Chapter 17 Old Friends and New Enemies.
Chapter seventeen
Old Friends and New Enemies.
Percy Flores
Alight knocking on the bedroom door awoke me. I groaned and rolled over.
“I can’t do another day!” I said, loud enough that Kat would hear.
For the past three days, I had been awoken long before dawn by Kat and forced to run around the base; incidentally, it corresponded with my right leg healing.
I had been at the base for a total of ten days, if I counted the days I was unconscious, and I hadn’t learned anything useful that Arvid wanted to know. All I had gained was a dread of the inevitable stitch I would gain from Kat’s conditioning classes.
The women on the squad were friendly enough, but they were the only people I had interacted with, and while I had tried to learn more about Flores and Witching Command from them, tactfully and less tactfully so, they hadn’t given me anything, or maybe they just didn’t know anything.
I was beginning to think that I would be trapped on the base, being chased by Kat, forever.
And despite being exhausted, I could barely sleep, no more than a few hours per night.
The emptiness in my chest became somehow loud when I was alone at night in my room; it was all I could feel, and I was kept awake by memories of Selene.
It had only been ten days, but I worried I was forgetting her face, the shade of her silver eyes, the shape of her lips, the curve of her brows.
I would inevitably succumb to a quiet panic and spend hours trying to remember everything I could about her, because what if my fears were real?
What if I never got to see her again and I had to live with the emptiness within me forever?
And I didn’t know whether the enchantments Jack had spoken about were protecting me or adding to my torture.
At the very least, I had learned something about the soul match bond — separation would not kill us.
The knocking continued.
“No, Kat,” I said louder.
I couldn’t do it again, not today. Was there no such thing as a rest day here?
“Percy, dear,” I heard Lady Flores call softly through the door, and I sat up quickly.
I hadn’t seen or spoken with Lady Flores since I had first awoken.
Kat had informed me that she was busy running The New Foundation and that I shouldn’t take it personally that she hadn’t asked me to come by when I asked if I could see her again.
It wasn’t that I necessarily wanted to spend time with the woman; it was that I had quickly become frustrated with my squadmates' unwillingness or lack of knowledge to talk about anything that might be a Witching Command need-to-know thing, and had decided I would probably have more luck going straight to the source.
“Yeah?” I called as I got out of bed and quickly got dressed.
“I was wondering if we might spend some time together?” she asked on the other side of the door.
I took a moment to ready myself. I wasn’t the completely clueless girl I had been when we first met, and I wasn’t as angry either.
When I first awoke and found myself on the base, separated from Selene, I had been angry, maybe too angry to be useful to myself.
If Kat’s training had done anything for me, it had given me a physical outlet for my anger.
I was clearer-headed. I had a task to complete: find out what Witching Command was keeping from Arvid, tell him, and go home.
Selene would be doing everything within her power to bring me home.
I knew she would. I had to do everything I could, too.
I couldn’t sit around and wait to be rescued.
I was ready now. Ready to play the role of the long-lost granddaughter who’s been coming around to The New Foundation. I needed Lady Flores to trust me, to view me as belonging, or if nothing else, as a willing tool she could use, and might let her guard down around.
A steady breath, and then I opened the door.
“Good morning, Lady Flores. I didn’t know it was you. I’m sorry, I thought you were Kat. Her training has been intense,” I said, hoping I seemed friendly and still subordinate.
Lady Flores smiled warmly.
“Don’t worry, Percy. I understand that adjusting to life here can be challenging, but I’ve heard good things about how you are settling in, and I would like to ask you to breakfast with me,” she said.
I smiled. Genuinely smiled. This was exactly what I wanted: an opportunity to speak with Lady Flores alone, to build favour and trust.
“Yes, please,” I agreed.
“Wonderful. We can walk to my private quarters together,” she said, and I stepped out of my room, closing the door behind me.
As I stepped out in the hallway, I noticed two soldiers also in the hallway with us, with large machine guns across their chests.
“Don’t mind them, they are my personal guard, here to protect us,” Lady Flores explained.
