Meliora - Emanate - 24

[lady_mab]

Liala Darcy

Lio's phone goes off with a high pitched ding, loud enough to interrupt the music in my headphones. He snatches it up without hesitation.

Across the room, I watch him read the text, his brow furrow. I pause the playlist, waiting to see if he'll say something. Only he sets his phone down with a considerable amount of restraint and his fingers resume typing.

It's not the normal flurry of clattering keys. It almost plods along. I imagine that it won't take long for it to slow to a stop altogether.

I stop watching before he can catch me, returning to my homework and my music. It wouldn't do any good.

Against my better judgment, my eyes flicker to my phone as well -- slightly disappointed to see that there are no alerts. Bri is supposed to text me plans for this weekend, and I've been waiting to know what they are before I decide if I want to go or not.

The weather is the typical cold and brisk of November. Despite being in this sort of environment for five years, my lungs continue to detest the clinging moisture in the air.

I don't realize how much time passes before Lio's fingers tap against the desk to get my attention. He's dressed in jeans and one of Rhys' old heavy jackets, gloves sticking out of one pocket.

"I've got to get something from work," he says once I pluck out one of my earbuds. For some reason, he doesn't look nearly as annoyed as he normally does when he gets called in on a day off. "I'll be out for a bit. Want me to pick up anything for dinner?"

"Text me when you're coming home. I'll let you know."

He nods, pulling on his gloves and leaving without another word.

I watch the door close behind him. The beep of the elevator reaches me despite being muffled through the walls.

Something doesn't add up. He normally hates going into work if he doesn't have to. And if I had to pick an emotion, I would say that he looks nervous. Like he's trying to play it off as no big deal.

I jump out of my seat, rushing to the closet to yank down an oversized winter coat and shoving my feet into the first pair of sneakers I can find. I'm still only sporting a pair of sweatpants and a sweater, but my brain can only focus on the fact that finding Lio is more important.

Phone and keys in my pockets, I duck out of the apartment and head for the stairs.

I push open the door to the side stairs with extreme caution -- watching Lio stride out the front door and onto the street. He takes a turn that leads to the station, where he would take the train to work, but I'm still suspicious. So I follow after, keeping enough distance between us.

I have the hood to the jacket pulled up over my head, hands shoved into my pockets. Enough to keep my appearance disguises if Lio happens to glance back at me. At least the streets aren't completely deserted, and I can duck between other pedestrians.

He walks with purpose, right past the station, not even glancing at it. Good. I don't have to be paranoid over my twin's actions for no reason. Not that being right makes me feel better.

My breath escapes my lungs in a puff of white. It's been brisk, but not cold enough to bring snow. The sidewalk is slick with the promise of ice from last night's rain. Weather reports can't decide if there is going to be a massive snow dump by the end of the year, or if we'll be doomed to a rainy Christmas.

Lio takes a corner onto the main avenue so quickly that I nearly miss it. I have to pick up my pace to ensure that I don't lose him down a side street.

I turn the corner wide, feet sliding uneasily on the sidewalk.

A hand snaps out from the side of the building. I yelp, half-clutching at the arm and half-shoving the stranger away.

"What the actual fuck, Lia!"

I barely manage to steady myself on the wall before I almost jerk backwards and off-balance at the realization. "Lio--"

"Why are you following me?" He grips grips my biceps to hold me in place. "Damn it, Lia, you're going to make me crack my head open."

We regain our balance, but my heart is still racing. Cold air works its way into my lungs. I interrupt Lio's attempt to scold me with a harsh cough.

His mouth hangs open, concern lining his brow, but it doesn't stop. "Lia, you shouldn't be out in this sort of weather. Did you bring your inhaler?"

"Of course I fucking didn't," I manage to grit out, the air wheezing through my throat but not threatening to break into a coughing fit just yet. "And I had to follow you. Why'd you lie to me?"

The concern is replaced by frustration, and he crosses his arms over his chest. "It doesn't matter."

"Yes, Lionel, it does." I take a step closer, and he leans back but doesn't retreat. "If this is about Meliora--"

There's a twitch at the corner of his mouth, enough of a tell that I know I'm right.

"Was it a message from Kaito? Do the two of you have some kind of secret arrangement behind the rest of the team's back? Behind me and Rhys?" Or what if Rhys is in on it too. Maybe it's just because they really didn't want me to participate, but had no other way to prevent me from doing so. I stop to catch my breath, regretting the absence of my inhaler. I regret not taking the time to message Rhys about my thoughts.

I regret this whole situation.

Lio releases a heavy sigh, shoulders dropping with some unspoken exhaustion. "It's not like that. It's not something that involves the rest of you."

