by K. T. Hanna
Dom strides into the room, glancing at the doors as he passes them. “You really ought to shield better. You’re audible from the halls.”
Bastian’s expression grows distant for a moment, before returning to normal. “Done. Don’t think we’re through, Sai. You should have the confidence. You aced guidelines and theory.”
She glares at him. “I didn’t ace it. I worked my butt off!”
“You know what the rules are and about enforcing them. Speaking of which...” He motions to Dom.
“As of tomorrow, you have physical target practice with me.”
“Target practice?” Sai looks between them. “Why?”
Bastian raises an eyebrow in what appears to be mock-disbelief. “You honestly think defense is good enough? Just being able to defend yourself won’t suffice. Sometimes you may need to go further. For the safety of yourself and others, you might have to terminate your target. If you can’t act as a situation warrants, you’re worthless in your position as an enforcer.”
Sai balks. “What if I’d been required to do something like that yesterday?”
“That assignment was never going to be any real danger.” Bastian waves her away. “Begin training with Dom tomorrow at 0800. Attend your classes in the afternoon.”
Sai knows a dismissal from Bastian when she hears it and straightens her shoulders.
She turns to Dom. “I’m sorry about what I said the other day, Dom. I was angry. Don’t hold my words against me.”
He glances at her, an odd tinge to his golden eyes. “I would never hold your fears against you. Remember that.”
Sai nods and leaves the room. Some days, she doesn’t understand either of them.
Sai almost drops her tray of food when she turns to search for Nimue in the cafeteria and notices her sitting with Kabe and Deacon. Despite having classes with them for a couple of months now, she still doesn’t feel comfortable chatting to people.
“Morning, guys,” she forces the greeting out as she squeezes in next to Nim.
“Morning, Sai,” they chorus around mouthfuls of food, and Sai can’t help but smile.
Deacon glares at his tray. “We should get to sleep later than this.”
Kabe laughs around the bread roll he’s trying to cram into his mouth.
“Deacon doesn’t sleep very well.” Nimue smiles and bites her own roll.
He grunts at them both and concentrates on his food again.
“Got training first thing.” Kabe leans back and stretches his arms out. “You’re pretty lucky, Sai, you get to miss class a lot.”
“Not really.” She pushes her food back and forth on her plate. “I might get to avoid sitting in class, but I still have to do the work. And without class, it’s a lot harder.”
“Your mentor sends you out on assignments that take days?” Deacon asks incredulously. “I heard Bastian was harsh...”
Sai laughs. “He’s not that bad, but I never have a dull moment.”
Nimue makes a face. “Dull moments are sometimes nice.”
“What, and stare at your four walls?” Kabe pats her on the back. “It’s okay, Nim, we understand.”
“So what if I like some alone time?” Nimue replies a little hotly.
“Who doesn’t?” Sai mutters.
“See?” Nimue says triumphantly. “It’s a girl thing. You two wouldn’t understand.”
They all laugh, and for a few moments, it’s easy to pretend they’re normal teenagers about to start a day of school. The feeling wears off as they say their goodbyes and go their separate ways.
Sai shuffles back to her room, going over the conversation in her head. The feeling of acceptance doesn’t last long. Her skeptical side steps in to start questioning motives. She pushes the door to her room open and locks it behind her.
The hair rises on the back of her neck, and she turns quickly. “Dom!” She glances at the clock and frowns. “I thought we said 0800?”
He shrugs and leans against the bathroom doorframe. “We did. I’m early I thought I’d wait for you.”
She nods with some relief and chides herself for allowing the moment of unwariness. It could have been anyone who had a weird affinity with the doors in the facility. “I should have noticed you were there when I opened the door.” Sai dives into her closet to find the appropriate gear, popping her head out again when she realizes she hasn’t a clue what she needs for the morning. “Sparring? Lifting? Running?”
“Something good for all three will do nicely.” He leans back, stretching his arms out to prop him up.
