Realizing the need for a countermeasure, the Teseral gathered Umbora's most senior advisors to consider their options.
Ben moved his writing hand and let it rest for a few moments on a stack of fan mail.
But before he could go on, he got distracted by a drop of water that fell and landed on his upper arm.
Kai was sitting next to him, with her wrist rested on the back of his chair with her hand dangling over his shoulder.
Her hands were still wet from washing a cereal bowl in the kitchen sink about a minute ago.
Ben moved some papers to keep them from getting wet.
"Sorry," she said. "Those aren't important, are they?"
"No, not really. They're probably just part of the rough draft for an old story."
"Another story bit the dust, huh?"
Kai looked over some of the writing on the topmost sheet, labeled "WORKING TITLES," and noticed one of the few items that didn't get crossed out.
"'Theseus And His Tin Sailors'?"
"Oh, that one! So there's a society, where the very rich have a supply of spare body parts and organs in case their body parts and organs got damaged or something. Problem was, I couldn't figure out whether I should give them mechanical replacements, or have them get their body parts from prisoners."
"How would they get prisoners' body parts?"
"The best I could think up was a deadly competition kind of thing where either death row inmates or prisoners in general fought each other gladiator style. The ones who died would have their body parts and organs harvested for the rich, while the survivors went free."
Kai tried unsuccessfully to hold in a laugh.
"What?" he demanded.
"I just couldn't help but imagine some body parts being more highly demanded than others."
He groaned, thinking he would tell her to grow up if it wasn't a case of calling the kettle black.
"But anyway, you can't decide which would be a better story?"
Ben shook his head.
"Or even how to combine them?"
Again, he shook his head.
Kai seemed to ponder this for a few moments.
"Hmmm . . . what if the rich had the prisoners fight each other and harvest the body parts of the losers? Then someone discovers a way to make mechanical replacements, but the rich keep holding the fights anyway, just for amusement?"
All of a sudden, Ben reached over and kissed her ecstatically.
Once he finally let go, he exclaimed, "This is why I love you!"
He gathered a bunch of papers and excitedly took them into his bedroom with him.
Kai remained in her chair, still pleasantly taken by surprise.
She slowly rose out of her chair and followed the path to Ben's room.