Algos hadn"t moved a millimetre for several seconds, he knew that journalists were present at the scene and many people were still present and had seen what Elizabeth had done - and he knew full well that she had done it on purpose. It"s not as if Al didn"t like it, but he preferred to be more intimate, now all eyes were on him and he didn"t know where to go to avoid a barrage of questions from the journalists. Left, right, front, back, he was surrounded, for this time he admitted defeat and walked towards the journalists who were busy trying to approach him without being too abrupt either. He tried to be as evasive as possible in the answers he gave, too much information would create rumours and gossip, which he didn"t want, but deep down he knew it was a waste of time.Everyone else in the surrounding area watched the scene with envy or dismay for the young man. However, in Algos" eyes, it would be a thousand times better for him to be quietly walking around in the streets than to go through an interview that would later mainly feed the gossip... at least that"s what he thought.
"You and your filthy hands, you"ll never be done with him, huh, let the man breathe, geez." said someone in a strict but feminine voice.
Before he understood what was going on he was dragged by force across the square without understanding a single thing about what was going on. The force of the person pulling his arm cut off his blood, making his hand white. He only managed to see that the person forcing him to follow him was a woman taller than he was and whose brown hair had a simple ponytail.
About ten seconds later, he was forced into a carriage as he and the woman were chased by a horde of zombies armed with pen and notebook. As he tried to get inside, his head hit the door frame heavily, but the woman paid no attention and continued to pull his arm out as if everything was fine.
The interior of the coach was decorated with all the richest things, gold ornaments, red satin seat, armrest, portrait and a small central table on which sat various pastries. But the most remarkable thing was the strong but pleasant smell of cigarettes and feminine parfum.
The woman sat down in front of him and sighed as she watched the journalists knocking on the carriage doors, after calling them rats, she ordered her page to advance northwards to the blacksmith"s quarters. The two horses pulling the carriage left the reporters in the lurch and almost pushed the parents, who were still waiting for their children to leave the palace.
After he had calmed down, Algos put his pupils on the woman who had boarded him, she must have been in her thirties, her green and blue minnow eyes made her look a little disturbing, not to mention that her eyebrows were naturally raised a little upwards, which gave the impression that her eyes were wide open all the time. A few strands of her brown hair fell on her face, caressing her thin lips without disturbing her. Her make-up wasn"t too sophisticated, mascara, lipstick and foundation. To her ears, two little jewels of the same colour as her irises, green and blue.
The bourgeoise raised an eyebrow because of the young man"s insistent gaze, then she simply shrugged before taking a cigarette out of her handbag, stuck it in her cigarette holder and started smoking before spitting a big cloud of smoke directly into Algos" head.
"All right, got your attention?"
"The f.u.c.k...?"
"A very good way to address a lady." grunted the woman by smoking again. "I"m Amber, nice to meet you."
"Sorry... I"m-"
"I already know who you are, sunshine." stated Amber with a friendly smile by handing him the newspaper. "You and the Salvatrix"s kid made quite a splash, you"re not on the front page, but you"re on the second."
"Mmhmm... Thanks for the help by the way... but why did you help me if you don"t mind my asking?"
"I thought it would be a waste for a youngster like you to end up being eaten by those vultures." she replied, frowning. "The better it gets, the more the news business gets rotten by reporters looking for nothing but sensationalism."
"Maybe they just don"t know what to talk about-"
"As if there"s nothing interesting going on in the world." replied immediatly Amber by gently blowing the smoke from her cigarette. "You have to go to the Obinski family, right?"
"H-how do you know this ?"
"Well, as a former reporters, I"ve kept up my good old habit of leaving my ears everywhere." she beamed with a large smile. "I was pa.s.sing by, and I recognized you thanks to the drawing on the newspaper, so I stopped, waited, listened and after a while I brought you back here. I have to go drop a letter directly to the Obinski, so I thought I"d drop you off there too.
Algos may have been happy that someone had come to help him, but it almost seemed too good to be true. Outside, the clouds were beginning to pile up, forming dark and malevolent shapes. From time to time their shadows pa.s.sed over the coach, leaving a great cold, a great silence, to take its place. However, he didn"t feel embarra.s.sed, even though he was with a beautiful woman whom he had only known for a few minutes. Her presence was almost soothing, soporific. She was a calm and intelligent woman, but she had that little manipulative side which is necessary to succeed in this world. Algos didn"t worry too much about that, if she really wanted something from him, she would have already forced his hand.
She preferred to smoke peacefully as she watched the first raindrops. .h.i.t the windows of the coach. With a strong desire to find out more about his mysterious saviour, Algos turned to her.
"You was a reporter?"
"Hmm? Well, yeah, when I was still living in Kalde a few months ago, but now I am trying to start my own business. In itself, it"s already easier for me, I have the money, the knowledge, but I don"t know enough people yet."
"That why you go where I go, huh." remarked Al rubbing his eyes.
"Exactly ... However, I don"t know if I"m going to be well received, given what"s going on with their son."
"I won"t be able to tell you Mrs, I don"t know anything about them, but they might make you leave the moment you try to talk to them."
"Thanks for the support, sunshine."
"I have a name, you know."
"Yeah, yeah, sunshine." she smiles, putting out the rest of her cigarette. "Take one of the pastries, they"re here to be eaten." she said while taking a bite into a croissant.
