Empyrean

Chapter 9

Chapter 9-Fenix

Roof of the Palace

Near Midnight, 5th of Pachon, Year 612

            Half an hour I’ve been standing here. In general, Orion’s riddles make sense, just as I used to hope that mine did to him. I start to break it into parts once again.

            “The wind may come from the west, but I will always come from the east.” I say aloud to help jog my memory. I clench the paper tight the sweat on my hands seeping slowly into the white darkening it. I think, the west? The east… Nothing. Next part, I guess.

             “I am eternal but you lose me every night.” What do I lose every night? It is at times like this that I wish it wasn’t day. Still nothing comes to me.

            “My presence is to children’s delight. This is where you will find me.” What makes children happy? Toys? Candy? Games? But none of those have anything to do with the directions... “Ack!” I let out a small yell and I see Echo turn over mumbling to herself in a dream. I had better keep this a personal affair after all…

            I decide to look over his whole letter one more time. I read it over quickly like you do when you check your work on a problem that you know you got right, but then the answer slaps me in the face like the mother I barely had. We still have common friends my brother. There are very few people that I still associate with from my old life. But it’s still too many to go asking around for Orion. That would bring up too many issues. But who? Who is our “common friend”? I start to name the people that I still associate with from that time. Let’s see…there was Rin, Lewis, Lucille, Emilia—

            It hits me. I start walking towards Emilia’s café. All of these people knew which bank we were going to hit and they were all even going to help distribute the money after we got it, until Orion got to it first. But Emilia’s owns a small café near the Zenith-Red border. Red’s eat there sometimes if they are in real dire straights. It is not the location of her café or the fact that she was one of the best influences on the two of us when we were kids that I know she is harboring Orion. It is the name of her café. The Rising Sun Café. It’s the sun that always comes from the east, the sun that is eternal but lost every night, and still the sun that children love.

            I don’t even notice that I have started to run until now. I dropped the letter long ago and the night’s rain continues to pound on me, pushing me forward. It doesn’t take me long to get there. I immediately duck under the overhang and knock on the door. The door flies open and I stumble inside before I can knock the third time.

            A voice in Greek greets me. It was Emilia who gave me the love of the language. “I had a feeling you would be coming tonight, Fenix.” Emilia looks at me with those deep hazel eyes and says, “Get up off the floor already!” When I thought earlier that she was a good influence earlier, I may have been letting myself believe something that isn’t necessarily true. Emilia is tall, taller than both me an Orion. She is not heavily built but not skinny either. She is smart and she taught Orion and me many things along with how to speak Latin and Greek, but still Orion and I are more intelligent, not to say she is dumb. Emilia really just is.

            “Geez, sorry.” I reply in Greek how I know she wants. She nods satisfied as I get up off the surprisingly clean ground and stand there looking around. I haven’t actually been inside her place since we were kids; it used to be her mother’s. They were some of the only Zenith to have a real roof over their heads, however small. Whenever I have talked to Emilia lately it has always been in the markets. “Orion is here, isn’t he?”