The One Named Rhea

CHAPTER TEN: The One Named Rhea

—"Let's see how much you can drink!" Quinn challenged Maeva playfully, as if testing her limits for fun.

"Woo! You're on, dude!"

The tavern was awash with music and dance as rounds of beer made their way around. Citizens and common paladins alike, having a good time.

Suddenly, Maeva's name echoed through the room as eyes watched her duking against Quinn in the midst of a drinking contest. Having emptied 10 jugs thus far, they remained relatively composed despite being drunk.

—"Chug! Chug! Chug! Chug! Chug!"

"This is so foolish..." Paige stood as she utter the words, shaking her head in disapproval. She was willing to overlook the first 5 jugs, but it was now getting out of hand. Quinn wasn't known much to be a bare-fisted drinker, but for Maeva...she wasn't sure whether this was right. She's 23 years old as far as she could remember, well, 1,023 right now. So it wasn't a bother for her to drink. But, watching her excessively drown herself in alcohol was uneasy to witness. Nonetheless, the locals were astounded by the amount she made disappear.

The tavern was alit with music, with people dancing on the wooden floors and some taking to the tables to move their feet around.

"Hic! I'm the... *Hic!* I'm gonna be the booze champion! Woo! Eat it, Paladin! Heheheee..." Maeva's intoxicated persona was amusing and endearing, the crowd laughs as she unintentionally play the clown. They had fun for the most part, and there seems to be no consequences to her actions just yet.

"I win!" She cheered, crowning herself the victory.

Meanwhile, Quinn was impressed at how she outmatched him. He might be buzzed too, but he would always manage to keep himself straight. But at this point - he became a bit concerned for Maeva's well-being.

"Alright! Let's end on a good note," he suggested, gently pulling the pint glass out of Maeva's hand.

"Heheee..." The ginger-haired girl laughed, obviously taking the offer as a jest. "Come on...*Hic!* let's see how many more we can down. Twenty? *Hic!* Maybe thirty?"

Quinn caught her from fumbling her way into the ground. "Woah! Easy there, Mae. I think you're way more drunk than me..." he teased with drunken rosy cheeks. "Your tiny liver won't take any more."

"I'm not drunk! *Hic!*" she defied with a more redder face, then poked his nose while drawing on her words. "You are..."

"Yet I'm the one still on my two feet."

"No fair, I have...haven't had *Hic!*...something like this in...so long..." she slurred, her head swaying from left to right as if it was having a tough time to balance on her neck.

"For the Gods' sake," Paige face-palmed. "Quinn, that's enough. Take her and let's leave this establishment."

"Mmmm, no. One more drink!" Maeva raised her hand up in protest, but Quinn easily overpowered her, and placed it back down. "Nooope...you had enough to drink."

"Hmph..." Maeva huffed in aggravation but she was too sluggish to fight back.

"Alright, alright. We had enough fun tonight." He said to her, playfully.

"*Hic!* B-bb--but I wanna driiiiink more..." she planted her face into his chest, gradually losing her footing. Despite Maeva’s protest, her resistance was futile as she got carried off so easily. As they left the tavern, Maeva was giggling and playfully protesting his actions, but Quinn remained firm.

"Honestly. Why did you let her drink in the first place?" Paige murmured.

Quinn chuckled. "Come on. We were just having fun. It's just how Chromestown parties. You saw it too. Everyone loved her back there."

"You do this with everyone you meet. It's been your thing," Paige sighed. "Even when you don't realize that half of them might be light drinkers."

They went off to an available lodge to take there rest for the night. Paige walked over to the reception as she paid for the rooms.

—"Oh, I'm sorry. But we only have one room with two beds left available." The innkeeper stated apologetically.

"Great..." Paige turned her eyes back to Maeva giggling while continuously poking at Quinn like a curious child. And with how late it was, finding another inn to stay in was unlikely. They needed to head out tomorrow anyway. "We'll take it."

"Lovely!" The innkeeper smiled and offered the swordstress the keys to the room. Quinn tailed her while Maeva nestled in his arms. He could hear her murmur something unintelligible, her words becoming more and more distorted by her drunken state.

"...home...no more tests...please."

"Tests?" Quinn asked, leaning in closer to catch what Maeva is trying to say.

