Chapter 26 - Cello

26 - Cello

There's one half of the dining dome that's much more cheerful than the other. No wonder. The cheerful ones are those eating real food.

Damn them, my stomach protests. For a moment both Syianne and I are glued to the spot, then grudgingly we make our way to the less lively Zribble line, accompanied by Fellin.

"Seriously," he grumbles, "I mean, the smell is just so, urgh... I feel irritated. They should make separate dining rooms!"

Syianne and I groan in agreement.

"By the way, we're all Plunging together," he tells us cheerfully.

"Then let's all have a huge celebration meal afterwards," I suggest, as if the promise of a meal that's a week away will do me any good.

"Oh!" Fellin claps his hands together, looking bright again "Let's eat at that new seafood place near Breggy's. It's not expensive and I heard it's really good!"

Syianne and I exchange glances; we don't know anything about Rockdem. "Sounds great," I say.

"I like seafood," Syianne offers.

We each take Zribble and water and find an empty table, fantasising about real food as we crunch away.

Kaitha lands across from Syianne and me with a tray of real food — spaghetti and meatballs with tomato sauce and lots of cheese sprinkled on top and a nice big apple for dessert. The three of us halt our crunching to glare at her.

She looks over at us holding the fork lightly between her fingers. "Oh Zribble," she says with a nostalgic smile. "That's the worst week in the year for me." She nods knowingly and dives into her food.

"That's it," Fellin says, "I disown you, you're not my cousin and I don't know you for the rest of today."

"Nom nom nom." Kaitha says gleefully in reply.

I push six Zribble balls into my mouth at once and press my elbows into the table as I concentrate hard on chewing.

Two hands land on my head, fingers twining into my hair, and I feel a familiar tingle pass from the hands into my skull. The hands roll gently down from my head to my shoulders, "So many friends, so quickly," says Risa Medrick's voice somewhere above me.

I nearly choke on the Zribble, but manage to push it down my throat; it sits like a rock somewhere on the way to my stomach. I bang my fist against my chest to make it go down. "You know me," I say while gasping for air, "everyone's favourite guy."

Her fingers press into the muscles of my shoulders — it feels nice. "Don't forget, tonight at eight, Therton Plaza, I'll be waiting for you." She pats my head one last time and walks away before I can reply,

I take a huge sip of water to wash down the Zribble and notice Fellin and Kaitha staring at me wide-eyed. "What have you got tonight at eight with Medrick?" Kaitha asks.

I blink at them and consider lying, I want to lie, but I falter.

"They have a date, obviously," Syianne says quite naturally. I guess I was a bit presumptuous to have thought she'd actually have a problem with me dating anyone.

"You mean, you're fine with that?" Kaitha seems to find this hard to believe.

Syianne looks bewildered. "She's a little bit older than Cello but we're talking about Risa Medrick. I think she's amazing." I find myself nodding at her words — Syianne is really being sincere. But why do I feel so relieved? Why did I feel guilty about this date to begin with?

Kaitha smiles widely and shakes her head, "I was so sure you and Cello were dating."

"Dating? Him?" Syianne looks as if she's about to start laughing, "I'm with someone else."

"Oh right," Fellin slaps his forehead, "Kaitha and I were so sure you two were dating but I actually saw you with your boyfriend didn't I? I just forgot because he isn't a —" it's too late, Fellin realises what he's saying only after the last word slips out of his mouth. "—Jewel."

Syianne becomes grim and pale in a split second as if Fellin actually punched her in the stomach. "I'm so sorry, Syianne," Fellin says, flattening himself across the table to grab her limp hands "I didn't mean to say that. I'm really, really sorry."

She closes her eyes, opens them and tries to smile at Fellin. It's impossible to be mad at him, is what she's probably thinking. "It's okay," she murmurs.

I pat her back, there's nothing much any of us could say. I'm sure we'll all have  moments such as these. Anyway, my mind is elsewhere. I actually do have a date with Risa Medrick tonight.

*

I look at my face in the mirror over the sink in the little bathroom at the Doorstep. Not bad. I always felt rather confident with my appearance. Everything's the right shape, my nose, my eyes, my mouth. My eyebrows are neat and in control of themselves and as a hairdresser's son, I have to say, I have excellent hair. I could have even been a celebrity like Risa if, for instance, I had any musical talent and didn't live in Aafta.

