Every Ice Blue Cloud Has a Silver Lining

Couple Fights (Minus the Couple)

Keefe

Keefe stared the ogre up and down, trying to find a sign of possible betrayal. His ice-blue eyes were as cold as their colour as he scrutinised her every move.

"Why?" He knew it was a stupid, obvious question, but instinct (that admittedly, hadn't been so reliable in the past) told him to. The ogre hummed and tapped her foot on the ground, before looking at him, her ash eyes full of life.

"You all said it yourselves." She looked at everyone in the room, a small smile on her face. "A better life. Now, look, I'm not going to go full backstory on you, because we all know you'd burst from all the blood and gore," Keefe felt hot. His cheeks burned at her kind of insult. He'd been used to luxury growing up but hearing it like that felt... wrong. "But I'm joining your order. Or else, I'm telling the leaders."

Tam looked sceptical of her, drawing shadows back from her, pulling them to himself. Keefe offered a pointed glare, to which he eloquently responded to with a scowl.

Keefe tilted his head, blond locks resting on his face. She was different to what he expected. But his senses didn't say anything. He turned to Marella, who seemed to be in an in depth conversation with Linh. His entire body went red alert on her, and he didn't understand why. Keefe felt his temper boil. He was an empath; he knew better than everyone else if someone was lying or not. And somehow, he trusted an ogre more than a teenager girl.

Tam glared at him and tugged on his cloak. Keefe turned to look at his roommate, who was now standing next to him. His eyes darted to the edge of the room and back at Keefe. He tiled his head toward the dingy corner. Keefe walked there slowly, pondering about what Tam could possibly want.

"Hunkyhair!" Despite the usage of his nickname, Keefe was sure that Tam was nowhere near happy. You cannot seriously trust the ogre. She's going to get us caught.!"

"Funny," Keefe snarled. "I recall saying the same thing to you about Blondie."

"Marella's different." Tam ran his fingers through his hair, struggling to get past his bangs. "She isn't an ogre! Do you realise just how dangerous they are?"

"Marella is the daughter of the head of the Neverseen." Keefe snapped. "If you look past their appearance, Marella is a far bigger threat than Ro could ever be!"

"Lies," Tam seethed. "You know full well an ogre's abilities and strength! She is a danger to the Black Swan."

"Marella personally knows the head of the Neverseen!" He threw his arms in the air. "If Blondie decides she doesn't like our outfits, we might as well be dead!"

Dead

Dead

Dead.

The word echoed in his head, carrying a certain weight to it. He hung his head low at the memory of his mother.

"The ogre is the same!" He hissed. "She decides that elves are annoying, we're her dinner."

Keefe didn't say anything. There was nothing he could say that would change Tam's mind. He turned away from his silver-tipped accomplice and sighed. But he could show him.

~

"This is your 'meeting place'? It's a bedroom – minus the bed." Ro stalked in the room, yelling out. The room echoed her deep voice. Keefe smiled to himself. At least the second untrustworthy recruit had a sense of humour – he could work with that.

"True, but me and Tammy love the mats close together." Keefe wiggled hi eyebrows, and Tam pinked at the words.

"Hunkyhair..." He warned, but Keefe didn't think he was scary. In fact, with his face dusted in a pretty shade of pink, he looked rather... cute.

Ro raised an eyebrow. "I will keep note of this blossoming romance." Tam scowled at her, his features turning dark as he pooled all the shadows from the room.

Keefe, on the other hand, turned red at the thought. His face felt hot, as if he'd been out in the deserted human areas all day.

"That's beside the point." Marella interrupted, glaring at the ogre. Why was everyone on her case? "We need to figure out how to escape. Since you're an ogre, and also a guard, maybe you could tell us the schedule?"

Ro clicked her tongue. "Ooh, tough one, Blondie. The roster changes a lot, and only Fintan Pyren – the leader – and another one of his colleagues know when it changes. Also... I wouldn't be able to escape the same as you, so we'd have to come up with an alternate plan."

"Why?" Dex asked, scratching his chin. He had been mostly quiet the entire time, watching the Black Swan's every move.

"Well, to make sure that the ogres – and other non-elven creatures – don't escape, they kinda... implant a tracker-shocker thing. It's not even an actual 'thing', a physical thing, but it does a number of things even I'm not aware of." Ro sighed. "That's the issue, you know, once you're here, it's next to impossible to escape. That's how the system was designed. And I hate it. And a few other systems too..."

Keefe didn't know what to do with Ro's confession. He wanted to know so much more. He tapped his foot on the floor repeatedly, and sighed. "Yeah, that does sound like it'd be an issue."

"I mean," Marella dragged out the last word. "You don't have to escape." Her voice was softer than the whispers of the shadows.

"Pardon, Blondie?" Ro took the words right out of Keefe's mouth.

She held her hands up a tilted her head back, long blonde locks flying out everywhere. "Just technicalities, but you didn't have to escape. We could escape, or we could find an alternate route that could work just for you."

"Listen, Blondie," Ro growled. "I might not be an elf, and I'm not sorry that I don't fit into your pointy shoes and ballgowns, and I certainly will not deal with you using me as your punching bag. That's what training is for. Not. Me. Clear?"

"Crystal," Marella seethed, pulling her hood over her head.

Keefe had his mouth zipped the entire exchange. He didn't need to be an empath to feel the tension, but few other abilities could understand it as well as he could.

~

"You cannot possibly justify what Marella said, could you?" Keefe said, stalking over to Tam. The room held nothing but their mats, a pile of Tam's stuff, and the two of them.

"I can't," Tam said, trying to stand as tall as Keefe, and miserably failing. "But you have to understand where she's coming from. Ro's an ogre. And they're dangerous. She could have put it nicer, but how is she wrong?"

"Because we don't know Ro." Keefe tore his hands through his hair, taking out a few tangles in the process.

"That's the point." Tam blew out a breath.

"No, it's not," Keefe sighed. "But emotions are far too high for us to have a decent conversation about this, so tell me, how's your lesson going?" Keefe's voice fell flat in the last phrase.

Tam looked at his hands. "They're... alright. It's not easy to make progress, you know," Tam's voice resembled Linh's in a way; not too loud, but enough emotion for Keefe's tears to flood through. "I can't believe they're letting me do this, learn Shadowflux."

"A little too convenient," Keefe muttered, rolling his eyes. Tam stomped his foot.

"You just said you didn't want to talk about that because we were too angry to get anywhere, and now you're bringing it up?"

"I don't understand how you can be fine with Marella, daughter of the Neverseen, and not Ro!" Keefe yelled out.

"At least she cares!" Tam threw his hands in the air.

"Cares? Who do you think Dex is? Biana? Maruca? Linh? Gods, I care! Why is it that Blondie's so special to you?" As soon as the words left Keefe's mouth, he wished he could swallow them up again. Putting it like that, it did sound...

Keefe shook his head. Of course not. Tam would never. Not Blondie.

Keefe inhaled a sharp breath. But she wasn't Blondie to him. She was Marella Redek, daughter of Fintan Pyren, ready to escape. It dawned on Keefe like Apollo on a Sunday.

Tam liked Marella.