ELENI
By the third week of September things had fallen into a pattern. School and dancing, visits to the Atrium and sometimes errands with Madam P. Eleni's life consisted of these activities. Matthew was a constant presence, and she found herself becoming used to that, even though it went against her better judgement. He hadn't yet found a way to remove the bond.
The nasty tricks at school continued, and she became more prepared to meet them over time. The first time the floor went slick beneath her she had fallen though thankfully not been injured, but after that had she kept herself up no matter if the floor went slick, icy, wet or hot.
Travis had heard about the incident, and it had proved valuable in learning more about him, if nothing else.
"Are you ok, Elle?" he had said later that day without mentioning why he asked.
"I'm fine." He had looked at her, then away, clearly uncomfortable.
Travis was a bit of an enigma. She wouldn't say she trusted him, but she did find him genuine. It turned out that he always claimed the table he had invited her to at lunch the first day, but he didn't always sit there. He moved around, hanging out with different groups on different days, but never too attached to one. She didn't watch too closely, it didn't matter in the long run, but her superficial examination told her he kept a distance between himself and his peers.
"Just forget about it, Travis," she had said, as she turned away slightly. They had stood there, awkward for a minute, she not sure what she was waiting for, or if she even wanted it.
He had finally nodded, and then walked with her to her next class. From then on, he occasionally joined her as she passed between classes, and she appreciated having a few moments where she could relax.
Beyond that, she managed to ignore the slime in her clothes, or ice, or something else wet, and changed when she got home. She was annoyed when her things started to disappear, there were two students with super speed, and one with the ability to go nearly invisible, but she simply took extra care with the few items that were precious to her and bore it as well as she could. There were numerous other little things that occurred, but she pushed down the feelings they brought up in her and moved on. So long as she wasn't injured physically she let the incidents roll off her back as the insignificant nuggets of petty hatred that they were. She may have even become slightly less vigilant as the pranks became the normal part of her life they had always been. That was the conclusion she came to after the day the cadets cornered her in a hall.
She always made sure to keep to the halls when they were busy, and the crowded hall on that Wednesday of the fourth week of school had lulled her into a sense of security. So, when two people materialized out of the crowd and stood in her way, she tried to go around them, not registering the danger. Then a third appeared, then a fourth, a fifth. The bell rang and the hallway cleared. A few students looked back at her, penned in, but no one made a move to help.
She found herself in a circle of seven students, all larger than her. Fear and panic blossomed in her middle.
She tried to shoulder between two of them but was shoved back. One of the students grabbed her arms and pinned them behind her back pushing her bag to the floor. In a desperate effort to find calm, she tried to tell herself that they couldn't hurt her that badly. There were rules, and they would get punished if things went too far. However, the similarity of this situation with the attack at the Citadel made it next to impossible to calm down. She had to, she thought desperately. She imposed iron on her emotions. Be meek. Take what they did to her and move on. She had no choice.
A man with straight black hair and dark tan skin marked by red swirls around his neck stepped forward from the circle.
"Don't get skittish there, sewer rat, we just want to talk for a minute. We won't make you too late to your class, I promise. Just giving you a proper welcome. You see, Jae here is very hurt she hasn't met you yet. Summers?" A tall woman with brown skin and spiked blond hair stepped forward.
"Rat, this is Jalisa Summers. Your," he coughed, "boyfriend's sister. You see, this is just an overdue introduction. Summers, remember what I showed you. Give the sewer rat a heartfelt hello." Eleni felt her blood run cold as Jalisa balled up her fist, then paused. Eleni thought she saw hesitation in the woman's eyes, but then a ball of energy erupted from her fist and hit Eleni hard in the stomach. Eleni gasped, as air was forced out of her. Tears sprang to her eyes.
"Nicely done, Summers." Jalisa stepped back into the circle. Another student made to step forward, but the leader stopped him.
"I've decided I'd like to give her a greeting myself. Trying to run away like that, that's bad manners, sewer rat. We need to teach you better now that you are UpMountain."
The man's hand went back, and a moment later delivered a stinging slap to her cheek. Her head whipped to the side, and she saw stars for a moment. He gestured to the next student, who stepped forward and positioned his arm out to his left to sweep in at her from the side. His skin was patterned like a lizard's, and there were knobby protrusions on his knuckles. She tried to breath out and brace her stomach for the coming blow.
"Eleni!" The student stopped at the distant roar. The leader looked at Jalisa.
"I thought you said he never uses his telepathy." The tall woman looked bewildered and slightly sick.
"He doesn't. He never has." The second statement was defensive. "Jenna fell and nearly broke her arm last year, and he had no idea until we got the call!"
"Eleni!" The yell was no closer, and Eleni despaired that Matthew would get there in time to be much help.
"Dammit! He must be keeping tabs on her. Quickly!" The leader urged the student in front of Eleni, who had let his arm go lax. The young man balled his fist again and raised it up.
That was when Eleni felt a massive presence brush her mind. She knew it was Matthew, and that he wouldn't harm her. Yet, she also understood instinctively that he was making sure she knew he was there, and that that he could have slipped past undetected. That thought turned her stomach to ice. The presence moved on.
