~ Chapter 24 ~

Walking down the stairs, I played with the hem of the sweater Mr. Alessi had given me, still chilled from the rain, even after I had taken a quick shower to try and warm myself up (and get rid of the dirt I had so gracefully fallen into). I had no extra clothes of my own here (we were supposed to visit our apartments on the day of the bookstore, but obviously that never happened, and Satsuya was loath to leave any of us), so Mr. Alessi had graciously let me burrow his own, which didn’t fit perfectly but were plenty good enough. Satsuya was taller than me, and didn’t have my hips, so it wasn’t like I could burrow anything from him—though, let’s be honest, that was probably better for my health anyway.

“Those clothes don’t suit you at all, Ivy.” Yuuki complained as I stepped down the last step, the young girl already sitting at the table, awaiting the food Mr. Alessi had prepared. Her honeyed eyes speared me, but there was a grin on her face—vicious or laughing, I couldn’t exactly tell.

Would you prefer that I wear something of your brother’s? I thought before I could stop myself, quirking a brow her way.

The little girl’s grin transformed into a monstrous scowl, a knife finding its way to her hand. It would have been a terrifying picture were it not a butter knife—and even then...

“Don’t be rude, Yuuki.” Satsuya said from where he leaned against the counter behind her, drawing an immediate response as Yuuki settled down, placing the knife back on the table (though close by, I noticed).

I turned my gaze from Yuuki to the other person already sitting down at the table. Icy Eve had her back to me, dressed in loose pants and a large shirt, her many braids cascading down her back like a waterfall. Her posture was rigid, her shoulders slightly hunched, as if she were holding herself together.

I had wanted to speak to her earlier, but I was shooed up the stairs by Mr. Alessi, who assured me food would be ready soon.

Will she be angry at me for trying to help her?

The thought was sobering, poking a hole in my heart, and yet I had to swallow the possibility.

I jumped as the door to the bar opened, and Mr. Alessi entered waving the coffee cup held in his hand. “Is everyone ready for food?” He appeared tired just as Yuuki had earlier, though his face hid it better, tucking the exhaustion behind years of life.

Mr. Alessi pulled several large trays from the icebox with Satsuya’s help. My mouth fell open, already salivating as the scent of food reached me. There was an array of sandwiches, dips, loose fruits and vegetables on the trays. Apparently, Mr. Alessi did nothing halfway.

Once the trays were all arranged atop the lace tablecloth, Mr. Alessi rounded the table to take the seat next to Yuuki. “Please join us, Miss Ivy.” He waved his free hand, gesturing towards the remaining empty chairs. “After dinner, we will have desserts!” This time, he gestured towards the counter, where five trays of delicacies both familiar and unfamiliar awaited me. I wondered if he had made them all to relieve stress, or if he just wanted to live the next few days as extravagantly as he could. “I am sure you will particularly love the tiramisu—ah, I mean, the coffee-soaked cake.” He corrected himself, shrugging one shoulder, even though he had made such a mistake.

Tira-what?

That has to be a banned word!

How had he come across it?

I wondered if Mr. Alessi was old enough to have lived through the Greatest War—to have come from a time when that word was used—or if he had heard it from someone else, but right now it didn’t really matter.

“Thank you, Mr. Alessi. It looks amazing.” I took another glance at the—what was it again? Tiramoss? Tiramess?—as I silently debated, moving towards the seat next to Eve.

“It’s Tiramisu, Ivy.” Yuuki snorted in my mind, already reaching for her food. “Make sure you try it, but at least eat some real food first.”

I’m not going to eat only desert! I protested, but I heard her scoff in real life this time, earning a questioning glance from her brother as he sat down next to her, telling Yuuki to wait for everyone else.

The last person still up, I hesitantly sank into my seat. I cast an uncertain glance towards Eve—to find she was already looking at me.

I bit back a gasp as my glance became a stare, unable to help noticing the jagged scar that now cut across her cheek. Had she received it when she’d fallen towards me in that diamond prison made of ice? Maybe she had landed on one of the icy stakes she’d been trying to skewer me with. Whatever the case, Uni sure did heal fast, because the scar wasn’t fresh or still-knitting.

Eve’s lips curved, as if she knew what I was thinking. They were no longer blue, her makeup completely gone, her body sagged and tired. “This is a blessing, compared to what could have happened.” She touched the raised scar on her cheek, fingers probing, but despite her words, the frown on her lips told me it bothered her, and probably would for a while. “But anyway, Ivy, I wanted to tell you...” her gaze met mine, just as it had back in the diamond prison, “...thank you...for saving me.” The words were halting, almost shy, but I sensed that she meant them.

I blinked away the tears that threatened (God, I was such a crybaby still), and waved a hand her way. “You’re welcome. But, you know—I didn’t save you. You made the decision to live yourself. I just gave you a little push, is all.”

And I think, at the same time, you gave me a push, too.

I felt stronger now—not physically, because honestly, I physically felt as though I had been run over by a train—but emotionally, as if I had...maybe accepted that this was my reality? Or something.

