Shards of Kairos

XIII - The Soul Bond

By the time they were done discussing the Blight, Evie struggled not to feel as if everything was hopeless again. There was no way for her to become a Guardian, because the Crystal bands were scattered to the winds, and there was no sign of Evie's.

And Katie was far from help too. And so too that left the Ruby Crystal dormant and painfully useless to stem the tide that was the Blight. Threatening to drown them all.

Julian was for lack of a better term ‘infected’ by the Blight and since the Crystal was so bound to him, so connected to him on a physical level - or in every way possible - it was affecting the Guardian on every level too. And there wasn’t a cure.

Which left Evie grasping for some idea, some way to shake him free of the Blight for good. And to save him.

But that answer was proving just as elusive as all the others.

Evie found Rei making Julian’s order in the kitchen after Mitch left for some air and as Toshiharu closed down the restaurant for the day.

Rei smiled where she stood by the stove and as Evie approached her, she reached back blindly for the refrigerator and opened up the freezer, taking out a container of ice cream. “If he ordered the number six, he’ll be wanting this too.”

Evie smiled, having to close her eyes briefly against the pain in her head. Which was getting close to uncomfortable. Uncomfortable in a way that suggested the mother of all migraines if Evie didn’t do something about it soon and maybe even if she did.

“How did you meet Julian? The same way I did?” Evie reached over for the ice cream, turning it over curiously. BKYLN ‘Blackout’. A high end looking ice-cream brand with chocolate, chocolate cake, and chocolate pudding. Even Evie’s own nausea and the pain in her head couldn’t convince her that it didn’t look good.

Rei smiled but it was a mixed expression on her face - at the apparent memories of meeting Julian for the first time. Apparently mostly good ones, but also a lot bad. And Evie could relate.

“He literally came crashing through our roof.” Rei pointed up at the ceiling and Evie followed the direction of her finger to the skylight, which looked like it had seen better days. “At the time, all the stoves were here in the middle, instead of counters and work spaces. Toshiharu was between chicken teriyaki, beef amiyaki, and two sides of kimchi ramen when Julian fell right onto the stoves. He nearly lit the whole place on fire and would have if Toshiharu hadn’t put him out first.” Rei flipped a spoonful of rice into the pan. “You see why the stoves are no longer under the skylight.”

Evie laughed despite her own headache, reaching up to rub at her temples. But the dizziness was unexpected and she decided to keep her eyes closed. Just for a second.

Rei’s voice was soothing in a small way. Calm. Like water. And the way she was preparing Julian's food was almost affectionate. And Evie wanted to be obscenely jealous (even if she couldn’t cook to save her life) because there was a care in what Rei was doing that was deliberate and Evie thought to ask but the idea of food was suddenly making her stomach do uncomfortable things.

“I don’t think I should have had the octopus.”

“Are you all right?”

Evie thought she heard Rei ask. Evie almost didn’t hear her the first time but when Rei spoke her name, insistently, Evie realized right then that she’d almost passed out on her feet. And that told her immediately that something was wrong.

Headaches didn’t cause vertigo and blackouts. But Evie told herself that she was being dramatic and forced a smile, meeting Rei’s eyes. “I have the worst headache. Do you have some aspirin or-?”