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This is a nice long chapter, and for me, a relatively short wait. Hope you all like it!
Author's Note: This is a continuation of the Isaac and Co, where the last chapter ended. A very short, one-sentence recap here: After a long day of tension, Isaac decides to sit the group down for a nice talk…
Tundra
Chapter 10: What Goes Around…
Isaac paced the floor of the deck slowly, pursing his lips. He didn't want to be the first to speak. After spending a better part of the day thinking about what to say, he decided it would be better to let someone else have the first word.
Left to right, left to right… Isaac started to count his footsteps. One, two, three, four, five... eighteen, nineteen, twenty, twenty-one, twen…
He stopped pacing and looked up at his friends, scanning them. Piers, with the patience of a man who has seen many years, sat smiling slightly. He was obviously uncomfortable in the weather, but he seemed possessed by a sense of duty at the moment, as Isaac was. Isaac guessed that Piers knew better than anyone why they were out here.
Ivan was rolling his fingers on his right knee, his physical body impatient. His eyes, however, did not stray from Isaac. Next to him, Garet sat with his hands folded, elbows on his knees, his eyes on the ground. Even with his broad shoulders, and with six inches of height on everyone else in the group, Garet seemed small.
Jenna sat next to Sheba. She looked at Isaac, partially confused, and partially guilty. She knew that she was part of the reason that they were outside in this freezing weather. What Jenna didn't realize was that Sheba, sitting to her right, was struggling to hold back tears.
Sheba was beyond embarrassed. Piers was going to tell Isaac everything that had happened over the past several days. That would tear Isaac and Jenna apart for sure, and then two of her best friends would know how she had tried to manipulate them.
Piers' voice scrolled across the marquee in her mind.
"…if I were you, I would apologize to Jenna before she has a chance to get angry at you."
Sheba tried. She tried to open her mouth, to turn to Jenna and be brave. She wanted to say that she was sorry in advance for what she had been doing, how she had been acting, and then stand up with her head high, even in her shame, and confess in front of everyone what she had done. She wanted to be courageous and do the right thing.
But she couldn't. She couldn't stand up. She was too afraid. She hated herself terribly for her cowardice, but it didn't matter. There was nothing she could say to herself that would convince her go up in front of the group and confess.
At that moment, Jenna glanced over at her friend, and saw the tears streaming down her cheeks. Jenna said nothing, but put her arm around her friend and gave her a consoling hug.
"Don't feel bad, Sheba, it's my fault we're out here. I shouldn't have reacted so badly earlier."
"Thank you, Jenna" said Isaac plainly.
Sheba buried her head in Jenna's shoulder.
"What for?" she asked.
"For starting us off on the right foot. Everyone, we are too far down this road to fall apart as a group. Why are we starting now? There is no way we are this dependent on Felix. I know he's our leader, but this is just embarrassing. Garet and Ivan, I thought one of you would speak up first. Why did you two get in a fight today?"
"Umm," Ivan hesitated.
"It was me," Jenna interjected. "They came into our room for some reason, and it smelled bad. I wasn't in a very good mood at that moment, so I just sort of… blew up."
Isaac decided to respond maturely, and not to point out that a single girl had beaten both of them up.
"Why were you in her room then, guys? You know that she hates that."
"Umm," said Ivan again.
"Umm, what?" jabbed Isaac. "What were you looking for?"
Isaac desperately hoped that this conversation was not taking an awkward turn. As it turned out, it was, but not in the direction Isaac had in mind.
"Nothing," said Garet. "We were talking."
"With who?"
Ivan and Garet exchanged a furtive glance.
"Talking with who?" glowered Isaac, tightening his lip. "Each other? Because obviously no one invited you in there."
"That's not true…" squeaked Ivan.
"Then who invit… Ah. I see. Sheba? Do you want to share something with the rest of us?"
Sheba felt her insides plummet as Jenna withdrew from the hug. She wasn't making it out of this one, and she was terribly afraid that before she fell asleep that she would be short at least one friend. She slowed her breathing, and dried her tears off a little bit before she spoke. She knew that everyone in the group was looking at her.
