by Amanda Jay
She stood up and went over to the window where the setting sun cast in a soft, purple light. It illuminated her silhouette, and threw lazy shadows on the papers tacked up on Ezra's wall.
"So you think, on this other side, that there's another me?"
"Haven't gotten that far yet, but I suppose there could be."
"It could explain a lot, don't you think. Why we sometimes get happy for no reason, or sad. Some medical students were telling me the other day that it had to do with a chemical reaction in the brain, but if I'm connected to another me, well, and she were sad, then that could explain it too. But I'm just rambling now, aren't I?" she laughed.
Ezra broke into a big grin and joined her near the window.
"You will never have a reason to be sad. In any world. Because if there's another you, then there's another me. And I will always find you."
She stood up on her tiptoes and kissed his nose. "Easy now. You're starting to sound a bit like a stalker there."
Ezra rolled his eyes. "Way to ruin a moment, you hopeless romantic."
He picked up her up and carried her back over to his desk. She laughed and started kissing his neck the moment she was set down.
"I think I've gotten enough work done for today," he whispered, already clumsily fumbling with the buttons of her overcoat.
"I was hoping you would say that. The pie was just a ruse," she whispered back, pushing his evening's work off the desk, before kissing him deeply.
EZRA
"We are going to be late."
"That's your fault, silly."
"How, pray tell, it is my fault that you took nearly an hour to get ready this morning? Or, should I say afternoon?"
"I couldn't find my petticoat! You had thrown it behind the bed last night and I spent ages searching for it!" Kaelyn proclaimed loudly, causing Ezra to throw his head back and laugh. A few passers glanced their way, but he didn't care.
"Guilty as charged. Although I refuse to take all the blame for it," he joked, slowing down long enough to kiss her cheek.
"Also," Kaelyn continued, "since when are you so worried about getting late to my parties? You always complain about how much you hate those things."
It was true, the sense of dread that usually took over Ezra at the mention of any social engagement had slowly dwindled away. He had even started to enjoy himself, much to his own surprise. Kaelyn’s friends were opinionated, and often rather eccentric, but if there was one thing they all had in common, it was that they were full of passion. Be it women’s rights, or secularisation of the government, or simply that they didn’t like the king, everyone Ezra met believed in something. And believing in something was a newfound luxury to him. Up until he met Kay, Ezra had been so preoccupied in trying to stay afloat that he had forgotten that he could enjoy the swim.
And so after his initial hesitation, Ezra dove into the lively debates and witty banter. He had even gained a bit of a reputation among the group who found his farmboy-in-the-city innocence and his fresh take on current affairs to be quite endearing.
"But I thought you would be more excited about today. With your friend coming back and everything?"
Kaely laughed and glanced up at the Eyes to check the time.
"Onyx is late half the time anyways. Why do you think we are starting so early today? We figured that at least we would have a few hours left by the time she arrives. That would be typical Onyx, late to her own welcome party."
The gathering itself was the same as always. Loud laughter, cheap wine, and odd clusters of people committed to believing that they were pushing the boundaries on something or the other. Ezra was happily enveloped in a discussion with Harry Kressic, the estranged son of a priest who strongly believed that the Church’s influence in the King’s current policies was a matter of blackmail.
"What next?" Kressic asked, flapping his arms around emphatically, and causing a lock of his perfectly arranged, artificially bleached, white blonde hair to fall over his tweezed eyebrows. "You know the King apparently sacrifices babies in the name of the Twin Gods? What kind of archaic monstrosity is this? What next, I ask you? Will the City Guard want to crawl into my bed next? To see if I’m carrying out my night-time activities as the doctrine regulates?"
Ezra hardly thought the City Guard needed to do any such thing— all of Mliss was quite familiar with Harry Kressic’s night-time activities, but the man did have a point. Lately, it seemed as though the King was continuously blurring the lines between the religious doctrine and his own royal decree.
He was about to dig deeper, wondering if Kressic had any evidence of this blackmail, when a commotion at the door diverted his attention.
