A Soviet's Struggle

Два́дцать Четы́ре

“A coffee with two cream and one sugar, and one water.” The waitress’ voice strained, bending down a bit with her knees, handing the cup of coffee to Xiao’s side of the table, and the cup of water to Mariya. “Your food should be about 15, I apologise for the wait.”

Xiao assured her it was alright, waving her away with her paw. The waitress smiled, leaving swiftly with her tin tray. Xiao opened the packet of sugar, clearing her throat.

“You were saying?” The feline asked, stirring in the sugar with a spoon, eyeing Mariya from across the table. The hybrid raised her eyebrows, her mouth occupied with drinking water. The two women, after their encounter last night, decided to go to brunch together; Mariya choosing to come as clean as possible with Xiao - excluding Fynn - about her past, answering any form of questions and providing as concise a backstory as possible, from escaping the Soviet Union with her family and coming to Germany, to her first death, to her target. Due to the rather passionate night and with both their feelings out in the open, they inched towards something more official, speaking briefly once awake about the matter.

Parting the water glass from her lips and placing it on the table in front of her, the hybrid started, watching Xiao’s curious eyes with her own; “Right. So this spirit, Alyosha, wants me to kill my mother’s preexisting target, since she chose a ‘path of peace’. Once I do that, he’ll bring me back to the Well of Fates, bring me back.”

“And you don’t want that anymore, from what I’ve gathered, correct?”

“Mhm.”

Xiao glanced at her coffee, grasping it with her paw. “And how do you plan to fix that, exactly? You said it yourself, you made a deal with a powerful entity that can bring animalloids back from the dead.”

Mariya watched as Xiao took a delicate sip out of her cup of coffee, using both of her paws to grasp the cup, her eyes closed as she sipped.

Mariya turned a slight shade of red, heat forming over her face. She wasn’t sure, exactly. Maybe Alyosha had forgotten their deal? He hadn’t visited her in well over a year now. Besides her strength and speed, Mariya didn’t have much. With no access to her Rift, Mariya was practically a sitting duck; coming to the conclusion that an entity like himself had access to his own Rift. She furrowed her brow out of frustration, a mannerism Xiao noticed as she waited for a response.

“Hey,” Xiao cooed, slowly reaching across the table to graze Mariya’s fingertips with her own. “I’m sure you’ll come up with something, you’re smart.” Mariya looked at Xiao’s paw, which sat close to hers, hesitant to make any form of clear romantic contact. She smiled, reaching the remaining distance and placing it on top of Xiao’s, avoiding direct eye contact with the feline at the awkward gesture.

“Thanks.” The hybrid chuckled, finding it difficult to not crack a smile as Xiao moved her paw to face palm-side up, allowing an effective hand-hold. “Maybe I should see Silsina afterwards. Not hate to her, but until Caroline came around, she was more behind in her gift than I ever was. My mom couldn’t help train her, since Silsina is a Protector; whereas my mom and I are Hunters. Maybe Silsina knows something about how she accessed her Rift for the first time.”

Xiao squinted, tilting her head to the side briefly. “What is even your sister’s Rift? I don’t think I’ve ever seen her use it.” Mariya laughed, gripping Xiao’s paw a little harder. “She doesn’t like using it much. She had a very weird prerequisite to use it.”

Xiao cocked an eyebrow.

“She can summon copies of herself, or others, as long as she has a DNA profile on them. I believe the correct term of the Rift is ‘Conjuration’.”