The Devil's Smile

Chapter 8

I flushed, a tiny bit embarrassed and turned the other way starring out along the other side of the cart there was a couple walking along the side of the road close enough for me to examine. The woman was a few inches shorter than the man and her arm hooked through his. Either there were subtle differences in how Demi gods appeared compared to dwellers or else they were just a particularly attractive couple. Whatever the reason was the sun was shining right on them highlighting them like a flattering spotlight. I felt my mouth dropping just a bit open her hair was shiny, her eyes were shiny, his teeth were shiny, their clothes were shiny. Maybe it was just the light but that put me into a bit of a trance anyway.

“Shiny,” I drooled causing Red to laugh again

The man must have a heard Red because he glanced our way his smile growing for a moment as he nodded in greeting. He knew where we were going. It was pretty obvious. We were dwellers sitting in a card bearing the creator's Insignia. We were going to Godville to serve the future gods.

“He smiled at me,” I tried to tell Red speaking out of the side of my mouth trying to not make it look like I was talking about him.

“I know dummy,” she replied blandly.

The cart viewed a little then probably dodging a crack in the pavers and the wheel hit a puddle, spraying dirty street water all over the shiny couple.

“Oops,” I jogged the back in my seat fixing my eyes formally in the front of Maine as though I had somehow done it deliberately.

The man wasn't smiling anymore he was now loudly cursing poor Sarath who could not hear and did not care. I suspected that Sarath was another dweller albeit an important one enough to serve the Demi gods off Godville. Did does give him a certain amount of status? And was that status high enough that he could accidentally spray some of the demigods with street water? Apparently.

Things while looking up.

“Will you remember what I told you Charm?” Red was watching me. I could feel the weight of her stare.

I had no damn idea what she was talking about but she already knew that. I was supposed to say what? And Q preventative lecture about safety in Godville.

“Don't sleep with a knife in bed for safety?” I asked instead a smart lifting her mouth.

She narrowed her eyes on me trying to convey that it was serious time. “Not that.”

“Don’t make out with teacher Hardy son? He probably has a disease because he is always itching his crotch?”

“Not that.”

“Don't leave the curtains open while I am dancing naked? Don't eat everything that's put in front of me, especially if I was the one who put it in front of me? Don't…”

“Charm…”

“Don’t sew all the whole shut while I'm waiting shirts because then will with the arms go?”

“Charm!”

“Don’t drink pond water. Don't believe everything I read. Don't say no to everything. Don't say yes to everything. Don't…”

“Don't talk over me while I'm trying to lecture you!”

My smirk melted into laughter and seeing how Red her face had turned I settled back into my seat wiggling around little bit to become comfortable.

“Ok fine,” I eventually said. “Bring it on. Lay it on me. lecture away. I am ready. I am waiting. Let's do this.”

She was getting frustrated. The smoke was coming out of years was almost visible but to be honest I was trying to put off. I had been since we left village. Red had been eventually preparing for the possibility of ending up in Godville but I hadn't been. I didn't know anything and I was terrified or what she was going to tell me.

“Are you done?” She finally asked arching a single red eyebrow.

“No wait.” I reached into my pack pulling out one of the honey sandwiches that she had packed to last the journey. “OK go,” I allowed freeing the bread from its canvas wrapping and stuffing it as much as into my mouth as it was possible. Maybe I was being immature but it would be easier to turn this in one way lecture.

Red did not mind. She launched straight into it. “You have no idea what is going to happen there when you get like the rest of us do Charm. They spend a lot of time going over this the last here at school because 2 of us were going to get picked. It's important that we are prepared.”

“Ok,” I managed around the mouth full of bread.

“Our days will be split between the classrooms and dormitories and we will be giving a timetable just like all the Demi gods but we don’t get actually attend the classes with them. We will be attending to the classes. Each classroom is assigned to 5 dwellers to the at disposal of the demigods and the professors. When the academic classes are over we will have an assigned dormitory room and it will be our job to service the room and the lemmings assigned to the room. I don't know when we are going to have time to eat they never explained that.”

“What about sleep?” Equipped following what is in my mouth. “Will we have time for that? Or the other essentials like breathing?”

