Drowsiness and exhaustion made me sluggish, but I couldn't close my eyes to sleep. Thoughts circled my spirit as I tried to process Saymon's words, which had stolen my peace. The succession of announced events seemed insignificant beside the open wound in my heart. His words about Maia crushed my core. The pain of that possibility…
It had to be a lie. She wouldn't do that. I know she wouldn't. I clutched my chest, suffering at the thought, and rested my head against a hard shelf, hidden among the cabinets. Kiara was preparing for our departure. Damn it. I just wanted to relax. Wanted to sleep.
Saymon approached silently, leaned against the wall near me, and cracked his neck, exuding profound indifference.
I straightened. His eyes weighed on me. Yet facing him was difficult. Perhaps what stopped me was his inevitable resemblance to Maia. Looking at him hurt.
"Hey," he called. "Hey, here." He held something in his hands. Before looking at the object, my eyes traveled over his fingers, covered in black tattoos that concealed scars. The largest crossed the back of one hand and sharpened my curiosity.
I lifted my gaze to his face. Had I really noticed so little about him?
There was a scar on the left side of his upper lip. His hair concealed another in the middle of his forehead, different from the others. Though almost imperceptible, its shape unsettled me, suggesting something beyond a mere injury.
Saymon's golden eyes explored me with the same intensity, as though scrutinizing my soul. I shifted restlessly in my chair, but that gaze kept drawing me in.
It was almost as though I could see her. The same icy eyes. No. They were different. Saymon wasn't Maia. She was gone. She had… I swallowed my tears and focused on the item between his fingers.
"She asked me to give you this." Saymon leaned over me and offered the Queen of Cups.
I studied the card. Violet and blue pixels danced across its surface.
"Take it. It'll connect to your biochip and reveal the contents. It's a message from Maia to you."
I hesitated. A message? I swallowed as our hands touched. His skin held the same warmth as Maia's, and my heart beat out of rhythm, overcome by an emotion I didn't want to admit. My fingers trembled as I accepted the card. A connection traveled through my hand, and I stroked the surface with the tip of my nail. "What does the card mean?"
"Something hidden." He gave a knowing smile and winked.
He was about to leave when I called him. "S-Saymon… what you said… it's a lie, isn't it?" I blinked hard, feeling the weight of the question and, above all, my fear of the answer.
He leaned over me, exerting the crushing pressure of his sinister aura. "Be more specific, Akkie. I said many things." He gave a wicked smile and walked away.
A chill ran down my spine like an electric shock. My trapped breath took a while to escape, but when I finally released it, I felt some of the weight lift from my shoulders.
Saymon affected me more than I would have liked because of his absurd similarities to Maia. The same wild features, the cold, cautious expression, the movements and gestures, the way he spoke. Both seemed aware of their power to shake those who heard them.
He stirred a similar bubbling inside me. I shook my head. The thought burned again. Why, Maia?
That was the most painful part, the one that tormented me most. Life happened, but I felt empty. It hardly mattered where I went, what would happen, or what the reasons were. Whatever path I chose, even if I unraveled all Maia's mysteries, I would still be alone. In the end, she wouldn't be there.
My eyes burned. She remained so alive in my memories. I clutched the card eagerly. What would Maia tell me? That she had done it? That… I just didn't want to hear that it had been to protect me. That… I wouldn't forgive. My face burned. Why hadn't she trusted me? She had found a way alone. Together, we could have done something.
I took a deep breath and brought the card to the nape of my neck. A numbness spread from my neck to my head. My heart seemed to tear through my chest and rise into my throat as inconsolable tears poured from my eyes.
"Akiko?" Maia's voice traveled through my ears and echoed inside my head. Her voice. Her husky laugh vibrated through every fiber of my being. "Sorry about this. Hearing this means you've met Saymon, right? Is he being nice? Because if not, Kiara can put him in his place real quick." Another bittersweet laugh.
I wanted to tear it away. All my muscles stiffened, aching. My reason failed in its attempt to keep me steady, to preserve some sanity in the face of what I was hearing.
Trix, Denden, and Cron had gone to their vehicles. I, however, remained there. I couldn't fall apart in that place. I had to contain what I felt. I demanded something beyond human limits of myself, even on the verge of letting every cord holding me together snap.
Then her voice sounded again. So alive. "This is a little unstable. Heard a song. I wanna share it with you. Hope this r-records p-properly…"
A distant melody began to play, gradually growing louder. A deep, comforting male voice sang:
We fight every night for a dreamThe Sun sets, we're the sameHalf in fireHalf in darknessWe have to fight, for loveWhatever it takesI gave you everything
Silence.
The song kept echoing in my mind. My chest burned, as though Maia were right there.
ZZZ… ZZZ… A buzzing scraped my ears. "I-I'm sorry… I-I promise th-that…" Irritating static cut through the recording. "I-I love you… b-be well… I-I…" ZZZZZ! The buzzing grew so loud I covered my head with my arms. The card came loose.
Silence reigned.
Inside me, however, there was chaos. An avalanche of tangled feelings surged out of control, doing whatever it wanted with me. I suffocated within, short of breath, as though my lungs had lost all their oxygen. My heart seemed about to tear apart the flesh surrounding it. Tears fell uncontrollably. I muffled a whimper, stifling everything. I had to endure. I wrapped my arms around my head and remained quiet. I had to be strong. I tried to breathe. Impossible. Calm… calm… calm…
Suddenly, a touch as light and warm as a feather settled on my back, drawing me out of that state.
