Friendly advice

After the stress associated with the level five testing, it felt nice not to have to concern himself with everyone else's schedules. Vedran still found himself paying half attention, though, which is why he knew kallista had had her thievery skills earlier that afternoon, and there was a fair chance he could find her at her room in the guild.

He knocked, calling out as he did - "Babygram for a Miss Kallista Sinsinger?"

Kallista was laying on her bed, idly tossing a shuriken into the air and catching it. She was glad that her thievery skill test had gone better than her shuriken test the day before. It had been so long since she'd used them in combat that she'd grown rusty, and barely passed the exams with a "Needs Improvement" rating. She knew she'd need to train with them more if she ever expected to pass her level sevens, but it was hard to focus on a weapon with such limited combat potential that she never used in the field.

She snapped the spiked disk out of the air fluidly just as a knock at her door disturbed her revere.

She sat up as she heard the voice and moved to open the door.

"Babygram?" she said nonplussed, "What the fuck is a bab..."

When she saw Vedran standing there with Macen in his arms she burst out laughing.

"Come on in, V!" she said with a grin.

As he entered her quarters she smiled and waved at Macen, who reached out one arm to her with a lopsided grin.

"Awwww... He remembers me! Do you want to come to Aunt Kallista?" she asked the baby elf teasingly as her tail tickled the underside of his chin.

"Can I hold him?" she asked her friend, "I haven't gotten to see him much since Jacinthe and I were working with the orphanages."

"You can try, he's been pretty squirmy all morning." Macen seem quite content to be loosed from his carrier, but squawked dubiously when his father tried to pass him over. "It's nothing personal, he's just starting to get the hand of this whole 'walking' thing, I guess...

Kallista grinned and took hold of the squirming child with both arms as he tried desperately to get out of her grip. She cooed at him happily, but he strenously continued ignoring her in his quest for freedom. She distracted him for the time being by swaying the tip of her tail in front of his face, deftly moving it just out of his reach each time he grabbed for it.

"So what's up, Ved? How're tests going for ya?"

"Ugh, social skill tests are really not my favourite thing; they always seem so arbitrary. I'm sure I did fine. But part of Streetwise for me was to find out what the richest ships coming in to town are going to be in the next few days - and one of them is the Highwind." He'd mostly been keeping an eye on Macen, and glancing around for anything that might be a problem when he inevitably escaped Kallista's grip, but he met her gaze at the last statement, his look meanigful.

Kallista's expression changed rapidly over a short timespan. First her eyes sparkled and a look of joy overtook her at the mention of the Highwind being in town, but immediately following on that she remembered that she still owed Brenn an explaination of their recent trip to rescue Sorrow, which caused her face to fall dramatically into one of worry. Within a moment, however, it it changed to a pained grimace as her distracted attention had allowed Macen an opportunity to grab her tail and chomp down on it painfully.

"Ouch!" she exclaimed, withdrawing her wounded appendage. After making sure it was safely away from the babbling child she sighed.

"I suppose we need to talk to him, huh?", she said resignedly.

"Macen, that wasn't very nice - what have we said about biting, hmm?" But Macen just met his father's blue eyes with his own, looking confused for a moment before squirming and grabbing for the bag of Magic (toys) that daddy had slung over his shoulder. Sighing, Vedran pulled out the favoured Mister Ducky and the new stuffed Chimera he'd picked up in Aethrennar, and nodded to Kallista.

"Yes, we do," he agreed, slipping back to adult conversation. "I wanted to see if you'd given much thought to how you wanted to handle it."

Kallista frowned.

"Stall and distract him with sex until he forgets?"

Well, he'd thought as much, but chuckled anyway. "Well, he's not going to forget, and he'll notice if you're stalling, and eventually the sex will be shittier and I know you don't want *that*."

Kallista sighed. He was right of course. Vedran was always right about stuff like this.

"I just don't know what to tell him", she said, "If I say too much I could put him in real danger, and if something were to happen to him... But if I say too little, he'll know I'm holding back."

Kallista adjusted Macen in her arms and sat down on her bed, sitting him in her lap with his toys. The ducky had begun flapping its wings wildly as he giggled at it.

"Hell, I don't even know all of what's going on myself", she said.

"Well, none of us do, really - that's the problem. Brenn's going to want to know as much as we do, and I'm willing to help fill him in. We've already involved him, and *not* knowing in what is just as dangerous for him, and maybe even worse in some ways." Vedran's eyes went a little wide, and he plucked a stray shuriken off Kallista's bed and set it aside, out of baby-reach. "I think it is really important that *you* talk to him though. I know you promised him you would, and that's the sort of thing he cares about. And I still think he might be able to help us, too."

Kallista nodded.

"You're right. I need to talk to him. Maybe afterwards I can send him to you for more details, but I promised him, and I need to be the one to follow through on it."

Kallista was quiet in thought for a moment.

"You think it's better to soften him up with sex beforehand or afterward to make him forget about it? Maybe both?"

Vedran laughed again, and the sounds brought out a huge grin on Macen's face as he giggled and groped for his father. "As long as all parties are agreed that the sex is inevitable, I think you'll be good either way."

Kallista smiled weakly and passed the squirming child back to his father.

"You're right. I just need to stop stalling. I'll go down to the docks this evening after he's done with business and talk to him."

She smiled wider as Macen latched on to his dad.

"He's gotten so big." she said happily, "Macen, I mean. Not Brenn. He's the same size as always. I assume."

"Well, the cook on the Highwind *is* quite good... As other innuendos there, I'll take your word for." He grinned, then made a face as Macen did his best to squirm free again, remembering that he hated being held. "Okay you can go down but you have to hold my hand still, mm'kay? Kallista has swords, and swords are not for little boys." he seemed content for the moment, holding Vedran's hand and squealing as Mister Ducky shambled awkwardly on Kallista's bed. His father sighed. "I need to talk to Brenn anyway - apart from when we saw him, Roscoe and Dheni off, I haven't seen him since the party after the last level test."

"Sorry" K said with a sheepish grin, "I wasn't expecting to have to baby-proof the place, especially from toddlers that can make things walk."

"I'll go by the airdocks tonight after dinner. Maybe see if we can have a long chat and, assuming everything works out you two can get lunch tomorrow or something. It'll give you some guy time."

"Sounds good to me!" He bent down, collecting the toys now that Mister Ducky had stopped flapping them around, and shoved them back in his bag. "Macen and I have to get going, I'm afraid, we're supposed to have dinner with my father and it will take us a while to get up to the gardens." He grinned encouragingly again, letting macen lead him by the finger towards the door. "I know it will go fine, so don't worry, and have a good time, okay? Now, say bye bye, Macen."

The little elf turned his big blue eyes to the tiefling with a with a serious look. "Baba!"