Chapter 226: Zayrion, The Snacks, and The Two Rins (I Should Have Stayed in Bed)
Chapter 226: Zayrion, The Snacks, and The Two Rins (I Should Have Stayed in Bed)
Elyn’s POV
The two Rins stared at each other.
Then the first one scrunched her face.
The second one scrunched hers at the exact same time.
It was like looking into a mirror. They had the same expressions.
"What do you think you’re doing?" the first Rin demanded.
"What do you think you’re doing?" the second one shot back at the same time.
Both of them stomped their feet.
"Stop copying me!"
"Stop copying me!"
Then, as if they had rehearsed it, both of them spun toward me simultaneously, arms raised, each pointing directly at the other.
"My lady, she’s fake!" the first Rin said.
"My lady, she’s fake!" the second one said.
I looked between them.
Vaelory pressed two fingers to her temple. "I’m going to have a headache."
I already had one, but I didn’t say that.
I had an inkling. Actually, I had more than an inkling. I had a very strong suspicion about which one of them wasn’t Rin, and it wasn’t particularly difficult to figure out once I thought about it. But before I could open my mouth—
Footsteps sounded from the corridor.
Morthen walked back into the office.
His antennae were twitching.
His expression was the particular expression of a demon who had been dragged somewhere he did not want to go and had strong opinions about it.
"Rin," he said, not looking up, adjusting his glasses as he walked, "next time you decide to run an errand, do not drag me along with you. I have work to—"
He stopped.
He looked up.
He looked at the first Rin.
Then slowly, very slowly, he turned his head and looked at the second Rin.
His antennae went still. His compound eyes were wide with what I could only assume was disbelief and perhaps mortification at the impending circumstances of having two Rins in one place at the same exact time.
"One of you is already a headache," he said, mostly to himself. "Now there are two?"
Both Rins turned to him at the exact same time.
They folded their arms across their chests.
In perfect synchronization.
"We are not headaches," they said together.
Then they turned back to each other.
"Stop copying me," the first one said.
"Stop copying me," the second one said.
Then both of them turned to me again, pointing.
"She’s fake."
"She’s fake."
I sighed.
"I already know one of you is fake," I said to them.
Neither of them looked even slightly embarrassed about this.
I turned to the second Rin.
"Where are the snacks I sent you to get?"
"They are on their way, my lady," she said. "Kethra has to prepare them first."
I nodded at that.
Then I turned to the first Rin.
"Where is Aziren?"
The first Rin blinked, those depthless orbs staring at me. "I have no idea, my lady. I went to get the snacks you asked me to get. I don’t know where Aziren is."
It was such a Rin answer. But I didn’t say anything to that.
Because I had already seen Aziren.
He was behind the desk.
Pressed against it with one hand clamped over his mouth, shoulders shaking, amber eyes bright with the effort of holding in a laugh he was very clearly losing the battle against.
He had been there for a while. I didn’t notice him at first, not until the second Rin walked in.
I looked back at the first Rin.
"And Zayrion?" I asked. "Where is he?"
She shook her head. "I don’t know that either, my lady."
I looked at her for a moment.
Then I said, "I already know you’re the real one," and I pointed at the first Rin. "That is Zayrion."
I turned to the first Rin directly.
"Isn’t it?"
The first Rin stared at me.
For a moment, nothing happened.
Then there was a small puff of white smoke.
And Zayrion was standing there.
Glasses slightly askew. Red eyes bright. Two tails swinging slowly behind him.
He grinned at me.
It was wide and entirely unrepentant.
Behind the desk, Aziren gave up.
The laugh that came out of him was immediate and helpless, the kind that bent him forward, the little flames in his hair jumping with it. He grabbed the edge of the desk to steady himself and honestly I hoped the desk was fire resistant.
Zayrion started laughing too, quieter but no less pleased, his red beads swaying with the motion.
Quite funny, I thought dryly.
Hilarious, really.
I was glad someone was enjoying themselves.
I turned away from the two of them and their laughter and refocused on the rest of the office.
Because now that the mystery of the second Rin had been solved, there was still the matter of the two demons who had been so completely absorbed in their argument that they hadn’t even noticed any of it.
Azerion and Velira were still going.
They had not stopped once.
Not when two identical Rins had stood in the middle of the office pointing at each other. Not when Morthen had walked in and said there were two of them. Not when Zayrion had dissolved back into himself in a puff of white smoke.
Nothing.
They were in their own world entirely and that world apparently only had room for their argument and absolutely nothing else.
I watched them for a moment.
And I thought about what I had said to Ysera.
How much work could it be?
I had said that.
With my whole chest.
I had looked at four children and thought to myself, how much work could it be, and then sent Rin to the kitchen and gone to change my clothes like everything was completely under control.
And I had come back to two Rins, one secret fox demon, one child laughing behind my desk, and two other demons arguing so passionately they had missed an entire situation unfold right beside them.
That was the summary of how things had ended up exactly as they currently were.
And yes.
Just in case it wasn’t obvious, I regretted saying those words to Ysera.