“Bathing?”

“No. Breathing.”

“You can multitask can’t you?”

I huffed stuffing the rest of my sandwich into my mouth. “Hard ass,” I muttered almost unintelligibly.

“What was that?” She asked snatching the rest of the sandwiches out of my lap.

“Love you,” I amended quickly causing her to laugh.

Red held off on lecturing me any further even when we pass through Dweldon and into Soldon, which was the first ring city before Godville. This city was different from the other demigod settlements. It was actually stepping up into a gradual incline with several lower tiers of what seemed to be general housing, below several tiers of what the hell was that?

“Wow!” Her voice got all breathy. I have wanted to see sky reachers my entire life. Did you know that hundReds of Demi gods can live in one building? It's ingenious. All I heard was did you know hundreds of Demi gods can die in one go? Engineers clearly equalled to insane talk by Red. No one should ever be allowed to step foot into something like that. Temptation for my clumsy curse was exactly what that was.

“If the Demi gods are so blessed you know with their shininess and their gifts and their chance to kiss as the gods off Elysium then why do they have to live all stacked up on top of one another? Are they waiting for the Miraniors to sort them out later on?”

It didn't make sense to me. I had always dreamed of living in my own home it was going to have its own yard and I was going to have my own garden. there were going to be a few chickens in one of the coops from where I could have the eggs. And I was going to have a little dog or a huge dog in order to protect their chickens. Maybe a few sheep and goats as well. Also I wanted to be surrounded by all my medical kids in the exact spot last I left them. You know the little things.

Red had her demigod worshipping eyes on the deep deep brown colour as rich as the soil beneath the roots of the trees as we passed. She clearly loved the sky reachers.

“They are supposed to be so fancy Charm. Like fancy fancy. Only the wealthiest demigods are able to afford a sky Reacher home. Can you imagine being so much closer to the gods?”

“Do we know that the gods live in the sky though? I never really believe teacher Hardy's theory. He ate sardines for lunch. It's never good to trust a person who eats sardines.”

Red shrugged. “Maybe they don't but I doubt they live on the ground and whenever anyone talks about the gods coming to Godville every month they say that the gods are coming down.”

“Okay but back to the sky reachers just to real quick. How do they even pee? I mean a hole in the floor is going to be a real problem for other people below!’

Even Sarath chuckled at that one and he had been a tough crowd so far ,”they have indoor piping and proper bathrooms,” he informed us abroad grin across his fair cheeks. “They can even bathe inside and the pipes make sure that no one gets a pee shower.”

Inside. Inside? Where did the water come from where did it go? Wood my mind explode from all the questions currently fighting for dominance?

“Let me guess that's Soldon Academy?” I pointed towards the show pony.

Red shook her head. “No good guess but that's the Miranior Council chambers and training facility. They recruit demigods during their graduation life at the academies. After that it is another 4 years of training and the either become the council members dealing with the disputes of the gods and the 9 rings or else they go into patrols. The patrols work the streets respond to distress call and keep peace. It's a very honourable life path and only the best of the best get to be a Miranior.”

“Quick question.” I leaned forward trying to stretch out the ache in my back. It was taking forever to reach Godville. “How did we become friends? You told me that you are not my sibling and I still did something like this for your sake. So I am guessing that we are best friends and I need to understand what happened in the background. And you most probably sound like an over achiever and you keep on learning about way too much about the 9 rings so how are you supposed to explain that to me?”

“Three years back there was a fire in my house. How I still don’t know and that is how my parents died. In that fire and then I was all alone. I was at school at that time so I survived. And we have been friends since school but your mother said that it was no point in leaving me out there and she took me in and we became sisters since then. I have been living with you guys from then. And I was always a good student but this overachiever thing came after that when I saw the charred bodies of my parents.”

“Don’t dwell on that. That is over. Now you have me. And I have you. And you have my name and we are sisters. I may have blue hair and you may have Red hair but that does not mean that we are not sisters. We are and we will be always there for each other no matter what happens. Is that clear?”

“I thought that I was the one who was supposed to keep you in line and make you feel better about all that has been happening and not the other way round,” said Red as she gave me a sad smile.