Martha was busy in the corner trying to get Veebee to come to her buy itself. Somehow it was going to take some getting used to. Melmarc had been more comfortable with thinking of Veebee as a boy or at least a male.
While Martha talked to Veebee as if it was an infant or some pet, trying to get it to come to her or at least speak again, Patience sat on one of the chairs drinking alcohol and watching the basketball game Ark had on.
“Haven’t they already played this game?” she asked between sips of her drink.
Ark nodded. “But I didn’t get to watch it.”
“But you know how it ends.”
“I do.”
“Then what’s the point?”
“It’s entertaining to see the things that happened.” Ark shrugged. “I don’t know who made how many points, when and how. It’s fun for me.”
Patience’s brows furrowed as if she didn’t get it. In a few seconds, her gaze moved over to Melmarc. “What about you?”
Melmarc blinked, removing his attention from Veebee and Martha. “What about me?” he asked.
“Why are you watching the game?” she asked.
“He’s not,” Ark answered. “He just happens to be in the same room where the game is happening.”
Patience paused, looked between the both of them. “You do that a lot, have you noticed?” she asked.
Both of them looked at her. “Do what a lot?” they asked in unison.
“Answer for each other,” Martha said from where she was. “Not that I would know.”
Pelumi had a cup of cold beverage in her hand. “It’s kind of their thing. Ark answers simple questions that he has the answer to, and Mel answers questions that Ark might be a little too eager to answer.”
Patience paused. “Too eager to answer?”
“Uhuh.” Pelumi adjusted on her seat. She moved her curious attention to Veebee for a split second before returning it to Patience. “If you spend enough time with them you’ll learn that Mel’s the civilized one and Ark’s the less civilized one.”
Ark chuckled, not taking his eyes off the television. “I think the word you are looking for is uncivilized.”
Pelumi rolled her eyes at his words. “Sure thing,” she said sarcastically. “Anyway, sometimes being civilized can end up with explanations and too many words.” She gestured to Melmarc. “Melmarc tends to give you that, thus—Ark’s words not mine—talking too much. So, Ark usurps the question and gives the most adequate answer.”
“Oh.” Patience paused, but she looked interested. “And Marc?”
“Melmarc answers when there is a possibility that Ark will be rude instead of being straight to the point. Usually when he deems a rude response as overkill.”
Patience looked at both of them now, as if in a new light. “So how do they know which is which?” she asked Pelumi.
To that, Pelumi shrugged. “No idea. I’m guessing years of practice.”
Melmarc smiled a little. While Pelumi was not wrong, the correct answer was actually more specific than that. Ark was most likely to give a response when the subject Melmarc was being dragged into was happening because of him and the asker was either their friend or his own personal friend. Melmarc spoke when there was a possibility that whatever was said could potentially incite Ark.
He’d already thought about this very subject more than a few times.
Patience seemed intrigued by Pelumi’s response. “You seem quite versed in the Lockwood brothers.”
“You spend enough time in the same room with both of them and you won’t have a choice,” Pelumi replied, then took a sip of her beverage.
Martha chose that moment to finally join them. She came and stood next to Pelumi’s chair with a look of disappointment.
“Why won’t he play with me?” she asked nobody specific.
“It,” Melmarc and Ark corrected absently.
She looked at Ark. “It?”
“It’s an it,” Ark said, still watching the match. “It doesn’t like being called any other thing. Either it or Veebee.”
A sensation flooded Melmarc’s senses and he sighed. “Veebee, stop licking the wall.”
Veebee stopped mid lick. It blinked twice. Melmarc felt it consider the possibility of one more lick and he pressed his lips into a thin line. He still had his eyes on the television. In the end, Veebee decided against one more lick.
It really was like having a pet.
Martha looked at Veebee for a moment. “Does it always do that?” she asked Pelumi.
“No idea,” Pelumi answered. “It’s new.”
“Waitt, this one isn’t the one you’re always talking about?” Martha said, confused. “The one Ark’s always with.”
“No,” Pelumi answered as if she was surprised Martha was even asking.
Patience snorted. “For a girl who pays so much attention, you really don’t pay any attention, do you?”
Martha gave her a scathing look that she did not cow from. Melmarc wondered if the exchange was about her liking Ark and paying attention to Ark all the time. It would explain why the jab had come when Pelumi’s response pointed out that Veebee was not Spitfire.
