With the tropical storm in full swing, Dahlia was unable to go outside and get fresh air that wasn't plastered onto her face with a fresh coating of rain. Her legs worked fine so she roamed around the hospital, feeling uneasy about doing nothing whilst Lemon and Tsumi are both out to see what they got from Tsumi's bugs.
In the cafeteria she would stare out at the dark skies and coughing winds that scrape and scratch at the large glass pane separating her from the chaos outside. She's seen storms like these back home but they were normally obscured by the darkness. Here with the bright skies shining just above the guarded clouds she could see clearly the trees bending and occasional scraps and pieces flying by at terrifying speeds.
I feel useless.
Although Lemon and Tsumi reassured her she was not at fault, she couldn't help feeling like she could've averted that. That in that moment where if Zannos hadn't snapped her out of her stupor she would've disembowelled one of her teachers.
She sat and took a drink from a paper cup filled with tea. She continued to stare out at the carnage.
Will I ever be able to use my power safely?
She couldn't help but feel defeated at the idea that the first time she made a breakthrough with her power she had almost killed someone, no, possibly everyone if she kept going. Having a sigh she kept thinking about what she did wrong, how she is going to make it up to those she hurt? Will they even let her speak?
"It looks like you have a lot on your mind, huh?" said a smooth feminine voice.
Sitting down with her was a familiar face though not one she has seen often. Wearing a felt red coat and a long silky dress on her waist, the crimson haired woman sat across from the girl, sipping a green tea through a straw from a tall plastic cup.
"Ah- hello. I recall you are Ms. Vermillion?" started Dahlia as she straightened her back and reassessed her posture.
"Oh please! Rosaniya! But at least you get points for memory." laughed the woman as she waved her hand in amusement at her.
She wasn't wearing sunglasses and had eyes that were perfect in every way. The right amount of makeup, the right amount of red eyeshadow and the piercing green clean eyes made her seem like she was the most visually perfect being to look at. A face you'd find in a magazine.
Dahlia set down her paper cup. "Well thank you. Might I ask why you are here? Are you injured as well?"
"Oh no. I was just her visiting someone, you wouldn't know them but enough from me what can you tell me about you? And that nasty blow to your pretty little head?" she asked in that deep yet smooth voice.
"Ah well," Dahlia reached up to her shrinking bruise, a bit flustered by the woman's last comment, "This was from an accident I caused. I messed up massively and hurt a lot of people with my power."
The woman's lips went glum but her eyes kept smiling. "Oh yes… I had heard about something along those lines; apparently the school had to end early that day. How did you lose control?"
Dahlia held her paper cup as she recounted, "I assume I had gotten carried away. I can never seem to hold back. The only difference this time is that I didn't feel dizzy, at least I don't think I did."
Once she finished explaining, Rosaniya took a short breath before speaking, "I used to have the same issue."
"You did?" Dahlia looked up at her.
"Hmm." she hummed, "I used to have no control over what I did. It felt like the slightest thing could cause me to snap and immediately resort to violence and thrashing at anything that disturbed me. It made me feel alone, which made me angrier."
"How did you overcome it?" the girl asked eagerly.
The red woman looked at the brown haired girl from the corner of her eye as she gazed out at the storm.
"It took the worst loss of my life to snap me out of it and finally start learning control." she said with a slightly sad tone, though her eyes never seem to change.
"Oh.. I see." Dahlia replied with a slight slump.
"Of course that doesn't mean that finding control has to come at a price. I know I hesitated and it cost me everything for it. But that doesn't mean there wasn't a moment where I could wake up earlier." she advised.
"What if I hesitate?" asked the girl.
Rosaniya looked directly at Dahlia. Her pupils seem to be darker and her smile seemed almost insidious.
"You won't."
Dahlia felt taken back. The look this woman gave felt like she would pounce at her at any moment or melt her with just her gaze. The stress stunned Dahlia for a second before the crimson woman laughed to herself.
"Oh my! You look as if you are about to have a heart attack!" the laugh was boisterous but nevertheless disarming. "Don't you worry Dahlia. A girl on your path is sure to do far better than I did."
As Dahlia let out an uneasy chuckle, the woman stood up and took her cup, "Well, that was a nice chat but I need to dash. My lunch is almost over."
"Oh, I did not know I was holding you up. Thank you Ms Vermillion." forced out, still feeling a bit uneasy from the conversation.
Her smile creased up a little. "Again darling, call me Rosaniya. We're practically friends now aren't we?"
With another chuckle she waves goodbye and leaves the cafeteria, leaving Dahlia to her thoughts once more.
What she said. I guess it does make the most sense. When the giant white beast back home almost devoured me I thought I was at my limit but then..
Dahlia almost delved into deep thought before she shot back up in a realisation about the red woman.
Did she say 'lunch was almost over'? Didn't she say she was on vacation?
