Page 30 of Xeda

He glanced down at her, his one bright orange eye narrowing. Then he turned back to the window. "I doubt they would consider letting me go for your life. You're no good locked in here with me. If we are to keep with our plan."

She couldn't help laughing at that. "My plan that you agreed to, you mean." Carefully, she stood up, groaning in the process. Her side ached but wasn't as bad as she had expected. "Well, let me see, will you?"

He side-stepped out of the way so that she could see beyond the window. A group of guards was gathered several feet away in the training yard. Then another came into her view, dragging Dane over to them. They talked casually as Dane waved his arms in her general direction.

They took ten minutes to talk it out before Dane finally marched his way over to the cell with a few men following behind, positioning their guns toward the unit doors. She didn't recognize any of them from last night.

"She's probably dead," she heard Dane say. "She probably got careless, and the vrisha took her out like Hendrik. Too bad, Sal will be—" He halted in his tracks when he saw her standing by the window.

"Hey, Dane." She smiled, relishing in the pants-shitting expression on his face. "I don't think it was me who was careless. But I'd be glad to tell them who was."

Dane didn't move as the guards surrounded the unit. The head of the east tower, Brant, glanced between them, looking down at Dane suspiciously.

"You know something about this, Dane?" he said.

Dane opened his mouth, and Ophilia was ready to hear his lies. Instead, he bolted. He didn't make it far, only halfway across the yard, before the guards ran after and caught him, dragging him back.

"It wasn't me!" he cried, trying to wrench himself away. "It wasn't me! It was Ivan. He locked her in, just ask him. I watched him do it."

"All right," Brant said, looking bored more than anything. "We'll get this straightened out. Just let her out."

Dane's face turned red, clearly in disbelief that the vrisha hadn't eaten her like he had so expected. "This is bullshit." He took out the remote and pressed the center. Xeda's chains tightened. He walked back toward the wall, and their eyes locked. She nodded to him, letting him know it was fine, then she turned for the door as it slid open.

Cautiously, she stepped out, putting up her hands as the guards gave her space. The door slid closed behind her, and they lowered their weapons.

"So, what the hell happened?" Brant asked.

Ophilia glanced at Dane. "I was told the vrisha was injured, but he wasn't. I was tricked and locked inside."

"By Dane?"

"He was there, but he wasn't the one who did it. It was a couple of guardsmen. I don't know their names."

Brant's gaze trailed across her face. "And the vrisha attacked you?"

"No, it was the guardsmen."

He frowned, clearly uncertain whether to believe her. After all, why would one of his own have reason to attack her over the vrisha?

"We need to report this, then, to Sal."

"I'd like to talk to him myself," she remarked. No way she wanted someone else to give their side of the story and have Sal believe Xeda had done this to her.

"Fine." Brant ordered the others back to their positions, keeping one guard with him to keep an eye on Dane. Ophilia followed behind them as they started for the house, letting Dane stare daggers into her back.

* * *

Ophilia sat by the pool in the gardens, her head resting on her hands, already feeling exhausted, and it wasn't even noon yet. They had gone to Sal, forced to interrupt him in the middle of one of his tennis games which he had been doing particularly well in according to the other staff. Ophilia told her side and was unsurprised when Dane conjured up a whole different story after, claiming that Ophilia had gotten herself locked in by her own stupidity and that the vrisha had indeed attacked her.

Thankfully, Sal had found it quite suspicious that Dane either knew she'd been inside from the start and hadn't considered letting her out or that he had a story at all if he had only discovered her there this morning and only by Brant's doing. He called for Ivan to get another version of the story and, not expecting to find her alive while unprepared to be interrogated, Ivan broke down and confessed he had been forced to help put her in the cell with the vrisha.

The two had to be pulled apart after Dane attacked Ivan for snitching. Sal, quickly losing his patience, tried to get them to give up the names of the guards who did this. They went quiet then, and Ophilia knew it meant they'd probably be worse off than she had been if they told.

"Well, boys, I think I'll have to take you off duty for the rest of the season and for the foreseeable future," Sal said, shaking his head in disappointment. "I'll let your father know you'll be sent home." He started to turn away, then, as if remembering something, said, "Oh, and since you found it too difficult to remember the names of those two guardsmen, I think an hour in the glasshouse might help refresh your mind, yeah?"

Ivan burst into tears, wailing as the guards took him away. Dane went silently, his face pale like he might be sick. Ophilia would have considered arguing that it was unnecessary, that she was fine with them getting fired and punished some other way because no one deserved the glasshouse. Sal's expression, however, told her if she so much as said a word, he might put her there too. And take her out of the training yard.

"I'm disappointed in you too, Ophilia,” he mentioned offhandedly. "You need to watch yourself, or I'll take back letting you train the vrisha, you got that? Hell, you’re lucky to be alive. Now, go get checked by Dr. Urmari, and don't let me see you again for something like this, got it? The next time I want to see your face will be at the trials."

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