I brush a few dark strands of my hair aside and satisfied, walk out of the bathroom. "Well?" I ask, pulling up the collar of my Zephyr jacket and raising an eyebrow at Syianne and Fellin who are sitting side by side on the floor playing a video game Fellin installed on the Zephyr tablets we've received.  "How do I look?" I give them my most romantic grin.

Syianne looks up at me and rolls her eyes, "Like normal, only you shaved."

"Sy, quick, I need you to heal me!" Fellin cries, absorbed in the game.

I dust down my uniform, "It's not like I have a choice."

"Aren't you going to do something about your hair?" Fellin asks

I pat my head, "What's wrong with my hair?"

"It's a mess." Syianne says, looking back at the game.

"No, there are too many mobs in that room," Fellin groans.

"Isn't the I-just-got-out-of-bed look in fashion these days?"

"Not the way you have it." Syianne replies, trying her best to save Fellin from dying in the game. "Maybe that works in Aafta, but we're in the city here."

I shrug, "I'll start a new trend."

"Good luck with that," she smirks without looking up from the game. "Whoah, I'm getting all the aggro."

"Oh shit, I guess I died. Can you res me?" Fellin says.

"No, I just died too."

I turn to go, face the door and pause — I still have nearly an hour before I meet Risa. I stick my hands into my pockets and look over at Syianne and Fellin, purposefully coughing.

Fellin is busy with the game and Syianne either doesn't hear me or is ignoring me. I cough more dramatically this time. "Zribble stuck in your throat?" she asks drily.

"I was wondering, do either of you have any experience with cutting hair?"

Syianne puts her tablet aside and sighs, crossing her arms, "I do, I cut my brother's hair, but I don't have scissors here."

I ponder for a moment, "I'll see if they have a pair in the front desk."

*

I can't stop fingering my hair; I think Syianne cut it too short. I peek several times at the little mirror inside the rail-car, making faces at myself and tapping my foot nervously on the car floor. Now that I think about it, I've never gone on a date before. Lane and I were going out, sure, but in Aafta there's nowhere actually to go, mainly we just met at school, walked home together and hung out at each other's homes. So I'm four days in the big city living the life of a grown-up and here I am going on a date with a superstar.

I get off the rail-car and turn, gazing at the crowd. I notice something from the corner of my eye and my heart suddenly catches in my throat making my eyes water. I blink, holding back this sudden surge of homesickness. It's just a middle-aged woman with long, wavy, intensely black hair. I guess it was something about her posture, both rigid and light at the same time. Even though this woman looks nothing at all like my mother — for a moment I had felt as if she was standing next to me.

I can almost sense the emptiness of my old bedroom in my mother's apartment, I can almost feel the void I left in her heart. Is she feeling lonely? Will she be alright? I wish I could talk to her, just for a little bit...

I blink and search for something to focus on as I wait. My eyes finally come to rest on the fountain at the centre of the plaza. I take a small step back, the centrepiece of the fountain is rather unique.

The sculpture in the Therton Plaza fountain is of a man and a large serpent-like beast with twisted horns, slanted eyes and water sprouting out of its snarling mouth. The coils of the creature's body seem to hide the man's legs. Only I know what the sculptor intended — this man is an Alprine-holder like me and thus the continuation of the man's body is the Alprine.

I forget why I came here and stare. I've never admired art for so long, but somehow someone had managed to capture in stone the bond between man and Alprine – a bond which I am only now beginning to understand. I can't get over the fact that this — this evidence that what happened yesterday wasn't a dream — is here, and all these people who have passed here and seen it hundreds of times know nothing of its true meaning.

An arm snakes around my arm and I look up into the face of Risa Medrick. Even though we're both wearing our protective coats and gloves, I can feel a very faint tingling, as if a part of me knows she has power which I can absorb. I don't know how to use this power, I don't know what it does, but now that I've had a taste of it — my blood wants more.

"I like that troubled kid expression you sometimes wear," she tells me. "Almost as much as I like it when you smile like you're on the top of the world."

I smile and try to act cool; as if this isn't the first time I'm going out on a date with a girl and in Rockdem of all places. "Troubled? I'm not troubled."

