Of Crows and Songbirds (Part 2)

“No doubt,” Ky agreed, nodding. She needed to snap out of this. She was back to front and center. “It’s remarkable how many things you can accomplish with a ball and some collective imagination.”

"There's a game in the East where a ball is attached to a string and struck around a pole," Gaius volunteered. "It's quite popular with the youth."

(How do you do fellow kids energy)

“Oh! I think I saw that,” Ky said, glancing back towards him. “I never quite understood the rules, though.”

(Yes always yes)

"It seemed to be entertaining. Not very complicated, either."

Ky blushed a little and ducked her head. “Yes sir.”

Great. Now he thought she was dumb. Well. He probably thought that before. But now he had proof.

(Noooo)

"I believe the goal is to gain points by striking the ball until the string winds up entirely against the pole, at which point the player who caused the windup gains a point. I'm not sure about other rules, but that's the basic concept."

“Yes sir.” She knew that much, obviously. But that didn’t answer how to determine whether or not you were out of bounds. Which parts of your body you were allowed to touch the ball with. How long you could keep contact with the ball. But she dipped her head. “That makes sense.”

"Mm." He nodded.
"I wanna try that," Mattathias said. "Can we play it?"
"Perhaps someone can set it up in the courtyard for you," Gaius replied.

That’d need to be a little pole.

But.

Well.

She supposed noble children got whatever they wanted. It couldn’t be that complicated to fabricate something small enough for young children to play she was sure.

The unsettled feeling the goose had left in her throat when she swallowed the bite whole was starting to fade so she started in on a potato now.

Gaius had taken one bite of his meal, nothing more.
"Have you two been in any pain lately?" Sera asked Ky and Tadaaki.

Ky and Tadaaki exchanged a glance, not at all sure how to answer that. The answer was yes, of course. They each had numerous broken ribs which were, in their experiences, some of the most painful bones to break. Not to mention Ky’s broken arm and Tadaaki’s broken collarbone.

But good slaves weren’t to complain.

…but they weren’t to lie, either.

But. Well. It was much better than it had been.

“…nothing intolerable, ma’am,” Ky answered carefully. Tadaaki nodded in agreement. “Much better than we were, thank you.”

"Please come to me for painkillers if you want," she said. "You're a long way from full recovery still."

“Yes ma’am. Thank you.” Ky ducked her head. Tadaaki kept nodding in agreement.

She nodded and went back to her meal, glancing at Gaius, who took another reluctant bite

Well, this wasn’t going anywhere near as disastrously as it could be. Or as disastrous as they’d both been expecting. Yet, anyhow. Ky regretted acknowledging that as soon as she had the thought; now something bad was about to happen. She was superstitious about things like that.

But she didn’t know what to do now. She wished Aleth was there to tell her what her status currently was, because she certainly didn’t know. Was she the slave that should be seen and not heard, and consider herself lucky that she was getting fed at the same table as her hosts? Or was she supposed to channel her Kyber charm and be charismatic and make conversation to make sure the mood stayed light? She didn’t want them to have to carry the conversation; but she also didn’t want to overstep. And she didn’t know where that line was.

So instead she just ate quietly, trying to focus on being calm and pleasant and not fixate on not having Aleth here and what it meant for her.