Alkalians (41 page)

As Matt is escorted inside by her, a
puzzled look yet on his face, Dante follows, still a little shaken
but overcome enough to go along. Rose, blind-sided from seeing Lyn
kiss Matt, decides to not linger on it and walks in behind Dante.
Sean, jittery from a situation he did not plan on entering, glances
everywhere to make sure he isn’t being watched and hurries into the
cabin, closing the door behind him.

Upon entering the senior cabin, Lyn
leads Matt and the others down the narrow hall and up a first, then
a second, flight of stairs, into another narrow hallway, and
through a door held open by one of Lyn’s associates. They are met
with the living quarters and kitchen of the third floor apartment,
adorn with luxurious furniture and appealing design. A large table
in the middle of the living room has already been set with chairs
for guests and food for dinner, served by some of Lyn’s girls.
Fresh and hot roast, bread, and stew fill the air with pleasing
aromas. At one end of the table, a glass bowl contains a bright
colored punch drink, with ladle and cups nearby for self-serving,
and on the opposite side is a freshly baked cake with black
frosting coating it, along with yellow frosting forming the words,
“Alkalian College Liberators.”

Matt, Rose, Sean, and Dante, lost
while taking in the view of the feast before them, gradually come
closer into the room. After some of the girls come forward to take
the outer vests from the men, to which Dante declines and keeps his
on, Lyn says to them, “Make yourselves at home and relax, for
tonight your efforts of revolution are receiving recognition, as
well as being reinforced with senior approval!”

“…
Say what?” asks a
dazed-looking Sean. “Who is this party for, exactly?”

“
Why, all of us here, of
course,” answers a familiar, attracting voice. Sean and company
whirl to see Cynthia emerge from an out-of-view corner of the room,
wearing her blood-red dress, her crimson hair shaped into a long,
braided pony tail, and her scarlet-tanned skin gleaming in the
light. With her bewitching smile and twinkling eyes she says while
approaching him, placing a glistening arm over his shoulders,
“Didn’t expect to meet me a third time, did you, Sean?”

As Sean is flabbergasted
and unable to speak, another different voice booms through the
room’s atmosphere. “At last! The whole gang’s here and ready to
party! It’s about time, too, I was about to drag some of Lyn’s
ladies outside to fight them!” Buster, in his gray-and-black suit
with his badge on its front, enters from the hallway leading into
another part of the cabin. He asks Lyn in an impatient tone, “Now
that these rascals have finally arrived, can we
please
eat?”

“
Yes, we can now begin,”
Lyn answers. “Matt, I’d start telling your friends what’s going on,
before one of them faints.” Her warning comes too late as Sean
suddenly swoons and falls to the floor, caught by Cynthia beside
him.

***

The meal commences after Matt explains
to his roommates and Dante the meaning of this party and how it
came about. Earlier that day, he had met up and planned with Lyn to
hold this gathering in her apartment at her cabin. He was to bring
them along, while Lyn had invited Cynthia and Buster, their newest
allies to the cause, to join them, and they would all use the
evening to become more acquainted with each other. This calms them
down, and soon all seven of them are at the table, eating their
share of the food at an easy pace while Lyn’s maids serve
them.

To pass the time, Buster, without the
consent of the others, has been rambling on about past battles. He
enthusiastically finishes one with, “And before she pounced on him,
I grabbed her by the tail, swung her around and flung her into the
wall, then nailed her to it with a blast from my cannon. Hah, the
poor Panther never saw it coming. The look on her face after she
demorphed was priceless!”

“
Yes, it really must have
been something,” Lyn says with thinning patience. “Your strength
and vigor continue to marvel us.”

“
Yeah, but not as much as
his intellect,” Sean whispers to Cynthia sitting next to him, to
which she fails at keeping a few giggles from escaping
her.