"...don't...wann...no more..." Maeva mumbled, her voice growing even more slurred. It's clear that she was fighting the effects of the alcohol. She kept mouthing the same word over and over, making Quinn internally bookmark them. What did she mean by 'test'? Something scholar related? Was it an unlocked memory of hers? Her past?

Paige arrived into the room she reserved and unlocked the door. The room wasn't all that spacious, but she noticed bits of furniture were there. "I'll take the sofa. You and Maeva take the beds. Separately, that is."

"Yes, ma'am..." Quinn walked inside and deposited Maeva on one of the beds, watching her automatically adjust herself and curling up into a ball. He couldn't help but tug a smile at that. He let out a long yawn and walked over to the adjacent bed. Paige perched on the sofa and posted like a nightly security guard, with her arms crossed and her back against the sofa. She seemed vigilant, much like she would deprive herself of sleep.

The blond-haired paladin shrugged it off and leaned back on the bed to drift away into sleep. After several minutes of silence, a groggily weak voice called out to him.

"Pst...Quinn, Quinn. Quiiiinny..."

The said male opened an eye and turned over to the red-haired girl.

"Mm?"

"I don't...*Hic!* I don't wanna sleep..." Maeva insisted again, he noticed her falling unconscious, her body going limp as she struggled to stay awake. "You're not tired?"

"I just...don't want to." Maeva frowned, clutching onto fabric of the bed. "I mean...*Hic!* I had so much fun today, despite...most of it. But...I feel like this might all just be a dream and I might wake up...*Hic!*...somewhere. And...I actually like it here."

Quinn stayed silent for a moment as he pondered over her quote. He knew that Maeva had spent a long time asleep before now, and he understood her fears. In the end, he decided to give her the reassuring answer that she needed.

"Don't worry, It'll just be like a normal sleep. Maybe even longer with the alcohol still in your system." He joked.

"We don't know that..." she drawled, frowning.

Quinn perked, starring at her for a while before he smiled. "Okay, how about I watch over you then?"

"Really?"

He nodded. "I'm not going anywhere. You don't have to worry about it."

Maeva gave a sigh of relief. "Okay..."

Quinn watched over her with a warm smile as she laid her head back down and peacefully drifted off into sleep.

"Quinn?" She whispered lastly.

"Yeah?"

"I'm glad...to meet someone...like you."

As Quinn watched her, he felt a wave of affection for the red-haired girl. She might have been a bit overboard with her drinking, but there was no denying that he cared for her. He subtly frowned as he remembered what he had to do tomorrow, but shook the thought away immediately.

Maeva's eyes were already shut, and her breathing had become rhythmic. Her body relaxed into the bed, seeming very peaceful now.

________________________________________________________

*** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** ***

—The morning was filled with the sound of chirping birds and winding chimes, as Maeva slowly emerged from her slumber.

Her white box of a bedroom was suffused with a nostalgic lavender scent, its tranquil ambiance reminding her of an age long gone. But her peace was soon broken as she heard a familiar voice. It wasn't Quinn's, and it wasn't Paige's either.

—"Mae~Maaaee~"

The girl creaked a little more this time, yet she's still slow to actually fully wake up. The voice kept calling out to her, and at first she thinks she might be dreaming. But slowly, she realizes that the voice belongs to someone she knows. Ringing in her ears, she squeezed her eyes shut until she felt a sudden weight on her bed.

—"Rise and shine, sleepy head. Time to get up."

Maeva groaned and covered her head under a soft blanket cover. "Just let me sleep..."

"Come on...come on..." the person continued, sounding a little impatient now.

"Five more minutes, Rhea...I'm too tired." She replied.

"Are you always this grumpy in the morning?" was the question asked by the person, seeming truly amused by Maeva's moodiness. Maeva glared at the woman sitting on the bed, trying her best to keep her annoyance contained. She was not trying to sound ungrateful or anything, but her body felt tired and sore for some reason.

"Of course I'm gonna be grumpy, the stuff they give me here does things to me and it takes time to recover. You know that." She snapped. She wasn't in the mood for pleasantries or levity this morning, especially while dealing with residual effects of a previous night.

"The price you have to pay for the greater good, dear," the person named 'Rhea' chuckled merrily and only leaned in to kiss Maeva on the cheek.

