Rod came back to the table quickly with a loaf of bread, a jar of pickles and a bag of salted chips, while Layla rooted around for a minute before picking some assorted greens. Not a salad, really, just a random assortment of edible plant matter. I nudged the fridge open and came back with a mouthful of canned soups, using my teeth and claws to grab at the can and tear it open.
“So,” Layla said, using her fingers to tear pieces off of a red bell pepper, “Keystones.”
I nodded. Right. “I can only tell you lore and legend about the lot of them, really. The eight elements were said to reflect or be guided by a trait the Masu were said to have been known for or…or found honoring.”
“Or, as some say, the things they believed were necessary for existence,” Rod cut in, rolling a pickle in a slice of bread. “Although no one’s really put much research into it. Mostly because no one could say for sure if the Keystones existed or not.”
“I can say that when I was closest with Alma, when I used my fire the most consistently, it was because I was closest to my truth. I didn’t run from myself, didn’t try to kid myself or live under disillusionment or denial.”
Layla considered me for a moment. “And…you said you’ve…” she hesitated. Shook her head.
“I abandoned my truth after my sister died,” I said, filling in the blanks. The symbols began to write against my skin again, and I shook my head. They died down. “I couldn’t…face myself. Couldn’t face the hurt anymore. The fire left me.”
“And…when did you get it back?”
I stared at her for a moment. Slurped a bit from my soup, tipping the can over and used my teeth to hold it steady while I finished off the contents. Dropped it on the table with a clang and tapped a second one with my claw. “After Jake kidnapped us. After I realized how much I wanted to protect you.”
I didn’t look up during the silence. Admitting feelings wasn’t my strong suit. I had learned how to deny them, how to numb myself to them since I was little, since I was rejected over and over again by the Onishiki. Every time I got close to someone of the pack, the leaders would intervene. Either send the other away or threaten to do the same to me. It was never angry, never upset. Just…factual. I wasn’t the same as them, so I wasn’t allowed to be one of them.
“I…” She swallowed. “But I…” she looked at me. “I don’t understand. I’m not important to you. I’m not blood.”
“You’re not,” I said. “But that doesn’t mean you’re not important to me. It doesn’t mean that I don’t see you. You deserve someone in your corner, someone that isn’t trying to use you or control you or fulfill a duty to someone else. I mean...yeah, at first I was just fulfilling a contract. But...” I looked her in the eyes. “You deserve someone that wants to help you simply because you are you and you are worth it.”
She wrestled with it all for a moment. My symbols were flaring under my fur again. Tears, small and quiet, began dripping from her eyes, small glittering tracks against her cheeks. She puffed them out as she tried to shovel food into her face, trying to refuse to cry. Rod and I simply continued eating for the moment.
Eventually she swallowed. Sniffled. Nodded and reached for a long stalk of some kind.
“So, each Keystone has something like that attached,” Rod said, filling in the silence. Crunching on those damned pickles of his and following with a mouthful of chips. “I heard rumors fire was either truth or confusion. I guess, in this case, fire is fueled by truth.”
“At least Alma’s fire,” I said, licking at the inside of a can.
“So the others…there’s confusion on the basis, and I don’t know which is where, but I’ll start with what I can remember of knowledge and magic.” He paused with another bread-wrapped pickle. Considered it and filled the roll with a handful of chips. “Just like the others, most of the rumors and lore come down to two possibilities for fuel. Knowledge is either fueled by control or courage. Magic by faith or action.”
Layla looked at him. He shrugged. “I’m still not sure which one fuels my own magic. Then again, I wasn’t even sure I had a Keystone until five minutes ago. So.”
Layla shook her head. “I…My keystone must be wrong, then. I don’t have any courage or control.”
“Right,” I sighed, finishing the second can and tapping at a third. “Because running away from the only life you’ve ever known on a crusade to find justice and closure and then continuing on that quest for your own mental and emotional health even after you’ve found out that someone you thought you trusted turned out to be a turncoat isn’t courageous.” I snapped the metal lid off with a claw. “At all.”
The pair stared at me.
“So are you gonna be like this all the time?” Rod asked. “Because I feel like that’s going to be annoying.”
I grinned at him. “What? Afraid of a little truth?” He snorted and I went back to eating out of my can.
We talked a little more after that through crunching and licking and slurping. I told Layla I could help walk her through connecting with her Keystone, at least a little. But unlike learning weapons and fighting, most of the heavy lifting would have to be done by her. She would have to figure out if she was courageous or controlling, and what it meant for her to be so. Just like I would have to re-learn what it was like to live in a truth I had long since abandoned.
We finished off our respective meals and Layla opted for a lie-down. Even if she didn’t sleep, I told her that some rest would be good. I told her she would be safe, that I wasn’t going to let anything happen. And if something did happen, if someone did find us, I was going to make sure I found her first. Kept her with me while I dealt with the problem. Just like we’d done before. Like I would continue to do. She gave me that look, the mix of believing me and distrusting me at the same time before she left.
“So what will you do when her family wants her back?”
I hesitated, continuing to stare at the door. Licked the last of soup from my lips.
He glanced at me, rolling the bread and dipping it into the jar. “You realize that’ll happen at some point, right? She stole the sword and left with Darius. They’re probably out looking for her right now.”
I flicked an ear. “Maybe. But if they’re so powerful then why haven’t they found her yet?”
Rod shrugged. “Dunno. But it’s worth considering. She has an actual family out there.”
“That she ran from. And that, when given the chance, didn’t go back to on her own.”
He shrugged. Let it go. But his point had been made. He had given me something else to think about.
An unseen speaker clicked on.
“Well, that was certainly interesting.” Miles’ voice pumped through into the room, crinkling with static. “I’ll consider a lot of that story my tip. Could one or both of you make your way up to the cockpit, please? I’ve got some things I need to discuss with you.”
There was a pause as Rod and I simply stared upward. My ears were flattening a little. Rod just looked around with a rolled-up slice of bread in his mouth. Probably looking for the camera.
“I know I said please. What I meant was now.”
And there was another click.
Rod shrugged and got up. “Down ahgu wif des–”
“Mouthful,” I snapped.
He chewed and swallowed. “Don’t argue with the driver. You want to come or just let me explain?”
I hesitated. Glanced at the door, then back at Layla’s room. Huffed. “I’ll stay here.”
Rod gave me a considering look before a small shrug, then turned and left.
