Meliora - Emanate - 42

[lady_mab]

Liala Darcy

Jun takes me to a small cafe near the train station that serves bubble tea and small cakes. She holds a brief, rapid conversation with the employees in Chinese before joining me in one of the booths.

"Is everything okay?"

Ever the hostess, Jun offers me a napkin and a tiny fork before arranging the cakes on the plates before us. "They were asking after my uncle's health and his restaurant."

I remember her mentioning over one of our previous lunches that she lives with her uncle to train with him in his restaurant. "Is he very popular?"

She tilts to the side and back upright again, humming in thought. "Sort of. There is a very small Chinese population in Eminence itself. It’s only been about a hundred years or so since any sort of Asian presence returned to England without immediately getting attacked.” Her words are light and casual, but I can see the hardness in the corners of her eyes. “His cooking brings a little bit of home. He runs a lot of the cultural events here, too, so a lot of people know him or are at least familiar with him outside of his cooking."

"That must be nice. Do you miss home?"

"I miss my parents and my brother terribly, but I talk to them on the phone often enough. It's hard when they're so far away." Jun fiddles with her straw, chasing the tapioca pearls around the purple milk tea. "It must be harder for you, though."

A sound works its way out of the back of my throat and I shrug. "I miss my parents, sure, but it has also been... gosh, it's been about ten years since they passed away?" I was too young for it to really impact me, or the events of that night when we received the news have been worn down in light of other problems. "Our grandmother was still around to help take care of us for awhile, but she was very old already. None of our aunts and uncles were very close by, and Rhys didn't want us to move far because of my health."

"How did you end up in Eminence? There had to be closer hospitals."

I use the tines of the fork to spear a crumb that tumbled onto the tray. "ALICE, despite whatever we're learning from this event, is still a very prominent medical company. Northern Ireland, or what's left of it, can't afford the necessary resources to bring them closer. And a lot of people have jumped ship from the Isles since the water levels started rising over the last hundred years."

I rest my chin in my hand and continue to stab the same crumb until it is nothing more than a squashed piece of cake. "I remember when we flew over the Irish Sea and reached England. A lot of the land has turned to marsh in the lower region of the country, and the coastal cities have been all but washed away. It's hard to stay in a place when it's flooded."

A small giggle leaves Jun, though I have no idea what about it is funny. "Sorry, it's just... well, China had the exact opposite elemental problem. It was about... eighty years ago, I think? Around 122, a terrible fire swept through the countryside and destroyed a lot of the rice fields and small villages. Places that have been around for hundreds of years, steeped in tradition. Wiped out. To this day, no one really knows the official cause." She tucks a strand of faded pink hair behind her ears and picks at one of the cakes. "And again, in 147. Another fire. After that, a following of sorts took up residence in the burned fields."

My nose wrinkles at her phrasing. "’Following’? That sounds kind of cult-ish."

She makes a sound in agreement. "It is, when you look at it from an outsider's perspective. But they believed that an ancient dragon was so upset at the state of the world, and that he had been forgotten, that he wanted to make his people remember." Jun manages a smile, though it's not as cheerful as I'm used to seeing. "It is really strange to see the difference between the new villages and cities like Chongqing and Beijing, who have continued to thrive. The first time I stepped off the train in Beijing, I felt like I was being transported to a completely different world."

Her words click in my head, and I sit up a little bit straighter. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to sound like I was insulting you."

"It's okay. My father has the same thoughts. My mother... she is from one of those villages. And she is very serious about her home and her people. But Father loves her very much, so he came to live with her. Just made sure my brother and I knew about things outside of that life." She trails off and takes a sip of her tea. Her gaze focuses on the table.

I should just let it drop, because I can tell that it's starting to make her a little uncomfortable. I allow myself one more question before I do, though. "Are you going to go back after all of this is over?"

Slowly, Jun lowers the cup and gives me a curious glance. "Honestly? I'm not sure. I might not get another chance to pursue my dream of being a chef. There's a difference between cooking for my family and cooking for a vast number of people. But depending on what we learn here... I don't know if I would want to stay."

"Travel the world?" I offer, and she laughs. "I'm being serious. Why not, you know? See more than just the eminent New World Eden offered by ALICE here. More than just a metropolis like Beijing where no one knows who you are."

Her laughter continues on, ringing bright above the muffled conversations of the others. "I don't know. I think I might be more terrified of being by myself in all these places. Maybe eventually."

"What about traveling with Zoné?"

This only causes her giggles to renew. "He'd eat any food before I got to present it to people to try. Besides, he has family back in New Ox. I think he plans on going back home."

"You haven't talked about it?"

"We... tend to think more in the 'now' when it comes to this game." She rocks side to side again, chewing on her lower lip. "Did you know that Lysander plans on trying to leave?"

I hesitate, the amusement trickling away from my expression. "I can't say that he's mentioned it, no. Neither have Rhys or Kaito."

Her fork taps against the edge of the tray, and I spend a moment trying to interpret the code within it. "Jonas told me. He's the Informant for another team, but we met back at the first meeting for the event, and we've kept in touch."

"Do you think this has to do with... what happened back in December?"

Jun's hands go still, and it's then that I notice how awkwardly she's holding the fork. How her fingers don't wrap properly all the way around her cup. She has a hard time looking me in the eye when she answers, "No."

There's a lot of conviction behind that one word.

"Do... you know who is...?"

Her body doesn’t flinch, except for a slight tightening of her grip on her fork. "I am."

Despite the clues from this brief conversation leading in that direction, I hadn't actually expected her to admit it. It is as if I wanted her to at least feign ignorance. "How?"

She rolls her shoulders to pull herself out of the motionless rut, and when she looks at me, it's a brief sideways glance as she reaches for a piece of cake. "Do you know why other teams are being targeted?"

