"Are you still assured of your decision?" Naaek asked Anya as she entered his lab. He'd demanded every member of the future team to come get the equipment, but apparently the others had more important things to do. Even Amarillis, so eager to give Anya no time on her own, had suddenly said she'd needed to be elsewhere.
"Yes," Anya nodded, hoping the agitation twisting her guts after Daphne's exclamations at the meeting wasn't that obvious on her face.
"Well, I have no right to convince you otherwise."
Since Anya was in the room, her eyes were constantly running over the numerous papers: hundreds of folders, old books, parchments and boxes with inscriptions of every language Anya could and could not recall seeing before. How many artefacts costing totally how much money were here?.. she mused. She also noticed a few inscriptions resembling scrollwork of the map—those ones were definitely brought straight from Da'Ariya.
Classical music was quietly playing in here, lulling Anya's mind, and her anxiety soon let go of her. She shifted her gaze to the wall picturing the forest. Did it really smell like conifer in here? Anya sniffed the air. Yes, it did! Incredible.
"Your job must be interesting," she said, watching Naaek sort out the crystals on the shelf.
"Oh, yes, I'm lucky to have a job that means life to me," Naaek's mouth stretched in a proud smile. Taking a big topaz in his hand, he blew the dust off it and went on, "As you humans say, medium solvar et inter opus*, right?" His eyes sparkled as the light of the stone reflected in them. "But that's not exactly why we are here."
I don't why I'm here, Anya thought. Among the daitias. What destiny, what way of providence brought me to you?..
Leisurely crossing the room, Naaek stopped by another shelf. The first thing Anya saw there was a beautiful belt with crimson gems encrusted in it, and she found herself slightly disappointed, when Naaek's hand slid past the belt and grabbed a set of colorless clothes instead.
He handed the clothes to Anya, "These will keep you warm during nights and cool during days. The tropical weather can be capricious, so I suggest you wear the gear under your normal outfit. It's absolutely invisible and you wouldn't even feel in on your skin."
Anya stretched out her hand to take the clothes, but hesitated. The fabric seemed so thin and gauzy, she was afraid to ruin it with a mere touch.
Amusement crinkled the edges of Naaek's eyes. "It's as strong as the diamond, believe me. Works like earth layered clothing, or the same way at least, but with our technology—the nanocrystal photons."
"Have no idea what it is," Anya admitted, embarrassed for her ignorance, "but thank you."
Disconcerted, she looked over his shoulder at the other things on the shelf. There was also an object, similar to a pocket mirror, but with a round black adri in the center. "Have you brought all of those from Sutāla?"
"Of course not. The portal cannot stay open all the time," Naaek shook his head, his gray hair swaying. "We took only the most important supplies. This," he pointed at the gadget, "we manufactured after we arrived. Thankfully, there was plenty of time."
To Anya's delight, the belt she'd been so fascinated with soon was in her hands. It was woven of some sort of a smooth silky lace, shimmering in the light, its crimson stones were dark and shady inside, but once Anya's finger traced over their facets, they twinkled.
"This is called a hyper-gravitational waistband," Naaek said matter-of-factly. "When the almandine adris are activated, it protects you from external impacts."
"Like solar radiation or toxic rains?" Anya frowned, the agitation tightening her stomach again. Even the forest breeze wasn't much help.
Naaek's expression clouded over. "From those too, no doubt, but that's not what you should be worried about. As I've said at the meeting, we don't know how our ancestors ensured the book's safety. The energy field these crystals create around your body," his chin inclined toward the belt, "will protect you from all kinds of bullets, arrows, poisoning gases..."
Anya swallowed hard as Naaek was ticking off on his fingers.
"...Unfortunately, the almandines are very wayward stones. They run down quickly and take long time to recharge. Use them wisely and only if there is no other option."
