Episode 49: Lunch (Dreya)

Dreya didn’t feel like eating lunch. Her sister was home, and she felt a strange churning feeling that she couldn’t shake. She carried a plate with a small salad and a few slices of some fruit and a piece of bread to her seat.

“You’re home,” she said, because no one else was lame enough to state the obvious and she liked being lame.

“I’ve been doing flights to look for you, just incase.”

Just incase they were somehow untraceable but close. It was a useless shot in the dark.

“We were out of realm,” her sister, Nim, said.

At least they could be lame together. A meal of obvious statements would calm her. 

Konrad came out with a pitcher and glasses from the kitchen. It was weird, but maybe he just knew she felt sick. 

Sick was the wrong word, she didn’t even know what sick meant, but if sick was a thing this would be it.

There was a cute guy there too, with brown hair and blue eyes and he looked like he noticed everything.

She poured a glass and started sipping on it.

It tasted like truth serum. She hated the tacky way it made the water feel.

She set the glass down and watched their mom sit with one of the babies, Nim’s babies, and Soren sit with the other. Soren, Nim’s husband, was cool. 

The guy that had brought seemed cool too. He even made a weird face when he tasted the water, like she wasn’t crazy. He had a sword and the way he dodged kids as they ran past him when he sat down looked like he was skilled.

“Your kids are really cute,” Dreya told Nim and Soren. “Can I hold one?”

She had three with her, even though she was only pregnant with twins. It would be cool if they could have triplets. No one had triplets. Everyone had one baby or two babies at a time.

“You’re up,” Nim said to Soren. “Meldrey has abandoned us.”

Meldrey was the third kid – a few years older – then. .

Soren stood, “I’m cute but I don’t think you can hold me.” He handed her the baby, who had soft dark hair fuzz and pretty eyes. She looked sleepy and half conscious.

“That’s Tsura,” Nim explained.

Princess Tsura. 

“Mom has Caden,” Nim continued. “And this is Jay.”

Tsura had her finger wrapped around Dreya’s, but she looked up for a moment at the cute guy again. 

“Hi, I’m Dreya.”

She loved her name. She was the first born child after her uncle, Nim’s dad, died. She looked almost the same as Nim, except Nim had dreads that were more sunbleached and she had perma-brown hair. 

She wondered sometimes if Soren noticed that. She didn’t like like Soren, it was just a thought, because she and Nim looked almost the same and both liked travel. Nim was calmer than she was. And more sarcastic.

They were close. She also wondered if Jay had noticed Nim, or her, or both, or neither.

She should have been more fixated on where Nim had been and if she had seen Terren, but it just felt right. Nim was home, her babies were here, and everything was okay.

She ate some bread. It wasn’t a nibble, because she refused to eat like a mouse, but it was close to a nibble.

As they all enjoyed the the babies and the homecoming, and Konrad shifted more than once like he didn’t know what to say next, Acheron came in. So did Spence and their kids and Talise and Niels. The noise level increased significantly. 

Acheron was her big brother, three kids ahead. Whenever he came into a room everyone noticed him. He was a natural leader, but he was quiet about it. She liked that he was modest and quiet. She could be in the library and trust him to help her find the right book to solve any internal dilemma, like Walden or Béchamel Landing, without asking any questions that made her uncomfortable. He was always there for her. Terren was more teasing, and her twin Endymion was more about dissecting a problem, which meant talking about the problem.

She sounded like someone with thousands of problems. She just liked philosophies and applying them to situations. She had just finished reading Thrison Fold, a timepiece about an inmate’s experiences in the system and coming out of it. It was fictionalized, with strong philosophical viewpoints ingrained in the exaggerations. He seemed like a brilliant man. 

“Hey, you’re home?” Ach said as he sat at the table with two overflowing plates. He began dividing one into smaller plates.

Soren glanced at him, a few beads in his hair moving as he did, “Nope.”

“We just wanted to talk to Spence about Sylem,” Nim stated.

“What about it,” Spence asked as he put his arm around Ella and mooched a grape off her plate. 

Dreya still didn’t understand how Spence could be divorced to Talise and married to Ach. 

“Do you know of any groups specifically targeting kids, in Sylem? Kidnapping, trading, et cetera?”

“It’s a big problem, yeah,” Spence replied.

Sylem was one huge problem. Dreya didn’t like to go there. 

Jay felt quite the opposite, she noticed, by the way he sat up straight and buzzed with excitement. “It is?”

Maybe Jay was into fixing problems with kids. 

“Yeah. Are you looking to buy?”

