Kaiser woke up in pain and shock. Gasping for oxygen. His left shin was throbbing in pain. He covered his eyes with his hand to prevent the harsh fluorescent lights from dancing in Kaiser’s pupils. Am I in heaven? No, of course Kaiser wouldn’t go to heaven, so this was surely hell.
“This isn’t the afterlife.” A boy’s voice said, as if he knew what Kaiser was thinking. Kaiser slowed and turned his head over to him. He was handsome, with skin darker than Kaiser’s and a face full of sympathy.
“Where am I then?” Kaiser asked in a raspy voice. The boy heard this and quickly filled a glass full of water. He helped Kaiser sit and handed the water to him. Kaiser finished it almost immediately. Kaiser thanked the boy.
“You’re in Angel’s Pub. Though we do not hand out free health care, Varun made an exception for you.”
“Varun?” He asked. Eri, he, and Saran had been talking about Varun over breakfast. It felt like an eternity ago.
“Yes. I’m sure Saran informed you of him, though he shed some unwanted light upon Varun’s personality.” The boy’s soft features wrinkled into a grimace. But he returned to the usual caretaker's face in just a moment. “You should lie back down.”
Kaiser complied. “Did I break anything?”
He shook his head. “No, but you have several cuts and bruises.”
A lump formed in Kaiser’s throat. He started thinking of Saran and Eri and how both of them had betrayed him. Everyone is the same. He told himself. It’s your fault for trusting them.
“Don’t hold amenity against Saran.” He spoke so softly it sounded like wind breezing through a meadow of dandelions.
“You can read my mind?” Kaiser asked. Maybe this curly black-haired boy was Jubilee. He couldn’t see any runes, though. If you can’t see them, it doesn’t mean that he doesn’t have them. Wake up, Kaiser. You almost died and now you’ve forgotten everything you did to me? Orion’s voice haunted him like a ghost.
The boy looked taken aback. He held up both hands to defend himself. “No!” He said. “I’m just good at reading people.”
“Maybe a bit too good,” Kaiser murmured.
“My name is Isen, and yours?” The boy said quickly, wanting to avoid further conversation about Jubilee. “Kaiser.”
Isen nodded and stood up suddenly. He began pacing the room. Kaiser stared at the boy for a second. He seemed odd, unable to hold a conversation for long, and wasn’t able to keep his hands still at all. His hands seemed to fidget with everything, his clothes, his hair, and occasionally with the scalpel he had used to fix up Kaiser’s leg. It intimidated Kaiser how well Isen spun the knife in between his fingers and with such speed. It looked like a miniature fan powered by Isen’s energy.
Kaiser sat up slowly. He didn’t even know if it was night or day. Hell, he didn’t even know if he was actually alive and whether he was sitting before an angel meant to escort him to the Greek underworld- or wherever you go after you die.
The only hint he had was the tiny room. A wooden cupboard, table, and several chairs dotted the room. A whole shelving unit of wine, beer, and other alcoholic beverages occupied almost half the space. The more he looked around, the more it started to look like a break room meant for employees.
Isen halted in his tracks and stared at Kaiser. “Can you walk?” He asked.
“Yeah, it looks a lot worse than it actually is.” Kaiser said, “My body was just exhausted, that’s all.”
Isen smiled, “What a relief.”
“How long have I been out?”
“Almost a day, give or take.”
“The entire time I’ve been-”
“Here.” Isen finished for him.
Kaiser looked at him, disoriented. Somehow passing out repeatedly and walking up in new clothes had become a habit for him for the past few days. He rubbed his eyes almost an entire day. His mind repeated.
“Where is Saran?” He asked.
Isen sighed. “I hoped that you would ask this question later.” He walked over to the small door. Kaiser could hear the jingle of keys before he opened it. “Come on.”
Kaiser stood up slowly and walked over with relative ease. The pain in his shin had subsided, replaced with a small limp. He followed Isen through the door. Hesitant of what awaited him outside.
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He stepped outside, fully awaiting Saran to be there to finish the job and kill Kaiser properly.
Truthfully, no one was there. Just a young-looking bartender polishing wine glasses. He wore a thin silver ring, with his brown hair cropped short. For better or for worse, he had a striking resemblance to Saran, which immediately made Kaiser squirm. He looked up from his glass. He seemed friendly. Nice even. But his jet-black eyes held storms. He inspected Kaiser like he was a fresh addition to his inventory of wines. The man eventually sighed and said, “Varun. What’s your name?”
“Kaiser.” He replied stiffly. Kaiser’s left shin hurt the more he stood on it, so he slowly etched towards one of the plush chairs. Unlike the hard wooden ones kept inside the previous room.
Isen began talking to Varun. “Where is Nahida?” Isen asked. “She said she would be here.”
Varun shrugged. “Don’t know. She left at the crack of dawn and hasn’t been here ever since.”
