Page 33 of Family Found

“That’s what the honey said to the fly.”

He headed out of the room, and I picked up my pace to keep up. We went down the hallway, then took a left. I was pretty sure that was the opposite direction from how Inkiri and I had gotten here last night.

“You haven’t had your coffee today, have you?”

“No, because I’ve been hopping back and forth between the veils, and I don’t have a mate who does everything for me.”

“Well, sorry about getting mated off by some magic stone.” I reached for his hand. “Is…is Kinnek going to be okay? With Aragis?”

Vergis deflated faster than the tent I’d once tried to set up when I was in fifth grade. “I guess.” He licked his lips. “He wants to take him back to Earth. Back home.”

I nodded like this was news. I didn’t want him to feel as if I were spying on him. “Isn’t that, like, good? I mean, your place is pretty safe, and quiet, and that kind of environment is probably what Aragis needs now, right? With what he’s been through. Not that I can even begin to know what he’s been through at all. You could show him your rooftop man cave.”

Vergis shrugged. “I guess.”

“It’s a nice man cave, Vergis.”

“It’s not a man cave.”

I snorted. “Whatever.”

He gave me a sideways look. “How would you even know what a man cave is?”

I opened my mouth, then closed it. “I mean, I watch things. I used to, at any rate. I’ve seen man caves.”

He cackled. “Wow. Your worldly wisdom is impressive.”

“Excuse me, but everything just sort of took a bad turn before I could get some.”

His cackling intensified, and I went the specific shade of cooked billet beans. Why did we turn colorful when we were embarrassed? Why were humans not more like octopi, who had camouflage? I’d have loved to become one with the background right about now.

“Get some wisdom, I mean! That’s all I meant.”

He snorted. “Oh yeah. Everyone wants to get some long, girthy wisdom these days.”

My cheeks were getting hot enough to cook pancakes on. “There are kids here.”

“They don’t speak human.”

“Well, some of them are learning.”

“That’s too bad.”

“Do you have to be this negative?”

“Absolutely. We’re here.”

We’d come to a part of the Raiken that was similar to the garden outside the baths, only here, the garden was actually used to hang up the washed clothes to dry.

I spotted plenty of Raikengana wearing different colors, either hanging the clothes or carrying them back to a set of rooms on our right in baskets much like the ones we’d placed them in.

I looked around. “Does everyone do shifts here?” A copper-clad bagu draping some black protector pants over the clothesline looked up from his work curiously.

“I guess so. It’s not like I know how this place works. I never went here.”

“Right.”

I followed Vergis into the room on the right. There were lots of tables here, all of them high enough to work at while standing. The ceiling was vaulted and echoey, and I wondered whether this place had always been the laundry or whether the mages of long ago had mixed their magic potions here. A taupe-clad maker came over when he saw Vergis and me, and they talked.