Chapter 42
With myself over her shoulder, Riona carried me back to the ship, having stopped only once to pick up the candy I owed Ina on the condition I got her something as well. With no shortage of snickers and the like from onlookers, the entire trip back from the hotel took us roughly thirty minutes.
As we set foot on deck, I could have sworn there was an abnormal amount of pressure about me. "What's going on?" Riona asked, as she too picked up on the heavy atmosphere. Did something bad happen before we got here? The only ones on the deck were Felisha, Michaela, Una, and Spindla. Spindla, clinging to the mast as she made sure the sails were tightly furled, seemed to be in good enough spirits and even covered her mouth for a chuckle when she saw me. But the others seemed to be glaring at me? Felicia, at the helm, leered at me from the corner of her eye for a moment before going back to look over the ship. Una had stalled her inspection of the deck as she gave a very cold scowl with her one big eye. Michaela was being the most direct in her stare, even as she paced on the deck her head remained fixed in my direction. "Um, yeah, I don't know what you did but I have to go inspect the cargo. So yeah, bye."
After Riona frankly ditched me, Michaela decided to be the first to approach and hopefully explain what was going on. "May I speak to you for a moment?" Michaela asked.
"Um, sure? What's going on?" Am I in trouble for something?
"It may be nothing, that all depends on how you answer my questions." Why do I feel like my wording here is crucial? "I'll get right to the point. Why is it none of us have seen Ione fly?"
"I do not know, I haven't seen her fly either since I've met her." No, that was not entirely true, I could easily draw the conclusion it was due to something with the Hunters from before I met her.
"I see." Michaela muttered as she intently stared at me. I feel like I'm being lectured by my mother, the pressure and discomfort caused me to look away briefly. "Hrrm." My reaction to her gaze appeared to cause her stare intensify further for a moment. "Tell me, what is your relationship with Silvia and Ione?"
The question caught me off guard, why does this keep coming up? "I… I don't know." I do not want to continue this anymore, it is starting to get stuffy.
"I see." Michaela's frown told me that was not the answer she wanted to hear. "Are they equally important to you or do you value one more than the other?"
"..." with a nervous swallow I find myself looking for something, an out possibly to this uncomfortable situation. Do I have to choose one of them? I.. "I don't know."
"You don't know?" She asked with a raised eyebrow. "It is a simple question. Do you treat them the same or does one get preferential treatment?" That is not the same question.
"The sa…" my answer being cut off by my own uncertainty. Do I treat them equally? Ione is definitely not fully capable, at least she wasn't when I met her. What about Silvia? I don't know. "I.. don't know."
Michaela scoffed. "Fine then. But let me tell you this: When you enter battle alongside someone you are putting your life in their hands. You should be mindful of how you treat your companions out of battle. Playing favorites hinders your team work," she intensified her leer before she continued, "and being cruel to your allies is unforgivable." Her body turned to leave as she continued to talk. "I suggest you apologize to Ione or your next battle could be your last."
What? What did I do? Is Ione upset? What does this have to do with fighting? Ione can't fight, she doesn't have any desire for fighting. Is this because of that command I gave at the damn bachelor party? What the hell is going on?!
"My, what an expression." Spindla chuckled as she hung above me. "You've been a bad boy, haven't you." How? "But I wouldn't worry too much, everybody makes mistakes."
"What mistakes?" If I can at least get an idea as to what was going on...
"My, I wonder?" Spindla cooed as she clearly feigned ignorance. "I may not be able to say what you did but I can tell you how to fix it, want to hear it?"
It'd be a start, "Sure." I replied, my emotions beginning to turn into annoyance at being played with.
"Good boy." I think my eye twitched as she lowered down on her web to whisper into my ear. "You just have to have sex with Ione, really fun, really kinky sex." Turning to face her to see if she was joking, my face had to be the essence of dumbfounded. "That or prostrate yourself before her and pledge you life long loyalty, I guess that works too." As she pulled herself back up on her web, she gave a wink as she waved goodbye. "I look forward to your choice."
