Wingless

12. The Unity

Charlie

After Dethany's extremely brilliant epiphany, there was nothing to do but wait. We would carry out the plan the next day. Dethany would stay over at my house with Gaius and Tane, and in the late afternoon we would break a patient out of an asylum.

Tane was all smiles; she loved having a mission and being able to finish it. Gaius poured over the plan repeatedly while Dethany sat next to him, her knees pulled up to her chest and her teeth sinking into her bottom lip with thoughtful force.

I couldn't stop myself from feeling this free falling sensation in the pit of my stomach. Tane wouldn't be with me for much longer. I had to do something for her. I wanted her to remember me. I idly doodled on a piece of paper so as not to alert Tane of my plans. Gaius was right. She was getting better at reading my thoughts.

In between the doodles, I wrote to Dethany: Get Tane dressed up. I have a surprise for her.

I balled up the paper in my fist and then lightly tossed it at Dethany. Giving me an annoyed look, she opened it and I watched her expression harden into one of stony distaste. She got to her feet and stuffed the paper in her back pocket, and then grabbed a pack of cigarettes from the same place. I sniffed in distaste; I hated the smell.

"I have to run home and grab my clothes and stuff for the night. Tane," she called, forcing a smile, "want to come with?" Tane nodded impassively and rose. Gaius didn't even look up from the plans. My heart ached a little at the sight. He didn't even know what he could so easily have.

Dethany and Tane left without much conversation and I felt awkward in the room with Gaius. So I left as well to fix up Tane's surprise.

It was hard, trying to find everything I needed in such a short amount of time. But I worked quickly, if not sloppily, and finished in about thirty minutes. I jogged back downstairs, happily worked, having forgotten that Gaius was sitting on my bed.

"I know what you're doing," he muttered. Even his mutter was an even, unwavering threat.

"I'm not doing anything. I just want to make Tane's last night here a good one."

Gaius nodded and stood. That reminded me how much taller he was than me. I didn't shrink away from him, but I could have sworn my hands started shaking.

"And I just want to make sure that there are no discrepancies between what should happen and what does happen tomorrow." I opened my mouth to reply but he continued, "Tane is my half-sense. To separate a Prestigious One from their half-sense is to wish upon them an emptiness to never be filled." I guess he realized that I wasn't going to say anything or laugh at him because he returned to the bed and sat. "I am what you would call lucky. When Tane was given to me and I to her, I received purpose. A sense of fulfillment. Do you understand?"

I was trying to. It just sounded like he was in love with her. I told him as much.

"You humans are so stuck on this emotion 'love'. Yet you skim over the emotion of connection. There is something deeper than happiness. It is even more than fulfillment. I am filled to the brim with her. I am overflowing with the sound of her in my head." Now he was just talking gibberish to confuse me, I was sure of it. "She gives me reason to be strong. She gives me reason to be better." His voice had a steady cadence that was like a lecture from a father with none of the sturdy reprimanding. The deep timbre of his voice held the learned wisdom of a clear head after many mistakes. I didn't want to take him seriously, but I couldn't help it. "I am not myself without her. I am not anyone without her. That is what being someone's half-sense is comprised of.

"It is something you humans have, unsurprisingly, failed to grasp. You are so far away from the concept of lutschau that your people do not even have a word for it. The only unity. The oneness that comes from realizing that a part, no matter how treasured by another, is absolutely nothing without the whole.