter Thirty-Three

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"Hey man," James said to Kay, after waiting for a few seconds for the guy to pause his work, and realizing he wasn't going to. "How you holding up?"

~~
"It's my job to care about the books," Ethan said. He tried to look like he had no emotional investment in the state of the library, with moderate success. "Vestia pays me to keep them nice and safe and organized, which they aren't." He watched Esk curiously, "Who put you on janitor duty?"

"That they do." Shane agreed, he wasn't sure what else to say to that.

"There's a point where they get TOO CLOSE." Esk glared at Matt and got up to put his plate away.

Matt stuck his tongue out and went back to eating.

Ellie nodded. Yeah, they hated slavers. It was a thing. She petted Shane's fur. "Well, progress has been made so that's good."

~~
Tala wiggled her ears. "True enough. In my tribe we have laws about such relations," she said. "But every species is different, I suppose." She brought up her dishes too and prepared to go. She realized it'd be mean to tease either brother about this too much.

"She's not MY sister!" Matt protested weakly.

Esk shook his head and headed off with one final warning "neutering."

Tala wiggled her ears. "It depends on your people's culture," she said agreeably. She headed off, ears still twitching.

"Yeah, it is good, weird since it's only like a day to us, but good." Shane agreed.

Ellie nodded. "Yeah... that part is seriously weird." She shook her head. "In other topics, is it a little weird that I want to just, like, bury my face in your fur? Because it's sooo soft." Yeah, even she knew that was a little weird.

matt grumbled and ate his food slowly, then went to find somewhere quiet to curl up and sleep.

Shane chuckled softly at her question. "It is weird, but I like being so close to you. Just remember to put your drink on the table so it doesn't spill." If there was any coffee even left in the cup.

Ellie giggled and finished her coffee, then set it aside. Yeah, she probably would have forgotten and spilled the remainder of the coffee onto the bed otherwise, oops. She went and hugged him, burying her face in his fur.
"I guess eventually we'll have to do other things, but they can wait," she decided. This was what she wanted to do right now, yep.

Shane hugged her and patted her back gently. "What else should we be doing?" He asked, wasn't that much they could do at the moment in his opinion.

"I mean, at some point I gotta check on Hewitt, make sure he's still healing and all that," Ellie said. "Kay left him in my care, cause I know more about plants than he does."

"You are our plant expert here, unless these people have learned more about his people. Hey Vestia, can you ask if they have any info on the Aketi. (or whatever their name is ) Even info is good at this point, right?" Shane said with a frown. Yeah, they should check on the plant-man.

"We looked up what we could, turns out there isn't much info about aketi out here," Ellie said. "Apparently they don't like talking to other species much. Which... isn't really surprising, knowing Hewitt." She smiled slightly. "Just gotta use what I know about plants, and cross my fingers, I think."

Shane frowned again then sighed "Yeah, you are probably the best chance he has." He said and hugged her tight for a moment "Want to check on him together, so you don't have to worry?"

Ellie hugged Shane back, then nodded. "Yeah... let's go do that."

Hewitt had obviously not moved, he was more plant-like than ever. Stationary, unresponsive.

Shane nodded and would get up to go to Hewitt's room with Ellie. He didn't like seeing the tree-man like this.

When they were in Hewitt's room, Ellie carefully checked the guy's condition, making adjustments to the atmosphere and nutrients in the air based on how his leaves and skin looked. She used a little more of her magic on him, then stood back when she had finished.

"That's all we can do for him," she said with a sigh. "His recovery is going to take a lot of waiting, if he recovers at all."

Hewitt was old, very old, but Aketi were tough bastards. He was probably alive at least, judging by the fact he wasn't withering and his roots were still moving gently as they absorbed nutrients from the air.

---

Kay helped Mourn to a room, which Mourn was delighted about. Nice big room in first class meant more crap to accumulate!

He tried to convince Kay to help him move shit but Kay refused telling him to rest damnit, he'd be back later to check on him and give him more pain relief.

James was somewhere in First Class, enjoying the luxuriousness of the place. He'd tried to find Ethan earlier but Vestia had shooed him off, so no he was just looking around instead.

~~
Tala was also around, doing some embroidery.

Shane watched Ellie take care of Hewitt as well as she could. "I wish there was more we could do for him." He said and reached for Ellie's hand again.

~~~
Skye, Jewel and the others were up and about, mostly getting breakfast or helping with the cleanup.

Ivor was likely still with moriah.

---

Swarm joined James.

----

Esk had returned to cleanup duty, eugh.

"Yeah. It stinks seeing him like this," Ellie said glumly. Even though she wasn't the biggest fan of Hewitt, she still cared about him and wanted him to recover. "Those slavers nearly ruined everything."

~~
Tala would greet Skye if the girl happened to go near the lounge area where she was.

~~
Moriah had probably tried to teach Ivor a bit. But with Ivor being as jumpy as he was, they probably hadn't been able to do all that much today.

Maybe Moriah would read him a picture book or something, she wanted to be nice to him.

~~
James noticed Swarm and smiled at the cloud of insects. "Hey guys, what's up? Other than yourselves I mean."

Ivor liked being read to, he curled up a little, tucking his feet beneath himself and cradling his bad arm, looking at the pictures and eagerly listening.

----

---we--- ---are--- ---most--- ---intrigued--- ---by--- ---this--- ---rift--- Swarm admitted ---tried--- ---to--- ---question--- ---shadow--- ---priest--- ---but--- ---he--- ---grew--- ---weary--- ---and--- ---suggested--- ---we--- ---leave--- drat

Moriah was happy to read to Ivor, she liked that he seemed to be starting to trust her.

~~
"Oh man, that's disappointing," James said, shaking his head. "That's what, Jarral, right? I thought he was under orders to answer all our questions or something." He looked curious, "Did you learn anything interesting about the rift before he kicked you out though?"

Swarm bobbed up and down in a nod. ---he--- ---seemed--- ---tired--- ---of--- ---questions--- though to be fair, Swarm asked a LOT of questions, often all at once. ---we--- ---learned--- ---of--- ---the--- ---war--- ---at--- ---least---