The scratching of pen against parchment had become a great distraction for Gem. Drawing her eyes in to focus on its tip, dragging them to flick one way and the other in pursuit.

It was hypnotic. Captivating, even. For Lavastro wrote in much the same way she did all other things; exceptionally fast, and exceptionally well. Beholding the practiced ease with which she filled in forms and jotted down requisition orders entertained Gem for almost ten minutes. But boredom soon prevailed.

Her eyelids drooped, weighted by tedium. She felt her head lean forwards, body slacken, only barely keeping herself from slumping with a jolt.

Fast as she was, Gem hadn’t fought off her exhaustion nearly quickly enough.

“I saw that, Gemini.” Lavastro said, chastising voice ringing out well over the sound of her writing.

“Sorry.” She answered. Heat seeped into her cheeks at the words, as if Lavastro’s tongue were a whip of flame.

Still indifferently monotonous, still not looking up and still writing, the Taik continued. “Don’t apologise. Just learn to sit still for ten minutes without fidgeting or falling asleep.”

Gem bit her tongue to stifle it, glaring at her friend from across the room. The look affected her no more than it might a statue.

I could sit still, you know. Easily.

She dismissed the seed of her treacherous thought before it could even begin to blossom. Lavastro had made it abundantly clear that she didn’t approve of magic being used to regulate emotion.

The memory of being dangled by the ankle over her balcony was enough to quell any interest Gem had in repeating the offence, but it didn’t stop the calming rigidity of Utalis from calling to her.

A cough caught her ear, pulling Gem’s eyes from the pen and bringing them to rest on the grey-coated man stood in the far corner.

It had taken only a single look for her to decide she didn’t like him. Hooked nose, ugly. Twisted mouth, cruel. Glinting eyes, disconcerting. Despite his off-putting appearance Gem found the source of her ambivalence beyond identity. Pinpointing it was like trying to grab smoke.

What’s wrong with him? Why does he irk me so?

Gem found no answer, turning back away from the man with curling lips- disgust repelling her gaze even against the push of curiosity. She would find out what it was about him that irked her so, but later. When she could stomach looking at him.

Lavastro moved with an abruptness that had Gem jumping in surprise, laying down her pen and looking at her.

“Thank you for your patience, I know it must be difficult for you to wait several entire minutes for something.”

Gem let the barb slide as she stood. Lavastro swung the door open, striding out without another word. Following her, Gem found her path crossing with the silent bodyguard’s. He took the lead as she stepped back from him, feet moving without thought.

She hurried past him, hiding the revulsion that came from such close proximity before coming into step beside Lavastro and turning to look her friend in the eye. Doing so from only half a pace away nearly cricked Gem’s neck as she stared up.

“Are you going to tell me what it is you want me to do, now?”

To Gem’s surprise, Lavastro seemed confused.

“Did I not tell you already?” She asked, a frown creasing her jade-perfect features.

“No. You just told me to stop asking stupid questions and that I’d find out soon enough.”

“That doesn’t sound like me at all, are you quite sure?”

Gem almost took the bait, just barely keeping her tongue still and shaking free the harassing needles of anger that pricked her mind. She’d almost forgotten Lavastro’s irksome habit of testing her to ensure she didn’t let emotion overrule sense.

“I am very sure,” She said through gritted teeth. “And very tired of waiting for something while being refused any hint as to what it is.”

A smile touched Lavastro’s lips, melting Gem’s annoyance and whisking the air from her lungs.

Two years and she can still do that to me. It’s not fair.

“Alright then, since you sat so close to quietly back in my office. You’ll be meeting someone today. Someone important, who may be vital in your immediate future.”

Gem’s mood soured. It surely showed on her face, for Lavastro arched a disapproving eyebrow.

“Do you have an objection to that?” She asked.

There was no hint of a challenge in her voice, nor was there a threat. Somehow she needed neither to bring forth images of thin ice breaking under Gem’s feet, water currents dancing below.

Steeling herself, Gem fought past the urge to buckle beneath her friend’s gilded stare.

“I do,” She replied. “Assuming, at least, that you intend on having me meet yet another magical prodigy.”

