Cale and his parents were not able to continue their conversation until late in the evening. Normally they would have put him down to bed by this time, but today they had topics to discuss, and his parents had chosen to let him stay awake longer than usual to continue their discussion on what to do next.

  This time they sat in the living room instead of the kitchen, which made the conversation feel less like an interrogation and more like an actual conversation. Cale was sitting on as many pillows and blankets as he could find on the couch that came with the apartment. He wanted to be as close to eye level with them as he could. It felt silly and he had seen his parents smirking at him, but he wanted them to at least be at eye level for this conversation, he didn’t want to appear as babylike as his body made him look.

  After they all sat down, it was his mother that broke the silence first. “Xavier, I’ve thought about our conversation all day. I am sure you are anxious about what comes next, but don’t worry. We only want what's best for you, and any decision made here tonight is for everyone’s benefit, ok?”

  He nodded his head, not the best start to the conversation since it seemed like a warning setup to deliver disappointing news, but he would see how it went.

  “First, we have some ground rules.” She looked over at his father, giving him that look that it was his job to deliver the news. His father gave her that... knowing look, but he went ahead anyways.

  “Xavier, first rule, you are not allowed to use your script until we’ve done some testing with it or if it's an emergency.

  “But…” Cale started to protest when his father stood up and bore down his gaze onto Cale.

  “You have demonstrated how potent your script is, and it can very easily harm people!”

  “Phil!” His mother hissed. Causing his dad to sit back down.

  “Xavier…” We just want you to be careful and we don’t want anyone getting hurt. Ok?”

  Cale nodded his head in agreement. That made sense and his dad’s intensity had made their point clear. They made him actually say the word “OK,” before they would go on. They were being real sticklers tonight.

  “Next rule,” his mother continued on, “you are not allowed to tell anyone that you have a script. If the wrong person finds out, we are unsure what would happen to our family. We don’t think anyone here at the base would harm you or us, but there are others, who if they heard, would take an interest in you and possibly try to kidnap or harm you.”

  His eyes widened. I knew it, being careful was the right call. He quickly agreed and gave them his verbal confirmation.

  “Lastly, your physical age and the age the interface says you are… Will complicate things when we bring you back into the city. We need to make sure you keep a low profile so that nobody looks into you. We don’t want to offend the wrong person or say the wrong thing or have people starting to look our way. For now, you will act your age in front of others.”

  Cale’s face soured, this wasn’t what he wanted at all.

  “In exchange...” his father continued. “Your mother will teach you to read, and we both will teach you what we know about the world. This will do until you are old enough to go to school. We will decide what to do when that time arrives. Alright?”

  Cale didn’t respond right away as he mulled the idea over in his head. First, he looked at his dad, then at his mom, and thought about the kind of patience it was going to take to pretend to be a kid all day out in public. But did he have a choice? If he didn’t, they wouldn’t teach him and he would be stuck, uneducated, and hidden in what could be considered a luxurious prison for someone his size. Plus trying to escape would be dangerous and could potentially reveal his secrets. He was pretty sure he would agree, but before just doing it readily, he wanted to ask a few questions.

  “If I no use script, I want know more. Mom knows them.”

  He heard his mother scoff at his words before she shared a look with his father who was now giving her the same look she gave him at the beginning.

  “Let me think about that,” she said between grated teeth. “But we are concerned that if you learn about scripts you will want to use your script. That script of yours is not only lethal to others, but with your size...” she said pointing at him. “Your father had to catch you the last time you used it.”

  “I know, still want learn. Should know in case danger. Safer for family.”

  He saw his mother bite her lip as she mulled over his broken sentence.

  “Fine, but you can only learn about scripts, I won’t give you more. If we catch you practicing with your script, then we stop.”

  Cale nodded his head in agreement. It made sense to him. They didn’t want him to get hurt and the last time he used his script, it had not only cut the beast in half, but it had stopped his momentum and thrown him back up into the air. Now that he thought about it, he was lucky it didn’t cut him in half like the bird!