"The fuck is that supposed to mean!?" I yelled after her. Forget having a place to start, I feel like I was given a piece to a completely different puzzle.
As I struggled to figure out what was going on, I noticed Veronica come up from below deck. Finally someone I could talk to. However, upon seeing me she momentarily became angry before she turned away and proceeded to pretend I was not there.
Okay, let's see what this is about. At the very least I knew how to push Veronica's buttons so I should be able to get a straight answer from her. With that thought in mind, I made my way to her to try and figure out what atrocity I seemed to have committed. As she noticed me approach her, Veronica picked up her pace. She quickly made her way to her room but I was quick to follow. "What is your problem?!" Veronica angrily snapped after I had followed her in.
"Good question, mind helping me figure it out?" I snapped back.
"I have nothing to say to you right now!" Veronica shouted back.
"Unfortunately, I have no way to figure out what problem is let alone resolve it if nobody will plainly tell me what the problem is!"
"Fine! I'll tell you what your problem is!" Veronica shouted as she pokes my chest with her finger. It stung a surprising amount with each poke. "Your problem is you had a beautiful girl confess her feelings for you and you cannot appreciate that! You only give your attention to someone else but not her! You can't do that! You can't come into her life, make her want you, and then neglect her! Take responsibility for her feelings! You can't make her watch you do it every night, get married, and have children all while she can only look on wanting that for herself! It's cruel! It's horrible! You're horrible!"
What.. how did? Make her want me? Neglect? Marriage? Children? Are we still talking about my problem? "What are you on about? What you said doesn't make sense. How does that even fucking apply?"
"Don't play dumb! You know exactly what situation I-Ione is in! She confessed her love to hi-you! So you can't just ignore me-her! For my-her sake you have to give her love too!" Veronica shouted as she fumbled around her words.
How did she know Ione confessed to me? Nobody but Ione and myself were there, and I did not see Ione going around telling everyone, especially while waiting for an answer. "The fuck are you talking about? This sounds like your own thing more than mine."
"I don't want you telling me who's business is whom's! You stuck your nose in my business so it is my turn to return the favor!"
That last one one gave me pause, but also allowed me time to think about my next reply instead of just blindly yelling. "Well at least I took the time to try to know the situation before trying to butt in. Seriously! What the fuck are you on about?!"
Veronica's face turned red as she had to force the words out. "Return Ione's feelings! For me to continue to have hope for my situation you have to fix hers! Or does everything you've been telling me not apply to her?!"
"Ione does not seem the type to tell others about confessing to me... "
"Don't change the subject!" Veronica interjected.
"It isn't even the same subject! I'm not in a relationship already!"
"You already had sex with Silvia so… so… so just shut up and have sex with Ione too!" Getting flustered and frustrated over what she just said, Veronica stormed out. How did she know that?
"How does sex have anything to do with this!?" I yelled after her but with no response I ended up looking around the room for a desperate escape from this hell of confusion. In my search, I found Tally with her face buryied into her pillow. Is she crying? No, she isn't the type… "I bet you have a hand in this don't you?"
"You're too noisy. I have nothing to do with this." I wanted to call bullshit on that but it did not sound like she was lying.
With nothing else to gain in here, and with more questions than even one solid answer so far, I leave the room. What else can happen at this point? "Well you certainly seem to be having a hard time of it." Felisha commented in a nonchalant tone.
"You wouldn't perchance be wanting to tell me something too would you? So far I've gotten something about combat and 2 things about sex."
"Look, I'm hardly one to talk about how to treat your partners. But I will say that if you give out cruelty you had better be prepared to receive cruelty in return."
"What?"
"But I have to ask, why would you clip Ione's wings?"
"What..." I had to stop myself from questioning the relevance of the question, this seemed to be the first real bit of insight to whatever the problem might be. I had assumed the reason to Ione not flying had been clipped wings, but never asked her about it. "What do you mean?"