She was pretty sure Jay could tell that Spence was trying to get a feel for things. Konrad wasn’t doing much; something she didn’t understand was happening. 

“I’m looking for my brother. I’ll buy him if it’s the only way to get him back. He was taken from Babylon six years ago. I don’t know why it’s called Babylon and not something that makes more sense. Like Terra or Gaia or maybe a Chinese dynasty name. Why Babylon?”

Niels looked up from some conversation he was having with Val, “I always thought it should be named New York, personally.”

Jay laughed.

Niels was from New York, which was a city and a state in Babylon. Sometimes, it felt like whenever anyone said Babylon they meant New York, even though it wasn’t the capital of that country or the world.

Talise liked the history of it too, and she decided to explain everything. It was most likely more for Niels than Jay, though she could have been wrong.

Niels was a human. He had been there for a few years but he still had a lot to learn about all of the various realms. He had never heard of other realms before, because Babylon liked to keep it a secret. He was rich, so if he had wanted to she suspected he could have paid to find out. He just didn’t seem to have thought about it before he met Talise.

Jay asked about that, and Talise introduced Niels.

Niels had blue hair. 

Sometimes it bothered Dreya, for no reason at all except why would someone want blue hair when they already had a hair color.

Dreya focused on Tsura again, because she felt weird focusing so much on Jay and the conversation. Jay was interested in everything going on and she didn’t feel like she had anything worthwhile to contribute.

Then, she heard whispers building. 

“Hi, I’m Emma,” one of the whispers said, breaking through the low tone. 

Dreya looked around for her. It was easy to spot the introduction, beside Jay.

“Are you moving here to marry my aunt?” Emma asked.

Dreya’s cheeks felt hot.

“Your aunt?” Jay asked.

Emma had tons of aunts. Someone sitting at the family table was suspicious.

“No,” Jay replied. “I’m not moving here.”

“What about my uncle?”

“Not him either, sorry.”

Emma’s body raised itself then sagged in a huff of sorrow, “You don’t like it here?”

“I don’t know yet. So far it’s okay,” Jay replied. He didn’t seem enthused about her game.

Konrad did, because he finally spoke, “Which realms have you already checked for your brother?”

Konrad hated distraction. 

Emma was perfect for waking him from his contemplation.

“Noc Thui, Glavnaya, Ispitar, and Alder. Whole villages are disappearing in Ispitar and no one knows why. Alder has great ice skating. I don’t like Noc Thui.”

“You don’t?” She asked Jay.

Noc Thui was dark and mysterious and, on the back of her dragon through the mists of the mountains, was an enchanting and eerie place. She loved Noc Thui, even if it gave her chills to be there.

“What don’t you like about Noc Thui?” Konrad asked, because he had to have a formal question and was against modern socialization. Or she sucked at talking. It could have been the sucked at talking part.

Jay answered, looking more at her than Konrad, so she assumed her question format won as best, “There’s too many people from all over the place. It’s hard to keep track of everything. And they keep slaves. I don’t like anyone who keeps slaves, even if they’re nice besides that.”

She studied him, and wondered if he always saw the world in terms of the little pieces moving on it. She liked people too though, she noticed them, but the parts of Noc Thui with people were the parts she avoided because of who those people were. 

In a way, she didn’t like Noc Thui for the same reasons. She wished she could take him there and show him the other parts so that he could develop some positive feelings toward it. A realm wasn’t the sum of one place in it, or several, it was about the whole picture.

What was most impressive about Noc Thui was the way everything felt like a giant accident had taken place and it was all about surviving with what was left.

She wanted to examine the factors in the abandonment of the majority of the realm, but Orris had his mouth full and was talking, “I’m a slave.”

Orris had been a slave, but he wasn’t anymore. He was before he came there.

Spence reminded him of that.

“Doesn’t seem any different. Still have to get bossed around.”

Dreya laughed; being a child and being a slave were about the same except for the level of care. Unless you had a particular slave owner that loved you.

He had a point.

“That’s called Mommy and Daddy. Daddy and Daddy,” Olida said, her face skewed into a puzzle. She moved on, after a moment, “It’s like a game. You suck at playing it.”

“I want to play bricks. Not play school,” Orris said, his arms folded.

“Why don’t you play bricks at school?” Olida demanded an answer to.

Orris stuck his tongue out at her. 

Dreya could remember those sorts of arguments with Endy, her twin. She loved him though, so she felt confident that Orris and Olida would come back together with time. Now that they were fifteen, Endy was amazing. He gave her space when she wanted it but they made time to be together and do fun things; usually they did activities because Endy liked being active. They would go ice skating or dancing or play sports (usually sports). He liked winning, but only if she tried hard. They were endless competitors toward each other, except he cared and she only cared because of him.

