6. Privacy

Callista awoke, for once, on the floor and not in a cage.

It took her a few moments to remember what exactly had happened tonight, glancing at the scarlet, fitted dress adorning her body, and then at where Zesha was once convulsing on the ground, except that his presence had been replaced by a trail of clothing leading to the bathroom. She figured he must have woken up earlier than her, stripped, and went to go bathe. It made perfect sense for the Gurak warrior needing to freshen up a bit, after all.

As she slowly got to her feet, she looked around the room a bit, before noticing a journal and a pen beside it, resting on the desk nearby.

She paused, before slowly walking towards the desk. She had seen Zesha holding it and writing in it several times before-it was definitely his journal, for all she knew. It made her wonder what exactly he wrote in it...

And she felt a bit ashamed, stepping back and standing still. It was his property. It wouldn't be right for her to touch it, no matter how curious she was.

And then, that was when Zesha opened the door-right before closing it immediately with a loud bang. Callista, startled, looked up towards the bathroom door, before speaking, unsure if he had suddenly collapsed again, or something else bad had happened to him.

"A-are you alright...?"

There was silence for a moment, before Zesha's muffled voice answered her.

"No. Not now."

She was confused. "And...why, exactly?" She managed to say, before he spoke again.

"...I..." He hesitated, before responding, voice full of embarrassment. "I forgot my clothes."

Oh.

Callista didn't want to imagine how mortified her captor must be at the moment to be in the nude (no probably wrapped in a towel, at least-hopefully), and to most likely mentally calling himself an idiot for forgetting to grab a change of clothing to bring to the bathroom to be worn after bathing. She didn't want to imagine him naked either-no, not a good idea either. Knowing his modest nature, he was not going to march out there in the nude to grab clothing-something she was grateful for, but still, not necessarily great for Zesha, either, as he had his duties to Lord Zangurak to get to, and being naked wasn't going to help anything.

"Erm..." She paused, before speaking again. "Perhaps I could, um, grab some clothing for you?" Looking around, she noticed the pieces of armor lying on a nearby dresser, and started to walk over towards them. "I could-"

That was when Zepha walked into the room, glancing at Callista before glancing at the bathroom door and then at the armor lying on the dresser. The captor's brother then let out a sigh, shaking his head as he walked past Callista to grab the armor.

"Oh brother," He murmured quietly. "You idiot..."

"I'm not an idiot." Zesha protested from inside the bathroom.

"Yes you are, brother. Good morning." Zepha muttered back, grabbing all of the armor and whatever clothing to be worn underneath it from the dresser. He then carried the pile of to-be-worn material, and knocked on the bathroom door. "Get dressed, quickly. Lord Zangurak needs to speak with us as soon as possible."

The door opened, and a bare arm grabbed all of the clothes before pulling it into the bathroom, the door closing as Zesha spoke up again. "Yes, brother..."

Zepha glanced at Callista, finally acknowledging her presence as he spoke. "I see the pretty peacock is out of its cage for the second time..."

Callista paused, averting her eyes from Zepha for a moment, before turning towards him and speaking without realizing it. "I never went back in that cage last night."

Zepha looked a bit...suspicious at this. "Oh...?" He paused, before glancing at the journal on the desk. "Is that so...? Makes me wonder what exactly happened after you both left. He would have written it, if you won't tell me..." He nearly smirked, before picking up the journal and flipping it over.

She was tempted to scowl at him. "That's your brother's journal..."

"I know." Zepha merely responded, flipping through the pages. "He and I read each other's journals. None of us could hide anything from each other. It has always been like that. Always..." He took a deep breath, before reading the latest journal entry aloud. "The ball was infuriating. The human female attacking my brother was infuriating. Being humiliated in front of Lord Zangurak was infuriating. Seeing my brother's disappointed expression was the most infuriating of all. I hate it when my brother gets mad. Last night was no exception."

Last night? Callista thought to herself. Zesha must have written this entry earlier this morning, then...

"I intended to shut up the human as soon as I got back to my quarters, but my attempts were...short-lived, unfortunately. Apparently I was actually still sick-damn, she was right all along-and-" Zepha stopped halfway through looking up at Callista for a moment, before looking at the entry and continuing to read, worry overtaking his expression. "-and I ended up collapsing, convulsing, and coughing so much pain. Every breath I tried to take was full of pain, ever breath taken away was even worse. I thought I was going to die. And then the next thing I realize is that...she just saved my life. I forgot that the House of Arganan was skilled in magic, and-"

That was when Zesha stepped out of the bathroom, fully dressed and somewhat bewildered at the sight of his brother reading his own journal aloud in front of Callista. "Morning," He managed to say, as Zepha put the journal back onto the desk. "Zepha, I'm-"

The next thing that happened was that he was pinned against the wall, both of Zepha's swords pressed against his throat. Callista moved forward instinctively-to stop Zepha from killing his own brother on the spot-but a sharp, glare of daggers stopped her from coming any closer.

"You nearly died last night," Zepha growled, his face contorted into a snarl, "And you didn't inform me of it."

Zesha let out a few shallow breaths, trying to regain a sense of calmness as he spoke. "Brother, I-"

"Was in too much shock? Too scared? Didn't want to be seen as something helpless?" The red and blue auras emanating from their beings lit up, and Callista had to look away for a moment, not used to the burning shadows around them being so bright. "Zesha, I thought that you would know better, in all damnation..."

"I-"

"What if you nearly died like last night, and I didn't know and pushed you too far in training, or in some other situation!? You have to tell me these things, dammit, before I do something like that!" The other snapped back, sheathing both swords as he leaned forwards, touching foreheads with Zesha at this point. Callista felt a twinge of pity for her captor-Zesha looked completely afraid of his twin brother right now.

It was then that Zepha's facial expression softened, and he let out a breath as he spoke again. "Look, just...don't delay such information being sent to me. Understood? I don't want to lose you."

Zesha let out a breath, his expression becoming calm. "Yes. I-I understand, Zepha..." He glanced at Callista as Zepha backed away, and then he spoke again. "We should report to Lord Zangurak-he is probably disappointed by our lateness already."

Zepha nodded, before the two simply teleported out of the room.

Callista was unsure of how to react to this, to the two twins' actions just now. Did they truly just-

Did Zepha just read his brother's private journal and then threaten him about it? Did Zesha just submit to the threat? How-

How did these two interact, exactly?

Callista shook her head, sitting on the floor as she let out a breath. There was only so much she could understand about them-but maybe, one day, she could fully understand how these two thought. It was apparent that they were close siblings, but this was far more than she ever expected. She wondered if it was even possible to figure out how these two really thought and followed each other and Lord Zangurak.

Then again, she had no idea how long she was going to be stuck with them. She might as well get used to it, no matter how strange it could be.