Chapter 391: Wanting Some Privacy
After hearing our conversation, the healer looked as though she regretted accepting the core earlier.
Too bad it was too late for her. She took our money... ish... and now she was going to have to work for it.
Lingyun finally allowed himself to be guided through the second door, although he looked back at me twice before the healer closed it behind them.
Chenghai crossed the room and carefully lowered the mountain of boxes against the wall. He shifted the chocolate, chips, tea, canned fruit, and Blu-rays until nothing threatened to collapse and fall down on us.
Still seeing conspiracy theories were there was none, Zhenlan tested the lock on the hallway door, while Yuche stepped outside to speak quietly with the guards.
I rested the black velvet bag on the table and waited for everyone to be done whatever it was that would make them feel better. When all three men eventually turned toward me, I raised my eyebrows, waiting for them to get the hint.
Yuche was the first to understand, because he was perfect like that. "You want us to leave," he started, cocking his head to the side. "You want privacy for whatever you are going to do next."
"Yes," I agreed, nodding my head.
Zhenlan’s gaze moved from my face to the velvet bag. "But you don’t know what those cores will do. You need someone here just incase something bad happens and you end up hurt."
"And since I don’t know what is going to happen next, that is why I don’t want an audience," I replied, not understanding how he didn’t see the logic in it.
Chenghai folded his arms across his chest. "What happens if something does goes wrong?"
"I’ll yell," I shot back, shrugging my shoulders. "Or there will be an explosion. Either way, I’m sure something will get through to you."
The air in the room changed as the looks on the three men’s faces changed drastically. Apparently, no one liked that answer.
But I wasn’t wrong either, which was why none of them were arguing with me. Well... it was either that or they finally figured out that arguing with me was pointless and not to do it any more.
Somehow, I was pretty sure that that wasn’t the case, but hey, a girl could dream.
Yuche studied my face for several seconds before giving a slow nod. "Fine," he announced. "We’ll be outside."
He left first. Zhenlan followed after one final glance toward the bag, clearly unhappy but smart enough not to turn my request into an argument.
Chenghai remained long enough to grip one end of the narrow couch. He dragged it closer to the table, positioning it behind me in case I became dizzy or my legs stopped working.
He didn’t tell me to use it, and didn’t explain what he was doing. However, once the couch was in place, he straightened and walked out.
I watched the door close behind him.
Chenghai had spent most of the afternoon buried beneath boxes without questioning why I needed twelve bags of Cheezies or enough chocolate to survive another apocalypse. Now he had moved the couch because there was a chance I might fall.
And he still hadn’t said anything unnecessary. That might’ve been the nicest thing anyone had done for me all day. Well, besides Lingyun and the cores. But this was a pretty close second.
Getting to my feet, I went to the door and locked it. I waited another ten seconds, listening for footsteps in the hallway, and when none came, I moved on.
I crossed to the connecting door and pressed my ear against it. Lingyun’s voice drifted through the concrete, too muffled for me to understand, followed by the healer telling him to stop moving.
Good.
He was occupied.
I dragged one chair beneath the handle of the hallway door. The lock appeared strong, but trusting things like locks were how people ended up getting robbed, murdered, or dragged into conversations they had specifically locked doors to avoid.
Only after the chair was wedged firmly in place did I return to the table.
I touched the velvet bag and sent it into my space. I wasn’t going to try to absorb all those cores today, and I wasn’t willing to let anyone steal from me. Best of all, if someone did say something, I could just say that I was just that strong and they were already gone.
Who was going to fact check me?
Pulling out a single core that was about the size of my fist, I looked down at it. It was so pretty that I was almost tempted to make a necklace or something from it. Maybe a crown? I could be the queen of couch potatoes.
Now that was a role that I could get behind 100%,
There wasn’t even a hint of the cloudy sediment that had filled the public cores downstairs. This was was perfectly clear through the center, and its green light pulsed slowly as if trying to tempt me to play with it.
It really didn’t have to try that hard, I was more than willing to play. I only hoped that I could do what I needed to do to keep the power.
However, one thing was clear, Lingyun hadn’t found these cores sitting on an ordinary merchant’s table.
Which probably explained his ribs.
But it didn’t explain where he had found them, why anyone had been willing to surrender them, or why the market guards had been lowering their eyes as he walked past.
At this moment, I decided I still didn’t care.
I needed these more than I needed my next breath, and I was going to take full advantage of it.
Sitting on the couch Chenghai had moved and I placed both feet flat against the concrete. The core warmed between my fingers as I allowed my senses to sink through the floor, careful not to send enough power into the ground to announce my presence to everything growing beneath it.
There was life below me. There was always life beneath the ’perfection’ of humanity. Under the building’s foundations, under the people’s feet, under the pavement and the smooth surfaces.
I could feel where the thin roots had worked their way through cracks in the old foundation. Weeds clung to the warehouse walls. Grass grew along the fences and between the loading bays. Something larger stretched beneath the freight yard, its roots reaching under the concrete from beyond the market.
Not a single one of those plants belonged to me. They weren’t from my house, they didn’t have that connection I felt to my plants. Or at least, they had not belonged to me when I entered the warehouse.
Sending up a quick prayer to a god I didn’t believe in, I closed my fingers around the core.
This time, I was going to find out if these plants could also take power from me, and why they were doing it in the first place.
Wish me luck.