Eote - Chapter 24

Chapter 24: I Forgot To Say

As their latest four-hour shift ended, the trio ate dinner at break neck speed before rushing into their room to reveal the latest secret. Chance still had no idea what was going on as the twins ushered him off the field without even finishing their quota, leaving him to spend the remaining credits in order to make up for it.

Truth be told, he had no qualms about this as he had more than enough on hand. However, over the time he had been spending with Loki, he had been trying to introduce him to society in a way that would leave him independent.

This was also his intent with Rykar, but they had only just gotten acquainted, yet he had long since realised that his underlying issues left him much farther away from the social norm. Leaving the twins to develop isolated would only leave them in more and more difficult situations, but Chance himself was far from a model citizen.

“Guys, I don’t mind bailing you out but this one’s only a present for Rykar’s isolation release, don’t be thinking to make a routine of this” Chance’s protests could be heard from the moment they left the field to the moment they stepped into their lodging, but his tone made it difficult to take him seriously.

As they departed the dining hall, snickers and whispers could be heard behind the three. At first, they paid no attention to the background noise as the twins dragged the helpless Chance out by the arms, but before they reached the door, it became apparent who the targets of the conversation were.

“Haha, the number one berry picker lowers himself to playing daddy to the little monsters. How cute. So, when did you fall so low, Chance?” A shrill voice exclaimed, which was all too recognisable to Rykar. As the trio turned around, they came face to face with the party of well-dressed snobs.

Their queen was still stood in the centre, refusing to be anything other than the focus of attention as she puffed out her chest. The entire hall prepared themselves for a dramatic confrontation as tension grew.

Although the provocation seemed to be directed towards Chance, all eyes on the room were focused on Rykar, waiting to see if his volcanic temper would explode once again. Within the corners of the room, guards and managers were subtly positioning themselves in a way that would allow them to swiftly react if the situation escalated.

“Haha.” Contrary to their expectations, Chance retained his silence and Rykar only laughed before turning around and continuing to pull on Chance’s arm, much to the surprise of everyone including his brother. “Be careful what you wish for.” He called out cheerfully as they walked away.

“Isolation must have done you good, seems you have some sense for a change.” Loki chided in a cheerful mood, but Chance kept his mouth shut and allowed himself to be led out. With every step he would let out a wince, trying to stifle the pain which was being transmitted through his arm via Rykar’s grip. He couldn’t be more clear about the extent of the rage the boy must be holding in at that moment. This new mask almost made him feel more afraid than when he openly displayed his temper.

Sat on the feather cushions, he was just about to ask what the whole rush was about when he saw a shiny object flying at his face from Rykar’s direction. “Think fast!” Rykar called out after Chance had already clamped his hand around the small bead before it smacked him in the eye.

“That’s not how ‘think fast’ is meant to work, dumb ass. You’re meant to say it before- What the f*ck have you done!?” Mid way through his sentence, he realised that the object which now lay within his palm was nothing other than an essence fruit!

“Do you not understand how f*cked everyone of us is going to be once this gets out?! We can’t hide it and we can’t f*cking eat it! Do you know how many people are after our heads as it is?!?” This time he actually lost his head. Of all the blunders that they could have committed, stealing the fruit was the absolute limit.

At this point, even if Sir didn’t want to punish them, he would anyway. This is because there can’t be any precedents of someone getting away with stealing, and the only way to instil fear of this capital offence was to lead by example. No one who was caught had ever been seen again, only screams coming from the isolation space.

Hell, if anyone is caught stealing then all other punishments towards others are pardoned. Anyone in isolation is able to leave early and everyone gets a break from their next shift. Reporting or catching someone trying to steal a fruit is treated like a national holiday on top of a promotion to manager! It would only be a dark day for the culprit, who’s screams would be heard from the direction of the isolation grounds for hours on end before being silenced for good.

Without paying any heed to Chance’s furious shouts, Rykar got up from his seat and walked over to him while the latter became stumped for words. Under Chance’s furious and confused gaze, Rykar snatched the fruit from his palm and held it up at face level with two fingers.

And then? *poof*.

The fruit disappeared with a trace. There was no forewarning, sign or fancy effect. It simply disappeared from plain sight. After a moment of pause Chance jumped from the seat and grabbed at Rykar’s hand, inspecting it thoroughly. The boy still had no clothing covering his upper body, so it was nearly impossible for the kid to have done any sleight of hand while right in front of his face, as far as he was concerned.

