Chapter 5 #2
Rionan caught himself smiling as Alianna tried to scrub at her forehead with her hand. She turned, and he pretended he hadn’t noticed or caught any of their conversation. As he watched her, he felt a slight prickling beneath his skin, and he made an effort to drive his magic down within him.
Not now. He thought to himself.
Porthan. Porthan. Porthan.
He heard an echoing in his mind, repeating the same unhelpful word as it had earlier today.
“You know what?” Alianna said, smiling. “Potentially against my better judgment, you have so far proven yourself to be helpful, and I feel like we have some weird common ground when it comes to getting each other out of sticky situations. We will take you up on that walk, not quite home, but at least out of this park. You seem like a nice guy.”
“That’s a relief to hear. Come on, then. Which way are we going, Alianna?”
“This way,” she motioned to the path ahead of them, which veered off to the right in the dimly lit distance. “And you can call me Ali.”
Rionan walked with Alianna and Natasha. He discovered, on their short journey together, that they had been friends for sixteen years, that Natasha’s favourite food was tacos, that Alianna worked in a café somewhere in Porthan, and that she sometimes volunteers to help at an animal shelter.
Natasha did not like rock music, thought that Alianna needed to get out more, and Alianna was very apologetic for her friend’s forthcoming behaviour.
Rionan found himself enjoying their company, his eyes settling on Alianna as she told him about her quiet life with her dog, and her hopes to one day leave her café job to move into other things.
“Do you know what you’d like to do afterwards?” he asked.
“No, not yet. I think I’d like to move, you know? Somewhere more open. Somewhere that feels a bit more…free. Spacious. Where I feel like I’m not just another person living in a town, but a real part of where I am.”
“A sense of community and connection to where you call home is important, and one that I understand,” Rionan replied earnestly.
“Connection. That’s a great word. I don’t know what I want to do career-wise, to be truthful, but I want to feel…connected, to whatever I go on and do, wherever I go.”
“Well, you know what I think of you wanting to move away,” Natasha said, turning to look at Alianna, who walked in between her and Rionan.
“I know, Tash. You think it sucks, and you don’t want me to go.”
“I don’t,” she grunted. “But, I also don’t want to be a selfish friend. I want you to live your dreams, as long as we get to see each other.”
“You know we always will! Shadow would miss his favourite auntie.” Alianna smiled. Rionan had also learnt that Shadow was her dog. Shadow loves the beach, stealing socks, and had ripped up three of her sofa cushions when he was younger.
The space around them began to grow brighter as the street lights and traffic came into view. The quiet of the park began to slip away. Alianna turned to Rionan.
“Well, Max. This is fine for us. I mean, we can carry on the rest of the way on our own. Thank you so much for your help with that other guy, and for making sure we got out of the park alright.”
“You are most welcome. It has been a pleasure meeting you again, and your friend. Thank you for your help today, too.”
There was a brief pause, where the three of them stood, waiting for somebody else to be the first one to say goodbye, or to move away. Rionan slid his hands into his pockets. “Maybe we will see each other again soon.”
As he turned and began to walk away, he could hear Natasha hissing to her friend behind him. “Give him your number.”
“What? He doesn’t want - ”
“Just try, Ali! He’s here, he didn’t mention having anyone else in his life - ”
“We didn’t ask - ”
“He can always say no. Ali, try. Look at the guy. He’s staying at The Rinniel, and he doesn’t seem half bad.”
“Weren’t you the one making snide remarks about men on business trips less than fifteen minutes ago?”
“Hey, Max!” Natasha shouted behind him. He turned, laughing inwardly at the appraisal he had earned of ‘doesn’t seem half bad’. Natasha was approaching him with something in her hand. “Ali says she wants to give you her number.”
Rionan looked over to Alianna, who had her hands covering her face.
“Are you sure? Because she looks like she has just received some very bad news.” Rionan asked, avoiding admitting that he did not know what ‘giving you her number’ means, and did not know what Natasha was holding in her hand.
Alianna sighed and looked up.
“I…no, I’m just not very good at this. It’s been nice talking tonight, Max, and I would like to give you my number.” He could see her almost wince as she finished her sentence.
“Well, that’s nice to hear,” he assumed that was the right thing to say. “But, I don’t have a…”
He motioned to the device in Natasha’s hand, which now had a faint light emitting from it, as she tapped on it a few times.
“You don’t have a phone?” Natasha asked. “Did you lose it in the sea?”
“Um…yes.” He shrugged.
“How are you going to manage the rest of your business trip without a phone?” Natasha asked as Alianna stepped forward and took her elbow.
“Tash, don’t worry. Max – thank you. It was nice seeing you. Goodnight.”
With that, Alianna steered Natasha out of the park and onto the street, which was now ahead of them. Rionan focused his acute hearing on their conversation as they walked away.
“Tash, you absolute idiot, clearly he wasn’t interested, so the easiest thing he could do was say he did not have a phone. If he lost it in the sea, he would have just got himself a new one, he’s staying at The Rinniel so he is not exactly short of marks, is he…”
The remainder of their conversation was lost amongst the traffic and noise of the nightlife, as he smiled to himself, and turned back into the park, heading who-knows-where.
The smile faded from his face as he remembered what was happening in Xanthia, the thought entering his mind as he returned to the serene quiet of the park itself.
How dare he enjoy the company of these humans, even if it weren’t for long? He was not here to make friends. He was here to find a way to save his people and his realm.
Selfish. He was selfish.
Porthan. Porthan. Porthan.
The familiar chant returned in his head.
No. He would not deem himself selfish for helping two females get out of that situation. He needed to work out why he was here, what had brought him here, and knowing two people from Porthan could only aid him. They might have answers. He’d just have to be careful about how he asked his questions.
Porthan. Porthan. Porthan.
He dropped his face into his hands, searching his brain for anything, anything at all about this place.
Porthan. Porthan. Porthan.
Nothing. He couldn’t think of anything useful. Not one bit of information, or a fact about Porthan, except for those he had discovered since he had been here. None of those were useful.
Porthan. Porthan. Porthan. Porthan. Porthan. Porthan. Porthan. Porthan. Porthan. Porthan.
He found his body shaking as he tried to drive the voice further down in his thoughts, to drown it out.
He felt his power building up inside him, desperate for some sort of release that he wasn’t giving it while he was here.
He had not contained this much, gone without using this much, in a long, long time.
He’d get a hold of it. He had to. He needed to. He had no other option.
He dropped to his knees, clenching his jaw, resting his palms on the earth around him.
Slowly, Rionan fed droplets of magic into the ground, to release just the smallest amount.
He felt it flowing through his body, like a stream meeting a river.
Different to in Xanthia, where he was the river, and his power met with the sea.
His fingers buzzed with life, and he opened his eyes to see the freshly bloomed flowers surrounding him that had not been there mere moments before.
He tried to think of other things, silencing the nagging voice in his head reminding him that he needed to search this town. He thought of the beach, the hospital, the hotel, and the park. His mind snagged on one detail and seemed to soothe the raging tide of energy in his body, lulling it quietly.
Alianna.