I shake my head. "Beyond my own, no. I don't exactly have a lot of friends participating in this game."

"The girls from the meeting in January, then...?"

"They went where they were told, ran into some other participants, and otherwise went their way like a normal event." The fact that they ran into other people alone was enough to stand out to me. When they asked what my time had been like for that event, especially after mine and Jun's brief, veiled exchange, I brushed it off and made up a story to have it fit in with the others.

Jun chews in thought, regarding the half-eaten spread of cakes before us with the utmost concentration. "Glen's team has apparently found a way to boost their ranks in the game. There's a program available that can be used for other mobile games that, when you check in to a spot or otherwise activate a checkpoint, it will multiply your reward output."

"Oh yeah, I remember that from a bit ago. Lio griped about how it was put together, but I think he was just jealous that he didn't think of it first." It had fallen out of favor with the community of mobile gamers as far as I knew -- developers getting smart to the app and improving their games faster than the app could keep up before eventually buying out the creators of the hack.

Her head nods in time with my words. "Apparently they knew another team using a modified version of it. Both of them were attacked by the things on the twenty second."

"I'm more surprised Lio didn't think to use it," I admit, and she flashes a quick smile. "They certainly did not think this through well if they invited so many people with programming skills to participate."

"I think that was half the idea, to be honest," she says. "Not everyone that is participating has a clean background or set of skills, so to speak. If they wanted honest people, they would not have invited many of the people that they did." Again, her fingers tap out that indecipherable rhythm. Then, she lifts her hand and clears her throat to recite, "A weak and foolish god made flesh. I oversee Meliora -- I have no control."

I consider these words carefully, trying to remember them in the context of the message that we received the other night. "What do you think it means?"

"Lysander has presented a very interesting view in light of this message: What happens when you get a bunch of people together and give them information, and have the hand of fear hanging over them?"

I sink back into my side of the booth, spinning the fork between my fingers as I consider that kind of setup. "Nothing good."

"No," she agrees. "We're not given any rules except to not involve anyone outside of the invited few. So, mostly, those of us who have been attacked were warned of that fact."

"And how does that fit in with either of us?"

Jun's hands twist together on the table before she notices my glance and pulls them into her lap. "My uncle has... connections throughout the city. I brought up the idea for his help to him a few times, but it never seems to stick around for very long before he forgets that I asked."

"You've involved people not invited into the game, but it never panned out. How would they know? Lionel figures that they're tracking our phones and could access and control it remotely if they wanted to." We've grown careless as of late, but as far as I'm concerned, they're already on to us. Why bother trying to hide it now.

Her head jerks in a quick, sharp nod. "Being targeted that night... I still think about it constantly. I don't like going out at night anymore, even with Zoné or my uncle. I keep thinking that I'll see one of those things around any corner." She places her hands back on the table and studies her fingers. "But that's not going to stop me. There's more at stake than just us being able to leave. If there are things happening here, I don't know why they think only we should know them. We should share the information."

I wait to see if she will say anything else, to give her own opinion on why she thinks my team was attacked. Only I have no idea if the monsters only physically attacked people who broke the rules, like Jun, or if they just attacked without discrimination, like what happened to Rhys.

Because I'm quite certain that the reason our team was targeted is because of Lionel and I. There's little doubt that they easily worked through the Lianel Lions thing, and identified us as two separate people. Running into the ALICE agent back in December was likely the start.

When she doesn't speak up, I take it as an invitation to press her on the topic. "And what exactly do you think is happening?"

Jun jumps a bit at the question, looking up at me in surprise. As if she had forgotten I was sitting across from her. "A... hunch," she says, holding her hands out to me across the table. "I don't think that I've healed correctly since I was in the hospital in December. My hands don't work as well as they used to with nimble tasks."

That would certainly explain the awkwardness to her movements. She continues after a moment of hesitation.

"And Glen has been sick." Her gaze remains glued to her wrists, ignoring the rest of the cafe in favor of the place where her sweater stops and her pale skin begins. "I mean, it's been cold out, and people get sick, but this has been getting worse as time goes on. It's been a few months, and I am worried."

I know a thing or two about chronic health issues. "Are you sure it isn't just... something that he has naturally? I'm in and out of the hospital all the time, and I feel like I can relate to his exhausted look more often than not."

The attempt at a smile pulls at the corners of her lips, but she shakes her head. "No. I... He had to go to the hospital last weekend. They kept him overnight, ran some tests, but they released him before school on Monday. Said he was fine, gave him some penicillin, and sent him on his way."

"And you think that something like what happened to you is happening to him...?"

Jun hesitates, then nods. "I do." Her voice is so soft that I have to lean in to hear it. "And I'm really worried about him."

I reach out and take her hands in mine. "All the more reason to keep doing what we're doing, right?"

When she looks up at me, her gaze meets mine and holds it steady. "Yes, you're right. Thank you for listening."

"Thank you for talking. I normally don't get to do this... and I've realized that it's a lot more difficult to act like nothing is wrong to people who are involved with the game than it is to people who are not." I have to keep making up excuses to evade the questions from Trisha, Bri, and Catalina. I don't want to have to drag them into the difficulties I've been having, even though that's one of the whole points of having friends. I shouldn't have to do this alone, but having a group like Jun and Zoné going through some of the same things that I am makes it far easier to handle.

She gives my hand a reassuring squeeze before pulling back. "If ALICE is trying to mess with us, they're doing a damn good job."

I pick up my fork and scoop up one of the pieces of cake. "Being aware is half the battle."

Jun laughs, and some of the tension that had been hovering around her through our entire conversation finally eases away. "You took the words right out of my mouth."

"Great minds think alike," I say, and tip my cup in her direction.

Her grin finally returns to its usual brilliance and she taps her cup against mine in a cheer.