Chương 55: Day Fifty-Five

Dear Diary, Okay, I'm really not sure what the fuck to think of what I found yesterday. We both lay there panting for a while, letting the sun dry us off while we recovered from our ill-advised dive. Eventually, Saffron rolled over and just backhanded me in the gut. Nowhere near hard enough to injure me, but it stung like a bitch.

"Ow! What the hell was that for?" She rolled over again, this time rolling until she lay on her belly, her arms propping her up, her face upside-down above mine.

"That's for jumping into the gods damned Kraken enclosure without giving me any kind of warning beforehand." She bent down and kissed me. Weird, kissing upside down. I'd never done that before. Not a big fan, but the taste of Saffron's mouth hungrily exploring my own made up for a lot. When she pulled away, she said, "and that's for coming back safe." She glanced over at my loot from the bottom.

"What the hell are those?"

"All that's left of the chest I found on the bottom. Also, what the fuck is a Kraken?" She looked around, the movement casual enough to avoid notice, then softly said, "I'm not sure if they're called Kraken where you're from. Eight legs, sometimes more? Big weird eyes? Bodies that vary between a kind of bulbous mass and more streamlined things with fins at the end opposite the legs? No bones, most of them can shapeshift?" My brow furrowed.

"I can't tell if you're talking about octopus, squid, or cuttlefish. They're like, sorta related, but definitely not all the same species. Not even the same genus if I remember the displays at the Aquarium back in Camden right." She got a weird look as I talked about the various types of cephalopods, then shrugged and said, "maybe they're different where you're from, but I can't see anyone caring all that much here. They're the Sacred Beasts of," here she stopped and looked around again, then whispered, "Mimic."

That... Made an uncomfortable amount of sense. Many cephalopods were the closest thing my old world had to real live shapeshifters. I almost wished I could find the one that had yoinked me here and interrogate it. Hell, my freaky Blending powers might even let me talk to it, maybe?

"So care to tell me why you jumped into the Kraken enclosure?" I blinked a bit to shake myself out of my reverie about my octopus savior and replied, "only if you tell me why the fuck the Aquarium's even got the Animal Kingdom's representation of Ultimate Evil in a fish tank."

"Enclosure, not tank, and," she paused a bit, thinking.

"I'm not sure, but I guess for the same reason there's a tank with sharks, and another with electric eels, and one with piranha. We cage things to show we're superior to them." Her voice got very soft, so much so that I could barely hear her with her lips hovering inches above me.

"To pretend they don't scare us." I nodded, as much as I could laying on my back on the jetty.

"That enclosure is the one I fell into when I got shot." Her face scrunched up, and she said, "I don't get it. How many times did you get shot?"

"Just the once."

"And it knocked you into the water?"

"Well, yeah. I mean, it killed me too, but it kinda backflipped me into the octopus tank too."

"Where did it hit you?" I plonked the tip of my index finger right in the middle of my forehead.

"I mean, I'm not absolutely certain, because massive brain damage is massive, but dead center. Pretty impressive shot, really."

"Was it a bodkin?"

"Uhh... what the fuck is a bodkin?" She blinked down at me.

"An armor piercing arrow. Most broadheads fired from any distance won't penetrate all that far into a skull." She paused, shook her head, and said, "no, what am I thinking. The archer chased you out onto the jetties and quays, right?"

"I mean, I think one of the shooters was gonna, but the sniper got me first." I waved my hand at the amphitheater seating over by the Aquarium building proper.

"Back in Camden there's a roof above the seats, he was sniping people from there." Her eyes got really wide at that.

"An archer hit you from all the way over there? People in your world must have ridiculously high Archery skills, not to mention stupidly impressive bows." That led to me spending the remainder of the afternoon explaining guns to an alternately horrified, fascinated, and above all curious Saffron.

