Chapter 28: Soaking

Soaking in the warm bath was quite comfortable, and Billie was quiet for a few minutes as she seemed to be relaxing. As for myself, I was looking up at the evening sky which was showing a few faint stars as the sun’s light continued to fade.

“So Monday, you said your memories don’t go back that far, and you don’t know much about things around here. What happened?” Her voice sounded tentative, as if she were asking something I might not answer. I suppose I didn’t have to, but I wasn’t trying to hide anything. It was also something I wanted more perspectives about. Buckle seemed almost sad for me. Bluebird took it as a matter of course after a bit of surprise, and then tried to use me before the System gave her a better offer. I’d overheard a couple things that made me wonder just how low System users are considered.

“Well Billie, apparently I happened to me. I woke up under a tree yesterday morning naked and with a System prompt telling me I’d done it to myself. No memories to speak of, but plenty of general information; nouns, verbs, language syntax even if some of the words seem shoved in my head and no one talks quite like I expect. Basic mathematics are in here,” I continued, tapping my temple. “and apparently somehow knowing that we are in someplace that used to be California. A general understanding of human biology and that not everyone now matches all that information. I’m pretty sure I don’t have any information about people with tails or pointy ears or hairless tall bald grey folks. Basic physics and some rudimentary chemical knowledge are here too, like don’t touch anything too acidic or basic. But almost nothing about the System, modern life, Mana or mana skills.”

Billie had been avoiding looking directly at me after we undressed, at least not while I noticed. Maybe she was bashful, but it didn’t really bother me. After my short monolog I continued to watch for more stars, hoping new ones would peek out through the darkening sky. So I wasn’t expecting what happened, nor ready for it.

Water moved and the ripples made noise as they lapped against the stone. Wet hair flopped onto my shoulder and I heard a short tight half sobbing laugh as Billie wrapped my neck and shoulders in her arms. Embraced by the smaller woman I was startled, and about to ask her about her actions when she spoke.

“Oh, you poor fool. Spirits of the Bath, how are you not curled up in your room or running wild?” One of her hands was running along the back of my head to my neck and repeating the action, petting me with a wet hand. “Who knows besides me?” She whispered near my ear. Though she’d straddled my legs to hug me, she leaned back to look me in the eyes, our noses maybe a handspan apart.

“Buckle and Bluebird, you.” I whispered. “Ann might have guessed, but I think she is only sure I’m… Odd. Haven’t told anyone else. I suppose Buckle or Bluebird might’ve talked, not sure though. I don’t think I mentioned anything in front of Dominick, but I don’t remember for sure” The soggy embrace was still nice, not as good as when Billie’s wet hair was on my shoulder and her head was pressed against the side of my own, but good. “I’m pretty sure Bluebird won’t do anything to cause me trouble for at least a little bit. And I think Buckle is... well, I'm not too worried about him. Wait… Should I be worried?”

Billie placed her forehead high on mine and I felt water from her wet hair and face drip down on my cheeks and chest. “I don’t know Monday, I don’t know for certain.” She leaned back closer and placed her lips near my ear. “Tales are that the System causes trouble, especially for its own. So be careful, please be careful.”

She clung to me as if it were the last thing between her and being hurled into the sky by a tornado. I placed my own arms around her smaller frame. “I like the hug, and I’ll try to be careful, but is this a time to panic? You seem to be near panic, and I’ve no idea why… I mean, the big scary System causes trouble, but what? How? Why?” I patted her shoulder blade a little bit where my hand rested.

“Er, no idea?” And Billie sagged into me, hands clinging to my back and her weight resting on my legs. I felt like I was holding a big child rather than being comforted by an older friend. “My Gran told tales about her brother. System user but not until he’d been over 20 years old. Very normal life before, but something new and crazy every week after he became a Syssy. She said he suffered so many crazy things and died at 27. He got eaten!” She said with fathomless intensity. “I don’t want you to get eaten!” A distressing whimper leaked out as she gasped against my neck.

“Billie? I’m not dead yet, and unless you are about to eat me, I imagine I can take precautions.” I moved a hand and prodded her lightly in the ribs with a thumb. The combination of a giggle and a sob into my neck tickled a little. “But it might be useful to know more if I want to avoid being eaten. And, we haven’t known each other that long, so any idea why you’re so worried about me?”

Her head shook a little against my neck and she moved to sit across my lap rather than straddle me, her softer bits removed from my chest and the weight of her comfortably now resting across my thighs. “Gran mostly said don’t.” She said quietly. “Said her brother kept taking more and more risks. Saying it was always important, for the village, for himself, for the entirety of Cecal. Gran was convinced that the System pushed him, pushed them all. Said not to be an initiate.”

I felt the sniffle into my neck, and wasn’t quite certain if she was done talking until she picked up again. “Me caring so much might be the system too I suppose.”

“Can it mind control people who aren’t a part of it?” I asked in surprise.

“No, but sometimes Syssies can, or so Gran said.”

“Maybe, but I’ve nothing like that.”

“Huh, you sure?” Billie’s head pulled back just enough that I could see her glance up at me from an awkward angle.

“I mean, I unlocked a Charm stat, but that doesn’t charm anyone, much less young unclothed ladies in the bath.”

Eyes sprang wide in what I thought was embarrassment. “S-sorry Monday. I-I, sorry.” Billie began to wiggle out of my lap and slide away. Not wanting to hold her if she wanted to back away I let go and put my hand lightly on the side of her face.

“Nothing to be sorry about, Billie. I feel happy you care. Wish I could find it in me to care more about myself, but everything feels a little… Removed? Distant?” I thought for a moment about what her Gran had said. “Might be exactly the problem your Gran talked about. If the System makes System users distant from self preservation, that is a worry.” Billie started to move off my lap and I offered my feelings on the matter. “You can stay in my lap if you like. I’m enjoying the closeness, just hugs, but if you want to move that’s okay too. I want to take a few minutes and think about anything that happened to me that fits what your Gran said.”

Billie slid off of my lap and sat on my left, close enough that we were touching as we relaxed in the warm water. Taking my left hand into her smaller hands she held on tightly, a mass of laced fingers and occasional fidgeting digits.

‘Did anything strange or dangerous, or strangely dangerous happen since I got here?’ I thought. ‘Well, there was that Taz when Buckle thought the route should be safe enough. So that. Anything else? As I just mentioned to Billie, I’m naked in the bath where she had been clinging to me, her after barely knowing me, and shortly after we’d talked about nothing but a friendship happening between us. Okay, I think she was clinging to me to comfort me, but I imagine if anyone were to look in that wouldn’t be a shared sentiment. And then there was the way Granny Gabby totally got under my skin and I talked back. And the strange bet with Benjamin Franklin Goode. And the way I spoke back to Bluebird after the oath and pushed her into the amendment. The amendment after the System gave her a request. My sudden crying fit to Buckle. My approaching him naked and following him to his house. The fact that I’d not even reacted emotionally to killing the Taz, or during the run to God’s Bath, or after.’ A half dozen other minor oddities popped into my head, spinning and dancing about, before I turned my face back to Billie.

“Well, this is unfortunate.”