Rising Shards

Roux apparently had news for me, but I was too busy dwelling on Michi’s riddle. Maybe Zeta and Oka were right that there was something deep inside me that I was trying to figure out. Like a crappy dollar store plastic puzzle with metal beads in it that’s like way too hard trapped a hundred layers deep in my subconscious.

“This is big, Koridia,” Roux said.

“I said I’m busy,”

“No you’re not,” Roux said. “You’ve been spacing out ever since our beach voyage.”

“And you know this how?” I asked.

“Because I’ve been staring at you,” Roux said. “It’s a great way to get intel.”

“Of course you were,” I said.

“Though over what I’m uncertain,” Roux said. “Didn’t get to observe enough bodacious babes on the beach? Unlikely. Jealous of your dear friends getting up to some frisky shenanigans?”

“Definitely not the latter, why would I be jealous?” I said. I didn’t think I was jealous of Zeta and Oka at least. They were cagey telling me what they got up to on our trip, but it sounded like they had a good time. I’d have to use my tried-and-true methods to get them to talk eventually, but for now I had other matters to deal with. “I hope you weren’t staring at them.”

“No, I tried to tail them—pun intended, given how they both have tails—but they eluded me,” Roux said. They scratched me out of the blue on my arm.

“Hey, what the hell!” I snapped. “Since when do you have claws?”

“Maybe I just have one very sharp nail that I file for occasions like this,” Roux said.

“That sounds worse, I don’t like that,” I said. They didn’t break the skin at least with their random attack.

“I’ll do it again,” Roux said.

“I could just leave,” I said. “Way faster than you.”

“I’ll find you,” Roux said. “And end you.”

“Didn’t you tell me you were going to cool it with the vague threats?”

Roux blinked. “Er, I’ll help you with your spaced-out thing?”

“Much better!” I said. “See Roux? Being nice gets you things.”

“Almost poisonously rich coming from you, Koridia,” Roux said.

“Just tell me what you’re bugging me about,” I said.

“Chumbler has—” 

I cut them off immediately. “Don’t care. Really don’t care.”

“You just said you’d listen!” Roux said. “You’re always such a liar, Koridia. Would you want me to go around and tell everyone that?” They leaned in close like they had a secret. “That you’re a liar?”

“I doubt anyone would believe you,” I said.

“I bet I could get my friend Tokickaman to help out,” Roux said. “Tell everyone about your lying ways.”

“You don’t know Tokickaman,” I said. “And I have a stellar reputation amongst our student body.”

“Sure you do,” Roux said. “Anyways, Chumbler hired an assassin to kill Rain. You spent so long talking about it that you distracted me from rescuing her, and she’s probably already dead.”

“Chumbler didn’t hire an assassin,” I said. “Well, she probably didn’t. And if she did, Amara would probably defend her.”

“I said assassin to get your attention, I know how deliriously short your attention span is,” Roux said. “But Chumbler did hire someone to take care of her love trio problem. Chickadee Girliepop.”

“Ah, damn it!” I said. “Why’s she targeting them?”

“I just told you, Chumbler hired her!”

Chickadee Girliepop. That girl had been near the top of my enemy list for quite a while now. She was just always on some weird plot to mess with us, which was apparently her main hobby.

“I mean, why’d she agree to it? What’s she doing?”

“I don’t know, but Rain offered me four hundo to defend her and her cohorts,” Roux said.

”Four hundo as in dollars? Not like four hundred compliments or something with no monetary value?”

”She showed me an actual suitcase of cash,” Roux said.

I couldn’t tell if Roux was being serious or was in tall tale mode. I had heard Roux lie for like pretty much as long as I’d known them. But it was Rain Adagio, who was like a for reals princess so she probably had some serious cash.

“I was going to ask if you wanted to join me,” Roux said.

“I’ll join if I get some of that four hundred,” I said.

“No, I get all my share, you ask Rain for your own,” Roux said. “And if you help…I’ll ask how your spaced-out thing is about. And offer the best advice.”

I reluctantly agreed. I told myself I just wanted to take my mind off of it, but I couldn’t deny a part of me wanted to hear Roux’s take on this. Not that it would be anything useful, but there were morsels of decency buried under Roux’s exaggerations.

The love trio waited for us at their favorite spot on campus, the big table in the indoor garden. I had hung out with the love trio a few times here, a lot of people I knew hated the three but I found them pretty cool. They make good tea!

“The footage I would have gotten would have been leagues better,” KJ said.

“I’m in agreement,” Amara said. “But why did they waste time on the news reporting on this blue fellow when they could be talking about Rain?”

“That’s an excellent point,” KJ said.

”Arielle Roux security crew is on the scene,” Roux said, flashing a badge at the love trio that I think they got at the Hado Diconius convention. ”This is my deputy, Koridia. Junior deputy.”

”I could be your top security agent if you pay me what you said you’d pay Roux,” I said. ”And if Chickadee shows up and I punch her in the face, please vouch for me.”

Rain sipped her tea as KJ fidgeted with her camera. Amara was the only one to immediately acknowledge our presence, but she didn’t look pleased to see us. She kept her arms crossed as she got up from the table and looked us up and down. Did Roux prank me?

“I keep saying to just let me handle it,” Amara said with a stiff upper lip.

”And I keep saying that we could use some backup,” Rain said. ”Chomper has been a nuisance, but at least she and her companion are relatively incompetent. This Chickadee character sends Kris Krags at people she doesn’t like.”

KJ and Rain shuddered in unison. Hell, I did a bit too, I had one of those monsters sent my way by Chickadee. Did she send more of those dudes to others? I hadn’t heard anyone say that yet, but it wouldn’t surprise me.

”I suppose the deciding vote falls to KJ, then,” Rain said.

”I didn’t necessarily vote against you!” Amara said. ”I would never vote against you, Rain.”

”I know, but you’re allowed to express your opinions as well,” Rain said. ”KJ, would you like to have Roux and Kalei join us to stop this Chickadee and Chomper scheme?”

KJ fidgeted with her camera’s lens as she decided.

”And don’t just pick mine because I said it!” Rain added.

”I feel like the love trio of a semester ago would have just done what Rain said,” I remarked.

”Indeed,” Roux said. ”We can’t count out that these are alternate love trio members from another dimension, or they’re Chickadee, Chumbler, and that one that’s always hanging around Chumbler in disguise.”

”I don’t think that’s it,” I said.

”I vote...we let them help,” KJ said. ”Because—”

Before KJ could explain why me helping would be epic and badass, a crackling sound cut through. One of the trees nearby started rocking. It was clear immediately that its base had been chopped, and had maybe a few seconds upright before it toppled.

”Get back!” I yelled.

A moment later, the tree crashed down, breaking the table into pieces. And riding atop the tree like a surfboard was, of course, Chickadee.