Upon Vestia: Chapter Thirty-Seven

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"You mentioned the possibility of using a spell to look into someone's mind. Is that part of your plan to try to communicate with Fate?" Vestia asked Jarral. She wanted to learn as much as she could here. After all, it was her job to protect her crew as well as she could.

~~
"You can paint the light switches in your room if you want," Vestia told Vela. "I trust you not to break anything."

Ellie giggled.

"Hello Princess Vela and Ms Ellie, this is my son, Draco." Ace said, giving her and Vela a small bow. He came over to them, kneeling down opposite Vela so he could see her and the plan. "As has been said, you need someone experienced to be here with you while using magic, just in case things go wrong."

He held his hands out, cupping them outside of Vela's when she held hers out once again. "Now, I am here as a buffer and guide, I won't interfere unless I have to." He said before nodding to Vela to try.

Vela closed her eyes again, focusing on the image of the plate and trying to make it. It took a moment before anything happened, but the plate started to form between their hands. About halfway through, the shape started to twist in an odd way and Ace took on a look of concentration as well to help finish the task. Vela slumped, letting the male catch the plate and set it aside. Ace looked to Ellie then moved, picking up Vela and taking her to her bed to tuck her in. "You did well, young Princess. Magic cannot be learned in one day." He said gently

"Hi Draco!" Ellie said. Then she watched the dragons, fascinated to see what would happen. She knew how challenging and tiring magic could be, doubly so when the magic user was trying something new.
"Are you okay?" she asked Vela as the dragon girl slumped. Ace didn't seem too worried, but well, Ellie would be a bad aunt if she didn't ask. And Vela looked so tired, omg.

"Creating from nothing is tiring magic, she will be fine." Ace answered and gave a small smile. "I hope it came out as you wanted, if not, she will be able to change it after resting. Changing what is already there is easier."

Vela nodded at Ace's words, looking to Ellie too. "I'm alright, just tired. Ace had to finish it for me when I started losing the form."

Ellie nodded. "Yeah, I hear ya. Magic is hard." She looked to the light switch plate for the first time, she'd been kinda distracted by Vela's weariness before. "It looks good to me, I think you two did an awesome job. You need to nap a while, Vela?"

"I don't want..." Vela started to say before a yawn stopped her words.

Ace smiled and gave a small bow again "I will be around if you need me again." He said and headed to the door. Draco chirped at the two of them.

Mourn cackled and waved a hand dismissively. He wasn't really paying attention, but to be fair, he seldom did if he didn't think it was important. Lectures about money were definitely not important to him.

"Hologram fix now, can go back work."

Amity bowed his head. "I am eager to do so."


---

Matt nodded, taking Asher's word for it. "Cool. You get a chance to check out first class yet? huge rooms man. It's awesome."

Lana looked a little awkward.

"And yeah, she's a good kid." Matt smiled at Lana, then back to Asher. "you guys did good."

"Thanks for your help Ace, see ya Draco," Ellie said with a smile. She looked to Vela again, "You take a nice long snooze, okay? You can come find me when you're you know... not exhausted."

~~
"Well I'm glad to have your help," Vestia told Amity, "It's good to see you back to flying again." Her camera cast a somehow disapproving look at Mourn, but Vestia wasn't actually all that bothered. Heny's funding meant that a few lenses weren't going to leave Vestia bankrupt.

Zara watched, stuffing her tablet back in her pocket and then resisting the urge to fidget her tea thermos in her hands. She still wasn't totally sure what to make of everyone here. Then again, she was pretty used to that feeling, and used to trying to hide it.

~~
"Kay showed me some of First Class, I'm sure I'll get the chance to see more before long," Asher said. He ducked his head at Matt's praise, not sure what to say to it. "This is Starr, by the way," he told Lana instead, indicating Starr, "Did you two meet yet?"

