“You look uncomfortable.”
Blinking back into the present, Olivier glanced at Halen Mhrina, who had fallen in beside him from his previous place trailing behind Emilia and Lan’za after the forr had complained yet again that she could feel Halen staring at her butt. Olivier wasn’t sure if her forr classmate had been staring at her butt as they climbed, but each half-teasing, half-serious remark on it had his own sha rising: Olivier had definitely found his eyes flickering back to Emilia’s ass a number of tis, despite his best efforts.
Humming noncommittally, Olivier turned his eyes back to the climb; it wouldn’t do to trip because he was analyzing the attractive young man’s supposed staring. “Do you know why we’re on the trip?” he asked, unsure why he was even talking to Halen Mhrina about this. He wasn’t one of Olivier’s students—Olivier wasn’t even sure why he was accompanying them, nor how he had enough confidence to do so without even asking permission. Yet, he had talked to Olivier first, and that was… rare.
“Emilia said sothing about seeing how Free Colonies punish criminals.”
“Sothing like that,” Olivier agreed, letting one of his professional skills shudder outwards, tucking their words away from listening ears… in theory, anyways.
“You know this won’t keep nosy silverstrains out, right?” Halen Mhrina asked, amusent laced through his deep voice, a laughter rumbling out of him when Emilia turned to glare at him. He stuck out his tongue—pierced, Olivier noticed—at her, the brief look of shock that passed over the girl’s face before she stuck hers out in return betraying what Olivier had already suspected: sothing about the way Halen Mhrina was behaving towards her wasn’t in line with what she expected. “I can give you a few skills that’ll stump her… for a bit. She’s the sort to see not being able to counter a skill, if only for herself, as a challenge. Honestly, she can counter most public skills, and a significant number of private ones.”
Axelle had tried to convince Halen Mhrina to give her a few of the skill he wasn’t releasing to the public; the man had refused. So, why was he offering them now? Perhaps just to ss with Emilia? Lan’za had said they had a long, complicated history…
“Thank you…” Olivier said, accepting the skills Halen Mhrina imdiately sent over.
There were three; the most useful one, which he imdiately activated, would allegedly keep Emilia out of conversations. It was soft and smooth, just as the few other skills Olivier had used from Hail were. When he had described them like that to Axelle, she had told him he was crazy; apparently, normal people didn’t notice such subtleties in their skills—not unless they were hackers themselves, anyways.
Well, Olivier had never been normal and Halen Mhrina’s skills slid so easily through his Censor and the world alike that it was like art: precise and purposeful and filled with passion.
The second of the skills seed designed to solidify the user’s stance so they couldn’t be dragged off. It was a combination of a counter skill—an oversized note in the manual saying it didn’t counter a number of Black Knot skills, although it did apparently counter two that had been pulled from general use due to a hacker releasing counter skills several years earlier—and a general fortifying skill.
“Will this counter the skills Emilia has been using to manhandle ?” Olivier asked, heat rising over his chest and face when Halen Mhrina laughed, the sound deep and full.
“Used those on you, has she?” The man leaned forward, smiling up at Olivier for a second before launching into a story about how Emilia had so many skills for manhandling and beating people up that he doubted anyone could ever design a skill capable of stopping her, if she really wanted them moved. “And that’s not even taking all the Black Knot skills she knows into account—although she generally doesn’t use any of those unless it's necessary.”
“What makes it necessary?”
“Hm… like the person needs to be arrested? They’re being unsafe? Sothing serious. Manhandling you around… When was she manhandling you?”
Awkwardly, Olivier gave the younger man a slightly bumbling explanation of the few tis his pseudo-student had manhandled him. Usually, it was when he was attempting to remove her from class. Suddenly, she would have him turned around or broken from his hold. Half the ti, she then either bolted out of class or back to her seat. The only ti she had manhandled Olivier outside of class, she had tugged his arm until he toppled into a chair outside the café they were both headed into, all so she could get into the queue first.
“Doubt she was using anything too serious in class. Toss up on the café—Emilia simultaneously takes food really seriously and treats it like the most unimportant thing in the universe. Seriously, did she even tell you she didn’t eat at before the trip?”
Olivier shook his head. Realistically, he should that guessed, based on the various food he had seen the girl eat over the last few weeks.
“Yeah, and she probably never would have. Emilia would have gone the entire trip eating barely anything before telling you she won’t eat half the food available—maybe more, depending on where you end up. At the sa ti, when she finds out I gave you her candy, she’ll probably use a Black Knot skill getting it back.”
That was… good to know.
As for the third skill…
“This seems… intrusive,” Olivier noted, glancing through the notes on the skill, which were far more disorganized than Halen Mhrina’s skills had been. “Is this—”
“One of Emilia’s skills? Yeah, and yeah, it is intrusive. That one you should actually tell her I gave you—I don’t think she’d appreciate you using it on her without at least knowing you have it, but if she needs it used on her, she won’t feel too bad about it.” As though the man could read his mind, Halen Mhrina went on to explain that it had been designed for use both on herself and a friend who was an ECC Dyad, although it could be used to brute force anyone having a panic attack out of it.
“Is this the friend whose parents are threatening to keep him after he ages out of their care?” Olivier asked, frowning when Halen Mhrina confird it was.
“I don’t know much about that—Emilia and I don’t really share any friends, but Sion is a sweetheart that only an asshole wouldn’t like or be nice to—but his parents suck… like, a lot. I think most people don’t really see it as anything more than a disregard for their son, but they’re one of the families in The Penns who clearly have purist leanings, if you know what to look for.”
