Chapter 261: The Price

Kaitlynn stops eating her lemon square mid-bite, her eyes wide. “Duh pwice?” she asks with her mouth still half-full. “What pwice?!”

I squint at him. “Oh come on, you’re messing with us, right? Trisha hasn’t mentioned a thing about us paying her back!”

He lets out a sigh. “It may seem like Trisha doesn’t ask for anything in return, but she actually keeps a meticulous tab for each and every one of her patrons. And once you’ve hit a certain mysterious threshold—known only to her—she will come to collect.”

Kaitlynn audibly swallows the rest of her bite. “What... what does she collect?”

“Some of her drones,” he intones gravely, “write these plays. The rest of her deliberately avoids knowledge of them, so the pieces can be performed for her. She just needs... actors.”

“So that’s why you declined her lemon square just now...” I mutter, as a shiver runs down my spine. “You made the right call.”

Kaitlynn blinks. “What? What are you on about? She just asks people to act in her plays, what’s so bad about that?”

Akir sombrely shakes his head. “It’s worse than you think. She delights in coming up with the most embarrassing parts possible, personalised to the performers. I had to play a valiant warrior who defeated some terrible beast to save his beloved.”

“Aww, but that’s cute!” she protests.

“I had to defeat him in a dance battle! While singing a duet with my opponent about our ‘feet of fury!’ ”

Kaitlynn bites her lip, clearly feigning her lack of understanding as she asks, “So?”

“Look at me! I don’t even have feet!”

His indignant tone is too much and I can’t help but crack up.

Akir turns narrowed eye-slits towards me. “Go ahead and yuck it up, girl. How many of those have you had?” he asks, pointing at the lemon square still in my hand.

That shuts me up quickly. I look down at the offending object like it’s a venomous viper. Shit. I’ve already lost count...

“Well, but we’re in hiding right now,” I reply hesitantly. “And Goddess asked her to shelter us, so... she wouldn’t count these, right?”

Akir just stares at me, schadenfreude in his eyes.

I look down at the lemon square again. “Well, I accepted this one, so I guess it’s already on the tab,” I mutter, before mournfully taking another bite. Goddess that’s good.

Kaitlynn shakes her head with a grin. “You guys are nuts.”

“There’s no hope for this one, is there?” Akir asks me in a conspiratorial tone.

“None whatsoever,” I reply, upon which I have to duck another pillow.

The conversation meanders after that, as we chat about inane things. My stomach sinks a little when Akir finally gets up from the couch, but his next words surprise me. “So. Where are you keeping the Peilor? I’d like to meet her.”

I share a glance with Kaitlynn.

She shrugs. “That shouldn’t be a problem, right?”

“I suppose not. You wanna do the honours, then?”

She nods happily and jumps up from her seat to bound over to a bookcase in the corner, where she pushes against one of the spines until there’s an audible click.

To be honest, I find this additional security measure a bit silly, but I guess it can’t hurt.

The bookcase silently swings open—fine, it’s kinda cool—revealing a spartan, windowless room where Suri’s humanoid conjuration is sitting cross-legged on a mat, her eyes focused on the book of puzzles in her lap.

She looks up when the three of us enter, cyan irises tracking us as we move through the sound-suppressing field and into the utter silence.

“Oh?” she chimes once we’re all inside and able to hear her. “What’s this now? A visitor?”

“Suri, this is Akir,” I say simply. “He wanted to meet you.”

“I see. And to what do I owe the pleasure?”

“Curiosity, mostly,” Akir replies politely, for once not grunting or grumbling.

“Come to see the captured crystal, then?” she asks dryly. “The muzzled menace? The paralysed parasite?”

I manage to refrain from rolling my eyes. Since Suri actually speaks English, she’s probably doing the alliterations just to get a rise out of me, and I’m not willing to grant her the satisfaction.

Akir smiles gently with his eyes. “I came to see something far more interesting, actually. The product of a society built out of arrogant self-interest, who managed a change of heart.”

Suri is silent for a moment as she studies him. “Why, you make me sound almost admirable. Is that it, then? Are you here to help inspire me to fully turn my coat, as it were?”

Akir shakes his head. “Not really—well, I’d love to, of course, but it’s not why I’m here. I just thought you might want a listening ear, from someone who knows what it’s like to gain a shift in perception.”

Suri doesn’t reply, continuing to weigh him with her eyes as Akir turns to us.

“Think I could talk to her one on one for a bit?”

I raise a questioning brow at Kaitlynn. She bites on her lip for a second, then nods. “Sure. Why not, right?”

“Why indeed,” Suri sighs wistfully.

“Hey, you made us those promises yourself,” I can’t help but point out before I turn back to Akir. “Just knock on the bookcase if you want to leave.”

And with that, Kaitlynn and I leave the room. The bookcase falls shut behind us with a gentle click.

Frankly, there’s no need for Akir to knock. Trisha’s field of silence only stops soundwaves from leaving the room. It does nothing to stop me from knowing everything that goes on in there.

But I’m not about to say that out loud. Kaitlynn already knows, and I’m more than happy to grant Akir and Suri the illusion of privacy.

Despite his offer of a listening ear, Akir does most of the talking, telling stories.

