Chapter 13
Birthday Girl
Near Bir Hanyabal, Principality of Feniki
28 Erdak BE 001
It had been six days since Rio and Ellis crossed the border to Feniki. Although there was not much threat of the Ghaddafi Syndicate coming after them again after Mustafa Ghaddafi was killed, it still felt good to be out of Libni. That was not to say the Syndicate did not have a presence in Feniki, but that presence was not nearly as strong. There could of course be a new faction coming after them, but Intel had not turned up anything yet.
Rio had said she wanted to up the pace to make up for the time she was out, but she had not had much luck. Even with Doc's treatment, she was not 100% recovered yet. The way Doc's Arcana worked, it was like taking out a loan. You got your body fully functioning up front, but you still needed rest for the recovery to stick. If you continued to push yourself to your limit, it was the same as blowing your next paycheck the moment you got it, before you paid back what you owed. When the bank sends its people to collect and you have already spent everything, you would get your kneecaps cracked for it. In other words, as much as she was trained to go beyond a normal person's limits, her body knew what she could and could not be doing if she wanted to maintain long-term viability.
In general, Ellis had been complaining less ever since they resumed their journey, but whenever Rio could feel herself reaching what should have been the reasonable limits to what she could do in her current state, that was when Ellis would pick up his familiar whining about wanting to stop for the day. It was like he was looking out for her. She did not think he was that perceptive, and if he was, she especially did not like the thought of him trying to take care of her. It was her job to take care of him, not the other way around.
Serving to bolster her suspicions, it was right as her bones were starting to really ache that Ellis said, "Hey, Rio, don't you think we should start thinking about where we're going to be staying for the night?"
"The next town's five or six klicks ahead," Rio replied. "We'll find something there."
"That's like another hour."
"Not if you pick up the pace it ain't."
For a change, he actually quickened his pace to catch up to her.
"How are you feeling?" he asked.
"This in reference to something in particular or are you just asking in general about my perspective on life?"
"Do you know what day it is?"
"Wednesday."
"The date."
"The 28th of Erdak."
Rio could imagine what he was angling for, but she was not going to make it easy for him. Honestly, she was a little surprised he had waited this long.
"And is there anything special about today?"
"Normally it's the end of the month, but this is a leap year. Triple leap year, in fact. Only comes once ever' hundred twenty years, hence our little walkabout."
"Today," Ellis said, starting to sound a bit annoyed at Rio's deliberate obfuscation. "What's special about today?"
Not quite able to suppress a grin, Rio kept the game going a little longer.
"Nothing I can think of."
Ellis had finally had enough and said, "Dammit, Rio, I'm tryin' to wish you a happy birthday, dammit."
"That's at least one 'dammit' too many."
"Whatever. Here."
Ellis thrusted out a little package wrapped in white paper with a bow Rio did not imagine he tied himself. She took the package from him, figuring he might throw a tantrum if she continued to play hard to get.
"I didn't get you anything," she said.
"My birthday's not for four more months," Ellis said. "You've still got time."
"That'll depend on whether or not you're a good boy, I imagine."
"I'm not a kid, Rio. I'm going to be 16."
"Which is still a minor and therefore still a kid."
"In that case, you're just 19 now, so that means you're still a kid too."
"Some places the age of majority's 18, so that means I'm fast on my way to being an old maid."
"Are you going to open your present or not, old maid?"
"I guess that's politeness, isn't it?"
Rio untied the ribbon and unwrapped the package. It was a pressed rose preserved in resin, made into a necklace.
"You're always wearing that key," Ellis said. "I thought maybe something a little prettier might be nice."
Rio had never told Ellis what the key meant, so she could forgive him for thinking he could one-up it. Him thinking he could girl her up was not quite as easy to let slide, but she was feeling generous enough to not read into it any deeper.
She dangled the necklace in front of her. It was pretty. Perhaps more of her girly side survived Protector training than she thought.
"A pink rose..." she mused. "In the language of flowers, it means gratitude."
"Well, I am thankful to you," Ellis said. "Even if you do put me through hell all the time."
"Blame whatever immortal hand or eye framed your fate," Rio said. "Instead of being the cornerstone of all the hopes and dreams of the world, you'd just be an ordinary lycéen aiming to be an accountant one day."
"You're butchering the poem," Ellis replied, "and actually I was thinking about the Merchant Marine."
This was news to Rio.
"The Merchant Marine? Really?"
"Yeah. You know, get out and see the world and all that."
Rio spread out her arms, motioning to their surroundings.
"What do you think this is?"
"I was hoping I wouldn't have to do it all on foot."
"Well, I hear life at sea's hard work. This is good practice for you."
"If all this stuff about the Child of Promise is true, do you really think they're gonna let me go off and join the Merchant Marine?"
Rio turned away from him.
"I guess not."
A moment of silence passed between them before Ellis spoke up again.
"Well, at least you'll be able to start living your own life once this is over."
"I wouldn't know the first thing about that," Rio replied. "Besides, we might just keep on protecting you for life."
"How do you feel about that?"
"It is what it is."
"What would you want to do if you weren't a Protector?"
"It's like I said, I wouldn't know the first thing about it."
"You've never thought about it?"
"Thoughts like that are only a distraction. They beat it out of you real quick in training."
"So you have thought about it. What did you want to be?"
"I don't know. It was a long time ago. I forgot."
Ellis made some grumbling noises in frustration at Rio's repeated moves to kill the conversation. She had no intention of telling him about it, but when she was little, like a lot of girls, she had it in her head that she wanted to be a florist when she grew up. Looking at the rose made her think about those silly childish notions. These hands of hers were hardly suited for making flower arrangements.
Even so, she could not say that it felt bad to remember that girl all those years ago. She quietly put on the necklace and tucked it away under her shirt. It could keep her key company, two impossible dreams kept close to her heart but far from ever coming to pass.