Olivier humd in understanding. Usually, people didn't see those sorts of beliefs or leanings unless they were directly affected. Even famous as he was, his Grey Sander heritage only ever guessed at, he occasionally t with people who took his lack of denial of such claims as confirmation. The only people who ever assud as much were the ones who would take it as a chance to talk about how much they hated Gray Sanders, although most weren’t so explicit with their hatred—purists were exceptionally good at choosing their words so they could deny accusations of hatred as needed, while also signalling to other purists their beliefs and making anyone they deed too different feel small.
For Halen Mhrina and his family, who wore their heritage with pride, despite their generations of distance from the culture itself, would certainly experience their share of the open hostility few people ever saw or acknowledged or even believed existed. If Emilia were close friends with this Sion, how much hatred must she have received from his parents as well?
“Why are you helping ?” Olivier asked, sliding a glance at Halen Mhrina once more.
The other man’s gaze was locked on Emilia’s back, although despite Emilia’s claims that he was so totally staring at her ass, Olivier didn’t think he was. What he saw in Halen Mhrina’s eyes was softer—more affectionate; so affectionate that he was left wondering how it was that Emilia didn’t see it, that she had apparently brushed aside Lan’za allegation that her forr classmate felt sothing more for her for years. Clearly, Halen Mhrina didn’t want her as only a friend.
It took a long ti for Halen Mhrina to finally speak again, the pair of them climbing in what Olivier would almost say was companionable silence. It wasn’t awkward, nor did he feel like the man was avoiding his question; rather, it seed that he simply needed ti to collect his thoughts, or perhaps to decide how much to share of Emilia’s past with him.
“Emilia…” Halen Mhrina finally began, his tongue swiping across his lips and giving Olivier the strange urge to force lip chap onto the younger man. “She’s bad about taking care of herself, and while she can be annoying and pushy, it’s her way of connecting to people. It took a long ti to realize that our pranking one another… yeah, so of it was animosity—my friends in school had a long history of not being very nice to her or her friends—but so of it was just playing with . The two of us… we’re two of the only people who can code at the level we do. Our prank war is sothing that could only have ever existed between us, and without it, neither of us would be the people or hackers we are today. Our ti in school… I wouldn’t give it up for anything, yet, I honestly think that until a few hours ago, she thought I hated her and never wanted to see or play with her again.”
Halen Mhrina’s golden eyes turned his way, so much soft affection there that Olivier’s heart turned over; how could Emilia have ever thought this man hated her?
“She’s in your care, maybe for the next week, maybe for the next year if you take her case, and don’t take this the wrong way, but she has broken tougher n than you. Hurinren once chased her through Dion and threw her into the dungeons when he caught her.”
“What.” Was that a question? It hadn’t sounded like a question to Olivier’s ringing ears.
Emilia knew Hurinren? The Blood Rain General’s heir? The one student who, in nearly three hundred years of the Terror of Dion training students, had actually managed to impress his teacher enough to be given the title of heir? Emilia had once pissed the non-dev off enough for him to throw her in the dungeon? While Hurinren was known for his quick temper, Olivier had mostly heard of him leaving functions early or abandoning fawning dignitaries. Never had he heard of the man doing sothing like chasing a powerful diplomat’s child down and throwing them into the dungeons!
Sowhere in the background of his buzzing thoughts, Olivier’s Censor was cataloguing whatever Halen Mhrina was saying—sothing about hearing the story second hand from soone nad Yujao, who had visited The Penns a few sumrs back in order to escape renewed interest in his father’s definitely not suspicious death—but Olivier was more concerned with the reality that he was taking Emilia into a Free Colony where she apparently had already made an enemy of one of its most powerful citizens? Possibly two—Olivier had no idea if the Blood Rain General himself was liable to hold a grudge against the girl for whatever had driven his student to lose his head to such an extent.
“Hey, you okay?”
Olivier blinked back into the mont, realizing that he had stopped walking, his class having left him behind. Emilia and Lan’za had slowed their steps, the forr glancing back at him with a small frown, while Halen Mhrina peered up at him.
“Yes,” Olivier replied, forcing his voice and face into the perfect imitation of neutrality that he had mastered through decades spent under his mother’s oppression, under the snide remarks from his classmates and even the occasional teacher. “Thank you, Halen Mhrina, for the skills and information.” Most likely, it ca out colder than he would have liked, but the strain racing through his body that he hadn’t considered that Emilia might have enemies the continent over when she was clearly skilled at making them and had spent most of her life travelling with her father—
“Don’t worry about it. I don’t know if Emilia and Hurinren are friends, exactly, but this was over a decade ago, and she’s been back plenty of tis. She’s even taken friends to visit, and Emilia doesn’t take her friends anywhere dangerous if she can help it.”
The two of them blinked at each other for a mont, Olivier contemplating if Halen Mhrina were able to read his mind—or, perhaps, if he had dropped a virus into his Censor when sending over those skills. He didn’t think so, but…
“And you can call Halen, if you like.” The man smiled once more, bright and fucking stars was he an obnoxiously good-looking man. Olivier knew he was attractive, but next to Halen Mhrina—Halen; just Halen—he felt like a normal human. Just as Emilia called all attention to her through her sunshine and chaos, Halen had the sa feeling, and yet entirely different. Halen was more a calm ocean, pulling people towards him before swallowing them into his depths.
“Alright, Halen. You can call Olivier as well.”
Halen’s smile brightened just a little more. He wasn’t pure sunshine like Emilia, but there was a bit in there, hidden under his cocky grins and accusing eyebrows.
“Great! Now, Olivier~ perhaps you’ll let give you a few more skills and functions to help you manage our bratty little silverstrain?”
User Comments
0 comments from readers