I suppose he must’ve collected a lot of those, by now.

They cover a range of subjects, and while relatively few of them seem directly applicable to Suri’s situation, I definitely notice some themes come by rather frequently.

Beliefs. Hope. Change.

Suri listens attentively, and asks some rather sharp questions, but none of it seems to stymie Akir.

It’s hard to say if what her conjuration portrays means anything, of course, but he eventually leaves her behind looking thoughtful.

I didn’t direct my full attention to listening—I was actually chatting with Kaitlynn simultaneously—so I didn’t catch every word, but one thing Akir said sticks with me.

‘The road to redemption is not an easy one, but it wouldn’t be worth walking if it was.’

Unexpectedly, after Akir comes out of the secret room, he sits back down on the couch.

“Wait, you’re staying?’ I ask, bemused.

“Emma!” Kaitlynn exclaims, slapping me on the upper arm.

“What? Oh, I didn’t mean it like that; you’re more than welcome to stay, Akir, but... won’t it be suspicious if you hang around here for too long?”

“You clearly haven’t been to one of Trisha’s high teas yet,” Akir remarks dryly. “Though I admit, it’s been a while for me too. I’m not a big fan of the stage. Anyway, yes, I’m staying. Goddess asked me to stick around till she got here, I didn’t get specifics.”

I shrug. “Okay. Well, the more the merrier.”

Those words naturally come to bite me in the ass mere minutes later, when Raindrop shows up with Dio.

Nah, just kidding, I like the little rascal.

Raindrop is just like I remember her: a storm of energy. The way she rushes in and repeatedly shrieks my name in her own special way of pronouncing it, suddenly makes me very glad for the sound barriers.

“Oh Eh-ma, I was so worried for you!” she chitters, pulling out of our hug to give me a once over.

For once, I have to be careful when I hug her. Her spiritform, which once felt as unmovable as a concrete wall, is now no more than a solid weight in my arms.

“Raindrop, meet Kaitlynn!” I quickly say, the hairs on the back of my neck rising from the somewhat frosty expression my expertly tuned senses detect on my girlfriend’s face behind me.

“Oh, Kait-lynn!” Raindrop croons, hopping over to throw her feathered arms around the girl in question. “It’s so nice to meet you!”

That seems to be enough to break the ice, and Kaitlynn smiles lopsidedly as she returns the sudden affection. “Likewise, Raindrop.”

For a little while, our small room turns lively with chittering.

However, Dio quickly grows bored with our small talk and starts poking around the room, apathetically pecking at stuff the way birds are wont to do.

“Dio, stop that!” Raindrop chastises when his beak knocks a small wooding carving of a moose off a shelf.

“Whatever, mom,” he scoffs as he picks it up and puts it back with an audible clack. “How much longer are we going to hang here? You do know I have music lessons in a bit, right?”

“Music lessons?” Kaitlynn asks with interest sparkling in her eyes.

“My little boy is learning how to play the fiddle!” Raindrop proudly squawks in reply.

Dio rolls his eyes. “Ugh, mom, how many times do I have to say it? The Violator is a viola, not some lame fiddle.”

The meaning he puts into the word Violator brings an image to my mind of a five-stringed instrument painted entirely black and decorated with silver skulls in all shapes and sizes, and I have to press a hand over my mouth to contain my laughter.

“Oh yes yes, I know honey,” Raindrop croons, before turning to me apologetically. “He’s right, though; we really should go.”

Apparently she hasn’t been asked to stick around by Goddess.

I smile at her. “Go. You know where to find me, so I’m sure I’ll see you again soon.”

It grows quiet after they leave, and I use my senses to watch them leave the teahouse and fly off, Raindrop still happily chittering to her son.

“That Dio is quite a character,” Kaitlynn states, poking me in the side with a glint in her eyes as she continues, “I bet he’d get along well with Kirri.”

I can’t help but frown. “Kirri and I are only just starting to get along again. Let’s not complicate matters by introducing another moody teen into the mix please.”

Kaitlynn shrugs. “I’m just saying. She could use a friend who’s in, like, a similar phase of development.”

I let out a sigh. “You might be right. It’ll have to wait, though; Herman’s Haven is a little harder to visit inconspicuously than the teahouse, at least when it’s supposed to be closed for the rehabilitation of an Ascendant.”

“We could work on an excuse for them to visit,” Akir grunts thoughtfully. “Supply deliveries or the like. We still need a way to smuggle you girls over there once in a while as well.”

“We’ll figure something out,” I agree. “Anyway... she seems happy.”

Akir nods. “She does.”

“Good. I’m glad.”

On a whim, I grab Kaitlynn’s hand and intertwine our fingers. She cocks her head at me, questioningly, but I just shake my head and smile at her.

It was nice to see Raindrop again. I’ll always have a bit of a soft spot for the first friend I made in the Realm of Imagination, but despite what Goddess suggested once, I’ve never doubted who I want to be with.

Speak of the devil...

My spine automatically straightens when my senses pick up the presence of the most powerful Apex I’ve ever felt.

Goddess is here. And as promised, she didn’t show up alone.

Author's note:

And, was the reveal worth the wait? ;)