Part 5: Tea & Pretzels

Any journey could have its share of detours, no matter how mundane the journey or short its detours.

In this particular case, the journey to the terrace took a detour in the form of the fourth floor vending machines. Wingul raised a brow at the odd contraptions, eying the various colorful packages that had apparently caught Leia's attention.

"Do you want something to eat or drink?" Leia inquired, fishing out a tiny purse from her blazer. She waggled a shiny gold card at him, her brows knitting together nervously despite the smile on her face. Several bold steps had brought her this far, but doubt managed to creep into her head during that moment when Wingul did not follow her from the nurses' station. "I don't know what they're feeding you here, but I'm guessing it's not out of a vending machine."

His first instinct was to decline as he continued to resist the odd situation, but the drinks held his attention. After such limited types of drinks in the last year, he had to admit that seeing options that were not juice or water was refreshing. "Tea."

"All right!" With a nod, Leia scooted over and slid her card into a strip on the machine. When she noticed the rather intense look she was receiving, she flushed and coughed lightly. "Sorry. I forgot to mention it's my treat."

He snorted at the awkward reaction. "I was trying to figure out what that card is that you're holding."

Leia's eyes widened with understanding, and she deftly flipped the card between her fingers while scooting over from the drink machine. "It's a gald card. Elympios is largely a paperless money society." With her free hand, she gestured Wingul over to the spot she had just vacated. "Have you used one of these before? It's kinda neat." Taking the silence in stride, she pointed at the various buttons with accompanying pictures. "Each of these will give you a different drink."

She pressed one button and smiled, both of them staring at the machine as it spat out a little paper cup and whirred noisily. A moment later, a steady stream of liquid flowed from some barely visible spout on the machine into the cup. "Tada! It's not gourmet by a long shot, but hopefully it tastes okay." She let Wingul retrieve his drink before swiping her card again.

While Leia chose a beverage for herself, Wingul took a careful sip of the hot tea. "Little more that flavored hot water," he muttered dryly, taking another sip despite his criticism. He was in no position to be very critical, seeing as tea was a luxury he had been without for over a year. "But it will do."

"Good—I'm glad." Even that quick reply sounded sincere coming from the girl, who plucked a cup of juice from the machine before returning to the snack machine. She didn't spend long browsing the selection, swiping her card a third time and punching in a pair of buttons to retrieve a package. Slipping her purse back into her pocket, she grabbed the bag and held it out for Wingul to see. "Pretzel?"

Not sure what to make of the dispensed snack food, Wingul shook his head carefully and turned his attention back towards finding the terrace. A sign directed them just a little further down the hallway to a glass door that allowed a clear view of the sky beyond the building. Leia led the way outside, setting her food on one of the little round tables that dotted the otherwise bare expanse of concrete flooring.

Still carrying his tea, Wingul walked to the high railing to look out upon the city; his transfer from Marksburg didn't afford him much of a view, even when he was awake during the trip. Trigleph was a city unlike anything he had ever seen in Rieze Maxia, with buildings that stretched towards the sky not unlike the high peaks amongst the Mon Highlands. There were glass windows and structures of stone and metal as far as he could see, the drab colors only occasionally broken by little oases of greenery.

"It's really different, isn't it?" Leia commented from the table, carefully opening up the snack package. Despite her attempt, the package still crinkled noisily under her fingers.

"It is." He tilted his head to avert his gaze down to the streets below, watching Elympions go about their normal business. "I still find it hard to believe things didn't escalate into war."

"Not for lack of trying; there's way more extremists around than I'd like to think about." There was a grim note that stood in stark contrast with the girl's perky demeanor, and Wingul glanced back at her. "It's hard not to notice in my line of work. I'm working as a reporter now." With her free hand, she gave a little salute that seemed vaguely familiar.

Interesting. It wasn't an occupation choice he would have expected of the girl—but it was not like he knew much beyond the unflattering things Agria had to say about her, the nicest of which was probably 'moron.' "So you cover the current political situation between the countries?"

