The Rise Of The Consortium

For the last hour or two, Rio had been sitting on a hospital bed, requesting every passerby to let her go to her work, but all she faced was confused looks. She couldn't even move on her own as it was locked with a fatal light band, but a little different than the one she saw in the garden. Giving up requesting everyone, she thought about the events after the ones in the garden.

After the group reached the local court, Kysop's gang was taken to a different room for questioning and while Rio was also taken to an open area for questioning, she saw the woman chatting happily with the court master. She was asked the same question whether the woman attacked her in any manner, but not anything about Kysop. With Kysop's thought, Kner crossed her mind and that gave her shivers. Feeling frustrated, she walked away from the questioner. It was easy to walk away as that was a mere talkative box. A real questioner would've asked a lot more different things. She was called again to write a report on why she was absent on her duty that day. Consoling her tired mind, she wrote a brief and neat one on the prompted screen located on the only podium in the court. Without having another look at anyone, she left the area as soon as possible. Unfortunately, she collided with many waiting officers and other clerks behind her. That almost made a scene which she never wanted to create. She was afraid that might attract the woman's attention who was still giggling at the master's vague joke. Without wasting any time she rushed to leave, only to be called by the clerk to meet the woman.

She remembered how she was made to go to the hospital with the dark-haired woman even when there were no signs of a wound. When Rio was too stubborn to be taken there, the woman gathered a crowd to show them how deep the wound was on her neck. How one could show something that doesn't exist infuriated her a lot. She agreed to walk with the woman when everyone in the court started making a big fuss about it.

She thought about how many times that day she was not listened to which pained her head. When her eyes were about to fill with tears, a nurse came near her bed to switch off the light protecting her bed and walked away. Taking that as a positive sign to be allowed to go out, she smoothed her clothes and got off her bed. As she was about to get away from the area, she heard collective gasps near her and quickly she looked at the source of the sound and instead of gasping, she felt her voice leave it's place and looked with wide eyes at the door of the room where she was made to sit. At the door was standing Kner Maning, his worried eyes looking straight at Rio. As she began walking to the door, Kner cast one glance at the gossiping faces that made them shut right away and quickly walked towards Rio's bedside.

"I'm sorry." "How are you?" Both couldn't listen to what the other was saying. Feeling ashamed, she decided to shut her mouth and rather kept her eyes downwards.

"Why are you standing?" He made her sit lightly on the bed and he grabbed a low table for himself. At this point, Rio's body was feeling a bit uncomfortable. She was perfectly fine a few moments ago, she thought herself.

"How are you?" He asked her raising her chin to look at her.

"I'm fine." She didn't know if that was correct.

"I'm sorry for whatever my brother has done. He has really forgotten basic manners. I'm really--"

"No, I'm sorry." She felt her palms on his, his thumb c.a.r.e.s.sing her fingers. "I shouldn't have gone there. I don't know how I did that. I swear this would never happen again."

"No. This time he is totally wrong. You know--- his birthday is tomorrow, so he went out to drink cause he can't control himself for tomorrow. But you know him so well, he rarely behaves like that." He squeezed her palms lightly while he had his eyes on her face. "I'm really sorry."

"They won't keep him locked up for long, will they?" Rio asked anxiously even if Kner to know how much damage she had caused in the whole situation.

"No. I got him out of there before I came here." Kner had his gaze lowered on her palms. "He's a bit mad though." Rio felt his fingers cold.

"I must've ruined his birthday. He didn't deserve this." She was still not over with her part of the incident.

"He'll be fine. He never remains sad for more than an hour. All he needs is a good distraction." He began circling his thumb on her knuckles, his eyes radiating mild happiness to Rio's face.

"Will he forgive me?" Nothing could melt her sadness until she feels sure the other person is not disappointed.

"He forgiving you? Or the other way round? You know, he's wrong. He needed that lesson. He's the one to apologize!" Kner's voice pitched higher that people felt aware of his presence. He suddenly let go of per palms and shook her shoulders. "I know I'm really late. But you're coming to his birthday party tomorrow. Isn't it?" His eyes shone bright with imaginary hopefulness, but somehow Rio felt her gut churning at the thought of seeing Kysop again.

"Just to decorate the place a bit. You know it's a private party just with my family and some close friends."

She would've to ask her Mum to let her go the place as she really dislikes that. Getting permission felt like a heavy task.

"He'd apologize as well. I'll talk to him. Please, come for me before the midday." He gave a slight squeeze to her arms.

As if her thoughts attracted her mother, a lady in windblown gray hair appeared at the doorway.

"Where's my daughter? Ah, there she is. Thank you so much." And rushed near Rio's bed, thanking the hospital guard with a short smile. She wore a frowning look for Rio which suddenly changed to a disappointing one as her eyes swept to the dark brown haired boy sitting near the bed. Both Rio and Kner looked as if the ground vanished underneath their feet. Both stood up quickly before Rio's mother came nearer.

