Taken aback, Koko stared back before she looked down.
“You’re welcome,” she said to the table. She daintily reached for her own cup and took a sip.
“You know,” I started, “where I’m from, this is called coffee. What’s it called here in Scintillion?”
Koko looked up. “Here, it is called nothing. The beverage isn’t native.”
“What do you call it?”
“Gahhwat: black wine of the crushed seed.”
I chuckled. “That’s a fitting name for a fine drink. If it’s not from here, how’d you get it?”
“The raw seeds are imported from my home world. Within the seeds are key ingredients needed for certain medicines on Scintillion,” Koko stated.
“You’re not from here?”
“No,” she replied.
“Hmm,” I murmured as I cradled the warm cup. “Does that mean you and your mother moved here, then?” The woman introduced herself as Charna, if memory serves correctly.
Koko ran her finger along the ridge of her cup, bunching her lips slightly. “My mother has been here for some time. Seven years have passed since she found and brought me here.”
“How does that… Oh, so she’s not your real mother?”
“She is my mother. Not my birth mother, but my nest mother.”
It should’ve been obvious since she looks nothing like Charna. Koko’s hair is a deep, wine-red that darkened near the tips, while Charna’s was raven-black. The same applies to their reptilian appendages. Where Charna had horns, they were vacant on Koko. The last stark difference was their eyes; Charna, a deep, dark-violet; Koko, a sharp crimson.
“Your mother, your birth mother, what happened to her? If I may ask?”
“Her and my sisters were killed,” Koko said without preamble. “Our world, Ioveterra, was invaded by a Null army. It ravaged several continents, cost the lives of hundreds of thousands, and wiped away many cities, but my people won the war they started. Ioveterra, while horribly scarred, still stands.”
I stared blankly at her while taking that in. “And how did you come into Charna’s care?”
“Ioveterra is allied to Scintillion. They offered a massive army, Mother being the commander of the battalion sent to what was my region. Once the ashes settled and the living were separated from the dead, she found me as a fledgling. Predominantly, a fledgling without a nest is left to die, but a nest mother’s power is represented by size. It is uncommon, but not unheard of for nest mothers to adopt daughters from other nests if they are worthy. Either by circumstance, trade, or force.”
Koko calmly took a sip from her cup, looking unperturbed as if she stated distant history instead of a horrific life experience in a cold and level tone. She said nothing more and a silence befell us.
“My condolences to your mother and sisters,” I said to her.
Koko stared into her drink and didn’t comment.
Memories were kicked up when she mentioned the fate of her kin. Time may have eased her heart over the loss, but the distance in her voice was one I couldn’t shake off.
My mind wandered back to home, my parents. The falling feeling returned, as if passing the first drop of a rollercoaster and all my organs compress into the pit of my stomach. I looked out the window, the effulgent sun chasing away the dark thoughts, warm memories taking form from the radiance of the day and the fragrance of good coffee.
“Do you miss them, Koko?” I asked suddenly.
She stared at her rippling reflection in her cup.
“I don’t know,” she admitted after a short while. “Too long since I’ve thought of them last.”
“That can’t be,” I said softly. Koko’s ruby gaze met mine. “There’s always something, even if it’s small and insignificant, it’s there.” I looked out the window again and let out a sad sigh. “I loved doing this with my parents,” I said, raising my cup. “Most mornings, we’d wake up together, have coffee, and just talk. There’s nothing I really remember from the talks, other than it was just mundane stuff. But I loved it nonetheless. As we got older, we had less and less time together, so that little company became all the more special.”
An old memory was relived and I laughed.
“My parents needed coffee to start their days. There was one morning where I got curious as to why they drank it so damn much. Took a bit of pestering, but I got my dad to give me some when I was eleven. So bitter that I almost spewed it from my mouth. ‘You’ll love it once you’ve manned up,’ my dad said through his laughter. I learned to like it, to be like him. Like both of them. Strong and tough like my father; wise and caring like my mother. Coffee always reminds me of them.”