The young man's hand started to descend and…pulled up abruptly. He lost his balance and fell painfully at Eleni's feet but made no move to get up. Eleni looked at the remaining members of the circle. Not one of them moved or spoke.
A minute later, Matthew rounded the corner of the hall and advanced on the group, fury incarnate. Jalisa stepped back woodenly allowing her brother to enter the circle. The student holding Eleni let go as Matthew reached her. She fell forward, catching herself against him as she was freed. His arm came around her protectively. His face warred between fury and concern.
"Are you ok?" She nodded, catching her breath now that the danger was past.
"They didn't do very much." Matthew walked her out of the circle, then looked back at the students. Jalisa turned to him, still wooden.
"Really, Jae, this is what you stoop to? You've sold your soul to them, and I think it is the most disgusting thing I have ever seen!" His voice seethed with fury and pain. Eleni vaguely remembered Matthew mentioning that his sister had joined the military. She suspected all the students in front of her were fellow recruits. "I'm never going to forget this. If I could say you were no longer my sister I—"
"Summers, release them!"
Matthew and Eleni spun around to see the principal, another teacher and Jenna coming down the hall. Matthew looked back at the group of cadets, and suddenly two of them fell over, while the others were gasping for breath out of shock at what had just happened to them.
"This is out of line, Matthew Summers, you will—"
"They were beating Eleni up, and I will demand a truth teller if you try to make this anything else." Eleni had never seen Matthew like this. Angry, but coldly calm using every resource at his disposal. Truth tellers might be expensive but that was no barrier for the Summers'. She didn't want things to come to that.
The principal pulled up short, glaring at Matthew, but also doing the same calculations as Eleni. His gaze shifted to the cadets.
"Are you all ok?" There was a mumbling of yes's, and one complaint of an injury due to a fall that was quickly shushed.
"Aren't you going to ask Eleni?" Matthew's voice was dead cold. The principal looked at Eleni as if she was something he had found moldering in the corner of his office.
"And you?" Eleni thought for a moment before answering. If a truth teller's services were procured, and they worked as Matthew said, a lie now would only undermine her case. She knew from experience that describing the wrong that had been done to her would only increase the animosity towards her. In this case, however, she determined it was worth it.
"One of them punched me. One slapped me. One held my arms pinned behind my back." She didn't add that her stomach was still sore, and knew her cheek was red. She didn't go into the pain she felt, knowing it would be pointless. Now that they knew what had been done to her, however, they couldn't side step what a truth teller would confirm.
The principal started to look uncomfortable and glanced back and forth between the cadets and Eleni for a moment.
"Yes, well, I see no reason to dwell upon this unfortunate incident. All of you, back to class." When Matthew started to speak again, Eleni touched his arm, and shook her head. He searched her face for a moment, obviously frustrated, but then let it go.
"Where is your class?" he asked her.
"Summers, you are going to your class, not hers. Ms. Frost is here to accompany you, to make sure you don't get…lost." The principal was glaring daggers at Matthew. Matthew returned the look.
"I am going to walk Eleni to her class first. To make sure she is safe." He looked to Eleni, and she started walking, wanting it all to be over. The principal tried again.
"Summers, if you don't want a black mark on your record then you will return to your class as ordered."
"This isn't the military. You'll have to be satisfied with that group," he gestured at the retreating cadets, "who I'm sure will be happy to follow your orders brainlessly." The principal opened his mouth to argue back, but the teacher at his side spoke first.
"Oh, let him take his trick back to class. Ms. Frost can accompany them to make sure they don't get distracted."
Feeling Matthew's rising anger, Eleni went back and grabbed his arm.
"It's not worth it, Matthew," she said in a quiet voice. He looked down at her but thankfully let her lead him away.
"Elle, are you really ok?" he asked once they were out of sight of the group. Eleni could hear Jenna trailing a few paces behind them.
"I'll be fine," she looked up at him as they walked. "We can talk about it later." He looked at her in concern, but stopped talking, and they went the rest of the way in silence.
At the classroom, Eleni gave Matthew one more look, then entered. The teacher immediately turned to glare at her, and the students sniggered. Stone faced, she went to the only available seat, in front of a pyrotechnic, accepting that her clothing would be singed by the end of class.
MATTHEW
Matthew watched Eleni disappear into the classroom, glad she was in a safer place but still furious about what had happened. His own sister. It was all the worse for that fact. He would never have believed that she would do something so cruel.
Closing his eyes against his anger and pain, he took a deep breath and turned, nearly running into Jenna. He had forgotten about her. Moving to the side, he strode down the hall towards the staircase.
"Mattie." Jenna jogged up beside him and tried to get him to talk. At the dance school, she had continued to be physically closer to him than he liked when they worked together and was always trying to create a situation where they would be alone. It hadn't happened, and he worked hard to keep it that way. He wished Jenna would get the message and move on.
"Mattie," more insistent this time, "I'm not the bad guy here. Don't take it out on me." Matthew sighed.
"Jenna, I don't want to talk about what just happened. I don't want to talk to you about anything really. You have no sympathy for Eleni. You probably would have just as soon been in the circle with my sister, taking a shot at her."
