The Son of Light Book 1: Rebirth (6 page)

Zelda faced him with a smile.

“Yes?”

“You—uh. You wouldn’t happen to know where he has been going?”

“Nick? No, I thought you knew.”

“No. I have no clue.”

“Strange. Doesn’t he tell you everything?”

Seth stared at her for a moment and then spoke again.

“Doesn’t he tell
you
everything? Aren’t you two…uh…”

“What?”

“Dating by now?”

Zelda’s face went cherry red. She looked as if he had just poured ice down her shirt.

“What? I haven’t the slightest clue what you are talking about,” she said, crossing her arms and turning away from him.

“Stop, Z!” said Seth shaking his head. “Well, if he hasn’t told his own girlfriend anything then—”

“Girlfriend!” she shrieked, now scarlet in the face.

Seth saw her rush away from him like a frightened animal with her hands on the sides of her face.
Well, that went well
, he thought to himself.
There could be a good chance that Nick has gone to his Godmother’s again, but there is a chance that he’s lying
. At that moment, his stomach growled.

He was more than happy to hurry down the steps to finally eat. Each division was honoring their newly elected Lieutenant Governors with their favorite foods. Since Zelda and Rebel ate really healthy, he enjoyed their food the most, which consisted of fruits, salads, fresh juice, brown rice, and smoked fish. He wasn’t afraid, however, to indulge a little with a few cheeseburgers and ice cream bars from Dante’s table.

As for the rest, he avoided them at all cost. Mew’s table had nothing but octopus pie, grilled fish eyes, rainbow colored crab cakes, and other types of seafood cuisine that made Seth’s stomach turn. Then there was Leonardo and Raymond’s table, which had similar styles of Mexican cuisine all of which were too spicy for him.

Seth didn’t even look at Tyshawn’s table because the smell of fried chicken, and seafood gumbo hit his nose. He nearly puked. Chris’s table entertained him because not only did it have a large container full of rice, fruit and roasted pigs, but also it had a cooked camel in the center.
Yeah, I’m just gonna avoid that.

James’s table was by far the worst, surpassing Chris by a million miles. There were plates and large bowls of cooked bugs of every kind. There were crickets, beetles, spiders, scorpions, fat larvae and much more. He saw James standing near the table with a few guild members. They dared him to eat more as if he was revolted at the thought of eating bugs. They made ugly faces as they watched him eat. Little did they know that he was enjoying every crunch.

As Seth made his way through the sea of students, he saw Mew and Dante break dancing on the dance floor at the opposite side of the building. Dante was doing well, but Mew was failing miserably. He would just roll around on the floor thinking that was how one should break dance.

As Seth walked towards them, a student in his early twenties wearing a leather jacket and brown spiky hair, rushed passed him heading straight for Mew. The spiky haired boy pulled Mew up hard by the arm and then pulled him past Seth over to the Sea Shore section that was a few feet away from the high table. Seth could only hear a few words the spiky haired boy said as he passed by with Mew.

“Think you’re too good for us now that you’re an LTG?” the young man spat.

Seth watched them and saw Mew push the boy away. They were too far for him to hear anything. All he saw was the boy handing something to Mew. When the young man left, he saw Mew throw away whatever it was into the trash. Seth rushed over to him.

“Everything cool with you and Troy?” he asked calmly.

“He’s a damn psycho! Don’t know what I saw in him!” bellowed Mew. “I don’t want to talk about it!”

“Okay, man. I’ll be here if you need me.”

Before Seth could even take a step, he felt Mew’s arms wrapped around his torso.

“Oh, Seth. He’s driving me mad,” sobbed Mew. “I hate him!”

Seth felt as if an anaconda had wrapped around him. He wormed his way out of Mew’s tight grip and took him by the shoulders.

“After the party, come to my office and tell me all about it,” said Seth.

But Mew ignored him.

“This reminds me of the time my pet seal, Whiskers went psycho on me. It was the night before my grandfather’s whale-riding contest near our lighthouse.”

