Hi, my name is Tira Dagr from the Nafren society. I got an incredible opportunity to work in the Vaedrin society. Little did I know it was going to be an opening for me to find love, get a boyfriend and new friends. It was also a medium for me to be among so many Vaedrins that they began to look like normal people, and I got a massive raise in ranks when I started to work for Yasmin Leif, a Vaedrin who I’m now friends with. All these opportunities given to me on a silver platter, simply because I crossed a road I wasn’t meant to and got into an accident; who said accidents always had to be bad?
I got into the meticulously designed and curated Vaedrin society, only to find out all is not as perfect as it seems. Vaedrins started getting killed, yes Vaedrins; the elites in our society who created synthetic air. There’s was no clue of what is killing them only the signs of struggling for air. I frankly found that ironic, since they received surgery that made them handle air better and used the best source of air (synthetic) available. The fear of dying made the high and mighty Vaedrins get Nimvars, the air protectors, for protection. This action, limited Nadrins: The Tholens and Nafrens working for the Avarins; from working for the Vaedrins and Nimvars, as they were then viewed as suspects.
With Vaedrins scared of what was causing the deaths, the Arazins doing investigations and barely sharing their findings, the Nimvars on a strict protection protocols for Vaedrins and the Nadrins unsure of air supply, since they barely worked. I and my friends; Darius, Piran, Gisli and Darya; decided to take matters into our own hands and solve the mystery behind the Vaedrins death. Little did I know that I was strapped in for a whole new surprise.
My eyes were blurry, loud ringing in my ears and a clammy mouth; this was yet another stupid idea I had.
“Get up, get up,” I could hear Darius say in a muffled sound.
I got up to my feet, totally dazed and puzzled on where exactly I was. Dim lights above, ropes around, intended to act as walls. My vision became a bit clear and I turned around to see Darya charging at me and releasing a hard blow at my face that sent me flying in the air. And everything went dark.
I woke up to find everyone crowded around me. They kept saying things but the ringing in my ears were much too loud for me to make any meaning of the muffled sounds. Piran kept flashing a flashlight into my eyes, while Darius kept pushed it away. Gisli continuously poured water on me, and Darya lightly tapped my face.
“Are you okay,” I finally heard Darya say as the ringing stopped.
“Where am I?” I said, watching Darius face grow even more worried than it already was.
“In the ring, where you triumphantly lost the match you had with Darya,” Gisli said, as he finally stopped pouring water on me.
“Huh?”
I didn’t understand what he was talking about. Then like a wave, it all came rushing to me. I wanted to train in case I faced anyone dangerous, then after two days of training I decided I was ready. I told Darya to fight me just so I could show everyone how ready I was. She immediately refused, so I bragged about how good I was, and how scared Darya should be of me, and how I would mop the floors with her, and how…well, you get the point.
They all kept staring at me which made me very uncomfortable.
“I’m really sorry Tira. I shouldn’t have let your words get to me. Now look what I did to you,” Darya said, gently tilting my head from side to side to inspect the swelling.
“You have nothing to be sorry for Darya. She’s the one that kept pushing you,” Gisli said.
“Yes but that didn’t mean I should have beaten her. She so small and well, let’s face it. I’m large,” Darya argued.
“Yeah, well I think she should have considered that too; before all that talk,” Gisli said before walking away. Piran followed after.
“He’s right. I shouldn’t have done all that smack talk to make you angry. I’m sorry,” I whispered, and held my head to stop the spinning.
Darya helped me get up, and assisted me out of the ring and into the ringside bar. We settled to get drinks. I placed mine on my face while Darya went to get first aid.
“Happy now?” Darius finally said after what seemed like hours of silence.
“Not gonna lie, I really thought I could beat her.”
“You can’t keep making these kind of stupid decisions. We’re about to start the investigation and I need to be sure you won’t go off doing something stupid.”
“I just wanted to make sure I could protect myself. The results didn’t show that I could, though.”
“I’ll protect you, I’ll make sure you’re safe. As long as you don’t leave my side, you don’t have anything to worry about.”
