Chapter VIII
Year 4357, Month of NIKE (9), Day 1.
08:57
"You have a really nice office, why am I just now realizing this?" Emile asked, despite the circumstances they were...surprisingly happy, laying on the sofa in Lorika's personal office, the party had long ended, it was officially dawn, and the sky therefore blue, the sun was however still red. Lorika had changed out of her gown and crown, now in a thin nightdress and feathery robe, and was now sitting on the sofa chair across from Emile, who noticed a new bean bag next to said chair. She looked about ready to pass out, and Emile shared that sentiment, but whatever otherwise simple conversation they were having was causing them to stay up.
"Yes, well it's a perk, being the descendant of a Goddess. Infact, I know the woman who makes these chairs, she's very devout." She said looking at her nails.
Emile rolled their eyes, sitting up, now being in their zip up dress shirt and dress pants, their shoes had been kicked off by the door, leaving them in their socks. They stretched and looked at Lorika. She had her hair down, glasses back on- she had been wearing contacts earlier -she looked more ethereal than she did at the festival when she was performing the ritual, she looked like a lust goddess.
Emile stopped themself, they were just bent up about the Nora thing- thinking about it dampened their mood a bit -and it was just messing with their feelings about Lorika, after all, the last time Emile got drunk and flirty with her she ordered Emile to go rest in their room, and she was most likely going to marry soon, so all in all it wasn't a good idea.
Emile sat back down and settled into the chair, watching as Lorika grabbed a cigarette and lit it, "So, are you going to marry him?" Emile asked, a little curious, after all, they wanted to know if they were going to have a king to answer to, along with, well, King.
"I'm almost certain I will, Ezekiel is after all going to Kumata soon." Lorika took a drag of her cigarette and sat down in the bean bag chair.
"Hm, Ciel certainly won't like to hear that, they'll flip a switch and throw a tantrum, especially after the party." Emile shuddered in disgust, not wanting to remember seeing that grotesque kiss, but it was better than remembering the whole situation with Nora...and now here they were, thinking about it...again...
Lorika frowned, it was like she could read Emile's thoughts, knew what train they were going down, and passed Emile a cigarette as soon as Emile was thinking about how good a smoke would be.
"Thanks..." Emile put he cigarette between their lips and lit it, using one hand to hold it between smokes, the other rested on the arm rest, tapping away.
"Emile, how are you...feeling right now?" Lorika sighed as she saw Emile's quizzical gaze, "You know what, I shouldn't ask. Say, tell me, your cat, did you give them enough food and water to be able to sustain themself while you were out?"
"Yeah, I left her enough Kitty Kibble."
Lorika was silent for a moment, "..."Kitty Kibble"? I can't say I've heard of that brand before, but then again I don't own a cat, and well, am frankly too busy to be a cat food critic. I haven't had a cat since I was five."
"Hm, well Kitty Kibble is the only brand she'll eat, the carnivorous little thing only eats it because the kibble is made of actual meat," Emile paused, "And knowing what age exactly, off the top of your head, is, well, something to marvel at in general, unless something happened at said age that would cause you to remember it so clearly."
Lorika's face dropped to one of sad reminiscion, and Emile immediately felt guilty for ruining the mood, which had been so good so far. Why Emile even cared, they didn't know, but they sure as NIKE did feel guilty. "Sorry, I shouldn't have asked so nonchalantly, you...can tell me if you want to, or at least feel like you can?"
"I...think we should develop more of a bond before I share something so personal." Lorika said, tucking some hair behind her ear. Fuck.
"I-I see, it's no problem, really, I get it, let's, uh, talk about something else? My carnivorous cat?"
"I would love to, Emile," Lorika said, rubbing her cigarette on a cigarette tray, "But, I think it's time for both of us to get some much needed rest," She paused, before getting up, "This was very enjoyable, Emile, I'm glad we've finally found some sort of understanding, and I hope I can soon call you my friend." She gave Emile a smile, but it wasn't like a gift, it was something to be offered, something she wasn't sure Emile wanted to take; they were sure.
