2.4: Sequence Break

I was really hoping Priscilla wouldn't call out my silence on my connection to Marlette. That conversation could easily lead to one about her true name, something I hoped to avoid.

But it seemed the confrontation was going to happen now, and I needed to be ready.

Don't say her name, I told myself. That's all you have to do.

Priscilla sauntered over to a lone aluminum trash can sitting beside the start of the dirt path leading out to the wilderness. The din of the city square was faint out here even though we weren't too away from the heart of the shopping outlet. I could still see the ice cream parlor and the magic fountain just fine from where I stood. The red lamposts glistened like melting candy canes in the late hours of the afternoon.

Yet as I looked out into the wilderness that surrounded the heart of the Dawn, I couldn't help but notice how barren the sanctuary looked. I tried to recall if the Dawn really was as empty as the copy we were in, but my memory remained fuzzy. The more I focused on the flaws the dream, the more pronounced they became. And the more I noticed, the less comfortable I felt. It was a gnawing feeling in the pit of my stomach, that primal instinct warning me that not everything was as serene as it seemed.

I shook my head and tried to shake the feeling of doom, but I could not unsee the mistakes in the illusion I was in. The streets were made of asphalt instead of cobblestone. The sky was an unusual tinge of purple instead of a deep blue. Seagulls flew by overhead instead of sparrows. I knew for a fact that not a single seagull lived on the Sanctuary.

Dread poured into my stomach and my breathing began to quicken. I prided myself on being calm under pressure, but at the moment, I was everything but that. I bit my tongue in an attempt to steady myself, but all I managed to do was hurt my salivary glands.

Calm down, I told myself. This isn't you.

I half expected to start hearing Charybdis's gravelly voice to start whispering lies into my ear again when I heard a deafening crash! fill the sky.

I looked up to see the poor aluminum trash can laying on the ground all bent out of shape.

"Time out's over!" Priscilla shouted.

It took me a moment to piece together that Priscilla had merely tapped the trash can with the tip of her foot and had still managed to destroy it. I breathed a sigh of relief.

We'll be out of here before we know it. We'll be fine.

Priscilla tore off the lid of the trash can and dropped it onto the ground. The lid clanged loudly as it began to roll around on its edge away from the trash can. When it began to lose momentum, the lid began to wobble, slowly at first, then wildly like a flying saucer that had lost all control. It landed with a soft thud about ten meters away from where it had been cast away.

Then she fished out Eleanor’s backpack from within the trash can and gave it a good shake.

"The cat!" I gasped.

"Don't worry, he's inside a pocket dimension. Won't feel a thing."

"He's awfully quiet."

"Good. Maybe his time alone taught him not to be saucy with me."

I frowned.

“What did he say to you?”

“He called me fat.”

She hurled the backpack to me like a frisbee.

I caught it with both of my hands, bringing it into my chest so its straps wouldn’t get dirtied from the ground. When I was certain it was secure in my arms, I examined the backpack from top to bottom. It was unscathed, though I found a patch of dirt staining one of its straps. I brushed off the dirt with the back of my hand. It fell off easily, like sand from the beach once it had dried.

“So," Priscilla said, her voice less friendly this time. "Why did you keep Marlette a secret from me? Are you two a thing?”

"No!"

"Good! Now tell me why you failed to mention that there was another woman in your life."

You don't even like me.

“First of all," I said, "I don't particularly like Iris. Second of all, Marlette said she wouldn’t tell me where you were until I promised I would keep my mouth shut about her. I had no idea where you were, and I was afraid I would never find you on my own. So I promised to stay silent. I would have told you in a heartbeat otherwise.”

Her eyes narrowed into a leer before softening into a slight frown.

“Fair enough,” she said curtly. “But there’s still one thing that’s bothering me, something I don’t get.”

She crossed her arms as she began to pace the road leading into the wilderness ahead of us. The metal spikes on her lightning sleeve clinked together softly, reminding me of their deadly presence.

“Why would my servant lie to me about a Host's name?” she said, her voice an inch from a snarl.

My heart stopped.

“What-?”

Priscilla stopped pacing and whirled around to face me. There was a sour look on her face, the look she gave me when she was not happy with me in particular.

“Your Host!" she demanded. "Her real name is-.”

“Don’t say that name!” I shouted way louder than I meant to.

Her eyes widened in surprise.

“Why?" she said softly, dangerously. "Is something bad going to happen?”

