Broken chocolate
Senarre opened her eyes; the morning light shone in through the window, lighting the room. She was hugging a pillow, and her leg was hanging off the bed, half covered by the sheets. She sat up in the bed, rubbing her eyes. She pulled herself to the edge of the bed and stepped onto the cool floor. She reached over for the top half of her pajamas and walked to the mirror, observing the bruise on the side of her chest she sustained during yesterday's training. She pulled the pajama shirt closed and buttoned it up before putting on the pair of plush slippers and opening her door. She walked out to a maid hanging paper hearts and flowers on the windowsill. She asked, “What's this?” The maid looked at her, confused, “Why its Xochiquetzal day, of course!” Senarre looked at her, confused, “What's that?” The maid smiled and said, "It's the goddess of Love, fertility, and other things.” Senarre, looking confused, said, “So it's like a holiday?” The maid shook her head and said, “Yes, couples and friends exchange gifts sometimes, sweets, and obviously just spending time with your lovers or anyone special to you. Lord Ryvr has given the rest of the day off to all of the staff.”
She walked past the decorating maid and down into the dining room. The Lorea siblings were seated at the end of the table, as were Ryvrs' wives and Kian and Paulida Vera and Carmilla. She walked in and pulled a plate off the table. After sitting down next to Vera, she asked her, “You're here for breakfast again?” Vera looked at her and smiled, “I'm going down into town with everyone later, wanna come?” Senarre thought for a second, staying quiet before saying, “Sure, why not?”
Rosario sat on the steps in the foyer of the manor, continuously flexing his right arm, generating and destroying a fine layer of jagged crystals on his forearm. He leaned back on the steps and exhaled a sigh. Ryvr sat down next to him with a tall glass filled with brown, creamy liquid and handed it to him. He took the glass from his brother. “What's this?” Ryvr took a sip from his glass. “Chocolate milk.” “You made this?” “It's one of Itzel's family recipes, but I swapped the water for milk and removed the chilli and served it cold and added a little bit of sugar, making it sweet and creamy.” Rosario took a sip from the glass. “Pretty good.” “Youre bored?” Rosario held out his hand, shifting the black stones between his fingers like iron sand on a magnet. “Yeah, without the morning training and then hanging around or going out, there's not much else to do around here, aside from the library, of course, but Carmilla has turned it into a nest pretty much, and she'll get mad if I move the books.” Ryvr’s eyes lit up. “I have a magnificently malicious musing.” Rosario turned to look at his brother. “And what's that?” Ryvr smiled deviously. “Why don't we tail the women through town to see if they get us anything for Xochiquetzal day?” Rosario thought for a second, “No, I don't think that would be right, I think that would be invading their privacy, and I don't know if that's ok.” “Oh come on, what could go wrong? It's not like we are doing anything bad its just a little jaunt through town, we could bring Paulida and Kian too.” He turned and looked to the ceiling and said, “You can come out now.”
Kian dropped from the ceiling. “How did you know I was there?” “There was a particularly Kian-shaped outline in the electromagnetic field in this room.” Rosario and Kian looked at him, confused, and in unison said, “What?” Ryvr smiled and said, “You'll learn about it later.” “So, what do you say, wanna go on an adventure?” The three walked up the stairs to Paulidas' room. He was sitting in the dark, looking out the window with a glass of semi-transparent amber liquid in his hand. Ryvr opened the door and said, “Wanna go on an adventure? We're gonna go see what the women are buying down in the town for the holiday.” Paulida turned around, “No, thank you, I'm not interested.” Ryvr leaned on the door, smugly said, “But you don't want to see what your beloved daughter is getting for someone on one of the two holidays of the year that the inner machinations of one's heart lies bare for all to see.” Paulida downed the rest of the glass and placed his hands on his knees, standing up with a grunt and a pop, and turned to Rosario, “If I had not known, I would have assumed your brother was some sort of demon or devil due to his persuasiveness.” Ryvr led them down to the foyer, where he disappeared briefly and brought out four parkas with fur hoods and neck gaiters emblazoned with the patch that said University of Morriak filmmaking dept. And enthusiastically said, “Today we are not Lorea, or Parker, or Paulida, today we are art students from Morriak making a documentary on the daily lives of the people of Lorategia.”
“I forgot I was gonna chew you out for giving me the worst fake identity from Forge, but now I think this is arguably worse,” Rosario said to his brother. Ryvr laughed it off and said, “Onwards, my men, onwards to glory.” Rosario looked at him flatly.
