Chapter 94: A talk

Kai woke to morning light and the quiet of a room. For a second the Astral Interface interaction clung to him like glue and the words "ten pillars" and "unfinished design" sat heavily behind his eyes. Then he registered the other presence in the room and sat up too fast.

Ayan was near the window.

He looked Incredibly trobuled as usual. His bandaged arm was held close to his side and his hair was slightly messy and his expression carried that familiar mix of readiness to leave and refusal to do it. When he saw Kai was awake he straightened a little.

"You were out for a while," Ayan said.

Kai rubbed both hands over his face and let out a slow breath.

"How long have you been standing there?"

"Long enough to argue with myself about whether this was a bad idea."

Well, it probably is.

"And?"

"It is probably still a bad idea."

You got that right!

Ayan then glanced at the door and then back at him. "I came anyway."

Kai studied him for a moment. The last real image he had of Ayan was the corridor outside Elias’s room and the slap and the vulgar thanks and the quiet decision that followed it. Seeing him now in daylight made the whole thing feel strangely unfinished.

An issue that was rightfully needed to be addressed.

"If this is about yesterday morning," Kai said, "I do not need the details."

Ayan’s mouth tightened.

"That is not the only reason I came."

He hesitated, then pushed on before he could lose the nerve.

"I also want to tell you, you are not alone."

Kai’s shoulders stiffened.

"I never said i was."

"I understand, but i am here if you need me" he said in an akward manner.

Kai gave a humorless breath and swung his legs out of bed.

"Thanks but no thanks"

Ayan watched him carefully

"Do you feel better? Was the beating necessary?"

That landed closer than Kai liked. He stood, crossed to the side table, and poured water he did not particularly want just to have something to do with his hands.

"It felt necessary," he said. "Then it felt ugly. Then it felt like I had put all the pressure of too many people wanting too much from me into one man’s face."

Ayan was quiet for a few seconds.

"And Elias?"

Kai looked at him over the rim of the cup.

"What about Elias?"

Ayan’s ears colored faintly, but he did not look away this time.

"You saw us."

"I did."

"I am not going to pretend it was nothing," Ayan said. "He was angry. I was... available in the wrong way. It happened. I am not asking you to like it."

Kai set the cup down.

"I do not need to like it. I also do not need to own it. Whatever happened between the two of you belongs to the two of you."

Ayan blinked, clearly having expected more heat than that.

"You are not angry?"

"I am tired," Kai said. "There is a difference."

He leaned back against the table and finally took a real look at Ayan, at the tension in his posture and the way he still seemed braced for rejection even while standing in the middle of the room.

"Why are you actually here?"

Ayan’s throat moved.

"Because I keep ending up near people who can destroy me by accident, and you are the only one who looked at me like I was still a person after the warehouse. Even when you were disappointed. I feel like i lost my connection with you"

Kai did not confirm the loss. Ayan was not supposed to understand the System, and Kai was not about to explain that he had removed him from a list the other man did not know existed.

Instead he asked, "Are you staying in Eldoria?"

"For now," Ayan said. "I do not have a better direction that is not suicidal."

"And Elias?"

Ayan let out a short breath that was almost a laugh.

"Elias is... Elias. He takes what he wants when the pressure is high and does not always check what it costs the other person. I am not confused about that."

"Good," Kai said. "Do not get confused about it."

Ayan nodded once. Some of the stiffness in his shoulders eased, not completely, but enough to make him look less like he was waiting for a blow.

"For what it is worth," Ayan said more quietly, "Lucien did not look angry after. He looked like someone who had decided the beating was an acceptable price."

Kai’s jaw tightened.

"That is not a standard I asked for."

"I know." Ayan hesitated again.

Kai looked away.

"You should go before someone sees you in here and starts the next round of palace storytelling."

Ayan almost smiled.

"That is probably true, palace gossips...am i right?"

Kai nodded simply refusing to over acknowledge the joke .

Ayan walked to the door, paused with his hand on the frame, and glanced back once.

"I am glad you woke up."

Then he left, and the room settled into silence around the soft click of the closing door.

Kai stood alone for a few seconds and let the quiet return. The talk had not fixed anything large. It had only placed a few crooked pieces nearer to honest positions. Elias remained a problem. Lucien remained a wound with a pulse. Ayan remained a frayed edge. And underneath all of it the System’s warnings still sat like stone.

He had just started toward the wash basin when the sound came.

A knock.

Not at the door.

At the balcony.

Kai turned sharply. The curtain shifted in the morning air, and through the gap he could see the outline of a figure beyond the rail, composed and patient as if arriving by balcony were ordinary.

The System spoke at once.

[Alert. External presence detected.]

[Energy signature similarity confirmed.]

[Match proximity: Candidate 005, Aster Ludacris.]

Kai’s blood ran cold.

He crossed the room, pulled the curtain aside, and found himself staring at the exact man the warning had named.

Aster Ludacris stood on the balcony as if the floating height of Eldoria meant nothing, coat neat, posture easy, expression mildly interested and completely unsurprised to find Kai looking back at him.

"Good morning," Aster said. ℴ

Kai’s hand tightened on the curtain hardly.

Of all the people who could have followed him into the sky, it had to be the Chairman.