"And how do they recharge?" Anya asked, pushing her dismay away. Maybe, Daphne was right to argue about the earthling's involvement in the mission? The daitias had been at war, they knew how to handle a sword and, for sure, they knew how to use all these technologies. But Anya? Best she could probably do was to run away.
A sudden thought tickled at the back of Anya's mind. What if Daphne wants to send me back home not because she hates me—she practically has no real reasons to hate me, right?—but because she's trying to keep me safe?.. Or, not.
"The usual," Naaek said, "from the sunlight, earth power or wind energy. The almandines find the source themselves."
In the middle of the conversation, Klliss strolled through the doorway, irritated. He was carrying a backpack of the colors only Rill could find matching.
"Amarillis passed this along," Klliss grumbled and foisted the pack off on Anya. "And when you meet your girlfriend, please," he ran his freed hand through his hair, irk plain in his motion, "tell her that next time I'm not going to serve as her courier."
"Okay," Anya stared at the backpack in her hands, frustrated. "And where is she exactly?"
"Talking to her sister."
"Rill has a sister?"
Klliss ignored the question. He adjusted a pencil behind his ear, spun on his heel and walked off to the shelves. A moment later, he was already flipping through the pages of some notebook, his bearded face pensive.
Naaek chuckled at his colleague. "One last thing," he turned to Anya. "There are only four fomoires on Earth as far as we're informed, but don't underestimate our enemy."
He unfolded a piece of cloth lying on the table next to them, and Anya saw the gleam of a blue blade. "Is that... a dagger?" her throat convulsed.
"Its' a dirk, to be precise. Any human firearms and weapons are useless against the fomoires if they have healing crystals." Naaek paused, rubbing his creased forehead. "The cobalt zastri, on the other hand, is forged with sunklit dust. Nothing but time—long and painful—can mend the injury caused by it."
"But I... I've never held a dagger... a dirk... anything like that in my hands in my whole life!" Did Naaek really believe she might need this? "I have no clue how to use it!"
"You'll be amazed with the potential of your body once something threatens your life," Klliss drawled, leaning against the wall. His eyes narrowed as they met Anya's. "But you also should keep in mind that the fomoires rarely use weapons. They prefer more exquisite ways of handling their foes." A humorless laugh escaped him, "They speak. They manipulate. They make you fall for their lies, and then they use you against your own people."
Naaek glanced at Klliss, nodding. "Alas, that's quite true. If you face Leir or his ilk, Anya, do not ever listen to them," his eyes, too, settled heavily on her. "You can still change your mind, stay here."
"No." An unwavering flame of determination flared in Anya's chest suddenly. She couldn't stay, she realized, she had to help the daitias, vanquish the fomoires—that was her way. Beside Nikk, and Rill, and everyone else—that was her place. Anya closed her firm hand around the hilt of the dagger. Enough of staying behind. From now on, I choose my destiny, no one else. "I never change my mind."
*
As she obtained what the daitias considered the set of essentials for traveling around the world, Anya left the lab. She needed to see Rill, for all she had were her ripped jeans, an old t-shirt and two of Amarillis's dresses, and those were barely suitable for the upcoming mission. Also, deep inside, Anya harbored a hope to repair her cellphone. And who could do it better than Eirney, the gadgets-lover?
"Do you know where can I find Eirn?" Anya looked at Klliss who walked out of the room right after her.
"When I gave him the navigator, he was going to grab lunch," Klliss said without turning his head, and disappeared around the corner of the twisting passage.
Lunch. Anya was confused for a moment, but then remembered that by 'lunch' the daitias meant visiting the garden or the orchards. That's where she was heading now, after bumping into Daphne with her eerie friends and leaving Rill's backpack in the room.
Meeting Nikk's sister had left a sour taste on the tip of Anya's tongue, a feeling of balancing on the edge of something impenetrable and devastating. And anger for Daphne's unreasonable despising.
Daphne hates me? I'll stick around just to see her queasy face then. Anya toyed with the idea on her way, taking a dark pleasure in it.