Senarre walked along the sidewalks, accompanied by five sharply dressed women and Vera in plainclothes. Vera elbowed her shoulder. “You know they probably think we are mercenary security.” “Who?” “Everyone who sees us walking with five women who are dressed like aristocrats.” Senarre looked confused at Vera, “What do you mean, these are my normal clothes?” She was wearing a pair of boots, long black denim pants, a black knit sweater, covered by a brown leather jacket, a white scarf around the neck, and a knitted wool hat. Vera looked her up and down. “You don't dress up? Like for anything? Dresses suits nothing?” “No, should I?” Vera looked at her with a saddened expression, “Sometimes it's nice to wear something that looks better than it functions.” Senarre looked confused. “But the leather jacket is perfect for hiding the crossdraw, and I'm not wearing it right now, but the denim pants are good for nothing catching on the thigh holster, boots are comfortable for long walks, and easy to move in.” Vera looked at her flatly. “Is that really the reason, or is it something else?” Senarre shook her head slowly. “Clothing stores don't often sell women's apparel in my size; everything is too short most of the time.” Vera looked off to the five women walking in front of her. “How tall are you anyway? Cause you're like 20cm taller than me at least,” Senarre looked off to the other side of the street and said, “about 187cm without boots on.” Vera said back, "It's cause you're a half, right?” She shook her head, “My mother was an elf of some sort, I can't really remember, everything is just flashes.”
The five people walking in front of them stopped at a store and went in. They continued their conversation. Vera walked in front before opening the door, and as Senarre turned, out of the corner of her eyes, she saw four figures in white parkas with cameras and badges that said “University filmmaking dept.”
Vera checked the corners of the store, exits, and entrances, and walked back to Senarre, who was sifting through a rack of pullover sweaters with a “-25%” sign “Anyways this place is clear, Ryvr has me as security sometimes but in Lorategia its extremely safe because if there was a man who could seemingly summon a thunder storm to strike you down living in the manor on the hill would you try to do crime?” Vera looked at Senarre with a malicious grin, “I think it's time for a makeover.” Senarre held her hands out, waving nervously, sweating, “Oh no, I think it's fine, I think I'll stick to the discount aisle.”
The four of them were camped out in a snowbank on the other side of the street. Kian was picking at his fingernails. “I thought there was gonna be chocolate.” Ryvr was watching through a pair of binoculars disguised as a camera. “I can't see anything,” he exhaled disappointedly. He handed the binoculars to his brother. Rosario said, “No shit, it's a clothing store, they're probably trying on clothes or something, meaning they're not buying you anything here.” Paulida drank from a flask from his parka. Rosario turned to him, “You ok, Paulida? You've been drinking a lot recently.” Paulida rolled over in the snowbank to look at him. “Yes, I'm fine, it's just that the liquor helps keep my body warm with the cold, you'll understand when you're older.”
Vera yelled out, “alright lets see this then.” She pulled open the curtain to reveal Senarre with a brilliant jade green dress, sunglasses, and snaking ornamental bracers resembling the pattern of flames, she said, blushing her ears beet red. “i dont think this fits quite right,” she was holding down the front of the dress. Vera said, “Nonsense, let go.” She let go, and Vera's face dropped. “Yea we gotta get you a longer one, you're not leaving much up to the imagination-” she stopped, and her eyes lit up, “wait here,” she ran off and came back a moment later, waving around a pair of white denim pants and a set of nice black high-heeled boots. She tossed them over the curtain and said, “Change.”
Senarre opened the curtain with the white pants under the dress and the pair of black boots that went up to the shin. Vera looked at her and smiled, “It's almost there. Can you spin around for me?” She spun in a circle. Vera, with her hand on her chin, said, “Missing something, needs an accent piece.” She ran off and came back with a studded black denim jacket to cover her exposed shoulders and arms. “Perfect,” she said, “step out of the dressing room.” She stepped out. Her normal, tall self was even taller in the high-heeled boots. Vera looked up at her and said “Mo-?” quietly under her breath. Senarre Looked down on her from above. “What?” “nothing.”
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“I told you, Ryvr theres nothing fun going on lets go home theres nothing going on here.” Ryvr was leaning over the snowbank, watching with his binoculars disguised as a camera. “Aww, you're gonna miss your elven companion dressed to the nines.” Rosario sulked for a bit, saying, "You're just trying to guilt me into guilty compliance, aren't you?” Ryvr shook his head, “No im just merely an observer, a bit of a shame you don't wanna see her outfit though.” Rosario lay against the snow, his arms crossed. He exhaled, “Ugh, fine,” and peeked out with the binoculars, “wow.”
