Soul Chains

Chapter 15: Queen

I glance around the streets of Shitau's town, noticing several small shops with glass window displays and many street food vendors on cobblestone roads. Drops of rain begin to splatter down from the sky as we make our way towards where Reine says Shitau lives. We come up to a little grey brick house with a dark wooden front porch and two square windows that frame the front door. Reine, Renee, and I step up onto the porch while the others wait down in the street and Reine knocks on the door three times.

A girl with long blue and blonde hair cracks the door open slightly, her blue eyes with brown flecks in them scanning us down suspiciously and I notice her holding a katana in her left hand.

"What do you want?" she snaps.

"We're here to help protect Shitau Evensce," Reine says and shows her badge with her crest on it.

"How do I know you're telling the truth?" the girl asks suspiciously, her eyes flittering between all of us before they land back on Reine.

"Kaltrina, let them in already," a male voice sighs, "they would've found a way to kill me somehow by now if they wanted to. You know my luck."

Kaltrina narrows her eyes before she sighs, relenting. She shuts the door and unlocks the deadbolt from the other side before opening the door fully to face us and I can better tell what she looks like. She has faint freckles dusting across the bridge of her nose on her fair skin and her blue eyes are imploring and filled with wisdom and hardships. She keeps her katana clutched tightly in her hand, her knuckles turning almost as white as her shorts and the white and pink flecks in her blue kimono styled top with flowy sleeves and a laced up front.

"Come in, I suppose, but only two of you," she says and steps aside, her white wedges with straps that wind around her legs up to just under her knees making echos on the wooden floorboards and her white and blue bracelets on her left wrist jangling.

Renee sighs and turns around, going back down the stairs to join the others as we send them a look over our shoulders to see if they're okay with it. We receive multiple nods of approval before turning back to face Kaltrina and walking inside, Kaltrina shutting the door behind us and locking it. The Evensce house appears quite homey with multiple beige, brown, red, and warm colors. There's a tan couch facing the right wall and another tan couch with its back to us, a giant brown, tan, cream, and red colored rectangle rug resting in the middle of the room and underneath a dark, small, circular, wooden coffee table. There's a flat screen TV resting on a stand against the right wall and there's a kitchen and dining area off to the left of the living room, a stone grey bar with multiple bar stools framing part of the entrance to the kitchen where a white fridge is visible. Shitau bounces his leg anxiously as he sits there in ripped blue jeans, a white t-shirt, and a black jacket that's unzipped and has the sleeves rolled up to the elbows, revealing multiple black bracelets on his right arm. His green-blue eyes flicker between me and Reine and he nervously runs a hand through his blue, green, and dark-grey multi-colored hair.

"You have five minutes," Kaltrina says, her arms crossed and her expression stern, "speak now."

"Look," I say, clearing my throat and glancing between Kaltrina and Shitau, "there's a potential war coming. Shitau is in danger. There's this Iegashyia, Coralyinn, who wants to take power from other Iegashyia's, murdering them in the process. Once she gets her power, she's going to destroy everything as she sees fit. I don't...I don't really know much about this stuff. I'm new to this. But, I do know that it's important we do our best to protect the innocent. That much is what I know, for my heart tells me it is true."

Kaltrina and Shitau glance at each other before Kaltrina sighs.

"We know," Kaltrina says, "I've been aware that my brother is a part of Queen's Soul Chain ever since I was little. Our parents died in a fire a few years ago. There was a gas explosion and suddenly I became the only one left to look out for him. Forgive me if I'm a little overprotective, but I had to know you weren't with her. There have been multiple attempts by other Iegashyias to attack Shitau. Unfortunately, his luck doesn't help us much, but we get by."

"You're free to both come with us, if you want," Reine offers, "I know how important it is to be there for the ones you love. I can't promise you'll both be safe, but you'll be safer with us than you would be by yourselves."

"I think we should do it," Shitau breathes out, "I can't...I can't handle this anymore..."

Kaltrina closes her eyes and inhales sharply, nodding.

"If that's what you want," she says, "then we'll do it. I'll go pack our things."

Kaltrina walks passed us and heads down the hall, disappearing from view. I watch as Reine quietly walks over to where Shitau is sitting and I furrow my eyebrows in confusion.

"Reine?" I ask.

She continues her way over to her, gracefully sitting down next to him on the couch and placing a hand on his shoulder.

"I sense great sorrow in you," Reine says softly and he looks down at the floor, averting his gaze as he clenches his right hand.

"You're not wrong," he laughs dryly.

"Do you mind if I..." she starts, holding a hand out to cup the side of his face and his eyes widen, flickering back to meet hers in surprise.

He doesn't answer, and so she continues anyway, her fingertips brushing against his cheekbones as she sits there staring into his eyes. I'm about to ask what she's doing when I start to feel an overwhelming sense of energy surround me. At first, it just feels like a swirl of emotions too hard to contain and unable to manage. Then, after a few seconds, I'm able to identify what each of them are. Rage, grief, sorrow, regret, guilt, pain, self-loathing, but the most painful one of all is the pure heartbreak that surges through me and I nearly stumble backwards, looking for something to ground me. Whether I'm imagining it or not, it almost looks as if Reine and Shitau begin to have a faint blue glow around them that shines brightly as the two of them sit there. After a few more moments, the feelings wash away and are replaced with a sense of understanding and acceptance, knowledge that things will get better and time will help to heal all wounds. Maybe it won't fix them, and maybe it never will be able to fully fix them, but it helps numb the pain and lets you move on in life. A sense of warmth, will, protection, and determination follows shortly after and I notice that the glowing has changed to a bright orange color before suddenly the feelings stop and the color fades away.

It's only when Reine opens her eyes that I notice she ever closed them and Kaltrina comes bounding around the corner, suitcases in hand. Her eyes seem full of shock and many other emotions that I can't discern, but it seems like there's a spark of hope in them.

"I'm sorry," Reine says quietly before standing up, "I really am."

"You-- you actually..." Kaltrina trails off as Reine walks back over to me, "you got him to open up..."

My gaze flickers between the three of them and I notice Shitau staring down at his hands and chewing on his bottom lip, but seems far less anxious and tense than he was previously.

"I did not take his pain away, nor did I make him open up to me. I simply let him know that even though it may not seem like it, things will be okay in the future," Reine says as she heads towards the door, her hand resting on the knob, "after all, isn't that the only thing you can do?"

I watch in silence as Reine opens the door and heads outside, descending the stair case to join the others without a word.

"We," Kaltrina clears her throat and draws Shitau's and my attention, "we're ready. Let's go."

I step aside, swallowing the lump in my throat as I let the two of them head outside before I join them myself, making sure to close their front door on the way out.

"What did she do in there?" Renee whispers when I pass by her and Renji.

"Isn't it obvious?" Renji smiles sadly, watching as Reine walks down the street ahead of us, "she did what she does best. She let him know he wasn't alone."

"She was, well," I pause for a moment as my eyes scan her receding figure, "she was exactly what she should be. She was Queen."