Pride x Familiar (17 page)

Caprice was keeping secrets from me.

An unpleasant sensation began festering in my
chest. For the first time in the many months since I’d known her, I
felt my trust and faith in her begin waver. Maybe she was only
doing Arisa’s bidding. Perhaps she thought keeping me in the dark
was for the best. But I couldn’t help feeling betrayed. And yet, I
wanted to believe in her…I truly did.

My heart beat a little painfully in my chest as
I stared at her slender back.

Caprice recovered and again resumed walking.

I cleared my throat quickly. “Caprice, I didn’t
tell the Countess about your underwear.”

She stopped, and I watched her clench her hands
tightly.

From over her shoulder, she growled in a voice
that was anything but emotionless. “You expect me to believe
you?”

In the past I’d experienced her anger on brief
occasions. But I’d never seen her flushed red with anger like she
was now.

This was a new Caprice.

A frightening Caprice.

But I’d spoken the truth, and I chose to face
her anger without flinching.

I gave her a single nod. “I’ve never told a
single soul.”

“Oh really?”

“Yes, because that’s something between you and
me. A prized secret. A prized possession.”

Trembling in fury, she stared at me for a while
longer. “Then you tell me, how the Hell did she find out?”

She half ran out of the garden, clearly not
wanting to spend another second near me.

With that realization in mind, I debated whether
or not to attend training.

Arisa would reprimand me if she learnt I’d
missed a session.

But I had a lot on my mind, and there was
Caprice to consider. Maybe I should just give her some space, at
least for today.

Yet for the life of me, I couldn’t understand
how the Countess knew of those black panties from Caprice.

#

(Haruka)

Siobhan, Alistair and I were sitting in a cake
shop not far from the Academy.

Three parfaits sat before us on the table, and
we ate them in silence using spoons with long, slim handles.

After a few minutes eating in silence, I
couldn’t hold my tongue anymore.

I looked up at Alistair sitting across from me.
“Ally, what’s going on?”

Siobhan and Alistair looked up in their own
time. They’d been eating their parfaits like automatons.

Alistair put down her parfait spoon. “I’m not
sure. That’s why I wanted to eavesdrop on whatever the Princess
might have said to Desanto.”

“Why?” I asked.

She was quiet for a moment. “Because something’s
happening at the Academy, and I want to know what it is.”

Siobhan gave her a complicated look.
“Something’s happening at Galatea? What makes you say that?”

Alistair shrugged faintly. “Because my brother’s
been acting anxious for months now. He used to discuss school
matters with me at home. Now he rarely talks to me, and when he
does he tells me to study hard and keep out of trouble.”

I noticed the spoon in her right hand
tremble.

Alistair looked down at her gradually melting
parfait. “He’s become so distant.”

Siobhan made a pained expression. “Well, that’s
understandable. He’s got responsibilities he didn’t have before. I
can’t believe his job is easy.”

Alistair banged her right hand onto the table.
“I’m telling you he wasn’t like this even after he took
office.”

Siobhan raised her hands placatingly. “Okay,
okay. Ally calm down. You’re making a scene. Want us to get kicked
out?”

Alistair glared at Siobhan, but then she turned
away and stared down at the parfait in front of her. “But a month
ago…a month ago he starts telling me all sorts of stuff. He starts
telling me about trouble between the Ventiss Family and a few other
Families. He starts telling me to stay away from Prissila. But
that’s not all.”

Her expression grew troubled and she looked up
at me.

I almost gulped in response. “Ally? What’s
wrong?”

Alistair stared at me for a while. “Haruka, I’m
sorry. I haven’t been honest with you.”

I blinked at her. “What do you mean?”

Siobhan looked confused. “Yeah, what do you
mean?”

Alistair inhaled deeply. “Haruka, I knew about
Caelum transferring to Galatea. I knew he was the same Caelum you
spoke about.”

I had trouble digesting her statement. “You
what?”

A guilty, regretful look blanketed her face.
“I’m sorry. I was told not to say anything. I’m so sorry.”

