The walk to Kyn's home was a long one.
After circling through the labyrinthine streets and hiding under the coverage of boggy shadows and crevisses, Kyn and Idi finally passed into a new semi-urban area less populated with buildings and people. The structure of the street complex was still there, but the rigidity of the tenements and shops had receded with the first hinting of foliage coming into play instead. Grass dotted with different toughened shrubs increased in patches, and few small trees, alive but too malnourished to reach their full prime, were interspersed throughout the roads.
"Over here," Kyn spoke softly, turning a corner as he motioned for Idi to follow. They continued down a small road, passing a few men wearing overalls and an old woman carrying a basket of clothes before coming to a stop in front of a dirty complex of many interconnected apartment houses. The structure was quite dilapidated, infused with a hodgepodge of materials—wood, clay, and bricks.
It was his living quarters. A place he had moved into quite recently, a place without too many attachments, but still a place to call home. For the moment, that is.
Kyn approached the third door on the right, stepping up a few makeshift stone steps and reaching into his back pocket to take out a dull metal key. He swirled it around his index finger a few times before glancing back at Idi.
"This is where you'll stay for the time being," he spoke quietly, knowing from experience that a loud voice only attracted trouble. "You remember the rules I explained earlier at Denny's, right? No need for me to repeat myself?"
Idi nodded. Her features were haggard, but despite her exhaustion, her eyes held a silent curiosity. A question was forming on her tongue, one that she had likely rolled around in her mouth for a long time now.
"I... was wonderin'," she ventured carefully.
"Go ahead."
She fidgeted. "I get the stuff about ratwork and findin' info, but I don't understand the part 'bout your brother. You said he's been like in this way for a long time." She raised her head.
"...then how'd ya get by earlier?"
Kyn twirled the key around his forefinger.
"There was a woman who helped out as a semi-babysitter. She took care of him."
"But where's she now?"
"Dead."
"Oh..."
Kyn turned away, "So as I was saying before," he tapped his foot on the ground. "I want you to report to me on every errand I send you on as well as anything that happens with my brother." He gazed her down. "Be very transparent with me, no bullshit, alright? I can usually see through that."
"Yeah, I know." Idi did not backtrack into the previous topic of conversation. Sensible.
He nodded. "Remember, this a two-sided relationship. If you help me out and do as you're told, I'll be more willing to help you out and even find you some contacts for a more permanent residence. If we don't cooperate, however..." he trailed off, "Well, I'd rather not have that happen."
Idi bristled slightly, "I know what I signed up fer."
Ky raised an eyebrow, "Then I suppose we'll be well-acquainted with each for the duration of your stay then." He reached toward the door and slid the metal key into the lock, jingling it a few times before he felt the soft click at his fingertips. Placing his palm against the bark of the door firmly, he prepared to push.
"Let's go in."
It was a crash that Kyn first heard, followed by a slight ooph. Once the door swung fully open, Kyn was greeted by a boy sprawled on a straw mattress pile, straggled arms flailing about for balance with a few fallen books strewn around him. The boy stopped his momentary struggle the moment Kyn entered his vision, and he tilted his chin with almost too much leisure considering his predicament, eyes glazed and smile wide.
"Kyn's back." he murmured happily, smile stretching even wider as a goofy blissful expression entered his face. "You're back."
Upon that utterance, Kyn felt some of the tension within his muscles dissipate. He breathed, "Cadel."
His little brother's complexion was pasty pale, a product of the lack of sunlight he received, and his terribly uneven haircut—the disastrous brown masterpiece performed by Kyn—was frayed, some clumps matted and others sticking up, the staticy ends searching hopelessly for places they could attach to. He was thin, bearing the same soft sloping jaw and high cheekbones as Kyn. Nothing particularly special in aesthetics, but what marked him apart from others were his eyes.
One blue and one green. They were both bright in color, clear and unmuddled by other pigments, but so jarringly discordant with the general population that they were more often a curse than a blessing. Funny—the boy was actually instinctively talented in utilizing chroma for both colors, but he was never given a chance to prove himself in front of others because of his mental condition.
What a pair Kyn and Cadel were, both unable to better their positions with chroma, one hindered by physical limitations, and one hindered by societal limitations
Kyn raised eyed Cadel. "What are you doing in a fallen pile of books?" he asked softly, though he already knew the reason.
"Was sitting on the desk...before." the boy spoke, ending his sentence there.
Kyn beckoned, "And..?"
"Excited to see you" The boy paused. "...it just happened." he furrowed his eyebrows, confused.
Kyn sighed. "Did you forget again?"
Cadel blinked. "What?"
"That you shouldn't climb up on the desk or tall bookshelves while I'm gone."
The boy tilted his head. "Oh."
