Upon Vestia: Chapter Seventeen

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Kay always tried so hard to be sensible and pragmatic. Asher had always loved that about him, and he loved it just as much now. He smiled softly. "No, you're definitely not alone in this."
He wasn't going to leave Kay to look after this little dragon alone. He'd gotten the guy into this situation, so now it was his job to do everything he could to help. Did that make him the other father here? Maybe. This was thoroughly confusing and he was going to need to think it over at some point. "If it wasn't already obvious, I'm here for you. Both of you," he said.

~~
Tala snorted weakly. "I do not like that butterfly well." She let Shane help her.

"Saldes is the god of magic" Skye said, glancing to Orel then at the robot to see it actually working. "According to him, he and Rycdos are brothers" She said, looking to Orel again. "They once worked together but Rycdos became stronger and started banishing magic users."

"Oh," Orel considered that, "So someone in your family is magic?" He looked to Amity and Mourn, and smiled a bit distractedly, "Congratulations on being repaired!"

Vestia cheered quietly for Amity and Mourn, and ignored the hawks' conversation mostly.

Skye nodded, though she wasn't going to say who just yet.

"Thank you." Amity smiled to Orel. "I suppose I should thank you both for finding the batteries."

Mourn folded his arms.

"And of course you for your mechanical skills. " Amity chuckled.

Mourn nodded. "you hologram?"

Amity nodded. "To be precise I am a twelfth generation Host Drone."

Hewitt relaxed visibly. "many thanks, it seems I may have misjudged your abilities dear Felid."

Mourn looked pleased. "I good fixing robot." He glanced back at the hawks.

It was totally Moone, Orel concluded. Skye had said she'd had to look after the kid, and hadn't gotten to visit other people much. If you were trying to protect a magic user, you'd definitely keep to yourself.
So weird. Magic using Artuvians.
But really, he lived around magic all the time. This wasn't that different, was it?
He shrugged, "It's okay, I'm not gonna hurt her or something."

He glanced over at Mourn. Successful, genius Mourn. Bah.

Vestia had turned a bit purple with pride at Mourn's skill. "It's good to meet you properly," she told Amity. "Welcome aboard."

"Thank you." Amity looked up at the camera, unlike Hewitt talking ships weren't something he was accustomed to. He'd spent his entire life on a non talking cruise ship, everything about the guild and such was so massively outside his programming, it was a bit overwhelming.

"Good. Hurt hawk girls, have to hurt you." Mourn told Orel cheerfully, grinning and showing off all his teeth.

Skye flushed deeper again and Mourn's comment didn't help. Orel knew her secret now, and even if he didn't hurt Moone, that didn't mean he would want to keep seeing her, or that his parents would be as accepting.

Orel was a bit uncertain about this, but Skye was hot so he decided to try and not let this get between them. He smiled a strained smile at Skye, then another one at Mourn. Then he focused on the very tall hologram. "Wow, do you bump on door frames often?" He asked.

Skye looked over to the hologram again and tried to smile. She was glad he was working now, even if she was worried once again. There were times when she wished Moone was not magic, like this.

Amity looked bewildered. "Why would I bump into doorframes?" He asked.

Mourn laughed. "Because you tall!"

Amity blinked. "I am as tall as many Aketi" He hesitated, yes these people were very very short weren't they?

Hewitt chuckled. "Animal species, so homogeneous in their shapes and sizes."

Amity smiled softly and turned his attention back to Orel. "The ship I came from did not have such low ceilings."

"Oh, that makes sense. How tall do you guys get?" Orel asked. "Well not you I guess, but the Aketii?" Was he pronouncing it right? Hmm.

"Anywhere from 4 and a half to 7 and a half feet." Hewitt explained casually.

"I can change my form, and my size if it is desired." Amity suggested.

Hewitt shook his head. "You'll remain as you are my friend, I need someone who can see over the crowds." He chuckled.

Amity looked amused. "As you wish sir."

Skye smiled a little, though she stayed silent. She had gotten comfortable and had let her secret slip to Orel and to these strangers who shunned magic too. What was she going to do?

"That's almost as much variation as the Artuvian species have," Orel said with a smile. "Keeps things interesting, doesn't it?" He was trying to ignore Skye's secret so hard, oh my gosh.

Hewitt chuckled. "Well i'm no biologist, but from what I understood of it Atruvians aren't cross fertile with one another are they?"

Mourn made a face. "I fix robot, now call home." He changed the subject.

"No, the only time we can breed outside our type is with a shifter that takes our form" Skye answered softly

Orel nodded. "It doesn't happen normally. Still, we're all similar but very different sizes."

"Yes, let's get you guys a comm so you can call home," Vestia said. "There's one on this floor not too far away."

Hewitt looked to Mourn and looked amused. He agreed, animal reproduction was extraordinarily awkward and messy.
"Ahh that sounds wonderful dear ship." He nodded his head.

Amity looked relieved. "Thank you, all of you. " He moved toward the door.

Mourn watched curiously to see how he was going to manage this and to his surprise, the hologram reached out and opened the door without any trouble.

"How you do that?!" Mourn protested, he'd put his hand through the hologram, he was made of light!

"Excuse me?" Amity had no idea what he was talking about.

"They utilize micro force generators to allow them to manipulate their surroundings. Wouldn't be much use if they couldn't open doors or pick up a glass would they?" Hewitt reasoned.

Mourn frowned. "Can become solid?"

"Not entirely, but close enough." Amity explained cheerfully. "The early generations couldn't open doors and it led to a great deal of problems getting stuck in storage closets and guest rooms and so on. Extremely inefficient not to mention quite frustrating for the guests. "

"I can imagine." Hewitt chuckled. poor drones, he could just picture them butting against a door repeatedly trying to get out.

Orel looked thoroughly impressed. "That's brilliant. Must have taken some really first rate engineering to fit tech like that into such a small drone."

Vestia led them down the hall by talking through different speakers as they walked. "This way, it's not too far and it'll be in a room to your left with the door open."

Amity smiled to Orel.

Hewitt looked pleased. "of course, micro engineering is an Aketi specialty."

Mourn didn't follow, he didn't really care about them calling home. He picked up the damaged battery and looked it over again, then took it to find some safe way to dispose of it.

Skye followed them out, listening to the conversation quietly

Amity peered into the room with the open door.

Orel kind of wanted to learn about aketi now. That was just too awesome.

They reached the room with the comm.

"There you go. We have unlimited minutes," Vestia said cheerfully.

Amity looked relieved and went to try to work out how to use this primitive communication technology.

Hewitt stood back and let the Host get on with it. Amity knew who to call.

"it WILL be nice to go home." The elderly Aketi smiled softly. "Thank you, you have all been remarkably accommodating."

"Any time. We try to be hospitable people at least," Vestia said cheerfully.

"I like to help when I can" Skye added and smiled at them

Hewitt nodded. "Thank you." Something seemed to occur to him. "I .. don't think you ever actually told me your names."

Amity put in a call to the cruise company, or tried to.