Road to Arcadia: the Path East

Chapter Forty-four: The Path Forward

The orange glow of sunset cloaked the INT in purple shadow. The humble hiding of the south exit was so tucked away from the light it might as well have been dusk. There was the slightest breeze, a whisper of a reminder that fall would arrive in only a month.

Kai rubbed his hands together, sitting with slumped shoulders on the stone half-wall outside the exit. He could track the descent of the sun as he waited for the door to spit out his target.

There was still light to share when the chestnut-haired, fatigue-wearing Arcadian official bopped through the door. It took until she was a couple steps out the door to notice she wasn't alone. The moment she realized, her eyes lit up with recognition.

She stopped dead in her tracks to lift a hand of acknowledgement. "Well hey," she greeted, sideways smile growing. "Good to see you back off the ground."

He kept his hands in his pockets. "Figured you'd want to catch up."

She motioned him to follow. "You know I do, come on."

The two meandered the walking path down and around the INT building. Chatter was limited, but the atmosphere was bright. The loudest noises were the ruffling of leaves and the clop of footsteps down the paved walkway.

Kai took a seat on the half-wall outlining the sitting area at the base of the INT, same as he did at their last meeting.

Morrison opted for a garden chair, using its neighboring table as a footrest. "So?" she prompted.

"So?" he echoed, voice dripping with a natural, uncontrolled defiance.

Morrison threw her hands out like it was obvious. "Tell me about everything that happened!"

"Don't you get a report on all that stuff?"

She scoffed. "It's not the same and you know that. I get all the technical sheets, I don't get to hear the exciting stuff, the emotional stuff. Tell me about your first assignment. I wanna know all the gritty details."

Kai rolled his eyes, exaggerated enough so she could see in the fading light.

He began to recount his tale, starting from his first moments stepping on the bus. He ran through meeting the squad members, their first assignment as a new team in the hungry town of Purkans. He talked about their situation, explained his frustration with their inability to do anything. He only briefly alluded to going behind Baz's back to try and bring the town's citizens some reprieve. Morrison gave him a knowing look, one filled with narrow-eyed suspicion and heavily suppressed mischief, but she didn't press the issue. She didn't need to fill out any more paperwork.

He continued, describing the tornado-wrecked town and the adrenaline of his first evac. Morrison would pop in, sharing experiences that both mirrored and differed from his. Even though he already saw her as a mentor, it was clearer than ever just how much experience she had over him. His story led up all the way until the team arrived back on the Arc.

"--and then," Kai started, words fully loaded with implication.

Morrison tried to bite back a grin, but failed completely. "Uh huh?"

"Baz pulls me aside to tell me that somebody pulled some strings to get me a van out to the East Coast." He gave her a hard look, trying to control the twisting smirk forming on his lips. "I can only assume the person with enough clout and care to do that would be none other than the leader of the R&R herself, Eleanor Morrison."

She held a hand up in mock surrender. "Your honor, I may or may not be guilty of all charges."

The smirk finally broke through. "What happened to me not being in a position to call in favors?"