I swallowed hard and fought the heat building in my eyes. Just when I thought I could handle myself, the grief would begin to resurface.
“When…” Koko muttered quietly. She ran her fingers around the brim of her cup as she composed herself. “When summer would end, we—my mother and sisters—would go to a village in the mountains where gahhwat seeds grew and help the locals with the harvest. We would travel in the cool dawn, work till the sun traveled across the sky, and then return home under a starry blanket, bags filled with our share of the harvest’s yield. Upon returning home, we would roast and grind the seeds together, and then enjoy our first cup of the harvest. Together. My eldest sisters always traveled back for that annual occasion. That one moment, every year, was when we were the absolute closest.”
“Was it fun?”
The tip of her tail moved back and forth slightly. And, for the first time since I’ve met her, Koko smiled. “Yes.”
Her smile was so radiant that I couldn’t help but match her. For several long moments, we just stared at each other, smiling.
Koko’s pointed-ears twitched. She jumped to her feet, nearly shattering her cup when she replaced it on the saucer. Her face became a blank slate and she turned towards the door. Moments later, it opened and Charna welcomed herself in with another woman trailing her.
“Oh, this is a pleasant surprise,” Charna said, flashing me a sharp smile.
She donned another blood-red dress, a different style than the one yesterday, but it worked just as hard to accentuate her feminine aspects, especially her cleavage.
Behind her was another dragon-beastkin. Her short-cropped black hair, purple eyes, dark horns, and charcoal scales on her tail and wings told me she was Charna’s blood daughter. And, just like her mother, she was as equally enticing. While lacking some volume in her hips and bust, her body had pert contours that would make any man drool. But, just like her mother, she had a smile that gave off an almost malicious intent. She wore a black blazer edged with white trim over a white blouse that had the first few buttons undone, exposing her modest chest in the same style as her mother. The black skirt she wore was more of a long belt than anything, exposing much of her thighs before her stockings covered the rest of her long legs.
Her tail swished behind her as she cocked her head, her eyes avidly drinking me.
“What a happy coincidence,” Charna chirped. “I thought you were going to be talking with the Grand Mage for much longer. Well, this is a perfect opportunity to introduce you to my other daughter.” She reached behind the girl in question and nudged her forward by the small of her back. “Al, meet Aleih.”
I stood and approached the pair. “Hello,” I greeted, offering my hand.
Aleih took my hand, but instead of a shake, she tenderly caressed my fingers. “Hmm, you’re right mother, he’s handsome.”
“…thanks.” The comment didn’t shake me, the look attached to it did. I imagined I knew what a lamb felt when comes face to face with a hungry wolf that snaked under the fence.
Her amethyst gaze lingered, roaming from head to toe and back, then they looked past my shoulder and narrowed. “Serving our sacred guest that mud-water of yours, Kokoliniasta?” she asked, approaching her sister. Aleih grabbed Koko’s cup and sniffed it, making a contorted face of disgust. “You should know better.
So useless,” she muttered spitefully under her breath.
Koko clasped her hands tightly together, her shoulders slouching down as she lowered her head. “Forgive me.”
A pang of anger flared in my chest. I crossed over to them in a few heavy steps and wordlessly took the cup from Aleih. The coffee had plenty of time to cool, so I downed it all in one gulp, making a satisfied sigh once I finished. “I happen to love this mud-water. I’m grateful for Koko being so kind as to share it with me.”
Aleih looked flustered, shooting a nervous glance towards her mother. “Is that so? Pardon. Perhaps I lack the palette.”
Charna cleared her throat, putting herself at attention. “Al, what are your plans currently? Interested in talking to any of the academy heads, or, perhaps, me?” She flashed her white teeth.
“I only planned on talking with the Grand Mage and Julika today. I don’t mean to be rude. The only other place I planned for was the library.”
