Claustrophobia

Chapter Three - Acquaintances - 3

After food was ordered and brought by the waiters in the perfect time, not too long as to annoy the guests but not too quickly as to begin the meal before polite conversation had fully set in, Z9 tucked into a delightful glazed Hyuntiger side with gorgeon sauce. Across the table from her, Princess Yvatra had ordered the same dish.

'Mhm, oh this is gorgeous,' she said, making noises reserved for the sound of either someone enjoying a good dish, or of heavy machinery humming in the background. Around the table all were savouring their meals, their mouths finally beginning to stop salivating. Lar.4G was eating something ridiculously healthy-looking; the two ladies whose names Z9 hadn't managed to catch eating something incredibly small that looked like it should only be a starter.

'It is rather good,' Z9 concurred, finishing her inspection of everyone's choice of gastronomy by inspecting Kassre's plate. Kassre was beginning to devour her plate in a childish glee, a pile of what looks to be fast food wedges on a side-plate. One of Lar.4G's arm-hangers looked over and raised an eyebrow.

'Aren't they meant to be really fattening, Miss DyGleyre?' she asked in a self-righteous manner. Kassre looked up and witnessed the woman, who could only just be out of high school, raise herself to her full, pompous height. Kassre's face had the look of a child who tries to defend herself against a mother telling her off for something she wasn't sure was her fault, and trying to hold back the tears as a result of it.

'I'm on a brand new cruise ship,' Kassre replied. 'I think I'm allowed to indulge on the first meal and take a few laps around the decks afterwards to burn it off.'

Z9 raised the right corner of her mouth in a slight smile. She liked this chick more and more as it went on. A bit shy, but she'd get her out of her shell soon enough. It wouldn't be too hard for her, not at all.

'I had an experience with those things once,' Lar.4G said, his cutlery going down momentarily as everyone prepared themselves for a new story of epic adventure that he undoubtedly would come out on top of. 'I was in a small village on Vernim, just before the race there. This was, what, two years ago now?'

'Weren't you teammates with Uopian Herrestad then, Lar.4G?' one of the two girls asked.

'That's right, Shahaz, and I've never had a better teammate, you know. Never. Pushed me right to the absolute limit he did, and back again of course. Had a habit of curling his finger through his hair for ten minutes before he put his helmet on, like he was winding up the gears in his head. Sometimes I wished he had done a little less winding and given me a chance in some of those blasts down the straights; he could change gear like an absolute demon, could Herrestad. Absolute demon.'

'You were saying,' Yvatra interrupted politely, 'about an experience with the wedges?'

'Oh, of course,' Lar.4G said, laughing jovially, 'how stupid of me to get sidetracked. Anyway, we were in this village a few days beforehand, and this particular locale had these wedges that were a regional speciality. Well, race or no race our stomachs were rumbling at the way they were describing them; fried and then covered in batter and then fried again and then drizzled over in sauce and then underwent a special rotation to get the inside fluids all like a sauce on the inside as well. So we had to have them, didn't we? Ordered two bowls, me and Herrestad, and we sat down and after one bite it was like heaven. Really, never had fast food like it, I thought I'd touched gods for a second. We both did, and in seconds we were devouring these fucking things faster than backmarkers in a race.

'Course, what they didn't tell us before was that it gives you a really bad stomach pain if you eat too many too quickly, probably just to see the look on our faces if I'm honest. Five minutes later and we weren't starting to feel too good, hands over our stomachs, groaning and all, and seconds later we were rushing for the bathrooms and throwing our heads over the sink and...'

'Yes, thanks,' Kassre said, looking up from her wedges, 'that's fine. I get the picture.'

Lar.4G laughed again in his loud, obnoxious manner. 'Sorry, I got a little carried away there.'

Kassre smiled weakly, before looking down at her wedges for a second and tearing one in half before eating it.

The conversation died down as everyone finished their meals, before the plates were cleared away.

'So where is everyone looking forward to? On the cruise, this is,' the girl, Shahaz, asked.

'Personally I'm really hoping that Amirerea is as beautiful as they say,' Yvatra said. 'I've got a beautiful ring made with some of the purest solid amethyst in the deep caves there that you have to use specialised equipment to go down to.'

Just go get that and flaunt it to me next time you see me why don't you, Z9 thought to herself, resisting an urge to punch her in the face. I know you want to; I can you practically itching to go to your cabin and get it now, flashing it around like a whore on Prosterothal looking for a buyer.

In her head, the thought of Prosterothal reminded her of Evangra. The laughing face of Baron's new queen presented itself to her. She dispelled it and the vision dispersed with the air of smoke from a hot drink.

'What about you, Miss DyGleyre?' Lar.4G asked. Kassre looked up from her lap, where she had been staring for the entire length of the conversation so far.

'Oh? Um, me?'

'Yeah, you, you little airhead. Where're you looking forward to?' Z9 asked. She thought about giving a playful elbow nudge but held it back. You don't know her well enough, she told herself, to do that. She'd freeze inside herself.

'Oh. Umm, maybe the resort on Xylaris,' she said.

'Any particular reason? Z9 asked.

Kassre shrugged, smiling. 'I just think it would be a pretty view from the balcony there, you know?'

'Pretty view? That place looks directly across at the Abyssal Cluster. If there's a resort opposite a haunted house then fine, you go there and pretend you don't know where you are,' Shahaz remarked. 'Nobody goes there for the horizon, girl.'

Kassre looked away, a little red-faced. Her hands fidgeted underneath the table.

'Hey,' Z9 said. 'If she wants to stand there and look out at the view she can. She paid for the opportunity, for crying out loud.'

'Wow,' Shahaz said, 'sorry.'

Kassre looked across at Z9 and sent her a silent 'thank you'. Z9 smiled back. Message received, possible psychopath. Message received loud and clear.