I would like to say that I had an idea for appeasing my brother, or half of one at that. In reality, I had no idea at all. We didn't get in many fights when we were younger, probably due to Max's patience with my desire to mix all of our toys together. He would build Lego houses for my little dog figurines, and I would conscript my Polly Pockets into his G.I. Joe missions. In my mind at least, it had always been fair. The only time I remembered Max being truly mad at me was when I'd overwritten his profile in Paper Mario. I'd wanted to be in the first save slot, and had assumed his save file would scoot down to the two slot when I saved my game. I'd apologized, but he barely spoke to me for weeks, and I was left to pack my own lunches. I got really tired of peanut butter sandwiches... though Max never did save in the one slot again.
Point being, we didn't have a forgiveness ritual. There was no "traditional" gift that was the tried and true method for apology. This was new.
Pirates never apologized, because no one was truly offended. People understood. It wasn't personal, just good tactics. Stepping over others was a part of the game. Yet Red... he had a right to be angry with me. It was personal, and I had no choice but to apologize in a way that managed to be embarrassing enough to earn forgiveness without showing others why it had to be Red. For starters, I'd have to admit that he had been right. And then all I'd have to do was convince him to accompany me on a dangerous mission with a bunch of people that probably hated him
I needed a drink.
I figured I'd grab a firesweet from Flor for the road. If I hurried I could probably still catch Red before he made it back to camp. I could follow him from the rooftops and wait for an opportunity to separate him from his crewmates. That might work. I'd have to find Flor first though. The idea of facing my brother without the overconfident air firesweet always gave me was terrifying.
The girl was nowhere to be found. Flor normally appeared a heartbeat before I realized I wanted something, and now that I actually needed a drink she was missing? It sounded like Vidan's handiwork to me. He'd probably say something ridiculously reasonable about how an apologetic person is never confident. Because of course, he would already know. That was the mole's job, to know things.
I stood in the entrance to the back rooms of the compound and realized I was stalling. If I was so nervous that I would rather have a chat with Vidan than talk with my own brother... I was in trouble.
I removed my mask and slipped out of the compound, hesitating for a moment in the shadow of the doorway for some of Vinyé's many crew members to stagger by. I waited for them to round the corner on their way back to their bunks before jogging after them, watching the buildings to find one with iron wrought supports underneath the balcony. I found one a few houses down with fancy scrolling metalwork full of whorls perfect for placing a foot in. I swarmed up the columns to the roof.
Red was sitting three buildings down the street, legs dangling over the edge of the roof as he watched the sun come up over the harbor.
I joined him, sitting in silence and kicking my feet back and forth while I waited for my brother to speak first. I steeled myself; waiting for the scorn I knew was coming.
"I'm sorry," he sighed.
I snapped my head to look at him, legs frozen mid swing as I tried to figure out what he was talking about.
"I forget sometimes," he continued. "That I'm barely supposed to know you here. I know you want to keep it that way. It would be awkward if your crew knew you were a tag-a-long instead of a 'real' pirate. I slipped up in the Conclave. But your handler... he really set my teeth on edge. He looks at people like they're things to be hunted. Knowing that he not only has you, but a whole group of girls? Something's not right about that. I couldn't stand by. Instinct interfered. I've spent my whole life looking out for you... that isn't something I can turn off."
"Most," I corrected. "You spend most of your life looking after me. Last year I was on my own. I did fine without you."
"You burned half of my captain's face off, stole my earring, and then made yourself such a target that Vinyé and Tempest were in talks to charge Captain Mají-jalio's camp rather than let you live. You managed to fall in love with your captain, light up half the forest in a rage when he broke up with you, and literally stabbed him in the back when he tried to make things right. You call that doing fine?"
"You skipped the part where he'd been lying to me for most of the year, was using me for my powers, and killed my best friend after failing to kill me" I grumbled. "Your version makes me sound like a stupid teenager."
"You were only sixteen. All sixteen year olds make mistakes."
"Most sixteen year old mistakes get teens grounded, not their friends killed."
"Drinking and driving can."
I sighed. It was pointless to argue with him when he insisted on being grown up and rational about things. We sat there in silence for a few minutes, sun warming our faces as the rest of the world slept.
"You didn't come up here to demand an apology" Red prompted. "If you had you would've been discreet, but not nice."
"I finally figured things out," I admitted. "You probably got it weeks ago, and that's why you volunteered and showed up in my cabin in the first place. I need a representative of Storm's crew on my mission, and I don't trust anyone else in your crew. Even if you're working in someone else's best interest, I know you won't slit my throat while I sleep. You know as well as I do that I'd hunt you down in Effugere and announce your game name, bringing you to etiquette hell with me."
Red nodded. "Captain would've killed that compass kid rather than let Vinyé get an advantage over him. We would've fallen into war... and something tells me that you'd never be able to bring down the walls while we fought internally. It'd be counterproductive."
I leaned back to lie down on the rooftop. For a moment I closed my eyes, tempted to fall asleep right there, safe in my knowledge that my older brother would protect me.
"We'll need to agree on a story," Red said softly, shattering my moment of peace. "You haven't made your dislike of me a secret. I mean... if I'm being honest I already have a story planned. I had intended to use it as an excuse to follow after you once your group left, other than the fact that Captain Storm would have sent someone."
I opened my eyes slightly to let him know I was listening.
"That and it's better if you learn this now. It's not something you'll take to knowing happily, and if you were to push me off the roof I wouldn't blame you. I'm not used to this. It doesn't exactly come with the job description."
"You're stalling" I interrupted. "Who's coming?"
I jumped to my feet, turning to flee over the rooftops. Red lunged, grabbing my ankle. I felt a stream of warmth flow through my body, bringing a soft ball of yellow flame to my right hand.
I hadn't summoned it.
"I was wondering if that would happen," Red said. "It's been mostly useless for anything else. The coolest thing I've done until now was heat wood enough that it catches fire within a minute... and no one is impressed by that when there's a girl who can set a sword alight."
"I was going to ask if you could teach me."
I pulled my ankle from Red's hand, plopping beside him once more. I studied the ball of warmth in my hand for a moment. This wasn't my fire. It barely counted as fire at all; there was no danger within it, no passion. It was a wispy ball of warmth. The little ball was soothing, like hot chocolate, a warm shower, or a heated blanket. I shook my head, tossing the ball to Red.
"Your powers are different than mine. I think I'm just meant to be your tool, a vector for your power."
"Or..." Red said, passing his fingers through the ball slowly. "I'm your back-up, a magical reservoir of heat so you don't have to want to rip someone's head off to be powerful."
"Either way, this solves our excuse problem. No one else has an ability strong enough to realize how difficult it is to mesh powers. I'll say I can feed off your energy because it's similar to mine because you do heat and I do fire. It's close enough to the truth, no one should think twice."
"I'll go back to camp then," Red said. "It looks like I've got some packing to do."
"You'll have a few hours at most. I'm going to take a nap before we leave; buy you some time. Be back by noon."
I headed home, leaping from roof to roof through the twisting maze of the city. I had my people picked, my gear was being packed, and we had a heading. If only I knew how to actually bring the walls down, I might begin to feel confident about my mission.