“You’re strange today, Dom,” she says from inside the closet.
“What? Apart from being a domino?” His tone is mildly amused.
She shrugs and shoves some things into her backpack. “Every time I think I’ve figured you out, you evolve and come up with an entirely different response.”
“Evolve?”
Sai glances over her shoulder to see him pursing his lips, although the expression doesn’t quite work on his face. Despite taking on skin tone, there’s a sheen to him. Sometimes he almost seems beautiful. She laughs at his thoughtful expression. “See?”
“I think I do.” He stands up and flexes his hands. “Shall we?” he asks, but doesn’t wait for her to answer before opening the door.
She mimics his walk behind his back and laughs again. It’s the first time she’s actually looked forward to training of any sort. Maybe this whole Enforcer deal isn’t so bad after all.
Air expels from her lungs as she lands on her back with an undignified grunt. Whoever built the gym obviously lied when they said the floors were padded. She swears every landing finds a new piece of concrete poking through.
“Come at me like you mean it, Sai.”
Dom’s unending patience and inhuman endurance will probably be the end of her. She takes a few deep breaths and stands up, clutching the blade in her left hand. Being the one to initiate the attack has never been one of her strengths. She runs at him with full force. The only sound she makes is the whisper of her feet on the thinly padded ground.
Yet, she finds herself disarmed, rolled, and thrown to the ground—again. “How...” She rasps in a breath. “...the hell...” Another breath, this one more painful. “...do you keep doing that?”
“You took self-defense. You know perfectly well how to do this. In fact, if my information serves me...” He pauses, a grimace spreading over his face as he drops to one knee. One hand shoots out to balance himself.
“Dom?” She scrambles up and runs to his side, though she doesn’t dare touch him.
He doesn’t respond. The hand not supporting him is raised to his temple, motionless. Like a statue.
Sai takes a step back, her blade slightly behind her. He’s not moving, and she can see each muscle defined in iridescent beauty, shifting through every color it can find. For once, it even reaches his face. She watches, fascinated, as Dom blends into the color of the room, barely visible, and then back out to the opposite end of the spectrum. He’s never lost form in front of her like this before. Slowly, she backs up to the wall.
Just as her brain convinces her to fetch Bastian, Dom’s body shudders. His color solidifies and he shimmers, taking on the human appearance and complexion he always wears around her. Sai feels her cheeks grow hot as she wonders if everything about a domino can be molded and refined. But it’s a brief thought she pushes away in embarrassment. It’s none of her business.
Dom’s eyes flicker open, whirring in a pinwheel of color until they finally rest on gold. The pain fades from his face, and he pushes himself upright.
“Dom?” she asks softly, not wanting to startle him.
It takes a second for him to pinpoint her. He pulls his hand away from his ear and studies his fingers for a few moments.
“Did I...” His vocal chords are skewed, and the sound comes out hollow and metallic. He clears his throat, a nasty scraping sound. “Did I hurt you?” His face scrunches up, furrowing his brows.
She steps back toward him. “No. You just...stopped.”
“Anything else?”
“You...rainbowed.”
“Rainbowed?”
“Yeah—that thing where you get all domino-naked and take on every hue possible.” And hurt my eyes, she wants to add but doesn’t. He’ll have enough on his mind.
“Damn.” He says the word so softly it sounds oddly unlike him.
“Are you okay?” She steps a little closer wanting to reach out and wipe that strange and un-Dom expression off his face.
He looks at her and straightens completely. “Yes, I’m fine. That was just...unexpected. It happens.”
“I’ve never seen it happen.” She crosses her arms and stares at him.
“Despite your abilities, Sai, you don’t know everything.” They’re some of the harshest words he’s ever spoken to her. “Which is also why we need to keep practicing this until you get it. Stance!”
Sai groans as he readies his stance and beckons her to try and take him down.
