Daryl turned white. “Rin, is that really you?”
“No. I told you, I’m Sree. There, now that’s a second time. Do try to remember my name. It would be rude to forget a name twice told. Besides, I look nothing like Rin.”
“I wouldn’t know,” Daryl lamented as he took a sip of his drink.
Sree thought for a second. “Well, you do seem to know her pretty well. Apparently, he didn’t lie about that.”
“He?” Daryl turned toward her.
“Your memory needs some work. You asked for his help,” Sree laughed.
It took a few moments for Daryl to realize what she was talking about. “Karkov? He wasn’t very helpful.”
“You don’t know Karkov as well as I do.”
Daryl cringed. So they were working together. Karkov was trying to get back at Rin for what she had done to him, so it made sense that he would enlist other immortals. Well, Daryl couldn’t fault the man. He was sure he would feel the same way if betrayed by the woman he loved. If Rin was the Queen, which still was far from certain to him. Just because she had thrown him out for asking didn’t mean it was true.
“I was surprised that he let you live,” Sree continued. “Though …” She took Daryl’s chin in her hand and gently turned his head back and forth. “No, I don’t see it.”
Ignoring Daryl’s bemused expression, she took a sip. “He did help, in his own way. He sent me. You didn’t really expect him just to tell you? How would he magically know where Rin was?” Her tone was pedagogical rather than critical.
“How did he know where I was?” Daryl asked.
Sree giggled at this. “You are quick. I can see why Rin likes you.”
“Liked,” Daryl corrected.
“If you say so.”
“She never called me quick,” Daryl noted dryly.
“She wouldn’t.”
Daryl tried to remember the details of Rin’s precipitous departure. He had assumed she left because of their argument and that the claim of being pursued was just an excuse. He now realized he had allowed his perception to be tarnished by self-pity.
When had Rin ever required an excuse? She had explained exactly why she needed to leave. The argument just prompted her to do so without him. He knew all this. He even had considered seeking out her pursuer. How could he have forgotten such a simple thing? Was it Sree? Was she the reason Rin had exiled him?
“You won’t tell me your number,” Daryl mused. Sree’s smile wavered, and he quickly added, “and it is rude to ask, so I won’t.”
The smile returned. “A young woman of breeding does not give out her number to strange men.”
Daryl was lost in thought and barely registered this. Before he could stop himself, he blurted out his question.
“Are you the one who has been chasing Rin?”
This occasioned an odd look from Sree. “Chasing Rin? Was she running from me?”
Daryl nodded. “I think so. She was running from somebody. Who else could it be?”
“Karkov?”
“From what I’ve seen, she has been chasing Karkov not running from him,” Daryl pointed out. “Also, she referred to a woman. Somebody left her a note, and she decided to leave after that.” He wondered why he was confiding in a woman who probably was Rin’s enemy. Worse, why was there a touch of resentment in his voice?
“I see. That was why she left you, and you blame it on me.”
“Then you admit it was your note?” The tone of accusation was clear enough.
Sree shook her head. “I left no note. But I see how she works now. Rin must have people who watch for her. It would explain a lot. That is why it is so hard to find her.”
Daryl had the horrible feeling he had revealed one of Rin’s secrets. An ordinary slip-up would be bad enough, but to divulge a secret which had been kept for centuries would be indefensible. Something had been broken, and there was no going back.
“So it was you,” Daryl muttered to himself, before eyeing Sree with distaste. “You’re working with Karkov because of what she did to him.”
Sree suddenly grew cold. “That was a cruel thing to say.”
Daryl suspected this was her sternest form of reprimand and could not help but remark the contrast. Even Rin’s mildest censure left bruises, though Sree’s smarted in its own way.
Daryl began to apologize, but Sree interrupted him in irritation. “That’s your third apology. Be careful,” she warned. “You only are allowed three in polite society.”
Daryl wondered what would happen if his behavior demanded a fourth apology. Sree didn’t seem the violent type.
“I suppose you’ll kill me, then?”
“Where would you get such an idea?” Sree appeared horrified yet amused, as if replying in disbelief to a child’s latest preposterous notion. “Never mind, I think I know exactly where.”
Daryl held his tongue, and Sree looked at him with a hurt expression.
“I understand where these imaginings come from, but please restrain yourself. I am not Rin.”
“I’m sor …” Daryl began, but Sree put her finger to his lips.
“We won’t count that,” she offered gently. “And to answer your question: if you offend me, I simply won’t help you. That would be sad, because I think helping you will help Rin. At least that’s what he said.” Before Daryl could object, she added, “and he does not lie to me. Not anymore.”
Daryl was unsure what she meant but sensed that further inquiry would be unwelcome.
Sree took a sip of her drink and a deep breath, and then calmly elucidated. “I do not work with Karkov. I am friends with Karkov, despite the betrayal. What he did to Rin was horrible, but not unforgivable. Nothing we do is unforgivable unless it is eternal. And only Rin does that.”
Daryl was confused. “So Rin was the Queen in the story?”
“I’m not sure what story you mean. She was a queen. Didn’t she tell you that?” Sree sounded aghast at the omission. “Poor boy, what did she tell you.”
Daryl repeated the tale as Rin had told it, and as best he remembered it. At first, Sree seemed bewildered, then sympathetic, then amused. Toward the end, she alternated between shaking her head in disapproval and verging on laughter.
Seeing her response, Daryl was puzzled. “Is that wrong?” he asked innocently.
Sree gently touched his arm, and held his eyes with her own. “It isn’t easy loving Rin, is it?”
“I don’t …” Daryl began, but Sree’s laughter cut off his objection.
“The story is backward. Rin indeed was the queen and Karkov was the king, but he betrayed her.”
