The next day we got ready and headed to the Leif household. It turns out that they owned a lot of buildings. Vaedrins referred to their buildings as spire-forms due to their architectural design. We arrived early but other Tholens seemed to have arrived earlier.
“Well, well, well, they finally showed up,” Mrs. Vishtaspa said with folded arms, “I told you to arrive early.”
“It’s six in the morning, this is earlier than we’ve ever made it to the allocation hall,” I protested.
“You are no longer in the Nadrin city, here we do things differently. You have no excuse for coming late since you live in the city, Tholens here come from Nadrin city. We work before the Nadrins wake; you mustn’t be seen.”
I was about to protest when Darius gently pushed me to the side.
“Yes franu, we won’t repeat this again.”
“Piran gives the daily schedule,” she said before looking at me disapprovingly and walking away.
“Franu? She’s just a Tholen.”
“Look Tira she’s right, this isn’t the Nadrin city, you can’t go around causing trouble, I’m serious this time. We don’t know how things work here and everyone’s going to be watching us since we’re the new addition to the Dastas. You can’t get into any type of argument or fight and you especially can’t do anything that’ll get you into trouble. Are we clear?”
“You know It’s really…”
“Tira, right now we’re heading to the forest again, are you going to leave me and run to the hover-way like before?”
Now I could tell he was being serious, he was still mad about me turning around, well, maybe not mad but definitely hurt.
“No, I’ll follow you to the forest till we get home. I’ll stay away from trouble, I promise.”
“Thank you.”
We headed to Piran outside a spire-form, he seemed distracted talking to someone who seemed familiar.
“You?” said the person who turned as we approached, it was Hildir. Keeping Darius promise was going to be really hard.
“Of course,” I said sarcastically.
“Now you know, I guess. We’ll talk later,” Piran said to her before turning towards us, “You two are really late.”
“Yes, we’re sorry.” Darius said looking at me, making me avoid his gaze.
“Looks like you made Mrs. Vishtaspa upset, that’s not good for your first day.”
“Yeah she seemed really upset,” I said as he handed me my schedule.
“I wouldn’t bother too much about it. She’s always angry, it’s annoying,” Piran sad rolling his eyes.
“Wait, aren’t you too like really close,” Darius asked.
“It’s all circumstances I assure you. She’s married to my dad so I have no choice but to be nice and she makes it really hard. She’s a kiss ass that takes any little power she has and flaunts it.”
“Whoa, you seem mad. Chill,” Darius said trying to calm him down.
“Sorry. She pissed me off this morning. I wasn’t supposed to say any of that, just pretend I never told you,” Piran smiled and walked away.
“Classic Tholen power move, they’d take every opportunity they find to feel big and important. Glad to see I’m not the only one pissed about it,” I said watching Piran walk away, then looked at my schedule.
“Yeah, it looks like things aren’t really different here either,” Darius responded then proceeded to compare his schedule with mine. “Well it looks like we aren’t seeing each other till today ends. We’ll meet at the forest after work don’t forget and don’t be late.”
“Yes sir,” I said walking away.
I went to the spire-form I met Yasmin in. Unfortunately, she stayed in the penthouse, so that meant all the way up again. Though it was time consuming and exhausting I finally made it to the top. I guess I won’t be needing exercise ever again. I know we weren’t supposed to let the Vaedrins see us but the second I saw her address at the top for my first job with three hours of work time I knew it was a scheme for us to meet.
I rang the doorbell, the door flung open almost immediately after. Standing by the door was a smiling Yasmin.
“Yasmin! It’s so nice to see you.”
“Come in,” she said dragging me in and shutting the door.
“This place looks much different than I remember.”
“Yup, I had it redecorated. That’s beside the point. Guess what?” She shrieked excited.
“I honestly have nothing in mind.”
“Oh come on.”
“Does it have anything to do with meeting the godfather?”
“What? No. You want to meet him?”
“No, I met him. I thought you arranged for that too.”
“No. The godfather barely sees people. Lucky you. But that’s not it.”
“Okay, then, what is it?”
“I found out it’s possible to have a Tholen work for you personally so I told Erik to arrange for you to personally work for me,” she yelled excitedly.
“And he allowed it?” I couldn’t help but replay the way he ignored me in the party, in my head, “But wait I’m not a Tholen, remember?”.
