#Staziya

[valhallan]

🪐💜

// Staziya belongs to @sorrow-already-spoiled

[ameriel]

au week 7 | fantasy

[sorrow-already-spoiled]

A Secret is Worth Keeping if...

CHAIMOIW

“We need to talk.” Zerea doesn’t even blink when her office door slams against the wall hard enough to chip the paint. She was as perfectly put together as always in her classic pinstripe and gold rings, fountain pen in hand as she works her way through the neat stack of paperwork on her desk. 

“Welcome back Chai. I was starting to think you were actually going to keep your word. I suppose I gave you too much credit.” Chai slams her hands down on the desk with enough force to disrupt part of the stack. 

“Do you realize you nearly had your wife killed tonight?” That stopped Zerea’s pen dead in its tracks. An excess of ink spilled from the pen leaving an ugly black splotch on the page. “She was in the car your goons shot up.” 

“The Kingsley’s sent my beloved to collect a shipment like a common criminal?” Zerea’s voice had gone ice cold. “And you allowed it?”

“Don’t even think about trying to pin the blame on them. The Kingsley’s are all heart. They would never ask Ani to do something like this. She insisted. If you’re looking for someone to blame, it was you who left your shipment documents laying around for her to see.” Chai’s nails dig into the oak desk, a horrible sinking feeling growing in her gut. “You planned this? You let her see the documents on purpose, didn’t change the shipments so she would follow the trail.”

“And why would I do that?” Zerea lays the pen down in its black leather case, interlacing her fingers and resting her chin on them. 

“Because you’re a sadistic bitch, and you want her to be scared? Or maybe you were trying to kidnap her to force her back here. Or you wanted an excuse to go after the Kingsley’s properly.”  Zerea laughs without any joy. 

“A few flaws in your theories, my dear second.” Chai’s lip curls at the reminder of her position in Zerea’s business. “First, I have never once taken any pleasure from Ani’s fear. I like to keep my work and home life very separate. Second, kidnapping her is useless, as she will simply try to run again and grow resentful when she fails. When Ani returns to me, it will be of her own accord. Third, the Kingsley’s are currently… off limits.” 

“Off limits?”

“Off limits.”

“What the hell does that mean?”

“I’m afraid that’s none of your business. In terms of my motivations regarding the evening's events… Frankly, I believe I underestimated Ani’s ability to put pieces together. I was quite happy to see her as a sweet little housewife, you see. A darling little thing to care for and keep my bed warm. It is possible her pretty face distracted me from her true intelligence.” Chai’s jaw tightens in fury. Ani was much more than Zerea would ever know. “As for the gentlemen that shot at you tonight, they will be dealt with accordingly.” They wouldn’t last the night then. 

Chai felt no sympathy for them. Honestly, if Zerea wasn’t going to take care of it, Chai had every intention of hunting them down herself. They had shot at Chai’s people. That was a death sentence in her eyes. 

“I’m going to leave. You’re going to let me.” Zerea smiled. 

“Of course I am. I'm sure you’ll be in touch, unless you’re going to make another impassioned speech about leaving my side for good, your newfound morality, and your unwillingness to cooperate with evil? The first one was quite cute, I’d be happy to hear it again.” It wasn’t worth arguing with her, and Chai knew it, but she hated letting Zerea have the final word. 

“May all your lightbulbs be mysteriously unscrewed in the night.” Chai turned on her heel and left the door open on her way out. She was definitely not coming back here again. In her anger, she didn’t notice the other individual in the hallway until she bumped into them. “Sorry.”

“No trouble at all, it was my fault.” Chai knew that voice. Rashai. The man who kept coming to visit Staziya. He tips his hat at her, “Have a nice evening.” What the hell was he doing in the administration offices of StarDrop? Rashai continues down the hall to Zerea’s office, closing the door with a quiet click. 

It was already late when Chai had left the King’s Club, and later still when she left StarDrop. She makes her way to the river, shelling out a few coins in exchange for some greasy food from a late night street vendor. She sits on the bridge, legs dangling over the edge, a 50 foot freefall to the water below her. She wasn’t sure how it had gone so wrong so quickly. Maybe she should have stayed in that dead-end office job. She had been good at it, even as her soul died a bit more with every stolen lunch. Instead she had been seduced by her own anger, diving headfirst into a world of bullets and stolen alcohol. A stray breeze sweeps up her used napkin, the small square of cheap paper drifting out over the river before falling to float on the surface. 

Chai sighs deeply. 

Ani’s evil wife was her boss, which she couldn’t tell Ani. The gentleman Staziya was so enamored with was somehow involved in the criminal underworld, which she couldn’t tell Staiya or Ani. Folceli and Sel somehow had decided they were gonna follow her around, and she wanted to be a good role model for them, so she couldn’t let her mask slip for a second because they were always watching. She couldn’t tell Lawrynce anything, because he would probably react the same way she would if someone put her friends in danger. Unfortunately she was the danger. She wouldn’t even blame him. 

She should probably walk away, but she didn’t want to. She didn’t want to go back to a job where she was no one, just a cog in a bureaucratic system so large she couldn’t even comprehend the scope of it. She didn’t want to go back to being Zerea’s right hand, a killer for hire, a slave to her own rage. She wanted to stay with her friends. She wanted to take care of the people she loved.

She would keep her secrets a little longer to keep them happy and safe, even if it killed her.