Sai limps down the hall and picks up a sandwich on the way to her room. If she’s calculated correctly, she has about an hour to get to her bed, power nap, shower, and jog to her class. As long as the hot shower does its job on her aching muscles, it should be enough to get her through the rest of the day.
Every happy thought she had of cuddling a pillow for twenty-five minutes vanishes when she rounds the corner and sees Nimue sitting on the floor outside her room, back propped up against the door.
The girl scrambles to get up as she sees Sai approaching and smiles shyly. “I didn’t see you around at lunch, so I thought maybe we could walk to class together?”
Sai takes a deep breath. “Sure. You’ll have to excuse me while I shower though.” If nothing else, she’ll be able to get a good soak to sooth the aches. At least she managed two successful runs at Dom in the end.
Nimue nods as Sai unlocks the door and follows her into the room. “Make yourself comfortable,” Sai says, not expecting Nimue to follow her into the bathroom or to pull down the toilet seat lid to sit on. While far larger than anything she had to herself in UC 17, the bathroom isn’t made for two people at the same time.
Sai draws a blank. “It’ll take a while...” she says lamely.
“That’s okay,” Nimue says. “Gives us time to chat.”
Sai strips inside the shower cubicle. As she reaches out to drop her clothes down onto the floor, her fingers brush Nimue’s when the other girl reaches to take the clothing from her. Sai jumps back, smacking her spine into the cold shower tiles, and forces herself to calm down.
Nimue calls out cheerily. “I’ll pop these in your laundry bag.”
The water is cold when Sai turns it on but heats up quickly. She tries to dismiss the rising claustrophobia. Usually, she can deal with the shower, but with Nimue sitting not three feet away from her, the cubicle feels inhumanly small.
She can hear Nimue chatting brightly on the other side of the shower door. About her breakfast and morning class; about her wish that they could have pets, although she’s not sure what would be easy to obtain. The girl talks about shopping, clothes, and faculty staff Sai doesn’t even think she’s heard the name of. But most of all, Nimue just doesn’t shut up.
Sai continues her shower, lathering herself under the hot water over and over again, until she glances at the time. She could be scolded by Resource Allocation for using as much of the precious water as she has, but Nimue’s still in the steadily shrinking room with her. Close enough to touch. Far too close.
Her hands fumble for the taps, and she twists them off simultaneously. She clears her throat quietly and raises her voice so she can be sure Nimue will hear her. “Have to get out now, or we’ll be late. Shouldn’t take me too long.”
“Sure,” Nimue says. She hears her get up from her seat.
Sai’s about to let out a sigh of relief when the shower cubicle door slides open, and Nimue hands her the towel. She snatches it away from the other girl and wraps it around herself. For an empath, the woman has no clue at all. Sai clenches her fists and bites her lip.
An almost inaudible gasp of breath, and the other girl’s face pales. “I’m so sorry.” Nimue backs away and the door closes behind her.
Sai waits a few moments before she lets herself breathe again. Maybe her shielding exercises have been more effective than she realized. Nimue may not originally have noticed the discomfort. Something about empaths lingers in the back of her mind—something about touch—but it escapes her grasp.
Her legs aren’t just hurting when she steps out of the shower; they’re shaking, barely able to hold her up. She never lets people get physically close to her. Not unless she’s sparring, and then it’s different. She’s not vulnerable. Up close people can see the scars on her back where the cement and glass fragments dug into her skin. They can see the evidence of what she’s done, of the things she has to make up for.
She wraps the towel tighter and breathes deeply again before opening the door to her room, kicking herself for forgetting to grab her change of clothes before taking the shower.
Just as she thought, Nimue sits on her bed, staring at her hands. She looks up at Sai when the bathroom door opens.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t think. We all used to share our bath times back there. I never stopped and thought that you didn’t join us. I didn’t mean to...” Her words trail off, and she gazes out the window.
Sai forces a smile. “Perfectly okay. I’ll grab a change of clothes, and we’ll head to the class together.” She grabs her things out of the closet and ducks back into the tiny bathroom again, shutting the door firmly behind her.
