Aimless Ascension

I carried my tired body to open the door and found the guy waiting with an irritated look on his face.

Well, Dele always seemed to be in some inner conflict when dealing with me.

"What's this about?" I asked, without inviting him in, equally irritated. Well, the cause of my irritation was different. I was going nowhere with my meditation session, which made me rethink the whole thing.

Perhaps I should start in the early hours before the horn blare, but it was so hard to wake up before the repulsive horn when I was so tired after the day's work. I barely managed a handful of times in the last two weeks.

"Come with me," Dele said and walked away as if I would follow him just at his word.

He moved a few steps until he found nobody was following. Dele turned, and the irritation intensified in his eyes.

"What is this about?" I repeated the question, not hiding the irritation from my voice. Whatever you say, Dele didn't have the commanding charm that Imani possessed, which is why he was always the sidekick.

"Someone wants to meet you," Dele answered after some thought.

"Someone?" I asked. "Who?"

Dele looked like someone who would like to hit someone. I played cool, standing just as unconcerned, even though I knew pretty well who would win in a brawl between us two.

Despite his shorter exterior, Dele had more experience dealing with this kind of thing than me, not to mention his body adapted well to the higher gravity as he could mine deeper into the fiery pits. He could practically beat down half a dozen of me in fistfights.

"A'caen," Dele answered the question at last, understanding I wouldn't dance to his tune just because he asked.

"Are you sure?" I asked as a frown crept into my brows. Is A'caen even in the right state to meet anyone? Last I checked, he was burned terribly, and that was barely a few hours ago. And even if he did, why bother meeting a lowlife slave like myself?

There was only one thing that I possess that could interest them. No, it wasn't my irresistible charm.

Unconsciously, I clutched my right wrist. Dele noticed my anxiety easily.

"Are you coming?" the veteran slave asked.

I hummed something which could be termed as an agreement.

So we went deeper into the already mined region. I already got there a couple of times to meet the doctor, as for the other times Elea put me through those ruthless therapies in her dwellings.

We got through the entrance of the secret hideout, and both of us exchanged brief words through the walk. Dele led me on a familiar path towards the doctor's dwellings, though we had to carry on a little further to find a closed room.

The door was carved out of stone with bits of gibberish written on it that I could hardly understand.

Dele knocked, and it took about a minute to get a response from the other side of the door. After a while, it opened up as I found Imani facing us. I peeked into the room behind her to find a few more figures, the elderly doctor and his assistant along with their patient, the A'caen.

That reminded me, I'm pretty sure the name A'caen is a title of some regard, though wasn't sure what it meant.

Imani invited us in as we all stood circling around the laid figure of the burned man. He was bandaged with clothes all over while the dim glint in his eyes peered in our direction.

He said something in his gibberish language as all the others in the room turned to Imani.

"He wants everyone to leave us for some time," Imani said with a sigh.

Everyone other than her exchanged a look and was ready to leave. I joined them too, even though I was sure I wasn't in the everyone she mentioned.

"Not you," Imani told him as I halted rigidly.

I'm not going to lie. I was terribly nervous about this whole meeting. Of course, I learned to function properly with my anxiety long ago. But it was always unnerving to talk with the illustrious and famous A'caen, who seemed to hold some great place in the heart of many.

I wonder what her connection is to Imani and the others. He wasn't an earthling for sure, but he had free access to everything this little hideout had to offer. I had some suspicions, but wasn't particularly sure.

Imani closed the huge stone door after them and came back to stand between me and A'caen. She wasn't included among everyone either. Well, she was probably here to act as the mediator between us.

As I remained standing a little awkwardly, those two conversed between them. Basically, A'caen asked stuff in a soft voice and Imani answered them to him. Both of them looked in my direction more than a couple of times for me to reach a new height of concern.

I wish Cameron was with me. Of course, the former accountant couldn't do anything that I couldn't, but a friend's presence would have given me much courage to deal with this.

But my worry was for nothing as they kept on talking between themselves, leaving me to tap my foot on the rocky ground repeatedly.

I wondered why he asked for my presence when he wasn't even asking me anything. They could've talked between themselves about me behind my back.

It took about five minutes for them to finally address me.

"Show him the mark," Imani said, her voice commanding.

I blinked and turned to face A'caen. Even in his powerless state, he looked intimidating somehow. Like a wounded beast, would lunge at you at the minute disturbance.

His clear blue eyes bore onto me as I hesitated. This wouldn't end up into something bad for me, right?

"Gale," Imani called, "show him the mark."

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