"Matthew!" Her tone was full of hurt indignation. "How can you say something like that? You know me, you know me better than anyone! I would never do something like that!" Matthew recalled Jenna's prank a couple weeks back. He wasn't so sure.
"Really, Mattie, it's a hopeless situation, can't you see that? You're getting all worked up about other people hurting her, but what did you expect bringing her up here? She doesn't belong here. Did you ever consider that by bringing her here, you were the one hurting her? Of course, people are going to be cruel. She's not one of us. It's just wrong. Wrong that she is here, wrong that the two of you are together."
Jenna's voice broke at this point. Matthew didn't care and didn't even try to correct Jenna's impression that he and Eleni were a couple. As her words sank in, however, he did feel a bit sick to his stomach. There was truth in what she was saying.
Jenna grabbed Matthew's arm, stopping him in the hall, and spoke quietly and urgently. "Mattie, I know it's my fault, and I am so sorry. I am sorry I hurt you, I am sorry I didn't apologize sooner. I drove you to this. But what you are doing now, it's stupid. You are just going to end up hurting her and yourself and probably a lot of other people in the process. The sooner you realize that and give up this charade, the better. Please, think about it, Mattie. That's all I ask."
Matthew stood there, stunned, staring down at Jenna's face. His stomach felt even worse. Numbly, he turned to continue to class. Jenna stayed beside him, regaining her composure. Just before they reached their class, she rested her hand on his lower arm, giving it a gentle squeeze before letting him go and entering the classroom ahead of him. In a petty gesture, he wiped his arm off where she had touched it, wishing he could wipe her words away as well.
That night, Matthew didn't stay at Madam P's for dinner. Eleni had taken the afternoon off from dancing. He thought he sensed the bond that she was still in some pain, and had expressed his concern for her to Madam P. The woman's face had been a mask of anger at hearing about the incident. She had followed Eleni into the house for a short while, and Matthew had felt reassured that Eleni was getting any care she needed.
Now, he was at home, though, where things were far from quiet. The school hadn't bothered to send any sort of message to their father, Eleni was of so little concern in their eyes, and Adam learned of the incident when he had returned from the overnight trip he had taken to the vineyard to find his children beating each other up in the living room. The man attempted to separate them, but in the end gave up and resigned himself to yelling at them to stop before they hurt each other seriously.
Matthew was dismayed to find that his sister had learned quite a bit about fighting, and he had been hit several times. More times than he hit her. He landed a few good punches, however, and was satisfied when he finally connected his fist to her gut in retribution for what she had done to Eleni. He pulled away from her then, pushing her down as she tried to recover from the hit, and told his father exactly what Jalisa had done that day.
Adam was horrified and didn't even chastise them for beating up on each other.
"Jae, how could you do something like that? That is not how I raised you!" Her hand on her stomach, Jalisa glared at Matthew.
"Yeah, run and tell daddy, that's brave. Get back over here and let me finish you off like you know I was going to." Matthew ignored the feeling that she was right about his chances against her. Adam spoke again.
"Jae, I don't believe this is who you are. I want you to leave cadet training, for now. You can return when you finish school if you want."
"It's the only thing that is going right in my life, Dad. I'm not leaving. And you know as well as I that Matthew needs to start using his brain and get rid of that sewer rat. Send her back down with the trash already. I was just trying to make the message a little clearer, as my big brother here is suddenly only able to think with his dick." Matthew gritted his teeth and balled his fists, ready to hit her again, out-matched or not. Adam held him back. When the man spoke, his voice was riddled with pain.
"If you won't leave training, then you can't live here. I abhor what you did today, Jalisa. I will not support it in any way. You can live in their dormitories." Matthew was shocked, and he could see Jalisa was as well. She had never expected their father would take such a hard line. Then her face closed up.
"Fine. Let me pack and I'll be gone," she hissed, and stormed upstairs. Matthew glanced at his father. The man looked defeated, as if he already regretted his decision. Matthew didn't; he wanted to be as far from his sister as possible and was fine with her leaving. He looked away from his father's pain. Once his sister descended with her bag and left, he retreated to his room.
There, he reached out through the psychic bond to check in on Eleni, as no obvious feelings washed his way. She seemed pensive, now, with an undercurrent of anxiety. The anxiety was a relief; earlier she had been much too calm for what had happened.
He pulled back, feeling slightly guilty about his use of the bond; he normally just monitored it from a distance. In contrast, his telepathic activities from earlier in the day produced no feelings of guilt. It had felt good to use his telepathy, especially to use it to help Eleni. His anger at what Jae and her cadet friends had done rose up, and he found his face twisted and his hands balled into fists.
Closing his eyes, he pushed the anger away, instead focusing on how the cadets must have felt to suddenly lose total control of their bodies. It had been easy. Somehow, he had always known something like that would be easy for him. If it was just one command, he was confident he could control many times that number.
Strange, though that controlling others hadn't been part of the training he recalled from his childhood. He remembered sifting through a few minds, temporarily stopping certain functions in the body, telling someone to believe something wasn't true, but never taking over a mind in its entirety. Well, today he had, and he would do it again if it was required. Everyone knew that now.