Growling a bit as she tried to keep a bit of anger under control, Felisha clarified. "I mean why would you hamper your ally's movement to such a degree? What would be the point to it? Finding people you can trust is not easy, what would be worth risking that trust?"
"What are you talking about? Ione's wings were injured when I met her two months ago. Does that have to do with why everyone is angry at me?" No, neither Splinda nor Veronica mentioned Ione's wings at all. So maybe that was not it.
"Hmm," Felisha leered at me for a while, did she think I was lying? "Let's set that aside for now. What is your relationship with Silvia and Ione? Do you treat one better than the other?" Why? What did this have to do with anything?!
At my wits end with this same question, I inadvertently lashed out at Felisha. "...I don't know, same as I told Michaela, I just don't fucking know!"
"Do not lash out at me boy!" Felisha growled. "Or are you prone to violent outbursts? Maybe you clipped her wings during some sort of episode? I don't know you, if you don't give me answers then I will have to make assumptions. I will ask this only one more time and I will be a specific as I can. Have you had sex with Silvia but not Ione?"
"...Why does that matter? Yes I have but why does it fucking matter?!" I shout as I begin to lose control of my tone.
"It matters because I am deciding what to do with you!" Felisha snapped at me. "I heard you were the one to clip Ione's wings! I heard that you blatantly prefer Silvia over Ione! If you give me ANY reason to assume what I heard was true then I cannot just overlook it! I am from Kaori, I have seen and dealt my fair share of cruelty but I will never forgive mistreating your allies! So are you going to make amends to Ione or will I have to remove you from her life?!" I don't want to be here anymore, I don't like this. It wasn't fair. Why was everyone mad? What did I do? Why won't anyone tell me? After a moment's pause, Felisha slowly crossed her arms. "Oh don't look so pitiful. You are not in trouble, yet. I am still trying to piece together the situation. If I can't get the answers from you then I will base my judgement on what I hear from the others. Although, if I am perfectly honest, you could probably clear any grievances simply by shacking up with Ione."
I'm tired of this conversation, it was just ending the same. Why? Why does everyone tell me to have sex with Ione? I can't think straight… It is becoming hard to breath, hard to see... I want to sleep. "I don't know." I turned to make my way to the crew quarters, perhaps after sleeping and calming down I'll have an answer. As I reached the door I repeat myself for some reason before I made my way down. "I just don't know."
Felisha didn't say anything else or make an attempt to stop me, so I didn't stop. I went down below and just sat myself against the wall. How long had it been since I was this upset? How long since I was put into such a situation where I felt like this? I just want to be left alone.
"Ryan?" A voice called out to me, "Are you ok?" I looked up to who had spoke to me and saw Ione sat in one of the hammocks.
"You want to lecture me on something too?" I don't know why I said that, nor why I tried to make it sound spiteful. But Ione did not seem offended by my tone, she looked sad. But not the kind you got from being hurt, more empathetic… Did I even have a spiteful tone? I don't know… I pulled my legs close as I bury my head in my arms to try allow myself escape into sleep.
Next thing I heard was footsteps followed by what I could only assume was someone sat next to me. "What's wrong?"
"I don't know. Everyone keeps asking me the thing stuff, but I just don't know. I don't know why they are angry, I don't know why, I don't know what, I just don't know… Just please, let me rest for a while."
After maybe a minute of silence had passed, I felt an unfamiliar softness envelope me as I am pulled slightly to my side. "I may not be able to help you find an answer, but I can promise to be here for you. Even while I wait for your answer, I will not leave you unless you tell me to." pulling me closer til my head was rested on her chest, Ione continued, "Even if all I can do offer my shoulder, I will happily do so. So don't worry. I'm sure everything will be alright." Feeling Ione's taloned hands as they gently rubbed the back of my head and my back, I felt her then rest her own head on mine. "I won't judge you and I won't abandon you, so you rest. Everything will be alright."
I felt warm in Ione's embrace, insulated by her feathered wings. I might have cried, but I can't remember.