I leaned forward across the table. “You were
told by whom?”

“By my brother,” Alistair admitted. “I knew
Caelum was a Familiar. And I knew he was the source of the trouble
between various families and Prides. I knew about Prissila causing
a stir many months ago over him. I knew all this from my
brother.”

I clenched my jaw as I struggled to keep my
breathing even, and my anger down.

I felt betrayed, but I also understood that
Alistair had been told about Caelum in confidence.

Knowing we were good friends, it couldn’t have
been an easy secret to keep.

I looked down at the table as I asked, “How long
have you known?”

“For about a month….”

“A month?” I looked up into Alistair’s eyes.

She broke eye contact as she nodded gently. “I’m
sorry, Haruka. I’m really, really sorry.”

I took a deep breath. “What else do you know
about him?”

There was a noticeable hesitation on her part.
Alistair looked conflicted but then appeared to come to a
resolution.

“I know that he’s classified a Special
affiliated with the Lanfear Pride.”

I frowned. “What’s a Special?”

“It’s a Familiar gifted with a Fragment—a
Familiar entrusted to perform special duties for their affiliated
Pride.”

I tipped my head slightly. “A Fragment? One of
those ancient devices from the time of the Cataclysm?”

Siobhan muttered, “Didn’t they say that most of
those pieces are broken?”

“That’s what the news reports say,” Alistair
stated. Her voice grew low and uncomfortable. “But not all
Fragments are broken. A lot of them work quite well. The problem is
that only Familiars can use them, and even then the right Familiar
needs to be matched to the right Fragment.”

I narrowed my eyes a little. “Caelum has a
Fragment?”

Alistair nodded faintly. “Yes, I’m certain he
does.”

I regarded her for a long, quiet moment. “Ally,
do you know if Caprice Steiner is a Special?”

Again, Alistair looked reluctant but once again
she pushed through her indecision. “Yes, she’s a Special and she
has a Fragment as well.”

Siobhan straightened. “You mean, if we’d tried
to get past her, she could have used it to stop us?”

Siobhan practiced Kendo, and Alistair had been
raised on a diet of Aikido since she was knee high. Both could
handle their own against a Regular man or two.

Alistair looked thoughtful. “Yes, she could have
stopped us easily. But Familiars aren’t allowed to use Fragments in
public unless it’s under special circumstances. Even then, the
rules are pretty strict. The use of Fragments in public would rouse
fear in the
public
. I mean, Fragments are pretty powerful,
and people would start clamoring that something needs to be done
about Familiars. Things would turn ugly very fast for the Prides
and for Familiars.”

Siobhan looked confused. “Then why give
Fragments to the Familiars in the first place?”

Alistair shrugged. “I don’t know.”

Siobhan sat back. “Well, if it was up to me, I’d
keep the Fragments under lock and key. Considering Familiars have
no love for us Aventis, I can’t understand why the Prides trust
them with stuff so dangerous.”

I thought about Caelum’s hatred for the
Aventis.

I wondered how he felt being a Familiar
affiliated with a Pride.

Would he use his Fragment against the
Prides?

I noticed Alistair had grown very quiet. In
fact, she wasn’t moving at all.

She was looking behind us.

I turned, and saw a good looking young man walk
up to our booth. I recognized him a moment later.

Siobhan gasped, “Pres—President.”

President of the Galatea Academy Student
Council, Severin Kell Avenir, bowed to us in polite greeting.

“Ladies,” he said. He gave Siobhan and I a good
look, then asked me, “May I sit down, Miss Amiella?”

I nodded unevenly and scooted along the bench
seat in order to afford him room to sit.

He sat down beside me, our shoulders a good foot
apart.

He fixed Alistair in his sights. “Hello
Alistair.”

I watched her swallow nervously. “Hello,
brother.”

Siobhan and I sat deathly still. A dozen reasons
for him to be here ran though my head.

Severin Kell folded his arms on the table and
swept his gaze over all three of us.

“Alright Alistair, you called me over, and now
I’m here.”

