Siwon
The Yeoldasos
Siwon was quiet the whole time they moved Ayame’s things through the port he created between her old apartment and the Suzumi House. It wasn’t that he was uncharacteristically quiet – he had his moments, when he really didn’t want to talk to the hyungs or the dongsaengs. Rather, he was puzzled about Ayame.
Ayame had noticed him staring since the start of the move, so she finally confronted him. She didn’t know whether to laugh or cry at the comical face he gave.
“Ah, ah, apologies, noona.” Siwon said, making Eunhyuk look up from the black sofa he and Donghae were about to carry to the other end of the port. But instead of answering her, he looked over to Yesung.
“Hyung, she doesn’t have the perturbation waves humans and first time travelers share. It should have been more pronounced in her as she is both, but surprisingly, there was none.”
Yesung merely nodded, not looking up from the stack of serials that were Ayame’s collection. He was more fascinated with the stuff he read off the padds so he answered without really thinking. “Ah, yes, perturbation waves. They do not appear for a spirit form who’s lived at least two lifetimes.” He stopped to contemplate his statement, and how it applied to Ayame, who was neither. Then he looked over Dusky, who always hovered close to Ayame whenever she crossed the port.
“Is a time barrier also part of your abilities, too?” Yesung asked, causing Siwon to give the ether dog a startled look.
Dusky merely raised an eyebrow. So, they couldn’t detect his abilities, the same way he couldn’t detect theirs. Any other slayer would have long seen the protective barrier he and Ayame use to go through any port.
It was Ayame who answered. “Oh, right. I use Dusky’s time barrier capabilities whenever I have to go through any portal – that part of a slayer’s abilities take a toll on me.”
Yesung looked at Siwon. “There’s your answer then.” But what passed unsaid between the two slayers was that Siwon’s particular expertise lay in detecting spirit barriers, and the necessary skill to manipulate fields.
There had been no barrier type Siwon couldn’t read. Apparently until today. And being the competitive guy he is, Yesung knew Siwon wouldn’t let this pass.
Donghae and Eunhyuk listened to the conversation for entirely different reasons. Only they knew there was a truth to what Yesung had earlier said. With Dusky’s time barrier capabilities or not, Ayame would still not show perturbation waves.
Siwon was still quiet, not satisfied with the explanation. He had not told Yesung when he started reading Ayame. He gave the dog a startled look because it seemed rather out of place for the daemon dog to still be using his time barrier for Ayame when she apparently didn’t need it.
Because if Ayame is human, how can she also be a spirit form who has lived at least two lifetimes?
>>>
“Is it true, what they say about you being able to read minds?” Donghae asked Dusky.
Dusky looked up at him, wondering why the slayer would even need to confirm that, knowing the Council would have supplied that information already. But he decided to answer with a brief, “It’s true.”
“So what does she really think about me settling in?” The slayer asked, jerking his brown blond head in the direction of the living room, where Dusky detected the proverbial cloud hovering over Ayame.
Dusky didn’t think that was what the slayer wanted to know. “She didn’t exactly have a choice, did she, considering what the Council says is law.”
Donghae turned to look at the hovering daemon dog, pausing from arranging his things in the other suite of the Suzumi House.
“Loyal and sarcastic, too, I see.” He clearly meant to refer it to Dusky.
The tall slayer went to the desk, holding out his palms on the fishbowl placed there. As if it was a natural thing to happen, Donghae’s palms lighted up as he released the twin fishes who were his spirit familiars. Dusky noted they were of the koi variety, one silver, the other golden.
Dusky decided to be frank with the slayer who was apparently here to stay. “Just to be clear, I don’t make a habit of reading anybody’s minds, unless I absolutely need to – it’s easy to drown hearing what other beings think about. Most specially hers. She thinks a thousand and one thoughts at any given moment, so it’s hard for me to sort out, as I hear everything as something akin to noise. It’s not pretty – but that’s Ayame. She never has a one-track mind, nor does she think elegantly.”
“Why are you really here?” Dusky decided to ask himself the question Ayame didn’t want to ask.
Donghae noted how the mind-reading daemon dog had to ask. But he still answered. “Slayers work in pairs. She was bound to get a partner sooner rather than later.”
“Yes, but you’re the Fifteen, the elite as far as Society is concerned. I’d have expected you to be paired up with another elite. Why her? Why Augure?”
The slayer became slightly annoyed with Dusky’s nosiness. “You’re a curious one, aren’t you? Your mistress told you to be fishing for details?”