"I'm sorry Jenna," she said shakily. "I… haven't been very nice over the past few days. Past few weeks. I… I invited Ivan and Garet into our room, w-when you had finished talking with Isaac, because I wanted t-to talk to them about… you and Isaac."
Sheba let the words flow out of her like a river from a broken dam, an unstoppable disaster, herself a bystander, only able to watch the carnage. She instead stared blankly into a small blemish on the deck floor, letting her breath catch up to her emotions.
Sheba's words hit Isaac like a freight train. The pause allowed their weight to truly register. To say that he felt oblivious was an understatement.
Jenna looked wordlessly at Sheba. Sheba didn't dare look her in the eyes. She couldn't bear to see Jenna's unadulterated stare of betrayal. She could already feel the eyebeams of two of her closest friends searing holes through her.
"I wanted to ask them… ask them about… getting… about getting you two together."
Even the fiercely cold winds around the boat seemed silent. Sheba let a stream of tears fall from her eyes. They splashed on the deck under the night sky as the moonlight reflected off of them. The puddle beneath her began to freeze.
"After you got angry at Garet and Ivan, I went and talked to Piers about it. He…he told me to stop being m-manipulative and… apologize before… before things got bad. Oh, Jenna, I'm sorry! Y-you're my best friend and I've been horrible…"
"Yeah, damn right you have been! How could you?" Jenna swore. "How could you! I've told you everything, and you just… you just…"
Jenna stood up, chin trembling, and looked down at Sheba with contempt. Then, before Isaac could say anything, she walked away, opened the door, and shut it with a brand of quiet finality.
A long silence engulfed the deck.
"It wasn't just Sheba," Ivan said a moment later. "I was in on it too."
"So was I," added Garet. "I'm sorry, Isaac, I just…"
"Leave me alone for a while, please," Isaac interrupted, as he turned around and put his hands on the rail at the edge of the ship. "Both of you."
Garet bit his lip, and then left quietly. Ivan followed, leaving Isaac, Sheba, and Piers on deck. Sheba still hadn't moved from where she sat.
"I think we needed that," said Piers, "Let everyone sleep on it. We'll all feel better in the morning, I think. I'll take what I can of the guard duty tonight, Isaac. You certainly need the sleep more than I do. I'll wake up one of the other guys when I can't stay awake anymore."
Isaac walked inside, shutting the door behind him. He walked to his room slowly, trying to take in the events of the evening. He didn't agree with Piers at all. The worst part was tomorrow morning. Tomorrow morning, he had to face Jenna. He quickly removed his freezing, wet layers, pulled on dry pajamas, and got underneath the covers. He was asleep before he hit the pillow.
Sheba, on the other hand, could not sleep at all. She had come in shortly after Isaac. She couldn't go to her room to sleep, so she had grabbed one of the spare blankets and a pillow from storage and made herself a small and uncomfortable bed on the couch in the entry room. The pillow smelled of salt.
Where was Felix when you needed him? Felix, who always had the comforting word, who had an answer for every situation, who could make even the gravest troubles seem like small problems, who could take the emotion out of a situation and make sense of it. He was the stern leader, the man who jumped for her, the one who was there for anyone in the group who needed him.
Sheba desperately needed a friend to talk to, but knew that several of her relationships had been damaged tonight. Jenna would definitely never trust her again, not for a long time. Besides that, both Piers and Isaac obviously found her behavior despicable. Who would she talk to? Ivan? Garet? Not likely. What would they talk about besides Jenna and Isaac? For the first time since she had been taken from Lalivero by Saturos and Menardi, Sheba felt alone.
She fell apart again, hugging her pillow tightly as she stared at the ceiling. She felt cold. It was warm inside the ship, but she couldn't remove the empty feeling from the pit of her stomach, and it birthed an inner chill.
Sheba cried for a while longer, and she felt the cold renew itself again, only this time from the outside. It was Piers.