"Oh look, she’s here," Harry stood up abruptly, clapping his hands and craning his neck towards the door. "I wonder what she’ll be on about this time. You should be in for an earful, I'm sure."
It took a while for the crowd of welcomers and well-wishers to let her through, but Ezra knew it was Onyx the moment he laid eyes on her.
Ezra hadn’t given any thought to what he expected Kaelyn’s friend to look like, but if he had, he would have certainly not expected this. Onyx was small and lithe, almost child-like in size, but it wasn’t her size that people noticed when they saw her. It was her eyes. Almost jet-black, they were the darkest eyes Ezra had ever seen, and were only offset by her inky, black hair, and head-to-toe black outfit. There was something about Onyx that made people look twice at her, an air she produced that told people that she wasn’t around to play games. She meant business, this one, Ezra thought to himself. Like Kaelyn, she was naturally confident, and moved through the room with ease, exchanging pleasantries with everyone. But there was something intrinsically different between the two of them too-- if Kaelyn was fire, Onyx was cold, hard ice.
"I don’t think we’ve met," she said, when she finally reached Ezra’s side of the room. Her voice was lower than Ezra expected, it almost had a soft, musical quality.
"I’m Ezra," he offered his hand, which she shook firmly. Even her hands were cold, he thought to himself, as she surveyed him, her lips curved into a smile, but her eyes drilled holes into his skull.
"Ezra," she repeated. His name sounded strange when she spoke it, like she saw through him somehow. He couldn’t put his finger on why he felt so unnerved by this woman.
Thankfully, he felt a warm arm snake around his waist.
"This is him!" Kaelyn smiled. Her cheeks were redder than usual, and she was holding a glass of wine in her free hand, which swished around clumsily.
Onyx’s icy smile turned warmer after Kaelyn appeared.
"It certainly is," she replied a little more enthusiastically. "I've already heard so much about this lucky gentleman that has managed to get you to finally settle down." Her eyes swept him up and down again, curiosity laced with protectiveness.
"Well, it’s wonderful to finally meet you, Onyx. Kaelyn’s told me so much about you, I feel like I know you already." The second part was a lie, but he had honestly felt that way up until he actually met her. In any case, Onyx clearly mattered a lot to Kaelyn, and by default, Ezra supposed that Onyx’s opinion of him must matter to her also. He reckoned that he ought to put his best foot forward.
"Can I get you a drink?" he asked, turning on the farm-boy charm he noticed had been working quite well for him lately. "Kaelyn told me you liked Whiskey Sours, and I have been told that I’m quite a skilled barman."
Onyx smiled, more genuinely this time. "I can tell I’m going to like you already, Ezra. Yes, I would love a drink. Although you, missy, might need to slow it down," she said, plucking the glass out of Kaelyn’s hand.
"We need to catch up. Shall we move this out onto the roof?" Kaelyn’s arm unwound itself from Ezra as the two women left, arm in arm, leaving Ezra thinking that he had never seen a more mismatched pair anywhere. But then again, he supposed, that was probably how people saw him and Kaelyn.
***
"I was wondering if we had run out of whiskey!" Onyx jibed, a
s Ezra finally joined the two of them on the small rooftop balcony that overlooked the busy town centre. The cold air had both the women flushed, although while Kaelyn’s hair had gotten swept up and danced around in the breeze, Onyx’s hair flowed undisturbed and unnaturally straight, almost like liquid.
"My apologies," Ezra handed over a glass of the cocktail to Onyx, and a glass of water to Kaelyn. "Kressic wanted to finish our conversation from earlier and I didn’t want to be rude."
"Such a gentleman," Onyx remarked, as Kaelyn giggled. Ezra grinned hesitantly. The way she said it, he wasn't so sure it was a compliment.
"No harm in being polite."
"I’ll drink to that!" Onyx raised her glass and took a sip. "Not bad at all," she said, with raised eyebrows. "I didn’t think they taught you about drinks out on the farm."
"I had a good teacher," Ezra remarked, winking at Kaelyn, causing both the women to laugh.
