Chapter 14

Sai finds a place in the corner of the sitting room to stand maintaining the same downtrodden expression. In the armchair, Rumi’s crossed arms and legs make me feel like I’m about to get scolded.

Deciding to leave out any parts of the story that might get them worked up such as some of the things he said to me, I tell them about my encounters with Asher. Of course, I make sure to emphasize that Asher is a noble meaning that no violence is allowed.

Despite my best efforts, they end up being meaningless. The first sign that this conversation has gone awry is when I hear something crunch and then crack. By the time I realize that the cause is Rumi gripping the wooden arm rest of the chair hard enough for them to break, Sai's already yelling.

“Where is that piece of trash Asher?!”

Motioning for Sai to take a seat next to me on the sofa across from Rumi, I analyze the chair that Rumi broke and wonder if we’ll have to pay for that. Probably. Sai hesitates before compiling, but his face tells me he’ll bolt out of here in search of Asher the first moment he gets.

I decide to put a stop to his plans. “It doesn’t matter where he is since you’re not going to do anything. Honestly, I’m hoping he’s called it quits and went back to the capital.”

Sai’s fists clutch tighter as he says, “Not a chance. He hates the word no.”

Other than the destruction of the arm rest of his chair, Rumi’s anger is much less visible than Sai’s. He just taps his temple with his pointer finger considering. “Elorn? Why does that last name sound so familiar?”

“I’m not sure if you even ran into him, but he went to Sai’s school years ago.”

Rumi snaps and points to Sai. “I remember. That’s the kid yoo got in that fight with.”

“He got in a what?!” Sai averts his eyes as I turn my entire body in his direction.

Rumi holds up his hand as he explains. “I would like to start this story by saying that Sai told me he talked to yoo about it. So technically, he lied to both of us.”

Sai glares at him, but it doesn’t stop Rumi from giving me the details of the event that inevitably led to Sai’s absence from the school.

It seems didn’t drop out; he was kicked. After getting into a fight with Asher, he was told to call an adult and this schemer called Rumi saying he was our guardian. Since Rumi was only showing up to retrieve Sai and leave, the teachers didn’t ask any questions.

I bury my face in my hands as I try to reconcile my cute innocent baby brother with the schemer that managed to trick every adult in his life.

My voice is muffled by my hands over them as I ask, “Why did you get into a fight?” Not the best question right now, but I’m not what else to ask at this point.

Sai gives up on glaring at as he leans against back of the sofa. “Does it matter? He’s an asshole and the argument ended up in a fight.”

“At this point, no it doesn’t matter since we can’t change what’s already happened. But I just want to hear the truth. I feel like I haven’t heard that from you for a while now.”

Sai flinches letting me know he at least feels some guilt about his lies. “Blue, that’s not fair.”

“It isn’t?” Raising my head up I sweep my gaze from Sai and then to Rumi who I ask for confirmation, “What do you think? Was that a fair question?”

“Sounded fair to me.”

“Why are you even here?” Sai asks Rumi in a tone that frays the last nerve I have holding my patience and sanity together.

“Because Sai, we are walking a thin edge of survival and the one person that has kept us from going over is Rumi.” Sai’s eyes are burning with the words he’s holding back.

I’m pretty sure I know what he wants to say. He’s said it before. That we should run to get away from Rumi since the less people that know my secret, the better. Pretty much, he wants to leave Wirra, this city, and everyone we know behind us.

Moving on from this topic, I ask Rumi about Sai’s military service and what we should do since we haven’t talked about it with all three of us here.

Before Rumi gets a chance to answer, I hear Sai murmur, “You never listen.”

I bite back my first retort which is to say that he never tells me anything, and I can’t listen to what I don’t hear. But that comment would just shut Sai down and prove his point.

“Alright. The room is yours.” Sai’s chewing on the inside of his lip when my attention is directed at him. I don’t rush him.

“I don’t see why we can’t leave this place and move to the capital. You always say we can’t, but you won’t tell me why. If we had been in the Capital to begin with, I could have become a cadet at ten and served a part of my mandatory service at home while still getting paid. That way, this wouldn’t have been all on you. So why? Why are we just stuck here?”

My eyes close as Sai finishes his argument. We’ve had discussions like this before, but we’ve never outright talked about it. My main reason is that I don’t want to scare him. But maybe it’s because I never explained the reality of our situation that he did things on his own.