The seven of them walked into the store selling sweets of all sorts, chocolates, cakes, breads, and the like. Senarre walked in behind Vera. “What are you supposed to do on the holiday? You just buy stuff for your loved ones?” Vera picked a small piece of wrapped chocolate off a bin and began reading its label, “Pretty much that's the gist of it, you buy stuff for your loved ones and the likes. As a kid, every year I would get Little Lorea some sour candy strings that were like little strips and chewy. One year, I tried to make them myself and didn't let the maids or anyone help me, and got this.” She pulled down her shirt a little to show a burn just below her left collarbone. “hurt like a bitch. The melted sugar burned so much that I was 13 and crying like a toddler.” Senarre picked up a box of chocolates. “So I just buy gifts for everyone, then that's the whole point of the holiday?” Vera picked up a second bar of chocolate “not quite the gift isnt what matters its who gives it to you really, like Ryvr is probably out there somewhere watching pretending that he cares about what his wives are getting him or something but in reality he doesn't give a shit and is just doing it for the sake of A either going along with the holiday and being in a festive spirit or somehow dragging Little Lorea into a scheme somehow.”
Rosario and Ryvr both sneezed at the same time. Paulida pulled a tissue out of his jacket pocket. “You two are going to get sick being in the cold if you're already starting to sneeze.” Ryvr turned around his head in his palms and kicked his legs. “I'm sure it's just my wives talking about how much they love me.” he smiled smugly and continued looking at the binocular camera.
Senarre walked to the counter with a small bag of sweets. The little old lady behind the counter said, “And who are you buying for on this nice day?” Senarre went silent for a moment in thought, “Some for my friends and some for my dad. That's what the creme liqueur chocolates are for, he really seems to like his different flavors of liquor recently.” The little old lady behind the counter leaned over and whispered, “Here, look, I'll give you this as a treat for the holiday, a gift from me to you, and hopefully from you to another.” She threw a small foil-wrapped chocolate in the shape of a heart with a dotted line down the center. The little old lady smiled and said, “You give half to someone special to you, and you both eat it together.”
Senarre and Vera walked along the sidewalks again as a masked man ran by and snatched the purse of an elderly woman walking along the road. Vera ran to assist the elderly woman, and Senarre ran down the man with the purse in his arm. She reached into her jacket as Vera said, “No shooting.” She caught up to the man who tried to punch her. She caught his fist and twisted it down, kicking at the man's knee, causing him to fall to the ground. The man regained his bearings on the ground only to be met by the barrel of a revolver. “Gods, you're absolutely insane, lady. You ran me down and then pulled a gun on me.” She shrugged, “And they told me not to shoot.” Vera caught up with her. “You're faster now, I guess. Ryvr beating your asses for days on end helped you for the better.” “You told me not to shoot him.” The man walked over and handed the purse back to the elderly woman, and walked off sulking. He turned the corner to see four men in white parkas with their faces covered. Ryvr lowered the scarf on his face, revealing it, and smiled as the man got scared and ran off frantically.
“Why didn't you let me shoot him?” Vera looked at her, confused. “Cleaning up a body with the local police is harder than just putting the fear of death into someone and sending them on their way.” “Aww man, I think I broke all of my chocolates running after the guy.” Senarre reached into the paper bag that held all of the sweets she had bought, most of which had been crushed to chunks resembling woodchips. Vera frowned and said, “Oh, well, chocolate is still chocolate, you can still eat it,” in an attempt to cheer her up.
Rosario sat in his room splicing the two wires together, attached to a small chunk of black stone he chipped off his hand, unlike previous instances of it falling to dust, the chunk held its shape after falling from his body. He wrapped wires around it and connected it to a small bulb. It lit up faintly before dimming and turning off. He wrote in pencil on a sheet of scrap paper a series of equations before laying down the pencil. “So you gonna go up to the observatory to see the fireworks ?” Senarre stood in the doorway to his room and, proceeding to walk around the room, she picked up a small box with wires from the bed. “What's this?” he turned around in the swiveling chair “Its like an optical illusion it was a theory i was working up at the birdcage it has to do with the capture of mana and dispersion ideally to be used for stealth on a ship but it could in theory be a bomb” “does it work?” he shook his head “No the amount of mana draw makes it impractical so unless you got a big ass reactor or are snaking dozens of them together and have an even bigger ass reactor it wont work” “what about the bomb function?” “nah it should not be possible for a bomb to be made out of it, it would need to be like the size of a room or something and have an entire cities worth of mana production to work, like i said just theories on theories but mostly its a side project that i left and just came back to im not the creator of the tech just tinkering with it, one of the scientists in the birdcage made it and i thought it was interesting so i appropriated some lab equipment.” “You didn't answer my question you coming to the observatory to see the fireworks over the city? Eshara told me you could see it from the west wing's observatory balcony.” Rosario leaned back in his chair. “Maybe I'm not sure, not much special its just the same fireworks that they do every year.” She walked towards the door and said, “I'll be up there if you wanna see the fireworks then.”