Eve shook her head, braids moving. “Girl, you are strange. I’ve never met a Typpe who didn’t want to be labeled a hero—or villain, I guess. Right, Soul?” Her gaze shifted to Satsuya as she grinned, and I was amazed at how easily she could slip into friendly harassment.

But then I remembered they had been good friends once, so it made perfect sense. Even if that friendship must have still been overshadowed by what had happened to her brother.

“Hmmm...that’s true.” Satsuya’s gaze shifted from Eve to me, glasses slipping down the bridge of his nose. “It’s strange. Typpe don’t want to be Uni, but they want to be heroes like some Uni are. I guess it’s just a...human trait.” He looked down at his empty plate, as if the idea bothered him.

I wondered if he was thinking of how I had rushed to try and reach Eve, how I had put myself in danger. I was sorry for worrying him, but I knew I would never go back and change what I had done.

If I hadn’t done it, would Eve be sitting here next to me now?

“You’ve changed, Soul. Looking at both Uni and Typpe as humans.” Eve sat back in her chair, one arm perched on its back. Her lips remained curved, but there was something dark in her expression, hiding behind the lightness of humor. She looked to me, then Mr. Alessi, shrugging. “Not to offend anyone. I don’t hate Typpe anymore. I had plenty of time to think about what I do and don’t like thanks to Wars and his dungeon.” She said the words with such a carefree air, the tension that settled over the table felt almost out of place.

No one had moved to grab food (save for Yuuki), but Mr. Alessi pressed his hands together in a silent prayer before he swept his arm out, gesturing for everyone to partake. I bit my lip before plucking a few items for my plate, and Yuuki dove in with inhibition.

Mr. Alessi calmly waited for the young girl to finish before he chose his own meal. “If it is not too much, please tell me, how long were you locked away, Miss Eve?” I nearly choked on my bread when he said it, his voice reverent, but Eve didn’t seem to mind.

She shrugged again, rolling a mostly round, wrinkled fruit between her fingers—a fig? “It was years. Too many years. Time sort of melts in a place like that, you know? But...” her brows pinched, considering, “I think it was a year or so before Soul left that I entered the dungeon, and I’ve been there ever since—until recently, when Wars let me escape. So...maybe nine years?” She stared at her fingers, at that fruit, the darkness hidden in her expression coming to the surface, transforming into a lonely, simmering anger.

Nine years of imprisonment.

Nine years of being locked away by people you thought were your friends, your comrades.

I couldn’t imagine it.

I didn’t want to—but I had to if I wanted to understand Eve at all.

“I see.” Mr. Alessi sat back and withdrew his fedora before he turned to Eve, head bowed. “I am sorry for your loss, Miss Eve. Both of them.”

Both—her brother and a chunk of her life.

“Thanks...From a Typpe—I mean, from you—well, that means a lot.” Eve’s lips trembled, but she held them steady. She placed the fig back onto her plate and sat up a little straighter, hands tucking into her lap. “Listen, I’m really sorry for what happened before. For threatening you all. For what I’ve done. But—I’ve already talked to Soul about this, but I’ve decided to stay with you, if you don’t mind. I mean—” she swallowed, “—now that I can see clearly again...he’s always been one of the only people I could trust. I can’t leave the Conscious. Wars only let me go because he knew I would come here. I’m sure he wanted to remind you of where your allegiances should lie.” She glanced at Satsuya. “If I try and escape, the Conscious will find me. And honestly, I wouldn’t even know where to go. So I’ll come with you—not as a part of the Conscious, but as a part of your team. If that’s okay. If you all can find it in yourselves to trust me like I trust Soul.”

Eve’s eyes were wide as she looked from one of us to the other, gaze traveling around the table, pleading in her eyes. This can’t have been easy for her, especially after she had threatened us. Especially after learning the truth of what had happened to her brother.

It was never easy to trust someone in the first place—but even more so once you had been betrayed. There was always doubt, always the suspicion that things might come full circle, that you might be betrayed again.

But even so...

“My grandmother always said people deserve a second chance—often more, because we’re all human.” I offered Eve a smile, the best one I could conjure in that moment. “I don’t know you very well, but it seems to me you want to change, and I support that. So I’ll gladly welcome you to our, um, team.”

It felt strange to call us that, even though it’s exactly what we were—strange, and all the more apparent that what was to come was real.

“You already know my answer, Eve.” Satsuya spoke next, arranging the food on his plate into a neat row.

“And I agree with Miss Ivy. Welcome to the team.” Mr. Alessi was as kind as ever, a genuine smile on his face.

That left Yuuki, whose intense stare bored into Eve from across the table, the young Uni’s food all but forgotten. A strangling silence stretched out, a line of pain wrinkling Eve’s forehead as she put her hand to it, before Yuuki said, “You’re not lying, so it’s fine.”

“Yuuki.” Satsuya shot his sister a reprimand, and Yuuki looked back down at her food, continuing her meal as if nothing had happened.