She turns her head to look at the statue. She's wearing her hair down and I get a whiff of her perfume, my heart speeding up a little bit. I never liked it when girls wear perfume. I prefer to know what their skin smells like rather than what they want it to smell like. But with Risa it's okay. More than okay, it's a bit exciting. "We're all troubled," she says, "us, and them, and everyone. Shall we go?"

"Where are we going to?"

"Just this place I know where our people don't usually go." She starts pulling me along; everyone's staring at us, even out here. Because whether in the Zephyr, or down the street, Risa Medrick is Risa Medrick and she belongs to the world.

I look about at the people surrounding us, there's not a Zephyr uniform in sight. Risa and I stand out like two penguins.

"Lots of couples meet up at Therton Plaza," she tells me. "It's considered the most romantic place in the city. They say that if you fall in love under the fountain, it'll last forever."

Now I notice: Everyone around us stands, sits or walks in twos, holding hands, hugging, kissing. "What people won't try just to fall in love like they do in the movies." I suddenly quote my mother, except I don't notice I'm quoting her until the words are out of my mouth.

"You're too young to be sarcastic about these things."

"You're saying that even though you feel the same."

She laughs and hugs my arm tightly, "I've never dated anyone from the countryside before."

I don't say anything because I'm too embarrassed to talk. Of course she's dated other guys — including Leolan — and she's only two years older than me. I'm not sure how I feel about this; I'm not even sure what I think about Risa. There's a chance I might like her. She's really here and it seems like we're really on a date, but then, probably there's something else she wants – and if that's the case, the possibilities are endless.

We walk into a restaurant bustling with life. I look at the dishes served on the tables and am surprised that I recognise them. Tagrin dishes such as Sachgrib and Fiilyean, and the name of the restaurant, Dasigrei Tok Dellimi is a known Tagrin idiom which means "Olive oil is better than gold".

The hostess leads us to our table.  "This way, please," she says with a plastic smile. I feel my head stooping lower and lower as a waiter passes us holding a tray with two steaming bowls of Bulibeli dumpling soup. I laugh, but what I want to do is cry.

We're shown to our table in the corner. We sit down and only then do I lean over and grab both of Risa's hands. "Are you trying to kill me?" I try to keep my voice stable, but end up sounding almost crazed.

She keeps her smile on and pats my gloved hand with hers. I feel the tingle of power pass between us and my racing heart calms down a little bit. "I thought smells from home would elevate your mood." She closes her eyes and inhales deeply through her nose. "This is what I do when I want to taste something good — I go to a restaurant and drink sparkling water and sniff the air."

I feel embarrassed that I even dared complain, I want to change the subject. On the small dais beyond Risa's shoulder a string quartet are tuning their instruments. They begin playing and I recognise the melody — the song my grandfather sang whenever he took a shower. "Tousini gealdear eun ditti mar," I murmur.

"What?"

I shake my head and smile, "It's the name of this song." I wrinkle my forehead, "I don't even know how to translate it — something like: 'The world has a beginning and an end, all the paths are connected yet our paths may never cross.' It's about two people who are fated for each other but were born on different sides of the world and have never met."

"All that in the title of a song?"

"It's difficult to translate Tagrin and Darabesh into Madenese — there are gaping holes where there should be words."

"So in Tagrin there's a word for the world having a beginning and an end?"

"Tousini."

She smiles, "Towseenee?"

"That sounds a little bit exaggerated for Tagrin."

"Not everyone can be as silky a speaker as you."

I smile — in Aafta, everyone speaks like I do. Even though I was raised all my life on what is lawfully Medanese soil, here I am as strange and exotic as a foreigner. The waitress gives us our water, we sip it slowly as we talk, and admire the food we can't eat. Gradually, I feel myself beginning to relax in Risa's presence. Only a small nagging feeling tells me that I shouldn't, that she wants something other than me.

Maybe I'm not being fair, or maybe I'm just learning something about life in the Zephyr.

Sometime later, we walk out into the street, our arms linked. It's exhilarating to be in physical contact with her, even if it's just teasing little touches here and there. It's not the ordinary sensation of touching a girl. I keep sneaking glances at her face while she speaks. One of the most beautiful things about her is how radiant her complexion is, her olive skin is so perfect it makes me want to touch her smooth cheek and neck. I swallow a lump in my throat; I really want to kiss her.

We stop by a call board on a deserted street corner and my eyes linger on her face. I think that we're about to call it a night when she announces, "There's somewhere else I want us to go, some friends I want you to meet."

