CHAPTER — THE CHAIR SURVIVED
Forty-two hours later, Veydras could sit upright without someone manually convincing his spine to participate.
This was classified as progress.
At hour forty-six, Yamiya helped him stand.
Veydras hated this immediately.
"I can do it."
Yamiya kept one hand near his back.
"You are currently doing it with me."
"That is different."
"No."
Veydras took one step.
His knee shook.
Raiyo watched from the doorway.
"Shift left."
Veydras glared at him.
"Did I ask?"
Raiyo replied, "Your femur did."
Veydras shifted left.
The pain decreased.
He looked irritated by the success.
Yamiya noticed.
"You can thank him."
Veydras said, "Let's not become unrealistic."
Raiyo nodded.
"Recovery is going well."
Veydras took another step.
Then another.
On the seventh, he nearly folded.
Yamiya caught his elbow.
Veydras hissed.
"Do not tell anyone."
Yamiya looked toward the common room.
"Tell them what?"
Veydras studied her.
"You are improving too."
Yamiya smiled faintly.
They reached the common room.
Veydras stopped.
Kaosu stood beside a chair.
Raiyo was sitting in it.
Veydras looked between them.
Yamiya closed her eyes.
"Oh no."
Kaosu pointed at Raiyo.
"You're in my chair."
Raiyo looked up.
"I remember this conversation."
Kaosu's jaw tightened.
"Get out."
Raiyo crossed one leg over the other.
"You remembered your second line too."
Kaosu stepped closer.
"Move before I relocate your teeth."
Raiyo considered that.
"Better."
Kaosu blinked.
"What?"
"More specific threat."
Raiyo nodded approvingly.
"Still derivative."
Yamiya muttered, "Three out of ten."
Kaosu turned.
"Nobody asked you."
A voice came from the table.
"I did."
Kaosu looked over.
Noctis sat beneath three layers of medical bandaging, holding a cup in both hands.
Kaosu stared.
"When?"
Noctis took a sip.
"Internally."
Kaosu looked genuinely offended.
"That does not count."
Noctis replied, "It does in accounting."
Nyxus entered carrying four plates.
"Are we scoring arguments?"
Kaosu snapped, "No."
Nyxus put the plates down.
"Kaosu has zero."
Kaosu turned.
"What the hell?"
Nyxus shrugged.
"You said no."
Raiyo looked toward Nyxus.
"That may be the smartest thing you've ever done."
Nyxus looked pleased.
"Thank you."
Yamiya pointed at the table.
"That was not a compliment."
Nyxus's expression did not change.
"I already accepted it."
Veydras made a sound.
Small.
Sharp.
Everyone looked at him.
Veydras had covered his mouth.
His shoulders moved once.
Then again.
Noctis stared.
Yamiya stared too.
Veydras was laughing.
It hurt.
That became obvious quickly.
His laugh collapsed into a cough.
Yamiya caught his shoulder.
Raiyo stood from the chair.
"Stop doing that."
Veydras coughed again.
"That…"
He fought for breath.
"…made it worse."
Kaosu looked offended.
"He laughed at you."
Raiyo replied, "He laughed at your chair."
"It is my chair."
Raiyo looked down at it.
"Then control it better."
Kaosu's aura flickered.
Aoikishi entered at exactly the right time.
Or the wrong one.
He looked around.
"No."
Kaosu pointed.
"He—"
Aoikishi raised a hand.
"No."
"But—"
"No."
Raiyo sat back down.
Kaosu looked betrayed.
"You didn't even hear what happened."
Aoikishi walked past him.
"I have pattern recognition."
Raiyo nodded.
"Science."
Kaosu pointed at both of them.
"I hate this team."
Nyxus immediately answered.
"Team loves you."
Kaosu paused.
"That was disgusting."
Nyxus sat.
"You're welcome."
Yamiya helped Veydras into the chair beside Noctis.
Noctis looked at him.
"You walked."
Veydras let his head fall against the backrest.
"Poorly."
Noctis said, "Still counts."
Veydras looked sideways.
"You sound sentimental."
Noctis's expression flattened.
"You are concussed."
Aoikishi took the seat opposite them.
For the first time, Noctis and Aoikishi actually looked at one another without a battlefield ending around them.
Aoikishi spoke first.
"Noctis Arquen."
Noctis sighed.
"Please do not use the title."
"I wasn't going to."
"Good."
Aoikishi extended a hand.
"Aoikishi."
Noctis looked at it.
Then at him.
"I know."
Aoikishi left the hand there.
Noctis eventually shook it.
Aoikishi smiled.
"Veydras called me troublesome, apparently."
Veydras answered from beside Noctis.
"I was being polite."
Aoikishi placed a hand over his chest.
"Past tense hurts."
Veydras replied, "Raiyo can cut that."
Raiyo called from Kaosu's chair.
"For a fee."
Noctis looked toward him.
"How much?"
Raiyo paused.
Noctis almost smiled.
"Thought so."
Kaosu pointed at Noctis.
"I like him less now."
Noctis said, "We have just met."
Kaosu replied, "You're efficient."
Noctis nodded.
"Thank you."
Kaosu stared.
"That was not—"
Nyxus leaned toward Veydras.
"Watch this."
Kaosu stopped.
He looked at Nyxus.
"You people are insufferable."
Veydras looked around the table.
Then quietly said, "Yes."
Yamiya sat beside him.
"You adapt quickly."
The humor lasted four more minutes.
Then Eris entered.