Then again, he could be wrong. What he did know, however, was that Martha liked Ark. He could spot things like that from a mile away—girls liking Ark.
“So, where’s that one?” Martha asked.
Ark shook his head. “Didn’t come back with it,” he answered.
Dissonant.
“Then…” Martha’s voice trailed off and she looked at Melmarc. “You came back with this one?” she asked.
Melmarc nodded and her brows furrowed.
“That’s odd,” she said. “We didn’t see it when we found you.”
“You know how sometimes Delvers get rewarded when they clear a portal?” he asked.
Martha nodded. “Yes, I do.”
“It’s like that. But I couldn’t claim the reward until I woke up. And thus, Veebee was born.”
Veebee walked over to Melmarc’s chair. Again, Melmarc wondered why it walked sometimes instead of flying. Something told him that it was either imitating him or just seeing how walking worked. He doubted it ever walked on the ground casually when it was guiding portals.
“Did the other one talk?” Patience asked, looking at Ark. “I don’t remember anything about it talking.”
Ark shook his head. “Spitfire doesn’t like talking.”
“Why?” Pelumi asked.
It took Melmarc a moment to realize that he’d never asked. With Spitfire he had just assumed that the demon didn’t talk, then when he found out it communicated telepathically with Ark, he assumed that that was its preferred form of communication.
Ark waved his hand around in a vague gesture at Pelumi’s question. “He just always thought our language sounded like imbeciles talking.”
Martha pursed her lips. “Oh.”
<> Veebee thought.
The words projected into Melmarc’s mind and he was forced to look at Veebee. He hadn’t expected Veebee to communicate through telepathy. He hadn’t even considered if it was one of its things. Now he found himself wondering who would win in a fight, Veebee or Spitfire.
“Wait,” Patience said, suddenly sitting up. “If your familiar can talk, why doesn’t it want to talk to Martha?”
There was silence in the room at her question. All eyes turned to Melmarc. Melmarc responded accordingly. He turned his head and looked down at Veebee still standing by the chair with a hand on it as if for balance.
Veebee looked up at him too, as if wondering why he was looking at him. Slowly, all eyes moved from Melmarc to Veebee. They waited for an answer, curiosity written on everyone’s face. Well, everyone except Ark. He didn’t look the slightest bit interested. His attention remained on the match in front of him.
Veebee’s attention didn’t shift from Melmarc to the others, It continued to look at him. After a while, it tilted its head slowly to the side, as if trying to ask what was expected of it.
“Maybe you should try asking it yourself,” Pelumi suggested. “It’s got to listen to you, right?”
Her voice made Veebee look at her, head still tilted. After a moment it nodded very slowly. Melmarc watched eyes grow wide in the room. Martha folded her arms over her chest and huffed in mock disapproval.
Melmarc looked at Pelumi. It seemed like Veebee had no problem answering her. Still, he repeated the question.
“Why won’t you talk to Martha?” he asked.
Veebee tilted its head the other way and placed a hand to its cheek in thought. In the end, it shrugged.
<> it answered inside his mind. <>
Only if you want to, he answered.
Veebee nodded, then shrugged again. Veebee not want to.
“Little dude doesn’t like you,” Patience said, bursting into laughter. “Dude’s got taste.”
The room lulled into a comfortable silence after that. Veebee made its way into Melmarc’s room while Martha sat with Pelumi. Ark and Patience had their focus on the television, enjoying the match, while Pelumi and Martha found their way to their phones.
For a while, Melmarc’s head was filled with thoughts of the Oath of Pain. Now that the Oath knew about him, were some things going to change? Was he going to have an Oath tutor? It would be welcome because he was of the opinion that of all the aspects Pain was the most troubling one. Even though he handled it well, he was not a fan of pain, never had been and wasn’t willing to be.
After his father had defeated the Oath quite flawlessly, Uncle Dorthna had stepped in to remind him that he was not supposed to kill the Oath. Then he’d asked Veebee to open the portal that he had sensed somewhere and told him to guide their father there.
While Melmarc and Ark waited, Uncle Dorthna had whistled casually as he tied Pain up on the ground. He’d been very practiced at the art and Ark had cracked some joke about bondage and sex. All Uncle Dorthna had done was laugh before assuring them that Pain wasn’t going to die. That was the last thing they knew about Pain before being brought back to school.
