The Dead Dove Locker -- "I don't know what I expected."

[Mamorien]

Princess of the Void.

“Lywa’s offer of assistance was genuine, Grantyde,” Narika says. “I am invested in your success. It’s why I’ve focused my efforts on places besides your wife’s doorstep. And it’s why now that Maekyon is finally in the crosshairs…” She holds a sheaf of typeset papers up to the camera. She’s had them spiral-bound, of course. “I’ve gotten my hands on this report. It’s quite incomplete, and I’m sure your people have much they’ve withheld. But my analysis concerns me. Deeply. I want to help.”

“Help how?”

“We could present some united front,” Narika says. “An alternate annexation strategy, like the one you employed on Eqtora. Last time you slipped it under the Raptors’ doors before they could pounce on it. This time I have no doubt they’ll be watching. I could muster my coterie to speak in support of you. A whole additional sector’s worth of voices. Or perhaps other resources. Or connections, or…”

She pauses. She’s never hesitated like this before in front of him.

“I don’t know,” she says. “I don’t know what you’re planning, where you are on this. But if you wanted to deal me in, I could help. I want to help.”

Forgotten How to Breathe

“Last time I trusted you, you nearly shivved my wife,” Grant says.

“But I didn’t.”

“But you were about to. And then you jetted off after we let you hold our kid, and I haven’t heard from you since. And I’m glad to see you. Sincerely. But I had to call you, Narika. And it’s not a social call.”

“Was that such a burden?”

“I meant to keep in touch,” he says. “I did. But my life has intertwined with three new ones, and the braid has bound me up so tightly that the time slipped through my fingers.” He exhales. “Shit, listen to me. I sound like a Princess.”

“You sound like a Prince.”

“I just feel like we were close to getting somewhere,” he says. “Like you wanted to be let in.”

“I have been truant, too,” Narika says. “But I’ve been doing a great deal of pondering. A great deal. I’ve been attempting to come up with some sort of… olive branch is the Maekyonite term, yes?”

“That’s right. You’re studying up, huh?”

“I don’t want to be at a disadvantage,” she says. “By the time my nieces and nephews are speaking, you’ll all be bilingual. Can’t fall behind.”

“I really, really, really, really want to believe you,” he says. “But I can’t just let you in now, when you suddenly decide that it’s time to be a real sister during the greatest crisis Sykora and I have faced.”

“That is the exact reason I have decided, Grantyde,” she says. “The division is no longer some aesthetic pastime. These consequences go beyond petty Princess games.”

“I have told you over and over that I want to know you,” Grant says. “But I still don’t. And I want to trust you on this, but I still can’t.” He shrugs resignedly. “I’m sorry, Narika.”

She recoils from the word. He sees, but doesn’t retract it.

“How do I earn it, then?” she asks.

“I don’t know,” he says. “Last time I was in this position, I hit someone with Compound Seventy and felt fucking rotten about it for a few cycles. And I don’t suppose you’d be willing to go that route.”

She shakes her head. “I will not put myself at you and your wife’s mercy in that way.”

“All right,” he says.

They stare impassively at one another for a few moments, as if waiting for the other to speak.

“All right,” she echoes, finally. “I’ve simply missed the window. I can accept that.”

“You haven’t missed it,” he says. “You’ve come at a time it’s boarded up for a storm. On the other side of this, Narika. I promise. I can call you every tenday and bombard you with baby pictures, if that’s what it takes.”

“So what now, then?”

“Now I guess I keep an eye on you,” Grant says. “And hope that one of us comes up with a way to fix it.”

“Ask your people for something called a collateral infortunity report,” she says. “They’ll tell you it isn’t ready. Insist.”

His expression darkens. “You want me afraid.”

“I want you informed.” She steeples her fingers. “I want you to know what annexing Maekyon means.”

“You think I don’t?” The lines of his frown sharpen. “You think I haven’t thought about this constantly already and that it hasn’t kept me up at night? I’m taking Maekyon because if I don’t, then what? Then some other Void Princess does. Maybe Dantia, maybe you. Maybe that’s what you want.”

“Do what you have to,” she says. “But the Grantyde I first met—the Grantyde I admire—I wonder, if you went back in time and presented this future to him, whether he’d recognize himself within it.”

“That guy was way out of his depth,” Grant says. “That guy wasn’t a father, and he wasn’t a Prince. Put him here and he’d drown. I’ve learned how to swim.”

“Perhaps you have.” She leans forward into the camera. “Or perhaps you’ve simply forgotten how to breathe, and your lungs haven’t started burning yet.”

He looks past her—at whatever camera he’s using, presumably. “Bye, Narika,” he says.

The screen goes blank.

Narika sits back from her console and sighs. She places her face in her hands.

https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/120617...to-breathe
https://www.scribblehub.com/read/1419041...r/2464470/

The Greenfield Family.

Hitting the Fan

This is where the proverbial shit hits the fan. Dana has been going about in a state of determined denial and blissful oblivion about what has been going on for a while now. But what is she going to do when the proof is presented right in front of her eyes and denial is no longer possible?

And what will happen when she starts telling others about it? How will Rick deal with the news of what his kids have been doing?

Meanwhile, we've seen Keiko becoming happier as she distances herself from Barry, but is Barry going to let go so easily? Does he have another card to play? And how will Keiko respond when he does? Will it be the final straw that tips her over the line into another forbidden impulse that she's been fighting?

https://storiesonline.net/n/52852/the-gr...-family/40