Chapter 19:

Ch 19: Messi beaucoup

Gray Familiar- Caer Sidi Saga


-“Cooking? It’s a mystery. Accounting? Formulas are my enemy. Guide? I got lost just looking for this place”, Maci whispered as she parsed a list of possible jobs she could help out at. For the first few days she believed that serving as Brigit’s helpful assistant counted, but as her grandfather pointed out -“ That’s just doing things halfheartedly! Just do some stretches, clear your head with some exercises and make a choice.”

-“You are so full of wisdom, grand-pere. Hope I get to be as smart as you are when I grow up.” She then arched her back downward, trying to see if could touch the ground with her head this time. “Might as well follow that advice, seeing as I’m barely getting anywhere with this list.” Already wearing her yellow tracksuit out of habit, the girl quickly finished the warm up and the picked a tiny round object out of her pocket. A vocal command latter and it quickly grew into a standard sized ball, with black and white tiles.

-“Hmmm, my header could use some work so, wall, today you’re my training buddy. Ok?” she asked, feeling no shame for speaking to a concrete wall. For each bounce back she snapped at it with her forehead like a cobra ready to bite into it.

With a rate of missing only 2 out of 7 hits, she started to fell more confident, putting even more power in her kicks for the bounces, until the ball flew way over her head and the top of the fence behind her. The ball would have escaped if it wasn’t stopped at the last second by the forehead of a stranger with blonde hair and a weird, blocky necklace.

The high jumped stunned the girl for a moment; Maci managed though to stutter a “mercy” in her own tongue of french, except that it made the stranger tilt their head.

Finley- “ Uhhhh- Messi?”, his checks blushed at the idea of being compared with such a legend of a player. “ I don’t think I’m anywhere that good- but thanks?”

Maci- “ What, no” , she said snapping back to her normal self. “ I said thank you. For saving the ball” A bit of awkward silence brewed, but Maci didn’t allowed it to sway her. “ Nice jump by the way. You also a football player?”

Finley-“ Well, uhm, oh right. I’m Finley; from the accent and appearance, I’m guessing you must be Maci-”

Maci- “ Qui, I guess people have been talking about-”

Finley-“ Lady Brigit’s tag along?”

A roar that could break the sound barrier parsed through the girl’s mind and she feel how her fingers arched, aching. But at the same she could tell Finley didn’t appear to meant anything by the question, so- “ No, I’m her Fect partner. Who said I’m a ‘tag along’? What’s this all about?”

Finley- “My bad. Lord Feth and K- well he and someone talked about the humans that are currently in Caer and- you know what, nevermind that. Let’s just forget I ever said something silly, ok? And hey, nice to meet a fellow Fect partner. As for your first question, more like a hobby, I’m like a reserve in my school’s team.”

Maci- “I’ll- sure, ok I’ll drop the tag along thing” she smiled, planing her next step for it- “After Brigit tells me something embarrassing about Feth and I’ll make fun of him for.” “ The other part is cool though. I’m actually the captain and goalkeeper of my school’s team”, to which Finley wanted to roll their eyes, but stopped midway.

Finley- “A captain, huh? And a goalkeeper as well. Guess you’re in charge with picking up the members as well, right?”

Maci-“ Eh, so and so. My vote is almost a half of the total needed to approve new people. My vice and the players from each position also have something to say.”

That surprised and irked Finley a bit. Mostly out of a sense of jealousy, a feeling he deemed unpalatable and never acknowledged it. “ So if someone wants to be in defense, the current members can say yes or no?”

Maci- “ Yep… Is that weird? Thought it was standard rule everywhere.”

Finley-“ No…not everywhere. Not back home.” The boy then got silent, caught a bit in his thoughts. So was Maci, who was starting to feel like the silence was again prickling her.

Maci- “ Oh, right. You found yourself a job yet?”

As if pulled from a daze, Finley shook their head for a bit. “ Wha- Here? In Caer? Ugh, yeah, I’m helping out at the healing center; carrying boxes, shirts, manual stuff like that. Why?”

A few minutes later, the two teens wandered the white halls of a longest building in city; the acrid air from a mixture of alcohol and herbs with intense smells burned Maci’s nose, while Finley seemed used to it by now. The boy stopped by a few open arched doors and greeted the patients inside, even though most of them didn’t knew who he was.

Maci-“ Do you really know all of these people?”

Squinting, Finley turned towards her and replied with a pitched surprised “No?”, before doing it once more. “ The nurses drilled it into me to check on each room, see if there’s any emergency to report or the like.”

Maci- “Huh. Thought there would be some kind of system put in place.”

Finley-“ Not yet. It’s apparently ‘human tech waiting for approval’ or the like.”

Maci-“ Approval? From who?”

-“Beats me.”, said Finley shrugging. “ Oh, mind if we visit one room before meeting with the wing’s chief?”

Suspicious, Maci dragged her throat for a bit before agreeing to it. “Someone you know?”

Finley- “ My…Fect partner. She’s been hospitalized for a few days now.”

The throat felt dry; the insides felt like nothing liquid had touched them for days now. All around the room, countless empty bottles started to stack into the corner, dying the wall of it’s color with how they kept of reflecting sunlight.

Kira already left her healing pod and dragged her barely reactive legs to the bathroom. It’s been two days since she woke up and ever since, a dryness in her body has been kept her glued to any source of water.