Following the red arrows of flowers, Anya soon was under the artificial sky of the orchards. It took her the better part of an hour to find Eirn's curls ensconced among the endless bushes behind one of the verandahs.
"Eirney, hey!"
His shoulders quivered at the unexpected sound, Eirn placed his hand behind his back, hiding something, but as he saw the intruder of his peaceful break, he instantly relaxed. "Ah, that's you." Anya saw a cigarette between his fingers.
"You can smoke?" Anya gawked at him. She realized she'd chosen the wrong words as a resentful spark flashed in Eirn's charcoal eyes.
"Why can I not smoke?" The gap between his eyebrows narrowed as he looked down at Anya. "I can build a supersonic jet, you know. You think smoking is more complicated?"
"I didn't mean it like that, sorry," Anya scratched her neck, baffled. "I just thought the daitias don't smoke at all."
"Why?"
"I don't know. Probably..." she sighed, glancing at the rosebush near her. That would sound stupid. "Okay, you want the truth? The whole world of yours seems so perfect to me, so righteous, it can't have a place for bad habits. The food, the air, the way you speak sometimes? Kelas is like heaven on earth," she flicked her eyes back to Eirn to see his mouth quirk into a derisive smirk. Yes, she sounded stupid. "Is Da'Ariya the same?"
Eirney made a face at the question. "This place looks like a heaven in your eyes? Your imagination must be really poor. No offence."
"None taken," Anya muttered, biting the inside of her lip.
He dragged on his cigarette, "Everybody around Kelas just pretends as if it's perfect, as if that's all planned to be. You think war with the fomoires is planned to be?"
"You can't predict everything."
"I believe you can, actually. You write all the possible and impossible outcomes, mathematically stabilize the proportion of impossibility with equation of—" He trailed off, seeing Anya's uncomprehending face. "Whatever. All I want to say is that sometimes we can do better." He turned to the lawn, releasing a ring of smoke. "And our world... Well, it's simply a science put into the right direction. Only the interface is crippled."
For an uncomfortable minute, they stood in silence, watching the emerald foliage fluttering in the breeze. From the corner of her eye, Anya caught the worried lines appear and disappear on Eirn's forehead. He was pondering on something, something troubling him.
"You see, over there?" Eirney pointed at a lilac bush a few yards away.
"The lilacs?"
"Look closer."
Squinting, Anya peered into the endless greens. The branches, the grass, the flowers, what? And then she saw it. A ginger cat idly stretching and playing with leaves. "How did a cat end up in here?"
"He tailed after one of our people," Eirn shrugged with a shoulder that was at Anya's eye level. "Lives here for twenty three years by now, and who know how long he's been roaming the streets of Vienna."
"Twenty three years?" Eirn's lying, Anya thought. The cat couldn't be old, he rather looked like a merry kitten. "No way."
Eirney chortled. "Yeah, that's what I'm saying. Shanga breaks all laws of nature. So why can't we?"
Anya failed to suppress a laugh. "Shanga? Like sour cream bread rolls?"
"He loves those." Eirn licked his lip, and Anya realized that he loved the rolls not less than the cat. "From time to time, someone brings him the dainty from a mission. At first, we wanted to send him back to the Austrian streets, but he definitely likes it in here."
As though to confirm the words, Shanga jumped and sprinted after a bee flying past him, his red furs vanished among the plants.
"Oh, I forgot again, it's a human custom—to share whatever's you having with whoever's around, uh?" Eirn pulled a pack of cigarettes out of his pocket and handed to Anya. "You want?"
"I don't build supersonic jets, and I don't smoke," the sarcastic answer rolled off her tongue. "As a matter of fact, I was looking for you for a reason." Eirney's eyes shone with curiosity as Anya was searching her own pockets for the broken phone. Finally, she found the wretched thing.