I stayed quiet; this wasn’t the right time to paint scenarios.
“I don’t want to be a burden. Everyone here is perfectly capable of defending themselves. Everyone except me. You, Piran and Darya are muscular. Gisli isn’t, but he knows a bunch of martial art. I’m the only one that’s, practically useless in a defense. I’m small and very easy to throw around. And I know you can protect me, but we never know what’s going to happen.”
It was his turn to stay quiet. We both stared at the bottles of drinks on the counter. Darya came back with the first aid and put band-aids on my cuts. She also massaged the swelling while I winced in pain.
After a while of strategizing and final planning, we all went to our different homes to rest for the next day. Darius and I had a quiet walk home, both deep in thoughts. We got to our apartment and had dinner in silence. I was walking to my room when Darius held me back.
“Hey,” he said after I turned.
“What?” I answered.
“You’re not a burden.”
“Huh?”
“I said, you’re not a burden; so don’t think that way.”
“Um yeah, thanks.”
“I mean it.”
“I’m not disagreeing.”
“I know you, you just said that to make me go away. Look at things this way, okay, stay with me now. We won’t even be able to enter the place without you configuring the system to let us in. You’re literally the biggest part of our plan.”
I stayed quiet for a while, “Just make sure you don’t leave me,” I finally said.
“You bet,” he said with a wide grin, “you should get some rest.”
“You too.”
The morning came fast, that was my shortest sleep in history. I closed my eyes and opened it with the dread of seeing the sun. Darius hit my door yelling for me to get ready. We flew around the house, stuffing things into our bags with every stop we made. We dressed in regular clothes to avoid getting attention.
Darius in a grey body hug long sleeved top, black cargo pants and a black face cap. While I wore similar clothes but with a white bucket hat.
“That’s the best color contrast you could find?” Darius said looking disappointed.
“It doesn’t have to be bold, it just needs to be bright. The camera doesn't judge color and frankly I think it's a better cover,” I said rolling my eyes.
He rolled his eyes back at me, “Whatever. You got everything you need?”
“Yup.”
We left the building, when I noticed soap behind his ear.
“Even as you’ve gotten older, you still can’t bathe properly,” I reached to clean it off, while he bent a bit for me to reach, “there you go.”
We heard the sound of something hitting the floor and turned to see Vida, my hands were still on Darius ear and Darius was still bending slightly.
“Vida?” we both chorused.
“I came to visit…”
She used her eyes to follow the hand I still hand on Darius ear and I let go the second I noticed while Darius stood up straight immediately. Darius walked over to her and carried the bag she dropped.
“Oh, babe. I didn’t know you were visiting.”
“Why? Am I interrupting anything important?” she said, as turned her eyes turned away from him to me.
I looked away and tried to look casual, but just ended up looking awkward.
“Why are you guys wearing matching outfits? Is it like a uniform?”
“Uhh, let me help you get settled inside,” Darius said, walking back to the building.
“You seemed to be going somewhere, I wouldn’t want to interrupt. I can tag along if it’s okay?” she said, pulling Darius back.
Darius turned to look at me; I simply shook my head saying no and looked away.
“Listen babe, I would’ve loved if for you came along but…”
“But Tira doesn’t approve of that,” she interrupted.
“What? No. It’s just…”
“It’s just what, Darius? You told me you barely had any work these days, so where could you be going that’s so important I can’t come along? That’s so important you and Tira have to wear matching outfits to go?”
“It’s not what you think, Vida,” I said, finally stepping in.
“Oh. Well then, explain what it is,” she said with arms crossed over her chest.
“It’s just bad timing, babe. That’s it,” Darius said.
“Bad timing?”
It wasn’t looking good at all and we were wasting time.
“Vida, I know this looks really suspicious but I promise it’s not what you think. Darius and I were actually heading to see some friends, which isn’t exactly what you can’t come along to, it’s just that he isn’t exactly proud to show them to you. We’d have to tell them before hand to let them umm…clean up and look like the kind of people you’d show to your girlfriend. We aren’t the only people wearing matching outfits; they also are. It’s like a thing we do here,” I lied through my teeth.