So-called prodigies had become the bane of Gem’s existence. It seemed wherever she went they were being thrust into her face, put on display as if her very presence challenged people to bring out the nearest thing they had to match it.

After years of receiving the treatment, she’d met only five mystics who came even close. Among them Lavastro alone was phenom enough to be called a peer.

“Oh hush.” Lavastro said, purring the words more than anything. Her eyes glinted with an amusement equal parts caring guardian and sneering cat.

“My reasons for introducing you to this one are different,” She continued.

Gem waited for her friend to add more, realising only when they turned a corner in silence that the Taik had no intention of doing so.

“And you think just saying that will convince me to do it?”

She’d meant her words as a challenge, but they rang in her ears as a joke. The woman smiled like a sculpture, then laughed like a windchime.

“What’s so funny?” Gem snapped.

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

“Sorry,” Lavastro grinned. She raised a hand placatingly, the gesture only serving to breathe air into the embers of Gem’s annoyance. “It’s just that you seem not to have noticed you’re already on your way to the meeting.”

Gem had half a mind to stop walking then and there. Dissuaded only by the petulence of it.

“I hate you.” She muttered, drawing another artisan’s laugh from Lavastro.

Her annoyance quieted their walk, leaving only the sound of footfalls echoing across marbled walls to break the silence around them. Udrebam’s Crux always seemed muted to Gem, as if it drowned her to walk inside. It was one of the things she hated most about the building.

Staffed by two thousand people and it still feels empty. Typical.

It was obvious why, Gem had seen herself just how excessive the structure’s size was. Like all things in Unix it had been built to an extreme in every dimension.

She found the trend more tiresome than most.

“Just how far is this prodigy?” She asked, an ache began to take her feet after the tenth minute of keeping up beside Lavastro’s titanous strides.

Glancing over her shoulder revealed that the grey-coated bodyguard seemed entirely comfortable with the pace. It made Gem hate him just a shade more.

“Close, now.” Lavastro answered. Her words were knitted together, all emotional tells surgically removed from them. It made a mystery of her answer. A habit Gem had come to both expect and despise in her friend.

“Close for a normal person, or close for someone with legs as long as most women are tall?”

“Close.” Lavastro answered, impassive as ever.

Gem fell into another silence. It lasted until the turning of another corner, halting as Lavastro came to a stop beside her. The woman cursed in high Taikan, turning the air blue with words Gem had first learned on the only other occasion she’d seen her friend use them.

Lavastro had thrown a man down twenty steps, then. And the look on her face as she stared ahead brought the memory shooting back. Beauty twisted by anger, hardened by hate.

Like the winking steel of a drawn sword.

She followed the Taik’s gaze, spotting its focus almost immediately. Two men, or rather a man and boy. The older of them looked Lavastro’s age, hair like coal and eyes like blood. The younger was a face any Jaean would recognise at a glance.

Unity Eden grinned as he saw her, blue eyes lighting up like an ocean struck by dawn. He practically marched towards her and Lavastro, ignoring a barked protest by the red-eyed man.

Coming to stop just two yards from her, he met Lavastro’s gaze as he spoke.

“The Princess of Taiklos, fancy meeting you here!”

Gem could see no fault in the delivery of his words; all warmth and friendliness they held seemed as genuine as the breath with which he formed them. Her skin crawled regardless.

“Eden.” Lavastro said, not bothering to match his pleasantry. “It’s been quite a while. I saw your performance in the Sieve, it’s good to see your fingers recovered in time for it.”

Face darkening, eyes hardening, his response came through a clenched jaw.

“They did, thank you.”

Gem decided there was a story there. She reminded herself to ask about it.

“Kaiosyni.” Came a deeper voice, drawing Gem’s eyes from Eden to rest upon the red-eyed man who’d accompanied him. He was shorter than Eden by a hand, yet broader at the shoulders by two.

“Mylif,” Lavastro answered. The nod of her head and sterness of her eyes betrayed no abnormality, but Gem felt sure nonetheless she’d misheard his name.

“I trust you’re doing well.” The man continued; haggard, lined face betraying little real investment in the answer. Gem found herself peering at his eyes, mind stretching for recognition.