Dusky was reminded how he should be thankful that Ayame wasn’t the traditional slayer. “She’s not my mistress.” He bluntly told the slayer. “And she does not go about asking me to do things she can do for herself. I have the freedom to look for answers to my own questions. Though I admit the question came from her, the fact that she didn’t ask any of you marks how she is obeying Council laws about this one, no matter how it may not sit well with her.” Knowing he is not likely to get anything out of the haughty slayer, Dusky headed back to where Ayame was.
“He’s a dangerous one,” Aurum remarked the moment the daemon dog was gone, swimming lazily around the glass bowl aquarium they were in.
“She does not have control over him,” Argentum seconded, air bubbles released from her open mouth.
“Why do you think we were sent here?” Donghae asked, looking over his spirit familiars.
“She is not your partner, Donghae-sshi,” Aurum reminded him. “You’ve started to upset the balance of the Fifteen by insisting to be hers. Kyuhyun was supposed to be hers.”
Donghae still maintained that there was something wrong partnering the maknae with the newbie.
“You have let your emotions get in the way.” Argentum interrupted his thoughts.
He rolled his eyes at them, finally sprawling onto the bed. “Cut it out, you guys. You know why, and it’s not just about me wanting to be near her. The Council knew Kyuhyun is the worst candidate to be partnered with her.”
“On whose assessment?” Aurum challenged. “Yours?”
Donghae knew his familiars enough not to be offended with the questions. “The Fifteen, if that’s what you wanted to know. Even Kyuhyun was surprised to rate a senior slayer position. The Council and the top slayers knew about it, so why did the Council even insist on the assignment? And they would have succeeded had Leeteuk-hyung not stepped in to decide for the Fifteen.”
>>>
Ayame noted the huff, which Dusky sported as he reached her. “Didn’t get anything out of him, did you?”
Sometimes, Dusky thinks Ayame had an uncanny influence over his actions, no matter how much he’d claim it to be wholly his. And it irritates the hell out of him. So he was sulky when he muttered. “No, not really. And even he thinks I’m some snoop that you commanded to be prying details out of him.” He felt a tad better picking up an apology from Ayame. He turned corporeal as he joined Ayame on the sofa lounge.
“Of course I was thinking why they had to be here, but you also knew I didn’t ask the question when the Council order came down. I am just not comfortable having somebody else live here.”
It was true – Ayame lived alone ever since she became a slayer. Which got Dusty to thinking. “How come I didn’t know it was SOP to have slayers work in pairs? How come you stayed a lone agent for six years?”
Ayame scratched her brows. “That’s part of my question. While it is SOP that slayers work in pairs, Augure has always rated a single slayer assignment. So what’s changed?”
Dusky huffed. “Maybe the existence of a daemon dog in the vicinity?”
She reached over to ruffle his neck fur, knowing it was still a sore point for him always being under the Council’s watch. “Let’s not jump to conclusions without getting the facts first, shall we? On my part, I can only say that I am disturbed by the change, because that’s how I am – handling change is not really one of my strongest points. And no matter the reason for the Fifteen’s presence in Augure, we know the Council never does things without reason – I’m just not high up that hierarchy to be questioning the elite’s raison d’etre.”
Dusky was quiet for a while, resting his snout on his forepaws. “So if we are not questioning Council orders, why am I still picking up waves of disquiet from you?”
Ayame really tried to rein in the mix of misgiving and doubt. Her balance was upset by the presence of the Fifteen, and the assignment of a partner for her. But if there was anything the slayer academy emphasized on, it was to always expect the unexpected, and be prepared for the unlikely. The fact that she was “used” to certain ways of doing things should have warned her that she had become complacent.
“If you’d think your presence is the reason they’re here, I’m thinking my methods are what’s giving the Council reason to be checking up on Augure. You do recall how many warnings I’ve been given over the years about the way I handled this place. We both know why the Council’s eyes have been hot on our non-conformist tendencies – we have always stretched their envelope of tolerance interpreting the slayer’s law.”
Dusky let her ruffle his neck fur some more before replying. “Yes, years you say, and they’ve let us be…so why now?” He growled when he clearly heard Ayame’s reply in bold letters I DON’T KNOW. Telling Donghae that reading Ayame’s mind was a pain did not mean she didn’t have her moments of clarity. When she needed to put her point across, she had developed a way to mentally shout it to Dusky with little effort.
Slayer and daemon dog sat companionably in silence, contemplating the change in this time of their lives. One of which came in the form of Donghae going out of his room and asking what’s for dinner. Slayer and daemon dog both had their hackles raised for very different reasons. Other than the fact that she hated cooking, Ayame snapped out that it wasn’t part of her duties to be cooking for the houseguest. As for Dusky, he was again frustrated in his efforts to read the minds of the Fifteen – he didn’t like one unreadable living beneath the same house as Ayame. Nor fifteen in the same compound.
He did not like it at all.
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