“So you really are a Uni.” Eve murmured, withdrawing her hand from her forehead, but she didn’t seem upset at what I assumed had been a mental onslaught. She probably felt she deserved it.

I wondered if the younger Uni would question Eve for a while, or if she was simply being cautious. It was difficult to earn her respect, but it seemed that once you had it, it was fully there.

“Like you’ve accomplished that, Ivy?” Yuuki scoffed, her voice in my thoughts, and I sighed.

One day, hopefully...

Once it became clear that Eve was now part of the group, and didn’t hold any grudges towards us, conversation came easier. We spoke about The Red Bar, about what it was like living in this sector—anything but the Conscious and the ticking time bomb hanging over all our heads. It was a meal of camaraderie, a moment I knew I would look back on in the days to come, when a simple gathering such as this was impossible to have.

Another sobering thought, but I accepted it just as I had accepted the rest, swallowing it down.

When we were finished with the food, it was time for desert. I debated over what to try, before finally deciding on trying one of each of Mr. Alessi’s creations. My plate was mildly full, but it seemed Satsuya and Eve weren’t much for sweets—while Yuuki’s, well, I was afraid it might break.

Let her eat all she wants.

I doubt the Conscious make it a point to have deserts lying around.

The thought left me feeling chilled. What would it be like when we reached the Conscious’ headquarters? Surely they would want us to stay there, or somewhere else they controlled. What kind of life would we be living while Satsuya prepared to face The One?

“It is my turn to make the coffee, Satsu!” Mr. Alessi’s laughter scattered my thoughts, and I was grateful.

Satsuya, who had been about to stand, sat back down as the fedora-wearing man bustled over to the counter to prepare the caffeine. After heating some water, he picked up a glass sphere I had never seen before, pouring the coffee grounds in. He dished out mugs to each of us while the coffee was brewing, then poured it as if the sphere were a teapot of some kind.

I had mind to ask him about what the contraption was, because I had only ever seen coffee brewed in a mechanical pot, but I decided to save the question for later.

“You must tell me how you like this, Miss Ivy. You are our coffee princess, after all.” Mr. Alessi poured my drink first, a grin on his face as he offered me some cream and sweetener (as if the deserts wouldn’t be sweet enough). He waited for me to fix my coffee to my liking, and I obediently took a drink, wondering if instead of ‘coffee princess’, he had actually meant ‘coffee addict’.

Mr. Alessi’s coffee wasn’t quite magical coffee like the kind Satsuya made, but it certainly was good. Whatever that spherical coffee-making device was, it did the job right. “It’s delicious, Mr. Alessi. Thank you.” I dug into the coffee-soaked cake he had made, having saved it to eat with my drink, before I loudly declared, “And however you pronounce this—uh, Tiramess?—it’s amazing, too!”

“Tiramisu.” This time Yuuki said it aloud, scoffing as she finished off her second slice.

Boy, was she going to be awake for a while; the coffee taste was strong with this cake.

Yuuki rolled her eyes. “Ivy, for a word person, you sure aren’t very good with them.”

“Give her a break, kid.” Eve spoke before I could, coming to my rescue. “That’s an Unused Word, you know. Illegal and all.” She raised her brows Yuuki’s way and took a sip of coffee. Hers, like Satsuya’s and Mr. Alessi’s, was fully black. Was I the only one who couldn’t handle it full strength?

Not one to be easily shot down, Yuuki jutted her chin out and countered with, “Since it’s an Unused Word, how do you know it?”

Eve took another leisurely sip before replying. “Used to know a man who dealt in Unused Words. He had a library full of them. I’d buy some off him from time to time. He’d write them on little sheets of paper that fit in your pocket—pronunciation, spelling, origin if he had it. And meaning, of course. You’d read it, then burn the paper.” Her lips thinned, not quite a rueful smile. “Eventually, he was found. They cut his tongue out and severed his hands, so he couldn’t tell anyone anything else. It was on the Newscape.” There was dark humor in her words, and I nearly choked.

Though I wasn’t surprised. Unused Words went against everything the Law stood for: a world in which everyone was the same, equal and peaceful. A world in which the differences that used to exist between people weren’t there, didn’t matter—and couldn’t cause harm.

But have we lost something since they’re gone?

As a person who played with words for a living, I couldn’t help but feel a trill of sadness to hear about that man’s fate. Not to mention the fate of his library of lost words.

What words were contained there that I had never heard before? What expressions of life were lost to us because those words were gone? What could I have written if I’d had access to all of that?

I looked down at the tiramisu, making sure I said the word right in my mind. It had a certain ring to it, a feeling—a history, I was sure. Did it really just mean ‘coffee-soaked cake’, or was there more to it? And even if that was the exact meaning, wasn’t the feeling of that word on your lips, the sound of it caressing your ears, worth it?

Mr. Alessi had given me more than the gift of cake. He had, once again, proved that I was a part of this group.

I tucked the forbidden word into my heart as I ate another bite of cake, both of them a present.