Unknown Territory (Start of Part 2)

The mysterious female Shiftie helped him up. Arcturus's body felt weak, but his strength was returning to him. He scanned the vicinity; no human was in sight. He then focused on Nova. He took off the coat that he had used as a makeshift blanket for Nova and then made him wear it so that the upper half of his body was warm. Afterwards, he scooped up Nova and told the Shiftie girl to lead the way; the ringing in his ears were getting a bit better, but her voice still came out muffled.

As he followed her, he took in the sights. There were no humans wandering about, which he found unusual; he also noticed the lack of vehicles roaming about. He wondered if they followed a curfew protocol; if not, then perhaps an emergency announcement was made telling the civilians to return to their homes due to Castle Lavender's destruction. That made more sense to him; tremors could instill fear into people's hearts, after all.

The streets of Sirius were empty; only Cobots were out and about cleaning up litter and prettying the concrete streets. He could tell from dim street lights that the streets were just like every other one he saw back in his hometown. There were buildings made of bricks and metal. Some buildings were stores; some were offices; some were homes. He had assumed an isolated city like Sirius would either be heavily underdeveloped or highly overdeveloped, but it was the same he had seen in shows, pictures and real life. This all fascinated him; he assumed they got the materials to create roads and buildings from Ilacian imports. The air smelled clean; he could detect a trace of pollution anywhere.

What caught his eye the most in the empty streets was a large metal wall barricading one side of the city from the rest. He wondered why it existed and who built it. The wall was very tall; it almost reached the top of the barrier. He wondered why he hadn't noticed it when he was riding Souhait.

Regarding the barrier, he could see cracks and a large hole from the direction of the garbage dump. He wondered where the airship could be; it wasn't in the dump from what he briefly recalled. Was it outside of the area? What of the Monarch Shiftie?

He made a conclusion to all of his observations: Even if Sirius is a lot plainer than I had anticipated, I still need to be on my guard. This is unknown territory, after all. One false move and we could be surrounded by soldiers and taken into custody. He held onto Nova tighter.

He then fixated his attention back on the female Shiftie. Thoughts came to his head; did other Shifties know about the existence of Monarchs? If he were to explain it to her, would she understand? Would anyone understand?

He stayed quiet as he followed her lead; they crossed several streets and turned at some intersections until they reached a three story brick building with multiple doors lined up in precision attached with a staircase and railings for safety. He could tell this was an apartment complex and the smallest he had seen in his life.

The Shiftie climbed up the stairs, which he repeated; he had to be careful when ascending due to his hands being full. They reached up the second floor and walked towards the third door from their left. A shiny number plate had 312 plastered in black text. She then used a key to unlock the door. Arcturus couldn't help but to gape at the sight of seeing a Shiftie using a key. Kori had never used one from what he remembered for everything in Lamina was highly advanced; the locks were all digitized and functioned via face recognition. 

She then looked at him and spoke out to him. Her voice was still muffled, but he could tell she meant to tell him to come in. He was curious about how a Shiftie could have a home, so he followed her in. His eyes widened at the sight of a humble interior. The apartment was rather small with one bathroom and two bedrooms, but it was well tended; the couch was a beige hue and rather puffy. The wooden furniture was all a bit of a darker shade than the couch, but noticeably brown; he saw how clean they were with their glean. The decorations on the walls weren't much, mainly consisting of pictures and small paintings. He noticed a small television on the opposite side of the couch, a surprising sight for Arcturus who was used to advanced technology being the norm of his household. Most of all, he felt how warm the place was.

An aromatic scent caught his attention. He smelled something delicious, but he was never good at discerning what sort of food was being made; he just liked eating whatever was given to him. Suddenly, two people came out of the kitchen to greet the Shiftie–a man and a woman; the sight of them shocked him–they weren't Ilacians.

The man was tall with pitch black hair and green eyes. He had a bit of wrinkles at the corner of his eyes and his laugh lines were quite noticeable, signaling a friendly and jolly aura from him. The woman was shorter than him with brown hair tied in a bun; she had blue eyes. He could see some wrinkles around her eyes and mouth, but they weren't as visible as the man's. With how her skin glowed, he could tell she takes great care of herself.

He still only heard muffles as the two were talking to the Shiftie. From their body language and demeanor, he could tell that the two were a couple and that the Shiftie was like their daughter in a way. The man approached him to talk to him, but he couldn't discern his words. He took a step back and shook his head. "I can't hear right now; my ears are ringing." It was an unusual instance hearing his own voice muffled.

The wife had an idea as she took out a notepad from her gray apron and wrote down something to show Arcturus: 'What is your name?'

He was rather confused on why this woman wasn't hostile towards him, but he'd rather take their hospitality over another alternative. "My name is Arcturus Mercury."

She scribbled down, 'Arthurus, welcome to our home!'

