DON'T PRAY TO ME

14 - The Debt

Five days of consecutive holiday - A rarity in Erno Schola, which most students, even staff, will not miss taking the opportunity of to visit home.

To keep the promise made to his father, Slade is in the West Dhamenci King's palace with his family for the dinner. After dinner, the king is chatting up with his guests. "I heard you single handedly stopped that tiger, my boy," the king says to Slade. Princess Leila appears next to Slade, "Daddy, you can't keep boring him like this. Let's go, Slade," she says and drags him away while her father laughs.

Slade is upset. He would prefer the boring company of her father's rather than hers now. Or better yet, be left alone altogether. He's in no mood to socialize, but didn't want to disappoint his father by going back on his word, so he came. Leila's hand is wrapped around his as they walk on the corridor facing the inner courtyard. Leila is wearing the dress she had made just for this dinner, the one with the plunging neckline. She's thrilled to be with him.

"Soon our studies will be over. We'll have plenty of time to meet. I was thinking, maybe we should go to the lantern festival together," Leila says squeezing his arm. "Slade?" She says after not getting a response from him. "What?" Slade says. "Were you not listening to me?" Leila whines. In the times before, when they had met, although Slade had never shown interest in her, he was at least attentive, Leila thinks, but now, it's like she's not even here. "I'm sorry, what was it?" Slade says.

His thoughts keep going back to Rachel. And he cusses himself for being unable to be distracted from the Deir girl. Slade worries about his chance with her. He told her not to pray to him, and pretty much scared her away. He did that so he could stop his powers mutating and focus on becoming a Chief. But what if, in the mean time, Rachel stops believing in him altogether? What if she moves on? What if someone else makes her feel safer? He doesn't want that; He wants her. But if he waits for the right time to make her his, will it already be too late? "Slade!" Leila says. Slade presses his forehead. "I'm sorry, Princess, but it seems I'm under the weather. I'm afraid I'll have to part ways here. It's been a pleasure to see you again. Take care, your highness," Slade says and leaves her without waiting for a response. He doesn't care if he offends even the king himself by ignoring his daughter. Slade is no longer in the mood to pretend everything's fine when it's not.

---

The sun is the same everywhere, but somehow it feels extra good for her when Rachel soaks its rays while sitting at her home's backyard. To save money, Rachel avoids coming back home too often, and she had decided to return after the finals only, but plans changed with everything that had happened. Only two more days of the holidays are left, and she's dreading the countdown. A part of her doesn't want to go back to school at all. She had submitted her withdrawal form from the LE. She did it right at the end of the last day before the holidays began, so she could avoid the repercussions. There's also Slade who's constantly in her head. It's all too much.

Her mother calls out from the kitchen, asking Rachel to find the scissors. Rachel goes into her father's study room and opens the top drawer of his desk. She takes out the scissors, and pushes the drawer in slightly when she notices the letter. Out of curiosity she opens it. It's an acknowledgment document of the repayment of a loan. Her father had recently paid back the money he borrowed from Tolor, a local loan shark who her parents should've known better than to loan from. Upset, Rachel takes the letter to her mother in the kitchen.

"What is this mom?" she says. Her mom is initially surprised. Then sighs. "We were going to tell you." "When? Why did you need the money? And why from him?" "The crops failed for the last three seasons. Your father needed the money for this season's sowing. Tolor was the only one who could give us the money right away." "But this year's crop isn't ready yet. How did dad pay it back then?" "Before asking Tolor, your father also applied for an SOF at the regional office. You know how rarely that works out, so we went ahead and borrowed from Tolor. But last month, SOF came through. We found a wonderful sponsor. They repaid the load on our behalf, including the interest." "An SOF sponsor?" Rachel says in amazement.