Horus watched June's eyes flickered between his and the ground before she grunted. "Fine, fine, I'm not telling you everything. Wally is… popular in Sierra Vista."
Already knowing that, he simply nodded. He observed the eyes that followed Wally when he visited the city. They were distant and reverent like the looks he received. They were jovial, full of respect and admiration.
He also always observed how constantly Wally's phone rang, and how on certain calls, he would leave the room so Horus couldn't hear what was being said.
"Well he was going to be on the Lower Council when he turned twenty and he's friends with high people. Both in Sierra Vista and Fort Thunder. Some of his friends in Fort Thunder are friends through favors, blackmail—"
"Blackmail?!" Horus did a double take, eyes widening.
"Oh relax, that's not even the worst thing among you Forties… he doesn't tell me much—cause he's an asshole—but I've, uh, visited some Equalist rallies and I heard he's got lots of enemies."
Horus's eyes were turning. How could he know so little about the person he had called his best friend for five years.
He grasped at something else instead. "You support the Equalists?"
They were a terrorist cell, dragging chaos and discord wherever they went. He found it hard to reconcile June's harmless face there. It was hard to imagine Wally blackmailing anyone; the guy got paper cuts and cried when pigeons died.
June glared back at him. "It's the Felling Equalists not Lily Court. They do peaceful protests against yearly crop shares between the Fort and Vista, educate people about their rights. We're never violent."
"Peaceful?" Horus asked, blinking twice. "Three months ago they almost assassinated the Master of Scouts in Command headquarters; then kamikazed the building when they couldn't get him. They also tried to assassinate Morrigan, my sister, that day."
"We didn't know those psychos, they just came in with some people," June said, backing up with fear in her eyes. "We didn't let them past the Lord shield, your people did, and I'm sorry about your sister. I'm glad she survived. But the Master of Scouts… well, he isn't the nicest person in the world, is he?"
He wouldn't take any of her probing. He stepped closer and looked into her eyes, towering over her. His voice was low and imperious.
"Did you know any of the people from that day?"
June turned down, stammering, "N-no. All I know is that they were there for revenge against Morrigan."
He longed to place a hand at her chest and measure her heartbeat. To make sure she wasn't lying to his face. But then she looked up at him and he saw genuine fear in her eyes for the first time.
The fear others had when they saw him. Or when an Inheritor was furious with a Mundane.
He stepped back and tried to calm down, rubbing his hand over his temples. Yelling at June because he was pissed wouldn't make things right, and it wouldn't save Wally.
Nothing was sure, other than the fact that they wouldn't get answers here.
"We have to find Wally," he said finally.
June's tears were still falling, but she shook her head weakly. He turned and walked out of the oasis, head buzzing with confusion and worry that things would only get more out of control.
***
June didn't exchange a word with Horus for a long time. They walked through the road in painful silence.
She couldn't stop the well of shame that sprang in her when they spoke. She couldn't shake off the fear that settled in her bones when he stood over her.
And even more irritating was the fact that she couldn't escape her desire to apologise.
It weighed heavier as they walked. Footsteps ringing through the still, black cavern. The road was too long for her, she lingered behind Horus wishing something would jump out of the dark and snap her up.
She couldn't apologise. It wasn't like she had done anything wrong, at least as far as he knew. But even morally she knew that she wasn't wrong.
That's why the weight in her chest was even more irritating. She hated pissing him off, but did she hate it enough to forsake everything she had believed in for the last four years?
They came to a stop on the road. A room with a massive hole in the floor and charred earth even blacker than usual.
June nervously glanced at the holes in the roof and walls where Firespitters could crawl from, but Horus looked unconcerned, instead searching the room for traces of something.
His hearing was crazy good from what Wally told her so she put aside her fear and studied the room too. It was some kind of storage for corpses and random glowing plants, maybe a trash room.
Horus' occasional footsteps made her glance at him. His strong form wrapped in the light armour was reassuring.
Yeah, I'm only staring because he's reassuring.
When he rose from his crouch, she turned away quickly, feeling the heat rise to her face. The anger and shame grew; she wanted to apologise, but also wanted to yell in his face.
So she settled on playing her Gittern, crouching against a wall and looking at the ceiling.
Her fingers caressed the beautiful instrument softly; a gift from the system that was almost good enough to make her reconsider how annoying she thought it was.
The song was quiet and unintrusive, flowing through the shadowy space like it belonged. She tried to feel her mana as she played.
Her only two spells, or sub-skills as they were called in Formation school, were [Steady Tune] and [Ear Rattle]. They were pretty good and made her pretty useful in a team.
But she'd like to come up with her own. Spells suited to her playstyle and personality. Years of practice with different instruments and studying magic still weren't enough to stumble into a new sub-skill though.
[String Playing] > 13 > 14
The skill increase didn't do much for her mood but it was nice to see. Maybe she could be friends with the system after all.
"June."
Horus made her jump, ending her song abruptly. He was right next to her, approaching with silent grace.
"Hey," he said, scratching the back of his head. "I wanted to tell you…"
His voice trailed off as he struggled with the words. She was speaking before she could stop herself.
"You don't have to apologise, I won't either. We're different people, and no matter what you think about the Equalists is your own. Not that my insignificant little problems will ever matter to you, I just—"
Horus raised a hand to stop her, rubbing the bridge of his nose and sighing. "I was going to say Wally is still alive."