“Well, then I'm very happy for you.” She sighed and looked at Janae. Really looked at her. There was a shine there that wasn’t before. Something different about the sparkle in her eye—a shine she’d never seen before in her. “I just want you to be happy. If this Kantenan makes you happy, then I'm all for it. But if he doesn't, you know that I'll let him have it.”
Janae laughed. “I'll warn him. Though I think it will be okay. He has been quite respectful so far. It's been a bizarre journey.” She waved her hand. “How is it going for you? Is there someone running this now? Like who's in charge?”
“No one I know. It didn't register how isolated we were from the rest of the ship and the crew until now. Faces I don't recognize are working with the Kantenans to organize everything since Graecey is gone.”
Janae sipped on the tea she was drinking. “What are you doing to make sure you're protected?”
“We have to check in daily. We're supposed to stay in our facilities in the areas that are secured only. No exploring or anything without permission or escorts.”
“Well, that sounds boring.”
“Were you escorted down here?”
“Yes, I was, actually. Khalzin is a prince of some sort. Like there's these family houses, and he's one of the sons of the leaders, so they treat him like royalty. But not in a good way. There's always guards around watching, and we're never really alone. At least now they're outside his apartment.”
“Ugh. That sounds awful. I think I'd rather be quarantined. At least I don't have strangers around.”
“I am not used to it yet, but I guess I will get accustomed to it eventually.”
“You'll find your groove, I imagine,” Adryel said.
“I hope so.” Outside, the smoke was billowing into the air in puffs. “Look at all that smoke,” she said.
“I know. It keeps burning. It's like they can't seem to put out the fire. Or they do, and another one starts.” Adryel crossed her arms. “I don't envy them trying to figure this out.”
“I feel so bad. One of Khalzin's best friends went down with the passengers over the edge. He caught me before, when the platform started to tilt.”
“I remember seeing that. He fell off? That's terrible. Will they go down and recover everyone?”
“I assume so, but I’m not sure.” Janae looked at her friend. “I'm so glad you weren't on that platform when it tilted.”
“I'm sorry that you were,” Adryel said. “I'm glad you weren't hurt worse.”
“Just sore, but nothing that I couldn't deal with.”
Adryel broke the silence. “So, tell me something, has Khalzin told you anything about his friend?”
“Which one?”
“The one that was with him when you found me.”
Janae shook her head. “I don't remember who it was.”
“Huh,” she said. She wondered how many friends that Khalzin had, if Janae didn’t know who she meant. Was she going to tell her?
Nope.
“Look out the window again, at the smoke.”
The smoke came up in bursts and waves. It would break up and then be solid and break again.
“What is making it do that?”
“Wind maybe?” Adryel said. “That's the best I can figure. We're high up. There could be one of those drones down there working, too.”
Janae nodded. “If it was important someone would have noticed it.”
“Probably.”
