Okay, before you read this I have to warn you that I updated this. Since there is no real time that I can fit a good explanation in before tomorrow, I placed it in here. AND NO FLAMES! this isn't supposed to be a stupid chimera mix, no, no, no. I don't write those. There is a very good explanation that will reveal everything from before to this point, but it will come in later chapters, maybe 9 or 11. Just remember what Petters said in the previous chapters. remember.

CHAPTER 7

Renting with Truths

Riven and Fernandina Victorian were in the office for four hours before the Colonel came out. They managed to get all of the paperwork cleaned up and fixed all of the furniture with the help of alchemy within the first hour. Cadet Jordan was finally given his desk in the space across from Charleson. They all new that this wasn't the best decision but it was the only available place and no other officer wanted to move theirs for the new Cadet. Beowulf was quiet and cheerful like normal, but Charleson, who returned by now and was not happy at the least with their new recruit, sent menacing glares at the tiny dog and its owner. A couple hours into their wait at the office, Riven and Fernandina got bored, and started chatting a bit with the soldiers. When they told them that Riven was only thirteen and her younger sister was twelve, the officers were all surprised, but didn't push to far into it, of course however, they were all wondering why they wore such weird clothes. When Gordon commented on Riven's clothes being too masculine, she spit out in explosive anger yelling at the Sargent for calling her a boy. In the end, the sisters managed to get the soldiers out of their work long enough to play a short game of treasure hunt using Sargent Gordon's cigarettes. Everyone loved to watch the Sargent run around the office, fumed about losing all of his smokes.

When Colonel Low finally stepped out of his office, he wasn't surprised to see the two girls laughing at an angry Sargent. After a little time to discuss sleeping arrangements for the Victorians, it was decided that they would stay with him for the time being. Though no one, not even the other officers, were too thrilled about the final decision John Low had the biggest house and therefore had enough space to house the girls. After saying goodbye to the team, the Victorian sisters followed John to his car, and were swiftly carried away to his house.

It might have been that every building around the Colonel's house was built for a mouse, but the size of the mansion was mind boggling for the sisters. The house was built with a grand marble staircase and a couple of pillars in the front, almost made it appeal as a palace. The Colonel unlocked the double doors with a small grumble and walked into the dark mansion. The inside was almost as miraculous as the outside, with fluffy red carpet lining the living room and stairs to the second floor. The ceilings were raised high above their heads and decorated with a shiny gold chandelier. The furniture in the house was definitely old, but comfortably used and didn't make the entire building look like a museum instead of a living place. Riven gave out a small whistle at the sights, while John tossed his keys on the table near the door. Fernandina looked down at him.

"Surely you can't afford this place with a mere Colonel's paycheck." She said to him innocently.

"Yeah," Riven added checking out a fancy Xerothian vase on the nearby table, "Was your family royalty or something?" John just gave out a sigh and started to walk tiredly to the center stair case.

"My father gave me this shack when he died," John said flatly. A flash of sadness flashed through all three of their eyes in the moment of silence that followed. After a few seconds the Colonel continued, "You will be staying in a couple of the guest rooms. I suggest twelve and seventeen which Benjamin turned for you two. Dinner will be in ten minutes, and the library is next to the living room. We will discuss plans for tomorrow, since it is my day off, at dinner. I expect you to be there at time." He said sternly. As he turned to go up the stairs, Fernandina piped up.

"One question," she said. "Who's Benjamin?" John just gave a small chuckle and continued to walk up the stairs.

Without looking back he replied, "Benjamin's my butler."

…

Riven and Fernandina both stayed in room seventeen. It was large with two single beds and separate writing desks and a single bathroom. Fernandina took the bed to the left, while Riven dropped her heavy black suitcase on the right. When she sat down on the fluffy surface of the bed a wave of exhaustion it her. She didn't even realize how full their day was, running from place to place with the Colonel, don't even forget being thrown through the window. There was a clock on the mantle of a small fireplace in the corner, it chimed half past six with its merry bells. The sun was barely visible among the horizon outside of their west facing window. Riven heard a loud clatter as Fernandina dropped her sword on the floor. Her black hair was now hanging freely as she took her helmet off of her head. The metal gleamed with the distant sun, but her eyes shone brighter in the darkness. Fierce grey orb burnt out in the dim room, while she held her other one tightly shut. A scar ran across the right of her face barely missing her closed eye. "Riven," she said innocently, "I can't stand to wear the helmet anymore, the heat is burning."

Riven sat up in her bed and looked through her case. A red and white bandana lay crammed in the corner. "I guess it would be really hard for you to eat with that on," Riven chuckled as she got up and walked behind her sister. She hated to admit it but she had to stand on her tiptoes in order to tie the bandana around her eye. When she was done, Riven took a step back to examine her work. The red bandana was draped over Fernandina's right eye and was held firmly in place by a square knot. Though it would be odd to see a girl wear that, it was better than making her sister wear a helmet that she could barely see out of.

