Page 99 of Light Leech

“Not too boring there without me?”

“No, Abbas is making me read these old Amerkese things.”

“It’s kinda cute,” Akna said. “Now that Abbas doesn’t have to hide behind a Republic-born identity, he’s been working on revisiting classics in Republic history and such while teaching Kuni. Abbas seems to know everything already so I think the whole thing is just an excuse to seem humble.”

“Still going for that act?” I said.

Akna nodded, then checked over her shoulder before speaking. “I mean, can you blame him? Now that he’s closer to us, I think the betrayal is weighing on him more than ever. Deeds speak louder than words and I don’t know the last time he asked for forgiveness or apologized.”

“I’m glad. Are you hanging in there?”

She nodded. “It’s pretty chill right now, which is a big change from the last… weeks? Months? I dunno anymore. I’ll go out every now and then to feed, but we’ve been laying low to keep any excess attention away from here.”

“Naoma, let’s jump into our own chat,” Kuni said. “I want to tell you about some of the things I’ve been trying with my eel body.”

“Pulse.”

They broke off. Even though she was right next to me, I couldn’t hear her conversation. Kuni moved from the background into another room to have his own camera focused on him.

“Ralia’s been teaching me how to work the neuronet,” Akna said in our private chat, “but I’m far from being able to hack like her. She seems a little more exhausted than usual. Are you feeling anything from the neurocore mission?”

“Maybe a little? Now that you say it, I have an occasional mental fog and it feels like I struggle to grasp a concept, but it’s not too bad.”

Akna nodded. “Hopefully you’ll be done with it soon. How’s the whole Reef thing going?”

“3Rochi is working on getting an invite for us to the Dynasty thing right now.”

“Pulse! Life is pretty good, wouldn’t you say?”

“Yeah, I guess it is.”

“What, is there something wrong?”

“No, it’s just… I always feel like bright skies bring the biggest storms, you plug? There’s always this unsettling feeling in the back of my mind telling me to prepare for the worst whenever I have anything good happen. Like when we got away from Deleon, we were pulled into a bigger problem.”

“Keep your head up. All things considered, I would say your life could only get better.”

“You think it’s that bad already?”

She laughed. “I guess having all of us makes it bearable.”

I didn’t say so, but that made it worse than any other fear. I had a family again. As long as they were all alive and well, life could always get worse.

“Looks like you and Naoma are doing well, huh?”

“Yeah.” I chewed on my bottom lip. “It’s good.”

“Really good?”

“Yeah. Really good.”

“Come on, Pet. Let’s hear it, or is that a privilege reserved for Ralia?”

“No… I don’t really know what to say. I’m trying to understand it all, you know. Having never been with… someone… like this, I don’t know if I’m reading all the signs right, but I want to give her the time she needs.”

“Oh come on, she has to have been with someone, right?”

“Reef forbade serious relationships for publicity purposes and you know that she doesn’t remember her past.”