Melmarc was still thinking about his possible life as an [August Intruder] and if he was going to be taking Veebee to class with him when the silence ended and the girls started talking about their classes.
“Why would you do that, exactly?” Patience was asking, surprised.
Melmarc blinked, having not caught the beginning of the conversation.
<> Veebee informed him from its place…
Melmarc squinted. Veebee?
<>
Are you folding my clothes?
<>
Why?
<>
Melmarc thought about it for a moment. They actually hadn’t been doing anything but watching basketball and pressing their phones for a while, so he couldn’t blame Veebee. There was also the part where his life by default was usually boring, much unlike Ark’s.
“Mel likes school,” Pelumi pointed out. “Besides, it’s just for learning purposes. It’s not as if he’s supposed to submit them to the teacher or anything. It’s just for him to catch up.”
Patience snorted. “If I’m ever hospitalized,” she said, pointed at Martha and Pelummim, “nobody better save notes or assignments for me. I don’t need you ruining my short vacation.”
“That’s fine,” Martha said casually. “It’s not like you need the notes. That’s an intelligent people thing.”
Patience gave her a shocked look. “Things like that are why Sanders will take an interest in you tomorrow.”
The look of disgust on Martha’s face was so great that Melmarc was forced to ask, “Who’s Sanders.”
All three girls groaned at the same time, as if they were all peeved at having to remember the name and its owner, not to talk of speaking about the person.
Pelumi took a moment to put her phone away. “You know how there’s been reports of people gaining classes since the portals appeared?”
Melmarc nodded. “I saw that online.”
“Exactly,” Patience said. “There have been so many and none of them are being put through the mentorship program thing on account of all the monsters that could turn up at any point. The Federal government is saying that it makes the mentorship program too dangerous for children.”
“So, they are just getting the kids registered and allowing them to apply to Gifted schools,” Martha said. “We’ve already got like six transfer students in our class.” She frowned. “Sanders is one of them.”
Melmarc and Ark exchanged a look.
“And?” Melmarc asked.
“And Sanders is from one of the richest families on Tatelat,” Patience said. “He’s rude and ill-mannered. Everyone was happy when he didn’t become a Gifted. Then God decided to play a sick joke and gave him the one thing that he was not supposed to have: a class. Now he’s ten times more sufferable.”
“And a bully too,” Martha spat.
Melmarc saw Ark’s eyes light up, and he shook his head. Ark had always liked bullies. They were his justification for bullying. He bullied bullies and enjoyed doing it a lot. Maybe too much.
“What exactly did this bully do?” Ark asked, no longer paying attention to the match. “And has anybody thought to report him?”
“Report him?” Patience scoffed. “That’s just weak. We’ve all got classes, most of them combat classes. There’s no reason for us to report a problem we can handle ourselves.”
The excitement died a little in Ark’s eyes. “And how is handling it going for you all?”
Patience looked away. “Not very well. But it’s not really our problem since all he likes to do with the girls is flirt a lot.”
“And insult them when they turn him down,” Martha added.
“Uhuh.” Ark was not impressed. “And how many girls have turned him down so far?”
“Not many,” Martha answered a little ashamed. “He’s rich and strong. No is not very easy to say when you know he can crack your skull if he wanted to.”
Ark’s attention sharpened again. “He’s cracked someone’s skull?”
Martha nodded. “Scottie. They got into an argument because of Patience and well… yeah.”
“He ran his head into the wall,” Patience said, not really bothered. “It was with enough force to send him to the infirmary.”
“And someone told the teacher that it was just a friendly scuffle gone wrong,” Ark said with a disappointed sigh.
Patience shrugged. “Just boys being boys, you know.”
“I don’t know,” Ark said without missing a beat. “Boys being boys is used when boys are innocently being rough with themselves and taking unnecessary risks to themselves for fun. The key words here being fun and innocently. When a boy is a bully it’s not boys being boys. When a boy cracks another boy’s skull open because of a fight over a girl, it’s not boys being boys.”
“When a boy cheats?” Martha asked.
Ark made a point of looking at her. “That is not boys being boys.”
“Doesn’t matter, as long as he’s not harming any of the girls,” Patience said. “The boys seem hell bent on defending themselves. And you know how male pride can be. If we start fighting on their behalf, it will hurt their pride.”
Ark opened his mouth, passion in his eyes, then closed it. He seemed to mull over what Patience had said before letting out a sigh. “You’re not completely wrong. But it still doesn’t make it right.”