Siobhan and I stared at the girl in utter
disbelief.

Severin Kell smiled warmly at his sister. “Now
tell me what’s on your mind?”

#

(Caelum)

I skipped Friday afternoon training.

Instead I went home to the apartment Arisa had
designated as my home.

I checked for messages but had none.

After eating a processed square meal, I showered
and went to bed.

But sleep eluded me, or rather chose to keep its
distance.

I couldn’t fault it. Haruka’s Symbiote was still
inside me and would probably continue to ‘boost me’ for another ten
to twelve hours before it began to die out.

I groaned in frustration.

So I lay in near darkness and mentally reviewed
a rather mixed day.

I wondered how many more Familiars at Galatea
Academy were also bonded with a weapon. Severin had called it a
bumper year, but he’d only called in four of us, namely myself,
Caprice, Maya and Rina.

But the girl, Constance, was also a Familiar
though she was affiliated with the Ventiss Family.

And Prissila Ventiss was aware of the Student
Council’s plans. How was that possible? Had Severin tried to
recruit Prissila’s help? Was that how she knew the Student Council
had plans against Crimson Crescent? Or was she spying on the
Student Council?

I thought about Simone’s fears over the Student
Council becoming involved in something it wasn’t fit to handle. I
wondered if she was being dragged into Severin Kell’s machinations
without much of a choice.

And I wondered how I was going to appease
Caprice’s anger toward me.

In the end, I managed a handful of hours of
sleep and woke up early on Saturday morning.

No overnight message had been recorded by the
apartment’s information management system. There were no messages
recorded on my palm-slate.

How long before Arisa rang and asked what was
going on?

I decided to head out early and make up for
yesterday’s lack of training.

I stopped by Caprice’s apartment. When I rang
the door no one answered. Checking my palm-slate, I used the linked
tracking function to find her location. She was inside, or at least
her palm-slate was. I sent her a text message telling her I was
heading out to training. Then I left the apartment complex and made
my way by mag-lev to the gym in Habitat Two, District Two.

The training center was deserted. There was no
one around to perform the medical exam at the completion of
training. This wasn’t a frequent occurrence, but there were times
when Caprice and I would train on our own, and then rejoin the
outside world.

An empty gym suited me just fine. I pushed
myself, hoping the exercise and holovid combat training would clear
my head. In the end, after two hours I’d succeeded in exhausting
myself, but as soon as I stopped training my worries started
trickling back in.

I realized I had no other way to deal with them
but to face them.

The first of which was Caprice.

After showering and changing back into my street
clothes, I walked back to the mag-lev station. I joined the
pedestrian traffic, though my mind was actually on reviewing the
events in the Student Council room.

The Countess had joked about not wearing
underwear.

Caprice had quickly presumed the Countess was
making a reference to the panties in my possession.

But did the Countess really know about them?

If not, why would she assume I was interested in
her underwear as a prize?

Was she just making a general assumption about
what interested all teenage boys?

Or did she really know about Caprice giving me
her racy black panties some seven months ago?

I stopped walking.

I told Caprice the truth – I’d never revealed
that secret to anyone. I was certain Caprice had never spilled the
beans either.

So how did Simone learn of that compensation
gift?

I remembered the conversation at the beginning
of the week in the cafeteria. Caprice told me she would knife me if
I ever told anyone about her panties being in my drawer.

Could it be…our conversation was being
monitored?

I was bumped by passing pedestrians. Knocked
back into the present, I realized I was a mere hundred feet from
mag-lev station entrance, so I quickly walked up to it.

“Desanto.”

I stopped and looked around, searching for the
girl’s voice that called out my name. It was a voice I didn’t
recognize.

“Desanto, over here.”

I turned and saw a sleek, low slung trike parked
beside the sidewalk. Leaning against it was a girl dressed in a
skintight black riding outfit that followed her slender curves. My
interest was split between her and her ride, but then I recognized
her face and my innards froze.

She waved me over.

I hesitated for a long while before eventually
walking over to her.