"You sit." Her mother spat out at Rio. But Rio's feet refused to bend.

"How's the Prince of Katokzeim doing? The firstborn, the first heir to the moldering throne, how he is happening to be here? Your pretty legs must be paining, isn't it? Do you need a feet massage service?" Her face quickly changed from the blank to the one full of disdain. "Your valuable time must have wasted, isn't it? Ah, why are you taking the burden of this trivial matter of such trivial people like us?" Rio felt completely scared of the way mother interacted with him, she didn't know how to put out the fire that just began.

Her mother's eyes went quickly to his hand. "Oh no! You're touching the filthy hands of little people! Now you'll be taking a thousand baths just to let go of the smell. Isn't it?" Her voice went dramatically higher, catching other patients' attention.

"Let go of my daughter." Rio didn't know her left hand was with Kner until her mother shook it off violently.

Kner's lips were tight in rage. He kept looking at different directions not to spill any word. Her mother looked to and fro both waiting for some reaction. When none of them spoke anything, she looked at Rio, "So aren't you feeling it enough after dozens of news about you every day? When will you stop seeking attention from someone who really doesn't know your value?" She crossed her arms near her c.h.e.s.t ."These people only know how to suck everything from you and leave you when they're done! Do you want to see that happening with you?"

Finally, when Kner felt it enough, he suddenly gave a sad glance at Rio and spoke in a low voice, "Talk to you later."

"Shameless! Shameless you people. Talk so nicely in front of them and do something different behind their backs. How wonderful!" Rio's mother didn't regret saying that. "Let's see if you can really talk after this!"

Looking at Rio and her mother for the last time with a long face, Kner walked away as quickly as possible without turning back at them again.

Rio's head was wheezing in growing irritation. Her face was wet with tears and sweat. Seeing Kner go out of the room, her mother blurted little loudly again, "It'd be really better if you get a serious job instead of getting on headlines with random boys." Her eyes bore deep into Rio's eyes. "Cause that won't fill your stomach."

"And don't ever think your piteous face would ever work for me." Her mother spoke through gritted teeth.

"You might run as far as possible from your responsibilities, but if something ever happens to me, it'll be all your fault."

She turned away to go out. But stopped midway as if reminded by another important matter to snap at her. "And yes, find someone who can pay for your daily dramas. Cause all that I had for this month, gave you last week and I don't think you had the capability to keep them with you. And for the sake of our lives, don't make more headlines please." Rio watched her mother walk out of the room with utter annoyance and impatience. One might mistake her mother as a sweet lady in her fifties, but interacting with her would make anyone realize that she actually has the energy do anything, only her health gave way to irritability.

Rio didn't know how long the whole event passed in front of her eyes, but her legs couldn't take it anymore and she plopped on the bed. Feeling very embarrassed with fellow patients' prying eyes, she pulled the curtains separating the beds and burst into silent tears. It wasn't about her daily dramatic headlines anymore, it was about her mother's illness. It was about being treated like this, as if completely valueless and unwanted. And unfair treatment to the ones she really felt closer to her heart. She loved her mother more than anyone else, maybe no one knows. Because there is no one except her mother in Katokzeim. The only bread earner of the family, her mother does a really tough job making them survive in that harsh city in terms of atmosphere and citizens.

As soon as her tears stopped, she felt the need for fresh air. She wiped her face with the collar of her shirt and took a deep breath. As there was no protective light surrounding her bed, she got off her bed and sped off the room as soon as possible. Trying not to focus on the dreadful walls of blinding white, she pinned her eyes on the floor and walked out of the door. She no longer cared what everyone was up to. She needed to do something about her getting a job. She had been getting repeated threatenings from her mother, painful taunts from her neighbors and visitors at her home and insults from really unkind shop owners she had to work since the last four months. She really had to do something because her mother is the only one in the city and no one truly ever cares about her. Her mother doesn't care about her that much, but Rio cannot stop doing she had to do. But Kner's affections towards her might help in any way. Maybe he can help her get a job, as he's the son of the most influential Manings. And she got lost in her thoughts about her conversations with him every time they met at his underground lab in his garage. All the time she asked him whether he found a payable work for her, he'd deviate from the topic by saying something else. She never got to understand why. Her steps never stopped from the innermost room of the second floor till the entrance door, and before she turned hurried ahead towards the right, a voice stopped her in her tracks.

"Don't you want to know why he never found a job for you?" The dark-haired woman was near the entrance door, with an eyebrow raised, but her tone purely lighthearted.

Feeling completely uninterested to start a conversation, Rio picked her pace and advanced to the street. The woman soon appeared in front of Rio, making her stop again.

"You can't keep on avoiding whatever is happening with you. Let me give a chance to help you."

