Chapter 39: Overly Enthusiastic and Concerned

The room was as I had left it, save for the piles of smoking debris where each communication device had been sitting. Matriarch Klaeris stood and stretched. Olezhka rushed to my side.

"It's okay," I said, scratching Olezhka reassuringly behind his ears. "Everything is okay."

"I take it things went well then?" Klaeris asked.

I nodded. "Yeah. And I have a proposal to run by you."

"Shall we talk here or in my office?"

"Office," I confirmed. "It's a sensitive topic."

"Right this way." Klaeris led us out of the workroom and towards more privacy. I tried to organize my thoughts as we walked. Did I tell her everything? It seemed like the right thing to do, since I was asking her to stick her neck out for us. And Klaeris had been kind to me, more so than any other family head--save, of course, Landy.

When the door was shut and we were alone once more, I burst into a haphazard explanation.