The Rise Of The Consortium

While walking to the cafe in the garden square of the city, she was worried about her work in the lab under Kner's garage. She always got a message the night before about the work she would have to do the next day. Was the matter stretched so long that they couldn't even work at the same place anymore? How she could meet Kner and talk about things she really thought it to be? Due to her morning cleaning and repairing tasks, she didn't care about the lab work, but gradually her thoughts shifted there, no matter how hard she tried to distract herself. But it had been two days since she went there. She worked there to get some experience she hoped might even get her better work. But seemingly all the doors were closed.

The protesters must have rallied till the garden square, Rio thought to herself as she saw the road to be clean but still, the trash wasn't cleared from the corner. She never noticed such details but when she did she felt mild anger about why no one cleaned that. But she had to keep walking as she was about to reach the cafe.

And as expected, Meilae was already there in the cafe, typing really fast. Rio felt relieved to enter the cold cafe as she felt tortured by the humid outside. Meilae was seated near a table of chattering females. They suddenly hushed as they saw Rio nearing their table. She saw Meilae giving a narrowed sideways glance to the group and then towards her and focused back on her work. Rio thought she was deeply concentrated but actually, she was aware of everything going on around her. She felt a bit confused as to why Meilae looked at her like that.

"Hey," Rio spoke in a low voice as she sat down slowly on the chair in front of Meilae. Generally, when she used to have afternoon meetings in that cafe, she had nothing interesting to keep the conversation going but was always eager to listen. She then caught some words like unworthy, nasty, and even something about her mother from the nearby chattering group. Involuntarily her eyes went towards them and one of them was looking directly at her. The woman quickly turned her eyes away.

So Meilae was seemingly angry towards them. Was she angry with Rio too? She tried hard not to think about the events and closed her eyes instead.

"They're not wrong. You chose the wrong one." hearing Meilae suddenly speak like that made Rio jerk back her head. It took her a minute to get what she meant. It seemed like the news still hadn't cooled down although she saw different content that morning.

"You too?" Rio spoke as she couldn't believe Meilae would say like that. Although she remained silent on that topic, Rio thought Meilae had no problems with her being a girlfriend of Kner. All her friends loved to pull her legs in the afternoon gathering and Meilae seemed to enjoy that like Rio used to do.

"Why wouldn't I? Do you know who you are linked with? The next important person after Chairman Maning. So how do you think you're not going to be talked about?" Meilae's eyes were still on her transparent screen and her hands quickly typing something really long.

"But really I've nothing about him. It's just that I work with him and he's just a bit friendly. Is that too much?" Rio only liked Kner as he was being good to her, but she never thought she would be painted with him like that. She just wanted to be him, as normal friends do. What others knew was not true.

"Working with him, going on dates, being introduced to his family and little affectionate gestures, aren't these signs of being more than just friends?" Meilae quickly looked up to Rio's face and back to her screen.

"I never went to dates," Rio said flatly. "He just took me out to have dinner cause I had no---"

"No money. Right? Pity, I guess." now Meilae was sounding ruthless. "Shouldn't that be? A girl like you with a spoiled brat like him is a big deal. Young, wealthless, jobless girl being favored by a rich influential man, why people shouldn't talk about you? Everyone would naturally like to know why he's so interested in you and not anyone else."

"Excuse me. What do you mean by jobless? Who's cleaning the machines once every two days? No one in this city can even touch the dust." now Rio was pitching higher. "And talking about the job, what do you do except hitting the keys?" she imitated Meilae's action in front of her.

"At least I'm getting a lot better than you. Not doing the same things over and over again." Meilae then looked straight in Rio's eyes, who looked down, feeling lost.

"But what can I do? " Rio sounded as if she was about to cry.

"Are you ever going to leave Termist?" Meilae asked her directly. But Rio had no answer to that. Thinking about to leave home, and her mother to find a better job was too much to do. And what would she get to do if she were to work in a different place? She had little money to survive there in the first place. Most of those spent either on her afternoon gatherings or on the things her mother needed which were known only to her.

"Just want to sit like that or have something?" finally Meilae finished her work and stretched her arms expecting a response from Rio.

"No thanks." she wasn't interested in anything. She wanted to know about a few things that happened that morning.

"Please, try somewhere else. This won't last long here. You should try more diverse ones---" Meilae spoke as she ordered a coffee and a cheesecake from her table.

"Why there was a rally this morning?" Rio looked up to Meilae as she spoke. She saw the group of chattering women clearing the table near her. She felt relaxed and sat in a stretched position on her chair.

