21. HYRAN
21
HYRAN
Because Protector Niyada Mana was who she was, she told them to enjoy the food and the break room while she went to find Hyran’s other two mothers to take over the conversation while she went back to work. Hyran watched Col for any discomfort, but the Conduit showed none. Rather, the work ahead of them energized him.
Hyran’s other two mothers breezed in, if anything sixth rank protectors did could be called that. Lai, his haha, and Panosa, his mama, both looked tired even if their excitement hid it.
“Conduit Rasev asked to convey his well wishes to you,” Lai told Col after greetings and introductions.
They were all sitting in a loose circle now without Niyada. Hyran had only ever had one friend outside the Grounds, a young regular girl who lived next door to them. Whenever she had come over, his mothers had eagerly fawned over her, similar to this.
At the time, being young and stupid, Hyran had been embarrassed. Now he wondered whether they had tried to compensate for all the Guardians and Conduits he’d met at this very school who none of his mothers could ever meet, given they had to live outside the Grounds and had never even picked him up from school, had always come to the Western Entrance for that.
Hyran pushed the memories away to focus on the now, on Col.
“I will talk to Rasev soon, and I’ll instruct my office AI to ask him for his latest reports.”
Lai chuckled. “He’ll be glad to hear you’re better. He keeps saying how he can’t fathom how you managed to give orders while suffering from a concussion. I have to agree. I remember when we were called to the clinic after Hyran had his first accident practicing his speed.”
“Yes, that wasn’t fun,” Hyran said.
Panosa grunted. “If your children are going to be like that too, you two will have your hands full. Lai, we’ll have to take turns visiting them to help out.”
Col’s tawny skin looked richer when he blushed, the gray undertones of exhaustion nearly vanishing. I need to make him blush some more later on, when we are alone.
“Mama, please. Leave Col alone with that. And we are only just getting to know each other.”
She snorted. “I had only been living in Ferrea for a year when we had you, and we all pulled together then. Having you was a good thing, Hyran, best we ever did.”
Lai nodded but didn’t add on to demand grandchildren.
“I thought I made out a slight accent, Panosa,” Col said, sidestepping the topic. “Might I ask where you are originally from?”
“Cuprea, all my family. And as far as I know, no one ever had a Guardian, which makes me think moving for love was a wise decision.”
She gave Hyran a meaningful look. “Mama, I already said I was moving. You don’t have to push me over and over. Col, tell her.”
Col squeezed his hand. “He did. It was one of the first things he said to me, I believe, although I may have passed out for some of it. He also apologized profusely. I think you did a good job raising him.”
Both his mothers basked in the compliment.
“Our new son is a delight,” Panosa said.
Lai nodded. “And they look beautiful together, don’t you think?”
Panosa bobbed her head. “We’ll need photos. So many photos and vids. Once your cut is fully healed of course, Coldis. And by the way, Hyran, why didn’t he get stem cell treatment for that? It’s not very visible, but it might scar.”
“Mama, they couldn’t give him the required meds with the concussion medication, which he needed urgently. Excuse me for prioritizing his brain.”
“I very much like that you prioritized my brain.” Col patted his forearm, and it was Hyran’s turn to bask in his Conduit’s attention. “Protectors—”
“No titles, please,” Lai said.
Niyada slid the door open and poked her head back in, using the uncanny timing Hyran had come to dread when he was younger.
Col dipped his head at her. “Of course. I apologize, Lai. We really need to go though. There is so much to do yet, and my team will move back home soon. I have to prepare them.”
“If we could all meet before you return to Argentea?” Niyada asked, her screen in hand.
Col nodded and stood. “I will try. Perhaps we can meet at some restaurant to show people it’s fine to go to them and reward those that are open?”
“Whatever your preference is,” Panosa said. “And we will visit you in Argentea. I give you my word on that.”
Hyran wasn’t sure whether to read it as a threat to get to producing grandchildren soon, but he decided to ignore that.
They said their goodbyes, and it was Col who hurried to get out of the school and away.
Instead of going back to the wilderness, he hurried along it, his screen in hand.
“Col, wait, to get back to the Champions’ Tower, this way is fastest.” Hyran pointed at the wilderness, the trees and bushes soaking up the midday light.
“Yes. We’re not going there. Did you think I had forgotten the Judiciary? Hmm, I can’t reach Vinnie, but we’ll just do this ourselves.”