It'll be ok, Mattie. Just believe in the Magnetist. Matthew paused as a young face with marks down the back of the cheeks and onto the neck flashed through his mind's eye. He hadn't thought of that person in a long time. He gave a nostalgic smile at the memory as it slipped away.
The use of his telepathy came back to haunt Matthew, unfortunately; people seemed to care about that more than the actual assault. The next day, Adam cornered Matthew at the dance school, revealing that the administrators from the Pryde School had contacted him that morning with concern over the 'unreasoned' use of his son's mutant ability. Matthew had left the extent to which he had used his telepathy out of the story when he had told his father what happened to Eleni.
"If I hadn't stopped them when I did, Eleni would have been hurt far worse!" he defended his actions. Adam held up his hands as if it would calm his adult son.
"Matthew, I understand that. But you overrode the minds of seven individuals. It makes people nervous."
"They know I'm powerful. That's why they love me so much, right?" They just don't want to be reminded of what I can do, he finished sourly to himself.
Adam actually squirmed, and Matthew knew his father was thinking the same thing and seeing right through the hypocrisy of it.
"Matthew, don't control anyone else. It crosses a line."
"And what the cadets did, that didn't cross a line?"
"You and I know it did, but you also know that most of the people here won't see it as such." Adam turned his resigned eyes to Matthew, "Yes, it is not fair, but it is the world we live in." Matthew wanted nothing more than to escape that world at that moment. With Eleni.
Adam wasn't done. "Matthew, you are required to do a brief interview about the incident. To ensure that you continue to be judicious in the usage of your powers." Matthew growled.
"What if I don't go?" Now Adam's eyes were stern.
"That is not an option."
The interview was scheduled for two days later, and apart from the indignation Matthew felt, it wasn't so bad. The man he met was of medium height, with dark brown skin and straight black hair that was starting to go grey. His dark eyes, nearly black, surveyed Matthew after the introductions.
"This won't take long, son. I just have a few questions." Matthew focused on answering the questions as quickly as possible. They started with the 'incident' then moved on to his daily use of telepathy, which was as a rule null. The man nodded his head in satisfaction at the information he gathered from Matthew. At the end, he looked up with one last question.
"Has anything unusual or different occurred involving your telepathy in the past few weeks?"
"No." Matthew said tersely, glad to be done. The man nodded in satisfaction and released Matthew. After he left and his irritation started to dissipate, Matthew belatedly realized that the psychic bond would have been considered something unusual, however it had appeared close to two months ago now and hadn't even registered as something unusual in his thoughts. It was for the best, he decided, as he didn't want to break his promise to Eleni about keeping knowledge of the bond between them.
Eleni, for her part, wasted no time in putting the entire incident behind her. Matthew tried to get her to talk about it a few times in the following week, but she kept changing the topic and eventually he gave up. She did admit that the other students left her alone more in the aftermath, which was a relief. Matthew noticed himself getting more glances, and suspected some people avoided him now. He didn't care.
Four days after the attack, G and Bright showed up at the dance school again. Matthew was glad to see Eleni sit beside G and speak with him for a few minutes. When she shifted to be closer to Bright, with whom she was developing a friendship, Matthew went to sit by G.
"Did she tell you about the other day?" G shook his head.
"No. But Travis was DownMountain yesterday and told me." G cast a despairing look at Matthew. "We've lost her completely, haven't we?" It took Matthew a moment to realize who he meant. His sister. He didn't feel very sympathetic.
"She made her choice, G. Don't dwell on it." G just shook his head sadly. Then he looked at Matthew.
"Sometimes I think I could have made a difference, you know?"
"What? How?"
"By insisting that we keep in touch more."
"G, you had Tara to care for. You did so much as it was. You can't hold yourself responsible for Jae's actions." The big man just looked away. When he looked back, he was determined.
"Well, if I missed any chances with her, I'm going to learn from my mistakes and not do it with you." Nervous, Matthew started to get up, but G grabbed his arm and sat him back down. "No more beating around the bush, Summers," the man began with his usual emphasis on the name. "You have so much opportunity at your fingertips, and you seem to have reconnected with your heart and conscience. Take the civil course at university and do some good for us DownMountain. I've been asking Travis some questions, and you don't have to give up anything to do it. You keep your sweet life, but you make ours a bit sweeter in the process, too." Matthew looked straight ahead.
"What if it's not the right thing for me?" G gave a sigh of exasperation.
"Then you use all that money you have to switch to something else, and then help us in some other way! Or give me your extra money." He looked askance at Matthew. "It doesn't look like you're using it beyond your designer clothes." Matthew looked away at that true statement. "Mattie—" G started again, his tone exasperated.
"I get it!" Matthew snapped. "And you're right! I do want to help. I do want to make things better." And maybe he had needed G to push him a bit to get him there. "The university's been contacting me for interviews anyway. I'll start getting that set up and do some reading." He hadn't made much headway on learning anything new about psychic bonds recently, and he had almost exhausted the university's collection on telepathy. Eleni still asked him about his progress, and he would keep searching, but he could manage some additional reading on top of that and his schoolwork.