Melmarc couldn’t disagree. Boys were not always fans of being saved from another boy by a girl, at least not boys who didn’t like to feel weak.
“And Mel’s going to have to deal with him,” Ark said.
“I wouldn’t say so,” Patience said. “Marc tends to mind his own business in class, so he might be fine.”
“Uh, I wouldn’t say so,” Martha interrupted hesitantly. “You remember what happened the other day?”
Patience winced a little and Pelumi shook her head in dissatisfaction.
“Sticks and stones,” Pelumi said unbothered. “Sticks and stones.”
“What’s that?” Martha asked.
“Sticks and stones may break my bones,” Melmarc answered.
“But your words will never hurt me,” Ark finished. “It’s something our mom used to say when we were growing up. She said that it used to be a more popular saying once upon a time.”
“What did he do?” Melmarc said after that.
“He’s taken a liking to Pelumi,” Patience said. “But she’s been turning him down.”
“Then he starts to call her names,” Martha said. “Very insulting names at that. He’s really just the worst.”
Ark’s gaze moved over to Melmarc’s hand on his lap. It was open… and stiff. Melmarc was doing his best to keep his hand from balling into a fist.
“Again,” Pelumi said, “sticks and stones.”
Ark laughed this time. “Oh, this is going to be fun.”
“I can’t say I’ve seen a violent Marc before,” Martha said.
“That’s because you weren’t in our admission batch,” Pelumi said. “But, Mel, you have to let it be when you start classes again. Remember the doctor said you’re not fully healed. You still need rest.”
“And you’re okay with the things he says?” Melmarc asked.
Pelumi shrugged. “They are just words. If all I have to deal with is listening to him say nonsense, then I don’t see what the problem is. It’s not like any of it is true.”
“Well… I don’t think it will work that way,” Patience said.
Everyone looked at her. “Why not?” Ark asked.
Martha’s eyes lit up with understanding. “Because he likes Pelumi, and Pelumi is very close with Marc. So he’ll want to do something once he sees them hanging out together because Marc has what he wants.”
“Mel’s going to get in a fight,” Ark said, a little too excited.
Pelumi was already shaking her head. “Don’t.”
Ark snorted. “And why shouldn’t he?”
“Because Sanders is an S-rank [Mage].”
Ark and Melmarc looked at each other. Melmarc could see the statement in his brother’s eyes. It was as well a statement as it was a question. The [Mage] class was a tricky class to deal with. Why? Because they didn’t really have any restrictions. Someone with the [Mage] class could have one skill that granted them ice elemental access while the next skill could grant them the ability to make plants grow from the ground. You never really knew what you were dealing with when you ran into someone with the [Mage] class. Still, Melmarc found it difficult to be worried when he knew the things he had to deal with.
What’s a [Mage] to a demi-god? he thought. And that right there was the problem. It was difficult to take any of the classes seriously when he’d faced the opponents that he had already faced.
“He’s also in the combat team,” Patience added, “and people are saying that he’s in the new combat program—the one Ark’s in.”
Ark thumbed at Melmarc. “Mel’s in it too.”
“Well, just don’t,” Patience said. “Pelumi’s right, it’s really not worth—”
Everyone paused as Veebee walked into the living room. It moved as if it had a purpose, which it turned out to have. Ignoring everyone, it walked over to Pelumi and looked up at her. She looked down at it, confused.
Veebee held his hands up to her like a baby that wanted to be carried.
What are you doing? Melmarc asked.
<<[Invoker] not smell like property,>> Veebee answered. <>
Pelumi reached down and carried him. Veebee nestled into her hold, and Patience barked a short victorious laugh.
“I knew you were the problem,” she said, laughing at Martha. “Veebee can smell the wrong.”
Martha looked offended, not by Patience’s words but by Veebee’s actions.
Certain that nothing bad was going to happen, Melmarc’s mind returned to the boy called Sanders. He wasn’t sure how he felt about the whole thing. He wasn’t one for violence, but he would be lying if he said that the boy disturbing Pelumi was not going to get to him.
Things just started to look up for me with Pain, he groaned. Now I have to deal with this? This isn’t—
Veebee grinned in Pelumi’s arms. <> it said, drawing everyone’s attention.
“Veebee understands what?” Pelumi said, playing with his face with her finger.
Veebee held the finger with both hands and looked at Melmarc.
<> it said. <