17. Lenna
17
Lenna
“ W elcome to your private chambers, Miss Brachyan,” the middle-aged Organ servant said as she opened the door for Lenna.
“Just Lenna,” she said as she entered the—“Excuse me, what did you say this is?”
“Your private chambers, Miss Lenna. If they are not to your liking, I am sure we can find another unit that suits your needs better.”
Lenna looked at her “private chambers” again and found it hard to believe the frown on the servant’s face was honest. How could anyone not find this to “their liking”? Even if the Organ House was notoriously known for being the richest and most luxurious of all Thyria, Lenna hadn’t imagined this is how they treated their temporary guests.
“This will do,” she said, entering the open five-room apartment. She could have sworn she heard the servant's relief silently behind her. “Sorry, what is your name?”
“Clara, miss Lenna. It’s my pleasure to assist you in any way you may need,” the lady with exotic features followed Lenna inside.
Lenna looked around and snorted. Of course, it was a four-petal shaped apartment. The circle living room they were standing in could easily accommodate twenty or thirty people on all the couches and main table. It connected to two enormous bedrooms with ensuite. There was also a state-of-the-art kitchen that smelled like warm bread and fresh fruit, and a massive plain, empty room with glass panel walls.
“What is this room for?”
“It’s a live room. It can be adapted as you wish. You can ask the House or select whatever options you want on the deliseen,” Clara said, pointing to the rectangular panel attached to the side of the wall.
“That’s some fancy shit,” Lenna chuckled, touching the deliseen and waiting for it to recognize her pupils before showing her a list of popular options. Art room, music room, library, live concert… Maybe she wouldn’t bore to death these months she needed to stay in the Organ House until she had mastered her panom powers.
Months with that man as Panom Guidor. For Fifth’s sake. How could the most exciting moment of her life feel suddenly so dreadful? She had been so focused on becoming a panom and gaining access to her real vault of magic that she had given little thought about what was actually going to happen right after. And her new powers… They had settled in her veins, in her blood. She could feel a subtle yet constant pressure inside her, in tension and waiting patiently at the same time. Ready for Lenna to access. If she only knew how.
“I will leave you now, miss Lenna. If you require any assistance, please ask the deliseen or the House and I’ll be here shortly. A special dinner to welcome our guests will served at eight post meridiem in the Core Salon,” Clara’s courtesy was an elegant half bow. Lenna didn’t want to put her off too much after just meeting her, but she planned to definitely ask her to stop all the bowing, reverential stuff next time.
She headed towards the biggest sofa in the central room as soon as Clara shut the door and she spread herself in a very non-heir-appropriate way. So comfortable it almost slightly improved her pissed off mood.
Her father’s order to “appreciate the effort of the Coralt family to provide the best panom education available” was nowhere near happening anytime soon. Lenna had told her father to fuck off when she heard the truth from his own mouth: Jake Coralt was indeed going to be her Panom Guidor. And Ayla and she were indeed going to spend some months in Corentre. Fan-fucking-tastic.
Lenna wasn’t sure if she was more annoyed at the fact that from all the panoms of Thyria her Guidor had to be precisely that one, or that she was going to be stuck in an unknown city for the Cardinals knew how long.
Yet, here she was. In another house. In another city. By herself on the evening of her birthday. The prospect of having dinner with Cardinals knew who was not motivating. She decided to the Fifth with it all and went to the bedroom to grab a small black purse from one of the many suitcases with her belongings that had been already waiting for her in this room. She sent some ink to Ciaran as she got changed into a sleeveless black jumpsuit.
Shortly after, dark ink appeared on Lenna’s forearm, tickling where the words read:
The deliseen had proved useful showing Lenna a map of the House and indicating the shortcut least likely to encounter people at this time of the day. By the time it took her to arrive at the meet-up point, Ciaran was sitting on the edge of the high stone fence that bordered the Organ House, separating it from the rest of Corentre.
“You didn’t want a birthday family dinner?” Ciaran greeted her.
Lenna chuckled, “I’ve seen enough assholes today to last a lifetime, thank you very much.” That included her father, Ayla, Jake and Rhei as a bare minimum. “Do you know any cool places in this city?”
Ciaran’s mechanical arm moved as his metallic hand smoothed his long hair. “Is that what you want to do?”
Lenna hesitated. She quite fancied fucking Theon, but asking Ciaran to moure her to his house was definitely overstepping. She also wanted to get back to her own house in the North and forget about all this Corentre business. And—“You know what? I don’t even know what I fucking want right now, but if I stay in this massive House another second, I’m going to end up climbing the walls.” She shook her head, lifting her eyebrows.
