Rising Shards

Caya felt a headache coming on. At least the students in her immediate sight were returned home and accounted for, but one wasn’t. And that one was 09, who was her niece, and who was on a mission for Caya until she apparently decided to join the students from Wildfire Hearts she was supposed to tail.

Bright side. Maybe she’s just taking the mission to an extreme I hadn’t intended. I had told her to follow them, and she did, and…

Caya sighed. She knew rationalizing it wouldn’t help. There were a lot of worst-case scenarios that now were much more likely than before. She knew the risks of sending a student in like this, but 09 had been adamant about all of it in a way that had Caya more confident this could work out. Aira Orbis was still a secret contact within the group, but if they were headed further into the void with unaccounted for Endoran adults, hearing from her comms would be much less likely. Again, a lot of worst-case scenarios were clear in Caya’s mind. Situations like this sadly weren’t rare for Cani schools, there were many other teachers dealing with similar situations with their own students around the world, but Caya prided herself on avoiding them. She was cautious, and relied on herself to fix things rather than roping students in.

09 is family, though, so maybe that blinded me.

“You know, boo, it’s not good for your forehead skin when you scowl like that. It’s a forehead sin, heh. I do have some cream I’m sponsored by that is good for all wrinkled up skin if you want some tubs.” Kitty said. ”It’s not actually good but I have to tell everyone it is or I don’t! Get! Paid!”

Another reason for a headache caused by technical family: Kitty Kilander had come home with. And while a group of Novu elite were arguing with Berin and Penteldtam (the latter who Caya felt was taking his daughter’s absence too well to a frightening degree) that the princess Rain Adagio should be returned to Rising Shards, Caya was stuck with Kitty to try and hash some things out between Rising Shards and Wildfire Hearts. The two were in Caya’s office. Kitty was sitting at Caya’s desk, putzing around with her computer, papers, and any small items that caught her eye within her short attention span. Caya was pacing in front of the desk, knowing that giving Kitty attention for whatever she was doing would encourage her to do more.

“We need to figure something out here,” Caya said. “Four of your students are unaccounted for, one of mine as well…Novu’s here, and I doubt they’re letting you keep Adagio.”

“Yeah, and this could mess with my student collecting for Wildfire Hearts,” Kitty pouted.

“Are the students you raided even integrating well at Wildfire Hearts?” Caya asked. “Well, outside of the ones who left with 09.”

“And only two of those were ones I picked…” Kitty said. “The others…hmm. My lil trio’s doing pretty good, I guess. Elisa keeps asking me to meet Osiris, which, yuck, you know? Chellsi and Mikeila-Keila are good minions. Honk.”

“And the others?” Caya asked.

Kitty responded by trying to balance a pencil on her nose.

“You don’t even remember the others, do you?” Caya asked.

Kitty shrugged.

“Well, I do. Rain Adagio, who again, I believe is returning to Rising Shards imminently if the legal team of Novu has their way. And Nikki Maerin, who going by attendance reports, has been skipping classes at your school more than not.”

“I genuinely don’t remember ever recruiting a ‘Nikki,’” Kitty said. “You sure you got that name right? I could maybe see a Blitsky?”

“I also notice from the attendance reports that you yourself have barely been there for classes you were scheduled to teach.” Caya said. “So I assume you’re bored of this already.”

Kitty spun her chair around. “Why did they let you see all these reports? Should they be under the, er, the Wildfire Hearts thing or whatever?”

“I can be very persuasive, even to Wildfire Hearts.” Caya said. “And since you’re bored, and I know you tend to abruptly leave when you’re bored, so I’ll make my pitch quick and concise. Recreant Protocol.”

Kitty’s eyebrows raised, and she put down the pencil and handful of paperclips in her hands after Caya finally had her attention.

“I’m listening,” Kitty said. “And you are glistening from all the sweat from clenching your forehead so hard, something that can easily be fixed with this cream that—”

“I don’t expect you to have all your terms laid out now,” Caya said. “But I want my raided students back.”

“Hmmm,” Kitty said. “I’m gonna have to come up with some really good terms if I’m gonna do a for reaslies Recreant Protocol. That may take me a while, you know. Genius takes time.”

“I’ll give you two days max.” Caya said.

“Then fine,” Kitty said. “I’ll give you two weeks before we have our little shindig.”

Caya gritted her teeth. That wouldn’t be much time to prepare any students for the fights involved with the Recreant Protocol. They’d need more time to heal from their injuries as well.

”I’ll need a bit more time than that,” Caya said.

”Oh, so I have to get my terms and conditions figured out in two days but you need more time? That doesn’t seem vewy faiw.”

”Stop doing that.” Caya said.

”But fine,” Kitty said, continuing on as if Caya hadn’t said anything. ”I have some real losers at fighting in my group so I could use some time to beefen them up too, yeesh. End of semester work?”

“Perfect. Name the date and my students will be ready.” Caya said. “One more thing.”

“Oohhhh?” Kitty said. “Wuzzat, Caya?”

“One of the fights will be me against you.” Caya said.

Kitty giggled. “Oh, I’d love that. We haven’t had a good spar in too long. That little taste at Spero has me thirsty for more.” She twirled her hair around her fingers as she apparently daydreamed about the upcoming fight.

“Perfect,” Caya said. “Anything else you want to say now, or are you ready to put my office supplies down and mull over some stipulations? Maybe some candidates? Or maybe it’s time to start mentally prepping how it’ll feel for one of Haven’s top champions to lose to me in a one-on-one fight. Again.”

Kitty grinned. She rose and approached Caya with fire in her heterochromatic eyes. “I adore when you get feisty, Caya. Really sets my competitive side into high gear.”

“You’ll need that high gear,” Caya said. “You’ll need all the help you can get against me.”

Caya offered her hand. Not that Kitty wouldn’t renege on a handshake agreement, Caya just needed some slight indication that this would actually happen. Kitty considered it for a few seconds, blinking and making the weird noises she always made before shaking. She bumped shoulders with Caya as she walked away.

“I think this was a very fruitful chat, wouldn’t you agree?” Kitty asked.

“We’ll see about that in about a month, I suppose.” Caya said.

“Ha!” Kitty said. ”You’re lucky you got me and not The Exile. I’m a lot more agreeable than they are, you know.”

”I’m not afraid of them, either. I’d get what I wanted just the same from them.” Caya said.

”I’m sure,” Kitty said. “One more thing.”

“What?” Caya asked.

“If I were to say, retrieve some or all of those students that left with our mysterious new Endoran friends…would you and your combat expertise be willing to help?” Kitty asked. “If you say yes, keep in mind I’m using those students for our Recreant Protocol fights. Which may screw you over.”

Caya sat back down at her desk, trying to not give any indication that she was incredibly annoyed that Kitty had somehow moved so much of her things around in such a short time. Instead, she focused on the pleasant thought of a quick resolution to the missing students from Rising Shards and Wildfire Hearts.

“Name the date,” Caya said. “And I’ll be there.”