Eirney examined the gadget from every angle, captiously scraped one of the corners, and shook then it furiously in his hand. Under the network of cracks, the screen blinked, just for a second, and then his digital life was gone. "Throw this trash away."
"I can't. I need it. I'm worried about my father and—"
Eirney hissed, putting a finger to his lips. Heavy footsteps reached Anya's ears as someone entered the orchards. An annoyed shout ruined the stillness of surrounding nature. "Is someone smoking in here?!.."
"Oh hell, we'd better get out," Eirn stubbed out the cigarette on the sole of his boot harshly. "Before our overseer starts lecturing me, and you along." He dove into the bushes, beckoning Anya to follow. "Let's go."
Just like a cat a couple minutes ago, they lurked in the lilacs, waiting for the overseer—a woman wearing a green tunic that made it highly difficult to distinguish her from the trees—to walk past them, and then sneaked out through the wooden entrance doors.
They scurried into the main hall, blending in with people walking about their business, and only then Eirney's posture eased. "So, you're saying you need a new phone?" he whistled, his face carefree once again.
Anya tucked a strand of her rumpled hair behind her ear. "If you can find me a new one, I guess that's what I'm saying."
Erin grinned. "I can." Jogging along the passageways, he led Anya to his room.
As they were turning the fifth corner, Anya realized she didn't feel lost in the maze of Kelas anymore. Here, they passed the staircase to the Naaek's lab; there would be the corridor to the Astarta's compound... How amazing human brain works sometimes, learning tremendous things that seem impossible to memorialize... Human brain. And what about the daitya's brain then? Anya wondered.
"Come in."
She stepped at the threshold of Eirn's place and froze, abruptly forgetting all of her thoughts. The bed by the wall was only thing that suggested people could actually live here. All the rest looked more like an abandoned warehouse.
There was a giant cabinet stashed with what Anya would call a high technology trash—old monitors, broken radios, a pile of keyboards... Something resembling a fortune teller's glass ball, but with a ticking gear wheel inside, drew Anya's attention for a moment.
Of course, if you tried hard enough, you could find ordinary things, too. For one, there was a scientific magazine lying by the empty boxes of Chinese food on the desk. And, in the center of the room's chaos, a shining new billiards table was standing.
"How did get in in here?" Anya asked, measuring the width of the table and doorway with her eyes. Without breaking the wall, the table was impossible to drag in.
Eirn smirked. "I didn't. I wasn't joking when I said I could get past the security system," he said with a touch of pride in his tone. "Practically, I can transpassage right out of my room, but technically," he winked, "you know nothing about it."
"Fine, insurgent," Anya sniggered, folding her arms. "I know nothing if you get me a new cellphone."
"Right," Eirn snapped his fingers as he remembered about the phone, and bustled to the chest of drawers.
Almost an hour flew by, and Eirney was still rummaging around the room, sorting out his stacks, searching for the phone he promised. Bored, Anya studied two laptops—one with its wires-intestines spread around in disarray, another one simply with no screen—and a moneybox of the form of the Statue of Liberty. Next to them, small batteries were scattered, and an elegant silver cord with a pendant that was missing a gem.
"What is it for?" Anya craned her neck to have a closer look at the jewelry, puzzled. The size of the pendant was exactly as it was made for the crystal Nikk had recently given her.
Eirney reluctantly glanced over his shoulder at Anya, and went on ransacking, "It's for adris, to keep your hands free while using the crystal energy. I've got plenty of those, but I don't know where the stone of this medallion is..." his voice echoes as he peeked into the drawer. "And where's that damn phone!.."
An appealing idea presented itself to Anya, "Can I take it then?"
"It's yours. If you love collecting garbage."
Says the king of an electronics factory dump, she mentally replied and slip the cord into her pocket.
At last, Eirney fished out what he'd been looking for, and demonstrated Anya a brand new smartphone. "I'm an insurgent," he said handing it to her, "but you're deaf and blind at my mischiefs."
"Deal."
