Veylor had woken up forty minutes ago and been moved down the hall. The other expedition mber who was a reincarnator had also co around and been relocated.
But... Apollo was breathing steadily in the room’s single bed, his chest rising and falling with the even rhythm of soone deeply under rather than injured. He hasn’t woken up yet, and of course, it was because of soone’ doing.
Mireya sat in the chair beside the bed and looked at him.
’Why... why didn’t Apollo wake up like the others...?’ Mireya thought. ’Is this so kind of karma for ...?’
’Miss Elizabeth said that Apollo had it worse just because he was the Apostle of Life...’ Mireya clenched her fists. ’Why does everything start to go downhill when that man is around...?’
The door opened behind her. She didn’t need to look to know who it was.
"He’s not waking up," she said, and for now she didn’t want to accuse him.
"Yeah, seems like it," Rex said.
"Veylor woke up, and... the other one woke up." She was looking at Apollo. "The suppression should be wearing off at the sa rate as them."
"It should," Rex said.
The room remained silent. Mireya glanced at Apollo, then shifted her gaze to the floor, and finally looked at Rex, her expression revealing that she had repeated the sa calculation and reached the sa conclusion twice.
"The ring," she said.
Rex said nothing.
"The suppression doesn’t fade on its own," she said. "It fades when the ring stops putting out the field, and you have the ring."
"I know it..." Her voice was very controlled. "It’s you... You’re keeping him under."
Rex looked at her without confirmation or denial.
"... ..."
"Please say sothing!" she said. "Don’t leave hanging like this!"
"You already know the answer," Rex said. "And... you don’t need to confirm it."
Mireya gritted her teeth with her fists clenched hard. "I want to hear you say it!"
"Why’s that?" Rex said. "Are you going to accuse again like before?"
"Because I want to know if you’re at least honest about it."
"I’m always honest when there’s no cost to honesty," Rex said. "Although, it is true that I have the ring."
"The suppression is active because I have chosen to keep it that way. Apollo will awaken when I decide it’s ti for him to wake up."
Mireya stared at him. "You’re just going to say it like that."
"You asked to say it, right?" Rex said. "There you go, I said it."
"Why...?" she said. "Why do you do this to ...? To Apollo...?"
"Because you were going to keep talking," Rex said. "And if Apollo wakes up and hears your version of events before the context is established, the conversation becos significantly more complicated."
He paused just to look at the ring. "The suppression isn’t harmful, and I know it because I already studied about it."
"He’s in a resting state, and he’ll be entirely functional the mont it releases."
Mireya’s hands rested flat on her knees, her jaw clenched tightly. She glanced at Apollo, then turned her gaze to Rex, her expression reflecting the realization of a truth she had hoped was not the case.
"This is exactly what I said," she said. "I said this in front of Miss Elizabeth and all of them."
"And nobody believed ."
"I know," Rex said. "But it’s too late for you because my reputation is already at its highest."
"You never learn from soone close, huh...?" Rex walks closer. "I already have everyone’s good opinion, while Apollo is still in between good and bad because of ’that’ incident."
"You were making claims you couldn’t prove at the ti," Rex said. "This is a different situation."
"This is the sa situation," Mireya said. "It’s been the sa situation the entire ti." ’
"You do things and then you make sure no one can verify them!" Mireya pointed at him. "I know that there’s sothing wrong with you...! You are a manipulative man!"
"Well, yes," Rex said. "That’s accurate."
Mireya studied him, noting the flatness of his acknowledgnt. It felt different from a typical argunt. She had braced herself for deflection or an explanation.
Instead, she encountered a man who simply agreed.
"You’re not even going to try to defend yourself," she said. "So it is true..."
"From what, huh?" Rex said. "You’re in a room alone with and a person I’m choosing to keep unconscious."
"You already know what I’m doing and why." Rex raised both his arms. "Defending myself to you right now would be a performance for an audience of one who already has the complete information."
He looked at her. "Why would I even fucking bother?"
Mireya was quiet.
"You want to act like I’m accountable to you," Rex said. "I’m not."
"The people I’m accountable to are the people whose trust I need and whose trust I have."
"You are not currently in that group."
"Apollo would be," Mireya said, "if he were awake."
