Rising Shards

This time, Marmalade really didn’t intend to spy on Kalei and Risa. She was genuinely walking around the dorms with no plan in mind other than listening to video game soundtracks when she saw Kalei and Risa hanging out on the lounge on the second floor. Last time, Kalei had asked for Marmalade’s help; if spending time with her estranged friend Risa went sour, Marmalade would call her and rescue her. This time, Marmalade had no idea the two would be hanging out.

Kalei and Risa each had one of the handheld eGame consoles, and they looked like they were having a good time. Marmalade knew she should just keep walking and not interfere, but she stayed in place, just out of sight.

But I helped her last time, right? Maybe she’ll need a quick escape again. And I’ll only know if I’m close by.

Someone poked her in the center of her back.

”Eep!” Marmalade turned to see Roux, carrying around a plastic grabbing claw for some reason that they’d jabbed in Marmalade’s back.

”You know, this is the second time I’ve caught you spying,” Roux said, clicking the claws together a few times. ”You’re lucky it’s me and not a prefect. Because prefects would probably have you sentenced to death by being forced to eat poisoned checkerboard pieces.”

”I’m not...” Marmalade said. ”Well, OK, I know how this looks.”

”Meanwhile, I will merely make fun of you, then hopefully get you in contact with my spy division, and give you a good reference for the position.” Roux said.

”Spy division?”

”Uh huh, one of my various agencies I run,” Roux said. ”We can worry about that later. For now, the mocking.”

”Please don’t,” Marmalade said. ”I’ll go, just, I need a minute.”

”For?” Roux said. ”Whatever intel you get on Koridia, you better tell me. But I have all the intel on her already, so it won’t be anything new to me.”

”You do have a lot of intel,” Marmalade said. Kalei, Roux, and Risa all were from the same town growing up. Marmalade felt a bit jealous about that, wishing she could have had that time with Kalei. Then maybe she would be sitting where Risa was instead of her.

”Tread carefully...whatever your last name is.” Roux said.

”It’s Whitton.” Marmalade said.

”Really?” Roux snickered.

”What’s so funny about that?” Marmalade asked.

”Oh...nothing much,” Roux said. ”But seriously. The path you walk on will probably be one of suckass. If you’d rather do something less suckass, I am going to test out my new claw on the next Cani tail I see.”

”Why a Cani tail?” Marmalade asked.

”I need to get good at grabbing a moving target,” Roux said. ”Michi bet me that I couldn’t take their glasses off of their face with this bad boy, so I need practice. This is the only way.”

”Surely there are other...” Marmalade shook her head. ”Never mind. I’ll...maybe catch up with you in a few.”

”Alrighty,” Roux said. ”If Faleur’s got the first Cani tail I see, you’ll be able to locate us by her shrieks.”

”That sounds...hm.”

Marmalade barely noticed when Roux left. She just kept glancing over at Kalei and Risa, still playing their games.

I should just go. This is being way too creepy, and I’m just making myself sad standing here.

A worming feeling worked its way into her gut.

Why is this making me sad? Shouldn’t I be happy that Kalei and Risa are getting along after all the drama? Doesn’t Kalei deserve something nice after all that stuff she went through? But still...

But still...

Before that thought could continue, she noticed Risa standing up. She tried to hear what they were saying, it sounded like goodbyes.

”Oh yeah, didn’t you have something you wanted to ’run by me’ or whatever?” Kalei asked.

”Right, I certainly did,” Risa said. ”I’ll get right to it. You wanna go out?”

The worming feeling in her gut got even worse, and she left before hearing Kalei’s answer, stinging tears rolled down her cheeks as she turned up her music to drown out everything around her.