*
Marveling at her new necklace and woolgathering, Anya strode down the hall. She only returned to the moment of now, when she heard a startling exclamation behind her back. The next second, someone collided with her.
The lights exploded across Anya's field of vision, she stumbled backward, striving to stay on her feet.
"You alright?"
"What?" Anya moaned, blinking.
"Sorry, I thought you saw me," the blur before Anya slowly transformed, taking Rill's features. The daitian's big eyes were alarmed, her pink hair blown about her face. "How do you feel? You look disoriented."
"I am disoriented." Anya blinked once more, gathering her wits. Not for the first time, Anya chanced upon Amarillis. Is it some kind of karma? Will it never stop until I knock Rill off her feet or she knock me off mine?
"I've been looking for you everywhere, frankly," Rill smiled as she saw Anya recover from the shock. "Come, I'll give you some clothes for our journey."
Letting Rill draw her along the range of the identical doors, Anya said, "Klliss delivered me you backpack, thanks. He was just in time. Walking around the headquarters with a dagger Naaek gave me wouldn't have been a great idea."
"Pah," Rill shrugged the words away. "I doubt anyone here can be surprised to see a simple dagger. Was Klliss grumbling again about being my courier? He rebels every time..."
"Oh yes," Anya laughed as she remembered Klliss's irked face. "By the way, he said you were talking to your sister."
They stopped by the door with a red paper heart pinned to it.
"And you thought only Nikk's allowed to have a sister?" Rill tilted her head to one side, her voice teasing. She flung the door to her room open, "But my sister isn't in Kelas if that's what you're asking. She's home."
Anya let out an astonished breath as she witnessed the room. Evidently, Rill's life was as bright and colorful as her appearance. Every inch—the chest of drawers, the desk and even the floor along the walls—was covered with music boxes, souvenirs, photo frames and other tiny knick-knacks.
Three walls pictured a daisy meadow fading into horizon; the fourth one was a mirror, also with Polaroids and postcards pinned all over it. But what amused Anya the most was that every last thing seemed to be in order, to have its own place. Nothing like Eirn's mess.
"You wasted no time working on Earth, didn't you, Rill?" Anya forced her eyes to fix on a picture of the Eiffel Tower with the letter of a secret admirer.
The corners of Rill's mouth curled into an evasive smile. "You need to have fun even while you work if you don't want to find yourself driven insane one day."
In a smooth motion, Amarillis pushed the mirror aside, revealing a huge collection of clothes, male and female, of all colors, fabrics, and styles.
A distant concern crept into Anya's thoughts. If by 'some clothes', Rill meant all these clothes, I'm in trouble. It will take not even hours—days!—to try on each and every one. "Did you bring them from home?!"
"I'm not that crazy yet," Rill giggled. "You can say it's my hobby. I buy something everywhere I go." She reached out for a maroon dress with the embroidery of two golden dragons tangled in a wild dance. "One of my favorite. What do you think?"
"Well, looks beautiful, but... I'm afraid it'd hard to climb mountains wearing a dress."
"Don't worry, I'm not going to make you wear it." Rill waved her hand flippantly, the bracelets on her wrist chinking, put the dress back and snatched a bunch of folded tops and pants. "Here's for you. Try them on."
Inspecting shirts and blouses and pulling one of them on, Anya noticed Rill's curious eyes settled on her. Abashed, she cleared her throat, "Tell me about your sister. What's her name?"
"You just said it out loud. Her name's Tell. Tellerindis, actually, but everyone calls her just Tell. If you want to imagine what she looks like, think of me," Rill curtsied showy, never taking her eyes off Anya though, "but with a boring, more ordinary hair color. People often think we're twins. But we're not. Wait, I'll find some shoes for this tunic."
Amarillis ducked in the wardrobe. Anya barely stifled a laugh as she watched Rill digging through the gowns, finding hilarious carrot orange sandals decorated with glass beads, whooping in surprise and quickly throwing them back.