“Protect us within Witching Command? I thought we were safe here?” I asked.
I had become accustomed to being followed around by guards during my time with Selene, and of course, I was surrounded by troops on the base, but it still seemed odd that Lady Flores would need protection while surrounded by those of Flores and Flores' descendants.
“We are perfectly safe. It’s simply precautionary,” she reassured me, but it seemed like she wanted to say more and stopped herself.
“Then why the guards, with guns like that?” I asked, adding a little anxiety to my question.
Lady Flores placed her hand against my back and tapped my upper arm before leaning in to speak to me quietly.
“I promise there is nothing to fear here. We’ve recently noticed some Borealis scouts with House Halvorsen. The base is completely safe, our location is still unknown, we’re simply being overly cautious,” she told me.
I nodded, “Okay, I trust you,” I answered. The lie made my mouth feel dry. But inside, I was excited. Borealis scouts in Halvorsen. Was it Selene searching for me?
“I’m very pleased to hear that,” Lady Flores said, and looped her arm with mine.
If someone did know better, we would look like any grandparent and grandchild walking together, talking quietly.
The realisation made me momentarily sad because it wasn’t true.
I was playing a part, and Lady Flores was playing a part too.
We both wanted something from the other, only I hoped Lady Flores wasn’t as aware of my roleplaying as I was hers.
I didn’t have any family relationships outside of my father, Rosemary, and someday I hoped my brother, but those relationships were already strained by distance, by the fact I was Selene’s, and even though I didn’t speak about it, I worried that one day I would become a stranger to my father and Rosemary, and that I’d never have a real sibling bond with my brother.
The make-believe role I was playing now would never be real, and it saddened me.
“How have you found the last few days? What do you think of your squad?” Lady Flores asked as we descended the stairs.
“I’ve been surprised at how nice everyone is.
I kind of thought I would be an outsider,” I said truthfully.
Kat, Rea, Talia, and Melina welcomed me as part of the team easily, never questioning my stance as part of Flores.
It was unexpected. Ever since leaving my village, I had been aware of how little I fit in, how different I was from those around me.
Everyone needed an explanation of who I was and what Houses, clans, and covens made me. But here, none of that mattered.
“No child of Flores could ever be an outsider here. It doesn’t matter where any of us came from; it doesn’t matter who we were before; if Flores' magic runs through your blood, you have a home with us,” she said, and even though that home was a literal army, there was something soothing, something wholesome about being able to belong somewhere.
It was an ethos that the whole of The New Foundation shared.
If you wanted freedom from Houses and heritage, if you wanted to be judged on who you were individually, then, rather ironically, you were welcome to join The New Foundation, where all your individuality would be replaced with a uniform and strict schedule.
But belonging somewhere was powerful, especially when all you had ever known was discrimination and limitations within your House.
I understood it. I understood enough to know that, had I been born within the Houses, maybe even if I had simply never known Selene, I could have seen a different path for my life, one that would have led me right where I was.
“I know. I’m beginning to understand that,” I said.
She squeezed my arm the way I imagined a grandmother would, affectionately.
I smiled at her.
“I have requested that we have breakfast in my private dining room this morning,” Lady Flores explained as we reached a set of doors where two more soldiers stood guard.
We entered an apartment directly into the living room.
“This is my home. It’s not much space, but it’s functional. Shoes off,” she said as she released my arm and bent down to remove her own shoes. I followed, untying my boots and placing them on the shoe rack at the door.
Plush carpet lined the floor, and the living room was sleek with modern furniture. A lot more luxurious than the spare room I lived in or the beaten-up couch and scuffed coffee table of the squad's social room. Lady Flores’ home was of the nobles’ standards I had come to expect.
It was strange, from the way that the girls spoke about Lady Flores, I didn’t associate her with nobility, but looking around the space she lived in, I was reminded that she was technically the head of the coven and House.
I followed her through the living room to an adjoining dining room. It was small, with a table that could seat only six, but I didn’t fail to notice the chandelier lighting the room, or the quality of the workmanship on the intricately carved chair designs with plush cushioning.