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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ankh-Morpork Guard" data-source="post: 2073646" data-attributes="member: 10079">Chapter 165: Mother and DaughterAkan had given up on stuttering when Shadow walked in. She looked like she’d just run a few kilometers, and when he thought about how big the place was...she might have. A few long strides brought her next to him, and Shadow gave him a nod before dodging a playful swipe from Tobias. Akan took a step to the side and out of the way, trying to find some way to occupy the little jai. They had bumped into a collection of floating planets, which seemed to do the job for the moment, as Toby pounced all around Akan’s shoulder to ‘kill’ the planets.    “Aza...” Shadow said quietly to her mother, who was just staring at her with a wide eyed look. She gave her mother a more careful look and said again, but louder, “Aza...”    Her mother then looked her over before replying. Akan didn’t understand a word of it, though he did get the general idea through the link and the way that the ‘discussion’ had quickly turned heated. There was growling, snarling, and old fashioned yelling from both sides and Shadow angrily swatted at a few planets. She also almost took of Akan’s head, but he strategically ducked from that, though Tobias fell off his shoulder and landed on the hard floor with a thud, a whimper, and a wail. Akan felt like wailing, too, as the jai had tried to latch onto him with claws during the fall...and his claws were sharp.    The wailing silenced the two arguing Alraxians, both of whom turned to give Akan a look that made him feel useless. He managed a weak smile and picked Tobias back up, grumbling something about it being Shadow’s fault in the first place. A long silence lasted between the two females before the Empress spoke again, calm, but soft and very strained. Her emotional speech lasted for a couple of minutes, and Shadow nodded her head and sighed a few times.    Finally, a few more words were exchanged before the Empress looked back to Akan and smiled softly, “Goodbye, tamai.”    She then moved away, and the image was replaced by another Alraxian that Akan recognized. It was an older looking man, with strong features but soft eyes and a smile on his face. His dark hair was well groomed, and Akan couldn’t help but notice Shadow’s eyes light up at seeing her father, “Dad!”    Cole smiled warmly, but raised a hand, “Just a quick word, daama. Thing’s are looking bad...I’ll be glad when you’re back here and safe. I’ll know we have our best back here to save us.”    “Daddy...” Shadow looked down at her feet, actually going red. Akan couldn’t help but stare in amazement. She was acting almost...normal!    “I mean it,” Cole went on, “My little girl really has grown up. Those challengers will be wetting themselves now,” he winked at her maliciously.    “Daddy, your...”    “An idealistic old man,” he finished with completely different words than she’d planned on saying, “Now I have to go. A council is being called and you know I’ve got to be there with your mother. If we don’t arrive in five days...”     Tailing off into a sigh, Cole said quietly, “Well...I hope to see you soon, daama,” and then he turned to Akan(who was having no more trouble as Toby had bounded off to kill new planets) and gave him a wink, “Good job, saama.”    The older Alraxian’s gaze then found Tobias, who was pouncing from one end of the room to the next. Cole turned to Shadow, grinned, and before anything could be said, the image shimmered away into nothing. The only sound left in the room was the grrs and rawrs of Toby, and in the relative quiet, Shadow deactivated the comm line and most of the other things that Akan had turned on...except for the map surrounding them.    After a moment, she sighed, “Well, the good news is we may be allowed in.”    “And the bad news?” Akan stepped a little closer so he could idly lean against the pedestal.    “Ket and Nine have already hit,” Shadow’s voice was barely above a whisper, “A colony not far from here was completely wiped out. I’m...being held accountable. If they do let us in, I...no, we’ll be under house arrest.”    “Then what’s the point of going anyway?” Akan rolled his eyes, already not liking this. Too much red tape for his taste. In fact, none was best for him...but Akan had to remind himself that this was an odd culture and Shadow was technically the heir, which always meant red tape in any part of the universe, it seemed.    “You know we have to go,” she said over her shoulder as she turned to watch Toby pounce and kill a little gas ‘giant’, “But if you want, you can stay. Even if they let us in you won’t be able to set foot on the homeworld until you’ve pledged your loyalty and they can trust you.”    Akan really didn’t like that sound of that, “Pledge my loyalty?”    “Don’t worry about it right now,” she patted his arm gently, not even really noticing that she was doing it, “Right now, we’ve got about five days to teach you about what you’re walking into.”((Attached is the beginnings of Akan's character sketches like I did for Shadow. I had meant to do Voort next, but somehow Akan just came out on the paper...))</blockquote>

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