Pride x Familiar (18 page)

“What do you want?” I asked. “You following
me?”

“No, but we have surveillance on you.”

“Great, that makes me feel warm and fuzzy
inside.”

“It should, after all you’re affiliated with
another Pride yet we still keep an eye on you.”

“Prides spying on each other’s Familiars? What a
comforting thought.”

She pushed off the parked trike and
straightened. I noticed she was a couple of inches shorter than my
height of five foot eight.

“Get on,” she said and offered me a helmet.

“Why?”

“Because the Princess wants to continue her
discussion. I’ll take you to her.”

I shook my head. “If she wants to talk, she can
clear it with my Handler—I mean my
Guardian
.”

“That probably wouldn’t happen,” Constance
replied. “In fact, we don’t know how much time we’ll have before
the Lanfears step in.” She pushed the helmet against me. “Do you
want to know the truth or not?”

“The truth about what?”

“About a lot of things surrounding your life,
and what the Prides want from you.”

I searched her face, aware that I probably had
no way of knowing if she was lying. Then I looked down at the
helmet in her hands.

After wondering if it was a good idea to trust
her, I took the helmet. “You do know that my palm-slate is being
tracked?”

She nodded casually. “Of course. All Familiars
are tracked. Come on, we need to hurry. I don’t want to keep the
Princess waiting.”

I slipped the helmet on my head and tied up the
chin straps. I felt the base of the helmet suddenly expand like a
curtain around my neck and shoulders.

Constance sat on the trike’s long seat and I sat
behind her. The girl slipped on a helmet and then tied up the
straps. Then I felt a faint shiver run through the machine as it
started up.

In-wheel electric motors drove the three
wheels.

Constance pulled out smoothly into traffic, and
quickly whisked us away from the mag-lev station.

I held onto her, feeling very little wind blow
by, and realized it was probably due to an effect-field surrounding
the trike, aiding its aerodynamics.

But I was acutely aware of her body as I held
onto her.

A very taut and trim body, not unlike
Caprice’s.

Before the super freighter exploded in the
Harbor Sphere, no one had ever heard of Crimson Crescent.

That is to say, the general public had never
heard of them.

Afterwards, the furor over their existence and
agenda lasted a couple of months.

But by then, Crimson Crescent had disappeared
‘into the woodwork’, and the public quickly forgot about them.

Perhaps the Prides’ management and control of
the information mediums played a part in that.

Nonetheless, mere months after the explosion
life returned to ‘normal’ for those unaffected by the freighter’s
destruction.

If there was one change to the populace’s daily
existence, it was the increased security within Pharos, and the
greater restrictions on personal freedom. Crimson Crescent’s
announcement – their declaration of war against the Aventis – gave
the Powers-that-be within the Prides a reason to implement those
changes. But the general public, being the sheep that they are,
accepted all this as necessary for the sake of ensuring their
safety. It was the ‘price of freedom is eternal vigilance’, et
cetera, et cetera.

How are you supposed to argue against that?

Well, in many ways, but the problem is that the
Powers-that-be are in charge and they don’t care for your
arguments. They won’t even bother pissing on your complaints.

Having said this, life within Pharos didn’t
change all that much, so it was somewhat easy to grow accustomed to
the increased levels of security, especially when you didn’t notice
they were there.

But what of Crimson Crescent?

For a few of weeks after their explosive debut,
the media had tried to interpret their agenda.

The problem was Crimson Crescent had declared
war but not declared their agenda. So for a short while people
wondered what the organization stood for. On the news networks,
experts were asked their opinions on what Crescent’s existence
meant for the average Joe. What were there motives? What did they
hope to achieve? So on and so on.

However, as the months went by the threat they
posed failed to materialize. So little by little the average Joe
forgot about them.

Perhaps I should say, out-of-sight,
out-of-mind.

But even when Crimson Crescent was mentioned –
which was rare to say the least – people failed to bat an
eyelid.

I hadn’t forgotten them, and neither had the
people who’d suffered because of that explosion.

People like Arisa.

Then one day I ran into them head first, and I
realized the war between them and the Prides was in full swing.
Except for years now, that war had been fought in the shadows out
in the nebula, and on the worlds of the colonized star systems.

That goes a long way in demonstrating just how
effectively the Prides’ could handle information control across all
mediums. Or perhaps, Crimson Crescent wasn’t bothered with keeping
the public aware of their existence.

However, the war raged on.

It was a war that had cost lives on both sides –
the lives of Familiars and Aventis.

A war with no memorials to commemorate their
deaths.

A war people knew nothing about.

A war I was eventually dragged into because of
who I was, or rather who I became.

(Caelum)

Our destination was an amusement park in Habitat
Three within Island Three.

To get there we had travel down the network of
tunnels that connected the habitats to each other. We passed
through the security toll gates at the entrance to Habitat Three,
our entry into the habitat automatically registered. From there it
was another fifteen minute ride through midday traffic to the
amusement park.

Constance parked the trike in the visitor
vehicle parking house opposite the amusement grounds.

Together with her, we walked across to the park.
At a distance it was easy to hear the sounds of a thousand people
or more enjoying themselves on the dozens of rides and
attractions.

Constance paid for the both of us, swiping her
palm-slate over the ticket dispenser’s scanner.

Two paper-like bracelets were deposited in the
machine’s small bin. I strapped one onto my left wrist behind my
watch. Constance made the same use of the other.

Under the watchful eye of security drones that
resembled large bowling pins, we passed through the turnstiles of
the entrance gate and into the park.

I realized I hadn’t been here in years, not
since my parents died.

Celica had often asked me if I wanted to go, but
I always politely begged off.