“What the” This whole time, neither Rykar nor Loki had spoken a word, they simply gazed at each other with laughter in their eyes as they watched Chance plant himself back on the cushion with his head in his hands.

“Ok are you going to tell me what’s going on now? I’ll give it to ya, you got me this time.” Chance finally admitted his defeat as he let out a long breath. Instead of killing his braincells while trying to come up with a reasonably explanation, he reigned himself to asking the smug teenager in front of him.

“Hahaha, it’s my almighty, amazing and heroic power! It makes Loki’s sh*tty book look like a children’s toy!” Rykar boasted without any sign of restraint. “I can take things from here and put them in well another place. I can also take them from there and bring them here.” Loki began to explain confidently, but as his words came out, he began to realise he wasn’t even too sure what his power was either.

The spinning mass of rock and dirt, the void connecting to it and the dragon that served as a pathway were all things that he couldn’t quite put into words. As far as he knew, the only thing they all had in common was that they only seemed to exist within the depths of his mind.

“Hahaha don’t fool yourself. Chance is smart enough to realise my book is better. Your dumb ass ‘power’ just makes you useful as a backpack at best. Might as well change your name to ‘Sack’. Would suit your dumb ass better too.” Loki cut through as he showed slight signs of annoyance while watching Chance listen to Rykar’s explanation intently.

At this point, Chance couldn’t care less about their bickering as he watched the essence fruit flicker in and out of existence on Rykar’s palm. All that he felt was a drastic sense of relief. Knowing that the fruit wouldn’t lead to their destruction, it was a massive weight off his mind as his anger dissipated in a flash.

He soon came to know that the only reason Rykar was behind on his quota at the end of the shift was because he had amassed a small pile of the fruit on his “sphere” and lost track of the time. Whereas Loki was jut plain slow.

“You guys are both the luckiest and unluckiest people I know.” Chance said with a sign. The sudden interruption caused the twins to pause for a moment before Chance continued. “well, you’re lucky that you have amazing powers that could be used in so many situations. You’re unlucky because you’re trapped here where neither of them can be used to their full potential. Do you know how much we could get done outside! Goods would just fall into our hands!

“If you think I’m excited now then you can’t even imagine how the others would be. Our dream would become a reality in a heart beat haha.” The last laugh from Chance seemed to almost be more of a sob. His eyes moistened as he mentioned his hopes for the first time in the presence of either of the twins.

“What’s your dream?” Rykar asked with his head slanted to one side as he sized up the emotional young man sat in front of him.

“Well, I have two. The first is for me and my other brothers to leave far away, to another world away from all this. A world full of prosperity where live is easy and dreams are made through work and not connections. I’m sure you’ll meet my friend some time, I only wish it would be in better conditions.” Chance started spilling out stories in a context that neither of the twins could understand.

“But they are on the outside right? Why wouldn’t it be in better conditions it can’t be worse than in here, right?” Loki asked with a toothy smile.

Both Rykar and Chance turned to look at him as though they were sizing up an idiot. “Sorry chance, you had to deal with this idiot all alone while I was in isolation, it must have been hard.” Rykar said with seriousness in his voice.

“Haha, nah it was all good. My point, Loki, is that they will be sent in, there’s no way for us to get out and see them before then.” Chance rephrased his words. He thought he had been clear enough at first but Loki surprised him with his lack of understanding.

“Ooooooooooh, I forgot to say! Were going to be getting out of here pretty soon. Within five shifts if its quick, twenty shifts if its slow. Fifty shifts if they are actually incompetent.” Loki’s words left both the others stumped.

“You can thank me later, believe it or not, you just have to listen to me and well be out in no time.” He finished before asking a series of questions and making the final adjustment to his plans.

Over then next hour and a half, Loki had Rykar store away many items within the house while taking note of how quickly and discreetly these things could be accomplished. It seemed that smaller objects were relatively easy, taking only around a second of concentration before being able to make them vanish or reappear. While larger objects took proportionally longer lengths of time. To make one of Chance’s pieced of clothing vanish took around ten seconds while causing Rykar to be unable to focus clearly for the next few minutes.

Next was the layout of the camp and the method of its entry and exit. In order to enter or exit, there was a need to go through a gate which was located at the deepest location of the camp, with the passage way being strictly monitored. Access to this gate was only possible with Sir’s approval and presence, which was only given for scheduled import or exports of goods.

The linchpin of the entire operation was the cooperation of a man who refused cooperation. In his book, there was only obedience and repercussions.