It was fun though, to have a twin and someone you could just be yourself with. Endy could be himself and she would do the competition stuff and she could be herself and Endy would do the ice skating and the fancy popcorn drizzles and stuff.

There was sword training too. That was something she pushed with Endy because it was good for both of them. There was no weird tension between them like if Talise and Niels or Ach and Spence sword fought each other. They were just fighting and neither of them would die from an injury.

She wondered if Jay wanted that with his brothers, or if he even knew them that well. He had been travelling for so long. She couldn’t imagine being without Endy for a long period of time. She wanted to help him. She focused on the conversation more, so that she would know what skills of her own might be of use to the team. They talked about realms a bit more and some of the kids distracted the situation, and his eyes were really light blue and she liked them a lot, but finally they got to training.

Konrad asked, “What training have you had?”
“Training?” Jay repeated. “A lot of things. Augmentation of sword skills, different techniques from different people. Medicine and survival. It’s been pretty haphazard depending who I’m around.”

“Do you have any magics?”

“Not really. Something was done to make me better at everything and give me an instinct about fighting.”

Then everyone got warm and the room felt stuff and some people started finishing their lunches. It was more of an interrogation but she stuck it out while Jay talked about the Uumuntuu people in Ispitar and an implant he had. Konrad freaked out, the way statues freak out about birds sitting on them – which means she knew he cared but he didn’t show it.

The Uumuntuu had offered Jay a job, and he started talking about getting it removed because Aadya confirmed they  could be tracking him. Konrad was touching his sword more, so he wasn’t a statue anymore but was still anxious.

Dreya decided Ach was going to spill water if she didn’t interrupt, so she asked “Do you need any help? Finding your brother, not exactly the removing of things aspect. I mean, I can. But I probably would hurt you more than Zero.”

The room cooled as tensions shifted, except her dad who seemed even more upset that she was paying attention to Jay.

Jay really looked at her and she felt warmer.

“Sure,” he replied. He didn’t stop looking at her and she didn’t stop looking at him. 

She didnt know what to say, except, “I’m good at completing missions.”

She was, when missions meant delivering seeds to a village or working on a project or water crops for villagers or cooking a meal for Maelvish or a festival…

She wanted to be useful for Jay.

“Thanks. I’m not. I’ve been on the same.mission for six years.”

Laughing would have been rude, but the truth serum’s effectiveness was so evident.

“What will you do once you find him?” Dreya asked. 

“I don’t know,” he said. Then be smiled a little..she wasn’t sure why. “I haven’t figured that out yet.”

She wished she could talk to Endy and ask what the smile meant. Endy wasn’t there, but she could replay it by dragon magic.

While she wondered, Konrad spoke u0 again, “Are you removing the tracker? We have someone here who can take care of that for you.”

She wondered if he had a list of things he wanted to bring up and a separate list of things he wanted to revisit and where he kept the lists. He had a flawless memory.for things he cared about. 

Jay said he might, which to her meant he didn’t want to. Maybe she could find a way to give him cool magic like the dragon strength without the elixir. She was almost certain Talise had figured it out or maybe someone else. No matter what, she wanted to try. 

Their eyes locked again and she wanted to talk to him alone, about ways she could help him and a back way to giving him Dragon strength.

Then her dad asked what he knew about fairies. 

Jay said, “Yeah.”

“Yeah?” her dad repeated, but Jay still was looking at her and she tried not to warm the room. Maybe he could hear her thoughts like Uncle Nell or Uncle Konrad. She didn’t want him to know that she couldn’t stop looking at him, except he knew because he was looking at her too.

“That’s very specific,” her dad stated.

He looked away, toward her dad.

“Oh I didn’t realize you thought the truth serum worked that way. I’ve heard fairies are immortal and reclusive. The phuri seems to think we have an enemy in common.”

“Anything else?” her mom asked. 

Jay shook his head, with hair so short it didn’t move when he did, “I don’t think so.”

“Do you have an agenda against the fairies?” Konrad asked.

“No. Look, I’m just trying to find my brother. I’m not up to anything,” Jay said.

His tone was growing louder, and she tried to think promising thoughts like that they’re all nosey that need to know everything before they trust you.

“Have you been travelling alone?” her dad asked. 

Jay replied, “No, I’ve been moving between groups. Solitary travelers aren’t safe in a lot of realms.” Maybe he got it; they were just protective. 

“Do you have any other siblings or children? Or just the brother?” Her dad asked.

Jay stopped looking at her.

“Children? I’m only seventeen,” he replied. “And just one brother.”

