10 Chapter Ten: Alex (1/2)

The group arrives in the cargo truck with the homeless people still inside near the border of the country. They leave the truck behind and proceed on foot to avoid the checkpoints as to not be found by The Ly'Lum. After a while of walking, Finn starts up a conversation to pass the time.

”So you all use magic efficiently, what charms do you use and where are you guys hiding them?” Finn asks.

”I use paper charms sometimes” Alex says, ”but I also have runic charms tattooed on both of my shoulders” he says as he rolls up his sleeves.

”Doesn't that hurt a lot though?” Finn asks.

Alex shrugs and says ”it burns if I use too much magic, but no pain, no gain”

Zia quietly rolls up her left sleeve and the waist of her shirt, exposing a bracelet with a quartz charm on it wrapped around her upper arm just under the shoulder, and what seemed like a belt wrapped around the top of her waist with several obsidian charms all linked together. She simply just shows them briefly and says ”these” and then she unrolls her clothes. There was a brief pause as everyone waited for Siran to share, but he seemed to not even acknowledge the question. Finn turns to Siran and asks ”What about you? You seem so proficient with magic, so you gotta have something interesting”.

”I don't have any charms” Siran replies.

”Nice try” Finn says, ”I wasn't born yesterday. Would it make you feel better if I show you mine?”. Finn takes off his shirt and exposes a vest with leather pads with charms sewn on them. ”See?” Finn continues. ”No biggy, just curious ya know?”

Siran rolls his eyes and takes off his shirt. Everyone stops to stare at him, including some of the homeless people they're escorting. As they look at him, they only see a clean body from the front, but as they walk around to investigate his back, all they find is one big, strange, oddly shaped scar that covers nearly his whole back. It looked like some sort of violent hieroglyph carved into him, or the omega symbol someone tried to draw while really drunk. Nonetheless, it was only a scar, and not a charm, nor does it look like he volunteered to have it put on his back.

”I can take off my pants too” Siran says.

”Please” Finn says, ”do NOT take off your pants. There are children and also I don't want to see that or imagine it a second time”. As Siran slips his shirt back on, Finn asks ”How do you cast spells then?”

”I'm cursed” Siran says.

Finn laughs a bit then says ”I really wanna know though”

”Magic” Siran says.

There was a long pause as both Finn and Alex slap their own foreheads in irritation; their facepalm was the only way they could respond to a joke that unfunny. Zia begins to giggle, but then that small giggle began to grow into a loud laugh.

”At least someone thought it was funny” Siran says.

”Don't” Alex says as he caresses the bridge of his nose in stress, ”don't encourage him, please Zia”

”I regret even asking” Finn says.

”Trust me” Alex says, ”I've tried asking him numerous times. He won't give an honest answer”

After a long, stress and cringe filled journey, the team arrives at the outskirts of Seeira before evening on the next day. Siran, Alex, Zia and Finn agree to part ways with the people they were escorting at the edge of town.

”This is a free land” Siran tells them all. ”Find your new homes, getting some work won't be hard around here. We'd stick around to help but I'd rather avoid meeting someone who lives here for the time being”.

After a long goodbye from the kids and their parents and many thanks later, the people walk off towards the busiest area of town.

”So who's this person you're avoiding?” Finn asks.

”Siran's sister” Alex lazily explains.

”You have a sister?” Finn asks.

”She's not my sister” Siran replies, ”but she is like family”

”So what you mean is...” Finn says with a rather concerning look on his face ”she's AVAILABLE?”

Siran just shakes his head and replies ”Sure I guess, even though that's not what I said at all-”

”So why are you avoiding her?” Finn asks, suddenly more interested.

”Well, we only came here to help those people” Siran says. ”If I keep showing up here, then she'll think I'm just bringing trouble to her shop”

”Shop?” Finn asks.

”She makes weapons” Alex explains. ”Lots of them. She's kind of violent”

”Anyways” Siran begins to explain, ”I don't need more problems, so I'm going to try to avoid her for now and-”

”Who are you trying to avoid?” Vivi interrupts as she approaches them from behind with a woven basket full of food and other groceries.

”Shit” Siran says as he turns around. ”Hey Vivi, you shopping or?-”

”When are you going to stop crawling back here and causing trouble?” Vivi interrupts again.

Finn gets alarmingly close to Vivi and says ”Hello, I'm Finn, and you're available?”.

Vivi just stares at Finn with a face of utter disappointment and disapproval. ”And who the hell is THIS!?”

”Well” Siran says as he shrugs, ”... Mission accomplished?”

”You went to go investigate what was going on in Omnia” Vivi says in a stressed tone, ”and you come back... with this?”

”It could've been worse...” Siran says.

Vivi grabs Siran by the ear and drags him far enough away for the other three to not hear them. However, with the loud and harsh disciplinary tone she used against Siran, they could hear everything.

”WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU!?” Vivi yells at Siran. ”When I said to go find someone to help you on your journey who is about as dumb as you are, you weren't supposed to actually find someone as DUMB AS YOU ARE! You need a better sense of judgment! You have other people to worry about, so take better care of them! Especially that quiet girl! She's the most trustworthy of your group in my opinion and that's just SAD! I don't even know anything about her but I can't trust the two other dumbasses enough to amount to the mystery that is your reckless demeanor!”. Vivi nagged on and on at Siran as the other three decided to talk amongst themselves because they felt that Vivi's nagging was becoming a little too personal.

”Am I untrustworthy?” Finn asks Zia and Alex.

”I don't really care if they think I'm untrustworthy” Alex says.

”Why not?” Zia asks.

”I don't really trust any of you very much, but that's mostly because I haven't known either of you for long” Alex explains.

”That's fair” Finn says, leaning against a tree and taking it easy.

”What about Siran?” Zia asks. ”Don't you trust him?”

”To be honest” Alex says, ”not really. It's just, I was in The Ly'Lum long enough to know that most of the people my rank or higher were up to no good and I only wanted to help the people in my town rather than to transfer to other towns only to lie and cheat my way through a list of promotions”.

”What rank were you?” Finn asks.