Kyn shook his head. Cadel always loved to sit on higher altitudes—desks, or tables, or anything he could climb onto—and surprisingly he maintained good balance wherever he went, that is, until he got excited. His motary functions then were a mess, and the result could only equal one thing: falling. It was why Kyn always told Cadel never to sit on tall surfaces while he was away, but no matter how many times he repeated his instructions, the boy always seemed to forget. His habits were stubborn.
However, Kyn possessed an inkling that Cadel sometimes just pretended he "forgot" in order to circumvent Kyn's orders, that Cadel purposefully ignored the question, pretended it didn't exist, because he didn't want to stop. And Kyn couldn't very well tie his brother down while he was away, so by now, he had given up on truly trying to convince the boy, instead just employing necessary precautions, like padding areas with cloth and straw that the boy could potentially fall on.
And so, Cadel had won in this little victory. He adhered virtually to anything else Kyn said, but he kept consistent with this one thing, all the while not actively showing disobedience or petulance.
He was a smart boy after all, just subtle in different areas.
Cadel blinked very slowly. He pointed behind Kyn, "Who's that?"
Idi stiffened. She was very close, and Kyn could feel her breath hitch slightly.
"She is Idi," Kyn addressed Cadel calmly, smiling. "A friend. She is going to stay in this house for a few months."
The boy tilted his head slowly. Confusion flashed across his face, then quickly followed by an explosion of anxiety. He jerked and clutched the hem of his shirt, fingers tightening slightly as his pupils dilated. "I- I-"
"No, she is not here to harm." Kyn approached. "She is a friend. A friend."
"I..."
"A friend."
"A friend?"
"Yes, like Denny." He answered. "Like J, like-"
Kyn faltered. He almost said Martha. "Like a person who will be accommodating," he emphasized each syllable, "who won't hurt you."
Cadel stayed still, unmoving. He watched Idi with wide eyes, strangely sharp with a brittle keenness, almost glowing a little slightly with a hint of tension. His breaths were shallow yet slow. The moment slowed to a crawl.
And then Cadel unsteadily smiled.
His features relaxed, softened away from their jagged defense. He pushed himself from the ground, speaking at Idi who was still half hidden behind Kyn. "You are a friend," his voice was whispy, "Your name is Idi."
The girl seemed to still be frozen by the whole ordeal. Kyn nudged her with his elbow, and she started.
"...yeah," she replied. "It's Idi."
"Why are you here?"
The tone was not particularly derisive, but the content itself still made Idi tense. Kyn quickly spoke. "She's a friend of Denny, and the old man asked me to take her in for a while. You see..."
He lowered his voice mischievously as he were a narrator explaining an adventure, "She needs to hide from some gang members, so we'll protect her, right?"
"Gang members. Bad ones?"
"Yes, bad ones."
"Then we'll protect."
"Yes. We will."
And so, that was how introductions ended. Soon after Kyn had spoken those words, a strange look overcame Cadel, and the boy retreated into his usual mental recluse, eyes glazed and expression blank yet somewhat contented. This occurrence had been happening more often now, which worried Kyn, but for now he allowed Cadel to remain like that. Without Cadel distracting him at the moment, Kyn was able to get Idi and Maurice situated more quickly.
From Kyn's little tenement complex of a home, there were two rooms. The main room for the lack of decoration still provided the essentials: a table, and two stone slabs as makeshifts chairs, a shelve of books—the most expensive material comfort—and a kettle area where meals were cooked. Then, there was the small sleeping room about the size of a closet, separated from the main room by a thin wall door and a rusty doorknob. Kyn led Idi into the room, and in there lay two cots made of straw and stuffed cloth, one for Kyn and one for Cadel. He noted with satisfaction that there seemed to be just enough room to fit another.
Kyn allowed Idi to borrow his cot to sleep on for the time being, and the girl had fallen asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow. She was spent. Judging from the timing of Denny's letter and the location of the Rippers' territory, she must have been on the run for at least three days. Three days of constant vigilance, of constant fear, of constant adrenaline rushes. Even at Denny's, she couldn't have been completely safe with the constant influx of customers who would see her. She had slept a scant amount, maybe a few minutes at time before jerking awake to any potentially dangerous noise.
Kyn carefully watched the sleeping Idi. She was half curled, half splayed opening on the mattress, her arm wrapped protectively around Maurice. Her chest rose and fell every few seconds, a steady beat so contradictory to volatility of her life. She was what? ...Eleven? Three years younger than Cadel, but not in the least seeming mentally younger. She'd probably seen too much for her age, but then again, most children in the Lower Districts were ahead in that respect.
He tilted his head. Frankly, he was a little surprised that the girl trusted him to this degree that she allowed herself to fall into a deep sleep, but he supposed she had already reached her limit and was too overwrought to care by this point.
