Chapter 381: A Day on Earth

My mother keeps looking at me like she’s still deciding whether the word "mission" suits her. We go to the table in the living room and I pull out a chair. Ingrid does the same, already in her pajamas.

"It isn’t dangerous," I say. "But I need you to do exactly what I explain."

My mother looks at the folder before turning her attention back to me.

"Is this what you two have been looking for all this time?"

"Yes, Mom."

She doesn’t push. After the last few conversations about Alden, Arthur, and things that belonged to a life she never knew, my mother seems to have learned to wait when she notices I still don’t know how much I can explain.

I push the folder toward her.

"When Garen Azurea comes back to Earth, I want you to take this to Masters Series Corp and hand it to him personally."

The name isn’t unfamiliar. Almost nobody lives in the capital without knowing who Garen Azurea is, even if they’ve never been near one of his companies.

My mother takes a few seconds to process it.

"Me?"

"You."

"At Masters Series?"

"Yes."

She looks at the folder again.

"All right. What do I have to do?"

How easily she accepts it makes me smile.

"I’m going to call the office before I go back to Thirstfall and ask them to send a message to your number when Garen is on Earth. When you get it, don’t answer anything. Don’t confirm a name, don’t say you received it. Just use the information to know he’s back."

"And how do I confirm it’s really him?"

"You call the company’s front desk. Ask whether Garen Azurea is in the building and whether he’s receiving visitors that day. Nothing beyond that."

My mother nods slowly, following each step.

"Then I go there."

"You should take Lili. Make a day of it. When you’re done, buy something for the two of you, eat somewhere nicer. Do whatever you want, just try to enjoy yourself."

She narrows her eyes.

"Is that part of the mission?"

"The shopping part is mandatory. Your happiness matters a lot, Mom. You don’t have to ration yourself anymore."

A smile appears.

"Understood. Than... thank you."

"When I get to Thirstfall, I’m going to find Garen and give him a passphrase. I’ll tell him a woman with green eyes is going to show up at the company with a baby and use a specific sentence."

Now the amusement on her face gets more obvious.

"We have a passphrase?"

"We do."

"I’m starting to like this. Like a secret agent?"

I hold back a laugh.

"When you get there, say exactly this: ’Crevona is the best place to make friends.’"

My mother repeats it immediately.

"Crevona is the best place to make friends."

And then she writes it on a note.

"That’s it. After that, he might send someone to collect you at the front desk, or he might come down himself. It doesn’t matter. The folder leaves your hand only when you’re standing in front of him."

"I only give it to Garen Azurea."

"Exactly. Not a receptionist, not an assistant, not security, nobody."

She leans back and goes over all of it out loud, more to show she understood than because she needs the repetition.

"I wait for the message, I don’t answer anything, I confirm Garen is actually on Earth, I go to Masters Series with Lili, I say ’Crevona is the best place to make friends,’ and I only hand this to Garen Azurea directly."

"Perfect. If he receives you himself, you can tell him you’re Mrs. Sands."

Her smile grows a little.

"Sounds like I’m going to do something important."

The sentence catches me off guard.

For a long time, before the regression, my relationship with my mother came down to trying to keep her away from anything connected to Thirstfall because of my father’s disappearance. I brought money home, hid risks, and filtered what I told her. When the subject was danger, my contribution to this family was always trying to build a wall between it and her.

This time I’m asking for help.

"You are," I answer.

She runs a hand carefully over the cover of the folder.

"Then leave it with me."

I stand, lean in, and kiss her forehead. My mother stays still for a moment, surprised by the gesture, before taking hold of my arm.

"You don’t have to make that face, Den. I know how to carry a folder into a building."

"I’ve never underestimated your ability to transport paper when you transport a very active little girl up and down all day."

"Good."

"My concern is you coming back from there with half the stores in Rusthaven."

She slaps my arm lightly.

"You’re the one who told me to enjoy myself. Now live with it."

