Tobias The Cat: A Short From The Nexus 3 Moving On

"I dun see why you h've ta go," she repeated mulishly.

"I can't … It's just …" Akicita trailed off. He sighed and looked at her. "We … met at the gate - the one leading to this district, right?" Tobias jerked back, startled by his change of topic.

"Y'h. Ya kn'w th't."

Akicita's eyes flew around the room, not meeting hers. His left hand rose to his mouth and he pressed the thumbnail to his lips. "I know that … because you told me that. I don't remember."

"What?" she asked, shaking her hair clear from her face and moving so Akicita had no choice but to look at her. "I don't understand."

"I don't ... remember … lots of things. How we met. Mack said at breakfast - did we practice daggers with him yesterday?" Akicita ran his hands through his short hair and fisted it, yanking painfully. "It just … it won't stay. I think … I had a notebook. The things I had to remember - I wrote them down. But it's gone." He huffed a little laugh. "And I don't remember what happened to it."

"But th't's easy! W'kin g't ya a n'w book t'day."

"That's not …" Akicita turned away. "This place … it feels dangerous. I don't know! I can't …"

"If you go to this 'interst.i.tial place' of yours, I will hate you forever and never talk to you again," Tobias promised. With a glare, she turned and fled the room, just like Akicita was planning to do.

*****

Mack was helping Akicita nail a rough wooden shelter together in the alcove Akicita wanted to call home. Tobias stood in the narrow entry and scowled at them.

"I'm still mad at you," she said, brandishing the black arrow Akicita had left with Rosa for her.

"Has it been forever? I thought it was just an hour and a half?" Akicita's lips twisted in a wry smile. For once his eyes danced in humor as well.

"I'm still mad at you, but I don't hate you," Tobias allowed. Mack chuckled and wiped the sweat from his brow.

"Th't sh'ld h'ld ya f'r t'n'ght. Ya g't ta well 'n ta c'rn'r, b't t's too small ta s'nd ta b'ck't d'wn."

"I've got some ideas for the well. Thanks for helping with the lean-to." Akicita smiled at Mack, but made no move to shake his hand, much less give him the back-thumping hug as most of the crew exchanged freely. Mack just waved and strolled off.

"This place is weird," Tobias said, dropping the cant that came increasingly easily. She looked from the worn brick walls on one side of the alcove to the strange gla.s.s building on the other side. At least she thought it was gla.s.s. No gla.s.s she'd seen would have been intact with that mess of cracks. She looked down at the arrow instead. "Why did you leave this?"

Akicita sighed and sat on the ground. It was a strange mishmash of cobbles and a black, crumbly rock. Tobias sat, too, and waited for his response.

"It's to remind you That I'm still here. That you can see me whenever you want. Or whatever."

"I could see you easier if you stayed with the crew." She looked at the arrow. The shaft was smooth, the texture unmarred by the strange design painted on it. The tip was small but pointed. The fletching bristled against her fingers as she stroked it, but didn't feel like the quill pens she'd learned to write with. "Sometimes I think …" She felt Akicita's strange burning eyes on her and hesitated. "Wouldn't it be easier to just … stop? What's the point of all this? I've already -" She bit off what she was going to say and refused to meet Akicita's gaze.

"You've already done what you were born to do?" Akicita finished for her, so quietly she had to replay his words in her mind before she realized what he'd said.

"How did you...?" She looked at him, confused.

"You talked … after Uncle Tom …" Akicita swallowed hard. "Of all the things to remember, right?" Tobias shook her head, still not understanding. "You said 'Daystar Princess' and 'Kingdom of Ciracu'. The rest wasn't as clear, but I could piece some of it together. You sacrificed yourself to protect your people. But I don't understand how."

Tobias looked down at the arrowtip, p.r.i.c.king her finger against it. It didn't draw blood. She thought about the force it would take to do that, and how much it would hurt. But it would be a cleaner pain, surely.
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"If you don't want to talk about it now … maybe later? We could get that notebook, and write it down so I don't have to keep asking you."

"Maybe there shouldn't be a later."

Akicita frowned, but didn't pretend he misunderstood. "That's one answer, I guess."

"Don't tell me you haven't thought of that!" Tobias rolled to her knees and faced Akicita with teeth bared.

"I won't," he admitted easily. "But I will tell you why I'm still here, and why you should think about staying, too. There's someone who will miss you if you're gone. And there's someone who will be too happy that you're gone."

"No one will miss," Tobias scoffed.

"I would. Rosa and McDougal would."

"McDougal thinks I'm a stray cat he picked up in an alley." And it wasn't too far off. She'd been lured in like a kitten by soft words and tidbits of food. Tobias shook her head, dismissing the memories.

"He'd miss a stray cat that wandered off, too. And Nick would miss you - he worships the ground you walk on," Akicita teased.

"Nick's four! He doesn't know how to worship anything!" But Tobias had to admit she was smiling, just a little.

"If that's not enough to get you through the night, think of Uncle Tom." Tobias's blood ran cold and she jerked away from Akicita. "Do you want him to win? Or do you want to be the one to make his little empire crumble around him?" She shook her head. She couldn't hope to take out Uncle Tom. He was hiding behind his men for the last three weeks, and showed no signs of stopping. "Not now. He's a big fish in a small pond, and we're all sardines. Even McDougal's a small fish, though he doesn't like to admit it. So - grow, little fishy."

"I'm not a fish. I'm a cat." Tobias held the arrow up again, admiring the tip. It was sharp, but not too sharp. It would hurt more. "Tobias the Cat. Do you think you could teach me to shoot?"

*****

Tobias frowned as she entered Akicita's interst.i.tial alcove. She could tell without checking that he wasn't in the lean-to. And fresh rubble buried the pump he'd gotten Geezer from the Un-Flying district to help him install. She poked a desultory bare toe at the broken bricks.

A gust of air billowed down the gla.s.s wall, kicking loose a black top hat that had been snagged on the rubble. An icicle of dread traced Tobias's spine as she realized how well the hat would match Uncle Tom's customary suit. She quickly searched the alcove, but found nothing other than the empty lean-to and some more rubble that she couldn't swear hadn't been there last time she'd visited.

Still, something inside that she'd come to trust whispered that Akicita was gone and may never return. As she turned to leave, she remembered his promise to listen to her story and write it down so he didn't keep opening wounds by asking the same questions. They hadn't done that in the scant month since they had that soul-baring discussion. She hadn't mustered the courage to reveal her deepest secrets. Her frown lifted to a more neutral expression.

"Ta m'rk't's 'p'n t'day. W'nd'r wh't th'y h've 'n ta w'y 'f paper goods?"