GRAVESKIES

Chapter 11

Willow and Sawyer were the first to cheer for Ryujin. They met in her tent, through some fortune untouched by the raid. They knew what this victory represented; one that Ryu had waited for her entire life. Victory over herself and over all who'd come before her. The youngest. The record-breaker.

They hugged her. It felt warm and easy and for a few seconds, everything, everything was alright. They cried, too. They actually cried, all three. It was that important. Important felt like a powerless, frail word compared to meeting a God and being welcomed into the Capital as a war hero.

Ryu hadn't told them the full story, though. It wasn't that she didn't trust them, but she simply couldn't bear the shame of confessing such weakness to Willow. How could she, when Willow hid her face in Ryu's hair, said I always knew this would happen, and smiled so brilliantly? To make it even worse, she knew Willow wasn't applying any pressure; Willow would accept her failures without thinking any less of her. She'd understand Ryujin's need to reject herself and she'd ingest Ryujin's flaws into her clean body. Patch them to her skin like fresh limbs. She'd eat it all up with that infuriating smile, that smile which was almost a vice, that said there was nothing she'd rather do than watch Ryujin succeed.

Wouldn't you rather be the one who wins? Isn't that how it works?

Ryu escaped by burying her face in Sawyer's shoulder. He gently caressed her back, as if he understood.

"Aw, will you miss us?" Sawyer crooned. "I hope you'll be sending postcards from the Repertoire."

The Repertoire provided temporary housing to the official foreign visitors of Axis, and conference halls for societies and congresses to meet. A kind of a hotel, the most luxurious and exclusive in the entirety of Akan. Soldiers enjoyed a few days' stay in the Repertoire before ascending to Nyrin— a wink into the life that awaited them on the other side of decades of misery and terror.

"Maybe not to you," she straightened and said solemnly, "but there's someone I really care about who I know will love my postcards. Your mom just adores it when I write to her from the heart. Oh, the pain of having a distant lover."

He smacked her with a ruggy, bristly pillow. She smacked him back, so hard it was surprising he didn't get a concussion. "Gross!" he yelled. "Willow, come get Ryujin, she's being gross!"

The look on Willow's face was the closest she ever got to disdain. "Children."

Ryujin settled on the tousled ground. "What will you guys do while I'm gone?"

"You'll be gone for four days, you really don't think we can manage that long without you?"

Ryu stuck out her nose in the air. "Absolutely not. You two leeches depend on me. I am the literal center of your lives, that's like, the whole point of this friendship."

"You're the worst, I'm glad you're leaving," Willow chuckled.

"Yeah, to get famous!"

"Actually..." Sawyer interrupted, smiling in the palm he was leaning against. "I have new moves to practice. The latest battle got me thinking and... What if I learn to manipulate the elements that go into forming diamonds independently? That would mean air pressure. Scorching temperatures. Even the earth's shell. Any of these components, if played with, can have disastrous effects on a victim."

"That's amazing! I guess Sawyer will be ready to kick your ass when you return."

"Ay, c'mon. You said it yourself. I'll be gone four days, not four years."

"Dear Gods you're such a bully," Sawyer rolled his eyes. "Willow was being really nice before, you know. Thank you, Willow."

Willow just laughed and pulled them both into a hug.