“You’d have to, wouldn’t you?” Answered Lavastro, eying Eden scoldingly.

Her retort didn’t seem to faze the man.

“I see you’re with the Gemini,” He continued, crimson eyes coming to rest upon Gem.

“The Gemini has ears,” She cut in, “And doesn’t appreciate being referred to as if she were an it.”

From the corner of her eye, she saw a smile flash across Lavastro’s face. It was smothered almost instantly, like a candle in the wind.

“My apologies.” Answered the red-eyed man, dipping his head in the shadow of a Unixian bow.

Gem didn’t see an ounce of sincerity behind the gesture, nor did she hear a modicum of regret.

Despite herself, she found the man all the more likeable for it.

“Can we end this tedium?” Eden blurted, shifting his feet and exhaling with a dramatised tiredness. “I have places to be, too, you know.”

The display was robbed of all bite by the boy’s appearance. His skin bore the flush of life, yet it was painted across a deathly pale canvas. His vitalised movement didn’t hide sagging eyes or thinning lips.

Magical healing could do many things, that the artificial could even stand after the condition he’d left the first stage in was evidence of that. Still, no magic was perfect.

“I’m quite aware of how busy you are,” Lavastro answered him, “You made that clear in our meeting yesterday. Or rather your absence did.”

“Oh, excellent.” The boy exclaimed. “I was worried you were too busy thinking about cocks for my contempt to sink in through that thick skull of yours.”

“As much as I’d enjoy trading barbs with a boy whose impulse control ceased developing at prepubescence, I actually have matters I must attend to.”

Lavastro turned from the artificial, resting her eyes back on the crimson-eyed man.

“Please step aside.”

He didn’t move, simply raised a hand as spoke once again.

Mistake number one. Thought Gem.

“Wait just a second, Koros Kaiosyni, I understand that Unity’s absence left you… upset.”

“My withdrawing does tend to have that effect on people,” The boy sneered. He bolstered his words with a wink that threatened to dredge bile up from Gem’s gullet.

Lavastro didn’t grace him with another look as she spoke.

“It seems you’ve exclusively encountered skilled actors, then, if you thought they felt you in the first place. Sir Mylif, you were about to suggest that we reschedule the official meeting between Gemini and Eden? I’m afraid we’ll have to decline.”

By the look on the red-eyed man’s face, he had been.

“Can I ask why?” He asked, voice choked to a grating murmur. Whether by anger or bafflement, Gem couldn’t tell.

“You may not.” Lavastro replied, then took a step to one side.

“Now if you’ll excuse me-”

“I may be slow, but could someone please explain to me why it is that the Gemini’s comings and goings are being regulated by a foreigner? I’d expected to see Gilasev Menza negotiating, not… Well.” He waved a hand at Lavastro, as if to dismiss her entire being at once.

She didn’t even register the insult before opening her mouth, edged tongue surely ready to flash for his throat.

It sent hot anger running along Gem’s spine. Weeks of begging had preceded her travelling to Udrebam, reasoning with Gilasev and strong-arming him into loosening his constant caution to let her finally operate without a protective eye stifling her.

Gem hadn’t gone to such trouble just so that her friend could take the place of her father.

“They aren’t.” Gem cut in, ignoring the arching of Lavastro’s eyebrow. “I simply have no interest in meeting with you after what I saw in the first stage.”

“And, I suppose, it was beneath your divine self to go to the trouble of saying so directly?”

Eden smiled as he spoke, but Gem saw the expression fall far from his eyes. There was a hardness to him, a toxicity dwelling just beneath the surface.

He hates me. She realised, finding herself stunned by the notion. How could he? We’ve never even met.

Gem buried her shock, then her confusion. Steeling herself and seizing hold of her thoughts in a vice.

“I won’t be lectured on agency by one who needs to sneak away to avoid having theirs constrained.”

Eden’s retort fell silent as Lavastro began walking, and Gem hurriedly followed her friend. The greycoat came after her, making no more sound than he had during their first walk. His quiet footsteps were inaudible over the jeering curses Eden threw back after them.

None of them answered him.