Nobody's Servant, Act 1

Falling Stars

I'm surprised how well this all went.

Aside from the part where Kyra sprinted to the door to redo every lock and even tried to attach an armful of new ones that still remain scattered on the floor from when Yhana tackled her, but no road is perfectly smooth, right?

"Get back in here, you really think a couple of locks will do anything?" Yhana says over a grunt of exertion as she drags her cousin back into the kitchen. "You already know that doll can pop up wherever he wants."

"Yeah but maybe I can take some precaution about the fucking Warden personally surveying us now?" Kyra retorts, fighting Yhana's hands off of her and hopping back up to sit on the counter. Her mechanical arm coils several times around her natural one as she crosses them, squeezing tightly in agitation.

"Surveying me," I clarify. "I guarantee she doesn't care about what you get up to."

"You don't know what I get up to," Kyra asserts.

"To be honest, I don't know what she gets up to either," Yhana adds. "But if we can settle down for just a moment..."

I take her glance toward me as my prompt to continue, and I begin to, but realize I've mostly said all I've got. "That's pretty much all that's affecting me, but we should probably talk more about how I might be affecting you?"

"I'm not worried about it," she says with a casual bat of her wrist.

"Really?" Then again, she hadn't really reacted to it when I let spill all the details in the first place but part of me still worries she's sparing my feelings.

"The first thing I did upon meeting you was eat you, I thought you were a reaper, remember?"

"How could I forget," I say, fighting against the servos that so badly want my eyes to roll. I still really, really want to ask her why she thinks she's marked, but right now hardly seems the appropriate time.

"I thought I'd ticked off the wrong pair of gods for a moment and I was ready to escalate," she continues. "If the worst I'm in for is getting thoughts or emotions a little bit muddled instead, I've got no complaints. However..."

I'm halfway through my sigh of relief when she inhales to keep going, and I pause in mid-breath. We had been making full eye contact anyway but it feels somehow as though we're making even more.

"Whatever danger you were trying to get away from is still actively following you. As long as you're with me, I'm probably in for more incidents like the one on the train."

And that's when I look away, feeling shame start to bear down on me. "Yeah, I know. If you need me to get somewhere else to stay, I know Nym's got me."

"Let me finish. I just need you to continue to keep me informed so I can be ready to protect you."

"Here?!" Kyra interjects, but Yhana holds up a finger to shush her.

"Yhana, you don't have to do that," I insist, but that same outstretched finger swivels my way.

"You came to me because you needed to get out of harm's way. I delivered you to Dominion territory like the job description called for. But as far as I'm concerned, until you're not in any immediate danger, even if you're not officially under my protection, you're still my ride-along."

I'm surprised, but more than that I'm moved. Tears form more easily than words do, and all pretense of managing to form a sentence at all leaves as Yhana lunges forward to take me in a tight embrace. I can feel myself soften in it, surrounded by her firm reassurance, but, my ear to her chest, my eyes are still downcast, unfocused.