Reia- A Novella (COMPLETE)

Chapter 11

By then, the afternoon was fading into evening. Morai hadn't eaten anything since dinner the night before, and he was starving, not to mention parched. He knew that he still had at least a little bit of money in his pockets- he always did, out of paranoia- he could buy something small, at least.

Then Morai noticed his own face on a wanted poster, and decided that perhaps he wasn't that desperate.

He sighed, leaning up against an alley wall. What had become of Reia? Nothing made sense anymore. What would he do next? What could he do? Was Hazira alright- did Marfa tell her what had happened? Morai had been all over the city, and his head was spinning. He took a deep breath. He needed a plan. Everything that had happened to Morai until that point had been dictated by the Four- it was time to take back control, somehow.

Morai was going to go back to the lab, and together maybe he and Marfa could work out a solution to the mess they'd made.

For starters, Morai decided, he would have to risk buying food. If Marfa had been in that room since the night before, he had to be just as starving as his apprentice. (There was the option of trying to use word strings to create food, but conjuring it out of thin air would just cause it to disappear. Using the books and transforming them could work, but what if they needed those word strings later? And word strings were strange- they were either very specific or very vague, and banking on them for survival in the short run, when they didn't have time to improvise... that didn't appeal to Morai.) He would risk it and buy some food. Then, he would get back to the lab.

There were a few old shirts in the garbage of the alley where Morai was hiding out, so he swapped his tattered long-sleeved sleep-shirt for a plain black tee. It was a little smelly and wrinkled, but it fit. It was also far less conspicuous than wearing a shirt with bloodstains down the arms.

Speaking of bloodstains, Morai's arms were no longer bleeding, which was promising. It meant the cuts weren't deep, and that he'd probably heal fairly soon. Just as a precaution, however, Morai tore up pieces of his old white shirt and tied them around his arms to keep pressure on them, and hopefully stop them from getting infected. Now Morai looked almost normal, and he dared to step out into the light.

Immediately, nothing happened. He flinched, glancing nervously around like a wild animal. The sidewalks, usually crammed with shoppers, were conspicuously empty. There a few people, but they walked close together, moving quickly past storefronts.

Morai didn't question it. After everything else that had happened, this seemed like a natural progression. Paranoia was taking over the city.

Morai walked to the nearest shop, where he bought enough simple foods to last a few days at least. The storekeeper watched Morai with wary eyes as he gathered some bottles of water.

"What are you doing out all by yourself?" he asked, gulping. "There are Glass Wing agents. All around the city."

Morai sighed and dropped his purchases exhaustedly onto the counter. "The less you know, the better," he muttered to himself, before saying, "I'm just trying to get back home quickly."

The storekeeper nodded, handing Morai his change. "Have a nice... well, stay safe."

"You too," Morai said honestly, leaving the store as quickly as he could. Something told him that the storekeeper was more than a little suspicious. A loner out in public during Reia's darkest hour, buying food and supplies as if he'd be hiding away for the next few days? It was a bit of a red flag.

So Morai hid out in alleys, winding through the city at a painfully slow pace. From his location, it was going to be a long way back to the lab, especially if he'd have to stay hidden. He hoped to get back before sundown.

So he kept to the shadows like a sewer rat, weaving his way beneath the soaring metal towers and clear skies. Reia had been shaken to its core, and nothing would ever be the same again.

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