Two Sisters, Chapter 1 ~ Unnamed chapter one, part 2

The man who walked out of the Gate into the Golden Jade Campground did not look like Sien, until the moment he saw her waiting there.

Only a few months ago he could blend in with any other young, blonde highschool boy.  Elly had noted it to herself back then, how normal he looked, and wondered why she was so drawn to him.  That touch of otherworldliness had been small; hardly there at all.  Now he would have turned heads and drawn curious, furtive glances if he walked down the hallways of Ridgewalter High.  There was a scar running across his face, from his left eyebrow down over his nose ending just above the right corner of his mouth.  It was shocking, and nasty, the kind you couldn’t help but stare at.  His hair, once golden and tousled, was cut very short, dyed blood red, and had symbols shaved into the sides.

His clothes were covered in dirt, the fine light-colored dirt of caked sand and sweat.  The clothes themselves were not overly remarkable, but were quite different for Sien.  Instead of his jeans and worn leather jacket he wore drab looking khaki pants and shirt, like a uniform. 

She had plenty of time to observe him.  He emerged from a gap in the fence where the chain link had been bent and curled away from the pole, backlit by a brief burst of light (so brief it could have been mistaken for a camera flash) and barely broke stride, looking straight ahead.  She knew it was him, and yet felt the dispassion of a stranger as she watched him pass her.  Certainly, it was the same person, but it was not Sien, not her Sien.

She was leaning against a tree, not invisible, but partially obscured by shadow.  He walked several yards past her before suddenly stopping, as if arrested by a sound, though she hadn’t said anything.  He looked side to side for a moment before spinning around, eyes searching in a surprised, excited manner before he found her.

Your heart still leaps at the sight of him.

Elly did her best not to think a reply, and pushed River as far back into her mind as she could.  Sien marched towards her, his face switching from serious to hesitant, a brief smile flickering across before he suppressed it.  As he came closer the presence of River shrunk to a far off pinprick of noise.  Elly found herself wanting to smile, and so she did, though she kept it a careful, enigmatic Mona Lisa of a smile.

“Eleanor.  You’re waiting for me.  How did you . . . ?”

“I’m a special girl, remember?” was all she would tell him.

Her cryptic response seemed to snap him back into a mode of earnest importance; his face went businesslike again, and the flicker of Sien (her Sien) retreated behind his new face.  She could still see it, though, behind his eyes, like this new person’s own version of River.

“I came back to seek your help,” he said.  “I thought I would have to track you down and beg you to listen, but you already know.”

“I may be special but I’m not all-knowing,” she replied.  “Though I can guess what kind of help you need.  You look like a soldier now, Sien.  Have you been fighting the armies of Lsi all by yourself?”

“Not all by myself.”

She couldn’t help but let her eyes wander over the trail of the scar, and he smiled again.

“Motorcycle accident.”

“Is it everything you imagined?  Airidan?”

He shook his head, but also shrugged.  “It’s different.  It’s not . . . not quite the land my father remembered.  In a way, it is exactly what he said, but things change a lot in a hundred years.  It’s not just a magical fairytale land that always stays the same.”

“Meaning?”

“War is fought with guns and bombs.  We don’t march against Lsi on an open battlefield, like in the stories.”

“Guns and bombs.  Not so very different from this world, then?”

“Different and the same,” he said thoughtfully.

“It must be difficult for your father.”

“It was,” he agreed, with a single curt nod.  He said no more, but it was enough to tell her that Ren Auriel was dead.  She thought for a moment about offering condolences.  But didn’t.

“Have you told them that you found their Queen of Seven?” she asked instead.

He nodded.  And she couldn’t stand the hopefulness in his eyes.

“I’m not a virgin anymore.”

His face became a careful mask of unsurprise, though the hope faded, ever so slightly.

“It’s only been nine months,” he said after a moment.  His tone was deceptively monotone, but not deceptive enough to fool her.  Still, she couldn’t tell if it was Sien the ex-boyfriend or Sien the Son of Auriel who was disappointed the most.

“Nine months is forever in the life of a teenager,” said River, stealing Elly’s voice.

Shut up.  This isn’t your conversation.

I’m sorry.  But it’s so very true.

That’s beside the point.  Let me talk to Sien by myself.

River was conspicuously silent, but it was a conciliatory silence, not a sullen one.  They had agreed not to tell Sien anything of their shared mind and body.  It had made life awkward enough with her family.

He didn’t show any signs of noticing, only said, “Do you . . . so you . . . do you have a boyfriend now?”

Ah.  He stutters.  So sweet.  He still loves you.

“No.”  She turned, shifting against the tree, and glanced around pointedly.  “If I did I wouldn’t be lurking in a trailer park at midnight, would I?”

“I don’t know.  I don’t know you very well.”

“You shouldn’t be bitter.  You did leave me, after all.”

“I thought it was clear that I would be back.”

“It wasn’t.”

