Chapter 98

Chapter 98: 98 I breathed out slowly. "Can we... re-open the portal?" I asked just to have something to say. "At this point..." You touched the stone, "no. Too much time’s past. Not even the original caster would be able to re-open it." That meant that mini-portal maker Helen lent me wouldn’t be a help. "So... what do we do?" I asked. You got up and made the flame still hovering above your hand flare even larger, lighting up the nearest walls. "We look around," you said. "This place had to be accessible to The Unity staff, so I’d wager there’s a permanent way to get back to normal space somewhere here. It’s too much trouble to always have to open a portal every time." I got up too. "That makes sense. What are we looking for then?" "Not sure." You glanced to me and smiled. "I guess we’ll find out when we find it." It should go without saying, but I really like you and it was in high spirits that I followed you around the perimetre of the room. "This place must have generated a massive amount of energy," you said as we walked, "but then why would The Unity be having energy shortages... When did you help the loong here escape?" "Just a few hours ago. Less than a day," I replied. I hadn’t slept and didn’t feel especially tired. "Hmm... No, the timeline doesn’t sync up." "What are you thinking?" "Oh just... when I was talking to Arthur, he’s the leader of this," you gave an ambiguous shake with your hands, "place, anyway, when I was talking with him, I heard that their new product is having lots of issues with energy consumption." "Makes sense," I replied. "Spells need an energy source, right?" "They do, but if they had a room full of loong that should have been more than enough. Especially since there was a jiaolong too..." "But they didn’t get any power from them," I cut in. "The jiaolong said that they were purposefully cutting off all the loong here from the powergrid, so-" "What? You mean, none of this energy was being used by The Unity?" "Well, I don’t know about none , but certainly not a lot." "That... I guess that does make sense. It would explain the power shortages, although..." "Still doesn’t make sense?" "Well, you need some power to do the kinds of experiments and testing that The Unity’s doing." We walked on in silence and as we did, we came across a corridor leading off into the dark right near the corner of the room. "Going in?" I asked. You shrugged. "Don’t see much choice otherwise." "True." We went in. On the one hand, it was a little strange for us to be as awkward as we were right now, but it also made complete sense to me. We hadn’t really been together - together together - for that long, just like a day, so since then we’d actually been apart for longer, and that’s why things felt awkward. At least that’s what I was telling myself at that moment. Then you took my hand. "I’m still feeling a bit on edge," you said. "What happened?" I asked and I don’t know how, but you knew what I meant when I asked that ambiguous question. "Malcolm said he had a way of fixing the seal without me having to take a long nap, so I thought great, I’d go ask him about it, see what he could do." "If you do take a long nap, I’ll be here when you wake up," I said. You looked at me and I smiled. "Really." You looked like he wanted to say something but you didn’t. Instead you nodded and turned back. You squeezed my hand and I squeezed back. Yeah. Things may have still been a bit awkward, but they’d also changed, shifted. Not in a bad way, but in a growing, moving forward, kind of way. "Aunt Yeung said that Malcolm is really Morgan, is he..." "Yeah. Turns out he’s always been Morgan," you replied. "Does that hurt?" I asked. There was a moment then you replied. "Yeah." I felt you had more to say so I kept silent and eventually you did speak again. "I feel really stupid," you said. "You know, I... I always thought of myself as smart. Like, yeah, I didn’t finish my schooling, but I’m not dumb and I worked hard to learn stuff and I guess that made me proud... somehow. But then it turns out that this guy I’d known for years was just using me..." "The whole time?" "Seems like it." You sighed. "I’m sorry. You’re the last person I should be complaining about this to." I pulled you to a stop and made you look at me. "No, I’m the first person you should complain about this to because I get it." "It doesn’t seem fair to you." "No, it’s the most fair thing." I’d had time to think about things since you’d been kidnapped and this was the conclusion I’d come to. "I want to share everything with you, the heavy stuff included." I didn’t get to see your expression before you turned forward and started walking again, but I didn’t need to. I chuckled and fell into step beside you. "There was a presentation," you said, seemingly to change the subject. "I think it was broadcasted. Did you see it? It had..." "You on the stage?" I finished. "Yeah. Everyone’s seen it." "Ohh..." I eyed you. "Is that bad?" "Uh, no, I just wasn’t expecting that..." "Embarrassed?" "...Yeah." "Don’t worry. You looked very cool." I meant it more as a joke, but instead your demeanor seemed to deflate. "What?" "That guy, the other guy on the stage." "Arthur... Penn I think I saw his name was?" "Yeah. Him. He’s... my father." "What...?" But even as my mind struggled to put two-and-two together, I couldn’t deny the part of it that could immediately see the physical similarities between the two. "You mean he-" "That was my step-father," you interrupted. "The one who sold my soul was the guy my mother married, not my, uh, actual father, biological father." We fell silent. "That must be a shock," I finally said. You chuckled. "That’s a real understatement." Things made sense to me then. "Is that why you’re feeling on edge?" "Mm?" "Like..." I had to take a moment to try to find the words to capture the feelings floating through my mind and heart. It’s often like this with me - it’s normal for me to be able to sense the inner emotional world of a person - but it’s rare that I put in the effort to actually put it into words. "Like, you’re not sure if The Unity, your father, is the bad guy and that we’re the good guys." There was a moment. "Can you explain more?" you asked, your voice a little distant sounding. If I’d been talking to anyone else I would have shut down the conversation immediately and retreated to safer ground, but instead I steeled myself and continued. "This is just a guess," I said, "but... maybe you think what The Unity is working on is actually a good thing for the world." You didn’t reply but the flame above your other hand flickered. "He’s the one who put me here. Arthur Penn, I mean," you said after we’d walked on for a while. "Here?" "In this winter wonderland. I’d been about to leave when he... I don’t know what he did. He did something and then I woke up here." You shook your head. "No, that’s not quite right. He..." You looked at me then let go of my hand. That surprised me but then you raised it to touch my cheek. "He wanted me to help him and if I did, then I could make the world better for you." Your hand dropped. "And I said ’no’." -- Misha reached for Bran, but Bran stepped back and looked away. They’d arrived in another open area, an area smaller than the one where the loong had been kept but still something more like a room than a hallway. Not that either of them noticed. "Bran..." "You think too well of me, Misha," said Bran, his voice hard. "I could have helped you, but I chose not to. Isn’t that just awful? I say that I love you, but-" Before he could finish, Misha had stepped forward, taken his face in his hands and planted a kiss to his lips. "Muah!" "...Misha." "Yes?" Bran wrestled with himself on how to respond then decided to give in and return the favour. Misha smiled. "I’m glad you said ’no’," he said once the kiss had ended. "What?" "Forget for a moment what you feel about all this. For me, if I knew you’d agreed to help them because of me, I’d feel pretty guilty." "Why?" "I don’t like them," was Misha’s simple reply. "I don’t think they can be trusted to do the right thing." "But earlier..." "Earlier I didn’t want to bias you. I... I want you to feel safe to say what you really think but..." He reached around Bran and brought him into a loose embrace. "You’ve been stuck in here for a while, all alone. You don’t know what’s been going on outside."