Chapter 32: DEPARTURE X DEPARTURE

Sio woke to the sound of someone moving through the house below him. A cupboard opened, footsteps crossed the wooden floor, and something scraped briefly before being lifted. He remained still for a few moments, caught between sleep and the collection of memories waiting whenever he opened his eyes properly. The Central Nexus returned first, followed by Vise, his mother’s restraints, and the much stranger memory of watching his own hands move while he remained trapped somewhere behind them.

He pushed himself upright before his thoughts could wander any further and noticed a backpack beside the bed. It had not been there when he went to sleep, and when he opened it, he found several changes of clothes folded with almost irritating neatness, medicine tucked into one side, bandages in another, two bottles of water, and enough wrapped food to make the bag noticeably heavier than necessary. His old travel notebook had been placed safely between the clothes, along with a pencil he had been certain he lost months ago.

Mira had packed it, and Sio knew that without needing to ask. Nobody else would have remembered the pencil or bothered arranging everything so carefully that even the bandages were separated by size.

After dressing, he carried the backpack downstairs and found the rest of the house considerably more prepared for the morning than he was. Arch stood near the entrance fully dressed for travel, his own backpack already secured over one shoulder. A small brass instrument rested in his palm, its face crowded with thin markings Sio could not decipher from across the room, and Arch checked it briefly before slipping it beneath his coat.

Sio peered toward the kitchen and found no plates waiting for them. "Please don’t tell me you’ve decided breakfast is an unnecessary luxury now that we’re fugitives. I feel like there should be at least one benefit to nearly dying."

Arch adjusted the strap of his backpack without displaying much sympathy. Mira had packed food for the road, which apparently settled the matter as far as he was concerned. When Sio argued that carrying breakfast and actually eating breakfast were entirely different things, Arch informed him that people trying to disappear rarely delayed their departure because one member of the group preferred sitting at a table.

"You could have woken me earlier," Sio complained while settling his own backpack onto one shoulder. "I’m beginning to suspect you deliberately waited until everything was packed so I couldn’t argue about leaving."

"You’re arguing now," Arch pointed out. His attention remained on the clasp of his coat, as though Sio’s complaint required very little concentration. "Apparently the lack of breakfast hasn’t slowed you down."

Mira entered from the adjoining room before Sio could come up with a response. She looked much more like herself than she had during the previous few days, although the exhaustion around her eyes remained impossible to miss. Her dark hair had been gathered loosely behind her head, and she wore the muted green wrap blouse Sio had seen the previous evening, its soft fabric settling comfortably around her waist. Seeing her move freely through the house without restraints, blood, or someone standing over her loosened something inside him before he could stop it.

Mira noticed his attention and immediately interpreted it as a medical concern. She asked whether he felt dizzy after standing, whether the headache had returned, and whether his muscles still hurt as badly as yesterday. Sio answered each question while reaching into his backpack for something to eat, only for her to inspect what he had chosen and tell him to take another piece as well.

Sio stared into the bag and then back at her. "Mum, how long do you think we’re going away? You packed enough food to survive a minor siege, and I haven’t even checked what you’ve hidden underneath the clothes."

"You once forgot lunch because you were comparing two transit maps and wanted to know why an older route had been discontinued," Mira replied. She folded her arms with the quiet certainty of someone presenting evidence before a court. "I stopped trusting you to recognize hunger as an important event years ago, so consider the extra food preventative care."

"I was investigating," Sio said, though even he knew the defense sounded weak. When Mira reminded him that he had been sixteen at the time, he muttered that being sixteen and investigating were not mutually exclusive.

A warm laugh came from the other side of the room, and Sio finally paid proper attention to the woman holding a cup of tea near the window.

Cali had been around during the previous days, but this was the first morning quiet enough for Sio to actually meet her. She was a tall Black woman with long braids gathered loosely over one shoulder, and there was an easy confidence in the way she carried herself that made Arch’s secrecy about his marriage even more baffling. Her clothes were comfortable rather than elaborate, flattering a naturally generous figure without looking chosen for anyone else’s attention, while the playful warmth in her expression made Sio suspect Arch had not married someone particularly interested in making his life peaceful.

Cali caught him studying her and raised her cup in greeting. "So the famous Sio is finally awake. I was beginning to think Arch had exaggerated how difficult you are to keep unconscious."

Sio shifted his attention toward Arch with immediate suspicion. "What exactly have you been telling your wife about me? I feel like I should know what kind of reputation I walked into."

"Nothing inaccurate," Arch answered while checking the strap of his backpack. "That considerably narrowed what I could say."

Cali laughed and crossed the room, introducing herself properly even though Sio already knew her name. She regarded him with open curiosity and remarked that he appeared far less troublesome than Arch’s stories suggested, which Sio took as evidence that she possessed excellent judgment. Cali immediately warned him not to become confident because she had only known him for thirty seconds, and Mira joined her by explaining that Sio usually required several minutes before making a questionable decision.

Sio pressed a hand against his chest with exaggerated betrayal. "I thought this was supposed to be an emotional goodbye. I didn’t realize the plan was to destroy my reputation before I even left."