G was nodding in satisfaction. The man opened his mouth again, but thankfully Eleni stopped him.
"G, if you are done irritating Matthew, Bright and I would like to have a word with him." G gave the young woman he called his sister an arched look, but with a grand gesture he released Matthew from his presence. Matthew rolled his eyes in exasperation.
"Thanks," he mumbled to Eleni as he sat beside her.
"Matthew! Eleni!" Madam P's call came from the stage. "Are you here to dance or to lounge?" This time, Matthew groaned in frustration.
"We are coming!" Eleni responded for the two of them, then spoke quickly to Matthew. "Bright's never been in the Atrium. You said you wanted to go again. So, how about this Holday? Madam P will be doing errands, but she might join us for some of it as well. What do you say?"
A date with only Eleni at the Atrium would have been preferable, but he wouldn't pass up this opportunity.
"Sure!" Bright grinned as Eleni and Matthew got up.
"We'll work out the details later!" Eleni called back to Bright as they left to dance.
ERIK
"This investment in the DownMountain population, minimal in the time and resources required, will support public health in the cavern, thereby improving the health and stamina of all workers. It will potentially reduce the pre-term death rate as well. Those benefits will payout immediately to our production units, and in the future with the population growth we are struggling to achieve. The choice is clear. Thank you."
A smattering of applause followed Yanella Darkholme as she returned to her seat. Erik Lensherr, sitting in the official Chair dressed in his official robes and wearing the Mantle of the Helm, nodded as if considering the petition he had just heard.
"I am glad you were here to witness that vocalization of garbage. Damn Xavierist." Kentaro Shaw, the current Principle on the Council of Barons, leaned towards his leader from his adjacent seat as he hissed these words. "She pushes for these measures claiming the benefits to our factories and plantations but refuses to support measures for longer work hours or fewer breaks. She even goes so far as to claim it will help the population grow but has no hard evidence! She's been sliding all sorts of useless legislation by in these small sessions. Next she'll be convincing us to make peace with the Rabbits." The man paused to regain his composure. "I know it is normally beneath you, but you must see the necessity of stopping this insanity."
Erik Lensherr hummed in his throat and again nodded thoughtfully. He had the power to veto any legislation brought forth by the Barons. For that matter, he could, in theory, create all laws himself. That would lead to chaos, however, and he didn't wish to court disaster.
His attendance today was a relatively rare occurrence. As a rule, the Head of the Montagne didn't attend most council meeting, and only weighed in on votes occasionally. Overall, the Barons were able to manage these decisions proficiently, and it didn't do well to make himself indispensable in that manner. He wondered if coming this day had been a mistake.
"You may have a point, Ken," Erik murmured. He changed the subject. "Have you heard about the technological advances regarding the train?" Kentaro nodded reluctantly.
"I have. They would require a substantial amount of effort in modifications to the existing systems, especially in requisitioning the applicable mutants. I am concerned it would be detrimental to the military forces." That was where the majority of the requisitioned mutants would come from. Erik waved his hand, not concerned.
"It is not as if those soldiers will be inaccessible, and the project, while it will take some time, would not be indefinite. The savings in energy use, as well an increase in transport speed would be most beneficial to the productions units, in money saved down the road, and," he gave Kentaro a significant look, "time that workers can be working instead of commuting." Legislated working hours included the train commute.
Now Kentaro looked thoughtful. His family held factories that produced military equipment. The Lensherrs had several holdings across the factories and plantations. Both would stand to benefit.
"The time saved is that significant?" The man now sounded interested. Erik nodded. "I will look at it more closely."
The session was drawing to a close. Kentaro excused himself to speak with some of his colleagues. No one could leave until the Head had departed.
Erik took his time and surveyed the room. His eyes came to rest on Yanella Darkholme as she gathered the materials she had used for her petition. Glancing up, she caught him looking at her. He tipped his head in a controlled movement, and she gave a small bow in return. He considered her as she continued with her business, then moved on.
Next, his eyes snagged on Sirah Allerdyce, not a councilor, but a person of influence who had gained the right to sit in on council meetings. She came to every one Erik attended. Again, his attention was noticed, again he gave a cordial nod which his subject returned. He decided there was no further benefit to prolonging the session.
Standing, he spoke the words that marked his formal departure.
"Your work for Magneto's Passion, the cause of the mutant, is acknowledged. Remain loyal to His name."
"We await His Heir in blood and power," Kentaro and several others murmured in return, as all the Cultists did whenever Erik left the room. Erik acknowledged the comment with a small hand gesture as was expected.
Everyone bowed, and he turned and left out a door at the back reserved solely for his use. Making his way back to his official office, his loyal entourage in tow, he noticed an individual standing in wait at the door. He tipped his head, indicating they should join him in the room.
Once there, he removed the headpiece he always wore for Council sessions, and then the Mantle of the Helm, a heavy medallion formed in the silhouette of Magneto's helm and worn on a thick ribbon around the neck. He replaced the latter in the glassed-in case where it resided but didn't don the hat he normally wore throughout the day.
Instead, he turned to face the woman who had entered after him. Her eyes flashed momentarily from brown to red, and then she intoned quietly. "I am loyal only to Erik Lensherr XII, who stands before me."