"Womp, womp... Apollo trusts ," Rex said. "I know what Apollo’s position is, and I want you to rember that they said I was the savior who prevented your boyfriend from being punished in Aethelgard."
"His position right now is not going to produce the outco you’re hoping for, which is why the order of events matters."
"You’ve thought about this carefully," Mireya said.
"I think about everything carefully," Rex said. "That’s how I live, but for you... not so much because of how naive you are."
She remained quiet for a long mont as she looked at his face, and then she spoke. "From that expression and words..."
"You want sothing from to make Apollo wake up, huh?" She said it with a flat and direct tone, the tone of soone who has decided that clarity is more productive than anything else.
Rex crossed to the chair beside hers and sat down. "You stood in front of that group tonight and said things that are accurate, but I would prefer not to be accurate within their shared understanding."
"The damage is manageable but real," he paused. "Tomorrow morning, you will look at Talyra, Aisella, and Nerith, knowing that they spent their evening believing you made a poor decision from a disadvantageous position."
"That’s a weight you’re going to carry for a long ti in a network of people where my account is the established version."
Mireya said nothing.
"What I want," Rex said, "is an apology that corrects that impression—not a quiet one, but a substantive one, in front of the people who heard your account tonight, that closes the issue clearly."
Mireya looked at him. "And Apollo wakes up."
"Before breakfast," Rex said.
"And if I don’t...?" she said.
Rex looked at her with the patient, level attention he brought to situations that didn’t require urgency because the conclusion was already determined. "Then he doesn’t wake up before breakfast."
"He wakes up when I decide he wakes up, which could be tonight, which could be tomorrow afternoon, which could be two days from now..."
"When we return to Aethelgard, you will be confronted with a version of events in which you made unfounded accusations in front of Elizabeth and the entire expedition, while Apollo was not present to hear your account because he was still unconscious." He paused. "The suppression doesn’t damage him."
"But two days of it ans two days of questions from everyone about why he hasn’t recovered at the sa rate as Veylor, and the answer to that question is one I control."
"Just as I thought... you’re not a good person," Mireya said. "And it’s already too late for to tell on you because they probably are tired hearing ..."
"I know," Rex said. "You’ve ntioned it."
"I’m going to say it every ti it’s relevant," she said. "So you know I haven’t forgotten."
"You can say it as many tis as you want," Rex said. "It doesn’t change the structure of this conversation."
She glanced at Apollo, then at the outline of the ring in Rex’s pocket, visible through the fabric of his jacket. Finally, she turned her gaze to Rex, her expression reflecting soone asuring the gap between their current reality and their expectations.
"You had this planned from the canyon," she said.
"From shortly after the canyon," Rex said. "The broad shape of it, yes."
"And the Key," she said.
Rex said nothing.
"That wasn’t an accident either," she said.
"That’s a separate conversation," Rex said.
"Is it?" she said. "Or is it the sa conversation about the sa pattern?"
Rex looked at her with the mild expression of soone who finds the observation accurate and has no particular objection to her having made it.
"Maybe," he said. "That still doesn’t change the structure of this conversation."
She sat with this for a long mont. Then she said, "And my account... what I said tonight..."
"Becos a misread from soone who took an electrical hit and was processing a difficult afternoon," Rex said. "Which is also accurate."
"It’s accurate and convenient," she said.
"Yes," Rex said. "Both things are true."
"You do that a lot," Mireya said. "You say yes when soone points out sothing that should be a problem for you... it’s like agreeing with them removes the problem."
"It removes the debate," Rex said. "That’s different."
"You’re right that it’s convenient and you’re also right that it’s accurate."
"Agreeing with both doesn’t require to choose which one is more important."
Mireya turned her gaze to Apollo, studying him intently. She watched him for what felt like a long ti, taking in the serene expression of soone in deep sleep, the lack of any visible distress, and the steady rise and fall of his chest.
"How long have you been doing this?" she said.
"Doing what?" Rex said.
"This," she said, and made a small gesture that encompassed the room and Rex and the ring and the situation in its entirety. "Operating this way—calculating every detail in advance and ensuring you’re positioned at every exit before initiating the conversation."
User Comments
0 comments from readers