Numair sat back, arms folded, and waited in the silence and the thick fog.

"...So Teige an' Parker din't stick around at all? Just went straight on to Aetheri?"

"They stayed about a week while their visas got sorted, but yeah."

The five of them--Hawk, Abi, Felix, Aram, and Kim--were now lounging over a few assorted couches and chairs, arranged around a table with a fire pit in the middle. They'd finished eating, and the table was littered with empty plates and half-filled glasses of beer. Abi was busily rolling herself a joint.

"Long enough for Parker to get her meds worked out, and for Teige to go to the zoo, pick up some new shapes. Then they left," she continued, licking the rolling paper to get it to stick.

"Damn," Hawk murmured, idly watching her do this. "An' Teige said he was gonna meet his family here, an' that."

"He couldn't've brought them up from Earth, anyway," Felix said, ears flicking back as he held up his lighter for Abi, who held the joint of his wing to steady it while she lit her joint. "He and Parker had to leave Enodia right away. Right now you gotta have a good reason for them to let you into Enodia at all, much less stay."

"Like what?" Hawk asked.

"Like being a civil engineer," Aram answered, pointing at first himself, and then at Kim, who was curled up against him sipping something from a glass. "Or an architect. Lotta new houses and roads need to go up."

"Or a doctor," Felix added. Abi flopped back down against the arm of the couch, draping her thick tail over her feet.

"Or, like me," she said lightly, "I just have an aunt here who's got work for me."