Errend felt his insides flip with a feeling of tension he refused to acknowledge. The little girl before him was the spitting image of his friend. It was as if Zirco himself had come back as a young girl, violet eyes and everything.
The only actual difference was the shock white hair that Errend recognized as a gift from Inta's mother. A symbol of her family's once long ago blood connection to the royal families of the Nine Realms.
The pure silky white hair was a gift and curse that always seemed to skip one generation. And with it, Errend knew that this little girl would have the skills of sight even without the mutation that had been happening to so many of his people.
It would have made her an outcast back home, and he found himself oddly grateful she had been born on Earth even if it had been in captivity like a caged animal.
Her violet eyes held a depth far too deep for one of her age, and the knowledge and understanding behind her eyes almost broke his stoic visage. For a moment, he was scared for both her and everyone around at what knowledge she must already have gained in her short life.
All Errend seemed to be able to make his mouth do while staring into the endless violet abyss that was a young girl's eyes was to say "Hi."
The little girl's mouth twitched slightly, and a fondness touched her all too perceptive gaze.
"Hi, Errend. My name is Sardini. I am happy to see you too. Mommy will be too. Will you come?"
Errend was not surprised in the least that she seemed to know what he was thinking or feeling. Her grandmother had had some strange gifts of her own and seemed to know everything and everyone's secrets.
"Yes, Sardini. You lead. I will follow."
Somehow Errend felt his words had a deeper meaning than what they were being used for at this moment. He saw in Sardini's eyes a look of acceptance and understanding. She, too, knew these words would be fortuitous and hold a more significant meaning in the future to come.
If there was a future.
"Uh-hmm"
Errend was momentarily startled at the sound of a throat clearing. After turning to the sound, he remembered Aiya and Marvin were in the room with him.
Glancing over, he saw Aiya's one eyebrow raised with an expectant look on her face that she usually saved for Derek or Marvin.
Turning back to Sardini, he asked politely, "May my friends join us?"
Sardini's gaze fell on Aiya, and Errend saw something in the young girl's eyes soften, almost looking forlorn, or maybe sad? She read something in Aiya that moved her, touching her heart.
When Sardini's eyes glanced to Marvin, she openly smiled at him the way only innocent children can, and without realizing it, he smiled back. Marvin was a pure soul if Errend ever met one. He just wanted to save the world—a lofty goal for one man but a goal worth supporting.
Looking back to Errend, Sardini nodded then stepped to the side, indicating everyone should go into the hall.
Everyone got up and followed the little celestial-looking being into the pristine hallway. She skipped ahead of them, humming some kind of song Errend didn't know.
Sardini gave a slight wave to a guard standing in front of a door leading to a hall that was off-limits to visitors and chirped, "Hi Paul."
Without waiting for him to reply, she skipped on down the hall humming happily.
Errend noticed the guard's face looked a little stunned and slightly confused at the girl's hello. Errend surmised she had never spoken to Paul before until today.
Errend wasn't sure all the powers skills of sight gave a person, but he was starting to wonder. Did Inta know? She had to know. Her mother was gifted beyond measure, and even though most treated her like a diseased sorceress out to eat their souls, many had still come to her for aid.
Sardini halted in front of a nondescript door that looked like all the others. She went to open it, then stopped and looked up into the security camera mounted a few feet away in the middle of the ceiling.
Errend had noticed these. They were fairly new, he thought. When he escaped years ago, they had cameras mounted at corners here and there, but now these new cameras that seemed to be able to see three hundred and sixty degrees could be found every fifty feet or so.
Staring into the camera, Sardini looked to be concentrating. Then Errend heard the door click. What had just happened? Had the door been locked?
"They did more testing on mom today while you guys were in that meeting. She's tired but seeing you will help her feel better. I know it."
Sardini smiled warmly at Errend, not even realizing how her words tore at his insides like hot metal. Still smiling, she continued.
"They locked her in our rooms after, in case she found out you were here. They don't want her getting upset. They are afraid she will do something stupid." The little girl said the last word like it's the silliest thing she'd ever heard.
Errend understood as long as Sardini was here and no way for Inta to get her out safely, Inta would never do anything to risk Sardini's safety.
Sardini grabbed the handle turning it, but before she opened the door, she stopped and looked back at everyone with a severe look on her face that was far too old for her young age.
"Mother doesn't know I have any abilities. She also is unaware they lock our door. The security man is instructed to unlock it for the doctors only or me. I..." she blushed slightly, looking down, her feet shuffling. She bashfully looked back at everyone confessing, "I may have changed the man's memories of his orders slightly. He wouldn't have let you guys in otherwise."
She rushed to defend her actions, sounding like a little girl for the first time since Errend had met her, obviously worried the adults would be upset at what she had just done.
"I swear I don't mess with people usually. I mean, not on purpose anyway. Well, we better hurry. Not sure if what I did is permanent."
