Cisca's Bind
"Could be worse," I mumble to myself after opening the door to our room.
It's rather spacious, and there are two decently sized beds beside either wall. Right across from us is a window overlooking the mountainside sunset. Traces of spider webs can be seen dangling from the corners of the ceiling, but it's not much to complain about.
Like always, Astra skips past me standing at the doorway and jumps onto the bed on the side of the door. A fluffy pop is heard as her tiny body sinks into the wool mattress.
Faye walks in after her and sits down on the other bed.
"This feels so nice," she says while rubbing the bedsheets with her hands.
"May I go in, Master?" Lohikaarmi asks from behind.
"Yeah, sure."
As I watch the three of them settle down in the inn room, I wonder about how this is going to work. There is no way the three of them can share one bed, so….
I close the door and step to the middle of the room.
"Astra, do you mind sharing a bed?" I ask at the girl spreading out her limbs like a star and sunken into the bed with her face down.
She flips over with a smirk and says teasingly, "Look at you. Aren't you an eager one?"
"Shut your mouth or you are sleeping on the floor."
"Is that how you should treat your cute little sister?" Astra purses her lips.
"It's not, but you aren't cute."
"How dare you?" She says and pouts.
"I agree with Astra, Kris," Faye says with a smile, "your little sister is the most adorable."
Has this elf never seen a mirror before?
"See? Even Faye agrees," Astra says.
"Whatever." I turn to Faye. "Are you two fine with it?"
"I don't mind."
"Yes, Master."
"Great, now that's settled, take a little break, and let's go down soon to join them for dinner. I have some questions I would like to ask the people," I say and sit down on the bed beside Astra's feet.
The sky is darkening now. A layer of mist descends from the mountaintop and is about to envelop the town in its mysterious aura.
Lohikaarmi takes a seat beside Faye, who is gazing out of the window at the highlands.
"I can't believe we are almost at the Holy Capital," the elf girl says absentmindedly.
"Quite a journey we had, eh?" Astra says, "First, we saved you, then Lohikaarmi saved Kris, then Kris got mad at Lohikaarmi, and then Lohikaarmi saved Kris again."
"She didn't save me the first time."
"Yada yada."
"You are a real piece of work, you know that?" I say.
Astra sits up and stares at my face with a grin.
"Would you say, a work of miracle?"
"If by that you mean it's a miracle I haven't ripped your ear off, then yes."
Faye giggles.
"Don't be so cold," Astra whines. She jumps on me and wraps her arms around my neck in an embrace.
"Oi! Get off!" I try to push her away to no avail.
Maybe I should have shared a bed with Lohikaarmi, or probably not, since God knows what Astra is going to tell Lohikaarmi to do to me in bed.
As I struggle to escape Astra's clutch, a text pops up in my vision telling me that there is a call incoming from Cisca.
I peel Astra's arms off my shoulders and sit her down firmly on the bed.
"Accept."
The video feed appears, on it is Cisca pacing around restlessly in her bedroom with a cup of coffee in her hands. When I connect, she stops and turns her head toward me,
"Kris," she says with an anxious face and sits down in front of the camera.
"What's wrong?"
Faye looks at me, her brows furrowed in puzzlement, and asks, "Who is Kris talking to?"
"His friend on Earth," Astra says.
"Oh, I didn't know he could do that."
"There is a lot of things you don't know he can do."
Cisca empties the cup in her mouth and answers, "The authorities have finally noticed your disappearance."
"It's about time they do. It's been half a week, but isn't it what we expected? Why are you so worried?" I ask.
"The plan went off the rail a little. Because of that commotion with the executive from F&S Electronics in front of your whole lobby, the police is now suspecting foul play."
"What, like that old man could have done something to me?"
"Who knows? He has money, you have money, everyone else related to your two businesses has money, and people who are willing to do anything for money aren't that rare to find in this part of the city."
"I see, so what does this mean?"
Cisca takes a deep breath.
"So, the police will be conducting an investigation, and since I am the last person to be seen with you, there will be increased surveillance on me. I won't be able to contact you until this whole thing blows over."
That's not good.
"How long will it last?" I ask.
"Out of the many degrees I hold, criminology is not one of them, so, I have no idea."
"Damn."
"In the meantime, just use the voice command feature of the comms device. Every interaction is logged, and I can access it anytime."
"Alright."
The sound of a doorbell rings from Cisca's side. She turns her head.
"Shoot, I have to go now. Good luck, Kris," Cisca says and reaches over to turn to camera off. The video disappears.
Not great news, especially when we are so close to the Holy Capital. At least I know Cisca will be safe. There is nothing that will incriminate her, as long as her laboratory doesn't get discovered, and it won't. I remember her mentioning that there is an alarm system in the lab that will flood the entire underground facility in acid when an unauthorized person enters.
And of course, she only informed me of it after she had installed the system.
"Is there something wrong?" Faye asks.
"No, everything's fine."
"It didn't sound like everything is fine to me," Astra says.
"It's nothing you guys need to worry about."
"Okay."
"Alright," I say and stand up from the bed, "Shall we go down for dinner? I am getting hungry."
"Sure," Faye says.
"I am hungry, too," Astra says.
"Well, then you shouldn't have eaten the whole pot of syrup last night."
"He-he, I couldn't help it."
"You can't help anything, can you?"
I walk to the door and step out into the hallway. As I am waiting for the girls to come out, I hear footsteps behind the door across from ours. It swings open and slams into my arm.
"Oops, my bad," a deep voice says from the other side of the doorway.