The Heart of The Sea

ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ꜱɪx

"Have I ever mentioned that I have a cousin?"

Aru's neck was cramped, and a lizard was nestled in her shoes, clearly asleep and clearly distressed at being woken up.

"I think you didn't." She said, throwing the lizard a dried raisin which it saw, before scuttling away towards the open door.

"My cousin happens to be part of an influential family, and he might be able to get us in the Hall of the Gods and see the Heart without the protective casing."

"Which we are about to steal, if I can add." Kara said, floating above the windows. "This is exciting."

Aru shoved her boots on her feet. "I miss the times when committing felonies didn't excite me."

"With the weirdness the two of you share, you might as well be sisters." Aiden said, a faint smile on his face as he neatly folded the cuffs of his jeans. "Curse bellbottoms. Why haven't normal ones been made yet."

"Probably to vex you."

Aiden sighed. "The world just loves to vex me. We'll need to find a phone book and a phone booth."

"Why?"

He looked at her, exasperation and amusement mixed together on his face. "To call my cousin, of course."

They trudged through the city, and Aru had to admit that Provence looked far better in the afternoon than at night. Once Aiden called his cousin with the help of an open phone book, they decided on having a breakfast better than just dried nuts.

Le Diamant was the cafe they settled on, even though Kara told them that the prices of the cafe were deceptively cheap. The owner of the cafe, a sweet eighteen-year-old called Hira, was, in Kara's eyes, deceptively too sweet.

The coffee was extremely dark, and the bread with soft goat's cheese spread over it tasted tangy and sweet.

"When I was five, my foster mother would spread goat cheese on flatbread, roll it up, and give it to me while I plucked oranges from the trees." Kara said, her tone soft and nostalgic. "I miss her sometimes. She chose to move on, to fully disappear, while I was a coward and decided to stay alive in this half form." Her voice turned bitter, and she looked away.

They paid Hira, who smiled, and said they didn't have to pay for three since only two of them had eaten.

"Rudy goes to Nalanda University, which, according to the map, should be just about here." He pointed to the location on the map, and they assumed it was around a six minute walk from Le Diamant.

When they were a few metres away from the university, they looked at the front gates from afar, and Aiden sighed before pointing at his cousin.

"That's him. Obnoxiously dressed, curly hair, I'd recognise him anywhere."

Aiden's cousin was standing beside a girl, and both of them had their backs to each other, as though they couldn't bear to see the other's face.

Aru, Aiden and Kara went closer to the two of them, before the cousin opened his mouth.

"Don't you have somewhere to be, Ms. Kapoor Mercado-Lopez?"

The girl sighed. "Couldn't stand to ignore me for a while longer, is it, Mr. Sangtam?"

The two of them turned around, glaring at each other.

"Your presence is distracting." He said.

"Careful. You might just admit how much in love you are with me."

"Me? In love with you? In your wildest dreams."

She scoffed. "More like in my worst dreams."

"So you've dreamed of me loving you?"