The Heir Of Dreams And Curses

Where I know someone is lying, but I do not know who that is

"Your shirt is pink," I told Edgar as soon as I saw him.

"What?" he frowned.

"You made fun of my Hawaiian shirt the last time, so I thought I'd let you know."

"It's part of the clothes the Academy hands out to students who are Enlighteners," Edgar said soberly.

"It's not. It doesn't have the school logo on it. Which is why I pointed it out, I have nothing against pink. But you should wear your uniform."

"Will you two please stop arguing?" Jeff blurted out. "Ryan, I thought you didn't care what people wear."

"I don't. But if Edgar complains every time I'm wearing something that's not appropriate, why can't I do the same thing?"

Edgar rolled his eyes in a way that conveyed more than words. "I told Vitaly to come along. You could at least say thank you."

"Edgar is right, you know, it's not easy to get me to do things," Vitaly said, gently and half-amused, but in his own way of speaking, matter-of-factly and a little deadpan.

I still had problems not getting embarrassed in front of Vitaly Malinov. My second cousin was not one of the best people I knew, objectively speaking. He used to be part of the Reapers. He was able to create the Void, a space continuum where time stopped and people could stay in it as long as they liked to plan or speak, without being perceived by anyone else in any other dimension. That was the power of the Aeons, the people who did not identify in the gender binary. Too bad Vitaly had used it to guarantee the other members of the Reapers a place where they could plan their evil schemes without being bothered.

Still, I admired him. Maybe because he did all of that to protect the person he loved the most. There are often blurred lines between bad and good and the fact that Vitaly seemed to belong to one of those blurred lines fascinated me. He was not woman or man, he was not bad or good. He was neutral, and he fascinated me. But most of all, he was very charismatic and when he used to teach me black magic, I found out he was a very emphatic teacher.

"What exactly did you want to tell me, nephew?" he asked.

"I'm not calling you 'uncle'," I said. "That's too weird."

"How rude. Do you prefer to call me 'aunt'?"

"That's... that's not what I meant. You're something like my second cousin, you know. We're not that closely related."

Vitaly shrugged. Despite their internal conflict, they were a pacifist most of the time. "I knew your mother, Brooke, very well. I kind of thought of her as a sister. Excuse me if I think I mean more to you than a second cousin would."

"As long as you don't lecture me like an uncle would, do what you think best."

I did not add that the first time I learned I had an uncle, things hadn't gone too well.

"Ryan... I'm sure you do have a lot of things to tell Vitaly," Ohda joined the conversation, exiting the toilet where she was doing something that looked like plumbing work. "But first, you need to know why I called you downstairs."

"Of course," I said, but I was still thinking about Edgar. My voice souded far away.

Vitaly put a hand on my shoulder, fatherly. "I don't know what happened between you and Edgar, but I can guess."

The idea that they thought they could understand felt so surreal to me that I almost snorted.

"Listen to me," they said. "Loving someone is supposed to make you a better person, not a worse one. When we love, we give away a part of us that will never get back. But we should do it because it pleases us to do so. What I mean --- there's a certain honour in loving even if you're not loved back."