"That's funny," I say softly, "because I'd much rather be alone with you."

This makes her laugh, "It won't be long, I promise."

I'm not listening to her — she hasn't convinced me that there's a better place than here and a better time than now. "Do you think I'll get an Overflow if I kissed you?"

She sighs and edges closer to me, touching my cheek with her fingers, "I don't know, grey energy is a mystery to me. I haven't Plunged for almost a week, I've got very little left, but I don't know how it will behave if..."

There's only one way to find out. I'm young, she's hot and I guess that makes me reckless. I kiss her, and yes, it's electric, it's amazing. But also quick. She pushes me away, we're both short of breath — I want more but she digs her fingers into my arm and stops me. "It's enough," she says. There's a tremor in her voice, "it's too much."

She's looking at me strangely; I turn my head and stare at my reflection in a nearby shop window. I look like a street lamp, giving out strong white light. I can see forks of white electricity dancing inside the Jewel on the centre of my forehead and flashing in the whites of my eyes. I've never looked so cool in my entire life.

"We have to get you to the Zephyr," she says, her eyes dancing. Is she panicking? I feel incredible. I lightly skip toward the call board, tapping it with my finger to call a rail-car. Suddenly there's a big spark in the air and the call-board goes blank and begins smoking. I step away. Risa Medrick freezes, staring at it and then at me. We stand side by side in silence and don't know what to do.

Until I figure it out. Sensing what I want, Risa, the Alprine leaps to the ground at my feet and begins swelling in size.

"What is she doing?" Risa Medrick asks, alarmed.

For a moment I hesitate, unsure whether I can do this again or not. But then when I start, it all simply happens naturally, so easy, like breathing. It's remarkable how I didn't know about this my whole life. When we're fully merged, I turn my head to my date who's staring at me wide-eyed and pale-faced; I have the satisfaction of taking a Black Jewel into an unknown zone. "Climb on behind me," I say.

"This is insane," she murmurs, but obeys. Surprised or not, she must be used to seeing strange and magical things. I pull her arms around my waist and then take off.

The city lights twinkle below us like fairy-dust, like a sea of magic. From up above, it looks so peaceful, millions of people living their lives, each one a little light quietly burning in the darkness.

We dive downward and land among the shady domes of the Zephyr.

*

The lights are off and there's not a soul in sight. The silence leaves an echo in my ears after the roar of the wind. Risa's hair is tousled, making her look a little wild, but I find this appealing. We cross the empty Portal hall, the darkness rolling away from my brilliantly shining Jewel. We pass the Control Room and go into another room; the sign on the door says "Laboratory".

It is a laboratory, almost like the biology lab at school, except there are strange machines along the walls and bottles with colourfully glowing substances on the tables.

Risa tells me to sit on a stool as she switches on a machine and waits for it to warm up. She shoots me a worried glance, I smile at her and she turns back to the machine, fiddling with a few buttons and switches. "There's not much known about grey energy. Consult the books and you'll even find a few passages saying that it doesn't exist. But it does, and you're proof of it." She turns back to me, an empty glass in her right hand, and in her left a thin stick attached to a wire emanating from the machine.

"Take a very deep breath, and then exhale into the glass. When your lungs are completely empty, put the stick in your mouth and close your lips over it but not your teeth."

I do as she says, she holds on to the other tip of the stick while it's in my mouth. "You can breathe normally now," she says when a small green screen on the machine comes to life. "So even though you're Undefined, you're compatible with grey energy — meaning you take black energy from me and somehow mix it with your own white energy and then you get the grey."

The machine beeps and the number 2.165 appears on the screen. She sighs with relief and pulls the stick out of my mouth. "We seem to be fine here. Every type of energy has its own attributes, advantages and disadvantages. For instance, blue is good for force related things like moving about quickly and silently, yellow specialises in illusionary magic — it's good for deceiving the senses, green is all about the power of thought and red is very useful for boosting things. I have no idea what grey means; they say that black magic is everything white in reverse, so maybe grey is two opposites that create a whole? I'd love to see what it does."

"Will I be able to learn to control how much energy I absorb when I touch you?"

She smiles at me and strokes my hair, there's something promising in her eyes. "We'll have to conduct more testing to find out."

"I like the sound of that." I say, leaning in for a kiss.

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