Seth rolled his eyes.

“Grandfather was showing off his speedo collection to the family,” continued Mew, “when all of a sudden—”

Mew just went on and on. Luckily, Seth spotted a few random guild members and pulled them closer to Mew. Mew immediately started talking to them instead of Seth, while Seth put as much distance between himself and Mew as possible before bumping into Ryan. Ryan’s eyes were burning with rage.

“Governor Parker, we need to talk!” he said.

“Ryan, I mean Rebel. Something wrong?”

“We have traitors among us!”

Seth immediately thought of Trent.

“What are you talking about?” he said. A quick image of Nick aiming a gun at him flashed in his head.

“I overheard someone from Desert Oasis say that they would never take orders from a blue eyed nigger,” said Rebel. “When I confronted him about it, he refused to do anything about it. That’s why I’m coming to you.”

Seth looked over to the Desert Oasis table. He didn’t feel like dealing with the issue, instead he thought of another concern.

“I’ll deal with that soon. First we need to take care of something else.”

He pulled Rebel with him over to the Phoenix section and saw Zelda. She was sitting, comforting a black haired young man named Marcel. He was crying. Rebel frowned as Seth asked her to join him. She nodded and asked a girl in her teens, next to her, to comfort Marcel.

“Stay with him, Nova and tell Alex and a few people from Dream Kingdom to join you,” she said.

Zelda and Rebel both followed Seth until they arrived at the Metro section. Raymond was standing at a table with his friends: a plump young woman with curly black hair named Regina, a tall well dressed young man named Jeffrey, and a thin boy wearing a blue silky cape named Oliver.

“Doesn’t even have the class be here with his own friends,” said Regina.

“Hexen could be within these very walls, and our head governor has just left us here to fend for ourselves,” said Jeffrey.

Raymond smirked.

“Mr. Velasquez,” said Seth.

Raymond turned wearing a big smile. Seth could see the bitterness on Rebel’s face and the restraint on Zelda’s. Nonetheless, he brought them together with Raymond.

“I forgot to do this earlier. I want to make sure we are all on the same page. What happened in the past stays in the past.”

He looked at them all waiting for someone to speak. Then Rebel took a step towards Raymond and spoke.

“Yes. What’s past is past,” said Rebel. “Good going on your victory in the elections, Mr. Velasquez. You give the phase Rags to Riches a new meaning,” he finished as if every word was like a screw being twisted in his foot.

“I could say the same thing about you, Mr. Tran. Going from the streets to one of the guild’s most famous enforcers to Lieutenant Governor of Dream Kingdom. You’ve come a long way,” said Raymond, grinning.

Seth’s eyes quickly darted to Rebel. Rebel was smiling looking Raymond straight in the eyes. Seth knew he wanted to grab Raymond by the throat and was ready to jump in front of him. Then Raymond turned to Zelda, wearing that same smile.

“And you, Ms. Shi. The Phoenix Division must be overwhelmed with joy with everyone’s favorite phoenix back in power for a sixth year. Let’s hope you rule as long as Old Man José did. Then we could call you, Old Woman Zelda.”

“Single Old Woman Zelda,” giggled Regina to Jeffrey.

Seth’s eyes shot to Zelda. He was hoping that he was the only one who had heard Regina, but it was clear that Zelda did. She was closing her eyes and clenching her fists. This was it. Zelda was about to leap towards either Regina or Raymond. But to his great pleasure, he saw her open her eyes again and smile.

“Thank you. We’ve all come a long way,” said Zelda to Raymond, trying not to look at Regina. “As Mr. Parker said: what’s past stays in the past. Let work together for a new future.”

She put out and hand. Raymond stared at it and then shook it. Then he took Rebel’s hand and did the same thing. Rebel looked at his hand in complete disgust.

“In the words of Diamond Gate, ‘Build a bridge and learn.’ In other words, it’s water under the bridge,” said Raymond, still smiling.