Leia, in the middle of chewing a pretzel, hunched her shoulders to keep a nervous laugh from rising up. "No, not at all. But not every reporter can say they're friends with the King and Prime Minister of Rieze Maxia."

"Friends." Wingul repeated the word with a touch of skepticism before taking a sip of his drink.

"Friends," Leia affirmed with a nod. She seemed to struggle with herself for a moment before speaking further. "I'm not sure what's up with you and Gaius, but leaving him unsure of where you stand as friends is pretty awful."

His lips twitched before curling into a sardonic smile, and he averted his gaze to look up towards the taller buildings. "For one who calls herself a friend of His Highness, you make a lot of assumptions on his behalf."

"He would talk about the isolation and detachment that comes with being king—or, well, that's what he talked about when we were on one particular … mission." She paused, a pretzel hovering by her lips, as she reflected further. "He never really talked about it otherwise."

"As the King of Auj Oule, plainly stating his friendships would be dangerous to both him and those he would consider friends. I am sure that fact carries into his role as the King of Rieze Maxia." Wingul spoke with confidence, though he was also careful not to allude too much to his relationship with Gaius. He would have to speak with him about whatever misconceptions were floating around, seeing as a self-proclaimed 'friend' was somehow under the impression that he, who had known the king for well over a decade, was not a friend.

When no answer came, he frowned and looked back at Leia again. She was munching on a pretzel with a complex expression, as if she wanted to say something but was trying her very best not to. "What is it?" He couldn't quite dispel a hint of annoyance from his voice. "If you have something to say, say it."

"Has Gaius told you anything about the Spirius Corporation?"

A question for a question. "They had a hand in some of the structural damage on the Rieze Maxian side of Marksburg, from my understanding."

"So that's a no." Leia played with the edge of the snack package, eyes averted to the ground thoughtfully. "I'd suggest asking him about his first mission. Sometime. I don't think it's something I should talk about myself, but it's kinda significant."

It was "significant," and yet Gaius did not mention it to him. Wingul silently finished the rest of his tea, telling himself that the indignation he felt was only so strong because his frequent headaches left him in a bad mood. Gaius would not intentionally keep secrets from him.

"Fine. I will ask him."

Some of the nervousness faded from Leia's face, and she lifted the pretzel bag almost hopefully. Sighing, Wingul obliged and took one of the little treats.

x x x

Despite Leia's continued nervousness, conversation didn't cease after the awkward topic, and Wingul made no attempt to stop her; perhaps it was the fact that she rambled easily or was not a complete stranger, but he did not overly mind her presence. They returned to the topic of Elympios' largely paperless money system, and she sat with Wingul as she tapped through her GHS phone and explained that most of the devices were even capable of transferring gald from one person's account to another. It wasn't a system without its problems and security flaws, especially now that Elympion merchants had to trade with Rieze Maxians and their physical coin society, but it was certainly convenient.

Convenience was at the heart of many of the Elympios' difficulties with giving up spyrix; spyrix were engrained in their culture, much like spirit artes in Rieze Maxia's, and accepting limitations to their lifestyles did not come easily at all. But they had made some great pushes in the past year; the Elympion military had grounded almost all of their aerial division and reduced country-wide power usage by three percent.

"You're quite knowledgeable about Elympios." Wingul was almost impressed with how much Leia rambled on the topics; she did not seem like to the type to take interest in such particulars.

"I can't take all of the credit," she giggled modestly. "Alvin's one of our resident Elympion experts, and Jude's become a researcher in spyrite development just outside of Trigleph, so he's had to learn a lot about Elympios too." As soon as the words left Leia's lips, her eyes widened and she clapped her hands together. "I bet they would totally answer more of your questions about Elympios!" Belatedly, she remembered Wingul's current condition. "Er… If you don't mind me telling them that you're alive."

He made a noise in the negative, not wanting to aggravate his current headache by shaking his head too much. "I will speak with His Highness about it and let you know." It seemed somewhat more tactful than admitting that neither Jude nor Alvin was high on his list for decent company.

It only then seemed to dawn on Leia that things could potentially become very complicated, and it showed in how her brows knitted together worriedly. "I guess it didn't occur to me that I'd stumbled upon something I wasn't supposed to know."

