(Author's note: I had the headache from hell while typing this one, so there are a few bits that I might end up going back to revise, soon as I can see straight again. No real changes in the details of the chapter, mind you...just rewording of some things that are bothering me a little right now, but I can't quite put my finger on them.)
“A very little while” turned into somewhere around eight hours or so. That wasn’t my plan, mind you…but having a private discussion on board a ship that was built for one or two people to travel comfortably, that was currently carrying four, was a bit on the tricky side. But eventually Biv dozed off, and Puck had to admit exhaustion himself, put the ship on autopilot, and recline the seat. It wasn’t long after that I could hear soft snoring coming from his general direction.
I was ready to drop. The few hours I’d gotten earlier had been drained out of me by our trip to crazyland afterwards, but sheer determination and burning curiosity kept me awake; there was no way I was going to fall asleep now and miss the chance to get my answers from Kiasis. Marching over to where she still sat, cross-legged, in perfect silence…and had for at least the last three hours now…I plopped down in front of her and waited.
Eventually, she noticed me staring at her and opened her eyes to stare at me, one eyebrow quirking briefly.
“Alright,” I said quietly. “Nobody else is listening. Spill it. What the hell happened to us earlier, there at the end?”
That gave her eyebrow another little twitch, but then her eyes slid closed again as if it was no particular cause for concern. “You were there as well as
“Yeah, I got that much, thanks. But what? And don’t even try to bullshit me that you have no clue.”
She was silent, and I just knew she was considering blowing me off. She probably felt me glaring daggers at her, because she opened her eyes again, looking faintly resigned. “Something or someone more powerful than myself. At least as powerful as Tengu himself, and with some unknown motivation to protect our passage.”
That made no sense to me at all though. “Who would want to protect us, though?” Not that I was complaining. I was just confused...one would have thought I’d be used to that feeling by now, but I was finding, actually, that I liked it less and less.
Kiasis shook her head. “Any answer I give would be pure conjecture….although I can say for certain that whomever it was, the power I sensed was not human, nor any other species that I am familiar with. Since I have begun sensing its presence—“
I found myself interrupting. I didn’t really mean to be rude…but I’ll be the first to admit that my mouth is sometimes a few steps ahead of my brain. “You’ve felt it before?”
“I have sensed it hovering around Biv on several occasions, yes.” She went on with a patience that I found rather surprising.
It took a few seconds for my brain to really process what I was supposed to conclude from that. “Are you trying to tell me Biv has some kind of….guardian angel or something?” Looking over at the still, small form on the bunk, I really couldn’t help thinking that he kind of seemed to need one.
“If I understand the basis of human theology correctly,” Kiasis’ eyes slid closed again, and I couldn’t help wondering what she was doing when she withdrew into herself like that. It was like a curtain was being lowered that blocked her off from all us bothersome humans. “Angels are not supposed to be capable of the level of hatred and anger I sensed directed at Tengu earlier.”
When I thought about it, she was right; I had felt it as well, a general sense of fury and hathred that had shocked me as Tengu was driven back. “So…what….was it, then?”
Kiasis shook her head. “There is not enough information to form a full conclusion. But I think it is safe to assume that it is a spirit of some some sort, with some sort of personal reason to despise Tengu enough to actively seek to stop him, and who has taken, for whatever reason, an interest in the safety of both Biv and yourself.”
“Me?” I was starting to feel awfully stupid, because every answer I got just seemed to lead to my asking another question.
“It’s….rather, he, because I did get a definite sense of something masculine…hovers alternately between Biv and you. While he protected the entire ship, I believe it is the two of you that draws him here.”
“But….me? Why me…?”
She only shrugged. “I cannot say for certain.”
My brain latched onto that phrase. “For certain? That implies that you have a guess, at least.”
My demands were answered with a vaguely annoyed frown. “It would be pointless to make a…guess….with such limited facts.” I got the feeling that Kiasis didn’t put a lot of stock in anything less than the full, unadulterated facts of the situation. I also got the feeling that whatever her guess was, she didn’t really want to share it with me.
“So do it anyway.” I demanded. “I’m getting sick of always being in the dark. A guess is better than nothing at all.”
She stared at me for so long that I really didn’t think she was even going to answer. “I believe the being may be someone who, when still alive, was familiar with both Tengu and Puck.”
“What makes you say that?”
“In the last few months, I have felt a similar depth of emotion directed at Puck as I felt toward Tengu during the…struggle.”
“Similar….” My eyes widened a little. “You mean he hates Puck just as much as he does Tengu?” Despite Puck’s occasional high level of annoying, I found it hard to believe someone could really hate him, especially with the same kind of passion I remembered being focused on Tengu. “Why would anybody….Wait. It’s….he’s….been around for a few months?” My eyes narrowed suspiciously. “How long, exactly?”
Kiasis probably looked as close to uncomfortable as I had seen her yet. “I first sensed his presence during the…accident that killed Biv’s parents. My suspicions were confirmed when I visited his hospital room and sensed the presence there, as well.”
“But…” I really didn’t care for the conclusion my mind was starting to form. I hadn’t known either one of them all that long, but I liked Biv…moreover, I felt for him, and I wanted to believe that he was happy and cared for. He seemed to need it so badly. “That’s not the only reason you took him in, was it?” Even without hearing her answer, she seemed, suddenly, a lot less human to me in that moment. Like Biv, no doubt, I’d assumed she’d taken him in out of kindness. Part of me was trying to remind myself sternly that she wasn’t human; she was from a different people, a different culture, with an entirely different way of thinking.
Most of me was just thinking, what a heartless bitch!
I didn’t want Biv to wake up and hear, though, so I dropped my voice to an angry whisper, instead of letting it rise as I could feel it trying to do. “You took him in just out of curiosity? Because you wanted to keep tabs on the fucking….whatever it is that was hovering around him?”
Her eyes bored into me for a moment, snapping with anger. “Do not presume to know my motives, child,” She hissed in a sudden flare of irritation. “My reasons are my own.”
If I’d felt any kind of tenuous familiarity developing with the woman sitting in front of me, it was rapidly dissolving. All I saw before me now was an alien, and a heartless one at that. Stereotypes had always bothered me, but in this particular case, I was starting to think of the general human view of Sch’silians as a hard-hearted, uncaring people applied remarkably well. “Your endless questions are distracting me from my task. If you desire further answers, you will have to find them elsewhere.” Lashes lowered over the angry dark eyes again, and this time I had no doubt I was effectively dismissed from her thoughts.
Right at that moment, I was perfectly fine with the thought that Kiasis didn’t care for me very much, because I was feeling exactly the same way. Glaring at her briefly, I shoved myself to my feet and stalked towards the cockpit, eager to park myself in the co-pilot’s seat in an effort to put more distance between the two of us. There were some people, I decided, that I would be just fine with being disliked by.
