Side Effects

7 - Interlude

Cautiously, Tina held a silver spoon to her lips and tasted the tomato soup that Ray had given her. It was nice to have some kind of hospitality. It had been a while since she had had any. With her other hand, she tapped her fingers on the sofa, creating a soft melody that exposed her happiness.

"Ty yak sup?" Ray said shakily, holding a small notebook. Tina stopped the tapping and gave him a look of confusion. Ray covered his eyes with his hand in annoyance. He'd tried so hard to communicate with her over the last couple of days.

Earlier, he unintentionally played charades to figure out what country she was from. After figuring out that she was from Ukraine, he had bought an English-to-Ukrainian dictionary from the bookshop and had spent the last nine hours trying to learn the language.

So far, he had not had a response from her. Of course, he knew that she could speak, and it was clearly his terrible lingual skills that were at fault.

"Shcho?" Tina replied after tasting another spoonful of soup. Ray flicked back through his notebook. After at least two minutes of finding out what she had said, he repeated his question.
"Nemaye...?"
"Ugh, never mind!" He placed his hand on his head again, making Tina giggle. Tina knew what he was trying to do and she respected it dearly.
"Dyakuyu, Ray."

Ray flicked through his notebook again.

'Dyakuyu - Thank you'

Ray realised that he did not know the words he wished to say in her language, so he only gave her a warm smile.
"Ya znayu, shcho vy ponyattya ne mayu, pro shcho ya hovoryu, ale spasybi. Duzhe dyakuyu." Tina smiled back with eyes glistening.

"H-hey. What's..." It was no use. All those hours of learning and he still could not pick out a single word of her speech.

He sat beside her.
"What are we like? I can't speak Ukrainian and you can't speak English, but here we are, living together." It sounded a lot better in his head than out loud, so for once he was quite glad that Tina was not English-speaking. "I guess the world just hates us both, right?"

Ray leant back on the sofa. "Even so, you're probably the best person I've met so far. Not that I've met that many people, of course, and the choice was between you and the Mayor." He chuckled lightly to himself, "But even with our language barrier, you really are... okay. You're an okay person."

"Shcho?" Tina repeated.
"Never mind, Tina." Ray answered, getting up and resorting to his bedroom.

***

Meanwhile, Rhine Montgomery fiddled with a delightful chemical mixture labelled 'Haroldson' - named after a man who granted his power to the Ace of Spades out of desperation. A lot of customers were desperate, but it was very entertaining to see how much money Rhine could wheedle out of the weak.

Haroldson gave up his ability to breathe underwater - a useful and therefore expensive ability to bid. Rhine had raved about it to Cherie a few nights ago.

Thinking of the moment reminded him that Cherie's offer was still open - an offer that was to give her any ability for any given price. He still doted on it, never really acting on making an agreement. Cherie was a difficult customer indeed - she was not weak.

His deal with Bree Hext meant that the next day, she would meet with him on the same street they met, and follow him to where he stored the abilities he swapped.

Donnamira had informed him that she was willing to trade with Cherie, as both met the correct guidelines with one another. Problematically, Rhine actually did not know the contents of Donnamira's power, for he had never seen it for himself. Either way, they vowed to sacrifice everything for it, and that was a good enough deal for him.

Tap. A footstep. Tap. Slow footsteps. Tap. The presence of another person drawing near in the darkness. Rhine turned - the only light that shone was above the very table he experimented on - everywhere else was pitch black. The room turned cold, but Rhine turned back and continued his work...

Without warning, something hit him in the back of his head at full force, and he fell. His forehead whacked against the table.

And his world turned black.

Emerging from the shadows stood a tall, broad man. His thick neck encrusted in a blood-red scarf, his eyes covered by the shadow of a brown hat. The short chestnut beard wrapped around his mouth on his square, pore-infested face. Unmistakable; this man was the true face of danger itself.

This man was the notorious Gadolin.