Harry woke up to her communicator blinking on the side table
and she didn’t remember sitting it there, but she also doubted most of her
memories from the night before. She
wondered if she had consumed some odd amount of liquor, remembering that the
Sector spirits were often weaker with the military regulations. And the generally weaker stomachs that humans
kept about them, leading to the majority of her income as a teenager with an
overall lack of wages in the colony.
The sounds of someone breathing beside her verified the
memories floating around her mind and questioning the events. Buzzing sent the communicator off the table
and Harry rolled out of bed to follow it, falling onto floor after doubting the
distance between the two levels. In
between the stirrings from the body in the covers above, she found the pieces
of her clothing that she had folded up the night before and slipped out the
window. After waiting on the sill for a
moment, pieces of her mind clicked back together and plotted back a map of the
necessary balconies and rooftops necessary for the location on her handheld.
Several rooftops, three side streets, and two trips on
separate hay wagons later, all while in the obviously royal crimson cloak,
Harry tapped a wooden cane against the door of a cottage far out from any edge
of the main town. She had picked it up
somewhere along the trip out of the road, in the event there came a need to
mimic a certain earthen president. There
was a shuffling inside, the sound of glasses being knocked together and metal
clicking across cobblestone, meaning she would not be met by the person she had
come to see.
“Ah Mrs. Grangear.
It’s been such a long time.”
The house keeper looked up to her with an odd smirk, opening
the door and ushering her inside with no amount of kindness. After the things Harry had done as a child or
what she had done just a few years ago when visiting the region as a teenager,
she couldn’t really blame the housekeeper for their feelings. A younger version of herself had a habit for
causing trouble that involved freezing many things, including the face of one
of the old lady’s eldest grandchildren.
“Mr. Macabre is within his study. Would you like to be introduced?”
“It’s really not necessary.”
Harry tried to let the protest slip out but the old lady was already within her
process. This really wasn’t a scenario
where she wanted anyone involved, still questioning why Grangear wasn’t
questioning her own presence. She
doubted that he would have had a middle man in their contact. There was already enough paranoia running
through her blood and it was hard to beat it back, even with the cane currently
being held in her hand. Even more
surprise rose from the fact that no one tried to take it away from her.
“He is ready for your presence.”
“Already?”
“We have been waiting.”
The housekeeper opened the oak door, threw Harry inside, and
left. She shouldn’t have been surprised
by the rough motion, thinking back once more about how her favorite thing to do
was piss people off. At least that was
her favorite thing when she had only spent eight years upon the lands and
hadn’t been off to war yet. The idea of
her favorite activity of torture was still running through her mind as a figure
approached from the shadows.
“Does the bird rise before dawn in the hollow?”
“Only to slaughter the worm that may bring the harvest.”
For a slight moment, she had worried about forgetting any of
the pass signs, an unusual remnant of the childhood she had spent living in
Macabre’s attic. Her mother had never
been a fan of the old medicine man, thought that he was corrupting Harry’s soul
by allowing her to have dreams of a future.
That was all the more reason to rush to his offices every day after
finishing school and hope for the smell of poisonous perfumes funneling out of
the potion room.
All the more reason.
Another uncomfortable set of arms found their way around
Harry’s shoulders, bonier than any of the ones before. Harry was starting to be a bit tired of being
hugged but her mind pushed the awkward feeling back. Most of the people she had seen on the return
home had been rather glad that she had returned home, outside those few off
council members Cara had drug her past during lunch. If it hadn’t of been for Cara’s gloved hand
that held her own from getting to the
thigh holsters, there would have been a fight in that corridor.
“Ah, Harry! You are
alive! You have returned to all of
us. Come, sit, sit.” He drug her along to a set of chairs by the
window where a kettle sat, still steaming and waiting to be poured into a
careful china set, then continued with the welcome home speech. “How do you feel being back to Tanis?”
“Well there’s certainly some things that I didn’t miss.” She gestured to the door while saying, “Old
Gin Gone Grangear out there hasn’t changed a bit and she certainly still
doesn’t like me.”
Macabre sat carefully in the chair across from her, looking
like at any moment he might crumble into a small ball if someone were to shout
too loudly. Immortal creatures like him
always looked so fragile on the outside but Harry had hung around the type long
enough they were a disaster waiting to happen.
