Chapter 30 ~ Nethrys

Nethrys woke up relatively early for his standards the next day, at nine. As the details of the last night came back, he kept his head from slamming against the wall and tried to block them out. How could I be so stupid? He remembered Vytoni's horrified face and grimaced.

And yet... She wasn't exactly lying, but she never told the truth, either. He was hopeful for approximately two seconds before he actually smacked himself on the head. Don't be so selfish! She belongs to the Hunt!

Feeling increasingly restless, he took a quick shower and after shaking a bleary Wolfe awake and leaving him, he went to Enryx and Adrian's room, where Enryx was drinking a boatload of coffee and chatting guy stuff to Adrian or whatever. Lysandra was there, too, reading a book and stealing glances at Enryx on occasion, if occasion meant every ten seconds or so.

"Enryx!" Enryx looked up from his crossword."I have an idea. Since Courtney and Logan think we captured William -well, we did- but since they still think that, maybe we could include William into a plan."

"What plan?" Enryx asked twirling his pencil around.

"The plan I'm going to tell you about right now."

"What is it? Lysandra asked curiously, looking up from her novel.

"So I was thinking that since Courtney and Logan think we captured Will, one of their monster minions are searching for him. If we bring him to them, Wolfe will be brought to their hiding spot and lead us to them, but the thing is they might not believe that he just suddenly got free, so we need to convince them." Enryx explained, sitting down in an armchair.

"How?" Adrian asked, he was polishing his black sword making it gleam under the flickering light.

"Well, what I was thinking was that to make sure they believe Wolfe by making him hold someone as captive as proof he ran away and held someone prisoner," Nethrys said slowly, studying the tag on his wrist.

"So who are we going to have as a pretend prisoner if we go through with this plan?" Enryx asked.

"Dunno," Nethrys sighed, tracing the crest on the small disc, "Do we have a volunteer?"

"I could do it," Adrian shrugged, "And I can keep an eye on him as well."

"Possibly, but we need someone who looks vulnerable," Nethrys nodded as he stood up and started to pace. "Someone who looks innocent."

"Why don't I do it?" Lysandra offered.

"No offense, Lys, you don't come off as innocent," Enryx looked at her, his eyes gazing into hers. Lysandra broke contact, clearing her throat.

The door flung open, and Katerina walked in, with Trudy right at her heels, "What's this all about?" Kat said, eyeing the different Godlings.

Trudy yawned, rubbed her eyes and frowned, "A secret meeting without us?"

"Of course! Trudy, you would be perfect!" Nethrys gestured at her astonished form.

"What? No!" Adrian said, blocking Trudy from Nethrys' view.

"Perfect for what?"

"Er, nothing! Nothing at all," Adrian said.

"It's obviously something, so spill," She turned Adrian around, so that they were face-to-face. "What is it?" She said to him, gently.

Adrian sighed resignedly and shrugged, "It's just this stupid thing we were just discussing."

"Adrian, what is it?" Trudy applied more pressure into her voice. Nethrys had a nagging feeling that she was using charmspeak.

"Well, Nethrys said you should join Wolfe on this mission, so that Leo and Coraline-"

"Logan and Courtney," Lysandra immediately corrected.

"-don't suspect that- hang on, I need to be excused," Adrian ran out of the room, and Nethrys started to explain the plan to Trudy, going over some made up details he had decided on the spot. "Wolfe would take Trudy through shadow-travel, having her bound in what looks like sphinx-infused rope, but is actually just normal rope braided with gold and silver threads. Vytoni can track both of them, so it would be simple to find the lair from there. Actually freeing and defeating them would be the real problem. We will go in three strike teams: Alpha would be Adrian, Vytoni and I, Beta is Katerina, Lysandra and Enryx, with Gamma as Elektra, Scarlett and Rosamynd. Alpha is the distraction and main fight, Beta will free and defend Trudy and fight alongside Wolfe, and Gamma are fighting long range, keeping an eye out for surprise attacks and reinforcements."

"Spoken like a true commander," Enryx complemented, making Nethrys wonder if he had a bit too much coffee this morning.

"Scarlett can fight?" Katerina scoffed and smirked.

"We'll just give her a knife or whatever," Nethrys suggested, shrugging.

"Can she even use a knife?" Katerina raised an eyebrow, her arms crossed.

"Kat, come on - give her a chance," Lysandra reasoned, twisting her her dirty blonde hair between her fingers nervously.

Katerina rolled her eyes and walked out of the door, "Whatever. I'm going to get Wol- William." Nethrys sighed and buried his face into a pillow, gritting his teeth in frustration.

"Do you think this plan will work?" Trudy asked quietly, looking down.