Looking a little worried but determined, Sardini ducked her head down and quickly pushed the door open, quietly hurrying in.
Errend grabbed the door behind her and waited for Aiya and Marvin to enter before he followed, gently closing the door behind him.
He had avoided acknowledging his feelings up until now, but a nervous tension had turned his stomach to a rioting storm of knots and butterflies. Could Inta forgive him?
He let the emotions run their course but kept to his training and didn't let them have control. They would pass and be gone soon enough as long as he kept moving.
Still following Sardini, they entered a narrow white hallway. It reflected the white light, immaculate and polished like waxed marble.
As they turned a corner, Errend heard Aiya suck in a breath and quietly exclaim as their eyes fell on a frail figure curled up on a lounge chair.
"Oh..."
A cream carpet in the centre of a small sitting room was decorated with sparse furniture. More white offended their eyes as Errend, Aiya and Marvin took in the glass coffee table with white legs, one white wooden end table, a small white bookshelf in the corner and a white love seat across from the white lounge chair.
Errend noticed a small two-person dining table and chairs against the only wall that had windows. Or panels made to look like windows at least—the table and chairs were white as well and almost blended into the wall behind them.
The lack of contrast or colour in the room made the curled-up figure on the lounge chair stick out even more. Her faded dark blue sweat pants and matching hoodie looked well worn and ready to unravel. The woman didn't acknowledge the group and appeared to be in an exhausted but fitful sleep.
Her muscles twitched and she moaned and groaned in her sleep. Suddenly her hand shot out, grabbing something that wasn't there, and she cried out, "No! Please no! I can't help you. Please, please!"
Sardini rushed to her mother's side and gently grabbed the outstretched hand. Grasping her mother's fist in her tiny one, Sardini gently rubbed the back of her mother's hand, whispering something to her the others didn't quite hear clearly.
They stood frozen in the hallway. Errend felt horror at seeing Inta so broken and frail. She had been a formidable warrior and one of his closest friends. Now she looked like a shadow of the woman he'd known.
His feet felt frozen to the floor, and he dared not interrupt the young girl and her mother. This was obviously something they had done before—daughter comforting mother.
***
Inta felt herself slowly coming to the surface of the dark, murky waters that had been her unrestful sleep as of late.
She had had a horrible nightmare. She couldn't remember it, but the feeling of terror and pain still gripped her heart in a vice.
The feeling of Sardini's small hands cradling her own, gently stroking the tense muscles out of the back of her hand, helped relax her. How many times had Sardini done this? Helped her escape from a night terror after they had experimented on her and left her here in this room to "recover"?
"Sardini love. Oh, darling. I am sorry. I must be a worrisome sight. Don't worry, love. I will be much better after more rest and some food."
Inta kept her eyes closed but stretched her body out, trying to relieve the kinks in her joints. She knew she'd lost most of her muscle and all her weight since being here. She felt like a skeleton as she stretched, bones protesting as they felt pressure from the hard lounge chair.
Inta heard Sardini sigh sounding far older than she had a right to.
"Mother."
"Yes."
"I brought friends to see you."
Inta's eyes shot open, and she went to sit up in a rush but a pain shot through her side where they had taken another bone marrow sample. She cringed and curled over instead of sitting upright.
"Easy, mother. They are friends. They are here to help us."
Something in Sardini's voice gave Inta pause. Her eyes had clamped shut with the stabbing pain, but she forced them open again and peered up from where she curled over her knees, sitting at the end of the lounge chair.
"Oh, Vishnu! You're alive!"
She wanted to stand and run to him, but her body was in so much pain it took all her effort to simply sit up straight.
But she needn't have worried. In less than half a second, Errend had strode into the room and across the cream carpet to sit beside her wrapping a strong arm around her shoulders.
She started to shake with the shock of seeing him, her body too weak to remain composed. Even though he held her close and she could feel the warmth from his body, the smell of his leather coat and the odd spice that had always been her friend Errend, she still had to lift a shaky hand to touch his face.
He looked older. His eyes held a sorrow she had never seen before, but he was alive.
"They said you had died. I saw Zirco die..." She couldn't stop the sob that hiccuped out of her chest.
"I thought I was on this planet alone - forever." The sobs came in earnest now, and she curled into Errend as memories ripped through her. Seeing Errend brought back so many memories.
"Shh, Inta. All will be well. I won't let them hurt you anymore."
The steel in his voice sent a shiver down Inta's spine as she clung to him. She remembered one night when she and Zirco had snuck off to be alone under the stars, the warning Zirco had given her.
She suspected Zirco had known something about their dear friend she had not, and now the warning echoed again in her mind as she heard death in his voice like ice rain.
"There is more to Errend than we know, I think, Inta. I think we need to be careful. I fear the day he finally snaps and loses control."