"Me and Tell, we've been working in AmaraVrāti parks. Mmh, you should see those magical parks one day..." Rill went on, a pitch of nostalgia in her voice. "Anyway, when the Elders were choosing people to go on Earth, I was obsessed about joining. But Tell was all against it. Nevertheless, I'm here as you see." She took a pair of glittering boots and showed them to Anya.
"Not my size."
"Really? Hm, I'm sure I have another."
"And what did Tell... tell you?" Surreptitiously, Anya carefully tossed striped bell-bottomed trousers back in the wardrobe. "How is it going there, on Da'Ariya?"
"The sun shines, flowers blossom, the fomoires act as though they're planning something bad." Rill emerged out of the wardrobe with a pair of sneakers in her hands, and suddenly stopped midway. "But you know," her face darkened, "Tell sounded a little... chagrined. Maybe, the fomoires are planning something bad this time? Like really bad?"
Anya wanted to ask what did Tell say exactly, but the next second a lively gleam flashed in Rill's eyes. "That's much better!" she clasped her hands at a sight of Anya wearing a beige top and simple tight jeans. "But if I were you, I'd choose something more vivid. No matter, now you're ready to explore the impassable jungles and fearlessly face any danger!"
"You're so excited as if you're going on vacation, how is that possible?" The question poured out of Anya, before she could stop herself.
Rill's shoulders stiffed, she pursed her lips. "You're surprised that I'm not running around, shouting that we're all doomed to die?"
"I'm sorry, Amarillis. That's not what I wanted to say." Anya cursed silently. How is that I lost the ability to communicate today? "I think I'm just jealous that I could never be as life-loving as you are. And I doubt that I will ever be. I see you and I literally become infected with your happiness."
"Thanks, I'm glad you are," the daitian offered Anya a conciliatory smile. "There's no secret, you just need to believe the world prepares the best for us."
Anya said nothing, afraid to spit out something offensive again.
Rill seated herself on the bed, on a pile of fluffy pillows, and went on. "I compare humans and daitias for a long time, and you know what makes them the same? They are all vulnerable to melancholy. People regret things that happened to them and happened not. Whatever the outcome, they're compelled there might have been better.
"Pick anything as an example. You miss the train, forget your keys, fight with your friend... Sounds terrible, yes? But what if it's just the opposite? You miss the train, but that train's crashed and you're alive. You forget your keys, and here's a reason to visit your parents. And fights only make your friendship stronger."
"We just don't know all this for sure," Anya prompted, still standing in the center of the room. "We hesitate and fear to make a mistake that we wouldn't be able to amend."
"Too bad, mistakes give birth to something unique and beautiful. Even the worst leads us to the best in the end." Rill looked into the mirror at Anya, her eyes suddenly serious as never before. "Promise me you will never let yourself be captured by a melancholy beast. Promise?"
Perplexed, Anya gave Rill an uncertain smile. "I'll do my utmost."
The sun over the daisy meadow on the walls was slowly, but steadily leaning to the ground, filling the room with the pink dusk light. After seeking for something in Anya's face for a long minute, Rill finally jumped to het feet.
"I think I'm making you tired of me. Enough for today." She made a shooing gesture, ushering Anya to the door. "Go have some sleep, early rising awaits tomorrow. Besides, I've got things to tent to before leaving. Now go."
Anya didn't know how she appeared to be back into the hallway, and the door slammed shut behind her.
"Good night to you, too," Anya whispered to the emptiness and shambled toward her own room.
Another mystery was Rill's words actually made Anya want to nap. Or she just didn't feel her drowsiness earlier?.. Who cares. Rill possessed the talent to inspire an intangible sense of calmness into one's soul. Anya could almost hear the echo of the daitian's voice singing her to sleep. And a sense of hope. Hope for the bright future, leaving not place for hesitations and fears to face any foes.
______________
*When I shall die, let it be doing that I had designed.