Beware of Ferrics Bearing Gifts

[Ferric Vintas]

122 PW, May 26th

Ferric studied the contents of the basket he carried. Crowberries, dried and honeyed fruits from a variety of plants, and hard, minty horehound candies made up most of the contents. The crowberries had been particularly difficult to locate, as they were not quite in season yet. He softly smiled to himself as he marveled at the effort he was going to for this gesture of kindness. Truly he was a paragon of generosity.

He idly wondered what her face would look like as he walked in through the door. He likewise wondered if anyone but himself had come to visit; Meltzer didn’t strike him as the type to make a sizable quantity of friends while at work. This distracted him and left him in the war path of a tired looking nurse, pushing a cart of medical equipment down the hallway like a battering ram. He flung himself to the wall and held the basket above his head so as to not spill to contents before shooting her a withering glare which was wasted upon her back.

She rounded a corner, leaving Ferric in an empty hallway. He could hear crashes and curses from the direction she had gone. It seemed someone was trying to get fired. Could hardly blame her, with their workload recently.

With a shrug, he continued walking through the facility. Deranged drivers of carts notwithstanding, the place had calmed down significantly since the events of the bombings three days ago. It was almost quiet to an eerie degree. He could hear his own footsteps at the cusp of an echo, a discordant sound that felt somehow incomplete. Ferric figured that, were he in the place of whatever god or force that controlled sound, he’d at least go all or nothing on echoes. What was even the point of the tiny, non-dramatic ones?

He chastised himself for his absurd line of reasoning as he stood outside the door of the room housing Odelina Meltzer. He rolled his head, shifted his shoulders, and knocked on the door. Upon hearing permission to enter, he strode through the frame with a natural swagger few others possessed. “Hello, Odelina,” He said, his voice kept completely calm as if he was who she expected to see. “I heard what happened, and brought you this.” He tilted his head to indicate the basket, setting it on the table beside her.

[Odelina Meltzer]

Lina stared at the ceiling above. By now she could have drawn an exact copy of all the marks and shapes on its surface. During the first two days, when she had been heavily drugged, the shapes had formed strange and unnerving faces, staring and growling at her. She was pleased to be back in possession of her faculties now, even if that made the pain somewhat harder to ignore, and the ceiling a lot less entertaining.

There had been visitors. Even her parents had come, not with the ‘you had it coming’ attitude she had expected, but with genuine love and concern. The poor Farius had been there, hovering between her bed and Sisara’s. Had Sisara been discharged already? Lina was sure she had been told, but after the drugged haze it was difficult to tell what had actually happened and what she had imagined. And the doctors and nurses were still running off their feet; she tried to bother them as little as possible now that she at least knew who was dead and who was still alive.

They had been bored, hadn’t they? Dismayed by the fact that they had been taken away from the action, forced to perform menial tasks when the city around them was in chaos. And now she was missing half a leg, and her spine had tied itself to a knot. The surgeon who had operated on her had told her that the stump of her leg was perfect for attaching a prosthesis. Presumably the intention had been to be encouraging, but Lina had rather felt the doctor was congratulating himself. She was broken, and at the moment it felt impossible that she would ever walk again.

Her ruminations were interrupted by a knock on the door. She wasn’t sure why she, of all people, had been given a private room when the hospital was packed to the ceiling, but she suspected it had something to do with the extent of her injuries, and perhaps her position as a guard officer. Or maybe it was her parents’ doing. In any case, it gave her a moment to pull herself together before anyone saw her.

Not that any amount of pulling together would have prepared her for Ferric. I’m not drugged enough for this.

[Ferric Vintas]

“The silent treatment?” Ferric pondered aloud. He wore a gentle smile far removed from his usual smug grins. It would have implied understanding were it not for a raised eyebrow and his next statement, absurd in its audacity yet said with complete authenticity: “I must confess, I’m not certain what I’ve done to deserve this.”

He pushed the gift basket to the edge of the table, right next to her. He then looked around the room for a second, clearly searching for something. He grabbed a thin wooden chair by the top of its backrest, twirling it around on one leg so that it was facing the door. He then sat down with his elbows resting upon the back and his hands cupping his chin, with his legs straddling either side of the chair. This brought his body mass away from her, but let him lean forward to show the attention he was giving her.

[Odelina Meltzer]

“I’m not certain what I’ve done to deserve your time,” Lina replied dryly. She hadn’t been speaking much for the past few days, and her throat felt hoarse. “I’m sure you are extremely busy at the moment.” Probably busy with work I should be doing.

She glanced at the basket. “Fruits and everything. Goodness me.”

There had been a time when she had treated the man with all the expected courtesy, pretending the feud between them didn’t exist. Now, several times operated, drugged, frustrated, in pain, and generally at disadvantage, she could not care less about games.

It is hard to look assertive in a hospital bed, but she gave Ferric her best glare. “You want something of me, Vintas. Let’s hear what it is.”

[Ferric Vintas]

“Nah, I don’t really need anything. Although…” He responded easily. There hadn’t been much thought put into such a quick response, but the confidence he radiated assured one that his words were never to be regarded as mistakes. He tilted his head a bit downwards, as if simply continuing the conversation were something he had just agreed to. “I’m curious now. I at least request knowledge of my crimes such that I might properly address them.”

[Odelina Meltzer]

She closed her eyes for a brief moment. Evidently, The Game was unavoidable. Had the man ever uttered a single frank sentence in his life, without some kind of hidden agenda or ulterior motive?

She didn’t bother to hide her exasperation, turning to stare at the ceiling.
“Please, do ask. I’m happy to tell you all you want to know about any crimes you have committed.”