Soren lifted Tsura from her arms, because she was starting to squirm more, and passed her to Nim who was on his other side, “Well I’m only sixteen and I have three, so you never know.”

Dreya’s skin warmed. She wasn’t sure if it was because Jay had stopped looking at her and she felt like the kids thing was her dad noticing that he had been looking at her, or if it was just because she had been holding a baby for most of the meal. She didn’t want kids yet. She was only fifteen. Some people had kids young, even her siblings, but she had plans. She already took tea, even though she didn’t have a boyfriend. She just figured it was easier to take bond tea and pregnancy-preventing tea at the same time, since they were right next to each other, than to have kids on accident.

She loved her nieces and nephews though.

Her skin was still warm, and Talise decided to add her own experience, “I’m eighteen with six and I’m pregnant.”

“You are?” Aadya asked.

Now Talise was warm and her skin was pinkish red. At least she wasn’t alone. She tried to cool down because there was no reason to have had that reaction. She glanced back at Jay, and he was looking at her but his eyes turned away the moment they met hers. Still, she smiled.

Talise looked at her food, “a little.”

It’s not like she should be embarrassed about it. She was the crown heir; it was her job to have lots of kids. If Dreya was the crown heir she would have reconsidered having kids young so that she could focus on ruling later. 

Her dad smirked, “You have twins; you can’t be a a little pregnant.”

The room was silent.

“I don’t have kids,” Dreya said.

It was one of the dumbest things she had ever said, because everyone in the room knew in an instant she was interested in Jay.

“You’re missing out,” Soren joked. She thought. Maybe he meant it. 

He looked at Nim, “Find me a miserable person with kids.”

“I know two,” Nim said.

Soren laughed a lot, her dad and almost everyone with kids laughed too. 

“How can you be miserable? Didn’t you break the sleep barrier yet?” Soren replied.

Her mom, however, didn’t laugh. She turned to Nim and Soren after a moment, “Do you need to leave right away? We could help you get some rest.”

“Yes, please.” Nim replied. She turned to Jay, “Can we leave not after lunch?”

This felt important, because even though she didn’t want kids this century she did want someone who was reasonable. Nim needed sleep and she needed to be sharp to work on this mission. If Dreya went with them, she knew she could help balance out the parents sleeping issue too. It would be useful.

“That’s fun,” Jay replied. We can stay as long as you need. The phuri didn’t give us a time limit.”

Looking for his brother for six years must have made the sense of urgency low. She couldn’t imagine Endy being missing for six years. Nim’s own brother had been gone for days and everyone was a little anxious about where he was, even though his dragon was currently sunbathing on a hammock Nell had strung between two of the legs that attached the palace the the sides of the rift.

“I bet they expected this too,” Nim stated.

Dreya wondered about the symmetry between Jay looking for his brother and finding Nim to help and Nim having a missing brother. If the person who had united them was prophetic, there was something to it.

She was pretty sure Konrad had the same idea since he had lots of ideas like that, so she decided to keep it to herself unless it became relevant.

Spence came back into the conversation and said, “Konrad’s an excellent trainer; I could work with you while you’re all here.”

Dreya wanted to know when Spence became someone who worked with people to train them. It was news to her, and a few other faces. Her mom and Talise and Ach and everyone who seemed to matter the most didn’t look surprised.

“I can try that,” Jay said. “What kind of martial art do you do here?”

“We practice winning,” Konrad stated.

Winning wasn’t exactly a type, but Konrad was always learning something new. Sometimes he helped her and Endy with training and new ways to compete; he was always studying something new to have a comprehensive understanding of potential enemies.

But really, they didn’t do martial arts, they did sword fighting and dragon flying.

Before anyone could add to Konrad’s statement, Nell came into the room with a round cake covered in blues and greens. 

“Did someone say they needed a birthday cake?” Nell announced. He set it down in front of Jay, the candles lit.

The lights went out, and Dreya saw a lizard slither from the lightswitch to the ground in the glow of the candlelight. 

“Birthday?” Jay asked.

“If it’s not your birthday you should stop thinking about it so loudly,” Nell stated before he began to sing in a voice most would only hear in an opera house.

She hoped Jay liked her home, because it seemed like Nell had decided he was part of the family now. She wondered what that meant for her future and if Nell knew how she felt, or Konrad, or anyone who had been at the table.

She could feel the bond wanting to exist. It was kept at bay by the tea, but it was a strong wave of impulse desiring to be set free. It was exciting, and so she sang too, and a dozen kids sang, and for a moment the worries of tomorrow and missing brothers and manipulated futures was gone.

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