Endosymbiosis

45. Fury

Sometime later I woke up hearing Kadi getting ready, and opened my eyes to see him slip a jacket over his shoulders.

"Are you leaving?" I muttered, hoarse and half asleep.

"Korrok has a mission for me."

I stretched out in the chair.

"Should I worry?"

He opened a crooked smile so welcome after yesterday... Apparently he was in a better mood, now that he knew he was less alone.

"Something tells me you're already worried." I shrugged. That was part of my nature. "Korrok does that sometimes, when he wants to remind me that he's the one in power."

"Because we 'inexplicably' woke him up in the middle of the night?" Since Korrok didn't remember our conversation.

"It's my main theory."

"And why wasn't I invited to the fun?"

Kadi approached slowly. I squirmed as he leaned his body over me, his hands at my sides resting on the chair and his face hovering in front of mine.

"Maybe it's because he already understands that this message you'll never accept..." Kadi hissed and I opened my mouth but said nothing... Because he wasn't wrong. "Take the opportunity to hide here a little longer, while the sun has not yet risen." So he kissed me on the forehead and left on his mission.

I took his advice and, after a few hours, slipped out of the Hasta. I went to Venerna's dining hall, on a cliff level high enough that I could see the blue ocean behind the stone windows. I grabbed a plate of the city's weird kibble and sat next to the ocean view, more distracted by the waves outside than by my own food. After a few minutes, Plumala joined me.

"I bet you're regretting not having tasted Avoria's fruits." She joked, pointing to the gray kibble I was churning around on my plate. "The view pays off, at least."

"The privileges of being a 'revolutionary'."

"Revolutionary?" She studied me. "So being here is no longer a mistake for you?"

I faced the columba and confronted what I really believed:

"It's not a mistake if there are so much right that I can do."

And of all the paths I had thought to take, this one could still lead me to my goal.

"Am I sniffing this right? The two most fragile little creatures of the revolution, eating together? So sweet!" Lupan suddenly barked, sitting at our table even as we protested. "I don't sniff something so adorable every noxdiem in this den of beasts."

So I made sure to paralyze the muscles in his mouth with a jet of my toxin.

"Lupan, quiet?!" Deinos celebrated not long after, joining us. "You are more useful than I thought, Donecea!"

When he saw Judin walking past our table in handcuffs, - at one of the few free hours he had to walk around Venerna - the espinero pulled him to sit with us and the human almost fell into Lupan's open mouth. May Judin not send me a look for help, because I didn't think I would be much better than those beasts.

"And how are you feeling, Deinos?" I investigated. "After I saved your life." And I remembered. The espinero sent me a shrewd look.

"Alive."

"And every day stronger to fulfill your part of our agreement, I imagine..."

Before he could respond, however, the beasts saw something appear in the cafeteria and began to celebrate like animals. I turned to the entrance, curious to see what the spectacle was, and saw Kadi come back from his mission, totally covered in an orange goo that I didn't want to know what it was. He approached the table, dripping wet, and sat down next to Judin, followed by Korrok, who completed the table with a serpent smile.