by S King
The people were completely different from those in Padrieg. Everyone had different shades of brown and black hair while their skin tones were the same shade as Eikko and Somsang. The perfect olive complexion covered everyone that passed Orrie and I; it was sinister how perfect everyone seemed to be on the outside. They were happily chatting with the person that they were walking with or talking to on their…I didn’t know what the things were pressed to their ears and tried to see whenever someone passed by us. But still even with the up close and personal, I had no idea what the things were.
“What are those?” I whispered as Orrie took a look around our environment.
“What’s what?”
I pointed to the devices held to people’s ear, “those.”
He twisted his mouth to the side and tilted his head, “I think those are…cell phones.”
“What?”
“Communicators, why they’re not implanted in their ear canals? I don’t know, it seems like an inconvenience to me but maybe that’s how they communicate on the go.” He shrugged as if that were the best that he could come up with on the spot.
I rolled my eyes as my communicator beeped again, “speak of convenience.”
“Ana, hanging up on people is rude in all societies and before you do it again, I want to ask you for a favor.” Eikko started rambling before I could even say anything.
“What and make it quick.” Orrie and I started walking in the direction that our timepieces were leading us to.
Theodora had to be somewhere within the society and that meant that if we found her then not only were we helping the Parlan society but also getting answers to the questions that I had.
“I need you to go to a store called Derma Magic it’s in the skincare district and to your left if you enter from the right corridor. Tell them that you need the Kangho package and need the seasonal bundle as well.”
“And how the hell am I supposed to get that when I don’t have any of your currency with me?”
“Tell them that you’re my new assistant and I’m out of the society right now. They’ll charge it to my account. Or!” Excitement sparked his voice, “tell them that you’re Theodora, they’ll give you the same thing that I get. Matter of fact get yourself and Xerminara a bundle too. God knows that you two need it.”
Even though I wanted to lay into him for insulting me and my best friend again for our lack of skincare routine, something he said was bouncing around in my mind like a rock tumbler.
“Wait, wait, back up, you know Theodora?” Didn’t he tell me that he didn’t know Theodora?
He blew a raspberry, “of course I know her. Well, not so much know her but she does a lot of advertising when she’s not on tour or acting. I haven’t met her face to face, Somsang handles that but she’s big into skincare routines and worked with my team of specialists to develop my line.”
Orrie and I politely walked through the crowds, keeping our sights trained on the signs that led to the skincare district. If I could stop Eikko and Somsang from complaining about their lack of beauty products while they were in Padrieg, then I was going to do it.
“You’re something important here, aren’t you?” I asked as Orrie stopped to look in the window at clothes that seemed way too casual for our society, but also too comfortable not to at least try on.
Eikko chuckled under his breath, “you’ll find out soon enough. Could you just please pick the bundles up?”
Frustratedly, I sighed and rubbed my forehead, looking at the cars and people passing by. “Only if you promise not to mention this or contact me anymore for the nakti.”
“That means night, right?”
I closed my eyes, forgetting that Eikko didn’t speak Padrieg, “yes, Eikko. It means night.”
“Deal, see you soon.” This time he disconnected the communication and left me to my vices. He must’ve really wanted his skin care products.
“Do you think we have time to try this on?” Orrie pointed to the outfit in the window and glanced at me over his shoulder.
I smirked, “sure, come on.”
After everything he had done for me and finding out the relation between Theodora and I, the least I could do for him was let him try on clothes that we’d never seen before.
Walking into the store, I looked around and stopped myself from gasping. Clothes, both men’s and women’s hung on the walls and filled racks littered around the showroom floor.
“Hello! Are we shopping for both of you?” A woman with tawny brown hair and bright magenta pink eyes came to stand in front of us. She was shorter than anyone I had ever seen. At only five-foot-three she was stunning, to the point that Orrie was staring down at her, completely dazed and mesmerized.
I slapped a hand on his shoulder and smiled down at her, “he would like to try on—”
The girl squealed with happiness as she looked at me, “Theodora! Oh, my stars! It’s really you! Rapiel! Rapiel! Guess who’s in the store! Look!” She covered her mouth as her bright magenta eyes shined with excitement.
Rapiel emerged from the back of the store, similar in stature as the girl in front of us and screamed as she caught sight of me.
Theodora must’ve been someone important, considering how these two were fawning over me like I was the best thing that they’d ever seen. Thankfully, they didn’t shove anything in my hand to sign because I didn’t know if I could pull off forging my sister’s handwriting.
