Fendros wasn't sure whether Ahnasha's case felt helpful to him. He certainly didn't want to upset the child in other ways to distract it from whether Fendros was its father. He slid down until only his upper back and head was leaning against the wall and put his arm around Ahnasha's head so his hand was on her shoulder. He gave her a meek smile and looked across at the wall. There wasn't really anything else he could think to say, but he still felt worried. For now he just took comfort in being close to Ahnasha. They both wanted to enjoy the festival later, so he would let her rest if she wanted to.

---

"Hmm, where to start?" Ariel looked about as if she was trying to find something, but settled quickly. "There are plenty of questions I have, but let's start with the overview and go from there."

"Haha, your father must have been far more patient than mine." Janius said, "I remember the worst I did was mildly scorch the furniture. And then being lectured for a solid three hours about 'how reckless can you be?' this and 'what would people think if my son' that." Janius made a mock deep voice in impersonation of his father, but grinned widely afterward, "Little did he know of dear Carol under the bedsheets. She had to be a stealthy as a mouse until my father stormed out of the room. He would have had a few more hours of yelling yet if he'd spotted her." Janius chucked again, hiding his own resentment of his father, "Of course, that was before he gave up trying to shout about every unsavoury activity I may or may not have committed. Anyway..." Janius took another sip, then squinted his eyes questioningly at Meesei, "So your father never sat you down and told you off? Never made you feel small and guilty?"