Emile smiled a little, it was genuine, they wanted a friend, and Lorika wasn't half bad compared to what Emile initially thought of her, "Yeah, I'll see you at the next meeting, or in the halls, etcetera, wherever we run into each other."
Emile grabbed their shoes and jacket, giving Lorika one last glance before exiting; looking at her cascading paper white hair, lightly tanned skin, and those oh-so alluring new eyes of her, and the way they were only accentuated by her glasses.
Gods above, she was attractive.
Emile was actually beginning to enjoy their job now, seeing Lorika was more so a gift than a nuisance, things were on the up-and-up, but not only that, but Kumata was becoming New Kah-O'an territory, meaning Lorika was getting married soon.
Obviously Emile hadn't made any advances, they just had a small girlish crush on her, one which had remained dormant for four years and was back full throttle after bottling it up for way too long. But that was beside the point, soon Lorika would be a married woman and Emile's crush would dissipate just as fast as it resurfaced.
This was what Emile's biggest problem was for a few weeks...until the news swept the nation;
Ezekiel was dead. She was assinated in cold blood while walking through Kumatan streets. Emile was sad, obviously, they would no longer have their closest friend at their side, but Amor, oh Amor, was distraught...
And now it was Emile and Ciel's job to tend to him, after all it was the day of the funeral, and therefore a pubic appearance would be made by Amor...and appearances had to be kept up.
Except that Ciel, while not nearly as distraught, was still depressed, so the atmosphere was...something to say the least. Especially since Amor's smile, which was always present, even if he was sad or angry, was now gone.
"I can't believe she's gone..." Ciel said, ironing Amor's black suit, "Right when things seemed to finally be picking up...right when I finallly had had the courage..." Ciel wiped their eyes, "To tell her that I loved her, not as a friend...but..."
"Hey, it's okay, you know how she is...was...too soon, but she'll beat your ass if you don't move on, you know that. You can still miss her, but she wouldn't want us to dwell on it." Emile said, taking over in ironing the suit components.
"Yeah, she'd want us to take care of Amor first and foremost, since it hit him the hardest." Ciel frowned, "Do you think he's you know...considering..."
"If he is we need to keep him from that point, two deaths would be even more detrimental, what he needs is his friends surrounding him and helping him get through this."
"Well, the prophecy states that there will be a sacrifice to be made before NIKE can return, maybe that will help him-"
"You think telling the religious fanatic that his sister's- who he raised like his own child since he was nine -death is part of his Goddess' plan will make him feel better? He doesn't need anything religious shoved down his throat besides the good old "She's in a better place now" talk, and the "She's in our Goddess' loving embrace now" bullshit. If he thinks that NIKE purposefully killed Ezekiel he may flip a switch and become the other form of religious fanatic. Plus, it was an assassination, most likely by Sigists, so it couldn't have been by NIKE. It was an unrelated incident, and he needs to be reminded of that."
"Right! The Great Victory would never hurt one of her loyal, and the path to her resurrection is already paved in the blood of the heretics, and if NIKE is resurrected she can bring her back!"
Oh no...now Ciel was picking up the fanaticism.
"It's so clear now, this is the sacrifice-"
"Ciel, you're not thinking rationally-"
"NO! You're the one not thinking rationally, this is NIKE's sign! She allowed Ezekiel to be sacrificed to send us on the war path! This way Ezekiel can come back anew once we get our revenge!"
"Don't you dare start spouting this shit to Amor."
"And why shouldn't I? He's our most devout, your cynical thinking, that this information might cause him to change course, is exactly what's wrong with the world. The truth may seem crazy to you, yet we live in a world of lies, plagued by the falsehoods of Sigilind, with NIKE we can find the truth! Ezekiel isn't gone yet, and the people need to know!"