Kaiser felt like he was intruding on personal matters, so as they continued their discussion, he attempted to speak out. No luck though, the bar did not have any windows. He surveyed the bar next. It looked like a mix between a café and a bar. The inside was decorated extravagantly. Kaiser felt that just his presence inside the bar dropped its lavishness.
A shelving unit sat behind Varun with a vast display of various liquors. A wooden counter sat before him, which Varun was leaning his hands on. He talked to Isen as an old friend would. Even offering him a drink, though that wasn’t particularly odd, Shareen allowed people as young as sixteen to drink and run all sorts of gambling parlors.
His eyes trailed to Varun again. Now closer, Kaiser could see his feature better. His eyes were immediately drawn to a single pink rose stud on his right ear, several scars were dotted along his face and body, the biggest of which was one on his left eyebrow.
Though the most gnarly of his physique was his missing fingers. Where Varun’s left pinky and ring finger sat on stumps. There must be a story behind it. Kaiser thought. He wasn’t in a particular hurry to learn the story. The air around Varun seemed to change. An aura of authority and anger laced the surrounding air, even as he smiled and laughed with Isen.
If he thought Saran was a boulder, Varun would have been a giant mountain.
Suddenly, the bar door jingled and a tall, muscular figure walked in. She was black like Isen. But unlike the angel, she held a regal posture. Fit for a soldier, Kaiser thought. Those two are probably the worst people to piss off. He thought, looking at Varun and Nahida, respectively. A hint of worry flashed through Kaiser’s brain as he thought of the company Isen had every day.
“Hello.” She said in an accent that immediately made Kaiser know that she was from Miko Islands, “You missed me?” Nahida asked. She then scanned the room and seemed to finally notice Kaiser sitting awkwardly. “How’s your leg?”
Kaiser was a bit taken aback. “Ho-How did you know about my leg?”
“Well, I have been the one supplying medicine to our cute doctor, Isen, over here.” She said, placing a plastic bag on the counter. Isen ran his fingers through it and withdrew a small medical herb. Kaiser sat puzzled as Isen took the plant, which looked like a yellow daisy, and applied it to Kaiser’s injury. “Don’t worry.” Isen said softly, “This won’t hurt.”
“I’ll be honest, I’m more curious than scared,” Kaiser replied.
“It’s only Aspilia, a type of medicinal herb.” Isen whispered, this time evenly more softly than before. He undid Kaiser’s bandages. Even though the cut was deep, it mainly looked healed. Kaiser wondered how it had healed so fast.
A faint green glow came from Isen’s nape. Oh, of course, he’s also a Jubilee… Kaiser thought. Even still, he was amazed at Isen’s power. Isen balled his hand into a fist, and the stem of the flower began to grow, sprouting more and more flowers until Kaiser’s bandages were replaced with prickly yellow daisies named Aspilia. Isen’s fingers began to lose and Kaiser watched in astonishment as the seemingly boring flower began stitching Kaiser’s wound until it was fully healed.
“Amazing.” He managed to breathe out.
Isen looked up, his brow laced with sweat. “Ha.” He breathed out. “It’s not as great as it looks.” He said, taking up the glass of water Nahida was offering. “I get exhausted quickly whenever I do it.”
“How though?” He asked. Kaiser knew that most Jubilee powers were rooted in simple science. Like Nephyl, he could only put people to sleep with the help of a specific plant. And even Eri could only harden the molecules of water through physical contact. Even Kaiser’s powers, to some extent, followed the laws.
That was most Jubilee, though. Jubilee, with particularly strong or destructive powers, wasn’t entirely based on science. Instead, they were chaotic, violent even. He remembered Orion’s power, to copy another’s skill, talent, or power perfectly, as long as he knew how it worked. The kids at the orphanage called Orion a ‘mimic’ and ‘copycat’ Kaiser remembered the latter far too well.
He shook his head before the memory reawakened fully. He looked at an exhausted Isen sitting on a lavish sofa.
“He’ll be alright,” Nahida reassured. “Using his powers takes a lot out of him, also he fixed your rune while you were sleeping. Try using it.”
Kaiser closed his eyes and extended his vision forward, leaping from one light source to another. He could feel his vision dancing on light, with this knowledge Kaiser realized it was day and instinctually leaped his vision towards the sun. He sat, looking down at the world from the blazing yellow sun. From up here he could see the entire world, Capria, connected to the Sango peninsula. Sai Isles floating between Capria and Amber. The fire-shaped continent and country were named Amber. His home.
Kaiser had missed this feeling. Being able to soar the world like a free bird.
He opened his eyes, and he was back at the extravagant liquor shop. It didn’t feel all that great now, though. He looked at Varun and squirmed uncomfortably. A question settled deep into his soul and the joy he felt while using his powers evaporated into thin air.
Why had they just picked up a random boy bleeding to his death? More importantly, why had these three very dangerous, very powerful people healed him and taken him in?