"Sheba?" he asked the lump on the couch.
She looked away from him, trying to stifle her tears.
"Oh, Sheba… I'm sorry," he said gently, taking a seat on the couch at her feet.
He stayed silent for a moment.
"Sheba, I think I owe you an apology," he began.
Sheba was shocked enough to look up from her pillow.
"Earlier today, I said some harsh words to you about your behavior. That wasn't the appropriate time or place to say something about it. I acted selfishly; I used your behavior as a target for backlash. I'm sorry that I wasn't concerned with your feelings. I know you were having a rough day, and I realize that you were frustrated. You must believe that even someone as old as I am doesn't care for a night like this. I'm sorry that if I had a problem with you, I could not confront you about it like an adult."
Sheba sniffled gently. Her tears stopped. She listened.
"You're not the only one to ever mess up in your relationships, you know?" said Piers matter-of-factly. "When I was young, there were no other children in Lemuria. I often had to devise ways of entertaining myself. Some worked out better than others. I would get into trouble, and I would apologize, and life would go on. However, as I got older, I felt that my parents would not respect the fact that I was growing up."
Sheba watched, and listened closely. She had not moved since Piers began to speak.
"I looked for ways to be outside of their supervision. I found one in King Hydros. When he first took me on as his aide, he had me take an oath. Being young as I was, I didn't care at all for such things. I barely even paid attention to the words, even though I know them by heart now: I am a Wing. I serve the People, guided by the Senate, under the wise eyes of our King. I am not a champion, but a standard-bearer. I am not a master, but a servant. I am not above the law, I am within the law.
"A mere two days after I took that oath to King Hydros, I had forgotten all about it. I was bored. I took to exploring areas I had not been allowed to venture into before. I flaunted my new status everywhere. It allowed me access to the docks, to the Old City, to the Senate floor. I could go anywhere and do anything!
"That day, as I returned from my explorations in the Old City, I hit another boat. The damage… was not permanent, but it would have cost me much money to repair. Instead of offering to pay for it, I merely claimed my right as Hydros' Wing, and went on my way.
"King Hydros got wind of it the next day, and I have never in my life been so scared as when I saw his eyes that morning as I entered.
"'You are a disgrace,' he said to me. 'You swore to serve the people, and yet now you trample all over them? I think not. I have half a mind to remove you from your post right now, and have you buy them a new ship on top of that.'
"I had never truly betrayed someone's trust until that moment. It took me a long time to build up King Hydros's trust again, but when I did, I was his closest aide. He trusted me, above all others, with this mission, and I don't not intend to fail.
"My point is, dear Sheba, that tomorrow will be difficult. So too will the day after. But you must commit yourself to regaining the trust of your friends. I, for one, am ready to start tonight. And, as a show of good will, I'll tell you a secret."
"A secret?" she asked, fragilely.
"Yes," said Piers, smiling. "My true age."
Sheba grinned, and a bright spark appeared in her swollen, reddened eyes.
"My true age," he said, bringing himself closer to her ear, "is…"
He put his hand over his mouth and whispered. A second later, Sheba beamed brightly and embraced Piers with a wrapped-around hug. He returned the gesture in kind. As she let go, he bid her good night and walked off to rouse Garet. Sheba pulled the blanket up to her neck as she smiled to herself. Just as Piers opened to door to go below deck, however, an explosive flash of light illuminated the black night sky, accompanied by a loud boom.
Sheba didn't need to read minds to know what Piers was thinking at that moment.
"Do you think...?" said Sheba.
Both of them immediately ran outside, haphazardly pulling on their jackets. As they looked out on the horizon, Sheba used Reveal. What she saw set her heart beating like a jackhammer. She quite clearly saw a bright flash of Ragnarok in the Northern sky.
"Piers! It's them!"
So… I think this might be some of my best dialogue ever. Actually, forget that, this is some of my best writing ever. I hope. I did this all in about six hours, and I think it turned out rather well, even though it is now 3:33 a.m. Lucky time to finish, no?
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