Vela pouted a little before shifting to her natural form to curl up in. She had been having fun and didn't want to stop just cause she was tired, but she couldn't say no to them.

~~~
Starr smiled at the young girl and waved. "Briefly, I was a bit distracted with my kids though." She said cheerfully. "Hello Lana, I'm glad to meet you."

"Shall I return to work now?" Amity asked. Nobody had told him about the destruction of a whole floor, nor of Sawna's disappearance.

Mourn grinned at Vestia and started off down the hall.

---

Lana waved awkwardly and looked thoughtful, trying to think of what she'd heard about Starr.

"How is Kay?" Web asked softly. "He seemed rather agitated last I saw of him, though I dare say that was hardly surprising given the circumstances."

Matt shrugged. "I dunno actually. I think he's with Danika... isn't he?" Huh, actually he didn't know. Whoops.

Starr tilted her head a little as if listening to another voice before nodding. "Danika is with Kay, they are relaxing and watching videos." She said then smiled "She's good for him."

Matt smiled. "That's nice."

Web nodded. "Agreed."

"So you're just checking up on us?" Matt teased Web.

"Something like that." Web replied quietly.

Ellie hesitated, Vela looked pretty disappointed. "Are dragons able to drink coffee? Unsweetened, I mean," she asked. "If you can, we could give you coffee."
Yes, she was a responsible aunt. Most of the time, anyway. Really!

~~
Asher smiled softly, he was glad that Kay and Danika were spending time together. He still felt kinda guilty for abandoning Kay so quickly, and knowing that Danika was keeping him company eased the guilt a little bit. Although he kind of felt guilty for feeling less guilty, oh dear.
"Yeah, we're just catching up with everyone," he said, nodding at Web's words.

~~
"The coffee shop is, ah, destroyed, and Sawna has gone missing, so you won't be able to work there," Vestia told Amity. "If you want to work in the First Class dining hall, we can arrange that though."

Zara hesitated, but Vestia was hard to hear so instead she set off after Mourn.

"I haven't had coffee before. Mom drinks it I think." Vela replied then shrugged "Could you read with me instead?" She just didn't want to have Ellie leave.

~~~
Starr smiled softly. "It is nice to have all our family and friends together."

"Okay, we can do that." Ellie smiled at her adopted niece. "No coffee, just reading? What do you wanna read?"

Vela shrugged a little and smiled softly "I don't know, whatever you want."

"Hmm," Ellie looked thoughtful, then brightened. "How about I tell you a story? A spooky story about my cousin, maybe." She grinned.

"missing?" Amity looked confused. "Can you not find her?" His understanding was that Vestia could see the whole ship and he assumed missing meant 'lost on the ship'. He was pretty simple like that.

Mourn had long since lost interest and was wandering off.

----

"most of us anyway..." Matt's smile faded and he averted his gaze.

Web flinched.

Lana clasped and unclasped her hands. "Are you staying long uncle Web?" She asked, trying to divert the conversation.

Web shook his head. "I can't, but I do have some time."

"All work and no play right?" Matt replied a little half heartedly.

Web smiled softly. "Something like that."

Matt gestured to the seats around him. "Sit down, everyone. Having you stand there is awkward."

Web obliged.

Lana looked a bit uncertain. Her Dad's mood had turned and she wasn't really sure how to take that, or where she fitted in the adult conversation now.

