Dead Lines

11: In The Beginning

Unedited.

Chapter Eleven

Walking through the portal to the Schola was strange. It’d been a while since I spent a lot of time here and something in the air told me tonight would change that.

My father didn’t take too long to go to bed. He retired right after everyone left. When I asked him if everything was ok, he just told me he had a long day and he was tired. The whole fight over the old garage was really starting to get to him. I didn’t need him to tell me in order to know. It was written all over his face when he came home every night. Tonight had been no different despite his house being full of guests.

I wished there was something I could do for him. Some reassurance I could give but every time I tried to focus on the issue of the garage, I was redirected, distracted, or something else came up before I could think too hard on it.

By the time I got to the Schola, the garage was definitely not in the forefront of my thoughts. Wondering why Janus would want to speak to me along with the strange and brief visit from Eros was sitting on me like a ten ton weight. I still didn’t have a complete idea as to why he’d shown up at my door step and since he didn’t stick around to “consult” me about anything, my curiosity had only gotten worse.

There were a few people milling about, all of them unknown to me. Andrzej kept telling me I needed to spend more time here, at least as much as I was spending at the Agora, to get to know everyone equally. Truth was, I didn’t want to get to know anyone on the Assarion side of things. No more than I already had anyways. That might be a little biased of me but I just didn’t feel comfortable here. Not like I did at the Agora.

A group of people close to the bottom of the stairs caught my notice. A few of the faces were familiar, most of them were around my father’s age or a little younger. There were three women and two men, one of the men caught my attention and held it.

There was nothing spectacular about him. He was tall, sitting somewhere on the other side of six foot. His hair was a muddy brown and his eyes appeared dark, color unknown since he wasn’t looking at me. Actually, he was doing everything he could not to look at me. Something of which I found odd since most of the people he was standing with were staring. I’d grown used to it. For a while after coming back from the dead, everywhere I went people stared and whispered. I’d gotten used to it, learned to ignore it, so much so that when I noticed his eyes were down casted, it drew my attention instantly.

But that wasn’t the only thing about him that made me think. He seemed—felt—familiar almost. I frowned but fully intended on ignoring it and moving on. There were other things to be done, like answer Janus’ summons and seeking out my partner in crime to get his take on Eros showing up. If anyone would know why the elusive god came out of hiding, Andrzej was the one to help me figure it out.

He knew more about these things than I did. It felt like no matter how much I brushed up on my mythology, studied my ass off on all the info I could find on them, the gods and the Elite world were still able to surprise me. I was an outsider amongst people who had more experience and more extensive knowledge about everything than I did.

With my focus momentarily shifted, I managed to make it halfway up the stairs before the man snagged my attention again. The woman next to him had whispered something in his ear and a very strained smile stretched across his face.

He was uncomfortable and it had something to do with me.

“Rakli.” My attention snapped in the direction Andrzej’s voice had come from and I found him standing at the top of the stairs. “What are you doing? Come on.”