"I doubt His Highness and Ilbert are intentionally keeping it a secret. My survival is hardly something important to your lot." The foodstuffs long since disposed of, his hands were free to wave dismissively at Leia.

"That's not true!" Leia's voice rose as she spoke fervently, eyes wide. "You… You and the rest of the Chimeriad were important to Gaius. And we knew you too, to an extent. Don't think for a minute that we wanted to see any of you— dead." She faltered, her shoulders drooping again as she looked down at her hands. "If nothing else, we'd want to know because it would make Gaius happy."

The simplicity and sincerity of the sentiment left Wingul without a quick reply, so once again Leia filled the silence.

"If they want to keep it hush-hush, I can just introduce you as one of Erston's acquaintances."

There was that name again. He couldn't leave the mention without remark this time. "Why are you switching back and forth between those names?"

"Because of his cover while he's here in Elympios. It's a little odd, but he's pretty adamant about not answering if he's not called Erston Outway in public." She spoke as if it was the most obvious thing, only to wince when she was met with that same blank stare she had received earlier. "He didn't tell you that either, huh?"

Wingul reached up to pinch the bridge of his nose as he felt his headache worsen. The next conversation he had with Gaius was going to be a long one.

x x x

Leia followed Wingul back to his room after he remarked that the air was getting colder, though the conversation had faded to a not-so-uncomfortable silence as they walked through the hallway. Neither felt like commenting on how tired he looked, obvious as it was.

"I'm really glad that I got to talk to you." Leia's voice was a little quieter as they entered the room, as if she was shy to make the admission. "You're not so scary up close and personal."

Wingul busied himself smoothing the sheets on his bed, speaking wryly as he glanced back at her. "The hospital clothes probably help with that." He was aware of how frightening he could be, especially under the influence of his booster.

"Maybe." She laughed softly, loosing her hands from where she had held them together behind her back. "Oh, I should give you my phone number. So you can contact me about what Gaius says."

Wingul only briefly considered rejecting the idea before retrieving the device; even if the prospect of meeting more of his former enemies wasn't appealing, he couldn't deny that Leia had done a good job entertaining him for the afternoon. Leia pursed her lips in surprise as she caught sight of the decidedly avian design on the back of the device, but wisely kept any comment to herself as she took the GHS from him.

"Oh wow, this is the newest model. I guess Rowen and Gaius went all out getting you one." She marveled over the sleek interface and rotatable screen for a moment before pulling up the contact list. Even as Wingul prepared to climb into bed, Leia quickly tapped in her information and presented him with the device again.

The contact list was still displayed when Wingul looked at his GHS, and he snorted at Leia's name with the little star symbol next to it. "Continuing the pattern, I see."

"It's cute." She flashed him a smile, managing to both answer Wingul and remark on the design she could again see on the GHS' case. "Anyway, hopefully I'll hear from you soon. I work primarily in Trigleph unless I'm on assignment elsewhere, so … yeah. If I hear back from you sooner than later, I'm sure I can rope Jude or Alvin in to visiting." She paused for a moment to breathe, unsure where to leave things after that. While Wingul crossed his arms over his robe, Leia finally settled on a quick departure: "I'll see you, Wingul."

Leia's nervousness again reared its head as she waved, and she sprang off towards the door to avoid stretching out the goodbye. Wingul simply watched her with a somewhat amused expression, leaning against his pillows with the GHS resting on his lap. The encounter was surprisingly pleasant.

He considered waiting a few hours before calling Gaius so that it was properly evening, but he was once again without anything to do in the hospital. Flipping his GHS open, he told himself that there would be no harm in seeing if he was available. The tinny feedback ring sounded in his ear twice before he heard that deep, familiar voice on the other end.

Wingul smirked at his empty room, settling in for a potentially long call.

"Hello, Erston."

Slowly, but surely, I'm approaching what could be considered proper chapter-length parts. It's been years since I've done proper multi-part stories, so this is kind of a warmup, I guess.

Next part, Wingul is visited again and continues to catch up on things he's missed in the past year.