“That’s exactly what she said would happen," I said, pointing at her "I don't know what it is, but I-Marlette made it very clear you were not supposed to find out."

She cocked her head to the side, clearly not buying into what I was telling her. She walked toward me, her words accentuating her nimble steps.

“And why do you think she wouldn't want me, your lord, to learn about something as inconsequential as her name?” she said, stopping arm's length in front of me. "That doesn't strike you as suspicious at all?"

I nodded vigorously.

"Of course it's suspicious! But, like it or not, she holds most of the cards right now. Both of us would be dead right now if she, on a whim, didn't think it was worth saving us, me, twice, and at great cost."

"Mhm."

"Half the hosts in this nightmare want to kill us. Marlette needs us and she's willing to help us reach the city. I think that's as good as it's going to get."

"And when she doesn't need us anymore?"

"We'll be in the city long before then! We can ditch her then if she tries to betray us."

Priscilla ran her fingers through her hair.

"You could have at least asked her why you can't tell me her name!" she said.

"I didn't get a chance."

"Really?"

"Yeah. Today alone, two Seraphs threatened to kill me. A monster nearly seduced me to give in to my darker desires. A suit of armor actually killed me. AND, I almost died a second time doing my job! Forgive me if I forgot to ask why a powerful Seraph doesn't want you to know her name!"

Priscilla remained silent. She was probably contemplating how she was going to lay down the law to her disgruntled servant. After a long pause, she took a deep breath and relaxed her shoulders.

"Then I'll ask her myself," she said. "But, don't you dare lie to me again about anything again, Titus Ko! You know better. Need I remind you that a phantasm pretending to be you nearly killed me three years ago?"

"I remember," I said. "I promise I will tell you everything I can from here on out."

She seemed somewhat satisfied with that answer. Her expression softened and she uncrossed her arms.

“Good,” she said. “If there’s anything else you’re hiding from me, now is the time to talk.”

I remembered that Iris and I were in a binding magical covenant. Iris hadn’t forbidden me from telling Priscilla about that covenant. However, I have a bad feeling that if I told Priscilla about that now, she would kill me on the spot.

A cheon-sa was forbidden from entering into a binding covenant of any sort, even marriage, so long as his covenant to his lord was active. Since a binding magical covenant required the consent of both parties to be created, I doubted Priscilla would believe me if I told her that Iris had managed to make the covenant with me with neither my consent nor my knowledge.

At the very least, Priscilla would demand that Iris release me from the covenant she had imposed on me, something I felt the Host was not willing to do, not yet. While Iris seemed reasonable enough, I did not know how she would react if she was challenged, as Priscilla was certain to do. The last thing I wanted was a confrontation between two Seraphs over me.

I’ll tell her when we reach the city, I thought.

I shuddered at the thought of how I would explain it to Priscilla then, especially now that she was demanding that I tell her everything. It would certainly hurt our relationship, but if that meant reaching the city, it was certainly a risk I was willing to take.

“Nothing of note,” I replied.

"Of note?"

"I've told you everything!"

“Alright,” she said, after studying my face for an unnerving length of time. “I believe you.”

I gulped.

I hoped I had made the right decision.

"Marlette should be calling us up any minute now," Priscilla sighed, stretching out her arms. "Check up on the cat, yeah? I may have hurt his feelings."

I looked down at the pocket dimension cradled in my arms.

“Gordon you there?”

No response.

“You’re not upset at me too, are you?” I said, unclasping the flap of the pocket dimension. “We’re sorry for leaving you in the dump.”

“I’m not,” Priscilla added.

When I threw the flap open, I could only see Gordon's pointed ears sticking out from the pocket dimension.

"You alright?" I asked.

He didn’t acknowledge my presence at all. Instead, he slowly raised his head out of the pocket dimension and fixed his eyes on some unseen object in the distance toward the wilderness. Every hair on his sleek body was standing up on end as if a thunderstorm was approaching. Priscilla noticed Gordon's behavior and immediately took the pocket dimension from my arms. She carefully raised Gordon to eye level.

“Gordon, what’s wrong?” she said.

The cat’s ears shot up as if he heard a startling noise. The cat frantically began to search the area around us before his eyes landed on Priscilla.

The cat stared at Priscilla, opening his mouth to speak but having trouble getting the words out.

“You’re scaring me, Gordon,” Priscilla said. “Speak up!"

At last, the cat found his voice. When he spoke, his voice was shaky, as if he had seen a ghost.

"It can't be," he said. "It's too early in the dream."