Chapter 21
Raine stepped lightly over the sand. The white sands were still plagued with spine tingling ice patches left over from Harley's antics only moments before. A sour seed festered in the pit of her stomach upon recognition of the woman standing next to Mark.
Kratos was only a couple paces behind when he saw Raine's bare shoulders go rigid. The lines of her body spoke more of an on coming battle than greeting of a fellow half-elf.
Raine's lips pursed together in a grim line as Mark happily introduced Kate to the rest of his colleagues, "…Yes, we worked together in Syback…What? Oh, replicating Cruxis-Crystals….ah no, not that successful…"
Raine cleared her throat loudly and crossed her arms over her bare stomach waiting for and explanation.
Mark's eyes settled on Raine's as if he were a living homing device. Damp and overgrown navy-blue hair hung over the half-elf's glasses as he beamed at his leader. "Professor! Isn't this wonderful!!" he gestured at the woman beside him as if she were a showpiece. "Its Kate, remember?! Kate!"
Mark was clearly over the moon at discovering his long lost lab mate.
"Ahh…yes." Raine liked Mark, he was loyal to a fault and a hard worker, but she was finding it hard to share his enthusiasm.
"I was just telling Kate we could use another mineral expert. She's a genius with magical ore, Professor," Mark smiled adjusting his glasses; they had slid down his nose in all the excitement.
"Its is nice to see you again Professor Sage." Kate's petite body was incased in a blue jump suit. Her hair tied up in a messy bun, which was carefully placed to hide the pointed tips of her ears.
"And it is nice to see that you are in good health," Raine said with stiff politeness.
"I was wondering," Kate began. "If I could join you on your mission. News of your inspiring journey has traveled far and I would like to join you, if you will have me that is."
Raine noted dully that Kate had deferred over her shoulder to Kratos more than her. It was annoying as it was unsettling.
All eyes fell on Raine expectantly. She didn't want to be the bad guy, but deep in her gut Raine had an uneasy feeling. Instead she forced a smile and said, "Welcome aboard, it would be a pleasure to have you join us. But talk with your superiors before you leave, I don't want to cause a ruckus because of missing employees."
"Yes professor. Thank you…so much." Kate looked to Mark, as he started happily babbling about all the adventures he's been on since joining Raine's movement.
Kratos glanced down at Raine's visage; she looked like she had just swallowed something sharp. He wanted very much to know what was bothering her.
A that moment Presea walked up the beach with a towel wrapped around her blue one piece bathing suit. Her ponytail hung like a dark pink river dripping down her back. Long shapely legs that received both looks of appreciation and envy carried her swiftly over the curiously cold wet sand.
Presea came upon the scene taking in every detail, which she catalogued and put to memory. The only difference between her current self and herself a year ago was that Presea was honestly curious.
"Raine the reservations at the restaurant are for 5:30, we have approximately fifty-two minutes get ready for dinner," she spoke up, eyes falling on Kate. Presea's facial expression failed to show it, but she recognized the woman instantly. And on the spot she understood what accounted for Raine's obvious apprehension.
"Yes," Raine replied, her attention divided.
Presea walked on as if the situation no longer held interest to her, but before she dressed for dinner she promised herself that she would stop by Regal's office.
"All right everyone, pack up and head back. I want to see you all cleaned up and in the lobby at 5:30," Raine announced in an authoritative voice.
There was much excited chatter as the group complied. Many introduced themselves to Kate personally while the others speculated what the menu would be tonight.
"Kate, if your shift is over please join us." Raine said. It wasn't as if she was over doing her generosity, but Raine needed to know more about what brought Kate to Atlamira.
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Dinner was fabulous; as expected of a restaurant at a five star hotel. Raine wished she could have enjoyed it more, however.
There were so many questions running in her mind. Like Kate's disappearance off the face of the earth after the late Pope's failed political coup attempt. It was a known fact that the Lezareno Company was half-elf friendly, but that didn't explain how Kate vanished from the Wilder mansion and ended up in Atlamira.
A sad but typical truth was that most of the chaos after the world reunification was blamed on the hated minority, which happed to be half-elves. Though in a sense Raine couldn't argue that there was a bit of truth to that, but it did not account for the rise in extreme racist sentiments.
So needless to say it was near suicide for a half-elf to travel by themselves; specifically in the Tethe'Allan territories where devices to detect half-elves were abound.
But Raine couldn't find it within herself to bring this thread of conversation up over dinner. The mood had been good, everyone was enjoying good food, excellent service (a new and exciting paradigm for her formerly indentured brethren), and most and foremost the addition to their ranks of one of their own. Mark hadn't stopped grinning for the entire seven-course meal.
So Raine had opted to keep her thoughts to herself. But she could not shake the uneasy feeling that had spread like a virus since their afternoon at the beach.