My eyes widened, and I straightened despite my rigid muscles. I swallowed, trying to swallow my feelings too, punching them down until they fit into an already overflowing drawer.
Cron stared at me with his merciless blue eyes. Then he sat in a chair near me and examined the shelves around us, making sure no one else could see us. "Kiara asked me to tell you you'll be leaving soon. She was busy," he said, as though justifying his presence. He seemed indifferent to my deplorable state.
I wiped my eyes, failing miserably to compose myself, and nodded, almost silently begging him to leave.
But he stayed. He stared at me as though delving into the most intimate reaches of my being. The red liquid running through the tubes to the tank on his back bubbled.
I pressed my fingers against the chair's edge, unsure what to say or how to react.
Cron sighed, ignoring my veiled plea. "Maia keeps appearing. That means the favor I did wasn't enough." He rested a hand on his knee. "What will I have to do for the nightmares to stop? Feels like she cursed me… Maybe she did." He scratched his forehead. "Know about Maia's ability?"
I shook my head. I felt like a lamb before a predator. My intuition warned me, whispering pleas for caution.
Cron was like the animal depicted on his mask: a shark swimming tirelessly through the seas, capable of detecting tiny electrical fields, endowed with a sense of smell so infallible it could detect blood more than three kilometers away. In his case, he seemed to catch the scent of the terror afflicting others. Here, he probed mine.
"Don't know how it works… Her ability to…" Cron gestured, trying to emphasize his words. "Hard to explain." He threw his arms up.
My eyes shifted from his face to the bubbling liquid. I feared him, but curiosity soaked me. What was it? I held back the urge to ask.
"Wanna know what this is, don't you?" He raised his sparse eyebrows.
Crap. Those people read me so easily that I felt extremely vulnerable. To them, I was like transparent crystal. I drew back a little and nodded.
"I have Vaktiria."
Vaktiria? My eyes widened further.
"Had it for more than ten cycles. This…" Cron tapped the tubes. "Is a blood replacement system that keeps me alive." He moved his hand over his chest and belly. "They implanted a nanodevice in my stomach, S-Nova. It transports the blood I drink into my bloodstream, replacing the blood those fucking bacteria eat."
Cron tapped his body. CLANG! CLANG! Metal rang. "They lined my insides with nanometal. You know, to prevent bleeding." My mask concealed my contorted face and the mouth hanging open in astonishment.
He had had Vaktiria for more than ten cycles… and was alive? TEN SOLAR CYCLES?! I nearly tripped over a box, too shocked to remain steady. All my previous distress was forgotten for an instant. I sat again, afraid my legs would give way. I needed to compose myself. I was witnessing something extraordinary! "That's… wait, you drink blood?!"
His dark eyes shone with something that looked like wounded pride. Perhaps weariness. For an instant, Cron resembled a man who should already be dead.
He gave a crooked smile, but there was little joy in it. "Yeah. I lose a liter of blood per moon. Every lunation, I replace the thirty liters of blood in this tank. You know, to replenish those bastard bacteria's food daily." He pointed at the tubes. "The bubbles you see? That's the blood being purified so it won't clot. Otherwise, it becomes undrinkable." Cron scratched his head. "Have to drink blood so S-Nova can direct it into my veins. If I didn't, with ten liters of blood in my body, I'd die in ten moons."
"Cron, that…" Ah, damn it. I suppressed the urge to touch his arm and tell him everything would be alright.
"Relax, fräulein. This is nothing. Just another scratch on the skin." He rubbed his soot-darkened arms, covered in poorly healed wounds.
Naturally, I began analyzing him as a doctor. Poor healing, compromised platelets, wounds that wouldn't heal, unpredictable hemorrhages. Only a few of Vaktiria's symptoms. Death from other infections was common among those with the disease, whether from bacteria entering through wounds or reduced immunity. That disease was terrible on every level.
"Th-they're developing a cure for Vaktiria in Zenith. I believe it could help. I can…" I fell silent. Could I get it? If he accepted, I would try. Though there was another…
His eyes searched my half-covered face. "You know… that girl Maia did me a favor. The biggest favor of all. Don't like owing favors. See this?" Cron pointed at his unruly hair. "Losing hair over it. I won't owe another favor. Not to you."
Someone should have stopped me. "It wouldn't be a favor!"
His features twisted in outrage, and a shiver pierced me. The danger warning reached full force.
I raised my hands between us. Not that they represented any barrier to him. "Wh-what if I owed you a favor?!"
His aggressive expression slowly began to soften. "What favor?"
I rested my hands in my lap, feeling a little calmer. Would he tell me? I rubbed my eyes, now free of sleep. "Tell me… tell me the favor Maia did for you." The sentence came as naturally as waters flowing into a river. More than curiosity, it was a desire of my heart.
Cron scratched his neck, apparently considering the request. "If I tell you, I'll have to reveal what I want to hide. Why do you wanna know?"
I swallowed. "I…" Ah, it hardly mattered. I sighed. "Maia is… my other half." Letting those words escape was like releasing a linen thread between my fingers. An entire universe could be woven from it. I wanted to weave more. Wanted to say everything. Everything she meant.
But before his shining, smiling blue eyes, nothing more needed to be said. "That would explain…" Cron fell silent.
I awaited his decision. I offered him a possibility of a cure. Cron would offer me his most intimate secret and another story of Maia. He would offer me what warmed my being.
"Alright, I'll tell you. It's a favor. Remember to return it. Otherwise…" The threat veiled in the silence was enough for me to simply nod.