The Eki hummed. “Yes, I was informed about the hole in the exterior wall of your lodging—although, it seemssomeoneused their powers to repair it.”
Ugh.
While I was relieved Leeloo’s intel of yesterday’s adventure was limited to the structural damage we’d caused, I was still slightly embarrassed at being a bad houseguest.
“Yeah…” I rubbed the back of my neck. “I did my best, and I’ll fix the, uh, new hole when I get back…”
Leeloo belly laughed, and it was such ahumansound, I couldn’t help joining in.
“The little one certainly keeps you busy,” they murmured, gesturing for me to follow them through a bustling courtyard to a vacant table built from the same rock as everything else.
Wanting to talk in a common area was promising—unless they were planning a public execution. Banishing the morbid thought from my mind, I took one of the seats while Leeloo sat at the other. Another Eki appeared almost immediately with two steaming mugs ofsomethingin hand,and I realized we were seated at their version of an outdoor cafe. Several of the surrounding tables were occupied, mostly by couples or entire families, with everyone wearing the same glittering robes. I smiled when I spotted a pack of smaller Eki chasing each other around the courtyard while the adults talked, fascinated to see kid-versions of these mysterious aliens.
I wonder if they look like humans under there.
If they look like… me.
Even withmylack of a filter, I was aware this would be a rude question. For all I knew, the Eki wore robes for religious reasons, or because other species weren’t supposed to look at them.
“Do you have many visitors to Nuclei City?” I awkwardly asked, unsure how else to break the ice.
“No,” Leeloo bluntly replied, staring at me from the depths of their robe. “We do not allow outsiders in.”
Eek.
“Oh…” I trailed off, glancing around to find many of the Eki had stopped their conversations to watch ours instead. “Soooo… you don’t considerEarthlingsto be outsiders?”
Leeloo took a sip of their drink, but I left mine untouched, no longer feeling as confident about handling this alone as I had a few minutes ago.
Ziggy will know if I'm in trouble, right?
“The Eki and Earthlingsdohave a history together, yes…” Leeloo mused. “But you already know that, don’t you? From the cave paintings you discovered yesterday.”
My instincts were screaming at me to raise my shields, but there wasn’t really a point when this space wizard could dissolve them. Plus, I stubbornly wanted to continue this conversation in good faith, even if I was possibly about to be killed for my naivety.
I cleared my throat, noticing some Eki had stepped closer, watching our exchange like a pack of predators circling their prey. “Y-yeah, we saw some cave paintings,” I mumbled, tamping down the urge to unleash my mechanical tendrils in case I was attacked. “Pedro wandered down a lava tube, so we had to find?—”
“And how exactly did you find them, My-kuh?” Leeloo asked. “Or, should I say, how didZig-eelocate the Trol?”
Ah, fuck.
Now the space cat was out of the bag, and I assumed lying would only make things worse.
“Ziggy has a really good sense of smell,” I replied, which wasn’t a lie but also wasn’t the whole truth.
Because nowIdon’t know who to trust.
Leeloo stared at me in silence for a full minute before making an amused sound. “Isthathow you think yourpowerlessmate tracked down one of the most coveted creatures in the galaxy?”
Wait.
“What do you mean?” I muttered, frowning as my previous suspicions reared their ugly heads.
Ziggy doesn’t care about the stone…
Does he?
“You are correct,” the Eki continued, as if I hadn’t spoken. “Stellariansdohave an acute sense of smell.”
