Eote - Chapter 20

As Rykar was beginning his self-reflection within the darkness of the isolation pit, Loki made his way to the food hall in silence. As usual, he had finished his shift late, although not by much. However, the ten-minute delay was all it took for all the other workers and managers to have rushed off of the fields in search of food and sleep, aside a few stragglers in the same situation as himself.

As he handed in his equipment and trudged off, he felt a heavy hand on his shoulder. “Damn man, it took you long enough! Do you know how many extra credits I worked up just trying to stay long enough to catch you? Shoulda got myself some food and then came back for you.” Chance started complaining before even exchanging a greeting.

“Get off me.” Without even turning to look at him, Loki Brushed off his hand while taking larger steps towards the food hall.

“Haha if you wanna walk away then you’ll have to do better than that bro. With your stubbly lil’ legs you might as well start running.” Chance ridiculed as he easily kept pace with casual strides. Their countenances were polar opposites. Loki was obviously struggling to increase the distance between them while maintaining a deadpan face, however, Chance smiled and chatted leisurely next to him.

“We’re not brothers and I’m not trying to get away from you.” Rykar corrected coldly, reducing his pace as he regained his composure. Through thinking about Rykar, his mind had been clouded throughout the whole four hours as he worked away robotically.

“Aha, my bad. So, Smarty, do you wanna know what the demon’s punishment was? I have little birdies all over the place you know.” Chance asked while observing Loki’s reaction from the corner of his eye.

“Would you leave me alone if I said I don’t?” Loki returned without even glancing at his counterpart. Hearing Chance’s next words, despite continuing to look straight ahead, his eyes shuddered while his heart skipped a beat.

“Well that’s true, I won’t leave you alone either way. HOWEVER, if you don’t ask me then then we can just talk about everything BUT his punishment. Weather is looking pretty nice today right, feel that breeze?” Chance teased as he puffed out his chest and let the wind wash over his face.

“”

Silence was the only reply Loki was willing to give. Even if he wanted to know Rykar’s situation, he wouldn’t let Chance have the satisfaction of making him ask. He was sure that there would be people all over the hall talking about it anyway. There’s no way it would be kept under wraps when gossip is all that comes out of the other workers mouths.

All the way to the dinner hall, to the counter and then to their table, Chance carried on talking without showing any dissatisfaction towards Loki’s, silence.

” bastards stole my credits.” Chance practically spat the last few words of his story.

Loki had been zoned out once again, but these words caught his attention. “You’ve mentioned credits a few times now, what are they?” He asked as he took a seat.

Chance raised his eyebrow at the question, curious as to why Loki didn’t already have the information. Without delving into the matter, he began to explain, “We have the quota of one hundred essence fruit per shift. Every fruit after that will then serve as an extra credit.

“You can use these to buy things like snacks, clothes, weddings or even better houses! You should see my place, it’s pretty neat. The best way to put it is that anything besides the food in here and the beds in the dorm will cost you credits. If you save up enough, you can even make your shift shorter or fully skip it entirely.” He then fumbled around in his clothes for a moment before producing a rough coin which resembled a small disk of beaten metal. Sliding it over to Loki, he looked at him expectantly.

“So this is all that one of those shiny fruit is worth? That’s it?” Loki asked in confusion. With how difficult it was to complete the quota and the importance placed on the fruits, he never imagined they were only worth some beaten metal.

“Errr no. Think of it as a form of currency?” Seeing the suspicious look on Loki’s face deepening, Chance decided to change his way of explaining. “Ok, think of it like this. By submitting extra fruits, you get these coins which are like ‘favours’. When you have enough of these ‘favours’ you can hand them in and get things with them! These aren’t worth as much as the fruits actually are, but it’s a way of making people work harder so they can live more comfortably. Understand?”

“So, we get something useless in exchange for something valuable. Then give these useless things in order to get things that are valuable. Is that right?” Loki asked after a minute of contemplation.

“Well I’ve never heard anyone say it like that but its pretty bang on.” Chance answered while thinking it over himself. “People will try to take them if they can, unless you get your own place, keep them on you all the time. Harming people is against the rules, but stealing isn’t.” Chance warned sternly while pocketing his coin once again.

“I got it.” Loki had no other questions towards his discovery of currency, but the mention of harming people once brought his mind back to Rykar’s situation. “So, what was Rykar’s punishment?” he asked with a normal tone, trying to slide the question into the conversation as casually as he could.

“Oh, what was that? I couldn’t hear you properly over the sound of my little birdies.” Chance latched onto the question as soon as it came out. Milking the situation, his face warped into a clownlike smile which made Loki long to smash him square on his nose.

“Go. F*ck. You’re. Self.” Loki squeezed out the words one at a time before burying himself into his food, aiming to finish it as soon as possible before escaping from this jester.

Clearing his plate, he got up while regretting haven fallen into Chance’s trap. Chance finished his plate at a similar speed before following Loki out while gloating at his shoulder. Loki couldn’t help but think back to a particular image he had found in one of the books within the tree. The image depicted a man crying in a corner while hugging his knees. Next to this man, was a small demon with a wicked smile plastered on its face as it floated next to the man’s ear whispering torment.

As he looked over at Chance smiling while chasing at his back, he broke into a sold sweat as he really did start running. He began to think of anything that would help put some distance between himself and this evil spirit disguised as a handsome young man and his ‘little birdies’.

As a hand gripped his shoulder once again, Loki nearly shat himself as his thoughts spiralled out of his control. What once seemed like the calm smile of an older brother had suddenly turned demonic in his eyes. ‘Surely his plan must be to annoy me to the point of insanity!’

“F*ck stop running, do I look like a pervert or something?!” Chance scolded as he caught up to Loki once again. “Don’t worry Smarty, the demon is actually doing pretty well. Well I mean, he hasn’t been whipped or anything, so I guess that’s pretty well? He’s still in isolation though so you won’t be seeing him for another three days. I’ve even heard that he’s got quite the mouth on him.”

Hearing that it wasn’t the usual bull*hit of teasing that escaped his lips, Loki let out a sigh of relief. Chance then went on to explain the events of his brother’s meeting with Sir, finally setting his mind to rest.

Although he was worried of what would come over his brother while in isolation this time, he was sure that he would be able to overcome this difficulty more easily than the last session they had to endure.

“Thankyou, I appreciate it, Chance.” Loki turned and addressed Chance by name for the first time. This served to bring a smile to his face as they both parted ways and made their way to their respective accommodations.

At this time, Rykar had been sat in isolation for nearly five hours. The hunger was beginning to set in already as hi stomach would occasionally let out a low growl. He didn’t mind this at all as he went over the details of the event that just transpired. Now that he had time to sit in silence and go over his thoughts, the final gurgles from the managers throat were echoing loudly within his ears.

In this enclosed space, the blood which covered his body began to give the air a metallic tinge. These things combined caused Rykar to heave occasionally as he would struggle to hold down the bile that threatened to come out of his empty stomach. In between these dry heaves, he muttered to himself with words that gradually came out more clearly.

“Th- world is a circle.”

“The worl- a circle.”

“The world is a circle.”