A/N: Sorry that it's been so long since the last update for this, but I managed to pull out a chapter. Whoop whoop! Hopefully it lives up to expectations! I'll try my best to keep my updates more regular from now on (even if work might get a bit crazy!) Give me some feedback on how the characters are developing, and I would absolutely LOVE some of your thoughts on Kane and Sirius' friendship. Happy reading, y'all!
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Kane flung the door to his house open wide, shocking Sirius— who had, in fact, been decorating Kane's sofa— enough that the star spun over, effectively rolling himself onto the floor with a thump. He lay there twisted up, groaning slightly before shifting to face up at the ceiling. "No warning at all? You busted in here like you were going to rob the joint... could've at least knocked."
"Except for the fact that this is my house, and you're the one who actually broke in." Kane leaned casually against the door frame as Sirius picked himself up off the floor.
"Details, details." Sirius brushed himself off, then smugly added, "Plus it's not breaking in if you use a key. Like perhaps the spare one you hide up in the porch light?"
"How do you even know about that?" Kane muttered lowly, eyes narrowed in displeasure. Would Sirius ever learn? "I have to find a new hiding place for that," he groaned, rubbing at the side of his head with a low sigh of exasperation.
Sirius sat back on the couch and motioned for Kane to join him. "Isn't it a bit too earlier for you to back from work anyway?" he asked as his friend begrudgingly trudged over and flopped down on the cushion. "You usually don't get back here until night begins to fall."
Kane nodded softly in agreement. "Today's been a long day..." he answered with a vague wave of his hand.
Sirius turned and leaned forward toward his friend, a curious glimmer alighting those ruby red eyes like a searing brand. "Don't give me that," he scoffed, "I demand a proper explanation."
Kane gave a smile, but the expression held all the confliction held him back from making a concrete decision. "You haven't heard about the mines?" He decided to start at the root of the problem.
The star gave his head a small shake, eyes downcast in thought. "No... what happened?"
"Someone broke in. The Overseer refuses to give details, but another source told me that our moonstones were corrupted. There's going to be an investigation," Kane's words started to blur into one another as he spoke, and the boy hardly even breathed in his rush to explain.
Sirius' dark brows knit together as he considered what Kane told him, but he didn't seem to question the validity of Kane's claims. Rather, it seemed another aspect of the story had caught his attention. "Another source?"
Kane pressed his lips tightly against each other, letting out a soft breath through his nose. "Sirius, have you ever met a god or goddess?" he asked simply.
The Peculiarity inhaled sharply, shoulders tensing— a strange reaction for the usually calm and carefree Sirius. "Beings like them only care about two things in this world: themselves and their power," he snarled, lips twisted in disgust and twitching with rage.
"Sirius...?" Kane kept his tone as level as he could muster, but the intense reaction he'd been given concerned him. It wasn't like Sirius at all to be so worked up.
The star's expression softened slightly, and he cleared his throat as he turned his gazed back on Kane. "To answer your question plainly— yes, I have, but they only act in their own best interests." He ran a hand back through his inky hair and ruffled it, chewing on his lip as he drew out his pause. "Don't tell me..." Sirius frowned, staring his friend down. "One of them?"
"The Lady of the Moon," Kane whispered, averting his gaze from his fuming friend.
"What did she want from you?" Sirius insisted, raising his voice even louder after each word until he was practically growling.
"Help protecting someone important to her..."
Sirius drew out a long sigh, clenching his hands in his lap to fight back whatever ill it was that he battled in that moment. "Who?"
"I—" Kane turned his eyes back on Sirius, almost challengingly, the deep rugged brown boring into pools of red. He steadied himself mentally, the quiver falling from his voice completely. He needed to be resolved. His was his decision after all, and while he could accept Sirius' advice, the Peculiarity's biases shouldn't dissuade him from what his conscience, though undecided, told him to do. "A child of hers, I believe," he said finally, "A girl. She mentioned that the impurity in the moonstones affects them as well, and this daughter more likely to be influenced than the others." He placed his hands at his side, pushed up, and jumped to his feet. "It sounds like she's in real danger... Someone out there really wants to hurt the girl to get at Lu."
Sirius cringed as Kane used the goddess' true name. "What does any of that have to do with you, Kane?" he huffed, "You're clean, no part of this madness has touched you! Why get involved?" The star stayed rooted on the couch, peering up at Kane as if idiocy was something contagious and Kane was subject one.
"That's precisely why I can help... I don't have a moonstone."
Sirius blinked at this for a moment, softening his features as the realization hit him. "Damn it, you're right..." He pressed a finger against his lips, a faint tsking sound escaping. "Moonstones are easy to track with access to proper equipment."
Kane nodded, grinding his teeth together. "I still don't know what to do. This is sticky business, but someone's life is on the line..."
"So that means you should throw yourself out on the chopping block too?"
Kane shot his best friend a frustrated glare. "You know what I mean... If I can help, why shouldn't I say yes?"
Sirius leaned back into the sofa again and gave a laissez faire shrug, though he still looked rather irritated from Kane's perspective. "Self-preservation isn't a good enough reason for you?"
Kane's lips curved up in a weak grin. "It isn't wise to decline a request from a celestial being as a mere human..." He licked his lips as a faint memory surfaced in his mind. When he had been young, there had been a woman by the name of Irina, a rather beautiful woman who had worked under his mother. But unlike the other priestesses who maintained the moon goddess' shrine, Irina's devotion was called into question. She was visited by the goddess herself in her dreams, not uncommon for priestesses, and instructed to pledge herself once again to the goddess and to take a binding oath to never again place herself amongst those with heavenly domain. Suffice to say, when Irina broke this promise, her youth was taken from her and she was forced to live out her remaining days as an elderly beggar, depraved and abhorred by the community. Her story in mind, Kane continued, "Earning a goddess' favor is nothing to take lightly."
"Stop preaching at me, Kane. I get it," Sirius groaned. "I'm allowed to be a concerned friend. I don't want you going out and being reckless. You really need to think this through."
"I am," Kane promised, letting out a short awkward chuckle. "I've been doing a lot of thinking."
"So it's not just air up there!" the star announced in his usual bright demeanor, "Thank the gods for that— I was starting to get worried!"
Kane narrowed his eyes as he snatched a pillow up from the couch and flung it down against his friend's face. "You're an asshole— you should be thanking the gods that you're like a brother to me or you'd be out on your sorry ass."
"Ahh," Sirius knocked the pillow to the side and puffed softly, "I can feel the love just radiating off you!"
Kane ignored that comment, rolling his eyes with a faintly amused grin. "I'm going to sleep on everything that's happened today. Maybe it'll give me some perspective?" he mused. "Wake me up if you really need me. Not for anything stupid like last time, okay?"
The star mocked insult as he piped back, "My personal boredom is stupid? That one burns, my friend."
"You're a star, Sirius," Kane shot back, "You can take the heat." He headed toward his bedroom with a smirk, shaking his head at how quickly Sirius could change his tune. Fuming rage to friendly banter just like that— but his friend's opinion was one he still regarded highly and it gave him more to consider in making his decision. Either way, a yes or a no, Kane knew that his answer would change his future, but what he wondered was whether the path of the light or that of the dark would take claim to his destiny. Only time would reveal his fate, and in a world so numbed to its passing, time often seemed endless. How long would it be that he had to wait to know his role in the grand scheme, as unlike most Lujeini, Kane was living with a time limit— like a ticking clock strapped to his chest, counting down to his inevitable expiration. He couldn't wait forever.