Keeper of the Lost Cities: Rebuild [COMPLETED]

Chapter Thirty-Eight - DEX

Dex hated getting a block. He hated it more than he hated not being able to do something, because at least then he knew it was impossible. When it came to a block, however, it was the knowledge that you could do it, yet something was holding you back. It was truly being helpless, and he hated it more than anything.

Pru shuffled behind his desk, and he dropped the addler part he'd been toying with. "If you want to say something, you can say it." He forced his tone to be even, but all he felt was anger. He'd been going through phases; loneliness, emptiness, now fury. The worst part was, he didn't even know who he was furious at.

"I tried not to listen, but, um, I remember you and Biana Vacker fighting," Pru said. "And, uh, Lady Amy mentioned how the real problem wasn't being addressed—"

"What do you care?" Dex flinched at the sound of his voice; he'd let the rage slip through. "Don't answer that. I'm sorr—"

"No, I want to answer," she interrupted. "The thing is, I'm a Hafta. I'm not supposed to be friends with a Wayward, or the child of a Talentless couple, and I'm not supposed to love the Vackers. I'm supposed to be proper, uncontroversial, and kind. My parents tell me that—I'm supposed to be kind. When my mom wants to filter what students get accepted into Foxfire according to her subjective sense of what makes someone worthy or not, and my dad probably does his own horrible things for the Council. I'm supposed to be a Hafta—pretending to be for the people, but when their backs are turned, I'm actually only for myself. And I don't want to be that—I don't want to be my mom or my dad.

"I actually admired Della and Biana Vacker before I met Stormy and Jeri, but I had to keep it a secret or else I would have been disowned. Disowned for looking up to one of the Moonlark's friends and her mother! That's when things started nagging at me, these little things my parents would do or say. But I ignored it, because I was scared. Scared of what they would do to me if they found out, sure, but also because everything I'd been taught suddenly felt like the real blasphemy. Not mingling with a Talentless. Not seeing a Wayward as equal. Not 'Vacker-praise.'

"I don't know Biana, and I don't know you, but I've heard stories—all three of us: Jeri, Stormy, and I. And what you guys did when the Neverseen was here... It's made us brave. Brave enough to stand up for what's right, and not what we've always known. So getting to actually talk to you guys for the first time... It's big for me. It's something I've dreamt of for a long time. And I guess I'm just disappointed you're fighting, that's all."

She blushed and looked away.

Dex felt his frustration subsiding. He knew firsthand what it was like to meet the Vackers, to look up to them only to be disappointed. Once he'd gotten to know Fitz and Biana, they'd become friends—and even more—but Pru didn't have that. She only had her dreams, and she'd just found out they weren't reality.

But it was another thing to be placed in the same category as Biana. He wasn't a hero—he'd only been Sophie's friend. He never even considered her the Moonlark, and when he heard others addressing her that way, he'd never considered himself as the "Moonlark's friend." In his mind, there was only Sophie. In some way, Pru was calling him a legend—but he didn't deserve to be one.

"I know it probably seems weird to meet someone like me," she murmured.

"'Someone like you'?"

"Yeah. Someone who's heard your story or whatever. I'm sure not all of it is true, but you did help save Eternalia from the Everblaze, right?"

"That... was mostly my father. But I helped with some ingredients, I suppose."

"And what about breaking into Exile to save Prentice Endal? Your gadgets made that possible."