Chapter Seven
***Kyllian***
Kyllian had not slept all night because he had been thinking about Thomas and Savanah. He had been thinking about the awful ordeal that woman had gone through only to be sent away by his father, who not only had the power but should have had the heart to stop it from happening again. Nothing had felt right since he had gotten the summons from his father, and he wanted so badly just to go home to his mother. He didn’t get why he needed to be here, with his father trying to brainwash him into hating an entire piece of himself. He would never give that up, not even for some lobotomy his father had threatened to have done. But on the other hand, he couldn’t leave. He couldn’t leave, because he felt that there was work for him to do here. There was something he was needed for that he couldn’t see yet, and it wasn't for more inventions.
The more Kyllian thought about it, the more he realized something was very wrong with Delti Utopia 6. That some corruption was clearly occurring, and he couldn’t decide whether his father was directly involved or possibly a pawn in all of it. Either way, Kyllian couldn’t help but think, in the darkest parts if his mind, that the man deserved it for abandoning his family for prejudice and money. He should be locked up in his castle alone. What kind of a life was that, anyway?
Kyllian wanted answers, one way or another, and the only way to get them was to either track down Savanah and try again to get information from her or to confront his father. Part of him was afraid that both options were futile.
He looked out the window into the bright and shining world of the planet he was now on. It was an aching unfamiliarity that settled inside him, and he felt like he was alone. A planet that got its name as a social paradise shouldn’t have felt like that. He knew that there were plenty of other Nagas scattered on the planet, as well as other races. There would be aliens and humans alike of all kinds, and yet it felt like he was an outsider in a place full of outsiders.
He sighed and shook his head, knowing part of it was missing his mother. He didn’t know if he dared to contact her in this house, but he felt like he needed her right now.
He had recalled seeing an old COM link system down in the servants’ quarters. Since Thomas didn’t keep any servants around other than the droids, he wasn’t sure if it would work, but it was worth a try. Not that he couldn’t fix the dusty old thing if he needed to.
He went down there and turned it on, finding it more than a little strange he had yet to see his father at all. What did he spend his days doing?
He leaned over to blow the dust off all of it and tried to remember the controls to this older system. It was much more complicated than the ones he was used to.
Eventually, he got it going, and the screen came to life, showing the beautiful, smiling face of the woman who raised him. “Kyllian, I didn’t expect to hear from you so soon!” she exclaimed, clearly happy to hear from him. The grainy video made her look more tired and aged than he remembered, and it took everything in him not to just tell her he was done with this ruse and was coming home.
“I just wanted to see your face and hear your voice. It is strange being so far from home,” Kyllian told her with a sad smile.
“Oh, you are always my little boy, aren’t you? I miss you too. How is your father? Are you getting along?”
How was he going to tell her the truth at the same time not worrying her? She didn’t need to know about Savanah’s visit or about the man’s threat to do a surgery on his brain to make him forget about the part of him that was most important. But he also couldn’t look the woman in the eye and tell her everything was fine.
He shook his head. “We have had a fight already. I don’t exactly agree with his views about what I am, or the way things go here. I can’t lie to you and say it’s going well when it isn’t, but I will be fine. He seems to be a lot of bark and no bite,” I told her, satisfied with my ability to tell the truth and still leave some things out that would upset her.
“Well, I couldn’t imagine that it would be easy for either of you after all these years. You’re practically a grown man and just now meeting your father, and he probably expected a pliable boy. I have faith that both of you will learn to meet in the middle. And who knows, maybe one day the man I once knew will come back to us because of your presence. If not, you can always come home.”
Kyllian nodded, feeling emotional at her offer. Of course, he could always come home, but he didn’t feel like he should until he did something beneficial with his time there, and he hated to say it, but that wasn’t going to involve getting his parents back together. Even if the man she had known had existed, he was long gone now.
“I appreciate it, Mom. I will do my best. But I am not going to let him belittle what we are,” he added to be clear with her.
She nodded. “No, I know. I wouldn’t expect you to. I don’t want you to think it doesn’t hurt me that he hated what we were and thought we were less, even if it was taught to him. I don’t excuse his behavior, but I am just trying to tell you that he has the potential to not be that way anymore: to be a good man.”
That was a novel idea to Kyllian, but he wasn’t going to argue with his mother when she was so far away and clinging onto this same idea that he would just want a family suddenly after all these years. Kyllian knew there had to be more of a reason why he was here, and he got the feeling with all the drama he would get the answer as to why rather soon.
“I hope you are right. I have a healthy level of skepticism. Are you doing well, Mom?” he asked her.
“Other than missing you, I am fine. Don’t you worry about me.”
Kyllian was distracted by the sound of his name being hollered through the echoing marble walls, and he turned back to his mother, knowing it was time to let her go.
“I will try, but it’s not easy,” Kyllian teased a little. “He’s calling me, so I need to go. I will call you again when I can. Take care, Mom.” Kyllian hung up before Thomas came down there to find him on COM link with his mother. He didn’t think that would go well right now.
He shut it all down and followed the sound of his father’s voice until he found him and looked at him strangely as he had gone red in the face simply yelling for him like a madman. “What is it, Thomas? Why didn’t you just have one of your freaky droids come find me?” he asked in annoyance.
“My grandparents are not for menial tasks like finding you. You should come when I call. Didn’t your mother teach you that much?”
Kyllian had heard enough. “No, I am not to be trained like a dog. Now, would you get on with what you want from me because we have other matters to discuss? I have some questions for you that I plan on getting an answer to whether you like it or not.”
“I am sick and tired of your lack of respect for me. Whether I was there to raise you or not, you must have some semblance of the right way to behave. All I can think is that your mother has let that awful part of you run rampant; you’ve become more of an animal than a man. Well, we are going to nip that in the bud. I am going to get you an appointment with a doctor I know, and you are going to start doing business with me and learn how to be a man and follow in my footsteps,” the man said, throwing his hands wildly in the air.
The display was a bit disturbing from a man who was meant to be a leader to people. Kyllian was concerned that whatever doctor he had been seeing had possibly done this to him, that maybe his father had been brainwashed or something. Or maybe someone else that was using his power could be involved. But something was off about his father, and it wasn’t just his judgments.
“Let me make this perfectly clear. I am here because my mother told me that she thought it was a good idea to see what you needed or wanted, thinking that we could build a relationship. This will not be built on you forcing a doctor down my throat who is going to try and get rid of my very identity. I am a grown man, and you can’t make me do anything. Including stay. So, either get over that notion, or I leave.”
