The Heart Of Asariel

8 || Game

Despite Micah's newfound lightness, the night still dragged by in an endless cycle of tossing and turning and readjusting. He must have snatched some sleep, though, because he opened his eyes to the sight of a little rounded cake balanced on the arm of his chair. He devoured it in a few bites. It was even sweeter than the ones he remembered, leaving a wonderful tingle on his tongue. Maybe trouble tasted a little like cake.

The joy it brought rapidly faded as the day continued at the same sluggish pace. Corinne rose not long after the sun, but she barely cast him two words, muttering something about checking the situation before leaving with her rifle in hand. Nerves twisted with the vivid memory of a pistol pushed against his chin choked his request to join her, although as the next lonely hour stretched out before him, regret broke it apart. He wandered back and forth in lazy strides, humming a tuneless melody, until its notes leapt high and fast enough to send him meandering towards the door.

Rivo caught him prying it open, although one glimpse of the greyed, shadow-strewn street might well have been enough to discourage him anyway. Even in daylight, Duine was speckled by darkness.

At least the man was lenient enough to provide answers to the few questions Micah could piece together. Mistress Rajan -- or Khalida, although Corinne was among very few who used her first name freely -- and the family that came before her had always held some kind of control over Anhren's workings, but only over the past few years had she begun to tighten her grip on the city. People either swore loyalty to her, poisoned by her corrupted ideals, or lived in fear of her. Josephine's reaction to Corinne was easy to understand now; to many more like her, every stranger around a corner was one of Rajan's lackeys come to steal what little they had. Such despair was a foreign concept to Micah, and yet the more he heard, the wider the pit in his stomach grew.

Khalida Rajan was a demon blood, for certain. She had to be. But so many other humans weren't, and yet they suffered while she thrived.

It wasn't right.

But it isn't my place to care, he reminded himself, repeating it more solidly to stamp down the squirming of his heart. His kind had chosen to abandon humans when he was barely a child. If they had forgotten right and wrong in the absence of guidance, then that was the way it had to be.

Micah was no guardian angel. The dancer could control only his own movements, not the song that blared around him. He was here to weave his way through, fetch his prize, and disappear.

And yet, when Corinne slipped back inside in tight silence, shadows gouged under her murky eyes, he couldn't help the desire to seize her by the wrists and guide her out with him.

Daylight had streamed through the windows bright and warm for some time before Lilith and Kasper surfaced from upstairs. They rushed eagerly to explain the modifications they'd made to the device, most of which flowed senselessly over Micah's head, although he was more distracted by watching Kasper anyway. His bouncy excitement betrayed nothing of last night's occurrence. The only incline was the downward twitch of his smile as his eyes met Micah's, a sharp breath sucked in before he papered over the crack.

A dark thread of curiosity tainted the satisfaction he'd felt previously. Whatever trouble Kasper kept hidden, it wasn't the usual sort. Trouble didn't have such jagged edges.

But Micah had promised to say nothing, and he didn't plan on breaking that. Not that he would have had the chance anyway. Before he knew it, Corinne was squeezing him into the coat again, and then he was being marched outside, his curiosity soon whisked away by the dust-ridden air and gravel digging into his feet. Lilith strode ahead, Kasper scampering at her side and poring over her device, while Rivo strapped a pistol to each hip and took up the rear. Even yesterday, Micah might have felt somewhat trapped with the four of them surrounding him, but he was beginning to see that the city they shielded him from was a far greater danger. Tense as he was, having Corinne at his side felt safer than anything else.