Dawning Skye

566 Overreactions(Part One)

Yaris, Tidas, and Hang were still arguing when Genie came back inside the warehouse. Only Tidas had looked over at him to ascertain if there was a problem, and had gone straight back to their bickering once Genie had given the okay. After glancing at the corner where the shadow had been hiding, he rejoined the others, and pressed Yaris to explain his records.

Everything was written in a language that none of them were familiar with, and Hang in particular was irate about it. He was angry that they had to strictly go off of whatever he told them, instead of being able to check Richard Yaris’ figures himself. Tidas thought that he recognized a few of the markings from one of Skye’s books back in Alcon, but he couldn’t be sure without her.

As the thought occurred, Tidas smirked while reaching for the ledger and said; “It’s fine if you don’t want to explain it all. I’ll just have Skye read it for us..”

Yaris looked at the prince with slightly widened eyes, obviously trying to keep his surprise hidden as he somewhat slammed his hand down on top of his records; “How could she Possibly know Bokm?l? The Norwegian written languages are dead languages! It’s only found in Extremely limited ancient tomes, and I Own most of them! At least any that could be found in Alcon!”

Tidas smirked as he shrugged, and yanked the thick binder out from underneath Richard’s hand; “Forehand knowledge doesn’t seem to matter when it comes to Skye and books. Although I have seen these markings referenced in one she owns before. Because she’s the Catalyst, she can read anything-well, at least we haven’t found anything that she couldn’t read yet.”

An annoyed expression covered Yaris’ face as Tidas began to thumb through his main ledger. Not wanting his records to be read through in detail, the businessman decided to explain a few of the letters. If they double-checked what he said the words meant by matching up the letters, then they could at least be able to tell if he was completely lying or not. But still not grasp all of it..

‘But if he’s lying about this, then how would we know?’

As the thought crossed Tidas’ mind, he glanced at Richard and said; “I want you to tell me Verbatim what this says, so I can have Skye read it and compare. If you’re telling us the truth, then it should match up to whatever Skye reads when I show this to her. And tell her word for word whatever you say now.”

Tidas held up a single sheet of paper that he’d ripped out of the ledger. It was the very top sheet, and had no relevant information written on it, but Yaris didn’t like the way things were going..

.....

‘Crap.. If he’s doing that, then I’ll Have to be completely honest! There’s details in there that could get me into a lot of trouble.. Honesty doesn’t equal profit: that’s why I avoid it! Damn It, Tidas! Why couldn’t you be like every other freakin’ royal in the world?!’

As Richard’s internal struggle intensified, Tidas pressed him to translate the sheet. Feeling utterly defeated; Yaris pulled out a blank sheet of paper, and began to scribble down what the paper Tidas held said. As he finished, he hesitated a moment, then looked up at the prince..

“I am ONLY giving you permission to inspect the records pertaining to Sai. All my other dealings are off of the table, and No One can know that I helped you. If I lose clients because they can’t trust me, I will hold you personally responsible for that, Prince Tidas.”

Nodding his understanding, Tidas replied; “It’ll be fine.. Even if you do lose a little business, I’m sure that I can convince Lucas to help you out a bit. He still owes me a favor or two.”

Curious, Yaris asked how Lucas Moonstone could become indebted to his Son-In-Law. Tidas flashed a small, rueful grin as he replied; “You were at Skye’s first wed-attempted wedding. Let’s just say, that was Never meant to happen.”

Yaris smiled cheekily; “Aye.. Jacob Fowler was a piece of work. I only went due to his father’s invitation. I also heard what happened to Lord Fowler. What kind of a fool still dabbles in live trafficking?”

“What, indeed,” Hang commented at he stared at the unfamiliar markings from one of Richard’s folders.

Glaring at the rude Senator, Yaris scoffed; “I’m a businessman, not a sicko. Humans and Fae don’t make very good merchandise. The overhead barely allows for any profit.. There’s feeding, clothing, medical expenses, and don’t even get me started on the issues that could be had with Fae-”

“You sound as if you’ve had personal experience with all of that, Lord Yaris,” Genie commented in a deeply unnerving tone; “Are you sure that you’ve never been involved with the slave trade before?”

“Of course, but that was before it was illegal in Alcon,” Yaris replied matter-of-factory; “You forget that while Sai has had slavery outlawed for a few decades: Alcon is still new to it. King Magnus abolished it when I was young, but that didn’t stop it. Not until the Prince here, came along, and ended the black market for it.”

Tidas forced a shiver down, refusing to let it outwardly show. The gruesome deaths he’d seen, the horrific conditions, and the unforgivable circumstances of how each slave he’d talked to had become one; Tidas remembered it all. Especially the children..

The memories triggered an avalanche of emotions that Tidas was keeping a tight lid on. The smells, sights, and sickening need to kill those responsible for so much suffering practically choked him, causing him to step away, and clear his throat. He still had the paper in his hand that Yaris needed, so he quickly composed himself before turning back to the group.

