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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ankh-Morpork Guard" data-source="post: 2093054" data-attributes="member: 10079">Chapter 171: A New SonTechnically, he was not Akan’s father. At least, from Akan’s point of view it was that way. From the Alraxian point of view, as had been explained by Shadow long before, Akan was now part of the same family. That meant that it a twisted, culturally odd way, Cole, the Empress’ mate and the Emperor, was Akan’s father. Having only met the kid once before, and even then for only a short time, Cole wasn’t exactly the best person in the Empire to be doing this...but then again, maybe he was. Besides, it was probably a good idea to at least get to know his newest son.    The young Red Star who had found him led him back to the room that Akan was in, and Cole nodded his thanks before the door irised open and he stepped in. He was surprised at the thickness in the air, but at the same time had at least been warned of it. The young man was sitting in the center of the room on his knees, curled up slightly and staring down at the rug under him. He couldn’t help but smile slightly at the colour of Akan’s hair...that blue. It proved that Marix at least had some sense of humor.     But noticing that the boy was sitting there, perfectly still, Cole figured it might have been worse than was originally thought and said quietly to the Red Star, “Bring the Empress.”    She nodded, then slipped off down the corridor. Cole took a deep breath, then stepped over and sat down next to Akan, tilting down to try and look at his face, “Come on, boy, you’re not dead, are you?”    Not surprisingly, Akan didn’t move at all. But Cole kept his determination, very carefully putting a hand on the other Alraxian’s shoulder, “Sit up, come on...tell me what’s wrong,” he paused to receive no reaction, then allowed himself a slight grin, “I bet I’d be right if I guessed it had something to do with my daughter...”    That got a reaction. Akan sat up just a little more and his eyes looked very carefully towards Cole. At that, the older Alraxian smiled a little more and patted Akan’s shoulder somewhat awkwardly, “So I’m right. Come on and tell me what’s wrong. You can’t just sit here sulking for the rest of your life, you know.”    Akan sat up a little more, turning to give Cole a somewhat curious look. He opened his mouth to say something, but couldn’t find his voice and just gave up again, going back to staring at the rug under him. Cole sighed inwardly. This wasn’t going to be as easy as he’d hoped. Whatever it was his daughter had done, it obviously was something major. Or it might not be. Mood swings and irrational behavior weren’t all that uncommon after Alraxians grew up for the first few weeks. Cole had seen the worst of it all with his other sons and somehow this was even harder...maybe it was the less violent nature of it.    [Feror...] he called across his own link with the Empress, [Bring Marix with you.]    And then he turned back to Akan, trying a different tactic, “Alright, if you don’t want to talk about it, you don’t have to. Why don’t you at least tell me your name? Never did have time for that last time we met...”    “Akan,” the young man’s voice was actually surprising to hear, but how hoarse he sounded wasn’t.    Cole nodded and held his smile, “Akan...well, that’s a start. See? That wasn’t so bad. Now, I’m obligated to ask you this next question just as much as your obligated to answer in detail, alright?”    The younger Alraxian turned to look Cole straight in the fact finally, a look of pure confusion on his face. Eventually, Akan nodded, but more out of curiosity than anything. A very large grin grew on Cole’s face, and he patted Akan’s shoulder again, “Good, good...now, you have to forgive this but I’m a father and Marix is my daughter, so this is just a part of the job. You’ll understand one day. How about you tell me how the two of you met and what you’ve been doing up until now? I’d say a father deserves to know what his daughter’s been up to...even if she won’t tell.”    The confused look didn’t leave Akan face, and he couldn’t help but think there was another level to that question that he wasn’t grasping. It took him a little bit, but Akan soon managed to find his voice again and just talked. He told Cole about Ansion, Endor and Jen...about Voort and their hunt for Sadrak...about the Darkwing and the dead world of Arranis...and then about Ket and Nine...and then, finally, Akan told Cole about Nar Shaddaa. His voice remained hoarse and pained through it all, and many times he had to stop to force back painful memories, but once it was done and over with, Akan could speak at a steady rate.    And after Akan was done, Cole had been having at least some trouble keeping the smile on his face. They had been through a lot. It wasn’t surprising, of course, but it was the truth. At the end of it all, though, Akan still hadn’t said what the current problem was. Cole had hoped it would have led him into talking about it but apparently it wasn’t going to be that easy. So, very calmly, he asked Akan, “So what’s wrong?”    But the young man turned away again, looking down at the floor and away from Cole. He sighed. It wasn’t nearly as easy as it might have been. It was almost like Akan was fighting him to keep silent. This wasn’t his area of expertise, and he couldn’t help wondering what was keeping his mate. Considering the situation, though, and the feelings he could get through their link, she was dealing with a similar situation with Marix. Though it couldn’t have been that similar...Marix had never been anywhere near this emotional. She couldn’t have changed that much in the time she’d been gone...((Another short one for the next couple of days, probably. Yes, its my fault, but I have an excuse! Got a free Sneak Preview of Matrix Online that I can play until Tuesday...very, very fun game and I'm surprised I stopped long enough to write this. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />))</blockquote>

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