Finding Stars

Chapter 4

Dedicated to acemikka for the wonderful new cover!

Chapter 4

   Lin was skeptical, and she felt rightly so, when Spencer lead the two of them back to the hospital. She glanced askance at him, then back at the building she'd just left not long ago. "You mean to tell me hundreds of people live under this place?"

   Spencer nodded, and Lin couldn't help noticing the droplets of water that fell from his hair as he did. The drowned fox locks lay in matted tangles, hanging in his eyes. He rocked back and forth on his heels as if uneasy as he jerked his head toward the corner. "This way."

   He seemed marginally less talkative than normal, that she could see even from the short time she'd spent not dying in the coffee shop. And more subdued. But she followed his brisk, sweeping strides, her steps nearly double the number of his own for her height. He lead her, without a word, to a door set in what most would assume lead to a nondescript, protocol basement. It certainly seemed that way as the pair picked their way through abandoned, forgotten, medical equipment and dusty files long neglected until reaching a door marked with swirling white glyphs near the back.

   Spencer ran his hand over the door, violinist fingers trailing across the surface. Even as Lin studied it, she couldn't quite tell what it was made of. It didn't look exactly like metal, or even exactly like wood. Just enough of both to drive someone to sufficient agitation. Maybe a cross between both, she settled on, before she tipped over the edge of that agitation chasm from which there would be no return. A few nearly inaudible words from the boy- man? -standing there, and it swung open on soundless hinges, glyphs glowing like tiny, captured stars, bathing their faces in blindingly white light.

   Lin squinted as Spencer stepped through the door, pausing to wave her through and reseal the passage without still a word further. She watched him warily. Something had to be up. Had to be. Her thoughts derailed as he cleared his throat, running a perhaps nervous hand through his newly drenched hair. Drowned fox hadn't had a chance to lighten to amber, Lin mused with a hair's breadth of...disappointment?

   "I'm taking you to Orias. Better he finds out from me than from anyone else." Spencer framed it almost like a question, so she nodded. Whether to confirm to herself of their actions, or assure him, she wasn't quite sure. Either way, Spencer mimicked her nod with a sigh blown through his nose. He turned away from her to start toward their leader, his adoptive father as he'd explained on the way there.

   Both jumped as if a muni had found it's way in front of them in silence instead of a boy, this one was definitely in the range of boy it seemed to Lin at least, redheaded and boasting eyes of spring green, that slung an arm over Spencer's shoulders with an beaming, mischevious grin. It lit up the boy's face, seeming to cast him in happiness-fueled light. "Spence! Where you been?"

   Spencer hooked a thumb over his shoulder at Lin, trailing not too far behind them. Lin sped up at the motion, wanting to remain in earshot. Though really, it wasn't hard. The newcomer wasn't very quiet. "Business trip, Olly." Even with the simple answer, unlike Spencer as it was, he held a the slight curve of a smile to his mouth at the appearance of this Olly. Like he was happy to have him there.

   Olly snorted, shaking shaggy curls from his eyes. "Fairly sure it's only business if it's with permission. And I know you too well. You would have come trumpeting success if it'd had the go-ahead."

   From what Lin could see, Spencer winced slightly before making a small sweep with a hand between them. "Oliver O'Connell, Dahlin Monroe. Olly, Lin." Spencer ruffled Olly's hair, to the redhead's playful glare as Olly smoothed it back. "He's practically a brother. We've known each other for five years, since we were thirteen."