He nodded. She handed him an envelope and after giving a brief report on the status of one of the Lensherr assets, left.
Later, Erik sat in the Lensherr Study, and opened the envelope. He reviewed the report, and then the handwritten notes at the bottom:
SOUTH SLOPE REPORT:
Increase in activities.
Cadets questioned. Instigator, Damba, was transferred to civilian work as Colonel Garret's assistant.
A Discontent located in the Sewers.
Telepath questioned by truth teller. All questions answered honestly. Interview found no indication of self-realization of abilities. All use was instinctual and not planned in advance.
The Head of the Montagne nodded to himself, as he locked the report away. Then he set to writing down a list of people to contact in order to begin a covert operation.
CITADEL 3020.09.27
Dave walked the orchard in silence taking in the even rows of trees thriving beneath the low Veil ceiling. It was a beautiful day, and the sun glinted off the peaks of the Citadel looming up in front of them. They were in a section found outside the main city, that was connected back to it by a narrow, covered causeway. In the back of his mind, he was reviewing his meetings with various families over the past few weeks.
"It's good to see the orchards doing so well." His father walked to his left and was trying to use the time to return their relationship to what it had once been.
Dave made a noncommittal noise. The orchards came from his mother's family, and as her only child he would inherit this entire section. His father's money came from investment, and the man had seen a value in physical assets, so he had secured them for his future progeny. Reviewing the results of the harvest, the activity they had just finished, was an annual requirement both his parents had expected of him as soon as he could do the math.
Robert Kelly father sighed at his son's silence. They walked on.
Dave gazed to the side, out into the distance where through the trees he could see bits of the brown haze of the Wastelands. He had walked to the edge of the orchard once to gaze out at the tan-brown expanse that was rocky and dusty at intervals. He had found it depressing and had never gone to look so closely again.
Most people in the Citadel never saw what had become of their once verdant land up close. However, sometimes dust storms would rise up and seemed to transport the Citadel to a dimension consisting of beige nothingness. Though they were safe within the Veil, many people stayed home those days and schools were often closed. The reminder of the desolation around them was simply too much to bear.
A sound above made him look up to see one of the Citadel aircrafts, military by the markings, flying above.
"That's the SAF-15," his dad remarked. Dave forgot himself for a moment and responded.
"Have you flown it?" There were private planes available for those who had the money.
"Not yet." His father was a fan of anything that flew and had gotten trained and licensed when he was young. "I'll book one for the two of us." He had taken Dave up a couple of times as well and started teaching him the basics. For a moment, Dave nearly assented.
Then he recalled that he had intended to get his own license this past summer. And he recalled why that hadn't happened.
"Don't bother." He returned his gaze to the distant brown horizon at his right, and he tried to focus on something else. While being up in the sky had been exhilarating, it had been difficult to ignore the dead landscape below.
It seemed impossible that anything could have ever grown out there, and yet orchards like the one he was just leaving had once been plentiful. There were also stories of insects that had pollinated plants as a matter of habit; the time-consuming activity now required careful tending by hand in order to produce the desired fruit. Technology that could achieve the same results remained elusive. Dave wondered at the miracles that had been lost.
"I remember when you did that. Didn't think you were going to keep it." His father's voice pulled him from his reverie. From the corner of his eye, Dave saw the man was looking at the side of his head and smiling ruefully. The way he had turned his head had drawn his father's attention to the earring in his left ear. Reflecting back to how he had ended up with it, and glad for the break from his depressing thoughts, he embraced the memory. In retrospect, it had been a bit comical.
"Ooh, you look sooo cool, Dave," Heather teased. Dave shifted uncomfortably and brought his hand up to his newly pierced left ear. Dropping it, he tried to cover his embarrassment.
"Whatever. I just wanted to try it out." That, and there had been some older students there saying he wouldn't be able to do it. Heather hadn't been there, though, so she wouldn't know that.
"Sure," she said doubtfully, but she moved closer to him. He, ever so slightly, moved back.
It was a week after the new school year had started. Things were back to usual, everyone a little older, but no wiser. Not in Dave's case, at least. He still hadn't figured out how to bring Eleni around to be reasonable. He had tried once again to talk to her towards the end of the summer, but she had continued to ignore him.
He fingered the earring again, disconsolate.
"How is kick boxing going?" Heather said looking over her shoulder at him. Dave gave a half smile and shrugged.
"It's ok." His dad had insisted he sign up saying he needed an outlet once school had gotten out. Dave couldn't tell his father the reason for his bad mood, so the man has written it off as teenaged angst.
The truth was Eleni hadn't even spoken to him on his 15th birthday, and he had gone out of his way to be at the office building that day. The memory still made him growl.
The sport hadn't done much to improve his mood, but he planned to continue.
"Did you decide if you're going to do any fall sports?" He shook his head.
"I don't think I will. Just student council."
Heather looked disappointed. "I was looking forward to coming to a game."
Dave grunted, unsure what to say. He stuck to the topic at hand. "Don't you have…uh…?"
"Field hockey. Maybe you could come to one of my games sometime," she added the latter quietly. Dave nodded but didn't say anything.
