𝕓𝕖 𝕞𝕪 𝕝𝕚𝕘𝕙𝕥 | 𝔽𝕣𝕖𝕖 𝕕.𝕝.𝕙.

Coffee-Chapter twelve

"Can stars explode? I'm pretty sure they can. What the hell was that?"

Ravlynne had to thank Ange for keeping an instant coffee machine and instant coffee packets in the kitchen. She had grabbed the darkest kind she could find and stumbled back into her room with a steaming mug of eye-wateringly bitter coffee. It woke her up, but it didn't answer her growing list of questions for her bey.

"I don't think you should be drinking that. You have training later."

Ravlynne scoffed and took another gulp of coffee (god it tastes disgusting). Karaginn sighed and waved a wing helplessly.

"I—I wanted to tell you, but you were so young when you first got me. It didn't feel right, reeling a kid into this business, and I wanted you to have your childhood—"

"Childhood? I discovered my father was running the Snake Pit when I was ten. He was thinking of making me join when I was thirteen. You know whatever childhood I had was ruined by then."

Ravlynne muttered under her breath. She had grown up in the shadow of her father's name and the knowledge that he was essentially running a torture camp for children like her. 

Blading with Karaginn had been her only solace, and it was her only escape. Somehow, that escape had ironically turned into what had sent her hundreds of miles away from New York and still somehow dragged her into another of its elaborate schemes.

"Where—where do I start—"

Karaginn folded her wings and shifted uneasily. It wasn't a story she enjoyed telling.

"Your father was running multiple operations at once under the cover of The Raging Bulls. Robbing museums, funding questionable research projects, even digging up old graves and temples. You showed the money and he did it."

"Why am I not surprised?"

Ravlynne slumped on the table. She had always known that her father was doing something wrong, somewhere. Now she knew what that was, it didn't come as a surprise anymore. Just another reality of her life that she accepted.

"I was one of the beys he stole from an abandoned temple in Mexico. I think he had a bunch of buyers lined up for us, men who wanted to take us apart and...and revive us. That was what they called it. Project Revival." 

"It had been decades since anyone ever laid a finger on us. Millenia for me. Some of the younger beys, they were almost excited. Said it was high time someone actually re-fashioned them, actually wanted them. The rest of us didn't like it at all. Considered blowing up the box we were in. But Theodore was crafty. He split us up, sold us to bladers and trainers all over the world."

Karaginn paused there, and she almost seemed thoughtful. Melancholy. A little sad. A little regretful. 

"That was, except for me. He kept me locked in one of those safes in his office for the longest time. Didn't touch me at all."

Karaginn glanced at Ravlynne. The raven tilted her head.

"Until you came along. That day, when he gave me to you. That was the first time he had unlocked the safe in a year. I'm not sure, but it was a long time. I don't know what your father would have done with me otherwise."

Ravlynne mulled over her coffee silently. Her father had never told her how he came to possess Karaginn, or why he gave the bey to her. Not that he told her much, but it was her bey, the one aspect of her life he at least pretended to care about. 

"I don't think Theodore meant me just as a gift for you. A few days before that, I heard him speaking with someone in his office. Something about Project Nebula. It was running alongside Project Requiem, whatever that meant."

The blader set down her mug and flipped the torn page on which she had scrawled the few lines on over, jotting down the names her bey had mentioned.

"I don't know what my father was planning on doing in all those projects, but I do know that the Snake Pit isn't only a training centre with unusually brutal methods. There would be no point in setting it up if it was just to brainwash children. He needs them to get to whatever he wants."

Ravlynne stopped writing. It made no sense why her father needed all those kids in his secret organisation just to reach one goal. And it wasn't like he made them stick around. 

Many of the Snake Pit's members either left or were kicked out because they couldn't keep up with the intensive training regime. Because they weren't strong enough, and they didn't have what it took become stronger.

"Because they weren't strong enough...or because their beys weren't strong enough?"

Karaginn gave a wry smile. It was true that you couldn't separate a blader's success from their bey, or vice versa. You were, literally, what your bey was. 

"That's not helping. You know what? I'm going for a walk."

Ravlynne decided and stood up, empty coffee mug in one hand. She grabbed her launcher with the other, tied her jacket around her waist and stuffed her bey into a pocket.

"Wow, the all-powerful solution to everything. A walk. You're just avoiding the conversation."

Karaginn snorted and tucked her head into her feathers obstinately. The raven was done with talking. Her blader sighed and opened her room door, stepping out into the silent hallway. Neither of them spoke as Ravlynne made her way quickly to the kitchen to return the mug.

"Oh."

The kitchen lights were on. A golden-haired boy was rummaging in a drawer, looking for something. Ravlynne stopped awkwardly in the entrance, mug held in front of her. Free looked up and he paused his determined search for who-knew-what.

"Morning?"

Ravlynne raised her mug as if to toast the boy. Free eyed the brown stains in it and an eyebrow raised. He was probably looking for coffee too (because coffee solves everything). 

"The coffee's in the third drawer. Darkest I could find was in the second box from the left."

Free opened the drawer and stuck a hand inside. While Ravlynne turned the tap on and started washing her mug, he tore open an instant coffee packet and got the kettle started. The hissing and bubbling of steam complemented the sound of the water running rather nicely. 

"Thanks."

Free thanked the girl just as she dried the mug with a towel and set it on a rack. There was a ghost of a smile on her lips as she left the kitchen.

"It's fine. It's just coffee."