"Hope so, just as long as we're doing it right and according to the plan, then yes." Enryx said determinedly.

"Don't worry, babe. I'll make sure it does. If anything happens to you, I swear-" He broke himself off by swearing under his breath. Trudy laughed at that, then turned to him and kissed Adrian on the cheek.

"I need to do something useful," She resolved, looking at Adrian helplessly.

"You are useful," Adrian protested, but his resolve was breaking. Nethrys knew he could never say no to his girlfriend.

Nethrys left as they were acting all lovey dovey, mockingly sticking his tongue at them, which was gone unnoticed. Enryx and Lysandra were blushing, moving to opposite sides of the room. Nethrys walked to the cafeteria, where people were jostling in the queue for the food. A thin girl wearing a blue polo shirt and a long skirt that went up to her ankles was standing behind the glass case that held different types of multi-colored goo that somehow passed for food. She had an apron tied around her belly, which was splattered with all types of different colored stains. Her skin was like a brown paper bag - tanned, thin and wrinkled, her face was caked with makeup; bright purple eyeshadow and red blush. Her black hair was crammed into a hair net, glossed and bunched up into a tight bun. He stood in line, carrying his plastic tray with a greasy plate laid on top. Nethrys gave up and went to the far side of the room, buying a can of coke from the vending machine instead. Nethrys sat on the rusty, broken heater, next to a table where dirty dishes were piled up. He cracked open his coke can and finished it faster than he realized, leaving him to debate whether to buy another one. He tossed it into the trash can, and was getting ready to go back to the rooms when he was interrupted.

"Excuse me, sweetheart. Could you help me pick that up?" A lady's voice said softly behind him. he looked down at a couple of plates that had fallen. Shrugging, he leaned down and grabbed it, placing it back on the towering pile of dishes. He stood back up and saw the lunch lady with the truckload of makeup smiling politely at him, holding a tray of dirty dishes and bowls stacked precariously on top of it. Her stained name tag read "Li". Strangely enough, she was thin to the bone, which was weird for a lunch lady. She looks starved to death.

"Thank you, dear."

"No problem," He replied, turning back to the door. The lady coughed in that weird way when people want to get attention, and Nethrys narrowed his eyes, reaching for his Mist-disguised sword.

"Yes?" He asked her. Her smile grew a little twisted, and she beckoned to him to the mysteriously empty kitchen.

"Come," She said, "I will show you something." He followed her cautiously, his sword fully drawn. I hope those mortals see this as something harmless, He tried to align his body to shield his sword from view. Like an umbrella, or something.

The lunch lady led him to surprisingly foodless room, considering it was supposed to be the kitchen. Nethrys had a sneaking suspicion he knew who the lady really was.

"Limos?" He asked her apprehensively. She beamed proudly, nodding.

"Correct!"

"Why are you here?" He demanded, holding his sword in an offensive stance.

"My dear," Limos gave him a hurt appalled look, "I came to help you on your quest!"

Nethrys knew she was telling the truth, but he pressed on anyway, "How do you know about it?"

Limos smiled knowingly, "Your friend, Adrian, prays to me every night so he wouldn't starve. It's really quite amusing."

"... I see," Nethrys reminded himself to throttle Adrian once he got back. He stood rooted on the spot, keeping his stance. "Well?"

"I believe your transportation is," She smiled sympathetically, "In no fit shape to do it's job. I can help in that particular area."

"Last I checked, Hephaestus was in charge of mechanics, and Hermes was patron."

Limos shrugged, giving nothing away, "I have ties."

"Hmm..." Nethrys said, unconvinced, his sword was still held up. The celestial bronze glimmered in the white light. Limos eyed the sword with her pale green eyes warily, stepping back farther into her corner.

"I have a food truck," She told him, "You have to buy food and eat outside, though." She tossed him a set of rusty keys.

"Er, Thanks," Nethrys put the keys in his pocket with one hand, starting to back away towards the door.

"No problem sweetheart, anytime!" Limos smiled sickly sweet. Nethrys nodded and grasped the door handle, turning once he was through the entrance and almost running up the stairs to the floor where his friends slept,taking two steps at a time.

He paused outside her room, contemplating whether it was suicidal to knock and enter. He took the risk anyway, and rapped on the dull, wooden door. No answer. Feeling a little impatient, he knocked again, this time shouting, "Open up, it's important!"

He pressed his ear to the door, but heard nothing. Slowly, he turned the doorknob and pushed the door open. "Vytoni? You there?"

She was on her perfectly made bed, not even under her blanket. Nethrys felt his blood turn to ice and rushed over to her side, where he checked the pulse on her wrist. When he realized she was still breathing, Nethrys let loose a breath he didn't know he was holding.

