Vivien and the Scoria

Chapter 12: Explanations of a confusing nature

We all sat quietly around the table in the map room while Twister began his introductions. "Firstly," and he pointed his right hand in my general direction, "This is Vivien Karma of Mount Api, daughter of the late Lord Karma, and my adopted daughter." I waved sarcastically at Blaze and Rowan, the former of whom smiled politely and the latter of whom sneered at me.

"Next, we have Blaze Lightwood of Mount Tanah, major financial aid for our cause, and potential connection to the Badlands." I opened my mouth to ask questions about what 'major financial aid' meant, but Twister shoved a conveniently close loaf of bread, that seemed to appear out of nowhere, into my open mount. I spluttered, embarrassed, before taking a bite and sulking in my chair.

"This is Rowan Faercrag of Mount Api, son of Lady Faercrag, elite soldier on the Guard, and military connection to the Fellan and Scoria forces." Twister gestured a hand towards Rowan at this statement, who simply remained glaring in my direction.

"And finally, I am Twister of Mount Api, father of Will, financial aid for the cause, owner of the base of operations, and general fixer-upper of any problems, which you should all know already." Now that basic introductions were finished, I swallowed the lump of bread in my mouth and once again tried to ask a question of Twister, of anyone really, about what all the extra stuff in those introductions meant.

However, Twister stopped me once again from saying a word. "Vivien, a lot has been going on behind your back. There's a whole operation in place, getting people out of Merasa and over to Kygen, and subtlety undermining Tante's rule of the city. Paddy and Will coined the term 'The Storm' as a name for the operation, and its stuck. We are bringing a storm to Tante that he won't see coming, so we can free the city and the people."

As annoyed as I was that Twister hadn't allowed me to speak, yet again, he had answered some of my unasked questions in the process. The brief silence that followed Twister's words were filled quickly by Blaze stating, "With Will gone, Rowan is now the second in command, with Paddy as the leader." Internally, I thought that whoever decided that placing Rowan in a position of power was a good idea was crazy, but I didn't dare utter that out loud. I may enjoy pissing Rowan off, but I could tell that he was on edge at the moment, and any statement I put forward now would lead to him jumping over the table to either stab me or strangle me. I wasn't stupid enough to risk that, not when I was not in top form.

"Perhaps it's time we hear your side of the story about what happened with the Fellan, and how you acquired this peculiar sword." Twister muttered to me as he ran one hand through his hair in obvious exasperation at the fact that Rowan and I were still glaring daggers at each other.

Making eye contact with Twister, I turned my attention from Rowan onto perhaps more important matters. "That's a rather long story, Twister. Do we really have time for me to tell it all? Also, you haven't told me everything about what is going on with this 'resistance' group yet. Or am I just not going to get any more information?"

Twister ignored my final statement and focused on the first part. "I think we must hear it all Vivien. What may seem like trivial information about the events of the previous day may actually be very beneficial for the cause." I sighed and shook my head. What was it with everyone and evading what I wanted to know?! Going off the events of the last day, and really the last week since Will had failed to return from his Testing, I had just as much right as they did to know the full story of what was going on in my city.

Knowing that I wasn't going to get anything else out of Twister on the matter at this point in time, I began my story of the past day. Perhaps once I had finished telling it, they would be more inclined to tell me what I wanted to know. "It started at Solomon's..."