With that Ciel ran out of the room, and out of the house.
Great. Just great, now Ciel was losing it, or rather had lost it at this point, despite Emile's best efforts to keep them grounded in reality.
Emile sighed, and finished ironing Amor's suit, and went into the bathroom where he sat in a bath, a small drain and faucet of the same size replenishing the water so that Amor might not have been basking in his own filth, considering he had been completely locked away for a few days after the news got out.
Emile handed him a silken bath gown, so he wouldn't be completely naked when leaving the bath- Emile really did not want to see him naked -and helped him out of the bath once he was in it.
Emile handed him a towel, which he dried off with, and began to blow dry his silky hair, helping him style it and put some protective cream through his thick locks.
The room was utterly quiet, save for the tools that were being used. And Emile handed him the ironed suit, "It's going to be okay, we're here for you."
Amor stood up, and grabbed the suit, only responding with a nod, which in turn made Emile exit the room. A few minutes later Amor exited in his suit, Emile helped fix him up to look as proper as possible.
Amor slowly opened his arms, to which Emile hugged him, their own suit pressing against his.
"Come on, let's get this over with."
Amor was silent most of the event, save for a few few-word responses to people's condolences. Finally he stood on a podium for the eulogy, he didn't have any notecards; it was coming straight from the heart. He stood next to the open coffin, Ezekiel having had been dolled up and given the full beauty treatment, even if she wasn't with them to see herself.
"Ezekiel was..." Amor choked on his words, "I never thought I would have to see her lowered into the ground...I never imagined that I would outlive her. No parent wishes to lower their child into the ground, and i never wanted to have to do the same for her.." He wiped his eyes, "If she were here now she'd complain about how overdramtic I'm being, she'd tell me how insignificant she was in the grand scheme of things, just one person in the whole wide world. But to me, she was my world. I've raised her since I was nine; My parents were politicians in Sheraingai, and when an alien baby washed up on our shores they were quick to say they'd raise her as their own. That was a lie, you see, my parents were cheapskates despite being rich politicians, and suddenly this two year old baby was my responsibility, after all I needed to learn about responsibility. They thought she'd be a pet to me, but she was so much more. She was on paper my sister, but in my heart she was my daughter, even if she wasn't my flesh and blood, so you must understand how I feel now...knowing that she's gone, that the woman I raised, whom i thought would bury me, is now laying before me in a casket," His voiced cracked, tears rolling down his face, "Dead"
Amor quickly rushed off the podium, and out of the funeral hall, Emile stepped up, since Ciel was nowhere to be found "Ezekiel was an intelligent woman, and an even better friend, she will forever be held in our hearts, and as long as New Kah-O' remembers her she will never truly be dead."
Emile stepped out, only to find Amor sitting on a step of the small staircase that led up to the funeral home, PortComm in hand watching a now viral video of Ciel preaching in the middle of the capital.
Fuck.
Amor turned his PortComm off and looked up at Emile, "Is what Ciel is saying true? That Ezekiel was meant to be the sacrifice?"
Emile stared at him for a moment before sitting down next to him, "I never thought I'd say this, but I think Ciel has gone more insane than you, and is trying to make sense of this, trying to find a reason. You are consumed by your grief, which, honestly, is a good thing. Because look at Ciel; they're not making sense, while trying to rationalize what is merely an unfortunate assassination they aren't thinking rationally; at all."
"But, there has to be a reason. Ezekiel is the last person you'd expect to die, Ciel's research revealed that unless you had a component of her DNA to use against her body and morph into a poison, Ezekiel would just push the bullet out and regenerate. It doesn't make sense, how any of this could happen, unless this is part of Her plan," Tears welled in his eyes, "Or a cruel inside job," He was silent for a moment, "Whatever the reason, I will hold strong in my faith for NIKE, because I know she will bring her back, and we'l be one big happy family again."