"I’m already regretting it."

She laughs, and I leave the folder with her before going back to Rhayne.

Rhayne is sitting on the couch with her phone. When I come over, she looks up.

"Did it work?"

"My mother is now officially part of a covert operation."

"She seemed to like that."

"I’m not sure whether that’s a problem or a good thing."

Rhayne smiles.

I look at the clock.

"We need to rest. Tomorrow is going to be different."

She puts the phone away.

"Different how?"

"No documents, secret projects, companies buying orphanages, or missing people."

"That eliminates almost everything we’ve done since I came back."

"That’s the idea."

I wake up before Rhayne and start planning the day. The problems will keep existing. Rhayne, on the other hand, has a little more than a day before she has to leave Earth again. We need to use it.

I shower, change, and find Rhayne already awake when I come back to the living room. She’s sitting on the arm of the couch, fixing hair that’s still a little creased from the pillow.

"Morning."

"Morning."

"Get ready."

She looks at me suspiciously.

"Why?"

"We’re going out."

"Where?"

"Haven’t decided yet."

Her expression gets worse.

"Dryden..."

"Trust me."

"That sentence has never ended well."

"Today it will."

My mother is in the shower. I hear the water running down the hall and decide not to wait.

I take the card out of the drawer where she put it away. She won’t mind. The entire point of handing it to her was so the money would finally get spent on something, and today it’s going to be.

I write a note, leave it on the kitchen table, and set a mug on top so the fan won’t carry it off if she turns it on.

Mom, I took the card and went out with Rhayne. We’ll be back later. Don’t wait on us for lunch. — Den.

When Rhayne appears, ready, we head out. It’s only after a few minutes of walking toward the transit stop that she notices we haven’t eaten.

"Aren’t we going to eat?"

"We are."

"Where?"

"Rusthaven."

She slows down.

"The capital?"

"Yes. The part that still pretends the planet works."

Rhayne starts walking beside me again.

"Why Rusthaven?"

It takes me a moment to answer.

"Because I owe you an apology."

She frowns.

"For what?"

"You spent years in Thirstfall time without coming back to Earth, and I managed to turn your first days here into an investigation about a project nobody had the courtesy to explain."

"I wanted to help."

"I know. It isn’t your fault. That’s the problem."

I look at her and keep going.

"You’d have spent the next twenty hours reading paper with me if I let you."

Rhayne thinks for a moment.

"Probably."

"So today I’m not letting you."

She lowers her eyes and smiles.

"I didn’t mind it."

"The investigation?"

"Being with you."

The answer comes out simply, and it catches me completely off guard.

Rhayne keeps going before I find anything intelligent to say.

"And I liked being at your house. Your mother is very honest."

"That’s a kind way of saying intrusive."

"I’d rather say generous."

That shuts me up for a moment.

Rhayne looks out the window when we get on the transit.

"It’s been a long time since anyone took me in like that."

I don’t try to correct the conversation with humor. I just let the sentence sit where it landed.

"She liked you."

"I felt that."

"Maybe a little more than she should. She’s already planning our whole life."

Rhayne goes red.

"Den..."

"Okay. Subject closed."

This time she laughs.

The change starts before we even reach central Rusthaven. The dry concrete of the poorer districts gives way to wide avenues, trees appear with an almost natural frequency, and glass facades replace walls beaten by the sun. Holographic advertising takes up entire buildings while the flow of people changes along with the architecture.

Nobody here carries water like they’re transporting gold.

When we get off, the air conditioning escaping the stores cools down even the sidewalk.

Rhayne turns her head slowly, following a lit structure connecting two buildings.

"It looks like another district."

"Technically the capital is another city inside District 4. Besides, money tends to have that effect."

We walk without hurrying. I have no itinerary, and I’ve decided that’s part of the day.

"What do you want to eat?"

She looks at the number of restaurants around us.

"I don’t know."

"Something you miss."

Rhayne takes a while.