Maybe there wasn’t always strength within someone’s limbs, but there was
strength within their minds. And this
was something that Harry had always been able to relate to, as someone who had
a different size and was born to be slightly weak by design. She wasn’t their type of warrior.
“You know you shouldn’t talk about her like that and just
move your head into that invisible off space.
Are you ready for a cup of tea before we have to make it all over
again? The kettle is getting cold.”
There was a little fight that was rising in Harry’s throat
and as much as she would have wished to fight anyone that tried to give her an
insult, there came the reminder of certain people. This feeling had started coming back since
she came into the area of the kingdom nearly a month ago.
“You know dear, my sister, Cati, and I are very much
alike. And even though I can only read
certain parts of the mind, I can tell that you have been avoiding us for quite
a long time. Maybe even that you have been
lying to the people that you hold most dear.”
“You can’t really judge me, Mack. You
didn’t tell them that you got married to that guy in the casino and you made an
eight year old keep that secret for all of this time.”
“Ah, I forgot that your memory was so good or I would have never had you be a
witness to all of that.”
Harry took another sip of the tea that had appeared in her
hand at some point in the process, in the same way that things had already been
appearing in the last day. That
certainly was not a feeling that she had missed. Though the sector had given her many hardships
and a lot of regrettable actions, independence existed there. Independence was the only feeling that most
of the people of the sector could feel but it was enough for her. The emotion of knowing that you weren’t
allowed to do anything for yourself had created some of the spite that Harry
had for her mother.
“How have you been, Mack?
Still the hell raiser you were when I left or did you mellow out to just
be a magic mushroom.”
“For once, your mother was right about something about you.”
“And when did you have the chance to talk to her royal highness about my
visit?”
“Oh, just shortly before you arrived. I
believe that she knew you were coming here all along, she certainly knows by
now that you wouldn’t have stood at the gates of Hell, just to come see her.”
“And?”
Harry knew that there must be more to the story than what he
was letting on. All of the stories in
Tanis were like that, very intricate spider webs, filled to the brim with lies,
thoughts and dead flies. The loose tea
leaves floated around the amber liquid in her cup, some sticking to the sides
while the others continued their race around the track. Sometimes she had forgotten about the joy in
slight, covert movements in life. How just
glancing down at the science happening in a tea cup could change the
perspective. And letting these careful
thoughts rise to the surface meant that Macabre could not read her feelings.
“And I know that there are a couple of people you came back
to see, including Cara, who I assume you’re going to sweep away on a white
horse. If you’re considering running
away to a romantic assignment, I have just the mountain cave in need of an
earth enchanter.”
“I can’t.”
“Why not join the League? It’s not the
easiest life but it ensures our employment and healthcare.”
He paused for a moment to read her face, setting down his tea and leaning
further across the table, then continued, “Is there some big reason?”
“I’m shipping off to the Federation base in six months to be a resistance
fighter on some little planet that they haven’t even told me the name of yet. It will most likely be a suicide mission and I
don’t wish to have too many connections, but I already ruined that.”
Macabre took the tea back into his hand and slid back into
the lounging position against the chair.
He would have a plan for her. Mack
always would come up with some sort of plan for whoever might come to him in a
time of need, no matter who it was or what purpose they sought after. He had a plan.
“Is it truly suicide or do you just not want to face the
consequences of returning home from another war?”
“I would guess to say that it is a bit of both.
The Federation is not much a fan of letting anyone know any details
until they are being dropped out of hover transport and diving to the ground.”
“Yes, but the Federation is also a fan of having many powerful assets. And no matter the attempts that you make to
deny your strength or worth, they will find you very valuable.”
“Perhaps.”
Harry let the silence fall when she only followed with a
single word, wishing to find a way out of the hole that she had dug but not in
a particular mood to give away all of her thoughts and feelings.
“You know I have methods of staying alive no matter the
situation. Let us have another kettle
put on and then take care of this matter.”
Harry drew the water from the tap, watching it spiral and
steam as it jumped into the kettle on the table.
“Ah, very good, my dear.
The tea should take just a few minutes then.”
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