"Then whatever it is will get us in trouble."

"It won't--"

"If you haven't told Rhys or Kaito or me, then it is something you don't want us to know!" I cough to clear my throat and press on despite his pained expression and despite my lungs refusing to cooperate properly. "That is the kind of stuff that gets people in trouble!"

He mumbles something that I can't bother asking him to repeat. It isn't an apology, that much I know. Even if it is, I wouldn't want to hear it anyway.

"We're a team. I'm your twin." Despite myself, I reach for his arm. My fingers tremble as they curl around his sleeve. "You have to trust me on some level."

His jaw works over a response. It takes him so long that I begin to think that he's going to ignore me, shrug me off, and continue out without me. I won't follow if he won't explain himself.

"I used Rain's phone to set up a proxy in order to filter all the Informant emails to my phone," he suddenly blurts out. "I haven't done anything with it yet really, just trying to see if I can get any more information. But... I... I decided that I should follow the clues."

Irritation floods my chest, and I have to bite down on my tongue to keep my immediate response from spilling forward. "And so you decided to start breaking rules and going on events that weren’t yours?"

"Not... exactly."

"Then what exactly happened to make you decide to do this?"

He shuffles his foot -- careful enough to maintain his balance. "Just that... if I have information that could help others, I shouldn't keep it to myself."

This shocks me into silence. Out of all people suddenly expressing an interest in helping others, Lionel would have been one of the last on that list. His self-interest is rivaled only by his concern with me. Before, I've been the only one that he will show any sort of compassion for. He never even spared any for Rhys.

What did he even expect to get out of it? The validation that his project actually worked?

I don't have enough energy to start hounding him with questions. It's cold, my chest hurts, and I'm tired. I'm so tired, and I don't know what to believe anymore. "Let's just go home, Lio."

For a moment, it looks like he'll listen to me. Then he draws back and shakes his head. "I can't."

It takes a lot of effort to resist the urge to stomp my feet and whine. "Why not? This isn't your fight. This is something that could end very badly, and it isn't yours."

"You weren't there at the Halloween event, Lia," he says, and I allow my mouth to curve into a sharp frown. I wasn't there only because Rhys and Lio decided to go without me. I was already asleep, and not given the chance to decide if I would want to go or not. "They're not going to give us any answers. They expect us to reach out and take them."

From my understanding, the one team that attempted to reach out and take answers got their asses handed to them and escorted out after being formally removed by the Assistant Program Manager.

There's an unfamiliar glint in his eyes. A determination that isn't fueled by his stubborn personality to be better than someone else at something. It has to do with him wanting to prove everyone wrong.

I hold back the sigh and close my eyes. "If we get in trouble, this could ruin it for all of us. Even Kaito could get in trouble."

"I'm not going to get caught."

I wonder if he even realized that I had included myself in my statement. "What makes you so sure?"

He squares his jaw and then pulls back his shoulders. He's not that much taller than me, but he at least knows how to carry himself to make me feel small. "I won't. I've gotten better at covering my tracks. This is a nothing mission -- a series of numbers that make up an address."

I hold out my hand. "Let me see."

Lio looks at my palm, then looks at me. "What?"

"I'm coming with. Let me see the clue." I wiggle my fingers when he doesn't place the phone in my hand.

A storm covers his face and for a moment, I can't recognize his expression. "No, Lia, this is not something you should be doing. You need to go home."

"I'm not going home without you. We're twins, okay? And you keep trying to push me away from this." I lurch forward and snatch his phone out of his pocket before he can get the chance to even react. At least I have that advantage over him. My thumb smooths over the screen, easily typing in his password to unlock it.

The message that stares back at me makes absolutely no sense. The subject is "Opus 32", and the riddle itself is a series of repeating words: Jollity, War, War, Peace, Old Age, Mystic, Mystic, Old Age, Magician.

"How in the hell did you even manage to turn this into an address?"

With an annoyed sigh, Lio takes back his phone and pulls up a website. Then he passes it back over. It's the search results for 'Opus 32 Jollity'. He gives me a second to acknowledge what I'm looking at before pressing the top video result.

"Gustav Holst's The Planets, Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity," I read as a gentle cascade of violins pours from the tiny speakers of his phone. "It's a symphony?"

He turns off the song and pockets his phone. "An Old World symphony in seven parts dedicated to the planets. Like, early 1900s old." A shrug rolls his shoulders and he shoves his hands into his pockets -- maybe to prevent me from trying to steal his phone again. "Like I said, it's a nothing mission."

“Good. Then you won’t mind if I come along.” Without waiting, I shove away from the wall and strike off without really knowing where I’m going.