She misspelled my name… He wasn't too bothered by it as his name was rather unusual in itself. He was rather grateful that she was welcoming. The husband then walked over to the couch. The Shiftie moved the coffee table as the husband bent over and pulled out a portion of the couch, changing it into a bed. The wife then hastily scurried into a room where she got out two pillows and some blankets. She covered the mattress with a thin blanket and then covered it with a thicker blanket. She placed the pillows on each side and the makeshift bed was complete.

The Shiftie gestured that he placed Nova on the bed; he took the offer as he gently placed him down on the left side of the bed. He took off the coat and then quickly covered the slumbering man with the blanket. The husband then took out his own notepad from his orange apron and wrote down: 'Please make yourself feel at home.' Arcturus noticed he took a few steps back so that there was a bit of distance between them.

Is it really alright for me to accept all this kind hospitality? We've only known each other for a minute. Regardless, he knew they were to be trusted, so he put his satchel down. He took a good look at his coat. It was a chartreuse colored padded coat from a luxury brand; his grandmother Caroline had bought it for him before he had left for the expedition. Once pristine, it was now tattered and full of tears and holes. He couldn't help but to feel apologetic towards her.

He then got out his journal, ripped a blank page from the back and wrote down, 'Can I have your names?'

The wife's name was Sophia Edwards; her husband was Murphy Edwards. The Shiftie took Murphy's notepad and wrote down her name: Constance. Now that he got everyone's names, he proceeded to write again, 'Constance, why have you brought me here?'

She replied, 'I had detected the presence of a Shiftie and went to check; it turned out to be coming from your earring, but you are not a Shiftie. Seeing how you were holding the Charlatan, I knew that you were to be trusted.'

'How am I to be trusted? I'm a stranger.'

This time, Sophia wrote down her response, 'Don't worry. Where you are right now is what we call the 'Outskirts'. We are an area in Sirius who do not obey the current mayor–in fact anyone who disobeys is taken here.

Arcturus then remembered how Nova once told him how lucky he was. While he had brushed it off before, he started believing in it at this very moment. Once he felt relaxed, his luck seemed to have run out as his head started aching. The ringing got stronger; the aches surged down to his entire body. His body started feeling heavy; he started breathing heavily.

Is this a fever?

As it got worse, the muffles got worse as well. Arcturus could feel himself feeling chilly. Strength sapped away from him, which caused him to drop his journal and scrap paper. Sophia scurried off to the kitchen while Constance activated the hologram screen; most likely calling someone. This caused him to be worried. He tried to turn towards Nova to shield him, but exhaustion conquered him.

Murphy helped him to the bed; Arcturus lied down next to Nova. Sophia rushed towards his side with a thermometer. She placed the device next to his ear and then became worried about the results. She then rushed back into the kitchen. Murphy picked up his journal and scrap paper and placed them back into the satchel.

"Thank you…" Arcturus muttered. Murphy responded to him, but his words were inaudible.

He then wrote down, 'Don't worry. We called a doctor to come in and diagnose your fever.'

"Thank you," Arcturus repeated. He recalled the last time he had a fever was when he was a young boy, so to experience it again as an adult wasn't pleasant at all; it felt worse as an adult. He then glanced over at Nova. He was glad Nova was sleeping peacefully and not witnessing him in this weak state. He brushed his golden bangs towards the side, giving him a good view of what his whole face looked like. Nova had always been a beautifully androgynous man, but his full face made him look a bit more masculine. He liked his side profile as he found it balanced from the width of his forehead to the length of his nose bridge; it was a profile that he wanted to trace if he had the opportunity to do so. He then placed a hand on his forehead. Nova was getting warmer; he wasn't as cold as he had remembered before. Because this man was immortal, he had no worries about getting sick and having fevers–a rather envious constitution. Despite this, he couldn't help but to think Nova looked rather vulnerable while asleep. It compelled him to want to hold his hand and reassure him that he'd be there for him. He couldn't speak, but he did hold his hand.

Sophia came back with a wet towel that she placed on his forehead. It was cold, but a welcomed feeling. When he glanced over at Sophia, he saw the image of his mother, Henrietta, smiling at him; perhaps he was becoming delirious from the fever. The memory of his first fever slowly came to him.

When he was around eight years old, he had a bad fever. He was scared and constantly crying because it was such an unusual feeling. Arthur wasn't present at the time, so Henrietta had to take work off and do everything she could to lower his fever. She had gone to the pharmacy to get fever-reducing and cold pills; she had mashed apples and tried spoon-feeding him. The apples weren't mashed properly as he felt chunky bits in his mouth, but he hadn't said a word. It all worked thanks to her efforts, but it did take him three days to recover fully. There were two things he learned from this. The first was to be as healthy as possible so that his family or anybody else wouldn't be burdened by him. The second was to respect and love his caring mother who worked hard to nurse him back to health.

When he blinked, the image of Henrietta reverted back to Sophia. He knew in this situation that fevers do not hurt when he is asleep, so that was what he did. He closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep.