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?"

Ellie grinned. "Having an evil overlord spaceship is just better. You ready to go see if Matt is like, around? We have our coffee so that's next."

~~
Tala was happy to listen to the stories. She was glad that the children had pretty much had a nice time during those ten years.
"Will they be returning to Vestia, do you suppose?" she asked Skye. "Or will we just visit them?"

Matt had crawled into a random room and fallen asleep. Yay?


----

Jarral considered how best to explain it, but it wasn't an easy explanation. "there are many reasons to kill, that alone is not enough. " the second question however was easier to answer. "I no longer work for the Star Marshall, I am here as a courtesy, to sate my own curiosity but she has requested I remain with you. She claims I should... get to know my family better but I believe her true motivation is that she wants someone she trusts to keep an eye on your crew." Well at least he was honest. "Unfortunately it would seem my Lord agrees with her, He wishes to know more about your ship and where you have been. " he didn't look overly happy about it. "if you captain will allow it, I would travel with you to Unity Station." The faintest of smiles crossed his face, gone in a flash. "It could be interesting to see people again." Well by people he meant Danika, but he wasn't going to say that. It had been almost 10 years since he'd seen the star dragons and Moone. How strange.

---

Ivor nodded. "Sister said freedom was difficult to adjust to. She spent so long being treated as a dumb animal, having people treat her with respect and as an equal took a lot of getting used to." He shook his head. "it sounds awful." He may have had a shitty life, but at least the people around him had been theoretically trying to help.

Vestia might tell Ellie and Shane that Matt seemed to be asleep.

"I guess we shouldn't wake him up, then," Ellie said. She looked a little concerned, she was worried about how her friend was coping.

~~
James shook his head. "Killing isn't enough to taint a soul?"
"So you're going to be a spy on our ship. Normally I'd be offended, but I mean, if some of us are possessed by demons, we might need your experience. So that changes things, and I think Starr and Vestia would agree with me on that," James decided. "You've been in contact with Web? I assumed nobody could reach him at the moment."
"You've met our family at Unity Station before? Asher didn't mention you when I was talking to him, huh."

~~
"It really is," Moriah agreed. "Being treated like property changes the way you think about things, and when you're not being treated that way any more, it can be hard to adjust." She smiled slightly, "Silence seems to have adjusted to it pretty well though, and I'm glad for her."

"There are many reasons to kill, not all are immoral." Jarral spoke briskly "My father? No." He shook his head. "I have no reason to speak to the Ishvara. None have asked me to contact him anyway." He turned away. "I serve my god, or rather, I work for him." it was a weird relationship. "And yes, I have met those who were sent to the Imperium for safety. My father brought me along to... learn Galactic Common I beileve. He was testing me."

---

Ivor nodded. "She is... a very fast learner and... good at hiding her pain." He frowned a little. "She is still not entirely comfortable shifting form. "

James considered that for several seconds. "Okay. Say someone executed a prisoner because they thought if the prisoner ever escaped, the prisoner would order the start of a war. Would executing that prisoner, who was unable to fight back at the time, taint the executioner's soul?"
"Wait, who's your god?" This was how Swarm had been kicked out, James mused, because they couldn't stop asking questions. But really, there was so much he felt like he should know here. Both to feed Swarm, and to help keep Vestia and her crew out of danger if he could. Plus it was pretty interesting stuff, if creepy as all hell.

~~
"Learning to shapeshift must be scary if you've always been told not to," Moriah said softly. "I can't imagine it, but it must just change how everything feels and looks." She frowned, "I know we're planning to hire therapists at some point, maybe she could talk to one of them if they're nice?"

Kooshie wrote:Ellie grinned. "Having an evil overlord spaceship is just better. You ready to go see if Matt is like, around? We have our coffee so that's next."

~~
Tala was happy to listen to the stories. She was glad that the children had pretty much had a nice time during those ten years.
"Will they be returning to Vestia, do you suppose?" she asked Skye. "Or will we just visit them?"