Rio tried not to give in to the woman's pleading looks, but that was the most difficult thing for her to do.

"But who are you? And why should I talk? You have already tried to help me, and I'm really thankful that I've broken many people's hearts today just because of you." she rather kept a sad blank look on her face.

"Because of me? Yes." the woman found Rio's face turning sour. "But, no. Not that way."

"But who are you and why you want to ruin my life?" Rio was now tipping with anger. She had enough of crying and she didn't want to vent her emotions to anyone but this woman was simply too much.

"Oh, I'm really sorry. I forgot to introduce myself. I'm Norliera Sokestyn. I'm the recruiter from Lonphour Pharmaceutical Industries." The woman had extended her right hand with a genuinely friendly smile in hopes to shake it with Rio but she was equally displeased as if something bit her. She had already heard really bad things about Zolzeim, like how the island country is autonomic, how there is really a mismanagement of it as well as of the power supply on which the citizens are dependent but also things like how Katokeins dream of going there and changing a part of their personality permanently which often becomes life-risking choice and how some secret groups of young boys daydream of raiding the main castle located in the heart of the country just for fun. Rio almost started giggling at that thought before Ms. Sokestyn shook her into her senses.

"Before I want to tell you something, I want you to forget all those rumors you've heard about Zolzeim and its citizens. It's very important for me to say this to you in order to build the long lost trust. Please." Ms. Sokestyn had a pleading look on her face again which Rio had no choice but to believe in.

"I'll try. but I need you to make it sure that no one watches us together else I won't be allowed to live here anymore." Rio had to say this before she could face more unexpected traumas. She didn't realize they were standing at a deserted area near the hospital's garden.

"Trust me. No one knows about this. And even if someone does, I've got the proof to talk to anyone. So you can feel assured about it."

Rio remembered the proof she saw in the garden that evening. "Fine. why did you call me in the garden?"

"I never called you there. It's you who came there. I really never hoped to meet you that way."

"So didn't you call me in my head? Then how did you know I wasn't getting a job after I requested someone? Didn't you read my mind?"

"Oh, that-" Ms. Sokestyn pushed sideways her hair from her neck. "-- Well, I swear I have no ability to know what really goes in your mind. It's just that--that I guessed you are feeling sad and also everything that happened between you and that friend of yours is in the news everywhere. I just read that." Ms. Sokestyn raised her palm to that glowed with latest news headlines about Rio's attempt to charge against Manings' youngest son, an episode of Kner and Rio's meetings and an article about the mother-daughter conflicts featuring Rio and her mother.

Rio got to hear about that from her colleagues and one close friend Meilae who worked at a local media company. Thinking of it as a joke, she avoided until this time. Now things became sensible to her about how and why random people picked up any topic to criticize her. Her teeth suddenly clenched. But that wasn't time to think about those things.

"Okay. what do you want from me?" Rio took a deep breath to finish talking with her.

"Well, I need you to believe me that everything you've heard about Zolzeim isn't true. Because the truth is really different than whatever you've seen. We people there aren't actually that bad. But we need people like you, the Katokeins cause we are really in danger and so is your country." Ms. Sokestyn spoke very fast trying not to cause anxiety.

"But why me? There are millions of Katokeins who are actually better than me. So why me?" Rio's furrowed her brows at the thought of this unlikely idea.

"Because you came to my aid even when I didn't need any. Whereas I had been asking for help for two months but all I got is real hate." Sokestyn sounded sad but quickly looked at a random tree in the garden so that Rio couldn't see that.

"Okay, I get this. But what will I get by helping you?" Rio hung her head low focusing at a fallen leaf.

"A lot of things. I can't tell you how much that would be right now, as I'm unsure of its magnificence." Rio's eyes lit up at that. observing that look, Sokestyn spoke calmly,

"That might sound too much, that's why I'm here to help you."

"How?" Rio felt guilty suddenly blurting like that.

"Just keep trusting me whatever I'm going to say." Rio looked at Sokestyn with a quizzical look.

"I want you to be careful of the Manings. Your mother is right when she tells you to stay away from them."

"And?" Somehow Rio expected that answer.

"And trust that friend of yours when she says to find the better value of your hard work."

"Anything else?" Did she just mentioned Meilae, and if so, how did she know her? But her inner patience was emptying with extreme tiredness.

"Yes. Please trust your inner voice." Sokestyn found a paper scrap behind Rio's neck and pulled that out.

"Is that all?" Rio expected another hour of what-she-should-do lectures but luckily that seemed to be over.

"Yes. I felt so excited to meet you that I forgot my real reason. I would meet you soon. Good night." Sokestyn felt utterly weird walking away all of sudden. Rio's mind was a mess. Instead of wasting her energy into thinking about the events, she started walking towards her home, diffusing her mind in the chaos of the city. No street was ever found to be dark due to ever active buildings and the restless citizens. One didn't need any light in the sky.