“Let’s get out of here,” Ciaran jumped off the fence and put his hand on the back of her neck as they vanished into the night.
The loud music filled her ears at the same time as the bright lights made Lenna close her eyes. “Cardinals, where are we?” She smelled the cinnamon and salt scents in the surrounding air.
“Sweetgum Beech,” Ciaran put a hand below her elbow to move through the crowd gathered around the source of the music. “It’s worth opening your eyes.”
Lenna frowned as her pupils adapted to the yellow, orange, and red lights around them. They were dim, but there were so many. Thousands of sparkling bulbs, probably. All twinkling from the tall trees around the dozens of live fountains underneath. Even from their distance, Lenna saw where the music was coming from. In the middle of the square, there was a huge double fountain that spewed water at the music’s rhythm. This fountain alone was probably as big as the dome chamber of the Cardinals Temple, and at its very center, a soaked band was playing enthusiastically and living their best lives.
There was definitely something more than human-made involved in such a spectacular show. Whether that meant panom hands probably created them or had some after-construction magical input, she did not know. The waves did not affect the strong and heart-filling sound and splashes around the instruments or the singer, but it amplified, so even people on the far ends of the Beech danced to it. Worth opening her eyes, indeed.
The people around them were grooving to the catchy music, ignoring Ciaran and Lenna as they walked closer to the main fountain. “This is insane,” Lenna laughed as her soul and her head bobbed to the beat.
“Wait for it,” Ciaran pointed to the blue-haired woman singing her way towards the guitarist on the other side of the fountain platform. The waves were now shaped like parabola curves as high as some trees. As the singer got ready to sing the chorus back-to-back with the guitarist, the water of the fountain started lighting up in a marvel of colors. Lenna, Ciaran and the entire crowd went wild with it, jumping in unison to the beat, shouting their throats out.
After hours of dancing, Lenna felt thirsty as the Fifth when the band wished them all a naughty night and disappeared inside the fountain. “That was so fun,” she grabbed a bottle of myster from a crystal stand, the vendor not even looking at them when she left two valers on the counter.
“I knew you would like it,” Ciaran winked, a corner of his lips tugging up.
Lenna elbowed him in the ribs. “Ever so clever.” Even without the music, this place was magical. “You come here often?”
“Sort of. Some good friends live around here.” The disbelief in Lenna’s lifted eyebrows must have been obvious as Ciaran added, “Not everyone in the Elite is a piece of shit. There are some exceptions.”
Lenna put a hand on her hip as she took a long sip from the bubbly myster. “I didn’t take you for one of those Only-Elite-Friends-Allowed bullshitters.”
Ciaran exhaled through his nose, not even a full chuckle as his blue eyes kept Lenna still. “I’d feel insulted if you thought so.” He opened his biological hand with a distracted movement, sparkles playing on top of the palm. They were the same tone as the ink that had appeared on Lenna’s arm before. “I was going to pay them a visit tonight. Want to meet them?”
“Shouldn’t you be telling me to go to bed as it’s already ante meridiem and I have my first panom instruction in a few hours?” Lenna lifted an eyebrow, the side of her mouth tilting up with it.
Ciaran crossed his arms, a challenging stare in his eyes. “I’m not your daddy. Do whatever the fuck you want.”
“Then… I’m always up to meet non-idiotic people,” she winked with a wide grin. Especially if she was going to be stuck in this city for Cardinals knew how many months. She’d have to tell Theon about it, figure out how to help Raoul from here, try not to kill the arrogant piece of shit she would have as Panom Guidor and ignore her sister as much as she could. Maybe the myster helped her move those worries to a temporary drawer in her mind. There would be time to think about them. Just not tonight. Tonight, it was her birthday, and she was finally a panom.
The moonlit rooftop by the Jofryo river was something else.
“What the fuck is this?” Lenna asked, following Ciaran to a corner of the wide terrace, shining, flickering bulb lights hanging in the air as they walked through the benches and hammocks.
“It’s an interesting mix of people in an interesting place.”
“Very useful, Ciaran,” Lenna said, but she added nothing else as they reached a group of people laughing.
“Look who dared to come say hi to the plebe.” A beautiful woman with brown curls winked at Ciaran as she stood up, grinning widely while she hugged a stiff-as-hell Ciaran. He was always stiff as hell when it came to direct contact, though. Lenna knew it first-hand.
