FATE\Deus Decipit

Chapter 22: Fellow Traveler

...

The train's rumbles echoed in the underground. They sat together in the last car, alone except for a group of men on the other end. They were talking to each other, not paying attention to her and Saber in the least except for an occasional glance. They, themselves, sat together in the back of the train in silence. Chrysaor was trying to focus it seemed, and she didn't want to interrupt him. Besides that, she was realizing more and more how little she knew. She hadn't let it set in since they seemed to have a way out in the overseer, but as that door closed, at least for the moment, the situation suddenly felt much more claustrophobic.

Lost in the rhythmic jostling of the car and her own anxieties, she jumped slightly when Chrysaor finally spoke up, "Your work."

"Huh? What about it?"

"Do you plan on going tonight?"

"No."

She didn't have to think about it. She had made up her mind the second they left her apartment that afternoon. The job was a prison, sure, but the thing about prison is that it's secure. She could spare a night or two. Besides, if she did die, she wasn't going to have her final days spent in a whorehouse.

"Is there anything else you have to do?"

"No? Aren't we just going back for the night? You said we need to lie low."

"I did, I was just making sure we were on the same page. Besides, I'm sure you have other obligations. We'll get you out of this war, so it'd be good not to neglect any other responsibilities you have."

It was odd hearing him speak so frankly. He wasn't normally this serious. "Don't worry about that. Nobody will miss me at work, and I don't have anything beyond that. So long as I'm back within a week nobody will care."

"Do you have any friends at... work?" She didn't want to know the word which was originally on his tongue.

"No."

"None?"

Her voice raised in defensive reflex, "No? Why does it matter?"

"I just want to be sure you have everything settled... just in case."

Her hands instinctively reached for her upper arms, grabbing them and pulling them close. "You aren't being very reassuring, you know."

"Sorry. It's just good to keep these things in mind... Once someone is gone, you can never say the things they needed to hear."

Her arms pulled tighter, "I know that, already, You don't need to tell me. I'm not a kid." She sighed, "If you must know, I used to have a friend here. But she's gone now. There isn't anyone else, so you don't have to worry."

His eyes lingered on her for a long moment. And another. Her arms pulled tighter still. He was reading her closely, and she wasn't comfortable with that. Eventually he looked away, and out into space. He had been sitting hunched over as he tended to do, but now he sat up straight against the back of the chair. He took a deep sigh.

"I understand."

She looked at the floor.

"What was her name?"

"Rhiannon."

"That's a pretty name."

"Yeah."

She felt her eyes moisten, her breathing became strained, but she wasn't going to let herself break. Not now. Not with this.

He gently jabbed her in the shoulder; when she looked, his familiar smile had returned to him. "You'll see her again."

"No. No I won't."