"How's that?" she asked her. Fernandina gave her a happy nod as she gazed into the mirror. It has been a long time that she looked at her face without the helmet on. Her hair was a little matted down from the constant pressure on it, but it softly framed her face and illuminated her eye. Now that she really looked at herself, she almost forgot how different she looked than her sister. They were like complete opposites; tall, short, black hair, white, calm, determined. There was only one thing that was the same between them, their eyes. A small wave of despair flickered through them. Fernandina noticed that Riven looked almost sad when she noticed her studying herself in the mirror. She decided to give a little laugh to cheer her up.

"Why didn't we do this sooner?" she chuckled, and Riven joined her. Just then their stomachs growled. The clock rang quarter till and they ran down the stairs to dinner. They were already late.

…

It was 6:45 when John heard the girls come down the stairs. They were five minutes late, but that gave him a few more seconds to finish up reading the Midtown Daily. John propped his shiny black boots up on the table and flipped the page. His dining table was large, as was the room itself. There were enough chairs to seat fifteen people, but only two were used in the past twenty years. The few dishes on the table kept the room from looking vacant, but still made it feel small, unused, alone. When the girls marched into the room, he didn't look up from the paper. John heard the little girls sit down. One of the chairs screamed under the weight of the person, who he guessed was Fernandina in her armor. The doors sung open from the kitchen and Benjamin brought out three bowl of clam chowder.

"Sir, please keep your feet off the table," Benjamin said calmly through his white mustache. As the colonel obeyed, he folded and slapped his newspaper down on the table. A steamy bowl of chowder was presented in front of everyone in the room, making their mouths water and their stomachs ache. John inhaled the steam and slowly started to eat. Benjamin went back into the kitchen politely and left the guests all in peace. It wasn't until Fernandina's quiet voice spoke up through the depth of the silence, that John finally looked at his guests. What startled him was that Fernandina was not wearing her helmet. Even though it was logical for her to have to take it off at some point, he didn't expect it to be then. He tried to push the fact away and focus on what the young girl had to ask him.

"Mr. Low," she said quietly but John held up his hand in protest.

"Call me Colonel Low, or Low. Do not call me mister, it makes me feel old," he mumbled.

"Oh, Colonel then. Why do you have a butler if you live by yourself?"

"Benjamin has been a friend of my family for years. I didn't have the heart to fire him. It isn't really a job, per se, because we share the house. He is definitely a big help with the cleaning and upkeep of this old place," he said calmly. After a sip of his chowder, he looked up to see the girls giving him weird glances. Riven then piped up from chugging down her soup.

"You two aren't…." she started to imply but John slammed his fist down in annoyance.

"No! Just friends. He's like as old as my father would be anyway! I'm not that old!" he said defensively. Riven crossed her arms as her own defense and slumped down in her seat. Fernandina laughed a little at this. It was then that John noticed that she had her eye covered by a bandana. It was surely strange that she had her eye protected at all times, even her helmet covered it up. The group fell into silence again and ate their soup quietly. Benjamin came and took their bowls away the soft clinking of plates disturbing the awkwardness of the room.

"Well," John said clearing his throat. The two girls looked up at him alarmed with the sudden noise. "Now that you're going to be staying in my house for the time being, I need to set a few rules. You must not run, scream, fight, argue, break, or do anything of the sort inside my house. Do not disturb me in my study, and do not go into the attic. I guess that since you are still here, you will be needing research so I asked a couple of my subordinates to take you to the national library when I am at work. Tomorrow we will be going into the market place to pick up a few things," he said watching the girl's heads spin with orders he gave them. After that he stood up and grabbed his newspaper. "I am going to be going to my study, if there is anything you need, don't hesitate to keep it to yourself." With that he walked out of the dining room leaving the girls to their business.

After a couple of moments, Benjamin came back into the room to finish clearing the table. "He's like that." He said calmly to the stunned girls. He picked up a few of the dishes making tiny clanks as they were stacked. "When he has his mind on something he doesn't like anything to disturb him. He must have faith in you two to let you stay here with him. He doesn't like company to begin with so this is surely something new for him." He left the two girls in peace as he returned the dirty plates to the kitchen. Riven leaned across the table to Fernandina.

"I just want to know why he took us in to begin with. None of this could benefit him in the least."

"Yes, that is what I was thinking too. Benjamin said that he didn't like company so that's obviously not it. Maybe it is because he just wanted to do a good deed?"

"He's in the military, good deeds aren't their sort of thing." Riven rolled these thoughts around in her head for a little bit until her head hurt.

