Meliora - Extricate - 04

[lady_mab]

Lysander Stavros

Summer school has been in full swing for about a month and a half. I haven't seen my friends since Kaito's birthday back in June, and I realized that I really needed a break from teenagers.

So I called Rhys. To which he replies with a somewhat cryptic text, asking me out for a drink. Unlike me, Rhys is a responsible adult all day every day. I am only one when the mood strikes. While I had been thinking that we could make plans for lunch or dinner sometime in the near future, the way Adults are supposed to do (or so I am led to believe), he turns around and asks me out for drinks.

I'm never one to turn down a drink, or for corrupting my straight-laced friend the night before he has to go into work.

I arrive at Temple Fusion first, breathing in the atmosphere like it is pure oxygen. The colored lights in the club, the ringing chatter, the clank of glasses and the rattle of ice. It's a cacophony I know well.

Behind the bar, Kaito, the third member of our trio of vaguely responsible adults, looks at me in surprise. Normally I text to tell him I'm coming to hang out. I thought Rhys might have, or else we could have planned to hang out elsewhere.

Still, I grin and wave, and take my customary seat at the bar.

I order a light beer, and set my cellphone on the counter to keep an eye on the time.

A few minutes later, a hand lands between my shoulder blades and pats me to get my attention. Rhys slides into place into his own stool, right next to me in the very center of the bar. From there, he gets a good look at everything around him -- from the drink preparation, to the patrons, to the dancers. Kaito is his accounting firm's client, and probably one of their largest companies.

"Hey," he says, sounding more exhausted than he normally does. "Sorry I'm late."

I wave him off. "Not like we set a time. You want anything to drink?"

He frowns as he sets his briefcase on the bar. If I didn't know any better, I would think that he had come straight from the office. Only he never works on Sundays. "No, thank you. Maybe later." His hair isn’t as styled as it normally is, but he’s dressed as neatly as always. Still, there is something hanging around his shoulders that makes him look frustrated and harried.

"You okay?" I nudge him with my elbow. "Your texts were a little disconcerting."

A sigh escapes him and he pinches the bridge of his nose beneath his glasses. "I honestly don't know."

"Anything you want to tell me about?" I resist the urge to glance over at Kaito. I wonder if this is a conversation that all three of us should be having. The two of them have been friends for somewhere around five years, and even though I'm a recent addition as of a year and a half ago, they still keep me included in their lives.

Rhys twiddles his thumbs, and accepts a glass of water offered to him by one of the bartenders with a faint, 'thank you'. He doesn't drink from it, just smooths his finger over the condensation. "I received a text last week that... seemed like a scam at first. Just some sort of spam mail that was sent with a high priority flag to make it feel important or something. It's for some game called 'Meliora'." He pulls his tablet out of his bag and brings up a message.

I lean over his shoulder to read when he doesn't extend it towards me. "Well... that certainly does sound very fake."

"The twins got one too."

"Hm." I prop my chin in my hands and give him my full attention. "Same message?"

"Same priority flag, same information, same anonymous sender." His fingers tap the screen and a second window filled with scribbled shorthand appears. "Except they got it to their joint account."

There's a trace of frustration in his voice that explains a lot about his expression. "Ah, are the kids fighting again?"

"You know, it would be fine if they just talked to one another. But no, apparently that is too difficult for them." Rhys runs a hand through his hair and glances at something over my shoulder, but his gaze quickly flits away and back to study the grain of the bar. "Lionel and I went to the first meeting today. That’s where I was when you called earlier."

I drum my fingers against the bar, trying to pick apart the pieces of the message that make even the slightest bit of sense. “So… whoever this Program Manager is… is saying that we’re trapped in this city?”

“To an extent, yes. And he’s being kind enough to offer us a chance for escape.” He would have scoffed if he had the energy to do so. Instead, he presses the tips of his fingers to his forehead and buries another sigh in the palm of his hand. “They mentioned the hospital. That we have to go there once a month now to get our shots.”

Escape. That’s such an awful word. “Why so often?”

He shrugs, turning his attention up to the ceiling, as if looking for some sort of flaw or imperfection. I glance over my shoulder, catching sight of Kaito again as he flirts with a girl ordering drinks for her and her friends. This feels weird to be discussing something possibly quite important without him with us.

Especially if participating means that Rhys has started to consider the idea of leaving.

“I want to ask you to be our Informant.”

My attention swivels back to Rhys, only to find his hazel gaze pinning me in place. He has his tablet on the bar before him, the message fading into darkness on the screen. “A what now?”

“We are supposed to break into teams of three people. Two Participants, aka people who received this message, and one Informant, who is the liaison between the Program Manager and our team. The twins are technically participating as one person. We would make the team.”

