Chapter 13

He couldn't say she wasn't an enthusiastic young woman when she got going; but the more times she referred to his muteism as shyness, the more he began to wonder how long it would take for her to get a clue. In the half hour they'd spent together he'd pretty much learnt more than he needed to know about what it was like to grow up as a Vii Sen. And what attending the TA Academy was like. And what it meant to be taken on as a full time academic there. And, for about the hundredth time since he first met her, why she'd always been told it was best for her to take that route in life.

Every now and then she was gracious enough to stop and try to encourage him to offer up something about himself. But that would inevitably set her off on another babbling rant about her own life. It was during a long rant about how some guy called False was her only friend and how he was planning to become a Balancer and how she'd been his sparring partner for the last five years, that Taylor managed to grab the pad of paper and pen that he'd been keeping on his makeshift bedside table.

He then wrote, in very clear words SHUT UP KISARA and held it up for her.

'Oh, I'm sorry,' she winced upon reading it, 'I'm not that annoying, am I?'

He crinkled his nose trying to gesture that she was, just a little bit.

'Well then, why don't you tell me about yourself? That is why I came here; to learn about you.'

Placing pen to paper again he wrote I CAN'T.

'Why not?'

BECAUSE I CAN'T.

'Why, are you mute or something?'

'Well I was beginning to wonder if you were ever going to catch on,' the sound of his voice made both Kisara and Taylor half jolt out of their skins.

Cautiously Taylor turned towards the man stood behind them. He was about five foot seven, with long, spiky brown hair occasionally woven through with blue and white feathers. His eyes were an almost white blue and were so heavily focused on Taylor he couldn't help but squirm away from them. There was absolutely no doubt in his mind as to who this was and although he'd always known he'd meet him eventually, he had hoped eventually wouldn't be so soon.

'Fray…' Kisara took a few steps back, 'I… I mean…' hastily she motion the Honour to the Fay and lowered her head.

'Well if this is the best the Helper can do, I'm not so sure it's our mother I should be worried about,' Fray gave Kisara a quick once over before refocusing his attention on Taylor. 'Hey kid, I've been waiting a long time to meet you.'

Taylor edged more than a little, but made no attempt at a reply. For all intensive purposes the god stood in front of him was his eldest brother, but the age gap between them was so insurmountable Taylor felt like a flee stood before a lion. What's more his encounter with Ni hadn't been a particularly pleasant one and he wasn't exactly looking to repeat it now.

'There's no need to look so terrified of me little brother,' Fray gave a casual laugh before loosely folding his arms, 'I am might be many things; a genius, a scholar, an artist, but one thing I most definitely am not is someone for you to be afraid of. The opposite in fact; we Fay all have a strong sense of family and since the moment you were born I have wanted to be a good brother to you. I have spent many years watching over you, just waiting for my chance, knowing you wouldn't just push me away like Ni does.'

Feeling an uncertain wave of confidence, Taylor tightened his grip on his pen and wrote DID DAD SEND YOU HERE?

'I will not deny mother came to see me about you,' he tilted his head to one side, 'but I had planned to come and see you myself from the moment you arrived. I was just waiting for the right time to approach you, but after mother approached me I realised there was never going to be a right time.'

Taylor was just about to scribble something else down, when Fray crossed the room towards him and placed his hand at the back of Taylor's head. Taylor then felt a strange buzzing sensation move through his mind and a horrific multi-tonal noise spilt out of his mouth.

'You're missing a few notes, but you still have a voice in there somewhere,' a strange smile flitted across Fray's face as he pulled away, 'this silence of yours is more psychological than it is physical so if you want we can bring your speech back.'

'You mean you can cure his mutism, just like that?' Kisara half gawked at him.

'You make it sound like it will be some kind of quick fix and I'm telling you now young lady it will not be as simple as that,' he refolded his arms. 'If the problem were purely physical perhaps it would work as simply as you're thinking, but you can't just cure a person of their trauma you have to help them through it and hope they find what they've lost in the process.'

With his pen moving at lightning speed Taylor scribbled out WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS FOR ME?

'You suspect me of dishonest intent?' Fray looked a little disappointed. 'Well I guess it is to be expected, after all you don't really know anything about me and I can't expect a brotherly bond to just form out of thin air. But even so…' he sighed, 'I am your older brother, I don't need a reason to be kind to you.'

WHAT IF I DON'T WANT YOUR HELP?

'You're free to reject it if you wish,' he shrugged, 'treating the wounds of your psyche needs you completely on board or else it won't work anyway. So if you do not wish for my help then I will not force it upon you. But I assure you my intentions are genuine. I want us to be good friends and not just estranged brothers; I already have one of those. You allowing me to help you will help forge a bond between us and that would give me more joy than you could ever know.'

'For what it's worth Taylor, I believe him,' Kisara shot a kind of half smile in his direction. 'I mean, I know I don't exactly know him and I'm not the best person at spotting a lie, even when it's really obvious, but… I don't know, there's something about what he's saying which just strikes me as being the truth. You should let him help you?'

AND WHAT IF I DON'T WANT TO GET MY VOICE BACK?

'Why wouldn't you?' Kisara blinked at him as though any other thought were completely foreign and crazy. 'Who wouldn't want to be able to speak?'

'Because he might not be ready to have some people hear him yet,' a thoughtful look appeared on Fray's face. 'You know it could take months for your speech to get even close to what you had before, maybe even years; this isn't going to be a quick overnight fix because although the problem here is mostly psychological there is still a physical element to it. And not one I can just click my fingers and fix either. So you may not be ready to let this person hear you yet, but by the time you've reached the stage where you can say what you need to you might well be ready. However as I have said before, I will not force my help upon you. You can either accept it or you can refuse it and I will go with whatever decision you have made.'

IF I ACCEPT WILL YOU KEEP IT BETWEEN US?

'If that is what you wish, although if you wish for no one to know something may have to be done about your young friend's memory,' he indicated towards Kisara.

'Oh gee, well I guess I'll be happy with that,' Kisara pulled a face, 'just so long as I don't forget everything that happened before. I mean, I don't want to repeat everything I told him since he was getting a little sick of my babbling.'

'That can be arranged; it all depends on what my brother says.'

KISARA CAN KEEP HER MEMORY, Taylor took a deep breath in before writing the next bit, AND FRAY I WILL ACCEPT YOUR HELP.