Ariana gave patience her best shot, but she’d had enough. She wasted all her energy on false politeness during the clothes and toiletry shopping, so when the subject of a late lunch came up she grabbed Dorothea by the wrist, clipped, “I’m taking her, we’ll meet back up here,” and dragged her off before anyone could protest.
The café she led them to aimed for a relaxed, tidy feel. A vase holding a single white azalea bloom sat atop a yellow doily on each polished table. A bar against the far wall had hand-woven placemats in front of each tall, cushioned stool. With a different person by her side, Ariana might have appreciated the setting.
She initiated conversation since Dorothea wasn’t quite dumb enough to try for a pleasant chat on her own. “Do you think you’ll be regarded as a hero?” she asked with a quiet, bitter bite in her voice.
Dorothea shifted in discomfort. “Everyone can and will think what they like.”
If that wasn’t a noncommittal, chickenshit kind of answer, Ariana didn’t know what was. “Let me be clear. You’re a pathetic excuse for a human being. You’re weak, self-righteous, and an idiot,” she laughed contemptuously, “if you think you can waltz in now and expect us to be grateful. You’re getting off your ass after all this time because you suddenly decided it was the right thing to do? Sure. Once it affects you personally I bet it doesn’t feel too good.”
Dorothea was trembling as she stared down at her hands, and it pleased Ariana. She wouldn’t react that way if she didn’t think Ariana was right. When she responded, the tremor was present in her voice as well. “I-I've chosen to give my best here and now. That’s all I can say.”
“Your power could have saved so many lives, dammit!” Ariana snapped. A waiter that had been passing by their table jumped at the venom in her tone, silverware piled atop half-eaten meals rattling.
“I see.” Dorothea smiled faintly, tiredly, and Ariana wanted to slap it off her face.
From there, they were silent until their food was delivered and silent as they ate. It was due to this quiet that a conversation from the bar reached them, words bouncing off Ariana’s back.
“Did you hear about it? Those rats have sunk to a new low.”
“Of course I heard about it. I live with my head outside my ass and read the paper just like everyone else.”
Dorothea’s eyes went wide, and Ariana sighed. Every major and minor event in Sacer was shared in the daily paper. Rhys, being a better spokesperson than Iree, handled most contact with the press. Ariana thought the whole thing was a waste of time, but it did make the people feel better to know what was happening behind the scenes. The paper’s latest edition had explained Sirpo’s destruction, or at least provided the lie that the Ghurians were responsible.
“Doesn’t it just go to show that the rats can’t be trusted? I mean, that Ghurian woman… Wouldn’t this be the perfect chance to turn traitor? Again, I mean.”
“Once a traitor, always a traitor. Don’t we all know that?”
The conversation was too pointed. There was no way they didn’t know Ariana was sitting right there. Regardless, they were stupid if they thought such petty insults would get to her.
“With this much on the line, isn’t it better to just get rid of her?”
Dorothea leaned forward as she anxiously stirred her drink with her straw. “Ariana, are they talking about…?”
What did she think? Ariana shot her a glare.
“At least she’s good for one thing though, right? Remember those posters from a few years back? Me ‘n a few buddies still pull those out on some lonely nights.”
“Damn, that’s disgusting!”
“Yeah, I’m not proud of myself.”
Right. That. When Ariana had first been drafted to Iree’s elite squad, part of the public outcry had manifested through meticulously hand-drawn posters of Ariana in a very compromising, lewd, and demeaning position. Ariana ignored it as best she could, but the rest of Udara had had a field day. Iree ran around the entire fort in a thunderous rage, burning each poster she found and scaring several people halfway to death. Ariana was grateful, but she hadn’t ever found the words to thank her. Acknowledging the situation would dredge up the humiliation of it.
Too late, Ariana noticed how furious Dorothea looked. Before she could stop her the girl stood and shouted, “Be quiet! Act like the adults you are and have some decorum!”
The last thing Ariana wanted was to draw more attention to herself. “Sit down!” she hissed.
Too late. Two disdainful sneers landed on Ariana, sticky and vile. “Oh, it’s the spank bait herself! Did we offend you?”
Dorothea stepped in front of Ariana protectively, stood straighter and took a breath. Any useless words she might have tossed out were stopped when Ariana seized her wrist and squeezed as hard as she could. “Stop. Just stop.” With mixed relief and bitterness, Ariana noticed a well-dressed woman approaching them, probably the manager.
