Savanta stares at him blankly, “His family’s dead.”
“No…” Ocher says slowly, looking between them. “We’re going to rescue them. That’s the whole point of everything.” Two pairs of brown eyes look at him in confusion.
“No, he’s been in our town since he was young because they’re all dead.”
Ocher takes in Savanta’s pitying expression and wonders which of them really knows the truth. Did Azure lie to him or did he lie to his childhood friends? It’s not hard to guess the answer. “He told me they were being held captive and used for their ability to manipulate energy. We were supposed to be rescuing them.”
“There’s no abilities or they wouldn’t all be dead!” Sara shouts, her normally fair cheeks flushed red as her voice rises. “Use your head, Ocher! You really think if they were holding all those people as secret weapons, you being in the army wouldn’t know? Think about it, they’re dead!”
“Sara?” Savanta questions in surprise, but she continues on.
“This is why I warned you that Azure is a liar! Stop believing all the bullshit that comes out of his mouth!”
Savanta stares at her younger sister in shock. “Sara!” This is probably the first time she’s really seeing the other side of her personality. The side she hides behind the cheerful, naive younger sister.
Ocher is taken aback. He’s not even sure why she’s angry. He’s the one that should be angry and he is, but why is she? It doesn’t seem like Azure ever lied to her. He was the only one stupid enough to believe Azure’s words while knowing the other boy withholds the truth when it suits him.
“You’re confused. Of course you are,” Sara mutters with a rueful laugh. “I’ll tell you. I like you, Ocher. You have very little people sense and are unbelievably innocent, maybe that’s why I care what happens to you. I don’t want to see you get hurt. The problem is you’re too trusting. No, wait, I take that back. The problem is you trust him too much. You don’t ever doubt him.”
“I doubt him!” Ocher defends. If he didn’t, he wouldn’t have immediately realized that Azure’s been lying to him. He knows Azure isn’t honest. Gullibly, he’d let himself fall into the mindset that they’d built trust between themselves by now.
“Even if you doubt him, you don’t question him or hold him accountable for anything!”
“He ignores me if I question him too much, so what’s the point!” Ocher shouts back. She doesn’t know anything, she’s not always there, he’s tried to get true answers before.
“So you just let him get away with whatever he wants.”
“I don’t.”
“Oh yeah?” She leans back in her chair and crosses her arms, fixing a cold gaze on him. “He took you to that island, Ocher. What did he do to you there? What did you let him do?”
He flinches. How does she know so much? Too much. He doesn’t want to think about what happened in Meio, especially not when he’s just found out that Azure hasn’t ever stopped lying to him. He feels like a fool for being smug when Azure lied to Odaius, thinking he was special enough to know the truth.
Azure hasn’t ever stopped using him and Sara’s right, he let him, over and over again. Let himself be drawn in because he wanted to belong to someone. Does Azure feel a single thing for him or was it all planned just to keep him loyal?
He doesn’t know anymore. He’s lost.
Mercilessly, Sara keeps going. “And that is precisely why he keeps you around. I can see that very clearly now. You’re strong, but you don’t really fight him which he won’t tolerate. For heaven’s sake, Ocher, get the truth from him! Find out what he’s dragged you into! Don’t blindly follow him!”
Ocher stares back at her, even Savanta is speechless.
Sara says it like breaking away is so effortless, but he’s been raised almost his entire life to follow orders. It was far too easy to let Azure control everything. Following orders was familiar to him and made the adjustment from one lifestyle to the next simple.
Although, he may not have realized it at the time, in retrospect he’s sure that Azure took full advantage of him being conditioned to blindly follow, maybe even reinforced it by ignoring him at times.
He really hadn’t been paying much attention to what was happening. This is all too much for him at once. The beginning of a headache is starting to creep up behind his eyes from all the revelations.
Can he really stop following just like that? Does he want to? He made a promise, wagered his life on it without knowing close to everything. Either way, he needs to find out the truth. But, does the truth really matter when he’s already agreed to follow through from the second day they met?
◆◆◆
Azure shows up later that night when the moon has already risen high enough to illuminate the small room where he’s been waiting. His head’s still pounding and he’s done nothing except think himself in circles for hours.
The other boy quietly enters the room and Ocher sits up on his bed, meeting his gaze. “You lied to me, your family’s dead,” he states.
Azure pauses near the entrance, gaze unreadable in the moonlight. “They are.”
“You lied from the very beginning.”
“I did. I didn't see a reason to tell you the truth.”
“And now?”
“Now, you don’t ask as many questions.”
Ocher stands up from the bed, ignoring the increased throbbing in his head from the motion. “You don’t even care that you’ve been lying to me the whole time.”
“Why should I?” He shrugs without looking away. “Does it change anything? Is it my fault you believed me? Are you going to leave now? Try and get Sara or Savanta to take you in?”
The worst part is that Azure is right. He’s still completely dependent and that’s the way Azure wants it. Azure can hold everything over him and he has nothing to bargain with.
“Oh Ocher, for such an angry kid, you’re so naive.”
“I’m only a year younger than you,” is his pathetic response.
“I have worlds more knowledge and I’m not as gullible as you.”
“Tell me the truth, what are you planning for us to do?”
Azure gives him an appraising look, “No.” It’s a direct challenge to him and his future actions.
He tries another way, “Azure…”
“Save it. You can stay or you can leave.” And there’s an unspoken threat behind those words, implying that he won’t get far should he bail. Sara’s right again, he’s only here because he doesn’t ask too many questions.
Azure doesn’t wait for his answer before leaving again, he already knows it.
Chapter 17: Azure
That was...too close, Azure thinks. He’d almost panicked at the thought of Ocher leaving him and that’s unacceptable. He’s gotten too close to him.
He doesn’t care that Ocher found out that he’s been lying the whole time, he never claimed to be honest anyway. What he minds is that Ocher didn’t seem to want to look past his lies. He actually wanted answers and he knows that can only be Sara’s influence. Savanta wouldn’t get involved.