She was sitting under the shower head, mouth wide open and letting the cold jet of water hit throat for minutes now. The thirst subsided for only a moment, though, and as after each drink she could feel as if her body was turning into a desert.

Kira- “ Please, please end already”, she wept without dropping a single tear, or unable to, only the water from the shower irrigated her eyes. Then she heard a creak a few doors away and immediately turned down everything. She couldn’t take the chance of someone, anyone seeing her like this.

Maci- “ So what’s the deal with these powers, anyway? Why do we have to-”

Finley- “ Go through so much formality? Unfortunately, again, it beats me. I’ve been vising this world for over two years now and I can tell you one - well two things. Firgs make for more interesting subjects for photo shots! And two, there are still a few of them that just…dislike us? Humans, I mean.”

Even though he was hinting that there was more history between this world and theirs that made the two wary of each other, Maci learned a bit already from her library run with Lian. The Layered Domains might appreciate humans, but that didn’t mean that firgs followed the example.

Maci- “ Two years?”, the girl exclaimed in shock, brushing aside the other depressing part. She knew that the interdimensional travel was more trivial these days, but even she didn’t received a permit until her grandfather came alongside as her guardian. “ By yourself or with a adult supervisor?”

Finley- “ Hmm? Is there a rule that you can’t come by yourself? That finnish guy, Tommen, also travels by himself. ” he snapped an answer, forgetting that Tommen was in his early twenties. They felt as if they were a burglar caught right in the act.

Twirling the tips of her hair, Maci used that circular motion to rotate her mind wheels and remember if the rule was optional or not, but truth be told, her parents took care of the paper work. So, at this point, who really know.

Maci- “ Fine, but still, I’m a bit jealous now; 2 years of visiting an alien world, making friends with goofy looking creatures- it’s like, feels like a dream, isn’t it?”

Finley- “Maybe for some. I never went past Caer Sidi; way to dangerous from what I’ve been told. Believe it or not, there aren’t that many safe layers out there. Besides, I would never risk Kira getting hurt- we’re in the middle of building a brand around her back in the human world and she’s easily becoming a star.”

Maci- “ Like a celebrity? How come-”, but then she remembered learning about the firgs living in the human world. Few in number, but some of them were allowed by the world’s government special visas for work and living.

Finley- “The online world loves her, dude! We’re talking holographic streams, she knows how to spin a boring Caer Sidi tale into exciting content: Kira’s got everything: charm, a bubbly camera personality and the hunger for the adoration!”

Maci- “ I’m not really into that type of content, I guess. I never -” but then she remembered something. A little figurine one of her teammates showed around the locker room. “ Wait, you guys are already selling key figurines of her?”

No reply, Finley just pulled one out of his pocket and gifted it to Maci, who mumbled another weird “mercy.”

Finley- “ No thanks necessary, just consider it an investment in gaining a new fan.”

As if she was rehearsed this for quite a few times before, when the two teens entered her room, Kira was in her pod, staring serenely out the window and greeted them with a smile. A blanket covered the piles of empty bottles, appearing way to out of place.

Kira- “ A new face?”, she asked with a forced sweetness. “ A pretty face, for that matter. Right, Finley?”

While Maci got stumped and red immediately, Finley started to ponder. “ Well, now that you say, her face some nice features.”

Maci- “I’m gonna smack your features around if you don’t stop this!”

Finley- “ What?”, they asked genuinely confused, then turned to Kira who soundlessly mimicked the word “tact”.

Finley- “ Tact?…Oh, oh, tact!”, and then noticed how red Maci turned. “ I didn’t mean- I mean- I was saying that you would look on camera. Maybe on a segment of our web show.”

Maci- “…No? I don’t even-”

Kira-“ Segment with her? Why, what can she do?”

Finley- “ She’s a goalkeeper. And a football fan, like me.”

Kira- “Ah, a tomboy and a sports person. Athlete, huh?.”

Focusing only on the first part, Maci didn’t cared to play nice anymore- “ Wow, look at you, playing an archaeologist today? Is your show about digging out ancient insults?”

With that, Kira got out of her bed and grabbed Maci by her hands. “ PERFECT! The spunk, the quips, oh it’s everything we looked for. Tell me, what do you want from me for 15 minutes of fame?”

To her surprise, the small coral firg was much stronger than Maci expected, as she couldn’t escape her grasp at all. She struggled and forced her arms out of her grip, dismissing her proposal as a stupid request. What could this red snatcher have to offer to her? She was only a tiny online celebrity, working in Caer Sidi to-

Maci- “ You’re the assistant of one those Union members, right?”

Kira’s eyes brightened and her arms turned to mush- “ Mister Feth, yes, we’re…working very close. When the other librarian”, she said, almost snarling-“ isn’t around, I carry mister’s book, and transcribe all of his notes, and- actually I’m not allowed to make coffee anymore- uhm, anyway yes. Wait, why do you ask?”

Maci- “ Brigit has been…well, she’s been avoiding helping me out with something. Here it goes- I want you to find out from Feth if Arim is related to me somehow. Then I’ll do anything you ask of me on your show.”

Both Finley and Kira weren’t sure how to react, both a bit unsure of what she meant. “ What, uh, what do you mean?”

Maci-“ I want to know if Arim is my brother or not.”

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