Silver from the North, Silver from the South (2/2)

As soon as the Harbor-winds scraped against desolation, Drina turned in anticipation of the slow pair to reach her. Her mind crafting firm dialogues before having to face the pair.

"Ian'drah? Out of all the people I expected to go against my words..." She scoffed at frigid winds as the pair stopped at arm's length.

"And you... I assume that you're Sion Blackmercy, am I correct?"

Sion looked at her like how a deer would eye an arrow seconds before piercing its head.

"No, he is not." Ian protested in exhaust, a frail attempt to protect Sion's identity.

Drina's hips rested her hands, she sure is not fond of the Sailor's behaviour. "First you disobeyed my words, and now you dare lie? May I remind of the Gold Emerald ring that I gave to a Mezenian girl yesterday at the bakery? Why do I see it on that 'nameless' man's finger?" Her face displayed complete blankness, the usual veil hiding the dangers underneath a politician.

"No, you don-

"Yes you are indeed correct." Sion interrupted before Ian could lie furthermore. His voice brought the most soothing sensation that even Drina's shoulders relaxed out of her awareness.

"I am that who you just named. Please, don't be spiteful any further, we are willing to undergo sanctions as long as it is proportional to both our sins." his tone came out gentle enough to calm any storm.

"Rest at ease, I have no sanctions in mind. Also, feel free to keep my ring." Drina turned around, she could no longer keep a straight face. The pair behind her is beyond reality to exist. "However, I want you to tell me everything you have witnessed while companied by the Ocmenians." She regained her stance, facing the pair once more. The Steel Colossus is now being transported to the next Dock so it is currently out of sight.

"I want every detail in ice-clear transparency from their very behavior down to their way of taking you in. This instance." She demanded.

Ian'drah and Sion looked at each other for some time in silence: at last the Alchemist addressed her in a casual calmness.

"It all started when Ian and I had a fight in the boat-" Sion said in utmost honesty, this is one way to gain her trust, by letting her step one foot on a circle she could never include herself in- his relationship with Ian.

"We both know that I don't stand a chance against him in a fight that's why, being the alchemist I am, I paralyzed him before he could immobilise me." He explained and Ian agreed to the narrative.

"That's when my body landed down the paddle and broke it into two. Leaving us stranded there on a steady-state, but thankfully those Ocmenians found us and took us in." Ian continued to make sure Drina is not going to get what she wants to hear.

"Now, do tell of the exact minute you've boarded that ship until this very moment." Drina demanded once more with a sudden modulation hinting that she's not content yet.

"Right, so they let us stay down the rear deck's chamber where the diplomat kept us company. It was rather strange that the slave who served us tea was Sovenian-looking."

"Aye, old woman is indeed from here, I know a Sovenian when I see one." Ian commented.

"The Diplomat just asked us of what we do for a living then here we are."

Hildred provided them a script for this, she knows that her kin is as cautious as foxes when it comes to foreigners, specially Ocmenians.

Drina paused for a moment, taking a deep breath then sighed, Sion can't assess whether it is of relief or disappointment. In Drina's mind nothing is rigorously violent in any interactions mentioned by the pair unlike those reports of Ocmenian encounters from the past.

"Very well then. I'll let you off easily for now, but exploiting my pity comes with a price, even for you Ian." Drina dismissed them, hoisting her tedious gown up as she treks away through the snowy grounds and mount her horse.

"Damn us to shells, I thought we won't lose her." Ian relaxed as soon as Drina is out of sight.

"She was intense." Sion then walked towards the Dock's arch exit.

"Hey Sion." Ian reached over the boy's shoulder before he could step further.

"What?"

"Cover yourself up." Ian handed him the netted hood he personally made that Sion wore for a decade.

"There's no need to."

"Sion..." he clutched on the boy's shoulder to hint seriousness. "Please?"

"Let it be Ian, you heard the Queen earlier, it's alright-"

"Please?" Ian persisted.

"Ian haha, that hurts?"

"You think I won't snitch that Queen if you don't cover yourself up?"

"And no one would believe you!" Sion faced the Sailor in complete shock, seeing him cruise between paranoia and protectiveness like a dragon to his spoils. He remembered that Miriam had a word for this when Sion was a kid who couldn't let go of his ragdoll. He used to cry day and night without that stupid ragdoll.

"Just why are you possessive of me!? Are you that greedy for attention? You egotistical fuck..." Sion cried out jokingly, he finally remembered the word Miriam used. However, Ian still held him tighter with all the strength left from his post-paralysis.

"Can't you just cover yourself up? is that not possible?" Ian begged like thunder rolling through the dark clouds of his judgment.

"Ian cease this fuckery, ey? Your boot is always stepped hard on my throat, are you aware?" Sion wept the confession out, he severed himself from Ian to rush towards the pier roads. "It's suffocating me boy..." the whisper escaped.

"Seas be damned..." Ian gritted and followed in pursuit. The Alchemist lost his footing when forceful arms squeezed his stomach, pulling him in and pushing out all the air in his lungs.

Out of sheer panic, his entire energy was spent to stomp on Ian's weakened knee, desperate freedom requiring desperate means. A loud impact of bone to stone echoed when The Sailor was sent kneeling down the ground.

Sion stepped back, this was his first time resorting to violence against anyone. Guilt gnawing his throat like swallowing dry ice, but it was a necessary sensation.

Ian still managed to stand up with his jaw shaking in unconcealable anger, but he knows that no matter how mountainous the height of his emotion is, anger or affection, he would carry it elusively only for Sion's sake.

"Why can't you just let me go Ian?!" Sion protested in defiance but it escaped his mouth like a soft plea, lips now quivering and eyes glassy like melting ice. It wrenched him to see Ian in pain like this, but he wants liberty from the hands that he knows would pamper him to inferno and back.

"Sion, I know what's best for you so please... don't believe in them, here..." The Sailor offered the netted hood again, voice crumbling like a once strong fort.

He is smiling though, the one you'd give to comfort a terrified child even if you yourself are much more terrified.

"I'm sorry Ian'drah but..."

Sion's vision for freedom blurred when tears gathered in his eyes, feet cautiously trudging forward to the kneeling Sailor. Ian reached out to him but Sion kept his distance like a careful fire.

The Sailor lost some portion of mind when the Alchemist pulled out a blue translucent vial from his satchel.

"No, no... Don't you fucking dare."

"I'm really sorry, but you don't seem to recognize what's best for me, dear friend..." With those final words of rebellion Sion sipped on the vial to disappear out of thin air.

And Ian'drah found himself imprisoning all air in front of him.

"NO!"

As if shards of glass passed his lungs to bleed through the throat, the poor Sailor released a shout that cleared the sky of any birds. He rose to run after the snow prints freshly forming but his legs gave up. Rage gushing forth as he kept punching down on snow and stone in a ship-wrecked bloody tantrum- with rocks mauled on his feet for they failed him.

Though he can't see it, he could feel it, the more that he remained still, the faster Sion was running away from him. The thought of having what he hid his whole life, be revealed to the city, made him feel robbed of a million lifetimes.