“Kaelion.” She exhales, her voice softening. “I’m not trying to fight with you. Wulfric means well. He’s just…learning what it means to be part of a family that already existed before him.”
I force my shoulders to relax. “And I’m still learning how to share a family I didn’t expect to have.”
Her eyes lift toward me again, and for a second, the cool distance between us thins. We were never lovers, not in any meaningful way, but there was once mutual respect. A shared sense of duty.
That feels like a very long time ago now.
“Then we’ll both try to be gracious,” she says. “You’ll have Solvi for the summer, as planned. I’ll remind Wulfric that worrying doesn’t change the universe.”
“Good,” I say quietly.
She smiles again—real this time, none of the polite nonsense from earlier. “You sound like your daughter when she wins an argument.”
“I wonder where she gets it.”
She cocks her head at me, brow furrowed. “Kaelion,” she says gently. “Do you think you'll ever find your own destined mate?—”
Her question is interrupted by a loud voice from outside the office. “Mata! Is that Baba?!”
“Solvi,” Shahar says, smiling as she glances over her shoulder. “Yes, come say hello.”
The screen jolts as a small figure climbs into view—electric yellow tendrils whipping around excitably, her lavender cheeks flushed pink. Solvi is that strange age now where she’s not quite a child, but not quite grown: too tall to need protection,too small to be set loose on the world. She’s approaching her twelfth journey around M’mir’s sun, her own person in ways that surprise and delight me every day.
“Solvi,” I say. “Mata tells me you’ve been drawing.”
“Every day,” she says. “Have you arranged for time to take me to art stacks at the Grand Library? I’ve been doing some extraweb searches and discovered another place to visit where the humans have animated movies from before the Convergence?—”
“Your Baba has to work,” Shahar says—but she’s smiling, nudging Solvi gently. “Remember not to distract him too much.”
“She’s right, though,” I say. I let my eyes wander up toward the door, where I can see Lyn still crouched over her work station. “My supervisees can survive without me for a few days.”
I hope.
“The art stacks first,” Solvi says. “Then movies, then…then I want to go to the noodle restaurant in Mythara Village.”
“You remember the noodle place?”
Solvi rolls her eyes with a level of drama that feels downright offensive. This, too, delights me. “Baba, I’m not a baby anymore—and I wasjust thereat Luminara?—”
“Enough of your attitude,” Shahar chides, laughing. “Let me finish talking to Baba so we can finish packing your things, alright?”
Solvi beams. “You always say that, Mata, but youlovemy attitude.”
“True,” Shahar admits under her breath. “But your Baba’s patience is thinner than mine.”
“That’s not true,” I protest. “I haveinfinitepatience for my favorite daughter.”
“I’m your only daughter,” Solvi frowns.
“That’s right,” I tell her.
She stares at the camera for a moment, likely wondering if I’m making fun of her.
Then she flicks her tendrils and tosses her head.
“I’m going to pack more sketch books,” she says. “See you soon, Baba. Love you.”
“Love you too,” I murmur.
