Chapter 8: Hearing (4)

The door closed behind us.

Valentine Junior leaned on the wall right outside of the conference room.  He put on wireless earbuds, the white ones, and immediately shoved his hands into his pockets.  The message was clear: no interaction from him.  Which was fine with me.

I walked a little ways down the hall, alerted by another set of softer footsteps right behind me that Princess Ryu was following.  Probably looking for a chair, just like me.

Finding an alcove with a couch and coffee tables stacked with magazines from places that actually charged you money to have a running subscription, I plopped myself down and immediately sunk my head in my hands.  There was a lot in my head right now.  Mostly, the thousands of questions brewing that I wanted to ask Emyrith.

Yeah, my dad specifically said not to trust them.  He was referring to the Courts, which came up multiple times in this conversation.  I wasn’t stupid enough to think the two weren’t related.  They definitely were, except I had no idea what any of it meant.  

Maybe this society was just rich people putting code words on everything, so that the government couldn’t tax them.  Like a secret club, with lamer codewords.  The entire discussion had been full of terminology that made me think of those LARP people or that medieval festival in New Jersey.

But everything aside, Emyrith had pushed the conversation in a way so that I wasn’t completely out of the running.  Whatever this ‘trial’ turned out to be, at least I’d be a part of it.

My dad’s advice be damned, the only person I could trust in this whole fiasco was Emyrith.

What do rich people compete in anyways?  Whose stocks did better?  Tax evasion?

“Eh hem.”  Someone cleared their throat, rather daintily might I add.

I belatedly noticed the pair of pointy flats in the corner of my vision.

The girl had followed me here.  But instead of acting like a normal person and sitting down, she had waited.

“Is this seat taken?”  She said politely, looking at the chair in front of me.

I shook my head and she sat herself down.

Sitting across from her, I took the time to get a better look.  I do that sometimes.  Mostly because I don’t really know how to act around people except defaulting to being a snarky asshole.  Besides, taking the time to actually look at someone gave me a better idea of who they were than if they had introduced themselves.

She was a sliver of a thing, thin beyond belief.  Like those k-pop idols you see on TV.  It didn’t help that she was deathly pale either.  Pale lips that were more pink than red with a perky little nose that blended into the rest of her face with perfect obscurity.  Her black hair reached down to the middle of her back potentially had more presence than she did.

But counter-balancing all this were her eyes.  Brown eyes that were nearly black, too big for that small face of hers –there was sharpness there.  An attention to detail and clarity of mind that I didn’t often see in girls our age.  She was pretty, in a sort of intense kind of way.  She probably broke a lot of hearts, one-sided crushes fading into nothingness without ever seeing the light of day.

All in all, the girl oozed the atmosphere of someone who grew up with wealth, knew it, and was determined to take every advantage of it.

She crossed her legs and folded her hands above them.  “Aera Ryu.”  She said simply.

Lifting my head out of hands, “I thought we weren’t sharing names.”

Normally, a person might shrug.  Grunt.  A gesture.  Something.  She just continued speaking like she hadn’t heard me.

“I’ve come to give you a word of advice,”  Aera said without preamble, “Forfeit, turn around and forget this ever happened.”

It took a second for my brain to comprehend the words.  “Excuse me?”

“You should turn back while you can.”

I felt my brows narrow, first in confusion then in annoyance.  “Listen, I appreciate it.  But if this is some scare tactic, you’re wasting your time.”

“I’m not trying to scare you.  Simply warning you.”  Aera said.  She sat perfectly still without fidgeting or even a change in expression.  “The trials aren’t some school field trip.”

“The lady doth look down-eth on the field-eth trip too much… eth.”  I blurted without thought.

She looked at me like I was stupid.

Now you see why I try so damned hard to keep my mouth shut?  The thing has a mind of its own, I tell you.

Her eyes flickered towards Valentine Junior’s direction.  “He’s Victor Valentine, one of the top five evocators of our generation.  Much like him, I’ve been training since I was five years old; competing with people like him before I could form complete sentences.  You’re out of your league.”

I waggled my fingers, widening my eyes in mock horror.  “Ooooh,”  I said it just like those ghosts on television, the not so scary ones from the 80s, “I’m so scared.”

“You truly have no idea do you?”  Aera said at last and something like pity touched her eyes.  “You poor thing.”

“No, you have no idea.”  There were a lot of other things I wanted to say, most of them along the lines of ‘shut up’.  But girls like this rarely deal with childish retorts like the one I was using.  At this point, I was just trying to piss her off on principal.  “You’re the poor thing.”

A hint of annoyance flickered between her brows, “If this bravado of yours is based on good faith with the Lawyer, you should reconsider your position.  He’s not who you think you are; and were I in your shoes, I’d tread carefully.  There’s a reason why the Courts want to help you become a Diabo–”  She stopped, backtracking, “A member of society.”

Diabo–what?

“Are you suggesting that Emyrith is using me?”

“Exactly that.”

“And what you’re doing right now isn’t?”

“No.  I’m trying to protect you.”

Laughter bubbled up from deep within my chest and I expelled it in a single harsh breath, “Oh, thank god.”  I cocked my head to the side, wiping an imaginary sweat off my brow, “Because for a second there, I thought, you know, your family was trying to, I don’t know, rob me?”

“If you knew exactly what was in this so-called inheritance of yours,”  She said, “You’d understand.” 

“Understand what?”

“That we’re trying to do you a favor.”

“Funny.”  I put my chin on my hand, pretending to think, “In what world is robbing someone doing them a favor?”

“Stop calling my family a thief.”  She snapped.

Well, I’d been trying to piss her off and it worked.  Those huge eyes narrowed and I realized that she would’ve been a great actress.  The sheer size of those things intensified her emotions tenfold.

But I felt my own eyes narrow in return, “That’s what they are though, isn’t it?”

Her lips curled, the beauty in her face turning cruel and the cute face twisting into a sneer.  “Is this how the Hallows taught you to respond to another’s good will?”

“Don’t try to mask your condescension as goodwill,”  I replied, my voice low.

“There’s a reason why your family had few friends and what few they did have, turned their backs on them.  It seems rejecting kindness runs in the family.”

That was the second time someone insulted my family today and I’d had enough of it.

I jabbed a finger towards her.  “Thief.”

Her face broke into barely restrained anger, her entire body taut with the tension of a steel wire.  She actually clenched those tiny hands into fist and, I swear to god, stomped one foot on the floor in frustration; all the while glaring at me with undisguised loathing.  “You’ll lose.”

“Nuh uh.”  I said with great class and wit.

I’m pretty sure she was on the verge of hitting me but the door opened and the adults funneled out.

Her grandfather said something and she gave me one last glare before stomping off with him.  The Valentines left just as quick, the grandmother and her lawyer sharing hushed whispers.

I thought Emyrith would come find me right away but it took him a few minutes.  He set down two steaming coffee mugs, translucent tea bags floating on the top.  He carefully pushed one towards me.

“Burdock Root.  No caffeine.”  He said, taking a tip.

I took the mug, feeling the warmth spread from my fingertips, palm and the rest of my hand.  These don’t actually make you warm out in the cold.  It’s the mental aspect of it.  It invokes a memory that everyone associates with warmth and safety.  Holding a steaming cup of cocoa in your hand, huddled in a warm blanket and decked out on the couch in front of the television or a fireplace.  Put you at ease, so to speak.

I don’t have memories like that.

“There’s a lot I don’t understand.”