"Now that she's finally finished interrogating me about you, Onyx was just telling me about her trip," Kaelyn explained, rolling her eyes discreetly at him as Ezra took a seat next her on an upturned wooden crate.
"The Savage Isles, wasn't it? Not your typical tourist destination."
"That’s because tourism wasn’t my intention," Onyx retorted, a tinge of hardness in her voice. Ezra didn’t reply, guessing correctly that he needed to tread cautiously around Kaelyn’s friend. Instead, he waited patiently, so as to show her that he was actually interested in what she had to say. It worked.
"I went to the Savage Isles on a hunch," she continued. "I think it paid off."
"Do you mean...?" Kaelyn leaned forward, eyes wide, any hint of her previous inebriation evaporating into thin air.
Onyx looked gravely at her, the two of them seemed to be communicating without words.
"He’s fine," Kaelyn said, gesturing to Ezra with a smile. "You can trust him, take my word for it."
Hold on, Ezra thought. Since when was his trustworthiness an issue?
Onyx's eyes swept over Ezra for the third time that afternoon. When she looked over at Kaelyn again it seemed like she had finally made up her mind.
"Getting to Chyrania was harder than I anticipated, with the trading blockades, of course. Trust the crown to make it as difficult as possible. But I finally managed to, ah, convince, the second mate to let me borrow a life raft and row on to the island after we had dropped anchor close to the isles."
"So you actually managed to get onto the island?" Kaelyn’s eyes were wide with admiration, but it didn’t seem to have any effect on Onyx, who was frowning as she gazed off at the city.
"It was bad there, Kay. Much worse than I imagined. The Chyranians who were sent back were labelled traitors. They have even set up a separate part of the island for them to live on. They won’t let them mark their faces. It’s extremely tense."
Ezra wracked his brains to remember what he had heard about Chyrania in the past. There were snippets of it in the paper, when he was on the farm. But he didn’t really pay attention to anything outside his own troubles at the time. There was something though, he remembered, suddenly.
"The Chyranian rebels were the ones who attacked the school, am I right?" he asked, looking at Kaelyn. The school attack was big news, big enough to cause waves out on the potato farm. On the last day before the festival holidays, a group of Chyranian rebels had set off an explosion at a primary school. Ezra shivered, remembering the hushed whispers about the ordeal. A few parents had even stopped their own children from attending the farmhouse school that Ezra went to.
"Allegedly attacked the school," Onyx replied, with raised eyebrows.
"Allegedly? But that’s why the King ran them out, wasn’t it?" Ezra was confused, and slightly embarrassed as he sensed there was something else that he was missing.
"One would assume so, yes. But we have always had our doubts."
"Oh, Twin Gods have mercy, can you please just tell me already?" Kaelyn looked ready to explode.
Onyx smiled.
"I think I may be able to do better than that. I’ll show you soon."
"Show us what?" Kaelyn demanded. Ezra thought she seemed rather uneasy, but she wasn’t going to get any answers yet. The door to the balcony burst open and Tristain and Henry stumbled out, both of them clearly drunk, and laughing hard at something.
"Brrr, it’s getting chilly out here," Tristain complained.
"I think we can take care of that," Henry giggled, taking Tristain’s hands in his starting to blow warm air on them.
"Oh, that does feel nice," Tristain giggled back.
"And that, I believe, is our cue to head back inside," Onyx declared, as Henry’s lips moved from Tristain’s hands to his earlobes.
"Tomorrow night, though. Meet me after work," Onyx murmured conspiratorially, as they descended back to the crowded room.
***
"So what did you think of her? I’m dying to know," Kaelyn asked expectantly, as they opened the door back to her flat.
"She seemed, well, not at all like I imagined," Ezra answered truthfully.
"And what did you imagine?" Kaelyn had taken off her coat and tossed it over the sofa on her way into the bedroom. Ezra picked it up and hung it on the coat rack as he chose his next words carefully.
"I don’t know. I supposed I expected her to be more like you. But she isn’t, is she?"
"Hmm, I never thought about it that way, but I do suppose you are right. She is quite the character, huh?"