- - -
Tsumi and Lemon were at home, scouring the screen of the laptop as the two hunched over on the sofa waiting for the data to be fully extracted from the bugs remotely. They'd been waiting thirty minutes for this and at last the little loading bar had almost filled up.
"I'm worried about Dahlia," Tsumi said suddenly.
"Naturally." the polyad replied as if expected.
He leaned back a bit. "She's so young and yet has all that power. Who knows what could happen should she lose the wheel on it."
Lemon threw herself back to the sofa as well, "Reminds me when we first found you."
"Exactly, one wrong move and I would've been paste on a wall, to the thanks of Alice," he recalled.
The woman let out a small laugh. "Nah, I'd say you would've pulled through either way. Speaking of, have you felt it peak lately?"
"No, it's been quiet. Course it's ready to pounce the second it's needed." Tsumi said, shaking his shoulders and placing a hand on them as he said that.
"Hopefully it won't come to that here." she hoped.
A beep on the laptop sounded. "Let's not count it out of the race yet. We don't know if Polaris suspects us."
The download completed and both of them shot up to listen. The two took an earphone each and plugged it into their ear. There were a few recordings. The listening devices only record when they hear noise and from the timeline it seems there were very few moments it picked up.
"You'd think that there'd be a lot given the venue." stated Tsumi.
"Which only makes it more suspicious that there are only a few recordings." Lemon noted.
A quick look at the times captured also caught their attention. "Not only that but.. Only one of these is during school hours, the rest are after school. "
They chose one of the earliest, taken around an evening after the school was already closed. The sounds of a person entering the restroom, flushing one of the toilets three times in a row and then not leaving the bathroom for hours until the sound of someone walking out of the toilet stall can be heard.
"Must've really needed to go.." said Lemon.
"Hah," Tsumi chuckled, "Seems that this is the same for all the other recordings. People taking a long time on the ivory throne."
A small hum from Lemon came as they both reached the same conclusion. "Only one thing that can be."
"A secret passage." he finished, "But that doesn't make sense. They're on the third floor, there's no room for a passage."
"Then maybe it's a signal?" the woman guessed. "We might not be the only ones listening to the stall there."
"Maybe.. Is there anyone on Polaratus that uses teleportation?" the man uttered, starting to look through school files again.
"The boy in Dahlia's class, Rolo Debore and his father, Robert Debore but neither of them are natives." Lemon recalled.
After a double check through school files to be sure, Tsumi agreed. "Then it must be someone unseen.. We might have to use your route after all."
"No issue, I made a dent yesterday and think I've almost made a way in." Lemon reported. "Should we destroy the bugs?"
"Not yet, these little ears still might be useful." the man said.
*Knock Knock*
The sound caused the two to freeze and look to the front door. Tsumi closed the laptop and put it away whilst Lemon went to open the door, remembering to put on her housewife persona.
On the other side was the smiling face under an umbrella of Litis Daltis, bigger than the door frame itself.
"Hello! I believe you are, Mrs. Novitin!" he said with a stellar smile.
He was dressed as he usually was besides the drenched shoulders. Despite the outside storm he seemed completely unphased by it as Lemon showed a brief moment of feigned shock before recomposing herself.
"Why hello, mister?" she inquired.
"Ah yes, forgive me." he said with a chuckle and a shake of his umbrella, "I am Litis Daltis, your daughter's principal."
The woman twisted her face to appear shocked and excited as she was told who he was. "Oh yes! You are the Daybreak!"
"Oh, hush." he said bashfully. "Daybreak is my night job, right now I come as your friendly principal and please, call me Litis. Are you busy at the moment?"
"Oh no, just milling around due to the glum weather. You can certainly come in."
Lemon couldn't refuse and perhaps that was Litis' intention. Coming over during a storm just to meet, how could anyone ever refuse without looking heartless.
Letting the hero step into the house, Lemon immediately goes to the kitchen, "Would you like anything Litis?"
"Oh, if you wouldn't mind I would like some coffee, any blend really I'm not choosy." he stated, placing his umbrella in a holder but not taking off his coat.
The imposing man took a seat immediately, showing a friendliness and chumminess that anyone without context would think that Litis was a family friend.. Tsumi stepped downstairs, seeing Daltis and feigning surprise like Lemon had when in reality he was listening from upstairs the whole time.
"Mr. Daltis, if I had known you were coming I would've been more prepared. What brings you here?" he asked.
The man let out a laugh. "Oh, I just wanted to have a conversation about the incident a few days ago. I heard your daughter might be getting discharged today?"
Tsumi took a seat across from Litis as Lemon continued to work in the kitchen. "Yes she is. And yes I was also hoping to ask about that incident some more."
Lemon came in, an expresso in hand to hand to Litis. "Oh thank you Lemon, can I call you Lemon?"