Nobody meant to stop talking.
They did anyway.
Eris noticed.
Her expression hardened.
"Don't."
Kaosu looked away.
Eris continued.
"Whatever all of you were doing…"
Her remaining hand gestured weakly.
"…keep doing it."
Nyxus raised his plate.
"Eating?"
Eris looked at him.
"Yes."
Nyxus nodded.
"Excellent."
He resumed immediately.
The room breathed again.
Eris sat near the end of the table.
Aoikishi waited until she was settled.
Then he looked at Noctis.
"We need the full version."
Noctis's humor disappeared.
"Discordia."
Yamiya opened her notebook.
Eris saw it.
This time she did not object.
Noctis began.
"Karma recalled her through a paid agreement."
Kaosu's eyes lowered.
Noctis did not soften the fact.
"He paid with physical death."
Then:
"Spiritual death."
Kaosu's fingers tightened around the table.
Noctis continued.
"His return was not part of the agreement."
Aoikishi asked, "And Discordia?"
Veydras answered.
"She came back incomplete."
Everyone looked at him.
Veydras stared at the tabletop.
"Power first."
"Identity after."
"Choice last."
Eris's left hand tightened.
"She never got to the last one."
Aoikishi looked toward her.
Eris continued.
"Karma left her one command."
Kaosu did not ask.
Eris looked at the empty sleeve pinned beside her.
"Me."
Nobody spoke.
Eris forced herself to continue.
"Battle Omniscience tried to help."
Yamiya asked softly, "Tried?"
Eris laughed without humor.
"It lied."
Raiyo's expression changed.
"Your own ability?"
"Yes."
Yamiya leaned forward.
"How?"
Eris looked at her.
"I thought about that."
Her remaining fingers touched her temple.
"Omniscience still requires information."
Noctis nodded slowly.
Eris continued.
"It shows me what matters to a battle."
"Threats."
"Outcomes."
"Responses."
"The information has to exist before I can know it."
Yamiya's eyes sharpened.
"A channel."
Eris looked at her.
"Something like that."
Noctis added, "A receiver may be perfect while the supplied information is corrupted."
Aoikishi shook his head.
"Worse."
Everyone looked at him.
Aoikishi picked up a blank sheet from Yamiya's notebook.
"A perfect reader can still be deceived if the page rewrites itself while being read."
Veydras's open eye narrowed.
"Karma made truth contradictory."
Aoikishi looked toward him.
Veydras continued.
"Discordia made truth afraid."
The room became very still.
Yamiya wrote that sentence down.
Veydras noticed.
"Really?"
Yamiya did not look up.
"It was good."
Veydras sighed.
Aoikishi's gaze had gone distant.
Noctis noticed again.
"You know something."
Aoikishi looked back.
"I know many things."
Noctis frowned.
"That is another non-answer."
Aoikishi shrugged.
"Old powers do not always wake cleanly."
Yamiya's pen stopped.
"How old?"
Aoikishi looked at her.
"Old enough that arguing about the number will not help us survive her."
Raiyo asked, "Can we kill her?"
Veydras answered immediately.
"No."
Kaosu looked at him.
"You fought her."
"I attempted to."
"You survived."
Veydras's stare became empty.
"Those are not the same statement."
That ended the argument.
Aoikishi leaned forward.
"Noctis."
Noctis looked at him.
"You came here instead of the Concord."
Noctis's mouth tightened.
"We discussed alternatives."
"Such as?"
"Anixiety."
Nyxus stopped chewing.
"Epithet?"
"Yes."
Yamiya asked, "You considered asking an Epithet for help?"
Noctis answered, "We considered asking anything capable of making Discordia somebody else's problem."
Aoikishi nodded.
"Reasonable."
Noctis continued.
"Sorrow was another possibility."
Yamiya's expression changed.
"She may be free now."
"Possibly."
Aoikishi looked at Veydras.
"And yet you came here."
Veydras met his eyes.
Noctis answered for him.
"He remembered you."
Aoikishi's eyebrow lifted.
Veydras sighed.
Noctis continued.
"His description was not flattering."
"It was accurate," Veydras said.
Noctis looked at Aoikishi.
"He said Karma's son and the swordsman had been troublesome."
Kaosu leaned back proudly.
Raiyo did too.
Noctis continued.
"But the mentor…"
Noctis looked at Veydras.
Veydras closed his eye.
Noctis finished.
"…was the one person he considered genuinely troublesome."
Silence.
Aoikishi smiled.
Kaosu looked disgusted.
"Why does he get compliments?"
Veydras opened his eye.
"That was not a compliment."
Raiyo looked toward Kaosu.
"You wouldn't recognize one."
Kaosu stood.
"Get out of my chair."
Raiyo leaned farther back.
"No."
Veydras laughed again.
Raiyo pointed at him.
"Stop."
Veydras coughed.
Yamiya steadied him.
Noctis watched his oldest friend struggle to breathe through a laugh.
A strange look crossed his face.
He had not heard that sound in a very long time.
Veydras finally recovered.
He wiped his mouth.
"I hate all of you."
Nyxus held out a plate.
"Eat first."
Veydras stared at it.
"What is it?"
Nyxus looked down.
Then back up.
"Food."
Veydras looked at Yamiya.
Yamiya said, "Do not ask him for further classification."
Veydras took the plate.
For the first time since the war began—
nobody in the room was trying to kill anyone.
Kaosu and Raiyo came extremely close.
But technically—
nobody.