3. Thank You, Luxist Monk
Chapter three
Thank You, Luxist Monk
“Idon’t like the taste of teeth.”
Naoma and I turned away from the monastery entrance at the sound of accented Amerikese. After a week of neurospace programs, Kuni sounded like he would have no problem getting by.
Naoma hit my arm.
“What?”
“Did I say something wrong?” Kuni asked. “My Amerikese should be better by now. Right?”
“It is, don’t sweat it,” Boyband said.
“Did you hear him?”
I looked at Boyband, laughing as he approached us with Kuni. I had been too preoccupied by Kuni’s advanced Amerikese.
I don’t like the taste of teeth.
“You’re zegging me Boyband!” I ran to Kuni to check him over, though there was no damage to be seen. I glared at Boyband. “You didn’t actually feed him teeth, did you?”
Boyband shrugged. “He wanted to try it.”
“After you told me to taste them.”
“Shh.” Boyband’s laugh was nervous as he patted Kuni on the shoulder.
“He did something wrong then?” Kuni asked.
“He sure did!” Naoma bit back.
“Since when have you decided to act like a mom?”
“Zeg!” Boyband screeched as Kuni touched him with a webbed hand wrapped in eel’s skin.
Naoma laughed. “Did you shock him?”
Kuni nodded. “Want me to do it again?”
“Piss the zeg off!” Boyband backed away.
“Calm down, calm down.”
We turned to the new voice approaching.
Abbas.
I smiled. It felt good to count him among us again, despite some protests.
He stepped into our circle with arms akimbo. “I heard the end of it. What did you make the kid do?”
“Eat teeth.” Kuni said.
“No, no, no,” Boyband sighed. “Everyone take a second to breathe. You all listening now? Really? Petya? Idol? Pulse. He took a second to look at us, fighting a smile.
“Happy to see us, aren’t you?” I asked.
“Pissed that you called us back before our ‘week of rest’ ended.”
“It was one day. That doesn’t matter. Talk.”
“Okay, okay.” Boyband glared at Kuni and put his finger over his mouth to hush the kid. He turned back to the rest of us with a smile. “You know how a boy gets. Hungry. Tired. So I thought back to the advice Ral always gives me. Work smarter, not harder. Wait, where is–”
“She’ll be here soon, with Akna,” Abbas said. “On with it.”
Boyband held his hands up as if he had done nothing wrong. “So I got hungry. We were in the Blue, and I didn’t want to cause a scene, so I had him shock some du and he passed out for me to feed without problem.”
“Why not just coerce him?” Naoma asked. “Having him turn into an eel is hardly a less noticeable alternative.”
“I’ve… had some problems… with that.”
Naoma looked back at me. “You’ve been struggling to use your mod, right?”
“Really?” Boyband asked.
I nodded. “I’m still faster than I was before all this, but I can’t do much more. There’s a bug with my system. You too, Abbas?”
He nodded. “I can make someone’s bones more brittle with a high burn pulse, but I can’t suck the bones like I used to.”
Naoma gagged.
Boyband shrugged. “Probably a simple tech problem for Ral.”
“That still doesn’t explain why Kuni ate teeth,” I said.
Boyband looked at him, then groaned when Kuni didn’t answer for him.
“The kid stared at me while I was eating teeth, so… I asked him if he wanted a taste.”
“Without him asking,” Naoma said.
“Yup.”
“Without even–zeg. Without even a sign that he wanted a taste?”
“He looked at me.”
“Boyband!”
“Mom!”
Kuni shocked him and he cursed.
Naoma smiled. “Thank you, Kuni.”
“I didn’t like it, like I said. I won’t try it again, I promise.”
“You’re not in trouble.” She winked at him.
A new voice. One I had missed since she lost consciousness in Arabasia. “Can I shock you too?”
“Ral.” I ran to embrace her.
Boyband’s glare was quick to expire. “You’re joking, right?”
She waved him in. “Come and find out.”
He shook his head, but gave in.
She blew a kiss to Naoma, then cocked her head at Abbas.
“Good to see you too,” Akna said, just behind her.
I pulled her in, forcing her to stand by Boyband.
Boyband glared at me, but struggled to hide a grin. “Hihow, Aknie.”
“Babyband.”
“Ralia, are you calling me that again behind my back?”
She let go and stepped back to take us all in with a sigh. “Zeg, you’re all so beautiful. Now say it back.”
While the rest of her body appeared normal, despite the lines of tech enhancement, she had forgone a psuedo-skin covering for the half of her face that she had lost in the battle against Nichley.
Half of her face was done up with the typical light-enhanced makeup, while the other was a chromatic shimmer that caused the color to shift depending on the angle of observance.