  With an agreement reached. His parents hugged him and got him ready for bed. Overall, the day had been a success. He wasn’t given the complete freedom he was hoping for, but with his body this size and his lack of ability to navigate the world both physically and verbally, the compromises they had come up with were workable. Besides, as he grew larger and learned more, he could always re-negotiate with them. With a happy smile on his face, Cale fell asleep smiling as he dreamed of using his script to soar through the night sky like a majestic bird.

  Phil

  Phil peered into Xavier’s room and watched him sleep with a large grin on his face... He saw his son’s body rocking back and forth in his sleep and was wondering what his little toddler of chaos could be dreaming of when Diana came up behind him and pinched his butt, before wrapping an arm around him.

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  “Darling, how can you think about pinching my butt after today’s events?”

  “Oh honey, I’ll never not pinch your butt, it's your best feature!”

  He looked at her with a wary grin, only to see his beautiful wife smiling at him.

  “Phil,” she said to him, “I know how strange this is. My own boy, not even two years old yet – who the interface says is in his teens – and was immediately potty trained, is still sleeping in a crib.”

  “Yeah, what was up with that potty training thing? It was like he already knew how to do it but just wasn’t.”

  “Yeah, that was weird... But everything about Xavier is… odd. Come sit with me, we need to discuss our next move in more detail. Over some wine...” she said with a wink.

  Phil felt another pinch on his butt as his wife walked over to their cabinet to get drinks ready. The feeling of the pinch staying longer than it should have. Does she have to do it so hard?

  They sat on the couch and cuddled together, saying nothing as they just enjoyed each other's company and the drinks before them. His wife hadn’t grabbed the usual cheap stuff they drank, no, she had grabbed a bottle that had been recovered during one of the site excavations, which meant tonight was far more significant than normal.

  They both fell silent as the flavor hit their mouths. It was a rare thing to taste something with this much history and neither of them said a word until they got to their second glass. They were just enjoying the moment.

  “Wow, the ancestors really knew how to make a good wine didn’t they.” Said Diana as she sipped from her second glass, enjoying the rich flavor of the drink.

  Phil swirled the wine around in his glass, watching the liquid slosh around and around as his buzz started to kick in. He wasn’t sure how to start this conversation. His wife was being flirty and relaxed, while he felt very tight. He was concerned about their son’s future, their family’s future. He looked at his wife in his arms and finally asked the question weighing on his mind all day.

  “How are you so relaxed about this? I am on the edge of panic! Our boy, who at first, I thought was just a quick learner, is in fact way smarter than I realized. His negotiations were not those of a baby, he didn’t just immediately agree and even got some extra information out of us. It was like he understood his exact position in the conversation. Darling, I’ve seen recruits and some officers in the ranger core with less sense that that!”

  Diana sat up and moved out of his arms, topped off both their glasses and turned to face him.

  “Phil. Do you know why we are still at this base? Why we are still here?”

  Phil scrunched his face at the unexpected question. “We are here to learn about the ancestors and how to get back into the graces of the divine. Everyone knows that.”

  He saw Diana give him that look, the one where he missed something obvious. He sipped his drink before continuing. “Ok, what am I missing?”

  “Phil. Look at where we are,” she said, pointing at their underground abode. “Look at the scripts that would be required to make this in only a few weeks. Why would the church pay someone with such a rare sculpting script to create apartments for us? After the night of the Moon's fury, why not send us back into the city and have the excavation teams send us the items they find?”

  This made him think; he had found it odd that they went through a lot of work to protect people, but he thought it was the church showing their dedication to the cause or them not wanting to lose face to the public. A political stunt.

  “Because the church doesn’t want us to lose faith in them?” he said questioningly.

  “Oh Phil, you are lucky you are cute...” she said with a light pat on his cheek.

  He gasped with mock shock on his face. “Hey now! That isn’t nice...” then he smiled, “But I will take the compliment.” He then leaned in and kissed her. After all she was his clever wife, no need to be upset when she knew something he didn’t.

