Chelen City: Chapter Twenty-Two, Part One

 Notes: Time for a meeting with Restaria! What will Elanus even say to xir? What can xe possible say back? We'll find out ;)

Title: Chelen City: Chapter Twenty-Two, Part One

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Chapter Twenty-Two, Part One

 

Only Restaria Sanclare could make sitting in a broken EV suit in the darkness of a storage compartment look dignified. Even xir hair had retained enough coils and ringlets to give it some of that famous body xe was known for. Xe was looking up expectantly as Elanus had Lizzie open the compartment, but tellingly, Restaria didn’t try to stand.

Good. Xe hadn’t gotten ahead of xirself after all.

Elanus stared at xir in silence for a long while, just taking xir existence in. Restaria didn’t blink, staring back with those dark, uncanny eyes—eyes that saw everything. Eyes that always knew which way to look next in order to gain the most control over a situation. Eyes that were, for the first time Elanus could remember, wary. Uncertain.

Finally Restaria said, “He’s alive, then.”

“What makes you so sure?” Elanus asked.

“I’m quite sure I’d be dead if Kieron Carr was. You would never have gone to the trouble to rescue me otherwise.”

“An interesting statement from you.” Elanus tilted his head. “You clearly knew you were throwing him into a dangerous situation.”

“I didn’t throw him into anything,” Restaria replied. “I offered information and he came to me to get it.”

“You knew he was walking into an assassination attempt.”

Restaria, to xir credit, nodded. “Yes. I also knew he was well-equipped to survive it.”

“And yet he almost died, and would have if his well-being had been left in your hands.”

“I knew you would come for him,” Restaria said. “And you did. He knew it as well. He was annoyed with me, but he was never afraid.”

Elanus scoffed. “How would you know what fear looks like in another person? It’s not even something that you feel yourself, do you?”

Restaria frowned. “Of course I feel fear.”

“No, you don’t. You’re something closely akin to a psychopath, to use the ancient term. I’ve known that about you for years now.”

Xe shook xir head. “Why, because I didn’t fall down on my knees before you in awe when we were at university?”

You went to your knees willingly enough for other reasons, didn’t you? But Elanus wasn’t here to rehash the past. He was here to talk about the present, and the very unstable future. “I never wanted your adulation. I wanted your love, which you never managed to give me. You were always, always looking to the future, and you decided early on that I was a poor mix with the political scene. That’s why it never went farther between us, and in the end I’m grateful for that.”

“Why?”

“Because whatever happens to you next is going to hurt less than it might have,” he said. “It won’t be completely painless, I know that much. I always appreciated you and your brilliance, even when I knew we couldn’t be together. Even after what you did to Kieron, I didn’t really want to let you die. But I wouldn’t have cried if you had, and neither would almost anyone else who knows you, it seems.”

Restaria sighed. “Surely you can appreciate that I did what I did for the greater good. The damage being done to our people with the continuation of [name], it’s unconscionable. I needed to draw you into dealing with it somehow—no one else on Gania has the power or the technology necessary to make a real difference there.”

“Not even the president.”

“Of course not.” Xe shared the bare bones of the deals that had been made with the ruling Central Planets, and how Moreno and so many more in their ruling cabinet were beholden to them.

“You all do realize that the [name] is still in shambles after what happened to President [name],” Elanus pointed out. “Admiral Liang is an interim solution; if there was ever a time to renegotiate our terms, it’s now.”

“Moreno doesn’t want to renegotiate terms. He likes things just as they are—with him on top and everyone else a rung below, especially those who might some day become a threat to him.” Restaria gestured to Elanus. “You’re also on his hit list, you know. The virus that attempted to take down your home system, the efforts made to subdue your people, those weren’t from me. Those were volleys from Moreno’s people, waiting to see just how hard a target you were going to present as now that you’re back here.”

“Sure they were.”

“I have no reason to want to hurt you like that.”

“But you did hurt me,” Elanus said. “You lured my fiancé in-between you and a messy fate. I don’t blame you for wanting to survive, but I sure as hell do blame you for using him to do it. You knew this attack was coming—you didn’t have to involve him, and yet you did. Just to get at me.”

“To get your attention,” Restaria insisted. “Everything Moreno tried just made you harder to reach. I needed to be cleverer than him.”

“You could have asked!” he exploded. “You think I wouldn’t have listened to you? How long have we known each other? How long have you known the sort of person I am? Have I ever abandoned my responsibilities or feelings in a way that made you think I wasn’t going to give you a chance to explain yourself?”

“I needed more than a chance,” Restaria said. “I needed surety that you would take action. I wish I could have gained it another way, I truly do, but believe it or not I was surprised by the timing of Moreno’s attack on me. I didn’t want to bring Mr. Carr into things, but I saw the opportunity to save myself and I took it. I’m sorry he was hurt, but he saved my life and I’m grateful for it.”

Xe leaned forward, intent. “And together we can make sure that things change. Together we can make real change for our people, from turning off the [name] to ensuring that Moreno and his ilk can’t run from justice. We can make a real difference in the lives of everyone on Gania, and in Chelen City, for the better. You know I’m right.”

“There are going to be major changes on Gania,” Elanus assured Restaria, crossing his arms. “But you’re not going to be a part of any of them.”

For the first time, xe looked truly discomfited. “What do you mean by that?”

“I mean that if you think I’m just going to forgive and forget when it comes to what you did today, you’re a fool.” It was Elanus’s turn to lean in. “Someone as clever as you, so political, so astute, and yet not even you were able to understand what’s at the heart of me. You don’t prioritize your own heart, so why should you consider mine, other than as a means to an end?

“But you almost ruined my life. You, Restaria. Moreno too, and I won’t forget it, but if you think I can just move on from what happened to Kieron like you yourself could, you’ve vastly underestimated the depths of my emotion. Call it love, call it pettiness, call it whatever you want, but know this: your time here on Gania is as over as Moreno’s.

“I guarantee that with my life.”