When the shock and excitement subsided, the girls took Orrie by the arms and led him to a dressing room in the back of the store with outfits galore hanging in their arms.
This wasn’t what I was planning on doing while we were in Parlan, but I also didn’t plan to make a stop to the skincare district. Why not have some fun while we were here? Besides, Theodora was missing as far as we were concerned and if I could figure out what her last moves were then maybe I could track her down and get some answers to my questions.
When the girls in the shop were done playing dress up with Orrie and his arms were full with bags on top of bags of new clothes, shoes, sunglasses and hats they waved us out, assuring that they would send the bill to my accountant in the finance district.
By the time that Orrie and I were headed to the skincare district, the blue sun was beginning to set on the society and casted a dark navy glow over the once glowing buildings.
“What the hell am I supposed to do with these when we get back?” Orrie held up the bags as we walked to the entrance of the skincare district.
I glanced at the bags, checking my time piece, and chewing on my lip, “their all black or grey. They’ll fit in nicely with Padrieg guidelines and,” I looked at him, “you won’t have to go shopping for anything anytime soon. No one will question it.”
He looked through each bag as if to check what I was saying was true, “you’re right. But,” he looked at me as we crossed the entrance to the skincare district, “why didn’t you get anything?”
“I can’t just use Theodora’s money,” I shook my head, trying to dispel the idea of going on a splurge with my twin’s hard-earned currency.
“But you let me do it,” Orrie said, shaking the bags at me as we came to the shop that Eikko told me to go to.
I took a deep breath, “ok, ok, if it makes you feel any better, then I’ll go in here and get something for me. Deal?”
Orrie nodded, liking the sound of both of us taking advantage of my sister’s earnings instead of just him. “Sounds plausible enough,” he held open the door for me and checked our surroundings before following me into the store.
As with the first store, the shop attendants took one look at me and squealed in excitement. Instantly, they were all over me, handing me bottles, jars, bags cases.
After they praised me for doing things that I had no idea what they were talking about and flirted with Orrie, both of us were so loaded down with bags and boxes that we had to circle back and go to the Citlail to drop the things off before following our timepieces again and go in the
complete opposite direction that we were originally headed in.
“Do you think this is going to pay off?” Orrie asked as we walked into Theodora’s domicile, or as Parlan civilians say, her condo.
I picked the lock and pushed open the door, “I hope so.”
We stepped into the condo, marveling at its expanse and furniture. Everything was from a different world and seemed to have a warm homey feel to it. White furniture, black flooring and blue walls made up the basics while chrome decorations hung on the walls and sat on the side tables.
“Theodora?” I called out, cautiously walking further into my sister’s home, and looked around.
“Ostana, duck!” Orrie’s command only made me react as I followed his command and dodged the flying harpoon aimed at my head and rolled out of the way.
“Get out!” A voice similar to my own called from above us.
Orrie looked at me as I lifted my gaze to the ceiling where the silhouette of a woman was pinned against the beams that held the lights in place.
“Theodora!” I called, dodging another harpoon, “we’re here to help you.”
“No, you’re not. You’re here to kill me.”
Orrie finally spoke up, “why would we come all this way just to kill you?”
“Who hired you?” Creating doubt was a good way to cause a distraction.
Slowly, I pressed myself against the wall, out of sight from Theodora’s flying spear weapons and mapped my way to get to her while Orrie captured her attention.
Blocking out the conversation the two of them were having, I climbed up the back wall inlaid ladder and crept up behind my sister. Grabbing her stack of harpoons and knocking them to the floor, I grabbed her hand and braced for impact as we fell from the high beam to the black floor.
“Captain, are you ok?” Orrie helped me up first before helping my twin up and looked between the two of us when I brushed him off.
“Oh my god,” Theodora ignored Orrie, staring at me with her identical garnet colored eyes locked on my face.
“It would seem that we’re related,” I said, not knowing how to ease the impact of the situation that was now our biggest problem. She was easy enough to find but having to figure out why she thought we were trying to kill her and who was after her, I didn’t know how to sugar coat it.
“You’re…” she pointed to me before her dark red eyes rolled into the back of her head and her body went slack, falling to the floor with a thud.
Looking at Orrie, I spread my arms, “you couldn’t have at least caught her?”
“How was I supposed to know that she was going to go free falling?” He bent down, picking up my sister as if she weighed nothing and carried her to the couch.
“Let’s just try to wake her up and you call Emric and tell him that we’re going to be delayed.” I checked my timepiece, thankful that given the late sati, Eikko would surely be passed out and wouldn’t be pestering Emric too much about where I was. One more nakti without his skincare wouldn’t kill him.