"Wake up," He shook her gently, but she was as good as unconscious. He looked closer at her neck and saw a rune that wasn't usually there, glowing faintly. Nervously, he licked his two fingers put them on the marking, running them over the surface of her skin and smudging the rune.

Vytoni instantly woke, grabbing his hand and twisting it behind his back before he had time to react.

"Whoa," Nethrys struggled for a moment, trying to break free of her iron grip, "It's me." Vyt instantly let go, and Nethrys turned to face her, rubbing his wrists tentatively.

"Why did you do that?" Vytoni crossed her arms glared at him defiantly. Nethrys was suddenly aware how close they were; he could count every fleck of gold in her otherwise cloudy dark brown eyes. Vyt seemed to realize, too, because she stepped away and distracted herself by rubbing away the smudged rune with a strange, ink-like liquid that occasionally emitted gold sparks.

"You were unconscious, nearly thought you were dead," Nethrys said concernedly, sitting at her bed and causing it to wrinkle and dip. Vytoni glared at the sheet, then started to twist her hair into a bun. Nethrys almost told her to leave it out, but decided against it as he appreciated where his head was.

"Must've been that sleeping spell," Vyt muttered, her fingers flitting momentarily where the rune was a few minutes ago.

"What?" Nethrys sat, "You used magic to put yourself to sleep? Why did you need a sleeping spell?"

"I wasn't able to sleep," Vytoni turned and faced him, to which he found a big mistake of meeting her gaze, "And I didn't think it would be that strong."

"Of course it would be," Nethrys replied, "You don't realize just how powerful you are. Don't do that again."

"It is not your place to tell me what to do," Vytoni brushed past him and went to where her bag was, rummaging through it before taking a small black book out. She took her stylus and scribbled in it for a moment before tossing it back into her bag.

"It don't care, you're gonna get hurt."

"Oh? And who's to stop me? You?"

"What? No, of course not, I'm just saying-"

"Why are you here?"

"I - what?" Nethrys blinked before he thoroughly processed her question, "Oh, Limos, the Goddess of Starvation, is masquerading as a lunch lady downstairs. She gave me a set of keys to her food truck, so we can leave now."

"Who else have you told?"

"Why does it matter?" But Nethrys answered anyway, "You're the first."

"Why?"

"I don't know!" He threw his hands up in exasperation, frustration robbing his common sense, "I wanted to?"

"Why?"

"I -" He glared at her for a moment, then stalked out of her room. To his pleasant surprise, she followed him, her silent footsteps in sync with his not-so-silent ones.

"You what?" She followed him to his room, where Wolfe and Katerina were sitting rather intimately on the armchair but they immediately repelled each other as they walked in.

"Forget it."

"You better tell me what's going on, Nethrys," Vytoni urged, following at his heels.

"No."

"Nethrys."

"Vytoni." He mimicked, earning a glare.

"Tell me, now!"

"Not a chance," Wolfe and Katerina were watching them like a tennis match, "Look, I'll tell you later. This will take some time to explain."

"No, it won't! Why did you tell me first? I was farthest away!"

"Listen, I'm sick of this, I'm not speaking to you until you tell me what it is," Vytoni said stubbornly, walking out of his room back to hers. Nethrys sighed as she watched her go, turning back to William and Katerina, who were staring at him in bewilderment.

"Uh, what's going on with you guys?" Wolfe asked, his hand lingering near Katerina's.

"Nothing. Nothing at all. Anyway, I ran into Limos in the food court and she gave me a set of keys for her food truck so we can leave soon."

Katerina nodded and blushed a rosy pink colour, "I'll go tell the others." She hurriedly left the room, banging the door shut on the way out.

"So.. are you guys, like um.. together or?"

"We uh.. doesn't matter," Wolfe hesitated and sat down on his bed, distracting himself by wiping his already well-polished sword. Nethrys went over to the bathroom, turned on the tap and splashed his face with water, wiping his face with the back of hand. Impatiently, he went to where his bag was and took out an indigo pendant, shaped like a crescent moon. He had seen the thin, silver chain around her neck multiple times, so when the man in the Star Lotus Hotel offered it to him, he took it, even though he knew he probably never would be able to give it to Vytoni.

"Dude," Wolfe was looking at the pendant over Nethrys' shoulder, much to his annoyance, "Who's the lucky girl?"

"What?" Nethrys took a few seconds to recover, saying, "I think you know."

"Yeah," Wolfe smirked knowingly. He grinned and grabbed his leather jacket, "So are you gonna give it to her or what? Before it's too late." He left the room, probably going to go meet Katerina.

"I don't know." He told himself.

Yes, you do.

~ END OF CHAPTER 30 ~