Page 34 of Family Found

My attention was caught by something in the back room though, where steam was rising up with a hiss. I couldn’t see exactly, but it looked as if they had some way to iron clothes here.

Vergis turned to me. “Do you remember your number?”

“My number?”

He crossed his arms. “You put a tag on the basket when you leave it for the laundry. Do you remember the number on the tag?”

“Oh. No. It should be in the room though.”

Vergis sighed and turned back to the bagu, who ended up jogging to the back room and hollering something over the hiss of steam. Then he came back and said something, and Vergis nodded.

The bagu headed off into a second room in the back.

“He says they remember your dirty, stinky human clothes.”

“Well, sorry they got muddy.”

“And these poor people had to clean them for you.”

My cheeks heated again. “I’m sorry about that, okay?”

“You did turn out your pockets before handing them off, right?”

Had I? No, I hadn’t. I tried to remember whether there had been anything in them. One of the au pairs had taken it upon herself to teach me life skills, despite the fact that we’d always had a cleaning lady, and I knew not to leave tissues or change in my pockets, but…

“Uh, I think I maybe didn’t? Can you tell them sorry?”

Vergis looked at me like a large murder cat who’d just found a juicy mouse. His grin made his eyes crinkle. “Sure, I’ll tell them.”

He wasn’t going to, was he? He was going to say something else, and I had no way of checking. I really, really needed to learn the language. At least that way, all the trouble I got myself in would be of my own making.

The bagu Vergis had been speaking to and one other came back, each of them carrying a basket. I spotted my clothes—the hand-me-down shirt from Kinnek and the shorts, as well as my scarf. The other basket was all black, so they had also found Inkiri’s stuff. That was a relief.

“Al-lesh!” I said before Vergis could even open his mouth. It was a polite thank you and pretty much the only thing I remembered in the moment.

The second bagu, this one dressed in black, smiled warmly and nodded before saying something while he handed me my stuff.

“He says they scraped the mud off with a shovel. It was work the kind they only have to contend with once in a generation.”

I narrowed my eyes at Vergis. “No, he didn’t.”

The two bagua chuckled and exchanged a few words. They seemed pretty chill, at most lightly entertained by Vergis and me. A few of the other people in the room were also turning so they could listen to us.

“He might’ve said that. They might’ve used a shovel. You have no way of knowing, Princess.”

I straightened and attempted to square my shoulders. “Al-lesh.” This time, I tried to sound more certain of myself.

Both the bagua laughed, and the taupe-clad one handed the other basket to Vergis while saying something to him.

Vergis sighed. “They say they did their best to get your clothes clean although you brought a good chunk of Earth here with you from the rescue mission. Everyone’s so impressed with the rescue mission.”

“Well, they can keep the bits of Earth. We still have plenty. And besides, Aër is a nice place for it.”

Vergis rolled his eyes. “How are you always this sappy?”

“I’m not.”

“Whatever.” He spoke to the two bagua, hopefully translating what I’d said with at least some accuracy.