Galaxy of Hyperion: Mystic Heir

Chapter Nineteen: Secrets Shared

Jay didn't stop moving away from the tavern until the din of people and alcohol was but a distant memory. She found herself on the outskirts of the town, and she immediately chastised herself for not thinking to go back to her room in her moment of brief anger and panic. Instead of continuing to walk around though, Jay simply sat down, and she closed her eyes before pressing her face into her hands. She was on the curb of the outside street of the town, and while she was normally opposed to sitting down on the side of the road this way, she was too distressed and upset by Jubilee's explanation of events to bother even giving a second thought to her regular morality. 

Jay continued to press down on her eyes with her fingers until she saw stars in the darkness that had consumed her vision, and she pulled her hands away with an aggravated sigh. This was not what she had wanted. She would have expected to hear about something this important sooner, but it seemed that the universe had other plans for her. It wasn't her fault that such knowledge had managed to evade her, but it bothered her regardless. She suspected that everyone who was running the show there had moved in while she was occupied with finding Lana and Ronan, and since they had been forced to deal with Cloudpeak, Jay had no way of learning about what was taking place back at the palace where this had all began. 

Someone sat down to Jay's side, and she looked up to see that Lana had taken a seat beside her. Arian appeared on her other side, and Ronan sat on Arian's other side, creating a row of four misfits on the side of the road. Jay glanced back and forth at them before shaking her head and closing her eyes. "Sorry about running off," she eventually managed to say, though she couldn't bring herself to be fully apologetic. There was too much running through her head to bother with such formalities. All she wanted to know was why this had happened. Who had thought it was a good idea to take over the palace in the first place?

"Why did you leave so suddenly?" Ronan questioned. His eyes were wide with curiosity in a sincere way that made Jay's stomach twist. Even though she was averse to talking about the past, she wasn't sure if she would be able to avoid his pleading gaze for much longer than she already had. Everything about Ronan was simply too pure and sweet for her to try and block it out. 

Jay still didn't answer his question immediately though. Instead, she swallowed dryly to try and ground herself back in reality. She wanted to go back to her room and hide until she was either ready to confront this issue or had the power to hide from it. She wasn't sure which one was going to come first though, so she was going to have to deal with the worried gazes of her companions. 

"I just didn't expect to hear about that," Jay finally said slowly, choosing her words carefully to make sure that nobody found them to be strange. She felt strange about this, and even dancing close to the truth of her past was unfamiliar to her. She wanted to drop the subject, but she couldn't help the way that everyone was begging her silently for assistance in understanding why she had gotten so upset. 

Then there was the matter of Lana. Jay couldn't bring herself to look over to the other girl because she could feel Lana's eyes on her no matter how much she tried to escape and ignore it. Lana was going to tell her to talk about her issues instead of bottling them up, and even if Jay knew that she had an issue with this, she couldn't bring herself to mention it. She had been keeping everything secret for so long that she didn't even know how to start in saying where she had come from. 

"Do you know something about that place?" Arian questioned, though Jay could tell that he already knew the answer. It was obviously in the affirmative even if the details yet eluded the rest of the group. She was the only one who would be able to tell them, but actually bringing herself to talk about it was far easier said than done. 

Jay was silent at first as she tried to formulate a response. "I don't want to talk about it," she muttered. This was true in a way that she couldn't ever fully describe. The pain was too fresh and raw, and even coming close to it made her feel as if she was going to be sick. Why did the universe insist on treating her this way? She absolutely despised it.