“Oh, same thing as long as you’re a Dasta. And of course he did. Why wouldn’t he?” She held my hand as we both sat on a couch, “Oh. I understand why you’d be confused. He’s been worrying about the incident since it happened. He didn’t mean to treat you like that. It’s just…we’re Vaedrins, and apparently we’re supposed to act a certain way.”
“That makes sense. I think.”
“Now please, no sulking. We’re going to be together soon. We should be celebrating,” she screamed out of nowhere, startling me.
“So…which work would you have me doing in the meantime?”
“Oh my, don’t be such a killjoy. I have a lot of games I want us to play.”
I spent my morning playing games, they were admittedly fun, Vaedrins did things much differently, their games weren’t done for skill development but for entertainment, it seemed like a waste of time. I finished my jobs quiet fast though the staircase gave me great difficulty; then I made my way to the forest leading to the Vaedrin city.
“Arriving at the same time. First time in decades,” I said laughing as I saw Darius walking towards the forest.
“I guess.”
We used the river to get to the Nadrin city since it was much faster. We met Darius parents to officially celebrate the promotion, since we never got the chance to. Darius girlfriend was also there but for some reason she didn’t argue with me, she even seemed nice, I almost approved of her but I knew it was all a façade.
We arrived in the Vaedrin city quite late. Tholens could be seen everywhere, they crowded the train stations and bus stops, many were trying to leave the city, while few were trying to get to their houses in the city.
“Maybe we shouldn’t have taken the train,” Darius said looking around.
“Yeah, but we were way too tired to use the forest again.”
We struggled leaving the train station and finally walked through the crowd to head home. When we got there we saw Erik waiting in front of the building. Darius gave me a questioning look and I motion that I didn’t know what was going on. Erik noticed us coming and smiled.
“Hi,” Erik said smiling; like he hadn’t completely ignored me a few days earlier.
“Hey,” I said with folded arms, trying not to look as nervous as I felt; I failed.
“I wanted to talk to you, since last time didn’t go so well.”
“Well, you didn’t even try to talk.”
“Yeah I’m sorry about that, guess you’re still having a hard time adjusting to how things run here.”
What exactly did he mean by that? Darius nudged my arm and I turned to him, I had completely forgotten he was beside me.
“Oh, yeah. This is Darius, my bestfriend.”
They seemed to have a weird standoff, I wasn’t exactly sure what was going on. Darius didn’t shake his hand like he normally would and Erik didn’t offer to do so either.
“It’s nice to see you brought someone along with you,” Erik said with a tight smile, “you must really love it here,” he said to Darius.
“It’s a nice city.”
“Yes, it is. I’m glad I was able to extend the opportunity of being here to you.”
I laughed awkwardly, I didn’t know what exactly was happening but I didn’t like the tone Erik was using. Not one bit.
“Why would you even say something like that?” I asked Erik, trying to hide the hurt on my face.
“I didn’t mean it to you, I was just trying to…”
Darius yawned loudly, stretching, “I’ll see you upstairs Tira, I’m already tired.” He said before eyeing Erik and walking away.
“Your bestfriend sure is something.”
“Why are you here,” I was already tired of the conversation, I had no idea why I missed him.
“I already told you, I wanted to talk to…”
“Yeah well, I’m too tired for a conversation, so unless you have something better…”
“I’m sorry for the way I spoke. I shouldn’t have said that.”
“You shouldn’t have done a lot of things, but you did anyway,” I walked away, but he grabbed my arm, making me turn back to look at him.
I looked at my arm then back at him and he let me go.
“You’re right I messed up big time, let me make it up to you. Yasmin said she already told you about requesting for a personal Tholen, well, it got approved. I’ll talk to you when you come.”
I gave a tired okay and headed to my apartment. The day was tiring enough and it was only my first work day here. I entered to see Darius sitting in the living room.
“I thought you were tired,” I walked over to the kitchen to get water.
He followed me and settled on the counter.
“I really don’t like that guy. You don’t crush for ages and when you finally do, it’s him. Honestly trash your feelings, he’s garbage.”
“Trust me, I’m already considering it,” I took a gulp of water from the glass.
And we went to our different rooms. We got ready earlier than the previous day, which was probably the earliest I’ve ever been in my life. By the time we arrived, there were already Tholens, only this time tasks were still being distributed.
“Why are you here? You’re supposed to be in the Leif’s main spire-form attending to Franu Yasmin Leif,” Piran said as he got to us, “she doesn’t get up early so you’re off the early morning hook. Honestly, you have a lot of luck, first the Dastas, then this. How do you do it.”