Hyran groaned. “I’d hoped you’d forgotten. Col, Alesa might not tell you anything, and getting a psionomancer to come over from Cuprea or Argentea might get us answers in a much more straightforward fashion.”
Col nodded but kept on walking away from the greenery. “Yes. I like that idea. We go get a psionomancer, escort them, and on the way there, we stop and talk to your friends in Lowvalley.”
“Wait, what?!”
The Conduit looked over his shoulder even as Hyran stumbled. “You heard.”
“I heard you, but—”
“You said you had ideas. To deal with the Op-AI situation? Tell me on the way to the auto-drive. And be concise.”
“Huh?” It dawned on Hyran that Col had found a lot more energy during the meeting than seemed right. He should be resting. He should be letting me pamper him.
But of course, that wasn’t Col. “That means now, Hyran.” Col held out his hand, an unarguably cute grin on his face, and Hyran took it, immediately feeling the comforting warmth of his Conduit’s channeling. “You need to keep up. If you want to join my team, that is. I didn’t think matching our speed would be a problem for a kinetomancer like yourself?”
Oh, but he is coy. And I want to kiss the coyness out of him, want to pull down his pants and kiss his cock until he feels too much bliss to give me coyness.
“I can keep up,” Hyran said.
“Good. Show me.”
The day was bright, beautiful, and holding Col’s hand should have made it even more so. For a moment, Hyran imagined they were just out for a walk—ideally to loosen up their leg muscles after a day spent fucking—and nothing more.
He knew where Col was going too. They were crossing a wide plaza with training facilities on one side and the fancy drama museum shimmering in a quarter circle on the other. The plaza itself was smooth stone and benches and sculptures breaking it up and saving it from becoming monotonous.
A stele no wider than a Conduit but a good five times as high was a common meeting place. It had been inscribed with a love poem, one that imagined Wilan was singing it to Avan. Hyran spotted the stele right as he looked up from Col. He smiled.
My Conduit near me, just showing him around where he’s safe and satisfied and—
“Well? Your ideas?” Col asked, blue and brown eyes expectant.
Hyran took a deep breath. “The first one was… Why don’t you talk to your Op-AI, see if it can and is willing to do what the Judiciary AIs do? You know, copying relevant parts and building a new one in a way that shares the experience and the knowledge of the mother AI?”
Col nodded. “I can do that. I just don’t know about the hardware. I’ve been near the AI core’s room in the G&C Center in Argentea, and it’s large. Explains why the G&C is almost always the biggest building in the Grounds of any city. We might have to see if there is anything we can salvage here. If we can repair the body of the Ferrean Op-AI, who knows, that might work.”
“I take it you have no idea how to do that.”
Col snorted. “Not a one. We’ll ask around? I’ll ask my Op-AI about it too. And there are maintenance bots around for each Op-AI. Maybe they can help. What was your second idea?”
Hyran’s good mood turned. “To ask around outside the walls. I don’t know how much you know or remember, but whatever the outsiders use, every bit of technology, they make it or have made it. They do have robots and such, but nothing on our scale. Maybe what we lack in knowledge, they can offer. I don’t know what would incentivize them to help though, assuming they know how to build an AI.”
They got to the end of the plaza. Col’s brows scrunched up even as he waved over an auto drive. The auto-drive stopped, but not in front of them like it should have. Instead, it came to a halt three vehicle lengths away.
“I fucking hate this.” Col walked toward the auto-drive’s open door and got in ahead of Hyran. “To the Judiciary.”
The door closed, and the lights in the auto-drive flickered. “I cannot take you there, Conduit. The Judiciary is outside of the Grounds, and you should remain within the Grounds where it is safe.”
“Oh, is it? Take us to…” He looked at Hyran.
“The Western Entrance.”
“Right. There.”
The auto-drive blinked again before the lights stabilized. “As you wish, Guardian.”
“The issue is going to be to get it done with the help of outsiders, if they even know how,” Col said. “Not just finding what we have to offer to them, but also to present it in an acceptable way. But we have to find out if they can even help in the first place. Ugh, I need to call my little brother.”
Col pulled out his screen, and from the conversation, he was tasking Orrey to take Senlas and handle the agriculture situation and enlist members from the Agri-Team as necessary.
“Oh, and have you seen Vinnie? Ah, with Yamara? Fine. No, let them be. Hyran and I can handle this.”
