Empyrean Iris Story Collection Vol. 3

A Missed Appointment

He could wait a few more years.

But in the meantime, he planned to honor her, and do in her memory what she might have wanted him to do if she were still alive.

Nehchal had the most generous heart out of any Drev Sunny had ever known. Where other Drev shunned her for what she was, Nehchal hadn't even made comment. She had given Sunny nothing but understanding and friendship when she had been alive, and it was no surprise to Sunny when kanan had announced his plants to return to Anin, and take over as Sentinel for Dzara's remaining Drev.

Sunny was pleased for him.

Kanan had a big heart and few people to share it with.

The doctrine of the spear was new, and difficult to uphold for many Drev. The long tradition of discarding unwanted infants was still practiced despite being discouraged. Sunny had done her best to curb this behavior, but there were those traditionalists who still held on to their old beliefs. It was a complicated matter considering that the traditionalists believed I the sovereignty of the saints in matters of religion, do they both simultaneously strove to follow every word she gave down to the letter, and actively attempted to subvert many of her doctrines.

In the end she had reached a middle ground, and many of the unwanted babies had been given up to Kanan, who took each and every one of them in with the glee of a father for his own children.

She still talked to Kanan every now and again over video call, but the last time he had seen his nephew in person had been almost a year ago, and they had both changed so much since then. She wanted to give her brother the chance to get to know his nephew. Adam would have come with them, but he had some business back on Arcadia to manage and promised that he would be along shortly.

A light on the console blinked again alerting their successful insertion into orbit.

Kay had fallen asleep by then his little mouth slack and hanging open.

She rested a hand on his back out of habit. Sunny had gone through a period of severe paranoia shortly after Kay's birth upon learning that human babies were prone to spontaneously dying, to such a degree that there was an acronym for it SIDS. Afterwards she had barely slept, staying up all night just to rest her hand on Kay's back to make sure he was breathing.

Even when others had finally convinced her to relax, she had demanded Krill wire the boy up with a monitoring system for his vitals, so she would always know if he was ok.

Only when Krill sat her down and explained to her that she was overacting just a tad did she realize that maybe she was, indeed going to far. When Krill thought you were being over cautious, than it probably meant you were being overcautious.

Besides, he had already inserted some nodes shortly after kay was born, and he had been monitoring his health actively for the past year. Sunny was both relieved and annoyed, angry that Krill had this information on her baby without telling her. He pointed out that she would probably obsess to much isf she was given that sort of information. Sunny had pointed out that she was kay's mother and therefore entitled to any medical information Krill had one him, and Krill, backed by Riss had pointed out that her worry for her son was unlikely to ease with MORE information about his medical history.

Every small blimp, every spike in temperature was likely to send her into a panic

Grudgingly they had come to a compromise on the matter, but still, Sunny had had late nights.

Back on Anin, the likelihood of a Drev child just dying was relatively low. If they managed to make it past their birth and the subsequent first week, than the infant death rate plunged dramatically. With two independent breathing pathways, and the glorious ability to chew and eat their food without choking like humans, suffocation was unlikely.