“No need to feel obligated; ease into things as you wish,” Charna said. She moved closer to erase the distance and set her hand on my shoulder. “Al,” she said, lowering her voice, “do you think you could spare my precious daughter for a few moments? We just need to have a small… family talk.”
Her touch sent tingles down my spine and I swore she was pushing her chest out for me, making it very hard not to stare down her cleavage, or did she want that?
“Uh, s-sure,” I said. Charna’s hand lingered a few seconds longer before she stepped aside. I turned to Koko. “I’ll be outside, then.”
Koko dipped her head slightly. I let myself out and leaned against the wall, my heartbeat a little elevated. Charna was painfully beautiful, but there was something else there. A presence, I suppose. It was like staring at a shark through glass; you know you’re not in immediate danger, but you can’t shake off that primal, animalistic fear. The same applies for Aleih. A real femme fatale vibe from the two of them.
Eva emits a similar vibe. Time with her had made me feel less intimidated, though I know full well how capable she is. Seeing her train back at her home proved as much. She can whirl knives with precision at targets twenty feet away. Equipped with a longbow, she can nail hay bales with arrow groupings the size of a fist at a hundred yards.
This world feels like it's somewhere between the 1600s and the 1800s with technology and architecture, but social standards are fairly modern. The Arms of Earus and the various academies take people from all walks of life. Gender, race, nationality, species, none appear to matter in the whole scheme of things.
The Null is a common threat to all life, so it makes sense that people would drop any prejudices.
But I may be speaking too soon. I’ve witnessed how people treat Neepa. With a diverse array of people coexisting, there’s bound to be some clashing.
Minuets passed and the door finally opened. Charna stepped out with Aleih.
“Till next time, Al,” Charna said in her breathy voice. Aleih flashed her serrated smile and waved her fingers at me as they passed. Koko stepped out last, closing the door behind her.
“Hey,” I said. “Is everything okay?”
“Yes.” Koko aligned herself back into the rigid manner from before. Her face reticent, and her gaze set to the floor. “Shall I take you to the library?”
“S-sure, but are you—”
And with that, Koko walked off ahead before my thought was finished. Her pace started so abruptly that I had to jog a few steps to fall behind her. Just as I was getting some insight to her character, Koko was miles away.
Maybe I was reading too much into it, but there was this lingering suspicion that she was upset. What did they talk about?
✽✽✽
Holy. Fucking. Shit.
After a long, silent walk through the academy, Koko lead me to a pair of seemingly nondescript double-winged doors set at the end of a long hallway. The doors offset my expectation of the grand library by how plain they looked, but as soon as Koko pushed them open, my jaw dropped. Lucinia’s library put the one at my university to shame. Perhaps even the Library of Congress.
I walked across the mirrored wood, my gaze panning around slowly, taking in the vast space of arcane knowledge. The railing stopped me from succumbing to a tremendous drop. A central court cut through several levels deep into the earth, and several levels skyward that gave way to a glass dome that welcomed the sun’s ethereal light into the open air. Two central switchback staircases allowed access to the different levels; one staircase a ways down my left, the other built directly across the court on the other side.
It was the Library of Congress times infinity plus one.
Koko watched me from over her shoulder, annoyed at my prolonged admiration of the space. I fell into step behind her, careful not to get too distracted by all the various books, shelves, scrolls, paintings, statues, and the people we passed. The task proved to be more challenging as frescoes of epic imagery enchanted me more often than not, as well as the other patrons.
Very diverse, I thought while seeing new species.
More beastkins with animalistic traits that ranged from various ears and tails that just looked like costume accessories, to full blown bipedal animals. One woman was covered head to toe in fur, bearing an uncanny resemblance of a golden retriever while retaining very human eyes.
Her gaze, as well as several others, lingered on as I passed, and several more would look up from what they were reading to stare.
I waved awkwardly, receiving no waves in return. To spare myself from their looks, I turned to face a desk Koko brought me to and was greeted with a white wall of feathers. A towering bird stared down at me past its beak.