Noticing that, Buster, instead of
suspecting something, exclaims, “Oh yes, it was very funny! Sure, I
was the only one laughing, but I didn’t mind.” He reaches for and
gulps down his glass of punch, handing it off to be refilled by one
of the maids, and starts again, “Oh, and then there was that one
time I fought…”

“
Okay, Buster, enough,”
Lyn quickly cuts him off. “I think we’ve heard enough of your war
stories for now!” To everyone’s relief, Buster shrugs it off while
receiving his glass back, and she continues while placing her arm
around Matt, startling him in the middle of his eating, “So, who
else would like to say a little about themselves? How about you,
Sean?”

“
Eh? Who, me?” As the
others all look back at him, and Cynthia pats him on the shoulder
with a smirk, he clears his throat before speaking. “Er hrm,
alright, then. Where to begin, what to say. Oh, I know! So, some of
you know already I grew up in Minari, right? Well, I come from a
farming family, who spends most of the time planting, growing, and
harvesting crops, the labor made much easier through our battle
morphs. However, since I never knew how to use mine, I couldn’t
help out around the farm, and so spent the most of my time having
adventures in town. I would jest with shop owners, flirt with the
girls, get chased around by bullies. Ah, good times, those were!
Reminds me of the one time some guy caught me making out with his
girlfriend, and he chased me through the whole town in our morphs,
threatening to chop me into pieces with his ax!”

Cynthia bursts out laughing,
surprising the others as they chuckled. Sean is especially
surprised before he continues, “Yes, as funny as that was, it
wasn’t all sunshine and fair play back then. Sometimes, the bullies
caught me. And for me, who didn’t know how to fight in my morph,
that was an ill stroke of luck, indeed. Like the one time a guy and
his buddies caught me in the woods, after he found out I had been
flirting with his sister. They put me through a real meat grinder,
I tell ya.” He gulps down the last of his punch and holds it out
for a refill.

“
Hmm, I can imagine the
struggle of growing up without knowing your morphs’ abilities,”
Dante voices from over his food. “Do you intend to join the family
business at farming, now that you have discovered them?”

“
Hah, far from it!” Sean
remarks while sipping from his punch glass handed back to him. “I
always hated the farm life, actually, as well as that small, dusty
little town I grew up in. I’ve always dreamed of a life of
excitement, adventure, thrills and spills around every corner. It
was one day, when I was out playing cards with a few buddies, that
I decided I wanted to be a gambler. I’ve always had a strange
streak of success when it comes to cards or dice, proven when I
nearly cleaned out the local saloon. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to
keep the money, as the ruffians snagged me afterwards and beat it
all back out of me. I knew then, though, if there was one thing I’m
good at in this world, it was flirting with Lady Luck!”

“
Haha, I think she’s not
the only lady you’re good at flirting with, Sean,” Cynthia purrs
while scratching his chin, making him cringe at her touch, her
fingernails stroking his goatee.

As the others take notice to her
interest in him, Sean is the one to ask what they are all thinking.
“Uh, Cynthia?”

“
Yes, Sean?”

“
Forgive me for asking,
but, are you sober at the moment?”

“
Why, of course. Unless
you don’t want me to be.”

“
Okay, then, just making
sure, hehe,” Sean replies with a nervous gulp. Cynthia is right on
one thing, he did have a certain kind of charm with other women.
Most women, anyway, besides Rose. Usually, he was the one to hit on
them, so he isn’t used to it being the other way around, especially
from Cynthia. “So, uh, why don’t you say something about yourself,
Cynthia?”

“
Hmm, okay, I suppose I
can. I prefer an air of mystery around me, but you all, as allies,
should know more about me.” She takes a sip of her stew, not
minding it being hot yet, and begins, “Unlike our friend Sean here,
who was of no use to his family business, I found myself as the
backbone behind mine. My family owns and manages the infamous
Volvaron Resort back in Saratu, and I had my share of jobs there.
But the one thing I was constantly doing, from the time I was a
teenager, was a talent we discovered I had at a young age.
Sculpting.

“
You look at me now, in my
dress, with my hair combed and braided, and you think that was all
there is to me. Back at home, though, you could find me in small
shorts, a tank-top, and my hair and skin slick with sweat as I
carved out sculptures from stone for many an occasion or subject.
I’ve sculpted people, animals, plants, fountains, plenty of things.
We’ve put some of my work out as decorations around the resort,
and, when business was slow, would auction off some of my statues
to keep us afloat.”

