Page 7 of Guiding Reason

“I said, what are you going to do next?” his mama asked.

“Ah, I—we’ll just stay here. I’ll stay here. He has to heal.”

“No, Ran-Ran. I meant, what will youdonow?”

Hyran put a hand on the door and looked at Coldis, his face softened with sleep. “Excellent question.”

“Ran-Ran, that’s not the answer I wanted to hear. Try better.”

“But, Mama, this just happened and I haven’t even—”

“Just stop. We taught you better. You are going to do what is best for your Conduit, aren’t you?”

Hyran swallowed and dropped his gaze to the floor. “Of course.”

“I hear Argentea is nice. Decent birth rates. I just researched that, in fact. I know your other mothers don’t care, but I want grandchildren.”

“What?”

His mama made an annoyed sound, something between a groan and a grunt. “It’s difficult for a Conduit to give up everything, and if he’s the team lead, he might not want to give that up at all. You can visit us whenever like you are doing now. You’re fast enough for that, and a run from here to Argentea takes you how long?”

“I don’t know, minutes?”

She hummed. “Yes. Imagine what travel means for him. And that team has already endured enough, being outside the walls with some of them wounded. You cannot subject him to that. Is that understood?”

“Erm, yes?”

“Very good. Now, what do you need? Food? Clothing? What?”

“I got a few things already.”

She snorted. “Fine. Make a list and send it to me. We’re busy, so I might have to get you a first rank.”

Hyran considered the files of Team Three he had all but memorized.

“They said some of them were going to stay here at the clinic as well. Not in the room of course, but I guess they’re worried.”

“What?”

“His team members. They’re close. Family. Didn’t Mommy tell you?”

“We didn’t exactly have time for a proper debrief, Hyran. As you might imagine, things are busy here.”

“I know. Rasev is handling it?”

“There are a lot of people working on handling it. Right now, that’s not what you need to focus on. You focus on Coldis. And grandchildren, I want you to keep that in mind. While I’m still young enough to brave travel between cities, please.”

The screen went silent in the way that told Hyran she was talking to someone else.

“I sent someone to get you food, and she’ll run errands as you need her to.”

“But, Mama, I can do that.”

“I know you can, but not when you are watching your Conduit. She’ll do it. Give her something useful to do. She’s competent and wants to be of use.”

Hyran sighed, but one thing that wasn’t happening was him winning in a battle of wills against Protector Panosa Mana Esho, and so he decided to let it go and accept.

“I will. Thank you.”