A groan echoes from behind me, and then Lio catches up at a careful jog. “Listen, if Rhys asks, I told you how bad of an idea I think you coming along is.”

“Will that be before or after you tell him that you’re cheating and trying to go on missions that aren’t ours without telling the rest of us?” I arch my eyebrow as he groans again. I know that he won’t let anything happen to me, and not because he fears scolding from Rhys.

It’s that he won’t be able to deal with his own inaction.

“C’mon, the address is this way.” He grips my elbow and tugs me off in the direction of a small side street.

I slip behind him, struggling to keep my feet despite his pace. We’re no more than a few minutes in when he stops so suddenly that my shoes keep sliding with my momentum and I collide with his back. A squeak escapes me as I rub my nose. “What the hell--”

Lio doesn’t flinch. In fact, he doesn’t even move. His eyes have gone wide as coins, focused on something down on the far end of the street.

I have to lean around him to see the man in a pressed grey suit, crouched next to the wall by the dumpster with a cellphone in one hand.

The man could be in his mid-thirties, or even late forties. His hair is dark, peppered with grey, streaked with it. I blink, and it’s black, sporting a strange matte finish under the dull yellow streetlight.

He rises to his feet, brushes down his suit, and studies us with a critical eye.

My hood is still pulled over my head, but I duck anyway to avoid his gaze. It doesn’t seem to make a difference though. I can feel his eyes blazing through the fabric.

“Siblings?” His voice is unforgiving and heavy.

I sneak a nervous glance, only to find his dark eyes bouncing between Lio and myself.

“No,” he decides a moment later. “Twins.”

Lio’s hand tightens on my elbow and he positions himself between me and the mysterious man.

The image of the stranger leaves my mind as soon as the visual connection is lost. Was he tall or thin? Balding or aging gracefully? No thought lasts long enough before it switches to something else, and I want to take another look.

Even though I can’t see him, his voice still presses down on my chest and roots my feet to the asphalt. “Interesting. The message was sent out a little over twenty minutes ago. According to the teams who were supposed to receive this message, I wasn’t expecting anyone to appear for another fifteen minutes based on current public transportation times.” There’s a thoughtful pause, as if the man realised he had been talking to himself. “Are you participating?”

“No--” I start to say, though my words are aimed at the ground.

But Lio is louder and spouts, “Lianel Lions,” with more confidence than I can imagine. “You can check, if you’d like.”

I choke on my tongue. He’s insane. He’s just calling attention to us.

My fingers curl around the back of his jacket and I try to tug it. My grip is so weak that the fabric slips from my grasp.

“If you don't mind, I would.”

Lio steps away, and any lingering trace of confidence I had scraped together escapes with him.

The stranger (early thirties, brown hair, narrow face -- I recite his appearance like a mantra), takes Lio’s phone and squats before a QR code on the wall. He brushes a gloved hand over the brick and a thin layer of dust falls away.

He navigates the menus with ease, bringing up the Lacryma app to scan the code.

Welcome, Lianel Lions. As it should say.

“And him?” the man asks, pointing at me.

“No.” Lio bites out the single word.

He arches a brow, glancing between us and the code before him. “So you bring an unsanctioned person on this event?”

“No,” Lionel repeats. “We are Lianel Lions.”

The pent up air escapes my lungs in a rush and results in a burst of coughing.

The man’s brow furrows, but any confusion is erased from his expression when he turns to us. “I see. I hope you learn from this mission.” He presses Lio’s phone into his hands.

Lionel almost drops it, a shock of terror flitting over his face. His moves are jerky and robotic, instead of the loose sort of relieved that I feel knowing that it somehow worked.

The man stops next to me. I keep the hood pulled down, trying to disguise my face behind my hand as if I’m smothering my coughing instead. Not that it did any good. “Perhaps, Lianel Lions, a spot of tea with honey would do you some good.” He nods to both of us and vanishes around the corner and onto the main street.

As soon as he’s gone, Lio sinks to the ground with a strangled wheeze.

“What in the bloody hell was that?”

“I--” He stares wide-eyed in the direction of the code on the wall. The dumpster belongs to some sort of restaurant. This must be what the address leads to. “I don’t know.”

I can’t muster enough energy to be mad and yell at him. I’ve already forgotten what the man looks like, but I can still feel the invisible hand his voice created, holding me in place.

Siblings? No. Twins.

A long moment passes in silence, breath rattling in my lungs, before I can manage words. “I want to go home.”

He nods, mute, but neither of us can force our muscles into action.

It’s not until another team appears at the mouth of the street that we finally start on the path back to our apartment.