Both Darius and Vida looked at me confused, I had to tilt my head for Darius to understand.
“Yup, that’s it. And the only reason it’s bad timing is because we were about to go see them,” Darius added.
“Well, perfect cover up. It’s almost believable; only flaw is, Darius is the last person in Reika to hang around bad company. Besides that. What exactly is it that your new friend group could be into that you wouldn’t want me to find out?”
I wanted to just yell ‘we’ll be back’ and run off with Darius. Why did she come now of all times? There’s literally nothing we could say that’ll allow her let us leave. At that point my phone rang, it was Gisli calling. I looked at Darius who pleaded with me not to leave with his eyes, I brought my shoulders up a bit, trying to say sorry while I left to take the call. He’s the one in love, he should deal with it himself.
“Hello,” I said picking the call.
“Where the heck are you two? We’re supposed to get in early remember? It’s already eight.”
“I know, I know, something came up and it’s kind of difficult getting out of.”
“Get out of it and drag yourselves down here. This is the only opportunity we have to enter here.”
“I know. We’ll be there,” I said before cutting the call.
“Oh well. Looks like I have to be the villain again.”
I walked over to Darius and Vida who were still arguing. I looked over at Darius who looked like he wanted to burst into tears. He hated when Vida was mad at him, or got upset because of him. Unfortunately, that’s been happening a lot, since she isn’t comfortable with me and Darius being in the same apartment. I mean she’s justified to feel that way, but it isn’t something either of us can control.
“Darius, Gisli said the clocks ticking,” I said, as I entered their circle.
“Are you blind? We’re still talking,” Vida said looking even more pissed.
“Look, I know how it looks. The truth is there’s nothing we can say that’ll sound okay. And you did come at the worse time possible, unannounced, if I might add. The thing is we have something very important to get to. If Darius wasn’t important for it, I’d gladly leave him behind so he can smoothen things out; but there isn’t time. Like, we have to be there right now,” I paused, she had to let him go herself, if I pulled him away, she’ll never forgive him. “So you decide. Look at his face, he’s near tears, because of how upset you are. I know you have questions. But he has something really important to do. Are you going to hold him back or are you going to let him get to his work.”
She looked at me then at Darius, then back at me.
“I have never liked you for anything. But. If there’s something important Darius has to do.” She turned to look at him and held his hand. “Then I guess I shouldn’t be a hindrance. I’ll see myself in.”
“Thank you so much babe. I promise I’ll explain everything to you when I get back.” He kissed her and handed her the keys, “the room number is on the key tag. My room’s the one with the brown door.”
She waved goodbye. And we rushed off to the meeting point.
“They finally showed up.” Piran said as we approached. “What kept you too?”
“Darius's girlfriend showed up out of the blue,” I said as I pulled my bag off my shoulder.
“Huh? How’d she get a pass to the city?”
“Actually, that is strange,” Darius said, puzzled.
“Can we worry about that later,” Darya said, as she brought out jackets, “This is what we’ll use to get into the spire-form. It's part of the uniform for the cleaner's. This is the first recorded spire-form where the incidents started.”
We put on the jackets and walked into the spire-form, we all used our face caps to cover their faces from being on the camera. It was heavily guarded with Nimvars. Arazins were moving between different stations with document and Vaedrins? They were nowhere to be seen. I couldn’t help but remember what the godfather’s assistant said. Then Darius as if reading my mind said, “At the end of the day, it’s the Vaedrins that rule the planet.”
“You brought that right out of my head,” I said staring at the spireform.
"How come cargo pants are part of the cleaner's uniform though?" Piran asked.
"You wear your casual clothes then use the jackets as uniform. We were all supposed to wear different color for our tops but Darius and Tira just had to be twins," Darya answered.
"We couldn't resist," I said smiling.
Just as we were about to pass through the first security point, I saw Erik talking to an Arazin in another point not too far away. What the heck was he doing here?