"I wonder what it is she wants to show us tomorrow."
Kay looked hesitant again. "Bearoux be damned if I know," she mumbled.
"Really? I thought you would have had an idea," he pressed.
"Look, Ezra, Onyx is my friend, of course. When I first got into the city and didn't know what in the world to do, she was the one who showed me around, got me a job, helped me settle in. But she can also be a little... intense. Like she has something to prove, I don't know to whom."
Her skirt and blouse were now on a heap on the floor and she sat on the bed in her sheer petticoat, brushing her hair. Whatever Onyx wanted to show them was the furthest thing on his mind.
"Have I told you how beautiful you are? I think you get more beautiful every day."
She laughed and threw her hairbrush at him. Clearly the effects of the wine had not worn off completely.
"She liked you though, I could tell."
Ezra had to admit that it was a bit of a relief, hearing her say that.
"Good, last thing I would want is for her to hate me and for you to leave me because of it." It was meant to be a joke but even Ezra heard the sincerity of it as he spoke the words.
"Come here, silly." Kaelyn knelt up on the edge of the bed and beckoned him over.
He sighed to himself a little as he went over to her, ever relieved that she didn't find his insecurities too off-putting.
"I was hoping it would be clear by now that I’m here for good. Absolutely nothing will change that, understand?" Her face was serious despite the wine, and Ezra melted a little.
"I know, I’m sorry."
"How sorry?" she asked mischievously, tracing her fingers around his ear. A sign, he knew, that the night was still far from over.
"Very, very sorry. Please let me make it up to you." He had brushed the straps of her petticoat off and started kissing her shoulder.
"If you must," she mumbled, closing her eyes. "Although you might have to try extra hard tonight. I’m starting to learn all your tricks, after all."
"Oh is that so?" Ezra asked, pulling her petticoat off deftly.
"Hey, I’d like to be able to find that tomorrow."
But Ezra’s lips were already trailing their way down her body.
"Shh" he said, pushing her back onto the bed and kneeling on the floor between her legs. "I don’t think you’ve learned all my tricks just yet."
TOM
Tom led the way down the cool, white corridor. There was an acidic smell, sharp and unfamiliar that clung to his nostrils.
He tried not to marvel at how clean everything was up there when down below at the Wheel dust and sweat seemed to settle stickily to every surface and crevice.
He could hear Felix breathing behind him, and reminded himself to keep calm. Outbursts like the one he had in the broom closet simply wouldn't do. He mustn't be weak. Not if he wanted what Felix owed him. Not if he wanted to get to the bottom of this. For the hundredth time, he questioned whether it was important that he got to the bottom of this in the first place. He was fine, he reminded himself. He was absolutely fine. He was just helping this boy who could allow him a life that was a little less desperate.
But he would like to talk to his father, just once. Because he wanted to know. It wasn't unreasonable to want to know, was it?
It was a quiet morning at the offices, by the look of it. Tom hoped against the odds that they wouldn't bump into any of the other engineers or administrators but it seemed like they started work later than the labourers, because the whole wing seemed quite deserted.
They crept along quietly until they reached the door they needed, easily distinguishable because of the plaque it bore.
Tom's plan ended here. He figured that he had to tell Muriel the true story and hope that he took enough pity on Felix that he would be obliged to help. It was a weak thought, but they had hit a dead end in the house, and it was all they had right now.
Their knock on the door was not answered, and a harder knock caused the door to swing open on its own accord, as if it hadn't been closed properly in the first place.
"I don't think we should just let ourselves in," Felix whispered cautiously, but Tom ignored him and edged his way inside. The room wasn't lit well and he found himself knocking over a pile of books that were left next to the door.
"Shh!" Skii exclaimed, pushing herself and Felix into the room behind Tom and shutting the door. They couldn't afford to alert the guards now.
"Professor Muriel," Tom called out tentatively, but they all knew that the room was empty. He probably hadn't come in yet. Was it a good idea for them to wait? There was a single lightbulb that hung from the centre of the ceiling like a pendulum and Skii found the lever to turn it on.