"You need help with you buiseness ?" Algos asked.
"Eheh, now we"re talking. I was waiting for that y"know. You need money I suppose ?"
"Yes... a lot in a short time as a matter of fact." sighed Al while scratching the back of his head.
"You already know that what pays the most is working in a slavery operation, right?"
"Yes."
"And you don"t want to do that! I respect that, sunshine. It"s sometimes complicated not to succ.u.mb to the easy solution. And what if I gave you a job, you gonna accept it ?"
"Yes, at least I gonna give it a try, I guess."
"Well, I don"t have one." she giggled. "But if I ever have something, I"ll come directly to you, just give me your address please."
"Nice one, Amber. I"m laughing right now." he replied while writing his adress on a paper.
"Ahahah! Sorry, sorry. We"re at destination soon, get ready to be soaked when you go out." she added by looking at the window.
They kept going northwards towards the city center. It was still quite far from home, an half hour"s walk awaited him and Felicia for going back to their home, not to mention the many people walking in the streets. The city center was the opposite of the cathedral, between the great school of knighthood, the smiths and the many bars and grocery stores that littered the area.
The cloudy and threatening sky finally offered a break among too many summer heat that swept the cobblestones all day long, it would probably start raining in a short time.
When he arrived in the city center, Algos immediately recognized the large shops of the various great trading families, most of them had been there for one or two centuries, more for the older ones. Trade was like a kind of tradition and the way it worked wasn"t very different from that of a religion. There was some kind of ceremonies if you wanted to be part of the "family" and there were many celebrations to be held.
Samuel, the friend of Elizabeth was one of the greatest of them, the fact that he was now becoming an alchemist was different from what his family wanted from him, Algos had been pleasantly surprised by this fact, generally people prefer to take the easy way, it avoids problems and their paths are clear and all set out, but not for this n.o.ble. This made Algos think a lot during the ride to Rayan Obinski"s house.
"If your life doesn"t have a finish line, you just never get anywhere." That"s what his grandfather said when he was alive, a simple and stupid sentence, but which was nevertheless a good way to motivate yourself. Algos remembered his grandfather as a brave man who had fought for caste equity, he had ended up being murdered in his home by extremist conservatives. Algos had prayed the G.o.ds to forget what he had seen that night, hiding in the laundry room, but they never came to his aid, his memories reviving even more when he had to come to live in the same house after his childhood home had been destroyed. Living in him, two traumas at the age of 10. He had handled the pain quite well, but it had still left a scar in his heart, like an unhealthy presence in his own person.
For Felicia that was different, she had experienced several moves, which caused her a lot of stress, making her gain weight more easily than other girls of her age. She cared about herself, but she couldn"t be perfect either. The moves were mainly due to her mother"s work, sometimes Felicia also had to go to see her father across town. Mag was a divorced woman, she didn"t want a husband as violent in his words as in his behavior. It had caused a h.e.l.l of a mess in the family, even though Algos was not necessarily well regarded, even in the eyes of his own mother.
After this thought, Algos and Amber finally arrived in a residential area of the downtown, where it seems it was easy to get lost.
Barely out of the carriage, he was already completely soaked because of another carriage pa.s.sing by him and splashing him. Amber laughed when she saw this and agreed to lend him her umbrella provided he was the one holding it for both.
"d.a.m.n... I"m soaked from my shirt to my pants..."
"That was funny to see, sunshine."
They both stopped in front of a large pavilion, but not so majestic as one might think of a family like the Obinski.
To his astonishment, Algos saw movement in front of the building"s gate, there was a carriage parked on the side of the road and just in front of it was discussing two people from the religious police, the Solstices. They seemed to be having a tumultuous conversation with Rayan Obinski"s parents, which disturbed Al... somewhat. He could see Felicia standing between the Solstices and the carriage, and in front of her was Rayan, stuck between the religious police and his parents yelling at him.
The young man"s eyes could only be described as sad and extinct, the young n.o.bleman"s face almost gave Algos chills, a whole bunch of feelings was mixing in his two black pupils, his grey hair was completely tousled as if he had been beaten and his face had several traces of blows, like a black eye that was beginning to appear slightly.
The young n.o.bleman tried to answer his mother who shouted at him said that he had betrayed them, but he took a slap that made him stop speaking. Rayan looked at his mother with a cold look and pointed at her before turning to the Solstices, they handcuffed him and the rest of the time he didn"t turn once to his parents. Just before he was forced into the carriage, he saw Algos and pointed out to him where his cousin was, and just after this he disappeared inside the carriage, the eyes closed, with a resigned face.
If he was taken on board by the religious police at this time of the year, it only meant one thing, he hadn"t followed the tradition. It was something more than rare, even more so for men.
A 17-year-old man who was about to be ejected from his city and probably his native country.
Throughout the time, Algos had remained focused on what he was seeing, his cousin had approached him with a tense smile while Amber advanced towards the portal. Algos looked at her quickly before putting his eyes back on the carriage that was beginning to move away in the distance.
The young n.o.bleman"s mother lost face and could no longer hold back her tears, so her husband made her enter the pavilion as quickly as possible while inviting the former reporters to come with them.
Just before he could no longer see Rayan"s face, their eyes met one last time before the cart disappeared completely behind the surrounding wall.