For the Back of Your Mind ((tr'Radaik))

[Kelton tr'Radaik 0]

"Dhael."

 

Dhael tr'Radaik paused just outside the door of Koval's office and looked at Kelton over his shoulder. "Ie, brother?"

 

Kelton folded his arms and kept walking on, waiting for Dhael to fall into stop. "What is it that Koval is na telling me."

 

The short silence from Dhael was more telling than his answer. "What do au mean?"

 

Kelton sighed. "Please, Dhael, whatever else au may think of me, I am na an idiot. He did na used to be so quick to jump to conclusions. He was agitated tonight."

 

"So modest," Dhael quipped. "Au do na assume he was simply na pleased to see au..."

 

"He wasn't, but there was more at work."

 

Dhael checked his step and gave Kelton a sideways look. "Au are na as perceptive as au hope, Kelton."

 

Kelton was silent for a moment. "Perhaps na...but I know what I saw. As a maenek. Elevated respiration, heartbeat, dilated pupils...agitation."

 

Dhael blinked and looked somewhat impressed. "They have taught au more than I anticipated..." he murmured. "Au are right...and yet even his closest associates have na guessed it." He looked at Kelton closely. "Au could tell all that?"

 

"Na, none of it," Kelton said matter-of-factly. "But I thought au might be swayed more by the appearance of fact."

 

Dhael barked a surprised laugh. "My statement stands; au have been learning." Glancing back over his shoulder towards the office, he beckoned Kelton down a nearby set of stairs and out onto the tr'Radaik mansion's back terrace. "Koval has been...less than prudent, lately, with his words. Aryal and I have both noticed it. Where our father was content to work from behind the scenes, Koval eventually desires the spotlight."

 

Kelton looked amused. "Our brother the Praetor?"

 

Dhael's expression remained serious. "I think he would like it, if he could manage it. But that is na the point. He has been loose with his tongue lately, irritable and impatient; na doubt feeling himself ignored and impervious to harm. I am worried for his safety, now. And ours. He would sweep the rug from beneath all of us."

 

Kelton smiled. "And yet au would na have prepared me if I had na asked." Shaking his head slightly, he leaned on the terrace railing and looked out across the wide lawn behind. "I am already learning to watch my back in the Galae, but I imagine I am as safe there as anywhere else."

 

"Na doubt." Dhael shrugged. "It is na au safety which concerns me, but the unpredictability of what au in the field might do to further damage our reputation."

 

"Au put me there. Au can retrieve me whenever au like." Kelton almost wished he'd bitten back the words; he wasn't sure they were true anymore. Tool of his brothers though he might have been, on the Talon he had some freedom to do what he liked, to keep to himself and watch the state of things.

 

Dhael caught his eye sharply and smirked, seeming to follow the train of his thoughts. "Ie. We can. We will see."

[KhreRiovtRex 0]

Kelton,Kelton, Kelton...gotta make the family happy!