Now years later I had walked through the gates
with barely a second thought. I put it down to being distracted by
the multitude of worrying thoughts clustering inside my head.

I needed to straighten myself out. Maybe meeting
with the Princess was a step in the right direction. However, I
wouldn’t know until I met and spoke with her.

I’d carried my gym bag with me. At the locker
station just inside the park entrance I paid for a locker and
shoved my bag into it. I entered a digital code into the locking
panel, saved it, then walked out of the station.

Constance made a call on her palm-slate.

I couldn’t listen in, but she quickly beckoned
me to follow while listening to the party on the other end of the
line.

We walked toward a large fountain in the middle
of a plaza that was near the entrance gates. A number of guys and
girls loitered about, probably waiting for friends or partners to
arrive.

My gaze fell on one girl standing with a
palm-slate to her right ear, and her left hand planted angrily on
her hip. She was dressed in blue-back denim pants, a black T-shirt
with violet writing on it – probably the name of a local band – and
heeled sandals. Her golden hair was tied up into a messy
ponytail.

A couple of young men were obviously trying to
pick her up.

At sight of us the Princess pushed her way
between the young men and walked toward Constance and I, ending the
call she’d been making.

The two guys looked incensed and ready to follow
until they realized the girl was no longer alone.

They certainly eyed Constance in her skintight
black riding gear.

They gave me a cursory look and dismissed me as
no threat.

In truth they were bigger and older than me, and
most probably Aventis.

I shrugged inwardly and decided to let the
Princess deal with them should they come over.

But when they gave me another look, I met their
stares with a smile, almost as though inviting a fight.

In fact, I realized I was actually looking
forward to it.

My body was still pumped with the extra strength
Haruka’s Symbiote imbued in me. Regardless if they were Aventis, I
was going to give as good as I got.

I was going to make them bleed.

They started walking toward us, and I started to
over-clock.

Then someone grabbed my left hand and pulled me
along.

That someone was the Princess.

My over-clocking state faltered and broke. I
perceived the surroundings in normal time, rather than quarter
speed.

The Princess muttered angrily. “Let’s go.”

I glanced over my shoulder and saw Constance
follow a few steps behind.

Another glance confirmed the two young men were
making no move to follow us.

I relaxed a little, until I felt the Princess’s
fingers tighten around my left hand.

Her hand felt a little smaller than mine, and
her fingers were long and slender.

Her hand felt good.

She led us to an area populated with food stalls
and kiosks. Only when she stood in front of one of those kiosks did
she release my hand.

She bought three sodas in large cups complete
with covers and straws. She didn’t even ask me what I wanted.
Constance accepted her soda with a small thanks, clearly accustomed
to the Princess making choices for her.

I looked at the soda she bought me, feeling a
little peeved with her behavior.

After a moment debating whether or not to toss
it into the nearest disposal bin, I shrugged inwardly once more and
drank through the straw. As I did, I gave myself a chance to take
in the Princess’s casual look.

She looked like any other girl dressed to attend
a live performance.

The T-shirt looked a bit faded – and certainly
stretched across her chest – but it was unremarkable even with the
wild violet writing on the front and back.

I tried not to appear obvious as I ran my gaze
over her.

I realized she had a faint smirk on her face and
I averted my gaze.

She leaned forward into me. “Not what you
expected?”

I shook my head automatically. “Not in the
least.”

She laughed. “Ha, so what do you think?”

“I’m not sure it’s safe for me to answer
that.”

Her smile faded and her expression grew cloudy.
“Mind explaining what you mean by that?”

I drank another mouthful of soda through the
straw, swallowed and admitted, “Well, I might give you the wrong
idea about me.”

“Which would be?” She frowned abruptly. “Wait,
you don’t like girls?”

I shook my head quickly. “No, I definitely like
girls. I’d give you ten out of ten if I was asked to rank you.
You’re certainly my type.”

She blinked slowly a few times. “Ha, well you do
sound honest enough.” She shrugged and slowly walked away as she
sipped her soda. “I wonder what Simone would say to that.”

I could be wrong but I thought her cheeks looked
a little rosy.

Wait—didn’t I just answer her in my own way?

And why was she mentioning the Countess?

Constance stepped up to me. “I’ll be around.”
She leaned her face close to mine. “Treat her like a Princess, is
that clear?”

“Ah, yeah. Sure. No problem.”

Constance’s eyes searched deep into mine. Then
she drew back with a predatory smile on her lips. “That’s
good.”

She walked away without another word,
disappearing into the slowly moving crowd.

Where was she planning on going?

I sighed and chose not to worry about that.
There was no doubt she would be close by in the event something
happened.

That thought gave me cause for concern. I looked
around at the crowd surrounding us. They looked like regular folks
just enjoying a day at the park.

But what if some of them weren’t regular folk at
all?

Damn, if I kept this up I was going to be
swamped by doubts and fears that would manifest into
indecision.

I drank down another mouthful of soda, then
bitterly chased after the Princess before she attracted more
unwanted attention.

#

(Caprice)

The first call I received was from Arisa.

I’d just finished showering and was getting
dressed to take my bike out for a ride. The bike was a gift from
Arisa. She bought it for me a month ago when I passed my
provisional license exams. I had another eleven months to go before
I graduated to a full license.

Arisa spoke quickly. Constance had made contact
with Caelum, near the gym, about a minute ago.

I felt my heart freeze in a panic.

Arisa told me to get over there as soon as
possible.

The second call I received was from Simone
Alucard Raynar.

The girl asked me to pick her up on the way. I
told her I didn’t have a spare helmet, but she told me not to
worry.

I realized then that the Countess had been
conferenced on Arisa’s call.

I collected the bike from the apartment
complex’s sublevel garage.