Ignoring the boisterous nighttime festival taking place below on the boardwalk, and no doubt where most of her colleagues were enjoying there last night at Altimira, Raine made her way back to her room.
Kratos had fallen into step with Raine somewhere along the way, but she was too preoccupied to give it much thought. The professor only spared him a glance when he entered the hotel suit with her and switched on the lights. At this point Raine had internally accepted the fact that Kratos always found a way to be there, and that there was nothing she could really do about it.
Raine shrugged off her favored orange overcoat; a replacement as were four others provided by the Lezareno Company president. She walked to the closed glass door of the patio and sightlessly gazed out into the night sky. The low clouds reflected the warm artificial light given off by the colorful lanterns and decorations for the festival, giving the atmosphere an odd orange glow.
"You are troubled?"
Raine jumped at the sound of Kratos' deep voice. She'd almost forgotten about the man standing in the living room area.
She turned around then clasped her hands behind her back and regarded the tall man thoughtfully. The civilian clothing he had donned for the evening did nothing to hide his the fact that he was an experienced warrior.
"I don't trust her." Raine stated as if that explained everything.
"Kate?" Kratos watched Raine's shoulder stiffen at the mere mention of the name.
Raine was silent for a while as she tried to let some of the tension drain from her body.
"…I don't know if Lloyd had told you, but Kate had betrayed our trust before." Raine muttered darkly.
"Yes, I believe so." Kratos recalled the awkward meetings with his son, as Lloyd would give choppy synopsizes of his reunification journey while the seraph recuperated at Dirk's house.
Kate; a half-elf scientist held in Syback, and one of the designers of Presea's Cruxis-Crystal. According to Lloyd she was involved in a failed plot to kidnap the Tethe'Allan princess, all because she was some kind of blood relation to the late Pope. To conclude Lloyd had said Kate found the error of her ways and asked forgiveness. By his son's standards, Kratos had learned, all was well with the world after that.
Then again, Kratos glanced at Raine's tense shoulders, it was clear she didn't feel the same way as his son.
"She's a classic sycophant," Raine said morosely catching a glimpse of the festivities below. "…To a point that goes beyond self subjugation, but to a willingness to harm others," she finished, then she laughed cynically. "I guess that's her own way of gaining acceptance among humans…."
"But what good is acceptance without dignity and honor?" Kratos offered.
Raine concurred, "Exactly."
The professor started to pace in front of the window, deaf to all the noise below. "But I can't flat out reject her," she mumbled. "What would that say to the others? Not to mention it would crush Mark…"
Kratos didn't speak, but let Raine audiate freely.
Raine swung her gaze to Kratos, "Perhaps you could keep an eye on her?"
"Errghm…Never mind." Raine exhaled noisily, and resumed her pacing. "Actually…I've changed my mind. Yes, I would like you took keep watch per say."
Kratos was beginning to develop a kink in his next from all the pacing.
"Hm, now I sound like a racist bigot," Raine stopped at the large potted plant then turned heel to continue her trek. "No, not watch her," she amended. "Keep an eye out for anything suspicious…"
At this point Kratos didn't know if Raine were addressing him or herself. All he wanted to do was alleviate some of her turmoil.
Why was she so caught up in this? Raine had never been that bothered by others' feelings before. All one had to do was ask her former pupils in Iselia.
Raine was mid-step when she felt arms encircle her from behind. Her body jerked in surprise; confusion and anger burst forth like a violent flame.
But before she could get a good head of steam going, Kratos gently whispered in her ear, "Do not fret. I will take care of it," and released her.
He then left with out another word or even glance back; the door shut quietly behind him.
For the second time, and Raine had a feeling not for the last time, Kratos had left her dumbfounded.
Moments later Raine pressed her forehead to the cool glass door to the patio and laughed.
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They had departed the paradise island of Altamira early that morning as gray clouds gave way to a peach colored dawn. Regal, Presea and George (Regal's elderly steward), greeted the gathering as they boarded a ship to the mainland.
Regal had taken Raine by both hands and made her promise not to vanish off the face of the earth again. The muscular businessman had teased that if she did he'd never find a replacement for George. The old steward had jokingly agreed and wished Raine luck on her journey, and that they'd all meet in Meltokio in two and a half month's time.
When it was Presea's turn to say goodbye, the tall woman had shocked Raine when she followed Regal's example and grabbed both of the professor's hands. Presea threw the self-made scholar for another loop when she told Raine, with deep sincerity, that she hoped her dream of half-elf acceptance would become a reality.
The boat ride was thankfully short, and they were on the main land in less than half a day's time.
Now Raine's party of liberated scholars started a three-week trek to Sybak that would take them between two recently plotted mountain ranges.
Weeks before, Raine's troupe was plagued with apprehension at facing those who had for years kept them below ground and away from the sun's reach. But over their journey the group had become more fortified than ever before. They now shared Raine's determination to convince the rest of their brethren to join their movement of intellectual freedom and social justice.