[Ferric Vintas]

"To the best of my knowledge, I can't for the life of me recall a time I've ever wronged you. Yet here we are, with you radiating hostility like an angry boar." He paused for effect, tilting his head sideways, "So, again... what did I do?"

[Odelina Meltzer]

She ran a hand across her face. "Vintas, I have no idea what you're talking about, or why you are here. You must forgive me if my hospitality isn't at its best after the last few days." She turned her head to meet his eyes. "And if you can't think of a single reason why I wouldn't like you, I think you need medical treatment more than I do."

That wasn't the most eloquent way of putting it. Oh well.

[Ferric Vintas]

Ferric’s lips momentarily straightened. His eyes narrowed slightly. The fatherly disappointment lasted only a fraction of a moment, passing so quickly one could be forgiven for wondering if they imagined his irritation.

He slouched a bit in the chair, letting his head rest on the arms he had perched on the backrest. With as much authenticity as he could muster, he said, “I’m here because, odd though it might sound, I respect you greatly and disagree with the situation you now find yourself in. I am trying to express my sympathy, and yes, I realize I’m… I’m poor at doing so, but I don't know any other way.”

He averted his eyes from her and covered half his face in one of his hands, as if admitting that weakness had made looking at his face sinful. The light pressure caused his glasses to emit a faint rattle. Sounding more tired than he ever had since joining the guard, he continued, “If you would please just humor me, and possibly dispense with the notion that I have some sinister ulterior motive, maybe I could accomplish something here.”

[Odelina Meltzer]

Lina let out a short exhale. She wasn’t going to dispense anything, but humour she could. “Well, if that’s indeed the case, then let me say thank you, and apologise for my suspicions. I was wondering how the investigation was going, perhaps you could enlighten me?”

A small part of her was curious. This was not one of Vintas’ typical mind games. Too bad she was not fit to play.

[Ferric Vintas]

Ferric inhaled sharply, as if she had just said something offensive. His muscles tightened and his shoulders rolled forward. As if in anticipation of trouble, his overall appearance had become more considerably more defensive.

“While I’m glad to see you don’t consider place of birth a factor…” He started slowly, drawing his words out as if putting careful thought into each one. It was a tone far removed from his usual confident, decisive one.

“I’m afraid the brass isn’t about to send a foreigner out onto a job like this one.” He lied. It came as easy as breathing. He knew his sergeant had plenty of reasons to dislike him, but that particular justification wasn’t one she had ever indulged in.

A bout of fishing for sympathy might make Meltzer a bit more receptive to conversation, if his instincts were right about her. She seemed the sort who had absorbed Puradyne lessons without the delving too deeply into the faith; one willing to sacrifice herself for others less fortunate, regardless of rationality. He was genuinely surprised by the cold shoulder he was now subject too, though it ultimately amounted to little more than the inspiration of mild curiosity.

Come to think of it, he wasn’t certain if Meltzer had even known he wasn’t so much as Titre. With his Madaal ancestry, he looked like anyone else from Marn’s dominant ethnic group. Teonidus knew how grateful he was for small blessings such as that.

[Odelina Meltzer]

Lina raised an eyebrow. The often-given speech about everyone in the Guard being equal, and everyone being treated equally by the Guard, was known to be largely lip service in a city as xenophobic as Marn, but she hadn't realised things were quite this bad.

"I would have thought we were too hard-pressed to be that picky. They actually suspect the Guard has been infiltrated?"

Then again, why wouldn't they? After the Justice Hall and the University, it was obvious that even the higher levels of the city were.But didn't that imply that the attacks must have been an inside job?

"Any rumours, then?" She managed a faint smile. "Give me something, I'm bored to death here."

[Ferric Vintas]

“Oh, I don’t think it’s anything so dramatic as that,” Ferric reassured her, “Just that they’ll need to dump honors and promotions on whoever works out the perpetrator. Imagine if they had to do that for some Eyropan. Hah! It’d be a disaster.”

He smiled sweetly at Odelina, “And not just because Eyropans are bastards to-” His voice took an odd moment to choke. After a swift grimace and tilt of his head such that his eyes now examined the floor instead of Odelina, he continued as if nothing had happened. Every once in a while his eyes would dart to the side. “…to the last.”

“But all I can tell you is that the idiot, Farius, is going to lose his job. Someone will need to take the fall for all this, might as well be the drunken lout with a history of bad conduct.”

[Odelina Meltzer]

She groaned, pinching the bridge of her nose with the slightly less bruised hand. "No. That's just idiotic. I'm no fan of Farius - believe it or not - but even he is not stupid enough to blow himself up. Not to mention both me and Kasabian were watching him. And so were a whole lot of construction workers."

She lowered her hand and stared at the ceiling again. "It could only have been him, if we were all in it. And all willing to blow ourselves up. Is that what bastards do?"

"Surely this is too big to just blame on the most convenient culprit. For the love of Changers, shouldn't we actually try to figure this out?"

[Ferric Vintas]

“Hah!” Ferric boomed, his face splitting into a wide grin. “Take it from me, we bastards are the last people in the world to be willing to send ourselves to Theogios. It’s the righteous ones who insist on dying for a cause; they’re the real danger.”

He paused as his mirth died, letting his laughter trickle down into a chuckle. “Besides, you can’t tell me you were watching him twenty-four-seven. It’s possible whoever planted the explosives left them there under his watch. And the public must be placated; we have to look like we’re taking immediate action. Even doing something wrong suppresses panic more than doing nothing at all.”

Ferric let his eyebrow rise inquisitorially, but let her digest the information he was giving. His restrained curiosity broke free as he inquired, “If it were up to you, would you rather we tell them we’ve got no leads to speak of and are just as confused as they are?”