Col ended the call—by saying boop. Hyran wasn’t sure what to make of that. A few minutes later, they arrived at the Western Entrance, and the auto-drive stopped like it was supposed to.
Col groaned. “We have to change to a regular auto-drive, don’t we? And we have to walk past all that.” He pointed at protectors gathered around the Entrance as well as the many regulars who were still waiting to hear about their relatives.
Hyran didn’t immediately hit the door release but turned to Col. “Or we could go back to the Tower? Please, Col. I don’t want you near Alesa or any of those insurrectionists.”
Col got out on his side but stuck his head back into the auto-drive. “Maybe they don’t want me in a room with them either, did you think about that?”
Hyran pushed his speed to get out of the auto-drive and close to Col. This time, Col either anticipated it, or he hid his surprise at Hyran appearing next to him well.
“I think you are a brave person, Col. Stupid brave sometimes. Do you ever consider that you might not always be right?”
Col crossed his arms. “Just my Hound-fucking luck. You’re already sounding like Taros. Come on.”
Hyran rolled his eyes. “What was in those noodles? You should be more tired.”
Col shook his head, puckered his mouth. “It wasn’t the noodles. You know what helps my energy levels?”
“Sleep and rest like a normal person?”
“Good sex. You are so helpful in the bedroom. And in the shower. I’m sure many other places as well.”
Hyran couldn’t help himself. He knew he should be focused on getting Col back to the suite, but instead, his chest swelled with a sense of deep accomplishment.
The Western Entrance consisted of three archways, three entry points one set next to the other with the tallest one in the center, each wrought from dark stone. It was covered with lush, dark green goron vines. The orbs of goron melons showed through the foliage, golden light in a canopy.
The Entrance was quite beautiful and designed that way, meant to be the last thing those leaving Ferrea saw. Each hospitality agent was trained to tell visitors spotting a goron melon in the green meant they were going to come back to Ferrea, and counting an even number was good luck for moving to Ferrea. No one was even looking at the gorons today.
The center archway served as the main transport route for visitors, missions, and goods. The smaller entrances to either side had become the extras’ entrance over the years, more suitable for foot traffic, and as such, Hyran knew them as surrounded by security bots.
It was odd to see protectors standing guard there now. Not standing guard. Waiting to bring the relatives news and comfort them if they do. Outside the entrance, Hyran saw the hopefulness in people’s eyes. How long have they all been waiting there?
“I think I should have taken us to another entrance. Col, maybe we should take the northern one?”
But Col shook his head and reached for Hyran’s hand. “We’re here now.” He approached a third rank. “Protector? Log that Guardian Hyran and myself are leaving the Grounds, heading to the Judiciary, please.”
The protector snapped to it. Hyran could tell the man was at a loss the way he was trying to catch Hyran’s eye, but Col was decisive, not even stopping.
“That’s Conduit Coldis,” went the whispers through the crowds.
“Of Argentea’s Team Three?”
“The Team Lead.”
“He leads the team?”
“Who is that Guardian with him?”
“Wasn’t he wounded? Why is he here?”
“I’ve been telling you, everyone on that team are idols, even the Conduits.”
“They only have two Conduits, can you imagine? I wish I awakened like Conduit Orrey and got imprinted upon…”
Hyran tried to tune out the whispers from the crowd. Protectors outside the entrance had set up crowd control fences, something Hyran had seen when a very big actor left or came to film here. All those people behind the fences wanted today was news of their loved ones, and Hyran’s heart ached for them, especially knowing what news was likely at this stage. His hold on Col’s hand tightened.
I am so lucky in all this sadness to have found this man. I’ll protect him with all I have, with all I am. Coldis Solara, I love you. He looked at Col in profile, didn’t say the words out loud, but hoped his Conduit would sense them. Would eventually be ready to hear them and accept them.
On their right, on Col’s side, a man with wild blond hair pointed a small camera bot at them and waved. “Conduit Solara, I am Journalist Mikan from the Ferrean Flicker. Would you talk to us for a moment?”
Hyran was prepared to grab Col and speed him away, but no. Col smiled at the journalist and walked over to the man.
“Col?”
Col squeezed his hand twice.
“Of course, journalist, though I can’t think of what to tell the brave citizens of Ferrea on yet another difficult day.”
The cam bot hovered a little higher to catch both Col and Hyran.