The cracking of the fireworks had begun in audible bursts through the windows of the manor. Ryvr appeared behind Rosario like a vengeful spirit tapping his shoulders, “You know I think you're kinda dense, brother.” he looked up from the book on his desk. “Why?” Ryvr, twisting a lock of braided hair on his finger, said, “Oh, because a girl asked you to watch fireworks and your dumbass turned her down to sit and do nothing but look at words on a page.” “Does it really matter that much?” Ryvr threw himself onto the bed. “I'm starting to think you not only have a fear of your own emotions but also total social ineptitude.” he turned around, his eyebrow twitching. “Why did you come here? Just to annoy me ?” Ryvr smiled, “Because I'm bored, my wives said they were setting up a sunrise for me and told me I couldn't be in the bedroom or they'd and I quote leave me in no state to walk for a week, so i came to do the next best thing, play matchmaker and Vera is out with FSOC because they said they were doing a pub crawl so I couldn't annoy anyone else.” “why should i go to see the fireworks with her?” Ryvr jumped the edge of the bed and said, “Well, I certainly think it would help for you to do something other than read on a holiday, especially this holiday.” Rosario pushed out the swivel chair and stood up. “Alright then, I'm gonna prove you wrong and go watch the fireworks then.” Ryvr clapped, “There we go, finally, do your thing.” Rosario began walking to the door and opened it, stepping into the hallway. Ryvr tore past him in a burst of speed standing in the doorway he left behind, “good job baby brother, don't forget to use protection unless you're planning a wedding” Rosario walked down the hall raising his right hand over his shoulder and lowering all but the finger in the middle of his hand. Ryvr pouted and said, “You're so rude to your beloved older brother.”
Rosario opened the door to the observatory. Senarre was sitting on the balcony, hanging her legs off it. He jokingly said, “What are you doing?” She turned around and tapped the floor next to her, “watching the fireworks join me?” he walked over and sat down, and they watched for a moment in silence. She extended her arm out with a brown paper bag inside was an assortment of broken pieces of chocolate. He stuck his hand in and grabbed a handful, throwing it into his mouth. The flavor was bitter, sweet, sour, and fruity all at once. “What is this?” She shrugged, “Mystery chocolates, I chased down a purse thief earlier, and I dropped my chocolates, and they got all crushed up.” “Not bad,” they sat in silence for a moment, watching the fireworks. He exhaled, “I'm conflicted.” She looked at him, “What's wrong?” “im thinkin of leaving, taking you up on your offer, you know, going with you and Paulida and seeing the world.” She looked at him flatly, “For real, we would be a force to be reckoned with thats for sure, the god of black stones and the silent death.” He exaggerated a motion like being stabbed in the heart, “Don't tell me Ryvr got to you too?” She smiled, “nah those will be our titles like Uncle Tex’s or the Mortal Blade, what do you think?” He scratched his chin. “I don't know about mine, what about Kian and Paulida and Carmilla?” She thought for a second, “I don't know, i didnt think of them in my vision of the distant future, is that bad?” He shook his head, “no i dont think so, just means I'm the best.” She laughed slightly, “I think your brother got to you now.” He frowned and looked at her, “You ready for tomorrow?” She shook her head, “Thank you, Lorea, for everything you've done to this point. You didn't have to do it; you couldve left me out to dry in Forge, we couldve died in the castle. Why did you help me?” “Hmm, I did it because it was the right thing to do. If you were going to help me I should help you, besides were even because you helped me with my visions and nightmares in Serinissima.” she went quiet for a moment “then I guess there's no one I'd rather share this with then, you got my back and i got yours after this business with the lich and demon lets travel the world maybe become the strongest along the way somewhere there. We'll start a guild and buy a really big headquarters, maybe a castle, and we'll have a big airship and a yacht. Maybe I think that would be cool, imagine sunbathing out on the deck of one of those puppies.”
She handed over the chocolate heart with the dotted linen down the center. She took one side, and he took the other, and both pushed down on it, but it broke in half across the dotted line instead of down it. She held up the broken piece of chocolate, “to kicking the ass of that demon a second time.” he tapped his against hers, “To good fortune on the mission then,” he leaned on her shoulder.