“That will do,” said Seth, quickly.

He watched Zelda and Rebel quickly break away and head back to their sections. Then Seth turned back to Raymond.

“Always the voice of reason, Governor Parker,” said Raymond, still smiling. “You are a great leader, sir. Your brother would be proud. Metro will always honor your presence.”

Kiss ass
, Seth thought while smiling back at Raymond. Then, suddenly feeling a little dizzy, Seth headed for the closest exit for some air. As he made his way past laughing students, he kept thinking,
Trent, Trent, Trent,
over and over.

He rested against the wall and watched students go in and out of the entrance. It was nice to get away from all that chattering and loud music. An hour of Phillip Glass would remedy his ringing ears. Suddenly he saw James, Leonardo, and a tall Nigerian woman with a shaved head and wearing Paradise attire all, walking out of the building. She had a gold backpack strapped to her back. James was reluctantly helping Leonardo walk.

“Hey guys.”

“Governor Parker,” said James, cheerfully.

“Heading for the dorms?”

“We’re going to find Chris. His wife is taking us to him,” said James in a low voice.

“Wanna come?” asked Chris’s wife.

“Sure. What was your name again?”

“Zara.”

“Zara, it’s an honor. Where is Chris?”

“In his dorm.”

“And you’re walking there?”

“Hell naw man. We takin’ the cart.”

It took time for him to understand her thick accent, but he concluded that she was referring to the golf carts. All four of them approached it. Zara got into the driver’s seat. Seth sat next to her, while James and Leonardo sat in the back. The golf cart sped off. As it did, James let out a cry of shock. Seth jerked around.

“What happened?” asked Seth.

James pointed to the walkway between the food court and the stadium. Mew was on the ground holding his bloody nose as Troy stormed away from him. His face was twisted with rage.

“That guy just head-butted Mew!” said James.

“I’ll deal with it later. Let’s find Chris,” said Seth lazily.

As the golf cart cut across the grass diagonally from the food court, Seth began to message the temples of his head. He was getting a headache.

“You okay, sir?” asked James timidly.

“I’ll be fine. Probably just exhausted from today. By the way, good job on stage earlier.

James suddenly looked ill.

“I was horrible. I hate public speaking.”

“Right there with you on that one, brother,” said Seth, chuckling. “Just be glad you didn’t fall off the stage like I did.”

“Oh my God,” laughed Zara.

“You fell off the stage?” asked James, shocked.

“Nick had just named me head governor,” said Seth. “This was about eight years ago when I was sixteen. I had to give this huge speech in front of the entire guild. Midway through it, I fainted and landed in the orchestra pit below the stage.”

Zara and James both laughed. Leonardo on the hand didn’t understand a word since he didn’t understand English. When James told him in Korean, Leonardo nearly fell out of his seat.

“He knows Korean too?” asked Zara.

“I told you he knew every language. Well, everything besides English,” chuckled James.

Seth looked back at them and saw that James was trembling. He kept staring at Leonardo with a sad expression. Seth thought nothing of it. Instead he focused on the Paradise dorms that were getting bigger the closer the golf cart got to them. The dorms matched the colors of Zara’s shirt, and of course had a sign made of stone that said: Paradise Division.

Zara led them through the courtyard and straight to the lieutenant governor’s suite. As they got closer, Seth could hear soft music playing from inside. When Zara unlocked the door with a key from her pocket, she lead them into a dimly lit large room. He could hear a lot of moaning as the scent of sweat, semen, and marijuana assaulted his nostrils.

He immediately thought of Karl and Engel, and knew what he was about to see. Sure enough, as he and the others followed Zara, he saw men and woman all around him engaging in sexual activity. Some were in groups, while others pleasured themselves with any sex toy imaginable. James looked completely uncomfortable as Leonardo sniffed the air and said in Portuguese —
“Is Leonardo smelling what he thinks he’s smelling?”