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Kael smiled. It was rather remarkable because it wasn’t an egotistic smirk like the one she walked in on. It was real, and she wondered how long it had been since he’d smiled like that.
“Indeed, you are correct. Come with me.”
Sarah followed behind him as he left the office, hands still pinned behind his back like an officer, never at ease. They went toward a spiral staircase and began to ascend it.
“My daughter has kept to herself lately. She tends to prefer it.”
He spoke as they walked up a short set of stairs, then trailed down another hallway, which was a shimmering robin egg’s blue. There were no chandeliers on that floor.
“For how long?” Sarah asked.
“She was only seven when she lost her mother, so …”
Kael trailed off as they walked silently. Sarah understood the part he left unspoken. Suki had been keeping to herself for the two years since her mother’s death. Sarah felt her throat begin to burn with sympathy.
“It would make sense that she likes to be alone,” Sarah spoke up, speaking gently as they rounded another corridor. “It must have been a lot to lose a parent at such a young age.”
Kael nodded as they approached a door painted black. He then pulled out a golden key the color of his eyes and slid it into an Earth-style lock.
“Wait, is this her bedroom?” Sarah asked.
“It’s her own wing,” he replied. “Her mother used to do her spells in the attic one floor up.”
Sarah took note of the spells that he mentioned, recalling Suki had said something similar the first time they spoke. She had a lot more questions, but Kael clicked the lock and then swung the door open. It looked funny and strange to see him doing things in a human way. It was obvious that he hadn’t done it very often.
They stepped inside a large white space, the color of fading canvas. There were doors just like the one he’d unlocked, except they had padlocks on them. It gave Sarah an old asylum feel.
“Where is she?”
Kael pointed with his chin down the center of the room. There was a big window curved like the chapel one in his office. At the bottom of it, curled like a little baby calf, was Suki, lying on the cold, hard ground with a mere blanket to cushion her.
That was when Sarah and Kael locked eyes. There was profound shame and sorrow in him but also great love and eagerness to remedy what had gone wrong. The blending of it all made Sarah’s heart flutter.
“She sleeps in here?” Sarah whispered, rubbing her arms after sensing a draft.
“She does. She refuses to go back to her original bedroom, which is on the same floor as yours. This is where you will generally find her.”
They crept over to the child, who was sleeping rather soundly. In her resting state, Suki looked younger than she had the other day, but Sarah was sure that, out of all of the emotions living beings could experience, grief was the most complicated and distorting.
Even on alien planets.
They both watched as the little girl slept. Her slumber likely consisted of dreams about her life before, when her mother was home to care for her while her father defended their species and planet. It was likely wonderful and at least incredibly stable.
Sarah was in for a lot, but she was ready to take on whatever came her way.
SIX
KAEL
The monthly meeting with the higher-ranking Drakonian council took place the next day. At first, preparing for the meeting had been preferable to having to supervise Sarah’s adjustment to Suki.
Being reminded of Suki’s struggles over the past two years was all a bit of a headache for the Captain, who had grown weary of having to regurgitate his anguish over and over again, each time having to say it like dragging a rusty knife along the inside of his throat. It left an acidic taste in his mouth, that kind of grief.
It didn’t feel practical to him, rehashing it over and over. He didn’t want to show any form of weakness, even to the nanny, even for something that was universally relatable. The optics mattered. He had to be solid.
But then, he wasn’t a fan of having to present to the council either. Their politics often got in the way of his mission as a military leader. But they were a formality, and it wouldn’t look very proper of him if he missed out on any of the meetings, even though he was in favor of the King.
It was because he was in great favor of the King, as the leader of the King’s army, that it was even more prudent to be present. So he dressed in the morning, said goodbye to Suki, and reluctantly made his way there in his hover car.