“You got it, Captain,” Orrie pressed his communicator, going into the kitchen and talking low.
Now, I just needed to wake my sister up and find out what she knew. It shouldn’t be too hard, at least, I hoped it wasn’t going to be.
Chapter 8 Watching Stars
“You want to what?” Theodora looked at me as she rubbed her head from her fall. Orrie had gotten ahold of Emric and said that we were tied up with lose ends and would be back later than expected. Now, we were sitting on Theodora’s plush white couch staring at her.
“In order to find out who is after you and why Eikko and—”
“Wait, where is Eikko?”
I frowned, looking at her, “you know Eikko?”
“Of course, I do, he’s a great partner in my business. Granted,” she shrugged, “I’ve never talked to him personally, but he’s got so many followers and so many people want to be like him or be with him that he’s really helped my customer base like no one else has.”
“I’m sorry, what do you mean followers?” Orrie looked more confused than I’d ever seen him.
“Oh, I forgot,” she gave us an empathetic smile, “followers are people that watch everything that he does. Its social media, which is a way to connect with people throughout the society. In simple terms, they’re fans of his. Not just his music, but everything he does. Clothes, vacations, concerts, what he’s eating. People watch everything he does and mimic his actions and habits just to feel like him or the people within his circle.”
“He sings?” I asked.
I remembered that Xerminara said Eikko had the voice of an angel, but I didn’t believe her because she was so lost in admiration for the Parlan native at the time that it was hard to believe anything about him in general.
Theodora nodded, looking down at her watch, “like an angel.” She grabbed her cellphone and tapped on the screen before turning the device to me and Orrie.
On it, Eikko was staring at us before movement started along with music. Thirty sekundi in Eikko began singing in Parlan language and even I had to admit that he sounded like an angel, if not a god.
Would you catch me if I fall for you, will you hold me when I tell you I love you? He sang as he stood in the rain watching a dark house. When the song ended and the screen faded to black, I let out a breath I hadn’t known that I had been holding in.
“That’s my favorite one, he has a ton more but the way that he sings,” Theodora sighed, “I’d hate to be the one that broke his heart.”
“Wait, don’t you sing too?” When Theodora nodded, he sighed, “well then,” Orrie kept frowning at the device, not sure how to proceed with what we had just seen.
“That’s nice, now listen,” I said grabbing Theodora’s attention from the cellphone, “you need to lay low and not come out of hiding until you get the all-clear from us.”
“Who hurt you?” Theodora tilted her head as she looked at me.
“What’re you talking about?”
“Who hurt you? I mean, your business all of the time.”
“That’s Padrieg society,” Orrie and I said at the same time.
She looked between us with raised brows, “everything?”
Orrie shrugged, getting up from the couch and looking at a painting of something.
I nodded, “everything. Mealtimes are structured, waking and sleeping hours are designated, relationships are nothing more than business agreements and everything else is a business transaction.”
She sighed, “I’m so sorry.”
“For what?”
“No one should have to live that way,” she shook her head, “speaking of which…do you know anything about our parents?”
Now that was something that I wasn’t expecting. We were past the point of avoiding the subject or denying our blood relation. Theodora was a mirror image of myself and I was a mirror image of her; our identical blonde hair was even the same length while our eyes were still the same tantalizing red garnet. The only thing that I wasn’t sure of was if she had the same fire swimming through her veins as I had.
“They’re dead.” I deadpanned, unable to keep the official tone from my voice. “They died in a mission to rescue captives from Pya.”
“From whom?”
“The red sun society.”
“Oh,” she wrapped her arms around herself, “what I don’t understand is why they separated us. Wouldn’t life had been better if we had each other from the beginning?”
I couldn’t answer that. I didn’t know why our parents deliberately separated us nor did I know why Othala kept this big of a secret from me. But I did know that I wasn’t going to tell Theodora yet about our grandmother until I got those answers. Then I’d tell my sister about our loving grandmother.
“I don’t know, but right now,” I took her hand in mine, “we need to focus on the problem at hand. That means that you need to stay hidden and we,” I looked at Orrie still staring at the painting, “need to get back to the purple sun society
.”
She gave me a soft smile and nodded, “but how do I contact you?”
Giving her my communicator code, I pointed to the slip of paper, “dial it like a phone number and you’ll get ahold of me directly.”
“Ok, here’s mine,” she wrote down her number and laughed at my screwed look, “do you not have phones in Padrieg?”
“No,” Orrie and I said at the same time.
She twisted her mouth, “you can…”