"Uggh, this is so annoying!" she said standing up from the table. A loud and audible creak sprang into the air and Riven nearly buckled over falling on the table. "Ow," she mumbled as her head smacked off the table. Fernandina nearly jumped over the table to help her.

"Sister, are you alright?" she panicked trying to help her sister stand, but she just pushed her off.

"Yeah, it's just my leg again. It has been acting up lately."

"Gabe told you to keep care of it you know. You haven't been keeping up have you?" Fernandina asked though she knew the answer. Riven just glared at her throwing a couple of dull daggers. She hit her left leg in three points and stood up as if nothing happened.

"I guess we are going to have to get a few things in town then," she said as they made their way to their room.

It must have been Benjamin, who laid a couple of pajamas on their bed for them to wear. They were just a couple of overly large flannel shirts and some old pants, but it was still a nice gesture. Fernandina grabbed her clothes and ran to the bathroom while Riven was left in the main room. She carefully got changed into the red plaid shirt, which ran down to her knees, and slipped on the pair of pants. They were a little too big for her so she tied the tails of her shirt around them like a belt and rolled the cuffs up. Her toes stuck out from underneath the fabric as she gripped the fluffy carpet with her feet. Her left foot's cold steel sparkled underneath the moonlight. Riven gave a small exhausted sigh as she threw herself on her bed and inspected her creaky leg. As she pulled back her pant leg, the mechanical muscles revealed themselves to the light and sparkled in the night. She ran her soft skin along its cool surface as she flexed it, trying to figure out the problem. The gears and wires were all dry and worn, in need of some major oiling. She knew that already though. She knew ever since it happened at the office. Metal limbs were not hard to take care of, all they needed was oil, but she hated it. The cold vortex she was forced to use. In the winter it sucked all the heat from her body, and in the summer it burnt her like a fryer. The fact that she couldn't feel anything didn't help. Her senses were retained to only pressure when it came to her leg and her right arm. Riven carefully took the black leather glove off of her right hand to inspect it. It was in the same condition as her leg, but since it wasn't under constant pressure, it seemed to hold out. As a moonbeam reflected itself off of the metal in her eyes, fire was lit in her mind. For a second all she could see were flames, and a single grinning smile baring its teeth back at her. She quickly covered her hand back up and shoved her head down on the pillow. Her eyes were focused on the large plain ceiling of the room.

"Riven?" her sister's soft voice called out from the bathroom. She just turned her head towards her direction to see that all of her armor was off and her blue flannel shirt was clumsily piled around her body. The pants she was wearing were too short and rose halfway up her calves. "Could you help me?" she asked sweetly. Riven got up from her bed ignoring the screams of her leg, and followed her sister into the bathroom. Golden pieces laid everywhere around the tile floor her red under armor and belt were draped over the tub. Feathers were scattered everywhere on the floor. It wasn't until Riven got into the light of the bathroom that she noticed her sister was in pain. Her face was slightly pinched at the corners and her back was tense. Two huge distorted lumps were folded down against her back underneath the shirt. Little white dots poked out through the shirt and Riven gave a little sigh. With a punch of her hands she touched the flannel shirt and formed two large holes in the back of it. Almost instantly the two large masses burst out them and engulfed the tiny room greedily. Feathers flew everywhere and knocked Riven to the floor. "Sorry!" her sister apologized quickly and helped her sister up from the ground. "It was just so long since I got to move them around! Keeping them inside my armor makes them sore," she said as she massaged her gigantic white wing. They fell along the sides of her body framing her tall physique. The tips of the plumage just barely touched the floor with their white heavenly light. Riven couldn't imagine how it must hurt to keep them crammed in a small tin can for an entire day, let alone for the week that they were traveling. When it comes to two giant wings there aren't a lot of places that you can conceal them. Riven rubbed the back of her neck tiredly.

"I guess the armor isn't made to fit them, but it is the best we can do. Let's clean up the floor and get some rest," she said almost yawning. As the sister cleaned up the floor Riven felt a small twinge of regret every time she picked up one of the piles of plumage. Her sister was turned into a freak, and it was all of her fault. Her sister couldn't step outside without being covered in heavy armor. If anyone saw her like this, who knows what would happen to her. She could at least be set off as a cripple, Fernandina was a science experiment. To be left like this, even if their lives were still intact, was torture. God must hate them, Riven thought.

After the bathroom was cleaned up, and the plumage tossed into the burning fireplace, the girls hopped into bed, her sister's wings fluttered under the covers until they settled down comfortably. The moonlight casted its light into their room and over the emptiness it held them in. Riven took one last look at her sister, who was sleeping silently as ever. She was going to change this. She was going to fix everything so that they didn't have to hide anymore. They would be able to live normal lives, she promised. As she sent her vow silently up to the moon, her eyes fell heavily to her pillow and sleep over came.

I promise everything will reveal itself. Don't get the wrong idea about this.