“Everyone? You can sense… everyone?”
“Since I was little, I’ve always had the ability to know when people are looking at me, and exactly how many people are in a given place at a given time. I used to be able to find hidden objects with ease and just know where certain things are supposed to be. At first I thought it was something everyone had, like a sixth sense. But it wasn’t until I entered the AAA that I realized it was my Flair – and it does a lot more than I thought it did.”
My curiosity was piqued. “And that is?”
“Hey now, I’ve got to keep some secrets,” Juma laughed. “Besides, it’s not like I’m the only one with mysteries here.”
He must be talking about Neo’s identity as a spy. “That’s fair.”
“Those letters from your father… they were fake, weren’t they?”
I didn’t move a muscle. My unnatural stillness, I realized, must have given me away quicker than if I overreacted.
“It was a nice touch, but the papers were too new, the ink was still fairly fresh, and although you tried to make them worn, I spent a lot of my summers in the Annals around books and parchment. I know what new paper looks like and what old paper doesn’t.”
Damn it.
“The Jigsaw Encryption was good. You really might be a spy, but if you are, then you’re a spy that wants us to know you’re a spy, which means either the spy story is a cover for another story, or you have an angle you’re playing that requires you sacrificing the secret of being a spy.”
Ouch.
“Not going to say anything?”
“You’re way smarter than you look.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment.”
I rubbed my palms down my face. “And to think I went to such great lengths to come up with that plan…”
“I’ll be honest and admit I don’t care.”
My brows shot up. “Sorry, what now?”
Juma shrugged. “As long as I know you’re not going to desert, I don’t care what angle you’re playing at. At the end of the day, I’m not here to be a hero of some sort, and turning you in has a chance of costing me more than I stand to gain if I simply let you be and have you as my ally.”
I couldn’t believe the turn the conversation had gone. “Are you… blackmailing me?”
“What? No.” Juma shook his head. “That’s too much work. I’m just saying, that I’ll turn a blind eye to whatever secret you’re hiding, as long as you don’t desert, and pull your weight to give the Lance Brigade an overall higher collective kill count and better reputation.”
“Rather magnanimous of you.”
“Listen, Neo, all I want is to drink wine. I want to drink wine, and then go back to my orphanage, and pour a glass for everyone, old and young, and tell them that they were enjoying something that people like us were told we could never have. In the end… as long as nothing you do gets in the way of that – I don’t care what you do.”
“I can admire that.”
Juma rose from his seat, stretching out his limbs and yawning. “I’ve heard some rumors that our First Mission is going to be the day after tomorrow. Get some rest, train hard, do you best – and remember the Lance Brigade motto.”
“Live together… die together.”
“Exactly.” Juma tapped something in the air, most likely his Godscript. “It’s 1700 hours. If you still want to get sloshed later in the evening, I’ll be at the Whimpering Sow.”
“The… what now?”
“It’s a small hideout behind Mess Hall 7. Knock three times, and when they ask for the password, say ‘Your mother.’”
“I’m guessing there’s a story behind that.”
“There is.”
It took me a few seconds to realize he wasn’t going to be sharing the story any time soon. Sighing, I waved my hand. “Thanks. I’ll be there.”
“Don’t thank me. I’m doing this for my benefit. See you, Saintarelli.”
I watched Juma depart with his hands idly in his pockets, still waving amicably to the people who greeted him. There wasn’t much I had on my mind except trying to understand the boy’s conflicting nature. He was a good guy, at least, on the outside, enough so that he went around doing favors for other people – yet, somehow, he possessed a form of ruthless self-centered motivation that didn’t add up.
Then there was his as of yet unknown Flair which could sense people.
I sighed, shaking my head. Alamir had no shortage of interesting individuals.
“Wait, he said it’s five o’clock?”
Speaking of interesting individuals, there was still one more person that qualified, and I would soon have to meet them.
Meeting people, making friends, and then fighting in single combat.
I was living the dream.
Chapter 24: Player Versus Player
Someone once said life is ten percent what happens to you, and ninety percent how you choose to react to it. I didn’t know who, but I found meaning in those words. The old me, the human me, was so fragile. His reaction to being thrown into Alamir, to having to fight constantly, to meeting dangerous situations and dangerous people, was to continually grow appalled or afraid or worried.
Alamir was fraught with danger and chaos at every turn, yes, that was true, but there was also adventure and fun to be had if you knew exactly where to look for it. There were an endless number of stories and secrets, of drama and romance, of novelty and mystery –
But I’d been too busy focusing on surviving to notice any of it. To care for any of it.
There was a beautiful simplicity in simply letting things be.
That simplicity came once more, to me, in the form of the unexpectedly massive crowd of people that had gathered at Mosh Pit Beta, also known as