In the weeks that followed Emile found themself grieving more, now that the shock, and inevitable responsibility to take care of those who'd be hit the hardest by her death, had worn off. Emile had lost their best friend, as per Amor's request her workshop was kept in the same condition it always was, and no one, not even Ciel or Amor, had dared to enter. But Emile was in search of answers, instead of rationalizing a tragic event with religious fanaticism.
Emile closed the door behind them, a light coating of dust covered the six monitors, one row of three atop another, all monitors turned off, there were discarded android parts, batteries- mainly solar batteries -and most importantly, in another room there was a wall of filing cabinets. All the files that Ezekiel had kept on her computer in physical form just in case of a power outage of a computer crash.
Emile sighed, looking at the messy room, some filing cabinets were open, their files messily put in, some on some of the many desks in the small storage room; as organized as Ezekiel tried to be she was never good at keeping things organized.
Emile sighed and took a step forward, opening a cabinet that had a key lock on it, using a key they snagged from inside Ezekiel's wrist during the open casket.
The files, unlike the other messy disorganized things in the room, were in pristine condition, organized perfectly. "Let's see what you were hiding from us Ezekiel."
Ezekiel didn't get high for public events. She always maintained sobriety at such events so her public appearance wouldn't be tarnished, so when she showed up to the ball completely wrecked Emile knew something was up. She had seen or learned of something that caused her to give up public appearances, and live life to the fullest for one last night, causing her to not only sleep with Ciel, something she would have never done, even if she was inebriated, and also to become a complete party animal on, conveniently, the last night she'd be making a public appearance in New Kah-O'. Only a few days later Ezekiel was sent to Kumata, and after she secured a deal with the Kumatan government she was coincidentally assassinated a few days later; on her last night in Kumata. She had known she was going to die on that trip, and she didn't tell anyone, but instead showed hints, by acting out of character, and Emile was going to figure out exactly what she had found out.
The filing cabinet proved nothing of worth. It was just printed out diary entries, albeit embarrassing for Emile to read about the things Ciel and her had done on the night of the party. Emile had spent an entire month going through these cabinets, and even the files on her computer, and found nothing, absolutely nothing.
Emile was beginning to feel like they were losing it too, trying to find clues that weren't there. It was what Emile had initially told everyone it was; an unfortunate assassination. Plus, logically the Sheraingaian government would have had DNA samples from Ezekiel, considering she was an alien species that washed up on their shores.
Emile now just was trying to find out a use for this new plant that they had made by artificially breeding two plants with opposite effects from opposite sides of the world. Emile had been experimenting with botany recently, as a way to get their mind off the unfortunate death.
Emile was admits observing the physical properties of their new plant, when they got a call. They quickly took their gloves off and washed their hands before leaving the room, and picking up the phone, but not before checking who the caller was; Lorika.
"Hello, King." Emile said, holding the PortComm to their ear.
"Good afternoon, Emile, how are you?" She said, Emile could hear a smile in her voice.
"I'm fine, you?" Emile said, Lorika had been rather...neutral to Ezekiel's death, but that was probably an act.
"I'm great, you know, after all, I'm getting married next week." Emile rolled their eyes, still feeling just a bit annoyed that Lorika was getting married.
"Yes, I'm very well aware, though you seem rather happy about it, despite you having previously been disgusted at the concept." Emile said, checking their voice so their annoyance wouldn't show through, they didn't even know why they were so upset over it, their mild crush on Lorika was long gone.
"Well, following Ezekiel's, unfortunate, death I have been given extra benefits to continue with the marriage treaty. After all, one of my most prestigious subjects died on a supposedly safe mission there."
Emile was silent, "That...makes sense, I suppose you're excited at the concept of getting more land, and the largest port in the world no less."
"Very." Lorika said.
"So, why did you call me again? I don't want to hold up your time, I know you're busy, with wedding planning and such."
"Oh, I merely just wanted to check in on you, you have seemed rather...sentimental over Ezekiel's old workshop after all."