“It’s luck, just like you said,” I laughed awkwardly, “I was just following Darius.”
“Do you too always go everywhere together?”
“We’d go to work together if it were possible,” Darius answered smiling.
“I wish I had a friendship like yours, here’s your schedule Darius,” He handed him a paper. “I heard you too even got to have a private talk with the godfather, is it true.”
“It is,” Darius said beaming brightly, “he’s really cool.”
“I’ve only seen him in pictures or videos, never in real life, unless when he gets on stage to talk but I’m never really close enough. He’s my idol.”
“No way, ours too,” I said.
“I’m convinced we’re kindred spirits,” Darius added, making me roll my eyes.
“Never heard of three kindred spirits.”
“Please don’t let him explain,” I begged.
“If there should be kindred spirits, it’d be Tira that would be more likely. Since they both have caramel skin and all.”
“Kindred spirit, not kindred skin,” Darius argued.
We spoke for a while before we departed to our different tasks. The Leif’s main spire-form was huge, which sadly meant they also had a lot of staircases. The only part of the city I didn’t appreciate was the annoying staircases, while Vaedrins used the elevators, Tholens were burdened with using staircases in these huge buildings, like it wasn’t enough that they were doing work for the Vaedrins. It honestly didn’t look balanced to me, but then again maybe that was the whole point.
I got to Yasmin’s floor and tried figuring my way to the particular room she was in, when I bumped into someone. It wasn’t anyone I recognized.
“Ouch, I’m sorry. I didn’t see you.”
He kept looking at me. It was extremely awkward. He was a Vaedrin, blue eyes, wide freckles with dirty blond hair that hanged over his eyes and fell on his shoulder, he had a nice build and a really good tan.
“It was my fault; I should have paid more attention to where I was going. Where are you headed sweetheart?”
“Herrar. I’m trying to find Franu Yasmin Leif’s room.”
“Yasmin? Wait, are you the personal Tholen she got, she couldn’t stop bragging about you. Wow, she was right, you really are gorgeous.” He eyed me from head to toe making me feel very uncomfortable, “please to meet your acquaintance, I’m Bairam Rast, at you service. Allow me to escort you to Yasmin’s room.”
He dramatically turned around and offered me his hand.
“Thank you, herrar Bairam,” I tried holding his hand but he dropped it instantly leaving me puzzled.
“Nope, it won’t work. Drop the herrar, it’s Bairam, simply Bairam,” he smiled and then took my hand which was still hanging in the air as I looked at him confused.
“Okay, Bairam.”
“Excellent!”
We walked until we got to her room, he held my hand up the entire time like I was some royal in a dress, it was something I only saw in movies. He knocked and Yasmin opened the door with a wide smile.
“Bairam, I see you met Tira," she turned to me, "Tira!”
He finally let go of my hand as Yasmin gave me a wholehearted hug, I hug her back it was warm and friendly. We walked in, Yasmin was excitedly talking about a party she was hosting, that she needed my help with, while Bairam kept smiling and looking at me; it was really distracting. I had to focus on what Yasmin was saying but Bairam wasn’t making it easy.
The door opened and Erik walked in, we all turned to him. Arms in pockets, with maximum composure and a charming smile, it was mesmerizing. I quickly looked away, remembering what Darius said and trying to remind myself that I was supposed to be angry with him.
“Don’t you knock anymore? You can’t just barge in here,” Yasmin said angrily with folded arms.
“I need to borrow Tira for a while.”
“No, Tira is hanging out with me, you can take your bestfriend, I don’t need him.”
“Ouch, that hit hard,” Bairam said with his hands on his chest as he stood up.
Erik rolled his eyes at her.
“Tira get up, I’ve already arranged…”
“I work for Franu Yasmin not you, she doesn’t want me to leave and I won’t. Besides, I don’t want to talk to you,” I kept my eyes on Yasmin who was smiling back at me. Payback.
He was clearly stunned and just stood there and stared at me. Bairam put a hand on his shoulder and tried pulling him away but he refused. He walked over to my front to make sure I was looking at him.
“I just want to make it up to you.”
“You’re disrupting my work, herrar.”
He moved back offended.
“Just leave, Erik, we’re trying to plan a party here,” Yasmin said.
He turned to Yasmin and did something unexpected I could tell from the shock on her face.