Genie eyed him warily after that, then waited until they were getting ready to leave before asking if he was okay. Tidas grinned and said that he was fine, but he could tell that his former pupil was lying. Concerned, but not wanting to be intrusive, Genie was in the middle of telling him to talk it out with Skye when one of Genie’s shinobi appeared inside the warehouse.

“Master, I have an urgent report for you: an intruder believed to be Ahriman of the Darkness has been confirmed inside the walls of the castle. When I left, guards and Shinobi were on their way to backup the Alconian Princess, who had engaged him within Lady Mei’s courtyard.”

“No violence had occurred when I left, but-”

“Time to go! Yaris! Grab your shit, and get in the coach with Hang! Genie and I will head there first to back up Skye! Move it!” Tidas bellowed as he headed for the doorway.

Genie looked at his ninja; “Escort these two back to my home. LetNo One near them!”

“Yes Master,” the covered shinobi replied before the two disappeared out the door.

Tidas bent his knees like he was going to take off running, but Genie stopped him and said; “Running there will take too long. Just fly with me.”

Staring at him hesitantly, Tidas replied; “Thanks, but I’d rather run-”

“There’s no time!” Genie yelled, then a massive amount of wind surrounded Tidas.

He yelped as he tried to find some semblance of stability, but Tidas’ feet were already off of the ground. Letting out a string of curse words did nothing to make him feel better, or correct his wobbling state. As Tidas felt his body being pushed from every direction, Genie called out to him; “Straighten out your back, and bend one knee or the other to shift your weight, as balance is needed.”

“That’s a Hell of a lot easier said than done! I TOLD You that I preferred to run! I hate heights!” Tidas bellowed back.

Genie chuckled loudly before saying; “How can you be afraid of heights when you fly with Zazzy every other day?!”

“That’s different! That’s Zazzy! You Ride a dragon! I am LITERALLY Just Hanging in the Air! Only you and Skye would think that this is Anything but INSANE!”

“You liked this when you were a child,” Genie replied softly, feigning hurt due to his brisk comment.

Tidas barked a sharp laugh before yelling to him; “If humans and reindeer were meant to fly, then we’d have wings! This is Not Natural! And why are we going so fast?!”

Genie quirked an eyebrow as he craned his neck to look at Tidas; “Who said anything about reindeer?”

Tidas stared a moment before sputtering; “It’s nothing! Just a traumatic experience, and I Don’t want to talk about it, ya ken?! L-Let’s just get there-Oh! Why did you walk out earlier?! You looked off when you came back!”

Genie chuckled to himself at Tidas’ pathetic attempt to change the subject, but answered him all the same; “There was a Shadow Clone watching us.. Ahriman used to make shadow copies of himself, and attach them to people, to kill later. They work as both a tracker, and a possible assassin for him, depending on how much magic he put into the clone when he made it..”

“A skilled mage can’t tell the difference between their own shadow, and an overlapping one, if they can’t sense magic. He was second only to me in our world, and not someone that Skye can handle on her own.. We Need to start you two on training, and soon.”

As Tidas listened to Genie explain the tricks that he knew Ahriman had based on his personal experience, they reached Genie’s castle in record time. They surveyed from the air first, then slowly descended into Mei’s courtyard with tension straining them. Neither could sense any trace of Dark magic, which gave them conflicting emotions..

As they looked around while heading towards Mei’s doorway, Tidas commented; “Maybe the report was wrong?”

Right as Tidas finished speaking, they could hear Rukia scream her head off. The two glanced at each other, then took off towards the door. Without thinking; Tidas broke through the door via his Tank trait, and jumped in ready to fight..

“What the Bloody HELL are ya doin’?! What’s wrong wit you?!” Skye screamed after barely jumping out of the way of the door.

His face quickly growing flush, Tidas stammered; “W-We heard a s-scream-”

“We were PLAYING! That’s what children do when they’re havin’ fun! They scream! What the Hell, Tidas! You coulda killed me right there! With a fucking Door!”

“I’m So sorry, Skye. I didn’t mean to! The ninja showed up when we were at the shady warehouse, and said Ahriman was here! And Genie almost killed me flying here on top of it-I overreacted! I’m so sorry-”

“Wait, what? What about a shady warehouse?” Skye asked her husband, then looked passed him at a snickering Genie; “And what’s this about ya terrorizing me husband?”

“He overexaggerates,” Genie replied as he waved his hand back and forth, brushing off the comments.

“So there was no Ahriman, or?” Tidas asked, drawing his wife’s attention back to him.

“Oh...Na, he was here. Just ta say a weird, cryptic warnin’ of some kind. But what’s this about a warehouse? What happened wit Yaris?” Skye asked, brushing him off like he’d done.

As Tidas’ annoyance level rose, Genie walked over to his niece, and asked; “How is everything?”

Mei eyed him suspiciously; “I think I know why Ahriman is here, but I might just be overthinking things.”

“What do you mean?”

Mei hesitated; “I don’t think Ahriman is here just to aid Senator Tokuga...I think he is after Skye..”