“Hello to you too, Sasha,” Ciaran said with a friendly half-smile. Ciaran’s repertoire of smiles with strangers was not bast. It pretty much could be simplified as his I’m-going-to-kill-you tuck of lips and his I’m-letting-you-live-for-now generous approach. His look now was neither of those, so definitely in the safe zone.
“Thanks for bringing fresh meat, Ciaran, I was getting tired of this bunch.” The bronze tanned woman tilted her head towards the group behind her. She turned to Lenna, still smiling, “Hi, I’m Sasha.”
Lenna’s eyebrow shot up at the sass and simultaneous friendliness of the woman in front of her, and she greeted her with a nod. A stunning blond man with immaculate features stood next to Sasha and put his arm around her shoulder. An arm that had more ink than many books would ever have.
“Brendon here,” he said, his fingers caressing the top of Sasha’s naked arm without paying much attention. “To whom do we owe the pleasure?” he asked Lenna, not taking his dark green eyes from hers.
“Lenna,” she said, not too sure it had been a good idea to meet people at that precise moment. The day had been intense enough as it had been, and maybe she should have avoided this social awkwardness. Yes. It now seemed completely unnecessary.
“You mean Lenna as in Lenna-who-just-joined-the-panomy-club?” Sasha’s eyes opened wide, and she stepped forward to look closely at her, circling and examining her like she was a creature of another world.
“Oh, for Cardinals’ sake, Sasha, keep your obsessions to yourself and give her a break, will you?” a young man with the exact bronze tone and immaculateness as Sasha’s skin sat in front of them with a full glass of a purple drink. “She’s a Scientist Reg in the Orster,” he said, lifting his shoulders, as if that was justification enough. “And my sister.” Lenna chuckled, her best attempt at oppressing a laugh at the resignation in his voice. He continued, “I’m Carson. I think you are at a disadvantage in this group of savages, since we all know who you are, and you clearly don’t have a clue about us. I am the Gracier Officer at the Interpetal Bullef. Brendon works for the Invisible Grand.” The blond man with green eyes did a mock bow, bending his upper body with a hand gesture as Carson continued, “And this lady next to me is the daughter of the Roix Reigner.”
“ This lady has a name,” the black-haired woman with a perfect bob looked at him with a mock lip-shut smile, before facing Lenna to say, “Indianna. Don’t judge me for being the daughter of such a bitch. I’m the first one who wants to kick her ass. And I’m a healer at the Beftac Centre for Injured Beings, even though this lot ,” she tilted her head towards the others, “always seem to forget that bit.”
“We would never forget that you fix all the people your mother orders her inferiors to hurt,” Sasha walked towards Indianna and sat next to her on the soft, massive couch, putting a reassuring hand on Indianna’s knee.
“Anyway, we’re the good guys.” Brendon winked, sitting back down on one of the velvety couches and taking a sip of his transparent, thick drink.
Lenna spoke, not looking at anyone in particular, half asking Ciaran and half asking the four other people in front of her. “I take you are all Elite because you earned your value in society rather than paid for your value?” That was highly unusual.
“She learns fast,” Sasha grinned.
So here were a top scientist of the labs better guarded by the Organ House, a communication consultant that helped ensure a respectful harmony between the petals and the Rulers and the Houses, an agent at the most secretive organization of Thyria, and a healer at the center the sickest people went who also happened to be related to the damned Roix Reigner. Damn all the Cardinals one by one if that wasn’t an “interesting mix of people”. And of course, the heirs of the West and North Houses had just joined the party. Both panoms.
“These brains of ours were noticeable enough to shine during our education years, and here we are,” Brendon opened his arms in front of him, towards his friends. “Some of us still shine,” he winked with a sideways smile.
“Some of us have a colossal head,” Indianna retorted without taking her eyes from Lenna. Her stare felt like a ray penetrating her mind.
Some inner instinct told Lenna that the Organ Mandor, her own father back at the North House, and many other high-ranking commands would not be happy that such an alliance existed between these well-connected and influential people.
They didn’t look like allies, though. How they moved and talked to each other… There was no apparent pretence-bullshit going on here, unlike what Lenna had very often seen in Elite gatherings. Or if there was, they hid it well. But they seemed comfortable, including Ciaran, which was a very positive indicator, considering how take-no-shit he was. And there was that unique familiarity that long-term friends have in the environment. That and—
“Why do I feel there is something else missing here?” she asked Ciaran, lowering her voice, ignoring the fact that the others, who now were interchanging stares while smiling or grinning, could hear her.
Ciaran bit his bottom lip, his metal ring shining against his teeth. He finally said with caution in his blue eyes and the corners of his lips tilting upwards, “I may or may not have donated some of my magic to them.”