On reflex, I let out a startled shout and fell onto my butt. Then, all around me I heard an aggressive shush.
“No yelling in the library,” a female voice warned sternly.
In a strained gasp, I asked, “What?”
Koko stared down at me. “Gessi is asking you to mind your voice.”
“Who?”
The large bird creature craned its long neck over the tall desk it sat behind.
“Me,” it said in that icy voice. The bird’s deep, periwinkle eyes narrowed with a baleful look. “If you cannot do that, then I’ll be forced to remove you. Special guest or not, no one breaks the rules in my library.”
“S-sorry.” The beak this bird was sporting looked terrifying. It ended with a clip point that looked like it could shear through metal like a can opener. The beak also brought something to attention: this thing was talking to me, but its beak hadn’t moved at all.
The creature pulled back to give me space to rise. I bowed my head, and then apologized again. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to be rude. Um, how are you… talking… to me?”
Gessi cocked her head at Koko.
“His world knew nothing of magic,” Koko clarified, answering the bird’s unspoken question.
Gessi brought the wrist of her wing to the pink ribbon around her neck. Tied to the ribbon was a parakeet-green, kite-shaped gemstone. “This allows me to communicate with others via vibrations through the air.”
Like a voice box? Must be some sophisticated magic because this bird speaks with the same command as a proud business woman: orotund and penetrating.
“Uh, good to know. I’m Al, by the way.”
Out of habit, I offered my hand, realizing too late that it might’ve been a rude gesture for someone who doesn’t have hands. But, to my surprise, the large bird clasped my hand with an opposable nape near the end of her wing.
“I am Gessi, guardian of the library.” She withdrew her massive wing and trained her eyes on me. “Now, what business do you have?”
“Oh, yes, my friends.” I stood straighter to make myself presentable to the commanding creature. “I was wondering if they came here. They go by Eva and Neepa; one has a pointy hat and long, black hair, the other is blonde, looks angry.”
Gessi’s eyes softened considerably. “Ah, yes, I recall Neepa. So eager for knowl
edge; so many questions she had, constantly praising my library. A fine girl. Her friend didn’t utter a peep. A fine quality for a person.”
Either Gessi didn’t know of Neepa or she was above such frivolous thinking. Good to hear Neepa received fair treatment for once.
“Could you take me to them?” I did a slow one-eighty and took in all the sights again. “I can see myself getting very lost without some help.”
Gessi gave one big flap of her wings and hoped over the desk, revealing the rest of body. Snow white feathers made up the majority of her fluffy plumage, the feathers near her rear ending with black tips. She looked even taller once her long legs were revealed, putting her at a solid seven feet, perhaps taller if she craned her neck higher.
If I had to compare her to a bird, I’d say a shoebill stork. Her beak was identical to a shoebill’s, being yellow, large, wide, and ending with a drooped point. Her legs were jointed the same way too, but hers were much thicker, and her feathers grew over her legs, stopping hallway down her shins, where her dark-gray raptorial feet began. The toes were arranged in an anisodactyl arrangement: three toes in front with one in the back; each being tipped with a four-inch long obsidian talon. The promising destruction they carried would make a velociraptor jealous and terrified.
“I most certainly can,” Gessi chirped. “They should still be on the twelfth level.”
Koko and I followed our avian guide as she led us up the winding staircase, passing by hundreds of thousands of books with each floor. If I could read, it would take me several lifetimes just to get through one of the floors-to-ceiling stacks; there had to be at least twenty floors going up and down, maybe more for all I knew.
By the time we got to the desired level, my legs were cramping.
We winded through several aisles before we came upon an open seating area. Chairs, couches, desks, and tables were arranged tactfully in front of a long array of French-style windows, where just past them was a veranda with more lounging furniture. Oddly enough, the space was empty despite being so picturesque and free from distractions. The space carried fond memories of my favorite spot to study back at Melchizedek’s library.
Heart of the Resonant: Book 1: Pulse (Resonant Series) Page 23