The idea nearly sends me reeling. A year and a half isn’t a long time for me to be stuck in one place, but I’ve been feeling this city starting to glue itself to my heels. Dragging me into place when I haven’t been able to figure out why.

If I’m not able to leave, even if the thought had never occurred to me to pack up and ship out, then that would explain it. “I would be able to leave?”

Something that might be guilt crosses over Rhys’ face, but then suddenly a glass of ale is slid into place next to Rhys’ water.

We both turn to find Kaito watching us expectantly.

I grin and immediately down the rest of my glass. “If you’re handing out drinks…”

“That’s your second one,” Kaito says, though I can’t interpret his tone.

So I keep on teasing him. “So?”

Rhys doesn’t rise to the bait but pushes the glass towards me. “He can have mine.”

Kaito slides it back before I can reach for it. “No, he can’t, because you’re having yours.”

There’s a frown in response. “I didn’t ask for this,” he says with a sigh, and I wonder just how specific he’s being with that remark.

“So,” Kaito chimes, leaning his arms on the bar and propping his chin up with both hands. “What are you old hens gossiping about?”

I snort in amusement, but it falls short as I watch Rhys’ fingers move across the screen of the tablet to close both of the windows he had open.

“Nothing. Just an email I got.” He reaches for the glass and takes a sip. “It’s not that important.”

I can feel my smile flicker. For his sake, I hold it in place. It doesn’t make much of a difference anyway because I can tell that Kaito doesn’t believe him.

“You’re lying to me,” Kaito says, his eyes darker than usual in the lighting of his club.

Rhys actually looks surprised. “Pardon?” He plays innocent fairly well, though I don’t know why he’s bothering.

Crossing his arms and leaning in close, dropping his voice to a conspiratorial tone, Kaito says, “I heard enough--”

That is the key that gets Rhys to spring into action. In the process of shoving himself away from the bar, he nearly topples backwards off his stool. I reach out just in time to catch his shoulder and help steady him. “Before you say anything, the answer is no.”

“But you don’t even know what I wanted to ask!”

“It’s you, and that’s enough.” Rhys shoves his glasses up the bridge of his nose with a bit more force than necessary. “Kaito, this isn’t open for discussion.”

I watch the conversation bounce back and forth between them as they argue about the subject at hand. Feeling that I need to at least try and ease the tension, since I generally feel like the third wheel when they get like this, I take over when Rhys snaps his mouth shut. “He doesn’t want to get you involved in this. You have a business to run.”

Kaito tosses his hands into the air and rolls his eyes. “Yeah, and you’re a history teacher at a secondary school. I don’t see what that has to do with anything.”

Rhys is massaging his temples. “You’re more likely to take this lightly--”

“Ooh, I’m taking a game far too lightly, whatever shall we do?”

“I’m being serious here, Kaito!”

“You’re always serious, Rhys! That’s half the problem.”

Other patrons are starting to look as their voices rise in a crescendo. The other bartender doesn’t seem to care, and I wonder how often the two of them get into arguments about business matters.

“He’s right,” I say, keeping my voice even in an effort to diffuse the situation. “The way that he describes it sounds more like a well organized plan to cause chaos disguised as a game. They are giving information and power to a select few individuals and waiting to see what happens.” I’ve studied enough history to know how badly this will go.

In a word: badly.

When Kaito finally finds his voice again, it sounds a lot more injured than I thought it would. Apparently this hurt him more than he originally let on. “Why would you tell Lysander and then try to lie to me?”

Oooh boy. Admittedly, I don’t know a lot of their history. I’ve tried to pick up on it, and watching their conversation now reminds me how closely they’ve worked together over five years. But I also know when one of them is out of line, and even though Rhys hasn’t been picking his words correctly, Kaito delivers too low a blow when he says, “So you’d let your siblings participate before me? Talk about mixing in your personal life. I’m insulted.”

I stop just short of physically blocking the two of them from the other’s line of sight. “They have to participate as a team. You couldn’t expect him to split up Lio and Lia, could you?”

His shoulders heave in a shrug. “I’m going to say no, even though I don’t know how this game is played.”

“You don’t have to know.”

“So you keep saying, and so I keep failing to see.” His finger taps on the bar, and he gives his I’m thinking face. Rhys and I tense in preparation for the next words out of his mouth. “Informants, right? I think that’s what you said?”

I look to Rhys, but it’s obvious that he’s not going to respond. He’s being childish about it. So I step in. “They’re the ones that deal the information out to their team. They’re the ones that can determine a team’s success or failure.” At least, judging by what little Rhys has told me, that’s what I put together.

Kaito laughs, which is a reaction I’m not really expecting. “Oh my god, and you think a history teacher would be better for that? No offense, Lys.”