The journalist wasn’t deterred. “We know it would be even more difficult if it hadn’t been for your team, Conduit. Can I ask, are any of them injured?”
“Not at all. Guardian Karmine is still recovering from his earlier injuries, but apart from scratches, they are ready to defend the Ferrean Grounds alongside these untiring protectors.” Col indicated the various protectors on the Grounds and the regular side of the Western Entrance. Hyran caught some of them listening with interest.
“Then can we hope to have your Team Three move to Ferrea now, Conduit?”
Col smiled brightly, taking a step closer to Hyran. “Unfortunately not. And I have to confess something to all Ferrean citizens: your city is beautiful. It has enchanted me, has shown me what it means to fight for what you hold dearest, for what matters most. In fact, to keep something from Ferrea near, this Guardian will be coming with me to Argentea. Guardian Hyran came to my aid during the Battle of Starlit Stage, and when he did, he didn’t just save me from certain death. In doing so, he imprinted on me. Hyran is one of the strongest Guardians I know, and now, he is mine.”
Col put a hand on Hyran’s chest, and Hyran covered that hand with his other as their eyes met. Col’s words, even if they had been for the camera, rang in Hyran’s ears, and given the opportunity, he would have loved nothing better than to grab Col and beg him to come down his throat again.
The journalist stood speechless, mouth hanging open. Hyran hated public appearances, but he’d not missed the way the relatives, even at such a time, had brought little flags, the Grounds’ spiral of black and white, Ferrea’s single arrow, and Argentea’s three skyward pointing ones. They were waving them, even now. They were lending each other strength, hugging strangers and crying together.
While he hated cameras and journalists, Hyran knew how to act the part, just like all Guardians of a certain rank. He looked at the journalist. “I couldn’t take such a treasure as Coldis Solara away from Argentea. We are sister cities, after all. We’re planning to visit frequently. My Conduit has developed a fondness for SuSo’s Dumplings, and I foresee myself fetching those for him frequently.”
Col seemed satisfied and let himself be led away before the journalist regained his speech. An auto-drive waited for them, the Municipal AI making it stop right where it should, almost as if it were showing off. Hyran let Col get in first, then got in himself, annoyed at the lower roof of the municipal auto-drives and the generally smaller interior.
“You seemed to be enjoying this,” Hyran said once the auto-drive’s door was closed behind them.
“I don’t. But the citizens need to know what is going on. They deserve it. And they deserve something that can make them feel good. I’m sure that journalist will find out who your mothers are, and it will be what everyone talks about by the evening. Hm. I think I should get my office AI to send them something, say how much Team Three is looking forward to being a team with such a strong protector influence, about how we hope to learn from your and Orrey’s background. Yes, that sounds good.”
“You mean that.”
Col nodded, pressing his screen to his ear. “Boop-Beep, I want you to send a message to a journalist from the Ferrean Flicker. His name is, ah…”
Those searching eyes, asking for help. Is asking for help not trust, or the seeds of trust?
“Journalist Mikan.”
“Heard that? Yes. Talk to them about how our team is growing, and how we are especially excited to have a former protector and the son of three high-ranking protectors on it. Yamara? Don’t specifically mention him, not for this. I want to stress the protector connection and the fact that we have two imprinted Guardians on the team.” He looked at Hyran. “Correction, one. Guardian Hyran hasn’t yet responded to my offer to join our team.”
Hyran chuckled. “Do I really need to say it?”
“You do. Boop-Beep is a stickler.”
“Fine. Then…as soon as we get to Argentea, I’ll officially join Team Three.”
“Got that too? Yes, sure, send a copy to him. And my little brother. You can even ask him how much his protector training helped him with enlisting the protectors to help fight the Battle of Starlit Stage. Yes, I know that’s more responsibility than I normally give you. Yes, I’m sure you are, Boop-Beep. Hyran wants to talk to me now. Boop.”
He ended the call and slid his screen back into the pocket of the suit he was wearing, Ferrean green, Hyran realized.
“Any reason you end your calls with ‘boop’?”
“Any reason you don’t?”
“So defensive, Coldis.”
“I’m about to rile a horny insurrectionist. You want me defensive.”
Hyran’s brows drew tight. “Wrong. I want you nowhere near that man.”
“Well, that you cannot have. Take me defensive.”
Hyran put an arm around Col in the cramped space of the municipal auto-drive. It wasn’t ideal for Guardian size, but it was much safer than where they were going.