“First off. You know what I am Sai, because of it, you know that the overwhelming presence of soldiers and law enforcement in the capital is too much of a risk for me.” Sai tries to say something to counter my response, but I hold my hand up to stop him. “The other part has to do with my season. In the Chaos season, people are either born strong, or their bodies are consumed by the power they can’t control. The fact that there hasn’t been anything happening for me means that my body might not be able to…control it.”

Since we’re in public I’m trying to explain to Sai without telling him that since I’m an unregistered mythic, going to the capital is pretty much a death sentence. Not only that, but mythics born in the Divinity of Chaos season are all extremely strong, but it’s that very strength that can turn poisonous.

I haven’t fully awakened yet which means that my body might not be able control my power. It’s highly likely that the moment I awaken, I’ll die. If that happens, I don’t want Sai to end up alone in the capital with no one to turn to.

Based on his expression, Sai’s not understanding me and I’m at a loss for how to explain this.

Rumi steps in, his words are blunt as he holds nothing back. “Within the next year or so, unless something changes, it’s likely that Blue will die. Because of what happened when she was younger, her using her…” –Rumi holds out his hands to instead using the word power— “it basically caused a crack to form in her foundation. Cracks are nearly impossible to repair.”

I’m watching Sai as his face goes from confused to annoyed at Rumi’s explanation.

“No she won’t.” Sai declares as if things like life and death were his to control.

“It’s a fact,” Rumi counters.

I send a glance Rumi’s way telling him to tone it down which he does. Sai turns to me searching my face for something. Maybe he’s waiting for me to deny it, or hoping I’ll tell him I have a plan and everything will be alright, but I don’t. There’s no plan but to wait and see.

Sai’s pulls away from me when I try to hug him and for a moment, I’m worried he’ll run out. Just as I’m about to comfort him, Sai grips my hand with the brand on it in a bruising grip as he locks eyes with me.

“I’ll fix this. You won’t die. I promise.”

I pursue my lips not knowing what to say. Logic tells me that there’s nothing we can do, but I can’t tell him he’s wrong. I know that if the situation was reversed, I would make a deal with any Divinity that would listen to save Sai.

Instead, I grip Sai’s hand back and smile as if I believe his words. Look at me being a hypocrite. After telling Sai that he should be honest, I turn around and do exactly what I told him not to.

Rumi clears his throat to get our attention. “I actually have some bads news, that might turn into something good if we play our hand right. I wanted to wait to tell yoo to be sure but, the soldiers from before, I think they might have figured out that you’re a…liability.”

“What soldiers?”

Sai’s voice fades as my brain goes all fuzzy. The memory of the voice’s words echoes in my head. You’re going to die.

“I’m going to die.”

Only when I feel hands gripping either side of my face do I register that Rumi’s standing in front of me. “Focus Blue. It’s too early to give up.”

Rumi’s steady presence brings me back from the dark place my mind was about to go to. He’s right. I need to keep it together or I’ll bring everyone down with me.

“What about you?” If they know I’m a mythic, then they have to know Rumi is too.

Sai asks his question again, but I hold my finger to my lips requesting that for now, he just listen.

“No. I got a lot more years on yoo so I can conceal it better. It’s because yoo haven’t fully awakened that it’s easier for a soul carver to identify yoo.”

When Rumi says soul carver, I remember the grinding feeling when that guy touched me.

“Are you sure he was one?”

Rumi nods his head in confirmation causing my stomach to churn. No wonder he hid it from me. I would have been freaking out and on edge this entire time if he had been upfront about what he thought. Rumi’s been thinking about what to do to help me this entire time. But that day, I got mad at him like brat throwing a tantrum. Great job me.

“Why didn’t you tell us?!” Sai yells.

I give him a reminder to take the volume down since we’re having a conversation that we don’t want to be overheard.

“I was hoping that I could figure out a better solution than one I came up with.” Rumi admits. After taking a deep breath, Rumi reveals his plans leaving me speechless. “We get yoo and Sai out of the country.”

“What? How are we even supposed to do that? They test everyone that leaves the country to see if they’re a mythic or not.” I hold up my hand to show the brand that I received at my coming-of-age ceremony. “All they need to do is track me with this and I’ll be dragged back.”

“We would have to use the back door. But by doing so, we might also be able to address your other problem.” Rumi hesitates before bringing up the part of the conversation that he likely knew I would hate the most. “If we can get someone that needs a source to syphon from, it can buy us more years for your body to hopefully repair the crack.”

After blinking a few times, I realize that Rumi is talking about illegally smuggling us out of the country and making me sign a slave contract. Some nobles and royals like to make slave contracts with mythics to syphon their powers and use it for themselves. They won’t be able to use any special abilities the mythic might have, but they’ll get a longer life span and often times healing abilities. The problem is, if they take too much which isn’t uncommon, the contractee would die.

