Four Elements Book 3 - Sacrifice

Part 16

Zarias shifted to lean against the wall. His body was still sore, but it was quite a bit more manageable than it had been earlier.

"As I was saying, it first began when my father struck Adrianna for singing a defiant song."

Bane blinked.

"He punished her for singing? You're joking, right?"

"It wasn't the singing itself, it was what she was singing." Zarias explained. "It was a strange tune about always getting back up and taking anything that you had thrown at you... I didn't really understand it, but for some reason it made my father furious."

For a second, Bane didn't follow either. Then he remembered Andie telling him about a song like that. In fact, when it had played on the radio one morning as they were going to class, he remembered seeing her flinch. He'd figured she was cold or something, but maybe it had actually been the song...

"So, what? You expect me to forget that you just stood there and let him treat her like that? Because I'm finding that kind of hard."

"I don't expect you to forgive or understand, nor do I ask you to. I just thought you ought to know."

"Well... thanks for telling me," Bane said, a little reluctantly. "Get some sleep. We'll talk more tomorrow, with the others."

Zarias cocked his head slightly.

"Do you not have a family to return to?"

"I would have had my mother, but your – or technically I should say our – father killed her. So no, no family."

Zarias wasn't sure that was entirely true. He'd hardly ever seen humans by themselves. They never stayed alone, usually. As for Bane, he wasn't sure what Zorak knew, and didn't want to give him or Zarias any more leverage if he could avoid it.

"I see." Zarias said thoughtfully. "It's strange, though. I always thought humans shied away from solitude."

"We often do," Bane said before he could stop himself. "But we also sometimes like a bit of alone time to think. Get away from everything."

He wasn't sure what surprised him most; the fact that Zarias had expressed curiosity about humankind or that he'd answered him.

"What do you think about when you're alone?" Zarias asked.

Bane couldn't hide his surprise.

"Why do you want to know?"

Zarias glanced away thoughtfully.

"I'm just trying to understand humans. I've been noticing they're nothing like what I believed them to be."

Bane didn't need long to guess that Zorak had been the one to tell him whatever he thought humans were like. What he wasn't sure about though, was why Zarias cared.

"It depends. Often we think of people we care about, or we ask ourselves questions we don't necessarily think about at other times."

"Like why you are in love with Adrianna rather than another human girl?"

Bane paused.

"In my case I'm more likely to wonder why she's in love with me rather than another guy. But I can't live without her, so I'm not going to push her away. I tried it before and it didn't work for either of us."

Zarias didn't seem to follow.

"But why would you push away someone you claim to love in the first place?"

"There can be lots of reasons. You fell in love with someone else, you don't think they're right for you or you for them... and why am I even telling you all this?"

He shook his head, then looked away.

"That's enough questions. Get some sleep."

To his utter surprise, Zarias fell silent and lay down. Bane expected his father had drilled it into him. But he was starting to see Andie's point about him not being quite what they thought. However, he couldn't decide if that meant he was trustworthy or not.

Fortunately, the next day was Saturday, so the girls were all there bright and early. Well, except Jessica who arrived an hour later, insisting she needed her beauty sleep.

"About time, Sleeping Beauty!" Andie teased.

"Did you spend an hour picking the right outfit again?" Isabelle chuckled.

"You think this comes on its own?" Jessica asked jokingly, indicating her face and body. "It takes work, believe you me. And it was thirty minutes, not an hour, thank you very much."

The girls laughed. Andie rolled her eyes and would have left it at that, but Emily, who always liked to tease Jessica, grinned and added:

"Oh, I'm sorry, I wasn't aware sleeping was considered work."

Either Jessica didn't notice or she ignored her comment.

"Besides, it was raining earlier, and my hair does not like to get wet."

"Does any of you like to?" Emily inquired innocently.

"Well, anyway, we're all here, so let's get to it," Bane interrupted patiently when Emily and Jessica were slowly going from playful banter to actual disagreement.

"Agreed," Andie said with a warning look at Jessica who was about to argue.

They all turned to Zarias, who was sitting on a stone window sill. His injuries were still visible, but looked older than they really were thanks to Isabelle's work.

"Why are we even listening to this guy, anything he's going to say is bound to be bull," Jessica snorted.

"Jess, we've talked about it. We're hearing him out," Andie said firmly. "If you'd rather leave, that's fine. But if not, please, shut up."

Jessica opened her mouth to argue, but closed it and simply exhaled loudly to express her disapproval. Satisfied she wasn't about to interrupt again, Andie turned to Zarias.

"But be warned. Try and attack us, and we will fight back, injuries or not."

"Fair enough," Zarias agreed, nodding. "But I assure you that is not my intention."

"Not yet, he means..." Jessica muttered.

Andie ignored her. She couldn't help thinking that the fact that Zarias was so clearly unoffensive was a sign of good faith, but she didn't want to completely let her guard down. She'd seen plenty of examples when the most dangerous one among you was the one you'd least expect.

"So," Bane said. "We're listening."