After speaking, Edric looked at Emma, nerves tightening in his voice. "Emma, Kael will probably come by soon. Do you want to see him?" "We already went through with the dissolution. Why would I bother seeing him?" Emma shook her head without hesitation. She suspected Kael was that blond guy she had rescued the other night. "He already paid me when I saved him, and the dissolution is done. There's no reason for us to meet." The Interstellar Hunter Alliance interested her far more than talking to someone she no longer had ties to. "Edric, didn't you say you'd take me to the Interstellar Hunter Alliance? I'll pack now. We leave in thirty minutes." Finally! I get to leave F-268 and go somewhere new. She used to travel alone and never dared wander far because it wasn't safe. With Edric here, she could finally roam the interstellar freely. Just imagining it thrilled her. "Cheep-cheep." After tumbling down the stairs more than ten times and barely managing to climb up, Coalball heard Emma was going to the Interstellar Hunter Alliance. He flapped its tiny wings, rolled, crawled, and scrambled straight to her feet. "Cheep!" If you're going to the Interstellar Hunter Alliance, take me and Silas too! "Coalball!" Emma saw him stubbornly trying to climb up her leg and lifted him. "You want to come with me?" "Cheep!"Coalball nodded vigorously, then tilted his head and drew a short horizontal line in her palm. "Cheep!" Where's Silas? Emma had placed Silas in the pocket of her combat suit earlier before heading back to her room. Coalball hoped she was taking proper care of him. Edric watched him cozy up to Emma and resisted the urge to swallow him whole. Plenty of birds in the Empire are clever. But Coalball's way too homely to be acting this bold in front of her. Emma overlooked Edric's annoyance. She focused on Coalball pecking horizontal and vertical lines into her palm. At first, she didn't understand. Then she remembered the stick she had pulled out of his body the first time they met. "Coalball, you want that stick back, don't you?"Coalball nodded madly. "Cheep-cheep!" Yes! Where's Silas? Emma's eyes widened as she realized where the stick probably was. She smacked her forehead. "Oh no. I think I tossed it into the washer with my clothes." Lucien froze in her hands, stunned into silence. Edric blinked, completely lost. "Emma, what stick?" Emma didn't have time to explain. Holding Coalball, she rushed to find her combat suit. The suit had already been washed, dried, and stored in the closet by the smart robot. The washer spun hard, and the stick might not have survived. She dug out the combat suit and opened the pocket. The good news was that the stick hadn't snapped. The bad news was that it was bent. Feeling guilty, she placed it in front of Coalball. "I'm really sorry, Coalball. I bent your stick." Lucien stared at his once-straight companion, now crooked and sad-looking. He used his sooty wings to cover his face. Edric's brows drew together as he looked at the bent stick. It felt familiar, though he couldn't place it. Seeing Emma look so apologetic, he offered, "Want me to try straightening it?" Coalball exploded before she could answer. Feathers puffed out like a tiny hedgehog, he shielded the stick with his body, glaring fiercely at Edric. "Cheep!" He definitely has bad intentions! Silas would get snapped in half the moment he ends up in his hands! Seeing the fierce resistance, Emma shook her head. "Forget it. If it breaks, that's even worse."She had wanted to straighten it, yet Coalball clearly wasn't having it. Coalball grabbed the bent stick in his beak and marched across the table to the small potted plant Emma kept on the far right corner. He placed the stick down, hopped into the pot, dug out the tiny wildflower, and planted the stick inside. Then he nudged the pot toward Emma with his head. Edric stared at the palm-sized pot now holding a charred-black stick instead of the flower. His mouth twitched. "That thing is literally burnt. Can it even grow?" Emma doubted it as well. Coalball treasured the stick too much, so she couldn't bring herself to say anything. The poor little wildflower was simply sacrificed. "If Coalball wants to grow it, then we'll let him grow."The pot cost almost nothing anyway. A single star coin could buy five of them.