After a moment of awkward silence, she spoke again.
"There's a group going to the arcade. We should join them." Something about the way she said 'we' made him turn his head and look at her. That was when he realized that the rest of their friends had melted away and the two of them were sitting alone. That was also the moment that Eleni emerged from the girl's school on her way home.
"I…I'm doing kick boxing this afternoon," he mumbled, watching Eleni out of the corner of his eye. She glanced over, and suddenly he felt guilty. He stood. "I should get going, actually. Talk to you later, Heather."
He jogged across the courtyard and down the short driveway to the main street. He quickly identified Eleni by her scarf and ran to catch up.
"Elle! Wait up!" he called when he got close. She did nothing of the sort. "Are you going to ignore me here, too?" He asked when he finally drew close. She glanced at him but didn't speak. She could see that he wasn't with Heather, right? She walked on in silence. After a minute, he gave up and let her go.
By the next Rest Day, he had arrived at the conclusion that he needed another opinion. It was awkward, because he couldn't mention Eleni, but he thought he had it figured out. Now at the breakfast table with his father, he was working up his courage to start.
"Um, dad, are you heading into the office today?" It wasn't unusual for Robert Kelly to work on the Rest Day.
"Uh, no." The man responded, looking up from his tablet. Dave supposed that meant that Eleni's mom had the day off as well. They were probably together at a park somewhere.
"Dad, I wanted to ask you about something." His father turned off the tablet and set it aside.
"What is it, Dave?"
"Well, it's actually for a friend." His father raised his eyebrows and nodded but didn't speak. "You see, this friend has another friend. They're close, ok? But when the first friend hangs out with other people it bothers the…other friend, the one that they are close to." His father's brow was wrinkling in confusion.
"Dave, could we put some names to these 'friends'? They don't have to be real." Dave supposed it did sound a bit confusing when you said it out loud. He tried again.
"OK. Jack is friends with Jill. They are close." His father nodded firmly. "But Jack likes to hang out with this other group of friends. Jill doesn't hang out with them, but she sometimes sees Jack with them and she doesn't like it. She thinks that Jack has, uh, special friends in that group and it bothers h-, it bothers her." He stopped there, nervous. Had he said too much?
He thought his father looked vaguely amused, but the man responded in all seriousness. "Well, it does happen that you can have more than one group of friends, and the different groups don't interact or like each other. It happens frequently in my line of work." The last was a discontent mumble. Dave ignored it. "Usually, however, if you have a friend who is telling you not to hang out with other friends, it is not a good sign. That friendship probably won't last, unless there is something really wrong with those other friends. And I think you'd be aware of it if that were the case."
That was not what Dave had wanted to hear, but his dad hadn't gotten the scenario quite right. He was trying to figure out how to make it clearer, without making things too clear, when his father saved him the trouble.
"However," the man said slowly, "if Jack and Jill are more than friends, that changes things." He pinned Dave with a look, but the boy put on his most oblivious of faces and did his best to simply look intent upon what his father was saying.
Robert Kelly narrowed his eyes but continued. "You mentioned 'special friends.' If Jill cares for Jack, and Jack for Jill, and she is upset because it looks like Jack is paying more attention to other girls than he should, that is an issue that they need to work out."
"But how?" Then, to make it clear this wasn't about him, "He really wants to know. My friend." Finally, they were getting to something that might be helpful.
"Well, Jack needs to realize that appearances do matter, especially when you have someone you care about. Jill doesn't hang out with this group of friends at all?" Dave shook his head.
"Different group of people. You know, like the chess team and the jocks, that sort of thing." His father nodded, taking this information in. Dave got the impression the man nearly rolled his eyes.
"Well then, Jill doesn't know what goes on when Jack is with this other group. And that is normal, and it goes both ways. But if when she sees them, there are things that bother her, like Jack giving too much attention to a particular individual, then that cannot be ignored. If Jack wants to be…close.'" There had definitely been a pause and then a purposeful emphasis on the last word. Dave got the feeling his father was teasing him now, but shrugged it off, intent on his purpose.
"But Jack isn't doing anything with this other g-, I mean with the other people. He treats them all the same."
"And yet, Jill is seeing something that bothers her. Appearances matter. Jack needs to understand that."
"And?!" This was not very helpful.
"He needs to talk to Jill. Maybe try to get her to believe that there is really nothing she should be worried about or find some sort of compromise. But if she doesn't accept that, then I don't think Jack and Jill are going to work out. Unless Jack stops hanging out with those friends. That is a change he might not be willing to make, if he is indeed doing nothing that warrants concern. It all comes down to how important is Jack to Jill, and Jill to Jack? That is the question they need to be asking themselves. And they may not like the answers they find, but that is often the way of things." Dave grimaced, not liking the answers he was finding.
"Thanks," he muttered, and started to excuse himself to go stew over the conversation in his room. His father stopped him.
"Dave, I'm glad you brought this issue up to me. It's made me realize it is time for you and I to talk. About relationships and all that goes along with them." Dave felt his face redden. He had had a couple of these talks already with his dad, basic mechanics and such, and didn't see the need for another. He got a lot of information from his friends.