"Maybe we can visit him when he wakes up, try to keep him from drinking so much?" Shane agreed

~~~
"I hope they come with us, or I will stay with them. I don't want to be seperated from Moone for so long again." Skye said as she dipped her head.

Ivor nodded. "it is... disorienting... " He admitted. "therapists? Do you think they will help?"

----

Jarral sighed "I do not know, moral quandries are questions for religious figures." Wait, didn't swarm call him a priest? "The Deus Umbrae, god of shadows." that explained the shadow cloak. "Our arrangement is complicated and I do not see how it is relivant."

"Yeah. For now, let's let him rest." Ellie sighed, then smiled a little. "We can go hang out somewhere for now, it'll be nice." Was she being clingy? Maybe.

~~
Tala nodded. "It is difficult to be far from your loved ones. I will be curious to see how these arrangements work out." She didn't think Vestia was a very safe place for kids, but then, was anywhere truly safe these days?

~~
"I've never been to a therapist myself, but some people say good things about them," Moriah said. "I suppose it depends on the therapist though, I'm sure some are a lot better than others."

~~
"Okay then," James said. Great, some thing that made people more susceptible to possession, and nobody knew anything about how it worked except that it existed and had to do with moral stuff maybe. Well, that was reassuring.
"I get a little concerned when people say they have the interest of gods. I mean, beings with godlike powers are suuuuper unstable and moody. I know cause I pissed one off once. It was... really bad." James looked a little sheepish. "Your god isn't going to smite us, right?"

Ivor nodded. "they are usually kind..." He mused. He'd had rather a few.

----

Jarral shook his head. "God-like is not the same as an actual god." He remarked flatly. "And no, my Lord has no desire to smite, he is far more interested in his library." He shook his head. "I have more freedom now than I did when Fate laid claim to me. "

Moriah smiled a little. "Well then, hopefully we can find her a good one, if she wants one at all."

~~
James shrugged. "If it can rip holes in the universe just cause it's having a temper tantrum, I think we can call it a god. For the sake of brevity." He nodded, "Okay. I'll take your word that your god isn't going to start wrecking things, then. I hope you're right."

"Sure, what would you like to do?" Shane asked curiously. He didn't mind hanging out with her.
~~~
"Hopefully well. It's not like we don't have kids on here already anyway." Skye said with a shrug.

"you have a very strange view of gods." Jarral remarked.

---

Ivor nodded. "I hope so too."

"Honestly I kinda wanna pet your fur and answer messages some more," Ellie said with a smile. "You're fur is soft, and well, my family is kinda like... freaking out. As families do."

~~
"That is a good point," Tala said. "I often wonder if children have any place on a ship that is hounded by danger as we are. Then again, they are connected to us by family ties, and that shall always make things dangerous for them wherever they go."

~~
James laughed. "I haven't heard of many people having positive encounters with godlike beings."

~~
"It's a good thing there are so many kind people on this ship. We can all kind of help and understand each other," Moriah said.

"gods do not think like mortals, though most lack real malice." Jarral reasoned.

---

Ivor smiled softly. "like you."

"Yeah, I guess, but that doesn't excuse all the crappy things some of them do," James said. He shook his head, "I should probably get going, I'm sure you're sick of my face by now. But one more question, your shadows, are they sentient or something? I've never seen anything like them."

~~
Moriah couldn't blush of course, but she did smile, looking a little embarrassed. "I hope so."

"Yes." Jarral replied simply. He didn't elaborate.

---

Ivor nodded. "you are kind, and good... "

"Thanks man," James smiled, although it looked kinda forced. He headed out, back to Vestia.

~~
Moriah didn't really know what to say to that. She smiled at Ivor. "Here, how about we read a little more of that book we were reading," she said, wanting to change the subject.

Shane chuckled and shrugged "Alright, I like just relaxing with you." He said, heading back to the room they kept using.

~~~
Skye nodded then sighed. "Yeah, none of us are safe or safe to be around. Maybe things have changed by now?"

Ellie looked pleased with that. She would curl up next to Shane on the bed and respond to some messages.

~~
"We can hope," Tala said. "I rather doubt it though. There will always be slavers who are bitter to lose the dragons, terrans who are bitter to have lost the androids, and now there are demons who wish to eat us or somesuch." She looked grim. "We will always need to look over our shoulders for danger, I think."

Shane returned to is felid form and settled on the bed next to Ellie.
~~~
Skye sighed but nodded. "I guess so." She agreed softly. She didn't like the thought but it was more likely.

Tala shook her head. "We shall fight for them. If it is within our power to keep them safe, then we will." She wanted to reassure Skye a little, it was rough to know that your family might always be in danger.

Skye nodded and smiled softly again "That we will. We will fight to keep all of our family safe, blood or simply friend."

Jarral returned to his creepy book.
He was getting tired of questions.

----

Ivor nodded, oblivious to Moriah's awkwardness. He was crap at reading people, utterly reliant on surface thoughts rather than ever learning body language or anything like that.
"If you would like, yes."

"We make a good tribe," Tala said, with some pride.

~~
"All right, let's read a little more," Moriah said. She was relieved to do something less awkward, whew.

Ivor looked content with that idea, listening intently to Moriah read.

"Yes, we do, don't we?" Skye said then chuckled softly "Maybe if we can find your mate, they will join us too?"

Tala nodded. "Perhaps so. It would be most satisfactory to have both my peoples united into one." She considered the people on Vestia to be her friends and family now, they'd survived too much together to be anything less than that.