“Absolutely not.”

“If yoo stay Blue, yoo die. Having nothing is better than that. And a few more years are still a few more years. Contract or not. We can negotiate the terms so you can live a normal life.”

I don’t stop shaking my head. No matter what, I refuse to sign my life away to someone like that.

“Yoo have to trust me Blue.” Rumi’s words pierce my heart. If he’s genuinely asking me to trust him like that, how am I supposed to say no.

Sinking into the sofa I ask, “How long do we have to think about this?”

“We don’t need to think about it. We’ll find someone to get us out. Tonight, if possible.” Sai’s eagerness throws me.

I’m about to explain that we should take time to consider all our options when someone pounds on the door. I don’t have to wait long to figure out who it is.

His screeching voice is muffled through the door, but it’s just as annoying as ever. “Open up Blue! Come out while I’m being nice.”

Rumi and Sai are both staring at the door with grins on their faces. Great. This idiot doesn’t realize that he’s about to forfeit his life. And for what? A bruised pride.

“Look at that. Didn’t even have to look for him,” Rumi beams.

“Umm, maybe we should just ignore him. I’m sure he’ll get bored and go away.”

The pounding on the door intensifies as Asher yells threats and insults at me. “You better open this door you useless whore. If you don’t, I’ll make sure that you’ll suffer for the rest of your life.”

Well, I tried.

“Would you like to open the door, or should I?” Sai inquires to Rumi.

Rumi bows and lets his voice get velvety smooth when he replies. “Allow me.”

All I can do is groan and put my head in my hands. Why do I get the feeling that this is going to get unnecessarily complicated?

When the door opens, Asher doesn’t even acknowledge Rumi. He simply makes his way towards me as if I’m the only one in the room. As expected, he doesn’t make it within arms reach of me before he’s yanked back by Sai.

“Long time no see Asher.”

Despite Asher’s bravado a few seconds ago, his face goes slack when he recognizes Sai. Given his reaction, I have a feeling that Sai won that fight two years ago.

Ehh, screw it. As long as they don’t go too far, a little payback isn’t a bad thing.

“I believe you met before, but since it’s been a while—Asher, this is my brother Sai. And that, is Rumi.”

Rumi’s smile is bright and honestly, terrifying.

In Asher fashion, he doesn’t get the hint that Rumi’s a threat. “What do you want lady?”

Rumi skips up to Asher and without hesitation, punches him in the face. I wince at the sight and the crunching sound. I’m pretty sure Rumi broke his jaw. Now limp, Sai drops Asher on the floor with a thud.

“I’m pretty sure he’s reporting that.” Despite knowing that, I can’t help the smile on my face. I really hope that hurts when he wakes up.

“No, he won’t. He’s too prideful to admit that a woman knocked him out with one punch. And besides, I’m going to get rid of him.”

Something about the way Sai said the last sentence unsettles me. “Define, get rid of him.”

“I mean drop him off in the slums and let someone finish him off.” Sai explains as if that’s the most reasonable action to take.

“Absolutely not. Drop him off somewhere on the street. We’re not killing or assisting in the killing of anyone. Ever.”

Sai’s face strains from frustration, but I’m not done yet. “Also, you better not go into the slums. If I ever find out that you did, you’re grounded.”

He doesn’t answer me. It would be hard to when he’s fighting so hard not to smile. I’m not sure what I’ve said in this conversation to make Sai laugh, but nothing is funny about this.

“Just drop him off in an alleyway. Make sure to dump some alcohol over him so people just think he’s a drunk and ignore him.” Rumi suggests as he takes out a handkerchief and wipes the blood off his hand.

“Fine.” Sai relents with a huff as he picks up the still passed out Asher. It takes a second, but with Rumi’s help, they make it look like Sai’s just carrying a drunk friend.

When Sai leaves with Asher, Rumi’s face turns serious. “We should get out of here. I don’t know how he found out you were here so fast, but just to be safe no more hotels. For now, you can stay at the gambling house, Night Spade. I already talked to the owner and had your stuff delivered. Since only women can live there, you should be safe.”

“And you? What happens if he manages to track you down?” I’m worried about both Sai and Rumi getting in trouble for this, but mainly Rumi since he’s the one that knocked Asher out.

Rumi winks at me as he says, “he can try.”

Sweet Divinities. What is wrong with this goddess faced violence loving demon?

“You just said that out loud Blue.”

“Oh, whoops.”