Matt, at her description of sculptures
she has made and how some were displayed at her resort, thinks back
and nods. “Oh yeah, I think I’ve seen a few of them there. I was
really fascinated by that fountain that looked like an inferno. It
was so big, and the idea of water coming out of fire, that really
made my head spin! Did you make that one all by
yourself?”

“
Oh yes, I certainly did,”
replies Cynthia with a proud smile. “Sure, it was hard work, and it
took a long time to complete it, but it wasn’t all by hand. In my
morph, I used real fire to heat and carve down the stone to take
out some large chunks of it, which left the start of what you saw
as the tongues of flame I more finely detailed by hand. You’ve been
to my resort before, then?”

“
Yeah, I’ve gone there a
few times, with my parents. It’s a very nice place, we’ve had some
good times there.”

“
Well, I’m happy to hear
that, Matt! If you happen to go down there again sometime, perhaps
you and I could meet up. I could give you a tour, show off some of
my recent projects, share a drink or two with you, and maybe a few
other things. That is, if we’re still friends after this school
year ends.” The wink that accompanies her sly smirk rattles Matt,
and some of the others. Ignoring their reactions, she looks across
the table to Dante, suggesting, “You’ve been mostly quiet there,
Dante Goros. Why don’t you say a little, at least?”

“
That’s
Prince
Dante Goros to
you, Miss Volvaron,” he remarks, with the glimmer of a grin. He
bites off a piece of a bread stick while Buster chuckles at the
comment and the way Cynthia blushes, chewing and swallowing it
before continuing, “As you may all know, I am Dante Goros, the
second heir to the ruling Goros clan of Saratu. I have always
conducted myself the way I was raised to. Display honor, respect,
restraint, and conviction around others, no matter what their
station. However, it is unfortunately not the same for my sister,
the first-born heir. She dishonors her family, her state, even
herself with her recent behavior and activities, and I worry if,
one of these days, she may go so far there would be no way to
redeem her graces.”

He pauses a moment to compose himself,
sating his rising emotions with a gulp of punch, then goes on, “And
so, I would take this moment to humbly request something of you all
here. I am aware that she now works for Cain, and is therefore an
opposition to our cause. However, if and when the time comes that
any of you confront her, I beg of you to not be too rough on her.
If she is to eventually reap what she has sown, I would hope it
does not drag any of you into it.”

“
Heh, that’s easier said
than done,” Cynthia snuffs, drinking from her glass with a
glower.

“
Agreed,” mutters Rose,
something sharp and cruel in her eyes and tone for a brief
moment.

Buster asks, “So, you really care for
your train wreck of a sister that much, eh, Dante?”

Dante nods. “Yes, it is true. She is
family, and I would love her, unconditionally.”

“
Uh huh. Well, good luck
with her,” Buster tells him with a grimace while cutting up some of
the roast served him. “From what I’ve heard and seen, she looks
tougher to crack than a mountain tortoise’s shell.”

Not sure how he himself feels over
Dante trying to protect Irene, Matt puts it aside to bring up
something that bugged him. “Uh, Dante, you say how you and your
sister are of the Goros clan. What does that mean, exactly? What’s
the point of a clan? I mean, back in Minari, we don’t have
clans.”

“
Ah, because in Minari,
we’re not governed by a dynasty of monarchs,” Sean answers.
“Instead, we’re ruled by a union of individuals who are the top
honchos of their businesses, elected into their positions on the
council. Neither does Corrasin, the State of Seas, have clans.
Well, officially. I’ve heard something about their more rural
citizens yet having closely-kept families, but it’s the clergy who
have the last word there, not the nobles. The only states that have
clans are the other three, Tirez, Saratu, and Riaquen, where the
clans that were the most prominent during the Age of Chaos have
maintained dynasty rule, unless, depending on the state’s
preferences, another clan rises and replaces them.” The others were
staring at him explaining it so readily, and he notices. “What,
just because I hate history doesn’t mean I don’t pay
attention!”