"Ew! Gross..." Maeva pushed her off stubbornly. Rubbing her eyes and sitting up right from bed. She was wearing nothing but an all-white dress with a number tag poked out from it. It revealed: 'MV-232' like a code in a digital-like font.

"You know I'm not a little kid anymore, and keep your lips away from my cheeks! Besides...am I not a 'Potency'?" She raised quoted gestures.

Rhea was, for some reason, not visibly seen from the nose up. Her face was only shown from the lips toward the rest of her body. She held something familiar too. It was a white clothing hanging on her hands, which happened to be her work uniform. This 'Rhea' woman had a job, but Maeva's memory failed her as she could not recollect what it was. And she forgotten who Rhea really was too. But she was someone who she deemed close.

Was she a relative? Her mother perhaps? She just...knew her name, but couldn't remember her face at all.

"Mae, sweetie..." The girl in question rose her head up. Rhea sat on the side of the bed. "You know...that I'll always love you, right?"

"Yeah yeah...I know." Maeva pouted with a sigh.

"And I always have to tell you that, whatever happens. Because you're very precious to me. You're not a Potency, you're my little star..." Her green eyes glossed for a moment and immediately as she crawled over to Rhea for a hug. A sudden urge to sob tears as a river of memories of a further past started to hit her. One severed from her and resulted into the white room she was in. Who she was way before this. Or rather, what was her purpose here in the first place.

Her mother figure smiled, softly stroking her gingerly red hair. "I love you too, Rhea."

"It's okay, sweetheart. Now get up, I won't have you missing your routine or I'll be scolded."

"Yes, Rhea." Maeva sighed.

It seemed like a usual day for Maeva's life, until the earth beneath her was suddenly gone and it turned dark all around.

It remained as such until it didn't, and it was now filled with flames.

<< [ ALERT! ALERT! THE BUILDING IS GOING UNDER CRITICAL MELTDOWN! ALL PERSONNEL, HEAD TO THE DESIGNATED EMERGENCY EXITS! ] >>

Maeva found herself alone in a hellfire.

The blaze consumed everything around her, the white walls turned ashy with soot, the building was coming down in a disaster, everything was charring away into cinders.

"RHEA! RHEA, WHERE ARE YOU?!" Maeva was surrounded, her skin searing and blistering from the heat. Her hair matched the colour of the set alight disaster and her green eyes watering from the warmth of the blaze. It was an inescapable nightmare as bad if not worse than hell.

"MAEVA? MAEVA!"

"Rhea?" She whipped her head to a recognizable silhouette within the smoke. It was definitely Rhea's. Maeva turned a heel and rushed over, holding her hand out to her. "Rhea! What's going on!"

"Maeva! Don't come any closer!" Rhea shouted, souding frightened. "Run away from here!"

"Rhea! What are you doing?"

An unfamiliar silhouette emerged behind the woman, holding out their hand out what seemed to be a toxic yellow flame. They let out a deep rumbling laugh as they loomed over Rhea, as if it belonged to the devil.

—"Your sacrifice is essential for Echelon!"

"Rhea! Look out!"

Before she could reach her, a massive firewall emerged right in front of her. It ate away at her flesh, forcing Maeva to let out a shrill of pain.

The inferno around her seemed neverending as her voice went unheard.

*** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** ***

Maeva woke up with a silent jolt, sweating and panting. She looked around, it was still night time. Quinn was long asleep, soundly snoozing away. She turned over to Paige, who had her eyes shut but still in her nightly guard position.

Green stardust mystically radiated from her out of pure reaction, turning her bed into a grassy surface of unbloomed spouts and buds. Her body was shaking and her heart pounding. The flames of her nightmare was still fresh in her memory, even though it was all just a bad dream. It terrified her, so much that she curled into a ball as her eyes and vividly going back to her memory of her estranged friend. Her hugs, her time together, and even her annoying kisses. The only person that loved her like a real mother.

A tear fell from Maeva's cheek, and like a dew drop, it landed onto a flower bud - magically letting it flourish with a magnificent glimmer.

After that, Maeva didn't want to go back to sleep. Scared of reliving that nightmare.

'Rhea...I wish you were here.'

***

Edited: 10/Jun/24

【Author's Note 】

–heyoo! Hope you're enjoying the story. I'm trying to reedit the stories to the best of my abilities and I hope you're enjoying it.

–lebzachannn

***