Vela smiled and patted the side of the bed "That sounds good." She said happily

~~~
Starr dipped her head then shook it and looked to Matt again. "They are with us in our thoughts and hearts." She said softly then looked to Web as he spoke. She moved to take a seat and glanced to Lana again. "Since we don't have Web here for long, what shall we do?" She asked curiously, looking over the group.

"We think she might have been pulled back to her own universe when we skipped forward in time," Vestia told Amity. "Wherever she is, she isn't on board any more."

~~
Zara kinda got the impression that Mourn had other things on his mind now. She decided to leave him to it, instead finding a spot to sit down and drink her tea. Hey, she'd been carrying it around for quite a while now. She wanted to finish it before it turned cold.

~~
Asher went to sit down as well, then looked to Lana, who seemed unsure what to do here. "You could probably find Vela or Kerr and see what they're up to," he told her quietly, "If you don't feel like listening in, I mean."

~~
Ellie sat down on the edge of the bed. "Okay, so, my cousin has this like, really spooooky superpower..." she began, speaking in a stage whisper as if she was telling a ghost story.
She launched into the story of how they had discovered that her cousin had an uncanny ability to always choose the wrong hand when someone asked her to guess which hand they were holding something in. How her cousin had grown more and more annoyed each time she guessed wrong, how she had tried to outwit her power by choosing the hand that she sensed was wrong, but had still ended up picking the wrong hand.
"No matter what she tried, she always guessed wrong," Ellie continued in a mysterious tone of voice. "Her magic was just too clever. To this day, she tries to avoid any guessing games, because she knows that if she tries, she'll just activate her magic again..."

Vela listened to the story, trying to stay awake. She couldn't stay awake for long, slipping into a light doze as the story was told.

Ellie finished telling the story, even if Vela wasn't very awake by the end. She figured maybe she would half hear it, at least.
After the story was over, she got up. "Sleep well kiddo," she said softly, before leaving Vela to rest.

Lana nodded to Asher, that wasn't a bad idea. "okay..." She hesitated.

Matt smiled softly. "Go ahead, say hi for me yeah?"

She nodded and headed off to find Vela or Kerr or someone.

--

Matt rested his elbows on the table and shrugged. "Just catch up I guess."

Web nodded. "I've been meaning to ask, St.. Esk.. " he corrected himself hastily "is he alright? Have you spoken to him since... everything?"

Matt frowned. "Kinda.. sorta.. not... really." He admitted, looking away. Yeah, it wasn't easy talking to Esk at the best of times but since the whole demon thing and nearly killing him and Esk's general shitty mood of late it was even more difficult. "He's.. getting better right? I mean, he's tough. "

---

Amity looked perplexed, his coding allowed nothing for magic and suchforth. It struggled a little with the concept of Sawna just being 'gone'. "oh..." He replied. He brightened suddenly "then I shall require a new assignment."

Kerr was wandering the ship, decorating a room was so he had slipped away. He stopped when he saw Lana then smiled at her and waved. "Hey Lana."

~~~
Starr nodded and glanced to Asher. "Dawn would probably be the best to answer, but Asher was there, weren't you?" She asked.

~~~
Vela snuggled her pillow, sleeping by the time Ellie left the room.

Lana smiled, relieved to see someone familiar. "Exploring?" She asked.

---

Asher looked hesitant. "I only saw him during his appointment at the hospital, so all I know is from what I saw and heard then," he said. "He seemed... tired, and and clearly still has a lot of recovering to do." Honestly Asher thought Esk had seemed more defeated than tired, but he thought that word was too pessimistic to use. His worry still showed on his face though.
"The medics, and maybe even Ethan, can probably tell you more than I can."

~~
Vestia couldn't help but be amused by Amity's abrupt 'mood shift'. It really was clear sometimes when the Aketi programming didn't cover a type of situation. "Yes, I suppose you will," she agreed. "Do you think you would be able to run a new cafe, or do you need an organic being to help with that?" She knew a lot of her passengers missed having a cafe to relax at.

~~
Ellie headed off, maybe toward Hydroponics or something.

"Yeah" Kerr replied and walked over to her. "Have you seen much yet?"

~~~
Starr nodded, frowning thoughtfully. "I'm sorry Asher, I shouldn't have asked that of you, but thank you for what you could say." She said softly. She thought he hesitated because of the doctor-patient confidentiality thing even though they were with family.

Amity tilted his head, thinking. "I can pour beverages into mugs." He nodded, that was what cafes entailed right? It's what he'd done with Sawna anyway.

---

Web nodded grimly. "At least he's up and about right?" He was trying to be optimistic but it clearly didn't come naturally to him.

Matt shrugged. "Maybe go say hi, if he's rude to you you know he's fine." He was trying to make light of the situation to ease his own unease.

Web's lips twitched into a sort of half smile.

---

Lana shrugged. "Dad showed me around first class and a few places." She frowned. "it's wierd... having him here.. " She shook her head, it was wierd, very wierd. The mythical father figure was, in reality, not quite what she'd expected. "what about you? Have you seen the arcade?"