Getting into the backseat, she leaned back and let out all the tension closing her eyed. God she had been nervous.
“Maybe I should have called mom for help, or Chry, or anyone else for that matter, before asking those questions.” Titania muttered and in front of her Drake shrugged his shoulders.
“They would have asked the same question as you with little difference, their result might have been different but it is too late for thinking about that.”
“Encouraging”
“What else are we possibly interested in more than that? He himself? He is a small fish in a pond full of predators. The only thing that would have been different is that your sister would have made a few more innuendos, and your mother would have simply castrated him if he had the cheek to ask the questions the same way he asked you.” Drake told her entering the speedway going to the city borders the hover car speeding up. “Neither would have been any more successful with a guy like him if you ask me though.”
Well I cannot really disagree.
“So basically, we are back where we started.” She said, sighing and leaning back, “Great.”
“Not entirely; now you have no reason to hide anymore, and neither does he. You have to keep the act up in school so there are plenty of opportunities to get some information out of him.”
“If I don’t give him any accidentally.”
“It may happen, but Miss, we can deal with it. Do not worry, this is a trial run. If you make a mistake we simply get rid of him.”
“I do not know if I should feel comfortable with how easily you say that.”
“Don’t feel comfortable, it would make you a monster. But remember; we are Tarajan. Any sign of weakness or hesitation on our side and we will find ourselves slaughtered. Our mere existence is not supposed to be there since it proves that even people from your mother’s origin, from our people's origin can prove themselves valuable and powerful, it threatens them with that fact alone.”
“But we have no intention to harm them, we would be happy just to be left in peace.”
“Change, Miss, their fear changes and our existence proves the possibility of it. Ever since the monsters came to be, our society has not changed. The powerful families, who established themselves at the beginning, recruit every talent that they can find and most companies of any significance above a store or two have to affiliate themselves with one of them to survive. In exchange people will be left largely alone to develop and can dwell safely within the cities.” He explained, “Now we have the fact that Tarajan, who is not even twenty years old, rose up to match them from literally nowhere. Worse, most of us come from the reaches, the slums, zones of the poor and ability-less. Especially your birth has proven it even more. Rare abilities, powerful abilities outside their control. They detest that, and they take all opportunities to ruin us. Yet they never really succeeded. We are painted as evil, as rotten, and as despicable. It is not wrong, it is true and we do not hide it but still more and more people flock to us, do you know why?”
“Because we protect them?”
“Yes, but that is only partially true, it is because we represent change to their monopoly. If they find out about what happened with little Dex they will stop at nothing to hunt you down, it would be the final straw and although strong we have not yet reached a level of power where we could face them if they decide to stop playing like they do now.”
“Try taking us sneakily without raising public attention.” Titania concluded and earned an affirmative humm from Drake.
Thinking back this is the first time I heard Drake talk so much.
Their car slowed as it left the speedway, passing by a few gray looking apartment buildings rising into the sky. They were coated in graffiti and unlike the piristrine counterparts of earlier, trash was found in some corners. Seeing their car the people in the streets stopped, some of them bowed, an elderly man respectfully tipped his hat in their direction. It was the beginning of Tarajan Territory within the city.
“It feels strange.” Dex suddenly muttered looking outside of the tinted glass, “I was there once.”
“Now you are here.” Titania said and looked at the people outside, knowing a great majority of them were abilityless or so low ranking they were considered useless for anything but cannon fodder in any kind of conflict.
Suddenly, they passed someone in loose but better clothing, surrounded by children. A kindergartener saw them and bowed the deepest of all, the metal around her neck in the form of a phoenix. The buildings passed by and they gazed at the first outreaches of the slums. The streets were even worse here, the asphalt ending and becoming bare ground. Even there, those that saw the car pass by showed respect.
Closing her eyes Titania looked at her hands, this is what they protected after all. The Slums and the lower working class. People who had nowhere to go. Both zones had been built in the monster days, outside citywide protection. Only few had protected them, until the Tarajan claimed it, what was considered worthless transformed into a safe zone.
Their mother once had been offered better territory by the government and the families but declined, “I will not forget where I came from, why should I claim a territory where I have no connection to, I prefer what I know.”
Then she had shut the door on them. Remembering back, it had been the one and only time that those people offered anything to them. The fact that someone could protect those without abilities and give them the possibility to spread their worthless genes further bothered those in power more than all other things.
Still every single employee for the Tarajan, no matter their rank, came from here. Some exhibited talent that surpassed those from the better zones even though they had magicless parents.
They turned away, green starting to break through thicker and thicker until they reached the first edges of the small Tarajan forest. The street got narrow as they reached the gates and entered, leaving behind the sprawling city.
The garage door opened and Drake drove in, the gate closing behind them. Putting his car between the others, Titania and Dex left.
“Young Miss, I suggest you go to the madame first; she will like to hear what happened today.” Drake said and took a few purchases with him. “Dexter, if you’d kindly follow me, I still need to show you a few things. Then, your combat teacher has finally arrived, although training will start tomorrow you might want to meet him before that.”
Curious, Titania looked at them and opened her mouth as she saw Drake shaking his head. Apparently, it was not for her to interfere. Nodding obediently, she decided to follow the butler's words and went upstairs to meet her mother when she stopped in her tracks seeing a very, very rare visitor.
One of Chrys birds, Zhu Wei, she had only met him once but she knew him to be fragile looking. Sometimes he even looked like he would break apart with the slightest gust of wind. Even though he was a powerful magic user in his own right.
A pair of pupiless white eyes stared at her. His hair was short and true dark red, glittering in the sun. He seemed emaciated, nothing more than skin and bones. bowing his head slowly, the silken shawl that covered his shoulders slipped from them. Hastily, he put it back, as if he was cold.
“Hello young Miss.” He drawled, his voice little more than a whisper.
She bowed back, “Zhu Wei.”
He faintly smiled at her, “It is nice hearing your voice again, it will probably be the last time, may I ask for your hand?”
Titania felt how her jaw went slack; Zhu Wei never asked for touch, never. Even Chry never put a finger on him, despite the fact that he was one of her birds. He was too fragile she said, too sensitive to touch, his ability making it so.
Zhu Wei was a seer, not a particularly rare power, but its owners were short lived. She knew for a fact he was one of the most long lived of his kind thanks to the fact he was one of the birds, only in contact with a strictly limited number of people.
Whenever a seer touched another person, a connection would be formed. The seer would experience visions, all of the most likely futures of their pair revealed. It was something that often drove one mad. Overcome by the numerous possibilities, the seer would fail to care for themselves in the present; more than once Zhu Wei had been forcibly fed by Chry or one of the other birds.
This was what he was now offering her. Hesitatingly, Titania reached out a hand and lightly touched his. For several breathless moments they stood like that, until Zhu Wei eventually broke the contact, shaking like a leaf all the while.
“Thank you.” he muttered and went on his way.
“Everything okay?” she asked but Zhu Wei was already gone.
I really need to learn that vanishing into thin air trick at some point, why is it everyone knows how to pull it and leave me standing.