Kyn stood up, deciding that anymore time spent staring at the sleeping girl meant time wasted. He quietly made his way out of the small room, spotting in the corner a collection of random objects strewn about carelessly, among which was trinket possessing a plane-like construction. Among the small objects, it was the only one had not seen before.
A new edition, he realized. It seemed to be constructed of string and wood, the pieces carved clumsily yet holding a certain elegance Kyn couldn't describe. The rubber band-like string was wound to the tail, and based on its construction, Kyn assumed it would fly a couple feet in the air before it would its power.
It was one of Cadel's trinkets. Kyn often brought home different materials for his brother to fiddle around with, the boy built objects based on the stuff he was allotted—wind up toys, lockets, dolls. The whole process kept Cadel busy as both a mental and tactile exercise, and the result in itself was also quite enjoyable for Kyn. There was always something so endearing, so intimately heart-warming when Cadel lifted his newly finished toy, a triumphant smile on his face. It was a sight only Kyn got to see; it was something he called his own, something he only shared with his little brother.
And Cadel always showed Kyn his little inventions firsthand...but this time around...the boy didn't. He left his newly constructed object lying in the corner with older ones.
Kyn frowned. He exited the room at last to find Cadel sitting atop the table, head tilted back and mouth slightly open in a semi-dazed stupor. Kyn approached Cadel, making note to not hide his footsteps so that his little brother wouldn't startle when he got close. When he arrived next to Cadel, he stood there contemplating for a moment. He at last decided to talk about another topic before he confronted his brother, and he pulled out the pouch Denny had given him earlier.
"Hey, Cadel, Denny wanted to give you this medicine."
The boy turned toward Kyn and blinked slowly. "More...medicine?"
"This time, it's just physical supplements."
"...don't like medicine. I feel weird after, tastes bitter."
Kyn crossed his arms, "Now Cadel, are you really going to be picky about your food with me?"
"...no."
Kyn smiled, uncrossing his arms. "How about this? I'll make you something sweet tonight so that you won't taste the bitterness when you eat the medicine together with it. Sounds good?"
The boy's eyes brightened, "Good."
Kyn nodded in approval. He gazed at his brother, so young yet having grown so old. Cadel was already fourteen, older than Idi and many other children. Yet, he seemed purer in his simplicity at the moment, somehow unadulterated by other flavors of the Slums. Kyn reached out a hand to settle it on Cadel's brow. He gently brushed some stray hair back, fingers tracing the prominence of the boy's temple.
"I saw your newest invention. The plane."
Cadel didn't react at first. He just sat there, giving no inclination that he'd heard Kyn at all, until he slowly raised his head at last. "Oh."
"Why didn't you show it to me?"
The boy shrugged. "Didn't like it. Looked bad"
Kyn exhaled, "But Cadel, you know that I don't care how it turns out."
Cadel remained silent. Stubbornly so.
"What's wrong, Cadel?"
The boy looked down. "I don't know."
Kyn sighed. He was tempted to question further, but he knew he would have to take a different approach. He ran his fingers comfortingly through his brother's hair, the repeated motions loosening the tension in the boy's shoulders.
"Come on," he began, "Your hair's grimy; I think you need a bath."
It was a good thing that summer had not completely bled away into fall, for the last vestiges of the season kept the whole kingdom still mildly warm. Bathing was much easier as a result. Kyn grabbed a large metal bucket from the main room, in which lay a sponge cloth and bar of soap. He moved outside quickly, finding a hose attached to outer wall which most of the neighbor shared, and he filled the bucket to the brim. And came the journey of lugging the water bucket back inside—a task always worth much more than he bargained for—but at least by the time he arrived back inside, Cadel had undressed and climbed into a small wooden basin in the corner of the room.
Kyn set to work quickly, pouring water over the boy's scrunched form in increments, using the bar of soap and the washcloth to scrub back and forth as flakes of mud and loose hair came off the sponge. Cadel has grown again, he noted silently as he worked. The wooden basin used to be overly large for the boy, but now it was beginning to seem much more constricting, and the boy's knees jutted out awkwardly. Kyn tilted his head; Cadel had almost caught up to him in height. Granted, he wasn't the tallest person out there, but his little brother was really growing fast.
In many more ways than just height....
The bath seemed to have softened Cadel's edge, for by the time Cadel had gotten dressed again and was sitting beside Kyn on a mattress with his arm curled over his knees, he was more receptive to talk.
"I have...dreams lately."
Kyn beckoned for Cadel to elaborate.
"I'm sitting alone. In darkness, trying to make my..." the boy struggled to find the word, "...inventions." He paused, uncertain.