"Not an issue with." she replied as she took a seat next to her 'husband'.
Litis took a sip of his drink, "Ooh. Quite fresh."
"I have a garden for them in my backyard," noted Lemon.
"Ah. It must be hard to grow them. Polaris' soil is one of the pain points here." the man commented.
"I have a way with nature." the woman mused.
Litis raised a small eyebrow at that. "Is that so?"
From that comment, Lemon felt like she made a slip but she wasn't sure what, deciding to keep quiet and not let it show. The hero took another sip of his drink before he settled down and followed up on Tsumi's concerns.
"Anyway, to talk about your inquiry about our inquiry, all I can say is that Dahlia is young and is still in need of learning to control herself." he started.
"Yeah." said Tsumi, "It's clear the girl needs more practice than we initially thought."
"Indeed. About Dahlia though, I can't help but look at you two and look at her…" he trailed off.
Oh no. thought Lemon.
"...Neither of you really bear a resemblance to her, forgive me if I'm being rude." he said, raising his hands.
Lemon launched into the question, prepared for it, "Our Dahlia resembles my mother more than my father who I take after."
"Yes, Dahlia bears a lot more resemblance to my mother-in-law than anyone in my family. Don't worry about rubbing us the wrong way with asking that." he explained.
"Oh good to hear," said Litis, "The rudeness part, not the resemblance part. But beyond that can I ask when your daughter first exhibited her powers?"
The two 'parents' began to recount a carefully fabricated tale about how Dahlia had almost hurt her 'father' when she first used her powers. It was a mundane and purposefully bland story meant to be as flexible as possible, Litis nodding along hearing it and giving little comments throughout.
"I see a very normal awakening, though one that's certainly amusing." the man commented.
Lemon and Tsumi nodded and agreed, Tsumi spoke, "So is there a reason to know this Litis?"
The hero had finished his coffee and set the cup down on the table between them. "Oh.. just I wanted to make a little proposal."
"A proposal?" asked Lemon.
"Well." he began, "I'm sure you are fully aware about the incident with one of the students that happened a week ago. Well that young man was meant to be the Polar Eye for this year's Polaratus.."
Both of the 'parents' nodded along but both had the inkling they knew where this conversation was going to go. Neither of them liked it.
"Well with how well spoken and educated your daughter is I was wondering if she would be honoured to be the Polar Eye." he requested.
Lemon feigned shock while Tsumi feigned excitement as he mentioned the Polar Eye.
"Our Dahlia?!" asked Lemon, "But she's nowhere near ready!"
"And even then," started Tsumi, "Isn't there going to be a meeting tomorrow about deciding on the Polar Eye?"
Litis waved his hand in the air in exaggeration, "Oh yes, oh yes. Which is why I was only making a suggestion."
Tsumi kept his fake face of concern and intrigue all while inside he thought differently.
Somethings very off about the Polar Eye position. Maybe I should look up how it was done in the past.
"Our Dahlia is too shy when it comes to public speaking, she would be too afraid to accept." said Lemon with the concern a mother should have.
"Yes," agreed Litis. "But there have been many young folk too afraid to take the Polar Eye position who shined under the spotlight."
Lemon and Tsumi continued to ask questions but were all battered away by Litis. "I know it can be a lot of pressure, my own experience tells me, but I can see in your daughter someone who thrives under the pressure. Now, I need to get going," he said as he stood up. "But think about what I said, I'm sure once you understand the good being the Polar Eye can do then maybe you'll reconsider."
As he went for the door, he thanked Lemon for the coffee and he left, walking out to the rain which sizzled on his body before he let out his umbrella. Lemon and Tsumi closed the door, the two waiting a bit before they immediately jumped into conversation.
"Do you think he knows?" asks Lemon.
"I don't know. The first question is certainly strange." Tsumi pointed out, referring to the resemblance between them.
"What if he asks us for a test?" the woman worried.
"Too out of the way, he'd likely find a way to take our data the same way he took Dahlia's if he hasn't already." the man said.
"Then it's only a matter of time then.." the polyad uttered whilst nibbling on her thumb.
"Yes.. I'm going to look into the Polar Eye."
"I'll make some tea." Lemon stated.
The two split up. Lemon went to the kitchen and prepared a couple mugs of tea. One was herbal, the other was a strong black tea. As she finished them quickly she stepped into the living room to a frantic Tsumi.
"Lemon!" he shouted.
"What is it?" the polyad called as she ran into the living room, sliding a little.
Tsumi looked stressed and nervous as some dust laid thin on his knees. "The laptop, it's gone!"
"What do you mean gone?!" she yelled.
"It's not where I left it. In the hiding place, it also looks like someone went through my room." he explained.
"Then you mean.." Lemon started as she set down the drinks.
"..He was distracting us." finished Tsumi.