As the sun got low in the West, I got dressed, picked up what I'd looted from the remains of the chest at the bottom of the enclosure, and we walked back to the Academy, Saffron examining first the chunk of wood, then the almost circular discs of metal I'd carved off with my Mana blades. If Rocky or any of his shadow-spider-midgets wanted a piece of me, I guess they didn't want to face me with Saffron as backup, or witness, or whatever. We got home just after the last sliver of the sun dipped below the horizon.

The door crunched as I opened it, and I winced, not just at the crunch, but at the shrill shriek of, "out after curfew again!" from Sister Trease. As Trease inhaled in preparation for another whiny accusation, Saffron stepped around me and calmly replied, "We had an errand at the Aquarium, per Sister Siobhan's instructions. It took longer than expected, and we returned as soon as we..." Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

I lost the rest of Saffron's explanation to Sister Trease's near incoherent screaming.

"Lies! Lies! You Bag are all alike, lying to cover for one another's misdeeds!" I tensed, ready to match Bitchy McBitchface scream for scream, but Saffron reached behind herself and lay a hand against my thigh. I swallowed my bile, glowering at the water buffalo that walked like a nun. She kept screaming, "Headmaster! Headmaster! She's got another of them involved in her rule breaking!" She spat that last word like a curse.

Fortunately, Headmaster Miles chose that moment to step out of his office, trailed by the door guard I remembered from earlier.

"What seems to be the problem, Sister?"

"This harlot has spread her horrid ways to another student. Another Bag, at least, but that's no excuse for letting her flaunt her rulebreaking like this!" Headmaster Miles turned to us, calmly asking, "so, Cadets, do you have a reason for returning after curfew?" I huffed out a sigh.

"I'm pretty sure we would have been on time yesterday. That's how close we were." Saffron shook her head the tiniest bit and gently pinched my thigh.

"Excuse me, Headmaster, but as I told Sister Trease, Sister Siobhan sent us on an errand to the Aquarium, and it took a little longer than we expected. We returned as soon as we finished, and came back as quickly as decorum allowed."

"See? She hedges her lies about some errand with lies about decorum!"

"Calmly, Sister," Miles said without turning his gaze from us.

"What was this errand Sister Siobhan sent you on?" I let Saffron speak for us, my anger had hold of my tongue, and if this bitch didn't shut the fuck up, it would get hold of hers pretty fuckin' quick.

"It's of a private medical nature, Sir. Sister Siobhan can confirm that." Miles nodded.

"I suppose that's fair." He turned to the door guard and asked, "I know your shift is over, but would you mind running to fetch Sister Siobhan before you head home for the night?"

"No worries, Sir." The guard jogged off down the hall toward the Ladies' dorm, but cut right to go up the stairs. We waited, Headmaster Miles stilling Sister Trease with a glance every time she opened her mouth to re-engage. After a few minutes, the guard came back out of the stairwell at a jog, pausing when he got to the Headmaster.

"She's on her way, Sir." He left, waving a sort of keyfob thing at the handle before turning it; the click when it opened sounded a lot healthier than the crunch when I'd done so. I made a mental note to snag one of those at some point. Yeah, I could just power my way through, but I thought the fob might leave less of a trail of devastation to track me by. Also, Saffron ought to have one. Sister Siobhan arrived a few minutes of tense silence later.

"Good Evening Headmaster, Cadets, Sister." I wasn't sure why, but Saffron tensed when Sister Siobhan greeted us before Trease. I had no chance to ask her, because Headmaster Miles cut through the bullshit and just asked Sister Siobhan, "did you send these two Cadets on an errand to the Aquarium this afternoon?" Sister Siobhan paused, but as she opened her mouth to answer Trease jumped into the momentary silence.

"See? See! They're lying!"

"Excuse me, Trease." I'd never heard that kind of steel behind Sister Siobhan's words before.

"As I was about to say, I suppose I did. I sent Cadet Diaz, specifically, but I did so when Cadet Aetos was involved in the conversation, and given the nature of the, ah, errand, Cadet Aetos' presence was likely required as well."

"A likely story." Trease put so much rancor into her words I expected Siobhan to up and deck her, but the Sister had way more patience than me." Excuse me, Trease? Are you accusing me of prevarication?" Okay, not all that much more, apparently.