Emile didn't go to their workshop during work hours, or days for that matter, they always did so over the weekends, so logically there should be no reason why Lorika would be worried about Emile going there"
"I'm fine, I just wanted to look at some of her old stuff, y'know."
"Hm, well I can assure you that whatever research she was working on is being continued by some of the country's most prestigious computer scientists."
"Yeah, I just wanted to hang out there for sentimental reasons, not anything like that, I know her research was really important to you."
"Of course, well I'm glad to see that you're feeling better."
"Yeah, I hope it hasn't hit you too hard either..."
"Of course not, but I thank you for the sentiment, NIKE hold you in Her graces."
The phone call ubruptly ended.
What..?
This was definitely not normal. Especially since Lorika's voice sounded very warning, threatening even...
Right as Emile was about to start getting conspiritorial about things another call rang on their PortComm, this time from Amor.
"Hello?" Emile was immediately blasted by the sound of a loud TV.
"Hey, Emile, I'm kind of busy right now, I was wondering if you could drop by Ezekiel's old workshop and collect some of her stuff?"
Emile frowned as they heard the tears in his voice, on his TV he was watching one of Ciel's preaching sessions, which Lorika had conveniently made no effort to put a stop to.
"Yeah, I'll head over there right now..."
"Thank you, Emile."
Emile left their devices in their bag outside of the workshop, that way they couldn't be listened in on. They entered the workshop for what would most likely be the last time, and closed the door behind them.
"Okay, Emile, use critical thinking."
Emile walked over to Ezekiel's small table where she put her belongings, a large, girlish, pink tool bag with a large bow on it sat on the table, something Emile knew held her lucky charms and sentimental items, something Ezekiel wouldn't have left if she had the impression she'd be coming back...
Emile grabbed it, and picked it up, it was a lot heavier than they were expecting, and the quickly tripped, and slammed on the ground, face first. They groaned and looked under the desk that held the monitors on it, only to see a piece of paper sticking out of the large box that held several petabytes of data and connected to the actual PC. Emile quickly let go of the bag and crawled over, and pulled out the small sticky note from a crack in it's outer wall, a screw having purposely been unscrewed and rescrewed to hide it.
Emile read the note, the pristine hand writing definitely being Ezekiel's. Behind the fifth filing cabinet column safe code; 2286. Emile stood up, and looked at the storage room they had recently organized. Emile frowned and entered the room, counting left to right, finding the fifth cabinet column and pulled it out, with some difficulty.
Behind it was a small hidden door, and when Emile opened the door they saw a small safe, and quickly punched in the code; 2286. There was a click and they were able to open it. Inside was a USB drive, that Emile quickly pocketed, before putting everything back in place, grabbing the bag, and leaving.
They dropped the bag off at Amor's place, and went back to work, still not finding any use for the plant, they once again, received a call on their PortComm, "Hello?"
"Greetings, Emile," Emile held back a groan, as much as they had a growing affection to Lorika, they were already stressed, especially with this new conspiritorial energy everything had now.
"Good afternoon, King, do you require something else of me?" Emile asked, since about a half hour ago Lorika was calling Emile and being rather suspicious.
"Oh, good afternoon, my favorite disciple," Emile felt a warm surge of affection at the pleasantry, "I was just going through some old records, and I found our discussion about Charleston during one of last month's meetings, I'm truly so sorry we didn't work on conquering your hometown sooner, but as you know the marriage alliance was in it's early stages, and took top priority."
"Of course, I understand, your grace." Emile said.
"Oh, Emile, you're so good," Lorika said, causing Emile to laugh nervously, sitting down, legs pressed against one another as they listened to Lorika's voice, mentally indulging in their selfish desire for Lorika, "I'm just playing with you, just some harmless fun before I'm made loyal to a man, but anyways, we'll be working on that soon, try finding that deadly poison okay?"
"Okay...great." Emile said, biting their nails, before hearing the sound of Lorika hanging up.