Truth be told, I’d feel more comfortable telling everyone just why this is a bad idea and using historical references to back me up than I would actually being an Informant. “None taken.”

“Lysander is perfectly capable,” Rhys says in my defense. “He’s seen a lot of what is happening out in the world. He’s got knowledge that could be of use, or at least the cunning to know how to use it.”

This surprises me more than all of the information about Meliora so far. Rhys is very sparing in his compliments. “Aww, that’s so sweet. Thanks, Rhys.”

There is an expression on Kaito’s face that he wrangles down before I can interpret it. He pushes himself away from the bar and rubs his thumb over his brow. “Alright, okay, you know what? I’m trying to be serious here. I really want to help out. But fine. Whatever.”

He doesn’t get too far before he snatches the glass from in front of Rhys. “And I’m taking this to wash the bad taste out of my mouth.” Kaito doesn’t quite storm off, but it’s enough to make Rhys look guilty.

Moments like these, I realize how young he is -- how young we all are. But Kaito has been running this bar since he was nineteen; Rhys has been taking care of his siblings since he was fifteen; I’ve been traveling the world since I could walk. We all like to act like we’re a lot older than we actually are.

I sigh and try to run my hand through my hair, but instead my fingers just get tangled in the haphazard bun. I pull out the band that kept it back and shake it loose. “You shouldn’t give him such a hard time.”

“Me?” Rhys hisses. He’s seething, anger and frustration and guilt mixing together into an ugly cocktail on his face. “Things are complicated enough. I don’t want to get him involved.”

“Is it because of the leaving thing?”

He glances back at me. “No. It’s not… Lysander, Informants aren’t allowed to leave, I’m sorry.” His shoulders slump and he turns away. “I suppose I shouldn’t have brought it up to you if that’s what you’re thinking of.”

I stare at him in confusion the words settling into my head. “Why not?”

“If I knew, we probably wouldn’t be in this situation.”

“Fair enough.”

Rhys hesitates, then pulls his tablet back into his lap. “Lionel was able to pull a list of recipients from the original message that we received. They seem to already have a database of citizens with their emails and jobs.”

There’s a chill stuck somewhere in my shoulders that won’t go away. “That’s just a little bit creepy.”

“A little.” He taps his screen, and a moment later, a text from him lights up on my phone. “Look it over. You might find some other people participating that you know.”

This is because of what Kaito said. This is because he would feel guilty asking me to participate further if I can’t leave. “You don’t even hire me and you’re already firing me?” I tease, picking up my phone and sliding it into my pocket. “You’ve helped Kaito out a lot, and perhaps he wants to return the favor.”

“Are you leaving?”

“I’ve got class to teach tomorrow. And don’t you have numbers to crunch?” I start to push myself to my feet, but I drop back onto the stool and lean in towards Rhys. “Thanks for bringing this to my attention. I do want to participate, though I think… I’ll have to reconcile it with myself. Were there any rules given?”

He hesitates, then shakes his head. “Not really. He just said ‘Participants get to leave, Informants have to say’, but…” He trails off and shrugs.

“Hm.” I finally rise back to my feet and toss a handful of coins onto the counter to pay for the drinks. “Next time, let’s hang out for real.”

“Your birthday is next month.”

“Oof, don’t remind me.”

Rhys manages a smile and a small wave as I weave my way through the thinning crowd. I catch sight of Kaito polishing the taps and sidetrack my path long enough to step over to him.

“About before,” I tell him, hands shoved into my pockets. “Sorry.”

He doesn’t look up but keeps at his work with a childish frown. “You’re not the one I want an apology from.”

I nod down to where Rhys is still perched on the edge of his stool, hunched and tired. “I’ll swing by to chat with you later in the week. Or maybe you can actually find time to get out from behind that bar and the three of us can hang out.”

“Now, wouldn’t that be a wonder.” Kaito finally looks up at me. “Why does it seem that between the three of us, we make up one functioning adult?”

I consider this for a second before shaking my head. “Because math somehow says that makes sense.” I laugh when a trace of amusement lights up Kaito’s face. I tug my vape out of my pocket and salute him with a quick wave.

I don’t hesitate after that, heading straight for the doors and out into the warm summer night. Heaving a sigh and stretching my arms up over my head, I take a drag from the pen and wait for it to relieve some of the tension building up in my chest.

It doesn’t -- at least not completely. As I head off down the sidewalk, I take out my phone and pull up the list. If I want to be someone’s Informant, then there are a few things I have to consider. One will be finding a team that will be able to get far enough to learn the “secrets” of Eminence, and one that might be dumb enough to not notice if I break the rules.

Because now that I know that there is something keeping me here, the last thing I want to do is remain.

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