She looked at him.  He looked at the ground.  Swallowed.  Then lifted his head and took a breath, composing himself, making his face hard.  Deciding not to care, after all?  She wondered if she was as transparent to him.  She hoped not.

“Look, Elly—”

Elly now, no longer Eleanor.

I noticed.

“—Airidan needs a queen.  We’re not winning; Lsi is stronger.  You said it’s been a long nine months for you, well, you wouldn’t believe what I’ve seen.  You wouldn’t want to.  I came because my people are desperate for hope.  I don’t care if I have to lie to give it to them.  I don’t care if you’ve broken one of the rules, I don’t care if you break all the rules.  You don’t even have to stay.  My people just need something to believe in, if only for a little while.”

She didn’t know what to say.  She would have welcomed River speaking for her, at that moment, but whatever River was thinking, she kept to herself.  She was so much better at that. . . .  Sien was standing there, expectantly, waiting for what?  You are worthless, but you’ll have to do?  How does one respond to that?

“Well?” he prompted, when she just stared.  “Will you come with me?”

She could have laughed.

Elly knew that she and River would go with him.  They had been waiting for this night for such a long time.  There was no question.  Still, she wanted to argue, to point out that the Airidani were not her people, that this was not her fight.  And he still expected her to buy into the bullshit when he didn’t believe in her, anymore?  He wanted her to follow him without offering her anything she wanted in return.  So why should she?  Why should she save a land that wasn’t her home, a people that weren’t her people?  Why should she be the savior of the Airidani?  Who was to say that that world wouldn’t be a better place if the Lsi were victorious, finally and forever?

But she said none of this, only pushed herself away from the tree and walked past him, toward the bit of tattered fence that was a Gate to another world.  “I’m doing this for you, Sien,” she said, her back to him.  When a moment passed without response, she looked over her shoulder.

He was staring off into the distance, face pinched as if trying to ignore her words.  So she repeated them, “I’m doing this for you.  Not Airidan, or Jun, or glory or fame or adventure.  I’m only doing it because you want me to.”

He wouldn’t look her in the eye, but he followed, and stopped beside her, facing the Gateway.  “Why couldn’t you wait?” he asked.

“Wait for what?”

“You know.  For me.  To come back.  You couldn’t really have thought that I would never come back for you.”

“I was waiting here for you, wasn’t I?  You came back, and here I am.”

“But you — you didn’t wait.  For me.”

You know what he’s talking about.

“You have to stop caring about that so much, Sien.  It doesn’t matter.  You’ve come back looking like a soldier, but . . . .”  She reached up and lightly touched his scar.  He didn’t flinch, or stop her as she traced its path down his face.  “ . . . You’re still so hung up on the fairytale of the virgin queen.  Like a little boy.”  She withdrew her hand.

His expression hardened, and he looked away.

It has nothing to do with the rules or the Queen of Seven, River said, with a touch of exasperation.  You know he’s hurt because you had sex with someone other than him.

Why don’t you mind your own business?

I have no business, other than yours.

“Come,” said Sien, stepping toward the Gate.  “We have a fairytale to bring to life, even if we’re only play-acting.  Like children.”

She reached out her hand, waiting for him to take it.

“You don’t need me to take you through the Gate . . . you’re a Key as well,” he said, pointedly ignoring her outstretched hand.

“I won’t go through the Gate with you unless you take my hand,” she insisted, smiling ever so slightly.  “I won’t play at being your Queen unless you take my hand, and thank me for everything I’m about to do for you.”

He paused, as if weighing the benefits of remaining sullen and cold against presenting the Queen of Seven to his countrymen.  He reached out and took her hand.

“Thank you.”

“Thank you, Eleanor,” she instructed.

“I thought you didn’t like to be called that.”

“You thought wrongly, then.”

“Alright, thank you, Eleanor.”

“I’ll pretend, for now, that you mean it,” she said with a sigh, “even though you’re not even trying to convince me.  Why do you take it for granted that I’ll come with you, but insist on not believing that I care about you?”

He looked down at their hands.  “What happened, while I was gone?”

Don’t tell him, River cautioned.  He couldn’t handle it.

“It’s a long story.  Don’t we have places to go, things to do, armies to defeat?”

He nodded.  “Yes.  You’re right.  It doesn’t matter, after all.  If we’re going to convince them that you’re the Queen of Seven, you have to at least pretend to live by the rules.  They won’t accept you as Queen unless you appear to be uninterested in . . . men.”

She raised an eyebrow.

“Nothing can happen between us, as long as we’re in Airidan,” he clarified, helpfully.

Elly remained serene on the outside, but inwardly fumed, I could punch him, right now.

Instead, she stepped closer and kissed him softly on the lips.  “Or—” still close enough to almost touch, “—I could just kill anyone who doesn’t accept me as Queen.”

“That’s not funny,” he said, but didn’t move.

She abruptly leaned back and swung out to an arm’s length away.  She smiled.  And River smiled.

“Who’s laughing?”