So far their journey had been a botanist's wonderland. Many of the plant specialists in Raine's group were practically beside themselves with glee finding new and rare species of magical plants.
Over dinner one night they had hypothesized that with the germination of the great seed and the reunification, the convergence of mana flows between the two planets had yet to stabilize. Yes, this resulted in some geological and environmental abnormalities, but the wild mana served magical fertilizer to many plants long thought extinct.
It was the seventh night on the road when the party had set up camp near on the edge of some sparse woods. The tents form a sort of sloppy semicircle with large fire at the center where Linar and one of the young scholars, Miranda saw to preparing dinner.
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Later that night, Raine had just wrapped up a session of communal reading, where everyone chose from the large collection she acquired from Derris-Kharlan and read around the large central fire.
"A nerd paradise", Raine had overheard Harley teasing Linar who sat cross-legged in front of a pile of books about chemical compounds and ancient mechanics. Though a smirk tugged at her lips when the headscarf-wearing half-elf curiously open one of the old books to browse through.
Stiff necked from being hunched a book for so long, Raine returned to her tent, and as expected found Kratos patiently waiting in front of it.
There was a sense of apprehension. Would tonight be the night her suspicions of Kate were confirmed? Raine was beginning to understand Kratos' view. Now she was the suspicious one jumping at shadows. "Anything?" she asked, as their current routine dictated.
"Erwin twisted an ankle," Kratos said as Raine led him into her tent.
Raine looked back sharply. The professor had honed her schoolroom skills and learned each and every face and name that followed her. And she knew for a fact that there was no Erwin among her party.
"Who?!" Riane asked sharply.
Kratos's eyes showed a ghost of a smile, "One of the dragons, Harley had taken it upon himself to name them all, remember?" He then explained further, "I was able to heal the injury, but I wouldn't burden him for the next day or so. I redistributed the food among the other dragons, they should be able to handle the extra load till Erwin is fully healed."
"That's all?"
"That is all," Kratos answered.
"That's good." Even though Kratos' report had given her some piece of mind about the safety of her expedition, the tension refused to leave Raine's body. If anything the longer he stood there the more uneasy she became. "Ah…Thank you, Kratos."
Instead of leaving immediately Kratos looked at Raine pointedly. The half-elf scholar felt her stomach flip and drop to her knees, as the warrior began to draw nearer.
Suddenly she was no longer tired and alarmingly alert. With each step that brought him closer. Raine never once closed her eyes, as if challenging Kratos to come nearer.
She wasn't afraid. No, not at all.
But she'd be lying if she said she wasn't suddenly strung tighter than a bowstring.
'Here it comes,' Raine gulped quietly, and fresh perspiration bead all over her body.
Kratos' arms slowly lifted from his sides.
'Here it comes…'
And then he was upon her, arms encircling Raine's stiff body and hands pressing into her back in a firm hug. Kratos leaned back to his full height, which brought the professor more firmly against his chest. Raine counted the seconds the embraced lasted feeling the heat from his body seep through her clothes.
Slowly Kratos withdrew sliding his calloused hands down her clothed arms. He then whispered "sleep well" into Raine's flushed pointed ear and then quickly made his exit.
Raine suddenly let go of the breath she was holding, and tried to shake of the tingling sensation that afflicted her entire body.
To supplement his nightly reports Kratos had integrated these nightly embraces into their routine over the past week.
In fact, the methodical professor had started to mentally catalogue the embraces.
Day one: I was caught from behind; similar to the last embrace in Atlamira. It was quick with minimal bodily contact.
Day two: We were alone in my tent, and Kratos had just informed me of an alteration between two of my chemists that evening. This night was a frontal attack. Again minimal body contact, arms wrapped around mine. This embrace lasted seven seconds longer than the night before.
Day thee: Similar to "day two" in that we were again alone, and that he approached from the front. Tonight Kratos' arms encircled my shoulders blades. Special note: our torsos made contact this evening. Total amount of time spent in embrace: 15 seconds.
Day four: I confronted Kratos about his new nightly habit. No answer is given. Instead, his arms manage to work their way around my waist. I had underestimated his conviction. The embrace is harder this time. Perhaps crushing would be a more suitable term. The embrace lasts only 8 seconds. Special note: there was an added squeeze upon completion.
For the following two days after, Kratos had continued this new nightly tradition. What was more worrisome was the fact that Raine hadn't done much of anything to stop it.
'It tingles,' Raine thought tonight, blowing out the lamps and climbing into her bedroll. It was as if she could still feel Kratos all around her.
A sense of foreboding washed over her as Raine closed her eyes. It was nothing sinister, just a feeling something had changed, was changing.
And Raine didn't think that she wanted it to stop.
TBC