"Go on, you can continue Cadel."
"...but many monsters around me. I'm scared, and there's blood, lots of it..." Cadel scrunched his eyebrows, "And I can't see the monsters. It's too dark, and I'm scared." He trembled slightly, "But then I see a mirror, and when I look in it..."
Both his head and his voice dropped in altitude, "I'm the monster."
Kyn bit his lip, taking in the scared expression of his little brother. Unwanted thoughts surfaced suddenly, but Kyn pushed them away quickly. He wrapped his arms around the boy, feeling the tremor. "It's alright Cadel," he spoke, "You're not a monster. I'm telling you. You're Cadel, brother of Kyn, inventor of objects." He gazed up, "You're human."
Human.
"But..." Cadel squeezed his hands together, "Am I hurting people? Are my..." he struggled for the word, "-inventions... useless? Am I...filthy leech?"
Kyn blinked. "Where did you learn that phrase?"
"Donny and Jovey and Logan were..." the boy trailed off.
Kyn clenched his fists. Those goddamn kids...
The neighborhood boys always loitered together; some were strays, others had families—though not kin that particularly cared for them. They were all different in one way or another, but they had one thing in common: disgust for Cadel. Heavens, they didn't even know of Cadel's double pigmented eye condition—Kyn had ordered the boy to always go outside wearing an eyepatch since they moved to their new home—but they did know that he was mentally different than them, and they were very keen on making that known whenever they saw the boy.
When Kyn and Cadel first moved into the area, the kids had surrounded his poor little brother and were taunting him while Kyn was gone. As a result, it seemed that Cadel lashed out with chroma—thankfully with only the blue color that was uncovered by the eyepatch—and given them enough of a scare that they did not physically touch him anymore. However, their verbal harangue was just as potent, if not more.
Cowards, they were, though Kyn supposed he couldn't expect any better given their background. Everyone needed some sort of release in the Slums, lest they be crushed under the weight of the filth and indigence. The easy outlet was Cadel, a boy who was off in the head. How original. Kyn had given the boys a thrashing two weeks ago for ganging up on Cadel at the outhouse, the incident resulting in a few of their fingers broken, but it seemed like they were looking for another.
"Those kids are plain, stupid, you hear me? Next time you hear those things-"
"But what if they are right?" Cadel's voice was clearer and smoother than normal, somewhat ironic given his indecisiveness towards the topic of hand.
Kyn was still for a while, contemplating his next words. He rolled his tongue against the of his mouth. At last, he clutched Cadel's shoulders, looking his little brother in the eye. "So what if they seem to be right?"
"...I..."
"So what if the whole world is right, and you're the one person who can't fit into the puzzle?" Kyn continued. "You have me, don't you? I don't care if you're a goddamn monster; I don't care if you're a perfect human. What do I always tell you? If you're unsure about anything..." he trailed off, letting Cadel finish his sentence.
"...you'll always be my brother."
Cadel inhaled. His visage softened and he sagged slightly, the brittleness of his features disappearing along with the uncertainty of his expression. A smile surfaced, one that Kyn wished he could remember forever.
Kyn ruffled Cadel's hair as he stood. "Now enough of your negative thoughts." He pointed at the boy. "As I said before, I was going to make you something sweet tonight. You want to help me?"
"Yeah." No hesitancy there.
"Then let's get to work."
With that, Kyn pulled Cadel off the ground, the previous topic momentarily discarded. Together they retrieved the small bag of sugar, a rare luxury for them to eat, and dwelled on happier thoughts. But as for Kyn, he knew that eventually—eventually—the topic of conversation would be revisited and addressed once more. It was inevitable.
For now though, it was all good. He would enjoy his time with his little brother, relish in the soft normalcy and lack of hatred or danger, stay in this bubble for as long as he could. Kyn knew he still had his meeting with Jorge later tonight, but for these scant few hours, he could live them the way he wanted to. Everything was good.
He smiled at Cadel.
It was all good.
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Alright! Another chapter here once again :) Sorry btw for the slow-ass updates for anyone still reading this. There's been a lot of school work lately, and these chapters take a lot longer time to organize than The Tower's Secret. I've been running into a lot of unexpected plot holes, forcing me to delete my work and redo it to fit stuff happening in the future. So just for warnings, you may be seeing some changes to characters and backgrounds (I'll notify you all) of previous chapters. Hopefully it doesn't come to that, lol.
Anyways, please let me know what you think of the pacing of this story (too slow?). This chapter is less action and more dialogue because it's character introduction, but I hope I portrayed Cadel well enough. Do tell me if some parts feel inconsistent :) Next chapter will be a lot of exciting stuff, hehe! I have it all written out, but I'll still need a huge ton of editing.
Thanks for reading!