The woman looked at Dorothea only. “I apologize for the disturbance. I’m sorry, but your…companion will need to leave after paying her part of the bill. You’re welcome to stay, ma’am. We apologize for the inconvenience.”
So it went. Ariana turned to leave.
“I’d prefer it if she could stay,” Dorothea said, quiet but firm.
Idiot. Did she think sticking up for Ariana would make her look like a good person? The damage in that respect was already done. Dorothea was just embarrassing them both.
Exhausted and more fed up than she had been at the start, Ariana muttered, “I’ll go.” There were more important battles than the one here and now, and picking and choosing was a big part of moving through life with her sanity intact.
She walked to the doorway with a rigid back, Dorothea following behind her with hunched shoulders. At the last second, however, Dorothea spun around.
“You two! You idiots!”
“For the love of…” Ariana seized her by the elbow but was unable to stop Dorothea from almost screaming something that surprised even her.
“Go fuck yourselves!”
Well. That was certainly something. Not so concerned with impressions now that her little alliance was secured, was she? If circumstances had been different, Ariana would have laughed.
“Hurry up,” she snapped, glad to leave the place behind them. “You’re the idiot here! The only thing to do in a situation like that is to not let them get to you. All you did was show them how much power their words have! What were you thinking?” she lectured as she stormed down the street towards the meeting spot, ignoring the looks they were getting. “You can’t just barge in and do whatever you want without understanding anything! All you did was create more problems for me. Damn, you’re so…so selfish and stupid!” she seethed.
If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
“I… I’m sorry… But what they called you, and what they implied…”
“So what? Them being dipshits has nothing to do with me.”
“No one…”
The barely restrained, seething anger in her voice took Ariana aback, and she glanced over her shoulder. Dorothea’s teeth were gritted, and anger flashed like acid in her normally guileless doe eyes.
“No one has a right to your body. To use it like that.”
Ariana led her in silence now. So she’d retaliated on those grounds. But why had it sounded so personal, especially to drive her to say what she had? They’d arrived at their destination now, Rhys watching them carefully and Cerid and Shark nowhere to be seen.
“And no matter what points you may have about who I am as a person, you don’t have a right to mine either,” Dorothea asserted in a small but powerful voice before she stepped away from Ariana, rubbing her wrist. “My life, my death, they don’t belong to you, and you have no right to claim them.”
Oh. Ariana hadn’t considered that. She hadn’t once thought of Dorothea as a person outside of her magic and its potential. Iree was the same; they had done what they pleased, claimed their right to Dorothea’s very existence and all but sentenced her to death.
Well, too late now.
“Rhys,” Ariana said quietly, “I’m done for the day. Take it from here.” Again not waiting for an answer, she swept away on her own.
*
After the departure of Ariana and Dorothea, Shark turned to Cerid. “What now?” they asked, eyebrows raised.
“I am not sure.” Cerid’s cheeks were rosy. “Do you think Miss Dorothea will be fine?”
“Thea can handle herself, trust me.” She could hand out a verbal beatdown if warranted.
“It might be best to give them a chance to hash things out on their own,” Rhys suggested, and Shark was glad to find he shared their thoughts. Ariana would never warm up to Thea if Shark kept jumping in to antagonize her, much as they hated to admit it.
Still… “I don’t trust Ariana not to make her cry though.” Thea was just as much of a crybaby as she was weirdly tough.
Rhys smiled, tossing Shark the money Iree had given the group. “You two go on. I’ll wait here for them. If anything happens, I’ll address it.”
Shark was too interested in getting Cerid alone to give up the chance. “Marvelous idea! Come on, buddy!” Laughing at his blush just from being taken by the arm, they led him back towards his own house. Once on the property, they skirted to the vast orchards there. There were fruit bushes and trees of all kinds in neat rows. “These are your favorite still, right?” They asked as they stopped before the blackberry bushes and sat facing each other.
“Er, yes.” Cerid sat in front of Shark, not moving away when Shark shifted closer so their knees were touching. “Though I must admit blackberries were not my favorite until we began meeting here. Perhaps I am fonder of my memories than the fruit itself, if that makes sense to you…” He frowned. “But before I ramble any further… You brought me here with something to say.”
Shark nodded. “I’m gonna come right out with it. Let’s get back together.”
He looked away. “I thought we already discussed this.”
“Well, circumstances have changed just slightly since then,” Shark laughed. The past two days had been wild, to say the least.
