We Can Be Heroes ...?

28

Shion couldn't sleep no matter how hard she tried, tossing and turning before giving up altogether. The inn still had a few rooms that weren't derelict, or dangerous, and each of them had retired separately. After one, final, attempt to drift away, Shion battered the dusty bed with both her hands before sitting up. She should feel tired. She should have fallen asleep straight away after everything they had gone through, but her eyes continued to snap open.

Calling it a failure, she shifted on the bed, resting her feet back on the dirty, rotting floorboards and decided to see if any of the others had managed to do what she could not. She left the room, creeping down the corridor so as not to disturb anyone that had fallen into dreams. As she passed the first door, she saw Dave laid on his bed, cigarette in hand, waving it around as he sang to himself in a rough, deep voice. He looked across as she passed the open doorway and touched his head in salute.

The next room held Mila and she sat on the edge of her bed consulting her invisible parchment, oblivious to Shion's passing. She looked more alone than Shion felt and Shion passed by without disturbing her as the twin's hands wafted before her, touching a parchment that Shion could not see. She felt a little sorry for Mila, wondering why she remained so angry as much as she did.

Jova's room stood empty and Shion considered going back to her own room and waiting for someone else, Mila, probably, to decide they should move on. She had wanted to explore the common room of the inn alone, but now she wondered what the excitable Jova had decided to do. Walking along the edges of the stairs, trying not to make them creak, she made her way down to the floor below.

The common room had looked as though the patrons had left in a hurry. Mug and jugs of varied drinks still sat in the places their owners had left them. Some still had liquids inside that had smelled as fresh as the day they were brewed and Shion still couldn't understand how that was possible. Magic. Always magic. The same with the inn's kitchen, where vegetables sat in boxes. Some were rotted and foul, while others looked fresh picked and still edible.

Jova sat before a lit fire, humming to herself as she stared into the hearth and seemed unaware of Shion's approach until Shion came to sit beside her. The twin didn't reach out for her as she had so often before, cowed by her sister berating her, no doubt, but she looked to Shion and smiled before returning her eyes to the flames, continuing to hum a tune that Shion didn't recognise.

"I couldn't sleep. I want to, but my eyes won't stay closed." She watched as Jova gave a slow nod, acknowledging Shion's problem, but saying nothing. "I'm sorry Mila shouted at you. I know you're only being friendly, it's just a little too friendly, sometimes. Sorry if that upsets you."

"No. She's right. You're right. I've been here so long, I forget what's appropriate or not." She looked down to Shion's hand and held hers open. Shion obliged, appreciating the silent request. "You see, when you're somewhere where even death has no real consequence, you tend to push the boundaries of everything. And when you know most of it isn't real, that makes it all the more acceptable until you just do what you want to. I'm sorry, too."

They lapsed into silence for a while, holding hands as they watched the dancing flames and glowing embers. Jova was something of an enigma to Shion. One moment sounding so old and wise and the very next moment acting and talking like a child excited to visit a festival. And then there were the times where she fought, gripping that ridiculously large axe in her hand and rushing toward death with a glee Shion reserved for ... well, she couldn't remember what, exactly.

She pondered Jova's words as they sat. Jova didn't seem to take anything seriously apart from when they first entered this underground city. Dave passed through everything and everywhere with a sense that it was all only another day. As though it was all the same, dangerous or not, swaggering through with little concern about anything. Mila took everything with a deadly seriousness. Everything mattered to her. Everything except Shion, it seemed.