  After a few minutes, they pulled away from the kiss. He saw his wife fanning herself from the heated moment, causing him to smirk. He may not win the conversation, but that was ok, the important part was that he had her heart. She split the last of the bottle between them and then went up to get another. He raised his eyebrows at this. Uh oh, I won’t be getting out of tonight unscathed will I.

  His wife placed the bottle down and straddled him, her face mere inches away from his. “Phil, we found something here that had never been found before. The higher ups are calling it ‘The Divine Text.’”

  Phil wasn’t sure how to respond. New discoveries about the ancestors were found every day but this was the first he had heard about finding something divine.

  “You have my attention,” he said, as he put his hands on his wife's hips, pulling her a little closer to him.

  She bit her lip and then kissed him quickly before continuing. “It will be officially announced in a few days, but we found what we think is something Divine. Words written in a format unknown to us and it is like nothing we’ve seen before. Our priests have been scouring it for secrets and are already putting together sermons for when it is announced. That is why we are still here, they think we will find more divine text, possibly even a way to get back into the gods graces.”

  Phil’s mouth hung open with shock. “This is huge news! When did this happen? What does this have to do with Xavier?”

  As he asked these questions he could have sworn he saw her eyes light up. He would have thought she was using a script if he hadn’t already known she didn’t have one that could do that.

  “Phil, Xavier’s script. I went back and double checked my notes, we discovered the divine text the same time that he was given a script, keep in mind it is a script that nobody on this base has. I checked; it couldn’t have been given to Xavier by anyone else. The timing matches up perfectly with our discovery of the divine text.”

  Phil sat there in shock. What his wife was saying was on the verge of lunacy.

  Seeing his shock, his wife pushed his hand with the drink up toward his mouth. “Here, keep drinking. Now you know why I brought out the fancy stuff.”

  Phil guzzled it down like it was fresh spring water and handed the empty glass back to her for a refill.

  “Diana, the implications of what you are saying…” he let his words hang... He felt that if he said another word the divine above might hear him.

  “Think about it Phil, it makes sense when you start at the beginning. Xavier has never been a normal boy, the delay in his interface, the event that happened on his birthday, the fact that the interface thinks he is a teenager, and don’t even get me started on how tiring it was to keep an eye on him when I was at home. The fact he wanted books from the daycare and was already inquiring about the world at a rate unheard of at his age. I mean the boy can talk! In almost complete sentences!”

  Her words reverberated in his mind as he recalled his time with his son. He recalled his boy’s desire to keep that book from daycare, his unending, but rarely repeated questions about the world around him. The fact that his son had already slayed a beast, yet never talked about it, the fact that his boy could already speak! When his wife layed it all out in front of him, it almost became obvious.

  “You think he was sent here by the divine, don’t you? Is that why you are so determined to help him?”

  His wife nodded her head in agreement. No words needed to be said, the implications of what this meant could change their entire world.

  After a few minutes of deep thought, his wife finally spoke up.

  “Phil, as excited as I am about this. There is one thing I am struggling with, emotionally.”

  He watched as she finished her drink before moving to the next part.

  “I struggle with... feelings. I know this is a miracle, but I also feel... I feel like the gods stole my boy from me, they stole my motherhood, my first chance at being a mom.”

  He looked at her and saw that she was conflicted in her feelings and he understood why. She had always wanted to be a mother, her desire to raise children was second to only her love of new discoveries. She had talked about raising kids ever since he met her. It was something she yearned for, and they would have started earlier if she also didn’t feel like she had a duty to her people.

  “I am sorry, darling. Are you angry? Do you want to quit?”

  She looked at him with a smile, “No Phil, I am not angry, and I definitely do not want to quit. This just means that we will have to have another child.”

  Phil almost spit out his drink at these words. He gulped the liquid down before looking at his wife. He had seen that look before; he was right... he was not getting out of this night unscathed.