Throwing her hair up into a ponytail, she walks out, ready to go. She makes an effort not to limp as she leads Nimue out of the room.
“I’m really sorry, Sai.”
“It’s okay,” Sai lies because Nimue really does seem uncomfortable. “I’m just not good with people and small spaces.”
Nimue sighs. “I should have noticed that. I’m really sorry.” For a few moments they walk in silence, until they reach the classroom and Nimue stops at the door for a second. “I’ll try to explain later if I can.”
Sai blinks at the words as Nimue turns her back and takes her seat. Kabe and Deacon wave in their direction before going back to their books.
Ms. Janni pops her head into the room and looks around. She catches Sai’s eye and motions her to come to the door.
“Your domino is otherwise occupied,” she says and hands Sai a letter. “I have to witness you opening it—so...open it.”
Sai pulls out a dark blue card. For a moment, it appears to be blank, but after a few seconds, silver script appears on it. Despite herself, she’s impressed. She watches as the words form, idly wondering if she has the same psionic skill.
Debriefing after class for assignment. Departing at 20:00 hours.
She sighs, ignoring the expectant expression on the class coordinator’s face. Sai’s joints ache in silent protest, and it’s all she can do not to fight down a whimper of pain.
She just hopes Nimue will keep the explanation for when Sai gets back in a few days.
“But Dom!” Sai rushes to try and catch up with him.
Dom ignores her as he carries both their packs down the hall to their hover-transport. He throws them inside and looks at her, as if he’d like to throw her in, too. She hurries to get into the vehicle before he can pursue that line of thought.
He climbs in after her, continuing to ignore her.
“I’m not ready for this. Mediate? I’ve never mediated anything in my life. I’m not calm enough to mediate.” She stifles a yawn and pushes past the pillow-covered benches in the middle of the cab.
“Mediate is more code for ‘beat them until they give into your way of thinking,’ Sai.”
“Oh.” She glances at her hands. “How many people are we talking about?”
If she didn’t know better, she’d think he sounded impatient. “You only have to
deal with the head of each faction.”
“I didn’t think we had gangs anymore,” she mutters.
His shoulders stiffen ever so slightly, and the tension escapes just as quickly as it arrived. “These are subsidiaries of GNW. They play a role in one of our major food manufactories. Let’s just get them to agree to another decade’s worth of signed contracts.”
She grumbles and stretches, trying to displace the fatigue that won’t leave her alone. “Why don’t they just get you to do it?”
He swivels around to her, no expression at all on his face. “You really haven’t figured that out yet, Sai?”
She shakes her head.
“You’re human. Psionic or not, you’re still human. I’m not. If they were considering wiping out both subsidiaries, they’d send in a unit of dominos so fast you’d miss it if you blinked. But they want them to stay operational, so they send you. Being human makes you ten times more trustworthy than the dominos no one understands.”
“They produced enough of you. How can they do that and not understand you?”
“Good question. Get back to me when you have an answer.” He fiddles with some dials as he guides the craft into the traffic stream.
She sits and blinks at him for a few seconds as the soft whirr of the GNW 335 fades into her awareness. The ship is compact, with room for holding cells in the back, and a black rubbery substance covering the floor that looks like it might be meant to hide blood. It’s so quiet inside, the lack of noise is amazing. She glances at her notes, trying to redirect her focus as she wiggles into the co-pilot seat.
“Hear each of their sides and decide what’s already been pre-decided upon for them. Got it.”
Dom adds nothing to her thoughts, and she still doesn’t grasp what she needs to do. Economics was her weakest subject. She yawns again and lets her eyes rest.
When she comes to, the cab is dark. A wave of panic hits her and she reaches out with her mind, sighing in relief as she realizes Dom is there.
“You really think I’d leave you sleeping in the transport?” He sounds amused.
“Not really. But it’s dark and I don’t think we’re moving.”