"I don’t know that either."

"All right. What do you want to see?"

She lets out a small sigh.

"Den, I haven’t been here in a long time."

I catch my mistake.

I’m asking as if Rhayne had spent the last few years building a list of restaurants, stores, and places to visit when she came back. She hasn’t had a terrestrial life normal enough to keep that kind of habit.

"Then we change the rule. If something looks interesting, we go in."

’I don’t have experiences to recommend either. I never had the means for that before.’

She looks around again.

"That sounds dangerous for your wallet."

"My wallet will survive."

"Are you sure?"

"I still have money."

Rhayne turns her head fast.

"How much?"

"It doesn’t matter."

"That doesn’t reassure me!"

"Fifty thousand."

She stops in the middle of the sidewalk.

"Fifty thousand GNC?"

"Yes."

"How?"

"Great. You don’t need to know how. Just know that I don’t want to hear you arguing with me about the price of a sandwich today."

She keeps staring at me.

"How did you get that?"

"I called in some favors."

"What kind of favor is worth fifty thousand? We were together in Thirstfall, I never saw you farming anything like that!"

"The kind nobody wants to owe."

"Stop messing with me."

"You don’t need to know, Rhayne."

Rhayne shakes her head, still surprised.

"Fine. But I don’t want anything expensive."

She gets a little awkward before continuing.

"I just want to have a good time with you."

That sentence gets through my defenses with irritating ease again.

’She’s being bold today, isn’t she?’

"That I can arrange."

She smiles, and we keep going.

We start with food.

The first place that catches Rhayne’s attention is on the lower floor of an enormous shopping center, a food area where old cultures still survive even though the borders that separated them are gone. There are Japanese kitchens, Korean, Indian, Brazilian, Italian, and others that keep existing as collective memory long after world unification.

Rhayne spends a few minutes looking at everything before picking a small ramen place.

We sit near an interior window, and she tries the broth first. Her expression changes before she says anything.

"Good?"

She nods.

"Really good."

I don’t need a better review.

During the meal I notice that, although the absurd appetite that follows her in Thirstfall doesn’t exist here, some habits stayed. Rhayne eats fast when food is in front of her, almost as if part of her body still expects someone to take the bowl away.

Halfway through the meal she picks up the water bottle and drinks. A few minutes later she does it again. When we finish, she swallows dryly and runs two fingers across her throat without noticing.

I register the gesture but don’t say anything yet.

I discreetly check the counter.

[11:04:03]

A little over eleven hours.

The next stop happens because Rhayne slows down in front of a clothing store. She doesn’t go in, she just follows a piece on display in the window.

"You like it?"

"It’s pretty."

"Then let’s go."

"Den, I don’t need clothes."

"How many things do you have in that backpack?"

She gives me a look.

"Enough."

"That’s an answer from someone with four shirts."

"Five."

I smile.

"Damn. My mother was right."

Rhayne realizes too late that she just gave herself away and follows me inside.

We don’t turn the purchase into an event. She picks two shirts, a pair of pants, and a dark hoodie that looks far better on her than it probably should.

When she comes out of the fitting room, she adjusts one of the sleeves and looks at the mirror.

"Does this one work?"

It’s a simple question.

I look.

The fabric follows her shape without looking tight, and the dark tone makes the silver-and-lilac hair look even brighter. I take a little longer than I needed to.

Rhayne notices.

"Den?"

"It looks really... good."

She drops her eyes to the sleeve while the color climbs quietly up her face.

I turn my attention to some random shelf before she turns my delay into a question.

At the register, Rhayne tries to see the price and I put my hand in front of the screen.

"No."

"I was only going to look."

"Exactly."

"This is ridiculous."

"You can complain when you have a closet at home."

The sentence comes out before I think.

Rhayne goes still.

I catch it too.

At home.

Not "at my house." Not "when you come back."

"I mean—"

She shakes her head.

"I got it."

Her small smile makes me give up on the correction.