“Even for you, that may be too cavalier.” He was smiling begrudgingly.
“Will you listen to what I’ve thought about at least?”
“Of course.”
“Thea and I decided to try thinking about things logically, and that got me reconsidering. Besides being in love with you, there are more reasons for me to stay by your side.”
Cerid was blushing from his neck to the tips of his ears. “Y-You say something like that so casually…”
“Well yeah, ‘cause I love you. So here’s the logical side: the more I fight, the more Ghurians I kill before they kill Sacerians, the less Thea will have to give up in using her magic. Also the more I fight, the more achievable your goals will become. I can support you. I want to.”
Cerid’s eyes were bright, but he wasn’t won over just yet. “Too much has happened to you and Miss Dorothea both so quickly, Shark. You can take time to think about things. Besides, you do not even know what my goals are.”
“Cerid.” They smoothed his hair back from his face and cradled his cheeks in both hands. “Tell me everything you’ve been dreaming of all this time, and we’ll make it happen.”
He clutched one hand in the other as if stopping himself from reaching out in return. “When my father…er, promoted me the day of the epidemic, I could not believe it. But I fully realized the magnitude of it, so I asked him a question.”
“Yes…?” Shark urged.
“I asked him if this position could be used to change Sacer’s marriage and procreation mandates. I told him that if not, I would leave Sacer even if I was the last Creed child left.”
Shark caught their breath, an entirely different future they had missed out on unfurling its wings in their mind’s eye. “You would have come with me?”
“Yes. But my father made me an offer. You see, it is the threat of war with Ghuria that backs the laws. So my father told me this: ‘I will help you forge a new way in this land, Cerid. But it will require you to dedicate yourself to one thing.’” He paused, looking away. “‘Destroy Ghuria,’ he told me, ‘and there will be no stopping the winds of change.’”
“So you stayed to fight.”
“Yes. If there is no outside threat, there is no need to build the army. If there is no need to build the army, there is no need for policies that ensure Sacerians suffer treatment like yours.” Cerid bowed his head. “But to keep you here when you had the opportunity to build a better life for yourself? There was no need to drag you down with me. I thought… I was certain at the time that it was better to push you away.”
“What about you?” Shark demanded. “Why not leave changing the world to someone else and just be happy?”
“That someone else might never come along, and even if they did, they might not be granted the same opportunities as me. This power fell into my lap, so I am obligated to use it.” He drew in a shaky breath. “I do not want there to be another you, Shark. So I have accepted my father’s words. Nothing better has ever presented itself. Besides, there… There have been so many wars. So many have died. This is for everyone just as much as it is for those directly impacted by the laws.”
“You…” Shark laughed. “You’re so stupid.”
Cerid's jaw dropped. “What?”
“Why didn’t you just talk to me? I could have been here with you the whole time, helping you. You never needed to bear this on your own.”
“I… You do not hate me?”
“Of course not. Everything you’ve said makes perfect sense. We have to make sacrifices to change the world. Did you think I wouldn’t understand that?”
“I do not know anymore.” Cerid smiled even though tears were threatening to spill from his eyes. “I wanted to protect you so badly that I hardly saw anything else.”
Shark tucked his hair behind his ears. “Talk to me from now on, okay?”
Cerid hesitated one last time. “Are you certain this is what you want…?” After Shark nodded, he nuzzled their palm. “I missed you.”
He sounded close to tears, so Shark spoke gently. “Talk to me.”
“I have been lonely,” Cerid admitted in a small voice. “The epidemic… I had eleven siblings, Shark. Now I have none. We that remain, all of Sacer. We have all lost so much.” His eyes squeezed shut. “I missed you.”
Shark pulled him close. “I’ve got your back now. Sorry I was gone for so long.”
“I am sorry for not telling you everything long ago. I should have been honest instead of making your choices for you.”
“I get why you did what you did. But don’t do it again, you hear?”
His cheeks were red with embarrassment. “I hear you. I promise.” His sheepish expression met Shark’s amused one when they lifted his face up.
“We should get back soon.”
“True.”
Shark leaned in so their noses were touching. “Not ‘til I kiss you though.”
Cerid fought a smile, then he laughed. “It is nice to see that some things have not changed. I have always admired your forwardness.”
“You used to call me incorrigible all the time.”
“Oh, you are. You very much are.” He closed his eyes.
With gentle sweetness, they sealed the promise they had made for a new future.