When Eli returned from fetching Seth the key, they headed upstairs to the guest bedroom, Eli walking first so he didn't have to get a good look at tentacles climbing stairs. “You know, it just occurred to me—if it's still a guest bedroom, where do you sleep?” the kuppy asked.
Dacj chuckled. “I stash clothes and everything in Phoebe's room, and mostly sleep in there—but you know how it is, sleeping arrangements are really flexible around here. Now that the weather's nicer sometimes I'll camp outside, or sleep in the treehouse.”
Eli couldn't help but shudder. “I'm sorry...the thought of you climbing trees...”
“I'm very good at it, too,” she added; the kraken couldn't help but tease.
They settled in, Dacj opting to sit on the bed and pull the cover over her tentacles—out of sight, out of mind for the kuppy. What she had to say was important and she didn't need Eli getting distracted. “I—I meant to thank you. For earlier. Thank you for stopping me.”
“It was no trouble,” Eli said, offering a tentative smile towards his little sister. “Surprised the hell out of me though. This is—it is the first time, right?”
“I didn't know I had anything before today, no,” the kraken confirmed. It had been such a strange feeling, too—so angry, blinded to everything, and suddenly all she had to do was reach and there was power there...a lot of power. Power she didn't think she was capable of using properly; not the way she'd started out. Was that how Eli felt? That all he had to do was reach, and suddenly anything was possible, anything within his grasp?
It gave her a newfound respect for him—other than the equivalent of parlor tricks, she hardly ever saw or heard of him using real magic. He must have incredible self-restraint...
“Well, I think you probably know enough, growing up in this household, to know your options. You can choose the Contract. Or you can choose not to use the magic you've got, and take a few precautions to ensure a situation like today doesn't happen again,” he said helpfully, leaning against the opposite wall.
“I...don't think I can do the magical girl thing,” Dacj said wryly.
“Fair enough,” Eli said, with a chuckle. “I don't expect everyone with the option to take it; I think you've got enough else to handle that the magic'd just make things unnecessarily complicated.” Dacj nodded; she was already a tentacle monster, no sense in adding frilly outfits and fighting evil to that. Besides, she rather liked a bit of terrorizing and she suspected that wasn't really in the job description.
“But if you don't mind my asking...what did happen down there?” He was honestly curious, she could tell that much—and perhaps a little cautious too. What would she tell him...?
The truth, but not the whole truth.
“I met the real Sabra Sabina, I think,” Dacj said, placing her hands together in her lap, her eyes gazing nowhere in particular—she was remembering. “She said she named me; chose that name for a reason. And that I had a part to play, in that mad scheme of hers...”
Eli looked immensely sympathetic. “I'm sorry. I hope she's wrong—no one else needs to get involved. Sometimes I wonder if I should just go alone...”
“No!” Dacj didn't know where the word came from; she was as surprised as the kuppy when the exclamation burst from her lips. Taking a breath, she tried to elucidate—though the cry had not been hers, she agreed with it. “Going alone won't change anything, and it will probably get you killed. Just...hang in there. We'll all make it through, somehow.”
Eli raised an eyebrow. “We?”
Dacj rolled her eyes. “Whether you like it or not, we're all a family, and we stick together. I guess Shimy's got that part right—if something has a grudge with you, they've got a grudge with all of us.”
“You, with a grudge? I can't picture that,” Eli said, with a kind smile.
“You clearly don't know me very well,” the kraken said, shaking her head. “I can be pretty vengeful.”
“I'll believe it when I see it,” the kuppy said. It sounded like a promise.
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