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“How so?” Khoth asked.
“The city… it’s not right.” Jace gestured to the city. “There are so many things broken. And I can fix them. That’s what is hurting my head. It’s like when I first connected with the Osiris to bring Metal Rain.”
“You can fix what is wrong?” Khoth lifted his eyebrows.
“Yeah.” Jace scrubbed the back of his head.
“Of course, you are an Altaeth and have the Osiris,” Khoth murmured.
He glanced over at where Typhon, Davies, Hayter and Thadden stood by the windows and looked out. They had started to descend to the landing pad on the top of the ziggurat.
“Yeah, I think… well, there’s like a symbiosis between me and the city’s tech. All of it. I can feel the broken lines, the dark machines, the mis-powering fields. It… well, it hurts,” Jace admitted. “But I can’t just start fixing things, right? That would totally freak people out.”
He looked up at Khoth again as if to confirm he couldn’t just do that. He’d only asked the Osiris for a report. It didn’t mean he was going to start running down and fixing what was wrong! They didn’t have time for that. His head throbbed as the canceaux landed.
“I am certain that Typhon would happily allow you to fix anything you like,” Khoth said a little dryly.
Jace cough-laughed. “Yeah, well, it might help me get some of this out of my system. Not that I want to help him, mind you, because I so don’t! But…” He rubbed his temples as there was a stabbing pain there.
Khoth looked concerned and touched his lower back briefly. “If it makes you feel better, do it. Care not if it helps or hinders him. Do what is best for you.”
“Thanks. I needed to hear that,” Jace said.
The door hissed as it opened and it lifted upwards. The stairs lowered. Typhon stepped outside first. There was half a dozen Thaf’ell waiting for them on the landing pad. One was a handsome female Thaf’ell whose bone structure looked suspiciously like Typhon’s.
She wore the dark blue robes, but hers had cut outs along her sides, shoulders and stomach, showing the Thaf’ell’s lovely blue skin. Her white hair had many of the same selchitte as Typhon, but she’d also wound flowers that glowed with an almost luminescent fire into braided sections of her hair. Dark blue lipstick was applied to a center stripe of her lips and the same shade darkened her eyelids.
Typhon went to her immediately. They clasped hands and rested their foreheads together. This show of physical affection was surprising. Thaf’ell didn’t do that. Yet when they broke apart, both were smiling and appeared almost refreshed from being in each other’s presence.
“That is Arana, Typhon’s younger sister. She is a musician and poet. Well renowned on Haseon,” Khoth murmured.
It was unnecessary because the Osiris provided him with that and a lot more information. But Jace liked to know how Khoth viewed things. There were more than cold facts and figures in Khoth’s descriptions.
“Do you like her?” Jace asked.
“She is highly intelligent, and though a poet and musician, she keeps her Xi and Xa mostly in balance,” Khoth answered
“Oh, high praise.” Jace’s lips twitched.
As they watched the continued communing between brother and sister, Khoth shifted slightly uncomfortably.
“Poets and musicians are allowed to be… more effusive in their physical display of Xi,” Khoth explained with a slight stiffness.
“Oh, right, yeah, that makes sense. Thammah said she came from a family of artists and stuff,” Jace remembered.
“Indeed, that is why she is so…” Khoth struggled to find the right words.
“Open? Warm? Honest?” Jace offered.
“I am honest!” Khoth looked a little stung.
“Oh, I didn’t mean… I meant about what she feels and what she thinks we’re feeling and why,” Jace soothed.
Looking slightly mollified, Khoth nodded, “Yes, I understand your description better now.”
“Good. But you know I think you’re the best, right?” Jace whispered into the cusp of Khoth’s nearest ear.
That ear twitched. “I was unaware of that extreme level of high regard.”
