Amber & Ice

Chapter 12: Painting a few sheep

Dyo tapped absentmindedly on the table of his booth in a trendy restaurant in central London. He usually avoided locations so… pink. But the burgers in this place were delicious enough for him to make an exception.

He needed cheering up; Briseis had been sending him furious messages all afternoon and he couldn't face replying to any of them. 

While he waited for his food, he scanned the feeds for anything good. Public uploads were flooded with reactions to the health care result - the vast majority of them positive. Dyo was looking for something else though and it didn’t take him long to find the whispers. Whispers of threats, of terrorism and, above all, the need for security. The one praise Dyo could give his world was that it was peaceful. There had been no wars for hundreds of years, so why would a peaceful society need an army? What was its requirement for military power and weapons? The weapons makers were having to manufacture one and they were already hard at it.

The waitress who brought Dyo’s food smiled sweetly at him as she put the plate down, taking in his amber eyes and defined cheeks with a sweeping glance. But then her gaze continued downward, to his blue T-Shirt and grey hoodie. Her smile became a frown, her eyebrows lowered. She left without saying anything. Dyo grinned and started eating.

He had made it half way through his meal when the door to the restaurant opened again and a group of girls walked in. The first was wearing a cerise dress, with a messy bun and thick rimmed feed glasses. She greeted Dyo’s waitress with a hug and was led over to a table by the window. Of the three girls who followed, only one caught Dyo’s eye. He was beginning to wonder how he could have gone a lifetime without laying eyes on her, but now a day didn’t seem to pass without her turning up.

Athena.

She was in pink again, which was a pity. Although, despite its colour, Dyo couldn’t deny that the dress looked beautiful on her. Her bobbed hair and grey eyes set her apart from her peers. But there was another difference too; it marked her out from all of the other customers in the restaurant, except perhaps from Dyo. Athena didn’t look happy. There was no jubilant smile on her face, or glow in her bright eyes. Her lips were turned down, not quite in a frown, but in an unsettled, thoughtful way. Dyo lent back in his chair and watched her for a few minutes. Her friends were laughing and chatting loudly, but Athena sat quietly, only responding when she was spoken too, with a forced smile. The rest of the time, she gazed out of the window to the city outside.

Dyo wondered what was bothering her. Surely the afternoon’s events would have been eradicated by the result of the vote.

He forgot to enjoy his burger, moving it mechanically into his mouth with his full attention on the girl. He was waiting for the change, for her to realise that she had won and for a smile to brighten her features. It didn’t come.

His burger now finished, Dyo chewed the inside of his cheek, thoughtfully. He was desperate to know what she was thinking about, but it wasn’t as though he could just walk up and ask her. She would probably throw something at him, or, at the very least, tell her friends all about their trip to the voting centre. And more drama was definitely not what Dyo needed.

Instead, he paid his bill via his glasses and got to his feet, looping around the restaurant to stay as far away from her as possible. But even so, he couldn’t resist one last glance back towards her before leaving through the door; only to find her grey eyes looking straight back at him. 

Dyo knew that he wasn’t going to be able to avoid Briseis forever, so he reluctantly turned his steps towards the theatre, where the group had gathered once again in light of the result. Inside, the Health Care vote was on everyone’s lips. But there was none of the buzz that had occupied the rest of the city. The atmosphere in the theatre was far more subdued. They spoke with resigned voices; the result had gone exactly as expected and they hadn’t dared to hope otherwise. Many of them had gathered in the theatre earlier, to await the result together, but Dyo had still been processing the afternoon’s events. He hadn’t wanted company.

However, despite their despondence, there was still a great deal of frustration in the room.

“Why can they not see that they are being manipulated?” Thalia complained loudly.

“Because then they wouldn’t be human,” Artemis replied, with a sad smile. “When it comes down to it, we are no different from sheep.”

“I don’t know, Artemis,” Orpheus said, frowning. “I think that’s rather unfair on sheep. When was the last time you saw a pink one of those?” The others laughed, but Dyo couldn’t bring himself to join in.

“I’m sure they will be painting a few sheep at the Freedom Institution tonight!” Ariadne said with a cheeky grin which quickly changed to a frown. “It’s just not right,” she added softly, causing Orion to put his arm around her.

They were sat up in the circle tonight, on some of the few remaining seats in the theatre. Most of the group had positioned themselves in the front rows, but Dyo had sat further back, desperate to distance himself.

The theatre was not one of the grandest in London, by any stretch. There were no carvings around the stage, or fancy boxes about the stalls. It was sparse, Spartan; a blank canvas upon which magic could be woven. Dyo had loved it from the moment he was introduced to it. It was unfussy, unpretentious. It wasn’t somewhere that the pop voters would want to go.

“Hey, Dyo?” Ariadne had got to her feet and come back to where he was sitting. “You alright? You’ve been really quiet tonight.”

“Have I? Sorry, I’ve got a lot on my mind.”

“Well quit moping and join in! We need you to rally the troops!” she spoke quietly, so that Briseis wouldn’t hear the last bit.

Dyo glanced over at their leader, but she had her head bent towards Don. They were discussing something quietly. A moment later, they both looked up and across to Dyo.

“Here we go…” he said to Ariadne, leaning back in his seat as they got to their feet and walked over to him.

“To what do I owe the pleasure?” he asked them, putting his hands behind his head.

“We need a word,” was all Bree said in response, gesturing towards the door.

Dyo sighed and got to his feet. Briseis nodded at Ariadne, Orion, Ares and Hermes, who also rose and followed her through the door.

“What happened?” she asked Dyo as soon as the door swung closed. Her blue eyes were dangerously cold, as though she hoped to freeze Dyo on the spot.

He shrugged. “I was held up on the street. By the time I reached the right office, it was too late - there was someone coming along the corridor and I had to bail. I’m sorry.” He didn’t want to tell them about Athena. He had given it a lot of thought in the hours between his last conversation with her and now. He didn’t want her to be blamed - especially not when it was his fault that she was following him in the first place. If he had only been a little bit nicer to her last night… But then, he may not have had enough time anyway. Ariadne had made him too late. If it hadn’t been for Athena, he might have been caught in the room instead. And if he wasn’t blaming Athena, he definitely wasn’t going to blame Ariadne; not in front of Bree, anyway.

“Don’t worry about it, Dyo,” Orion said, clapping him on the back. “You would only have been delaying the inevitable anyway. They would have fixed the virus by tomorrow and the result would still have been announced.”

“It would have been nice to have a victory though, no matter how small or short lived it might have been,” Bree sighed.

“There will be other votes we need to fight against, Bree.” This time it was Ares who spoke. It was such a rare occurrence that the group were momentarily stunned into silence, but then Briseis smiled. 

 “One day they will see. One day we will save them all from themselves.”