40
"Where! Is he!"
CRASH!
"Miss Woles, please, calm down!"
"Shut UP! Tell me where he is already!"
"Miss Woles! Your wounds!"
Tiana flipped over yet another cot, hair wild, bandaged all over her chest, breathing hard, with murder in her eyes.
"Tell me! Where. Is. Rhiem!"
At the end of the infirmary, a voice came out of a curtained-off corner. An even... calm... voice.
"Tiana, I'm here."
Rhiem opened the curtain from his bed, he too was bandaged all over his body, yet he had an extra IV drip with a mix of sedative to counteract the phantom pain he was in. He looked up from his magazine long enough to see a girlish fist whiz towards his face.
KRAK!
Tiana drew her fist back for another punch to the face, bruises already forming on her knuckles.
Rhiem slowly realigned his neck, and replaced the bandage back over his cheekbone. Tiana had hit exactly where-
He stopped himself there.
-where Wild Rose struck him.
Without looking at Tiana, Rhiem pulled up a chair. "So what's wrong, Tiana?"
Tiana looked at him like he was crazy.
"Oh my God, I'm going to punch you again."
She did, right into his gut. One of the nurses gasped in horror; a heavy bandage wrapped around where Tiana had struck.
Rhiem didn't even flinch.
Tiana, out of steam, slumped down.
"Rhiem..." She was close to tears. "Where is Riu?"
Rhiem looked straight into Tiana's watering eyes.
"She's safe now. Don't worry about her."
"How..." Tiana shook her head in despair. "How could I not worry about her? She in the pit of Archeria..."
"Wild Rose is safer than all of us. She's an Archerian Elite, she'll be cared for. Don't worry."
"But how...?" Tiana really cried then, tears rolled down her cheeks. "How could I not worry about her? She's my friend."
"That's fine. If you're her friend, you should feel that. But for her, we have to let her go."
He flipped a page. "Otherwise, we're just being selfish."
Tiana grabbed a glass water jug off Rhiem's food tray, and threw it against the wall.
The glass shattered in a explosion of shards and blades.
"THEN I'M SELFISH!"
Tiana hung her head.
"For me... Rhiem. Can't you go and rescue her for me?"
Rhiem looked at Tiana.
"No."
Tiana looked right back.
"I see..."
She left, pushing aside a throng of nurses to get to the door. As she slammed the door, a single tear fell to the cold, concrete floor of the infirmary.
Rhiem went back to reading his magazine.
Tiana looked up. She was leaning against the wall outside of Rhiem's ward. The door opened, and then the bandaged form of KJ walked out, head shaking. He had spent the better part of the hour trying to beat the spirit back into Rhiem. His arguments consisted mostly of, "Get up off your ass, mofo" Not the best motivator.
"I can't get to him."
Tiana sighed, and then sunk to the ground.
"God...What's wrong with him?"
KJ hesitated, for a second, before sitting down next to her.
"You know... he reminds me of Kaejun."
Tiana glanced up.
"Your sister?"
"Mm. Before, Kaejun was all stressed, but after she... well, snapped, she became better. More life."
KJ pulled a chewstick from his pocket.
"But this is reversed. I haven't known Rhiem for long, but the guy I knew was crazy enough to charge down a monorail train to get to you and that girl. Now he's totally gone. Kaejun was gone, but now she's got some lifer."
"...he only did that for Riu."
"Not just that girl. You, too. He really does care for you, you know."
"...Goddamn idiot."
Kaejun came in then, holding a tray of, to her own chagrin, artificial crab meat.
"Kaejun!" KJ scolded. "What are you doing?"
"Going to talk to Mr. Rhiem." She opened the door, and closed it on her brother's protests.
Rhiem was still reading the magazine inside.
Kaejun walked in, goose-stepped, and set the tray of..."food" over Rhiem's own breakfast of simple gruel and bits.
Rhiem glanced up, and then down again.
Undeterred, Kaejun took a seat in front of Rhiem's bed.
"Yeah, I hate artificial crab meat, too."
He said nothing.
"So...Mr. Rhiem. Why are you so sad?"
"I'm not sad."
"But you're not happy."
"That doesn't mean I'm sad."
"But..." Kaejun said, "You were happy when you were sleeping."
'What are you talking about?"
"Back when you were sleeping at the subways. When Brother knocked you out. You were talking about something in your sleeping, and you had a small smile on your face. Brother couldn't see it, and told me I should stop eating expired lobster tails, but you really were, honest!"
"..."
"It's a girl, right?"
"...no."
"Is she pretty?"
"I already told you, it's not-"
"Do you love her?"
Kaejun sat back in her seat, trying to imitate an old man giving advice.
"I heard you arguing with my Brother, whippersnapper! If you love her, you should go and get her!"
Rhiem sighed, and then looked at Kaejun.
"I'm not going to put her in more danger. She's done being saved by me."
"You saved her a lot?"
"And I don't have to anymore. She's safe now."
"Well..."
"Well what?"
Yeta looked out at the zooming mountains from her ten-foot window space. She sat back in her reclined seat, the memory foam sucking her in it's embrace. She took a deep drink from an artfully crafted pure crystal flume. The alcohol didn't do anything but make her face red, to her annoyance.
-then-
"Agh!" She flinched. The alcohol suddenly tripled it's content, it seemed.
"No, no, no! Not again...!"
Riu checked her reflection in the mirror. She was beautiful...it seemed. But it wasn't herself. She wiped off the makeup, and then looked up.
Her manservant was staring at her in the mirror. Hurriedly, he looked away, and Riu turned away in embarrassment.
His face turned away, he held out a quivering hand, with a heavy towel on the end.
"Mi-Milady, your towel. And the Guildmaster of the Vaticano district will be here shortly."
"O...Of course, Rodrigo. Thank you."
Rodrigo, face reddening, and desperately trying to conceal what he would later try to pass off as puberty at it's worst, nearly ran from the room.
Riu looked sadly at the retreating manservant. She could practically hear his thoughts.
...beautiful...but scary...
...far out of my league...
...there's always that nice flower girl in the plaza...
Men always thought that they have to protect their woman. And to do that, they have to be stronger than their woman, otherwise, what would be the point of protecting them in the first place?
But...she thought...If there was a man who could realize that she, too, needed protecting, and not from blade or talon, but loneliness..
Then she would stay with him forever, for she was nearly a deity, and a man like that has to be one in-a million, to be audacious enough to protect a deity...
And brave enough to try and protect the strong.
"Well... what?" asked Rhiem. His eyes were almost downcast now, and his magazine hung limp by his side.
"Just..." Kaejun looked deep into Rhiem's eyes. "Just because she's safe, doesn't mean she still doesn't need saving."
"She still needs you."
Rhiem looked up.
Rhiem stepped out of the ward, pulling on his jacket.
"Rhiem!" Tiana was sitting on the floor, knees to her chest. KJ was next to her, playing pong on her music player.
"You...you..."
"Hey. You guys are pretty friendly."
Tiana could only mouth in confusion, when KJ stood up.
"Rhiem. You feeling better now?"
"I was always feeling just fine."
"Rhiem..." Tiana punched him, lightly, on the shoulder.
KJ punched him for real, on the other shoulder, and dragged him along.
"So, where are we going to?"
Rhiem looked out to the end of the corridor. The sun was shining through the window there. Fruits of labor that he... and Riu... did. It should have been dark and snowing at this time of year.
"Come on."
He stepped towards that light.
~End Part One