"Um, I was going to go meet my friends…"
"And get your other ear pierced? I think they can wait." Robert Kelly had not been impressed at Dave's show of bravado towards the older kids.
He told Dave to go sit in the living room, while he retrieved a massive tome from Dave had no idea where. Most of the time people used tablets for reading, but they weren't great when pictures were involved. Pictures were very much involved in this book. Dave belatedly recalled that his father had been a doctor before moving on to his current career. He was sure texts like this were not commonly available to the general public.
The talk went far beyond basic mechanics, and the book was a great deal more detailed than what his father had shown him before. Or what they were taught in school; that lesson had mostly focused on how those bodily functions were to be reserved for marriage.
The conversation was thoroughly embarrassing like the others had been, but also thorough unto itself and enlightening. It ranged from the physical to the emotional, from boundaries to communication to consent. Respect, to be both given and expected in return, was a common theme throughout. His father encouraged him to ask questions, and Dave learned a lot. The conversations with his friends had been very different, and, he started to understand, quite possibly incorrect.
It was midafternoon by the time he found all his questions had been answered. He asked his father if he could borrow the book for a while, and the man hadn't minded, so he had taken it back to his room where it now sat in a drawer in his desk.
He was back to thinking about the situation with Eleni and understood better the choice he had. What Heather was doing, in spite of the fact that he never encouraged it, was not ok with Eleni. He could either stop it, and get Eleni back, or do nothing, but accept that he and Eleni probably wouldn't be together again. She had made that clear.
He decided, and starting the next day at school, he made a point of moving away from Heather each time she ended up next to him. It was awkward, until he instead focused on always being at the center of a group of boys. He was popular, and simply invited more of his classmates to hang out with his group after school. It worked, and as the days went by, he found himself keeping an eye on the entrance to the girl's academy to see if Eleni noticed.
He wasn't able to tell, so he started going to his father's office again when he was free. He joined Eleni if she was studying in the office, and if she was practicing her dancing, he made a point of sitting by the overturned table, hoping she would come over and talk to him.
It didn't go well. She continued to ignore him. Nonetheless, every chance he got he was there, and when she danced he stubbornly sat watching her as he had done since they were children. Frustration aside, he enjoyed that. He had missed watching her dance.
As the days passed and started to become weeks, he began to worry. Finally, one day when she stopped dancing, Eleni glanced at him, and sighed as if giving up on something. Then, slowly, she came over and sat down next to him. Just that act brought him a wave of relief.
"I'm sorry, Elle, that I didn't listen to you. Or see that what Heather was doing was really bothering you." He willed her to have seen that he had distanced himself from Heather. "I miss you," he added quietly.
She glanced over at him, then after a moment, moved her backpack between them and dug into the small pocket at the front, pulling something out.
"Could you help me put this on?" she said, holding out the silver bracelet with the heart shaped pendant on it. He felt incredibly happy as he had put it back on her left wrist, and then just looked at her wishing it was a night they could go into the small room next door.
She glanced at the doors before bringing her lips to his in a brief kiss. As she pulled back, she rested her forehead on his for a moment and whispered that she had missed him, too. Then she reached up and gently touched the earring.
"What is this?" He ran his hand over it, embarrassed.
"I don't know. It just happened. Kind of stupid of me." Her golden-brown eyes were dancing, but her smile was shy. He had been about to say he was going to get rid of it when she spoke.
"I kind of like it." Suddenly, keeping the earing didn't seem such a bad idea.
"She gave that to you, didn't she?" His father's question shook Dave out of the memory. He reached up and touched the earring that was the subject of their conversation, but didn't answer. "I haven't seen you without it since you put it in." Dave dropped his arm.
"I'd rather not talk about it."
"Dave, they were important to me, too. Yes, I made a terrible mistake, but you have to see that the situation was unsustainable. Would you rather I had let her be killed as in infant?" Dave didn't want to think of having never known Eleni. That didn't make what had happened ok.
Looking away from his father, he again focused on the distant brown horizon, which was now uninterrupted as they had left the trees. His thoughts turned to his secret activities. Kurt had been reluctant last week when he had provided names to Dave but provide them he had. Dave had met with the first of those families just a few days ago, and it had gone well.
He tried to hold on to that line of thinking and the sense of cautious satisfaction it brought him, but with his eyes locked on the distant horizon where the dead brown met the brilliant blue sky, his thoughts again turned dark. Distorted by the heat, a last gasp of summer, the line seemed to twist and flicker. It looked like invisible tongues of fire, promising death outside their covered world. He shuddered.
It was told that in the decades after the Devastation, in the summers, the city had often been surrounded by a lurid glow. Wildfires, burning away what had existed of their paradise piece by piece, year by year, until there was no more left to burn. They had had to raze the ground for miles around the covered city to protect it from also becoming a victim of that inferno.
The distant fires had fed the rise of religious fanaticism, with many truly believing that Hell was being visited upon the earth.
Dave didn't disagree. In his opinion, it was still here. And humans had no one to blame for that but themselves.
They reached the gate to the orchard in silence. Two transports waited outside. Ignoring his father's disappointment, Dave climbed into his and returned to the city alone.