Rising Shards

Caya and Kitty’s fight took forever, and neither was damaged enough to lose, so they called it a temporary draw and said they’d pick this up later, which I hoped would not be on class time. That fight started off cool, but was tedious by the end of it.

”Hey, Kalei,” Zeta said after we got back and changed out of our gym clothes. ”What was that about with Dr. Diast?”

”Oh, nothing you need to worry about,” Kalei said.

”Alright, that makes me really worried,” Zeta said.

”It’s nothing!” Kalei snickered. ”Roasting Diast gets me through the day is all.”

I was beat for the rest of class that day. With apparently other groups of students on their own field trips outside of the Marmalade/Iris/Maia/Michi group, our teachers didn’t want to do much. After class, Kalei somehow had the energy to work out more, maybe needing to burn off some of that stress, Zeta had homework, Lillia had her usual study hour...everyone was busy so I decided to pay Caya a visit at her office. She nodded as I sat down, not looking like she had a huge battle earlier in the day. I yelped, accidentally sitting on my tail.

”Sorry, still not used to this thing...” I said.

”You only just got it, it takes time,” Caya said. ”Did you have any tail concerns you wanted to ask about?”

”Um, I’m actually here...” Sometimes Caya was really terrifying to talk to, but sometimes I was fine. This was somewhere in the middle. ”Your fight with Kitty made me think...uh, about 09. I think she’s mad at me. And I’m maybe mad at her. And it reminds me of you fighting Kitty. That kind of...family vs. family thing, I guess.”

Caya nodded. ”Apologies if my emotions got the better of me in that fight. Kitty knows how to push my buttons, and I’ve had a lot of pent up aggression about how she’s used her power at Wildfire Hearts against us.”

Caya speaking so frankly about it caught me off guard. Not that she was super secretive or anything, I just wasn’t used to teachers not being all ”I can’t tell you anything for your own good or whatever.” Well, Dr. Diast wasn’t like that either. Pretty much every teacher I had at Tesata gave me some variant of that line when they weren’t being huge jerks.

”It has been a lot, huh?” I said. ”Kitty getting us during the whole Starlight Despair thing, raiding students, taking charge of the recreant game...”

”And numerous others,” Caya said.

”It’s a wonder it took you this long to blow up at her.” I said.

”It’s just how we operate,” Caya said. ”Hopefully not how you and 09 are.”

”I dunno,” I said. ”I didn’t even know she was better. You think she’d say something, right? That’s pretty rude.”

”It may be the influence of her new friend group,” Caya said. ”Which I share some of the blame for.” She grimaced.

”How so? Ohhh wait, right, the spy thing,” I said. ”But...Aira was part of that and she didn’t become a stooge for Ovie.”

”Aira went through her own hardships,” Caya said. ”I’m trying to do better by my students this semester.”

I wasn’t sure how to console someone like Caya, or if she even needed it, the best I could muster was nodding.

”Do you have any tips for dealing with this?” I asked. ”I’m still pretty new to the whole family thing so. Anything would be welcome.”

”I suppose I’d say that while it may be difficult, fights between family are normal, especially in one as tumultuous as ours. 09 has just gone through an ordeal with the Sharai Daggers, and may just need a lot of time to recover. But like with Kitty, their hurt doesn’t mean we need to let them hurt us. If 09 does antagonize you more directly, it’s fine to step away for your own sake.”

”I see...” I said. ”How are you dealing with the whole Kilander business?”

”Which part of it?” Caya asked.

”The show getting cancelled, the money thing,”

”I was never privy to the Kilander family’s fortunes, so being without it isn’t an issue,” Caya said. ”And not having to work on that inane show is a blessing for my schedule and my sanity.”

”Huh,” I said. She sounded almost happy, but I could imagine having a crappy job like being on that show would be nice to be done with. ”Hey, I have another question.”

”Of course,” Caya said.

”What side of all this does Aki fall on?”

It was maybe a bit stupid, Caya never talked about Aki so I don’t know if that was a sore subject. But family talk and Zeta and I watching the Kilander show earlier had it rattling around my brain like a popcorn kernel caught in a vacuum.

”You don’t need to worry about him.” Caya said, her voice casual but an air of ”Don’t ask that again,” looming on her words. That scared me, so I asked a few weak questions just to not end on that note before leaving in a hurry. From my observations, the side of the family that wouldn’t be too messed up by the show and finance crap were mainly the ones around here, with Kitty firmly in the other camp. I assumed the Kilander grandparents would be on the messed up by it side, they always struck me as like rich rich. Even though Caya told me not to worry, I couldn’t help but think about Aki and what side of this he fell on. He seemed awful on the show, but maybe that was an act? As usual with life with the Kilanders, I was left with more questions than answers, which added to the storm clouds of difficulty this semester. At least I had Zeta to confide in, and Kalei and Lillia and everyone else, that eased the worry a bit. Plus, I got a brand new tail that I’d barely had time to get used to.

”We’ll figure something out,” I said, patting my tail.