Chapter 39

When the three of them finally arrived, Arados pulled himself into a sitting position in order to study them all individually.

'Took you long enough to bring her back, didn't it?' His gaze finally came to rest on Lus.

'Sorry Ara,' Lus shrugged, 'I got kind of got distracted and after she said she didn't know what it was, I didn't think there was any point in her coming back to see you.'

'Well then it's a good job False knew,' his gaze flicked back towards the other boy and for a moment he couldn't help but admire him. 'It's called Blue Ice, right?'

'Right,' False nodded, 'and…'

'And what?'

'Ni is claiming to be my father.'

'Great,' Arados rolled his eyes, 'that's just great.'

'We were hoping we could talk to Jo about it,' Lus gave a nervous cough, 'we want to try and find out how true Ni's claims are.'

'And my sister would of course know because she spends a lot of times making deals with him,' clenching his teeth tightly, he balled both his hands up into fists. 'Well, good luck trying to find my sister, she's going after the Teen.'

'Wait, you let her go after the Teen on her own?' False stared at him in shocked horror. 'She could be killed.'

For some reason False's words instantly made him feel embarrassed. Unclenching his fists, his gaze dropped to the floor and he squirmed slightly.

'Jo had sex with Crovell,' he managed by way of a weak explanation.

'And…?'

'Crovell is her brother. Our half brother.'

'I know that,' False made a strange noise. 'What I'm saying is what does that have to do with you letting her go on her own?'

'She had sex with our brother,' he stared up at False in disbelief, 'I can't forgive her for that.'

'Why not?'

'Because they're Silkoneon, that's why not.'

'But they're not Silkoneon,' Kisara stared at him, 'they're gods. You're gods. You're of divine blood…'

'But we're not worshipped; they're not worshipped and they have Sintoys which makes them Silkoneon.'

'No,' False laughed, 'it just makes them Silkoneon gods.'

'How can you believe that?' Arados wasn't sure if he felt angry or hurt.

'You're of divine blood,' he shrugged, 'okay so maybe you're not worshipped, but you are the children of the Mistresses so the normal rules shouldn't apply to you.'

'Is that really what you think?'

'Mm,' Kisara nodded, 'and there are a lot of us who agree with that idea.'

'But not everyone agrees right, which means not everyone sees them as gods, which means not everyone would be okay with what they did, especially considering they're still Silkoneon whether you believe they are gods or not,' Arados held firm, 'which means they still shouldn't have done what they did.'

'Why not?'

'What goes for gods does not go for mortals.'

'They're Mortal Immortals though,' False frowned, 'that means you get to find your own rules.'

'No. No it doesn't. It can't work like that.'

'Why are you so afraid to accept them?'

'He has his reasons,' Lus defended, 'I mean, Crovell is part of the reason…'

'Lus,' Arados cut him off with a warning look.

He didn't know why he didn't want False to know about what had happened, when he hadn't cared less about Kisara knowing, but he didn't.

'I was just going to say he was part of the reason for you agoraphobia,' Lus shot him a look, 'I've never known you to be so touchy.'

'I'm just feeling a little agitated because…'

'Because they can accept Crovell and Jo's relationship so easily when we can't?'

'You know me too well, don't you?' Arados sighed, hoping everyone would believe that was what it was.

'Well I have known you your whole life Ara,' Lus shook his head, 'what do you expect?'

'Look, none of this matters right now,' False interrupted them, 'we should be thinking about saving Jo here. There's no way she can hold her own against the Teen and that guy the Teen has working for him.'

'The Teen had someone working for him?'

'Duke,' Arados bit his lip nervously as he started to realise that False was right.

As much as he wasn't happy with his sister at that moment in time, he didn't want to see her die. That was the whole reason he'd saved her before and he knew it.

'Wait, the Teen has Duke working for him?' Lus gawked. 'How…?'

'Come on,' Arados rolled his eyes, 'we both know how susceptible to influence Duke is.'

'But…?'

'No buts Lus, we both know…'

'I don't believe it. I don't believe you think Duke is that weak.'

'He is.'

'No…'

'Oh for fuck sake Lus, just agree with me,' Arados snapped.

'Okay, okay, he's weak,' Lus help his hands up in defeat.

'Do you always stress your friends into agreeing with you?' False threw him a strange look.

'I…' again Arados instantly felt embarrassed.

'No, he doesn't,' Lus jumped in to defend him again, 'but he has been through a lot recently and I did kind of drop the ball on getting Kisara back to talk to him.'

'Yeah, why was that?' False's gaze turned suspiciously towards Lus.

'I was telling him something,' Kisara was quick to interject, 'I'll tell you what it was later.'

'Kisara….?'

'False.'

'Just so long as you remember you're supposed to tell me later,' for a moment he appeared to pout, then he shrugged and turned his attention back towards Arados, 'right now we've got to help Arados's sister.'

'No, right now you have to help my sister,' Arados sighed again.

'Look, you can't hold what she did…'

'That's not it. I can't leave the Southern Palace. I'm…'

'Oh come on, I managed to get you out of your room earlier and you said that was impossible,' False grabbed hold of his hand. 'Come on, have a little faith.'