Chapter Seven[VII]: What's the Plan? (V)

Xenos Waters silently eats the butter chicken in front of him, shifting on the plush stool he's sitting on in the kitchen. Felix is beside him, already finished his butter chicken and nibbling on some leftover naan bread, the tinfoil haphazardly balled up in front of him. Xenos is trying to enjoy the food, he really is, but the things that Mr. Balanius said keep on repeating themselves in his head and making the butter chicken taste almost like ash.

"Have you decided?" Felix asks, making Xenos swallow his food and turn to him.

"It's not much of a choice," Xenos replies blandly, putting his fork down and pushing away his half-eaten food. "But, yes, I've decided."

Felix looks at the butter chicken. "You gonna eat that?"

Xenos rolls his eyes. "Eat it if you want, I'll probably throw up from nervousness if I eat anymore."

Felix shrugs, taking the butter chicken and promptly beginning to stuff his mouth. Xenos stares up at the ceiling, contemplating what affairs he has to settle before leaving. He comes up with two things; leaving a note for the staff and children at Novus, and getting the necklace under his mattress, all without being seen. Well, it doesn't seem particularly difficult, considering Mr. Balanius can just open up a portal to his room.

The middle of Xenos' forearm and the bottom of his chin pulses in pain, making him jerk in his seat. He feels himself tilting backwards a little and Xenos grabs the counter to keep himself from falling over. Taking a deep breath, Xenos does his best to ignore the hot coals lingering on his skin along with the deep discomfort he feels from the fact that the pain has spread.

He cradles his scale-covered arm against his chest, flinching slightly from the sandpaper texture but dealing with it. Xenos knows he's going to have to get used to it sooner rather than later if he wants to survive and, ultimately, control the dhabeho. It's probably best that he's going to be leaving without running into the people at Novus, he doesn't want to scare anyone with his appearance.

Xenos feels Felix looking at him and glances over, meeting Felix's concerned gaze. Xenos pauses, finally recognizing that Felix also has silver speckles in his eyes. Can it be that people with mana have silver speckles in their eyes? But what's the deal with the voices? Can that also be connected to having magic? They did say "the border is broken" this morning, so perhaps it is.

Mustering up his courage and praying he doesn't sound like a lunatic, Xenos asks, "You hear voices in your head too, right?" He sees Felix noticeably tense up, and Xenos feels the need to clarify. "Y-You know, the ones that scream things at you occasionally?"

Felix seems stunned, and Xenos ducks his head, cheeks burning with embarrassment. Is it not connected then? Are the voices just some form of mental illness? Xenos covers his face with his hands. Oh God, how insane must he sound? He should have kept his mouth shut, what is wrong with him today?

"Hey, how'd you know about that?" Felix asks, sounding bewildered. Xenos looks up. "I never told anyone."

Xenos gives a relieved sigh. "So it is connected! Oh my God, I thought I would sound totally crazy if it wasn't and the voices are just a me-thing. You have no idea how happy I am-- not about the voices, but the fact that I'm not mentally ill or something," Xenos rambles on until he hears Felix give an amused chuckle, making him clamp his mouth shut and red creep up his face.

"So, you have them too? Is it a magic thing?" Felix asks, still looking a bit amused.

Xenos forces the embarrassment to go away and answers, "Yeah, probably, that's my theory anyway. Especially since one of the voices said, 'The border is broken,' this morning. I'm assuming that border is the same one Mr. Balanius was talking about."

Felix nods, stuffing the last bit of butter chicken into his mouth and swallowing before he responds. "Seems plausible, one of my voices said the same thing, but I was already at school at the point."

"Hey, yeah, how did you end up in that classroom?"

"Well," Felix stands up, bringing the greasy Tupperware containers with him, "there was supposed to be some early practice today so I went earlier than usual to school." He walks over to the trash and stuffs the containers inside, dusting his hands off. "I walked around for a bit, waiting for everyone else to come. Then the voices did their thing and all of a sudden I felt unsafe, so I was making my way out of the school when the dhabeho appeared. It chased me around for a bit but disappeared when I went into the classroom, I'm assuming that's when you appeared."

"I guess the gouge marks in the walls make sense, then," Xenos says off-handedly.

Felix grimaces, clenching his crutch tightly. "Yeah, barely managed to dodge that one."

Xenos spins the stool one-hundred eighty degrees and slips off. "So, do you have anything to do before we leave?"

Felix nods. "I have to write a note for my dad, don't think he'll care either way though. You?"

He almost asks what the last bit is supposed to mean but bites his tongue, that is not a can of worms that Xenos needs to open right now. "Same as you, a note for the people at Novus, and then a necklace my grandparents gave me."

"Fair enough," Felix says with a shrug. "Want to write the notes now?"

"Yeah, I'd rather write when I can still hold the paper."

Felix winces. "Good idea." He limps over to one of the drawers and opens it, taking out a black-coloured pen and some scrap sheets of paper. "It's probably better if the notes are short." Xenos nods, silently agreeing. If he has too much room, he might just crack and write down exactly what's happening. And Xenos really, really doesn't think it'll be good for them to know the truth.

Xenos takes the pen and paper Felix offers him, pausing for a moment to think of what to write before putting the pen to paper. He finishes writing about a minute later, re-reading it, ɪ'ᴍ ʀᴇᴀʟʟʏ sᴏʀʀʏ, ᴇᴠᴇʀʏᴏɴᴇ. ɪ ᴡᴏɴ'ᴛ ʙᴇ ᴀʙʟᴇ ᴛᴏ sᴇᴇ ʏᴏᴜ ᴀʟʟ ғᴏʀ ᴀ ᴡʜɪʟᴇ, ʙᴜᴛ ᴊᴜsᴛ ᴋɴᴏᴡ ɪ'ᴍ sᴀғᴇ. sᴏʀʀʏ. ʟᴏᴠᴇ, xᴇɴʏ. He draws a small smiley face at the bottom, something akin to his signature.

He hands the pen to Felix, and Felix writes down his goodbye quickly. Xenos can't help but repeat it out loud from shock, "I'm leaving, bye?" Felix raises a brow and Xenos puts his hands up in surrender. "Alright, not my business." Felix snorts and sticks the note onto the fridge with a magnet, looking quite pleased with himself.

Felix turns around, leaning casually on the countertop. "So, what do we do while we wait for Mr. Balanius to come back?"

A thought suddenly occurs to Xenos. "Shouldn't we clean up? The glass shards in the sink, the wet clothes, the bloody handprints? You'd think we were kidnapped."

"Yeah," Felix winces, "we better clean up. I'll go put the clothes in the dryer while you deal with the bathroom, deal?"

Xenos nods. "Deal."