"I can see if he is available."
13
"And why am I doing this?" Stron asked.
"Because you were asked to," Khalzin said. The wind swirled around them, and while the shields on either side of the walkway were intact, the open-air overhead flew by, bringing the aromas of the outside.
Including the lingering smell of smoke.
Khalzin had not been down to the wreckage again, so it surprised him he could still smell the burning and the smoke in the air. Was the damage so much more extensive than he realized?
Stron shifted from one foot to the other. "I don't think that you have a higher rank than me."
Khalzin shrugged. "All the more reason to remember you were asked, not ordered, to come."
"I suppose." Stron's family was positioned a little higher in the scheme of things, and he rarely brought it up in seriousness unless he was complaining about something.
Khalzin raised his eyebrow. It was funny because his friend was dressed very formally for the tour.
Especially since he didn't want to be there. Khalzin didn't doubt his friend's commitment to his promise, but he did wonder if his friend regretted agreeing to participate in this project.
Though honestly, this project turned out to be a lot more taxing than it was initially assumed to be.
Khalzin yawned.
Sleep had not come easily last night.
"Not enough sleep?" Stron asked.
"No more than usual."
After kissing Janae, desire bloomed in him, and he wanted nothing more than to continue for all the hours of the night, but she had retired to her room and had not invited him to join her. She had insisted that she was well but that she was nervous.
There was nothing he could do about that if she carried fear and worry about their coming together. He would not push it. They would come together in their due time. It would go together if that were a short time away or a long while.
When he finally did get some sleep, he dreamed of Janae on the streets, trapped. And he could not save her.
So, he preferred his time awake to the dreams.
"Then who has kept your bed warm beforeshegot here?"
Khalzin raised his eyebrow. "I meant that I sleep no better with her now in residence than before." He waved his hand. "You know I do not have frivolous relations."
Stron shrugged. "There is nothing that says one cannot. Even during Courtship."
"That is a broad interpretation of the tradition."
Stron shrugged. "Broad interpretations are what I survive on."
"If you do not plan to commit to this proposition fully, tell me now, and I will find someone else."
"I doubt you could. One gone. Two bombings? Even the friends of a Gol-Vett cannot expect them to sacrifice themselves for a science experiment."
"If you are not interested in participating," Khalzin said again, "Then please walk away. I do not need more failures in this project. My father is watching in earnest for a failure on my part."
Stron groaned. "How bad?"
"He reached out yesterday to inform me that there was no shame in admitting failure in the project to the Coalition."