"Sisters." Headmaster Miles calm, stern voice cut through the incipient mayhem in the room like a battleship cutting through fog.

"We can discuss this after the Cadets are seen to. Now, just to confirm, did you specifically send both of them today? They arrived back after curfew." Sister Siobhan took a moment to think before answering, enunciating each word carefully.

"This visit would be in reference to an issue Tabitha and Saffron brought to my attention last Freyday." Headmaster Miles cut in with a quiet, "a medical issue?" If Sister Siobhan paused, it wasn't long enough for Trease to lose her shit again.

"Yes, Headmaster. My specific instructions were for Tabitha to visit the Aquarium during her next available free time. As I noted previously, given the nature of the issue, an escort would likely be required."

"An escort? The Cadets didn't request one." asked Miles.

"Was Cadet Diaz likely to be in any danger?"

"Oh, no. Well, not the type of danger that a Guard could protect her from. In my professional opinion, Cadet Aetos is likely the most qualified to safeguard Cadet Diaz. She has the Assess Health and Stabilize Skills, as well as already being aware of the medical issue we'd discussed."

"Fair enough." Headmaster Miles nodded, then turned to us and asked, "was this, in fact, the best opportunity the two of you had to attend to this?" Saffron squeezed my thigh again under cover of a loose Parade Rest she'd dropped into.

"Yes, Headmaster. Monday I had Devotions, Tuesday I had other obligations, and all other days we both have full day classes." The Headmaster nodded and turned back to Sister Siobhan.

"Was the errand one that could have kept the Cadets at the Aquarium all afternoon, resulting in them returning late?" Sister Siobhan considered that for a bit. Just as Trease started to squawk something, Sister Siobhan cut her off. From what I could tell, with absolutely deliberate intent.

"Most certainly, Headmaster." She shrugged as Trease fumed.

"It's one of those things that take as long as they take."

"Ah. So, Cadets, did you complete your errand?" This time Saffron half turned to look at me. I shrugged and said, "maybe? Got to see if the treatment took." He nodded again.

"Report your success or failure to Sister Siobhan as soon as you've made that determination. If you do need to go on another outing where you might be out after curfew, please let the Guard, or preferably both the Guard and one of the Staff know." That was one of those requests that really weren't. I saluted, a little sloppy due to the metal discs palmed in my hand. Saffron did the same, and we chorused, "Yes, Sir!" Headmaster Miles' eyes went a little wide, and he let out a low whistle.

"Your errand required you to bring back three pounds of Cold Iron?" He glanced at Sister Siobhan, and she nodded; more to refer the question back to us, I think, but Headmaster Miles seemed to accept it when I said, "I believe so, Sir. I made a judgement call at the time. Things got a bit hectic." His eyes narrowed for the tiniest of moments at that.

"I would dearly love to hear more about this errand, should you come to a point where you feel comfortable sharing it with me."

"I'll keep that in mind, sir." With that, Miles dismissed us to quarters. A surreptitious glance as we rounded the corner showed him escorting both Sisters into his office. We both went back to my room, where I set all three discs and the hunk of still damp wood on my shrine. Saffron gave me an odd look, but more of a 'weird flex, but okay' instead of the normal 'what the fuck, Diaz?' one. We spent an hour or so making sure we were both tired enough to sleep the night through before turning off the lights entirely.

I only woke once. A monster of a nightmare, the entire sequence of me being shot, dying, getting stuffed in a box, dying, and lying there forever doomed to scream silently in the darkness, the entire thing flashing by in fast forward, while every second still seemed to take an eternity to crawl past. Dream time is fucking weird. And weirdly fucked. It took Saffron nearly an hour to get me to a point we could both sleep after that, but she did manage it.

We both wound up short on sleep, which made a morning of Squad Ball and an afternoon of Marshall duBois' Combat Yoga pretty damn torturous. Still better than a thirty second conversation with Sister Trease though.