Page 183 of Interion

He also explained that at some point, a memory could be accidentally unblocked if the person worked on the aspect of their essence that had been stolen along with it. For example, someone with sociopathic tendencies caused by the loss of important memories could unlock those memories by addressing their disorder and healing the damaged psychological layer. But this was rare, especially when the psychic behind it all was powerful.

I didn't fully agree with memory blocking—I'd always found traditional psychology quite effective. After all, I was living proof it could save a person from themselves. This made me think about Zion's memories, but I didn't ask. Serguei read my thoughts, though, and told me there was nothing traumatic in what he'd blocked from Zion, so it hadn't affected any layers of his personality.

The whole subject gave me plenty to think about for a long month, and after coming up with a thousand theories about the psychic gift, I resolved to view Serguei as a last resort—only to be used if a situation truly had no other solution.

In the meantime, Adele had asked them not to let me talk to her, and the only person allowed in her room was her younger sister. I wasn't upset by the restriction—I thought it better to give her healing process time. I remembered the day I woke up in Interion; I'd needed a year myself to start coming back to life.

The most important thing was that no one found out what had really happened to Adele, and her secrets were protected from any malicious exposure. Both Serguei and the king would guarantee this—if other nations learned of the incident, they might stop honoring the agreement to send their prodigy children.

The next day, Zion had to leave for a territory check, leaving the training to Cauê. Since I was sleeping, he left a note saying he'd be away for a few days but promised to return for Serguei's birthday. I was relieved not to have to deal with him—after all, I was still furious about the “test” and wanted to grind his face into the dirt. During this time, I finally worked up the courage to open the basement and was now training there while Zion was away. I practiced on the punching bag and could already see my punches and kicks were more solid. My strength was increasing little by little, along with my balance and speed.

Before bed, I spent half an hour reinforcing the mental barrier, but it still seemed thin as paper. I kept at it anyway—even if it was thin, at least there was something blocking my thoughts so they wouldn't drift freely.

At the hospital, the morphine issue had been resolved without further problems—Adele had left the empty vials on the bed—so I returned to my internship the next day. I was eager for Friday to arrive. Kaori would finally wake from her induced coma, and the surgery would be recognized by the medical council.

Δ

Thursday afternoon, after training, Hiro and I were practicing archery. Aish was sparring with Breno in wrestling, and from a distance, all I could tell was that my friend was taking a good beating—though he sometimes managed to land a punch on Aish. I nocked another arrow and planted it right next to Hiro's. Our arrows always landed side by side, and there was no point competing—a tie was guaranteed.

“Hiro, can I ask a question?”

I cast him a sidelong glance, feeling embarrassed. I started fiddling with the bowstring while he shot. Hiro removed his earbuds and turned to me.

“You're already asking a question.”

I looked around to see if anyone was paying attention, but thank the gods, it was just the four of us in the gym, and Breno and Aish were absorbed in their fight.

“I need information about our ethnicity,” I murmured, averting my eyes. “I searched the library, but it seems they removed all the material about the Drutes.”

I didn't need a mirror to know I was blushing. He looked at me with amusement.

“So what's the question?”

Hiro leaned back against the weapons table, and I sat on mine too. My feet didn't touch the ground, so I swung them in the air, nervous.

“Sorry for asking something so... intimate.” I lowered my voice and continued. “But you’re the only person I know who understands Drute customs. So if you don’t know the answer, no one else will.”

“Stop beating around the bush and spit it out already,” Hiro exclaimed impatiently. I slapped his thigh to get him to lower his voice. Breno had looked in our direction and took a punch to the eye for it. I took a deep breath.

“It’s about the sexual nature of Drute women.” Hiro looked at me, raising an eyebrow in surprise. “I need to know about this because I don’t know anything. I’ve been told it’s different from women of other nations.”

He scratched his head, thinking, but seemed reluctant to speak.

“I know some things, maybe not much. You’ve probably already figured out most of it with Zion.”

I felt my skin heat up and tingle from my chest toward my face, knowing I was blushing.

“We...” I cleared my throat and waved my hand nervously. “We haven’t done anything yet. We have some issues with the partnership, you know? I can’t talk about it, but we haven’t even kissed yet.”

“Holy gods,” Hiro laughed. “I don’t know how Zion is still holding on. That must be why he looks at me like he wants to gut me. I kissed you and he hasn’t.”

Even I had to laugh at that.

“Okay, but you must know from touching yourself. You’d notice that some things aren’t normal.”

“I don’t know what’s normal, Hiro. I’ve never had a friend to talk to or a mother to explain things. What would be normal?”

Hiro, thank the gods, was taking the conversation well.