Her nose was intact, bearing a scar across the bridge, and her lips looked fine under a coat of red lipstick.
Her hair on one side remained the same curly silver with hair-thin green tendrils coming out from the robotic side.
They twisted with the other hair implanted into the metallic portion of her skull.
Knowing Ralia, they had a purpose to serve beyond fashion.
“It looks beautiful,” Kuni said, though it came out as a direct response to her command.
“Wow,” Naoma said. “I actually love it.”
“Ass kissers,” Boyband scoffed. “Why the zeg did you give yourself an extra eye on your new chrome?”
“To see Naoma’s beauty twice as well, though looking at you, maybe I should have gone blind.”
He flipped her off.
She blew a kiss. “Time for a haircut, du. Your shag is losing its bowl-shape.”
“You good?” I asked Akna while they continued to bicker.
She smiled and nodded. “The break was nice, but I’m ready to get back to work.”
“Ralia keeping you too cooped up?”
“No, she’s preoccupied with her new mods. Without the risk of techbone, I feel like she’s trying to push herself too far into the tech side of life. She does know that techbone isn’t the only risk, right?”
“Don’t stress it. You know Ral. She won’t let any neurocrawler tap into her tech. With the bite and her mind, she’s pulse.”
“Are you sure? Look, I want to believe, but too much has gone wrong for us in the past. I mean, I’ve only known all of you for what, like a month or so now?”
Did my lack of concern originate from confidence or ignorance? I never wanted to question Ralia, but how was I to be sure that what remained of her was her? Who had upgraded her? Was it another medical professional as credible as Naoma’s therapist?
Seeing them–those who had become my family–in such a joyous state, was harrowing under the memory of the therapeutic abomination.
Despite our frailties, our past discord, and losses, we were whole in that moment.
I clenched my teeth, forcing my composure as I realized that this could not last. Any peace granted to us was but a temporary reprieve until the Gongtide’s end.
Eliminating a clandestine cult was a daunting task. Backing it with a god that had once devoured our native planet made a challenge become a feat we could only dream of. Dreamers we were, though nightmares were more often our companions as of late.
“I’m sorry,” Akna said. “I shouldn’t have brought it up. “You’re the one who understands this?”
“No, no. You raise relevant concerns. I think we have to be cautious.” I eyed Abbas, recalling his betrayal as Ali, but looked back at Akna before I could eliminate the forgiveness he deserved, especially after eating Cut’s face. “We’re all just trying to keep an eye out for one another, right?”
Her smile filled me with more relief than she could have ever guessed. “Yeah.”
“Alright,” Abbas stepped over and patted my shoulder. “We should get things moving along.” He cocked his head toward the now-open entrance to what was supposed to be the monastery.
Unlike Bhate Xera, Cixin, and the other monks from Arabasia, this man demanded no respect.
It was not that I wanted to pay him any disrespect, it just looked like he had no care for anyone’s opinion.
He might have looked young for his age, but I would have guessed that he was thirty at most. His hair was a black mess, his robe had ruffled hems, and he wore socks with athletic sandals.
“Hihow!” he greeted. He waved us in with a large smile, complimenting each one of us as we passed him.
Based on his lack of accent, I soon understood that he was just another Republic man of Arabasian ancestry. “Come on, come on, you’ve made it this far.”
“What’s your hurry?” Boyband said behind me. “We’ve been waiting for you.”
“It’s not my fault you pushed this up a day early. I have other matters to deal with than just you. You know that, right?”
“What could be more important than us right now?”
“Even if you manage to succeed, there are other threats to deal with. Don’t act like you suddenly understand everything, got it, du?”
Boyband scoffed. “What kind of a monk are you?”
“Just because I’m a monk doesn’t mean I need to be a shac like those purists who connected us. I have my style, they have theirs, just like your parents did.”
“You knew them then?”
The monk pushed him forward. “That’s a question for later.”
I left Boyband’s complaints behind, ignoring them as did the monk.
We descended a dim, blue-lit stairwell with sharp turns.
We reached the bottom and proceeded down a long hallway to a white door with the symbol of a traditional Arabasian woman’s mask wrapped in a green-lit serpent.
My throat burned, as if trying to force out my questions about Naoma, but they would have to wait.
We had so much to ask compared to how little we comprehended.
“You good, du?” the monk patted me on the shoulder, noting my trepidation before the sign.
Now was as good a time as any other to ask what it was, even if the monk acted so carefree and casual. Part of me liked his approachable demeanor while the other hoped he had a superior whose behavior would leave me confident with our multiplicity of chaotic dilemmas.
“I’ve seen that symbol all around the monasteries,” I said, “but what is it?”
He furrowed his brow. “You’re serious?”
I raised my eyebrows and shrugged.