"It will become emotional eventually," Mira replied, and the faint curve of her mouth made her seem more like herself again. "For now, I’m making sure you don’t become unbearable before you walk out the door."

Cali settled beside Mira, and Sio quickly discovered that the two women had become far too comfortable with each other during the short time they had shared the house. Cali wondered aloud whether Sio always became this defensive when two women agreed about him, while Mira explained that he had been easier to embarrass when he was younger. The confidence with which Cali teased made even harmless comments sound charming, while Mira’s suspiciously innocent expression told Sio she was enjoying his discomfort far more than she intended to admit.

Sio eventually pointed toward Arch and asked why nobody was bothering the person responsible for most of their current problems. Cali’s smile became sweeter as she regarded her husband and assured Sio that Arch had already accumulated enough trouble at home to last several years. Arch abruptly developed an intense interest in one of his backpack straps, which suggested there was probably a considerable amount of history behind that answer.

The teasing eased some of the heaviness in the room, though it could not erase it completely. Mira’s smile weakened when Arch checked the time, and her attention settled briefly on Sio’s backpack before returning to his face. They both understood what came next, and after everything they had survived together, neither seemed particularly interested in pretending this was an ordinary trip.

Mira reminded him that he had promised to call every day, regardless of which kingdom Arch dragged him through. Sio promised again, and she immediately clarified that every day did not mean whenever he remembered after disappearing for three days because he had found an interesting place to explore. He started to argue that she was describing a much younger version of him, but the patience in her expression was already wearing thin enough that accepting the accusation seemed wiser.

Her tone became more serious when she told him to think before using his Claim. People had seen enough of what he could do to begin preparing for it, even if they did not understand the mechanics, and anyone competent enough to come after him would eventually learn to anticipate the tricks he had already shown. Sio admitted that he had been thinking about the same problem, particularly after feeling something inside his own body use the Claim in ways he still could not reproduce.

"You don’t have to solve everything the moment you leave this house," Mira told him. Her voice softened, though the warning behind it remained firm. "Learn what happened to you first, and don’t let fear convince you that becoming stronger means you have to become reckless."

Sio absorbed that for a moment before nodding. "I’ll try, although I can’t promise Arch won’t encourage the second part."

"That’s why I’m telling you instead of him," Mira replied, and Cali quietly informed Arch that he had earned that reputation without anyone’s assistance.

The exchange brought another small smile to Mira’s face, but it faded when her attention returned fully to Sio. She told him that she was proud of him, and the words caught him more effectively than any warning could have. He searched for something clever enough to make the goodbye easier, found nothing worth saying, and finally settled for telling her that he loved her and would call as soon as they stopped somewhere safe.

Mira told him she loved him too, and the emotion in her voice tightened his chest. They stayed where they were rather than reaching for each other, allowing the silence between them to hold everything neither wanted to stretch into a longer farewell. Mira had spent most of his life worrying about where his curiosity would take him, while Sio had spent years dreaming about leaving home and seeing the world. Neither of them had imagined his first real journey would begin with strangers being paid to hunt him across kingdoms.

Cali stepped beside Mira when the silence became difficult and rested an arm comfortably around her shoulders. She assured Sio that his mother would be safe with her, then added with a charming little smile that he had better return eventually because she had only just met him and had not finished deciding whether Arch’s stories were exaggerated. Sio said that sounded suspiciously like a threat, and Cali assured him he would know when she was actually threatening him.

Sio angled his head toward Arch with a faint grin. "I think I’m starting to understand why you kept your wife secret. This suddenly explains several things about you."

Arch finally smiled. "Self-preservation."

Cali gave her husband a patient, dangerous sort of stare that made Sio suspect the answer might cost him later, while Mira laughed quietly beside her. Seeing the two women together eased something Sio had not realized was bothering him. He still hated leaving his mother behind, but she would not be alone in an unfamiliar house simply waiting for his calls.

Arch checked the brass instrument beneath his coat once more and announced that they needed to leave. Mira reminded Sio about the calls one final time, while Cali told him to eat the food his mother had packed before it became another argument waiting for his return. Sio promised both women that he would try to behave, which Mira immediately identified as the least trustworthy promise he had made all morning.

Angle was waiting outside with a single backpack secured comfortably across his shoulders. He looked prepared enough that Sio suspected he had been awake since before sunrise, and his attention drifted briefly toward Sio’s overstuffed pack before he asked whether Mira had prepared it.

Sio confirmed that she had and mentioned that half the weight was probably food. Angle gave a small, almost private smile and said Cali still packed too much whenever he traveled as well, which was one of the first personal things he had volunteered since Sio met him. Sio glanced back toward the house and decided that explained why the two women had become friends so quickly.

Arch brought them together and activated his Claim before Sio could ask anything else. The familiar spatial pressure arrived first, followed by the brief sensation that the world had folded somewhere it should not have been capable of folding, and the cool morning vanished beneath a wave of dry heat.

Sio opened his eyes to a wasteland stretching beneath a pale, enormous sky. Cracked earth disappeared toward distant shelves of stone, thin grasses clung stubbornly to patches of dust, and wind moved across the open country carrying sand that whispered against their boots. Far beyond them, dark ridges cut across the horizon, while the heat distorted the land until distant rocks seemed to tremble.