“But why? If he could craft the spheres and had picked her as his queen, why would he betray her?”
Sree gave him a surprised look. “Don’t be silly, child. Rin was the crafter. I said the story was reversed.”
Daryl was silent for a minute, while Sree allowed him to process this.
“But why didn’t Karkov tell me? He sat there and acted like the story was true. Well it does paint him in a good light, I suppose.”
Sree laughed. “You do Karkov an injustice. However grand you think yourself, Daryl, none of us need your approval.” He could not explain why, but this soft rebuke stung more than all of Rin’s invective.
When Daryl remained silent, Sree lightly poked his arm. “The question you should ask is why Rin told it that way. Karkov had no obligation to correct your teacher’s deceit, and neither did I.”
“But you did anyway,” Daryl noted with more than a little gratitude.
Sree shook her head. “That was unwitting. You tricked me, in a way. Had I known her intent, I would have done the same as Karkov. But by the time it was clear to me, I accidentally had sewed doubt. To leave you in utter confusion at that point would have been cruel and pointless.”
In response to the indignation on Daryl’s face, Sree put her hand on his and looked at him.
“Try to understand, Daryl. It is not that I do not care. Even Karkov may have cared. But whether or not we felt what Rin did to be wrong, it is not our place to correct her to her student. She may have had a reason for doing such a thing, and it would be wrong to undermine her that way.”
“But what reason?”
Sree shrugged. “That is between you and Rin. Most likely she had none, and it just was the whim of the moment. Or maybe she didn’t want your sympathy. You do want to kill her, and clearly she liked that. We may all seem the same to you, but even we do not know one another. You cannot imagine how far apart people grow over the years. And if there are enough years …” There was a distracted sadness to her voice.
A second later, she perked up and returned her attention to Daryl. “Even if we do not know her reason, we must respect it and Rin.”
“Does Karkov respect Rin?”
Sree nodded. “More than that.”
“Then why betray her?”
Sree squeezed his hand. “Accept that there are things you never will understand, Daryl. He had his reasons, but what meaning could the reasons of an immortal hold for a human? You never will know Rin, but you still can love her.”
“I’m not in love with her,” Daryl grumbled.
Sree looked at him with laughter in her eyes. “But of course.”
“Does knowing this, make you love Rin more?” Sree teased. “Or do you still want to kill her?”
“I do,” Daryl replied.
“Do which? Kill or love?”
“Kill.”
Sree sighed and then giggled. “Ah, young lovers these days just don’t know how to win a woman.” Suddenly, she grew serious.
“Why do you want to kill her? He never told me that.”
“I have my reasons,” Daryl grumbled. “I thought we’re supposed to respect reasons without understanding them.”
Sree looked at him for a moment, then burst into laughter. “That’s the way. Very dignified.” With affected formality she then added, “I apologize, it was forward of me to ask such a thing. I suspect there was some harm she did you in the past, but I won’t pry.”
Daryl shook his head. “Now you do me injustice.”
“And you even speak like me, now,” Sree laughed. “I should be wary of a man who is such a quick study.”
“I want to kill her because she is,” Daryl explained.
“Is what?” Sree seemed genuinely curious. “Rin is many things, but killable isn’t one of them.”
“She just is. Something like her should not exist.”
“Something?” Sree was taken aback. “Rin is a someone, not a something. And I am like her too. Do you wish to kill me as well?”
Daryl thought about this. “No. She’s the Crafter. She’s different.”
Sree frowned. “That’s not honest. You didn’t know that when you decided to kill her.”
“No,” Daryl confessed. “That’s true.”
“I think she must be the most difficult of you,” he suggested after a little thought.
Sree smiled. “That certainly is true. But you did not know that either.”
Without catching her meaning, Daryl began to reason out loud. “She probably is the highest number. But she was afraid of you, so maybe not. And I definitely don’t want to kill you. Or Karkov. Unless to help Rin.” Seeing that this line of thought was going nowhere, Daryl shrugged in uncertainty.
“That makes very little sense. You wish to kill her, yet you would kill others to help her? Is this a sort of possessiveness?” Sree crossed her hands on her lap and looked at Daryl with utter fascination.
“I don’t know why,” he finally admitted. “It’s just her. And that didn’t change when she introduced me to other immortals.”
“Introduced? Well, that is a tidy euphemism,” Sree observed in an amused tone.
Daryl momentarily tensed as he remembered what he was, and what he did. He had been disarmed by Sree’s amiable manner. She was his natural enemy, and Rin probably would have asked his help hunting her. But the fact also remained that Sree easily could have killed him at any time. At least for the moment, she did not regard him as a threat. He didn’t sense any hostile intent from her, and there was nothing he could do anyway. There was no point worrying, and he decided to relax and see how things evolved.
“But why was she fleeing you?” Daryl asked, half rhetorically. “She said you could hurt her.”
Sree was touched. “Did she? That’s sweet.” She thought for a second. “Yes, I suppose I can. I will too.”
Daryl tensed again. “So, you are her enemy?”
“Rin’s only enemy is Rin,” Sree noted acerbically, more to herself than Daryl. A moment later she bounced back in her seat and laughed, as if first addressing his question.
“Not at all. Rin and I have known one another for a long time, and we never have been enemies. But I see now.” She smirked and poked Daryl in the rib. “Rin apparently has created one more protection than she intended. You really do love her.”
Daryl frowned. “I told you, I’m not in love with Rin.”
“If you say so,” Sree chirped tauntingly.
“Come back to my room, and I’ll prove you wrong,” he grinned, amazed by his own forwardness.
“Well, maybe you have loosened up.” Sree draped herself over his shoulders from behind and bit his ear. “Okay, prove it.”
When Rin finds out these two slept together, I wonder which of the two she's going to kill harder...