Rain

Five: Candlelight

I beat Kyros up to the room, and quickly set about to making some coffee for myself. The ground up brown beans rustle against the bag first, and then against the filter as I pour them out, and I focus myself onto those small noises or motions instead of the whirlwind in my head.

Kyros steps into the room a few minutes later, closing the door quietly and immediately searching the room for me.

"Hey," he greets, giving me a cheery grin that I can tell is forced. I raise one hand in a half-greeting, not really bothering to smile.

"Coffee's almost done," I inform him, and he nods almost approvingly.

"So. What's the plan?" he asks, and let out a sigh.

"Not much. Tomorrow is the gala thing. Tonight, I just have to pray no one will ask any questions."

"Cool. We have some catching up to do, anyway," he tells me, and I roll my eyes.

"What have the past three years looked like for you? Surely Ariadne Thorne didn't go from mourning to murder overnight," he says, grinning cheekily at his wordplay. I'm tempted to smack him, but choose not to.

Instead, I find myself outlining the past three years to the boy: starting at my arrival in Argos, finding a emerald-eyed, messy-haired ginger waiting for me. I had arrived on that Thursday night, fallen into Callista's arms, and sobbed. The girl had been somewhat dumbstruck by my emotional display, but soon settled back into the comforting friend I had known what felt like ages ago.

The first few months were spent in specialty training for Argos-specific mission work, and then a brief return to CANAAN for a review with Gwen, who then revealed to me (finally) what my job was: I was to be her eyes and ears in the Burning World Republics, carrying out hand-picked missions that she simply didn't trust anyone else to fulfill.

In return, she answered many of the questions I had: Gwen, Evan, and Emma had all made it to early CANAAN right as the sear outbreak had climaxed, and though Evan died from his injuries soon afterwards, Emma and Gwen had been two of the people there since the beginning.

When the first director stepped down, Gwen and Emma were appointed as the two directors-in-training, and under their rule, CANAAN flourished as a center and refuge of curing and rehabilitating those who had been Burned. A few years into their work, Emma began to look for more and more power, cutting corners and bending rules in places she shouldn't have. Eventually, things went too far. Emma apparently was campaigning to kill and eradicate the Burning rather than cure them, and after Gwen found out she had been killing some of them upon their arrival, Emma was banished to who knows where.

At this point, both Gwen and Emma had undergone a few treatments of the age-slowing process, the secrets of which Gwen isn't allowed to tell me about, so although she is more than likely long dead, if Emma were to have found somewhere safe, she could very much be alive.

Under Gwen's rule alone, CANAAN grew and expanded into all of the remaining Republics, leaving a fully functional worldwide emergency protection program in place.

After Gwen answered my questions and I was officially instated as her right hand, I started work with some more minor New Canadian gang leaders. It didn't take long for me to adjust to this new line of work, since under Gwen's advice, I'd been getting quite good at forgetting my guilt.

Brynn and Felix came back into my life about two months after I started working as fully-fledged Argos agents. At this point, it had been about a year since we left. A few weeks after that, Brynn and Felix started dating.

"Whoa. Hold on. They what now?!" Kyros squeaks, and I'm tempted to laugh.

"She didn't tell you?" I ask, and the boy's face twists into somewhat of a grimace.