"What?" Meilae almost choked on her sip of coffee that just arrived. " Cause our Termist Bored-casting Company is not the way it was before. We wanted them to agree on some of our points."

"Can't you all not break things?" Rio was frustrated she had to waste her time cleaning instead of going to the lab to do her real work.

"That was necessary. The company needs to learn something. One can't stream endless celebrity news at the time of the election. One should consider their choices but someone doesn't want to. And we can't stay silent for long." Meilae's sound was muffled as she had a portion of cheesecake in her mouth.

"So the news in the morning---" Rio mused about the news she heard which was a slow shock she hadn't recovered since morning.

"That was the first effort. Really liked it." Meilae cut Rio what she was speaking. "Imagine you have to kind of build a world and rule it. I feel like I could do this every day." her face glowed up as she spoke that. Rio felt as that was a bit ambitious thing to say like that, but her mind was somewhere else.

"What is going to happen to Sheime?" Rio's brows furrowed in thoughts while her eyes were on a sparkly advertis.e.m.e.nt on a distant wall.

"You saw the news reader? He's kind of a newbie. But he really aced that. Isn't it? Just watch how I expose one by one who wants to blind the audience." but there was Meilae, on her train of thought and speech, barely paying attention to Rio's growing tension.

"Is she really going to change? Won't she come back here again?" Rio spoke a bit louder so that Meilae could snap out of her topic.

"Who are you talking about?" Meilae frowned as if a child was made upset by not giving her a toffee. "Oh her. Well, for your information she's now the most hated person in Termist," she spoke in a matter-of-fact tone sipping her last portion of coffee.

"But she's our friend!" Rio's eyes went wide in shock that Meilae could act so heartless towards one of her friends. She also didn't believe she sounded so loud although the music in the cafe dissolved that.

"I don't care. And I think no one does." Meilae looked outside the window on the left side, her face without a hint of emotion resting on her palms.

"How can you say that?" Rio spoke that she thought about whether she was chatting with the same Meilae she met two days ago. Was that the same Meilae who loved every single joke Sheime made?

"Where was her mind before signing up for that? Didn't she know what happens whoever goes there? " Meilae responded curtly by looking directly at Rio, met the same furrowed look. "Last week she was the one to preach how we shouldn't even think about going Zolzeim and how everything they have been doing was bad and all."

"Really, don't think she's going to be welcomed even if she doesn't choose to change her genes at the last minute," Meilae spoke as she got no response from Rio. She straightened herself and spoke by clenching her fists hard. "She won't be allowed to enter as she touched the ground of that land. Her reasons are pathetic. She should've thought about that."

"What if her parents really pushed her?" Rio asked to get away from the stressful thoughts her mind made her think.

"I don't think so. She had different plans to tackle that. She won't just go there because her parents wanted money. There's someone else who's sending people from here." Meilae tapped her fingers gently on the table saying that.

"What makes you think so?" Rio couldn't understand the motives of Meilae. Was she supporting or criticizing Sheime?

"Something was off the way her parents made the statement. I was there when the court was recording. See, the story of parents pushing their children to Zolzeim has faded a bit. Earlier they used to do that. But since the Severance era, no one dares to think about it. " Meilae was playing with a tissue paper and suddenly looked up to see the puzzled look of Rio as if she said something in an alien language. "What? Don't you know anything about it?" Meilae didn't like someone who didn't update themselves with important happenings of the place they lived. But that was the event taken place seven years ago. How one can not know about it?

"Nevermind. Go on." Rio stopped struggling to remember such a thing that seemed important even if she didn't feel like that.

"Ask your Mom better. She might know something." Meilae tried to calm down, but Rio rolled her eyes as she knew what might happen if she asked her mother something like that. "Ok, as I was saying, we can't do anything for her or any Zolzein here. A lot of things might happen. Until the truth is out, we can hope no one is hurt here." after taking a deep breath, she continued, "But I don't think our dear chairman would let that happen."

"He's not going to be the next chairman again. Why would he care what happens to whom?" Rio asked sulkily.

"A good question. But someone else is going to be. And he won't be showing a bit of mercy if Maning does that." Meilae said as if she was going to be more benefitted from that.

"Shhh. He's still our honorable chairman. We don't want to lose our jobs." Rio was conscious of the respect they had to shower no matter who was their chairman.

"I don't know about you. But no one can even touch me. Everyone tasted of what I am capable of this morning." Meilae's face was full of pride as she said these. "Next time, it's going to be worse than this."

"Are Lonphour and Maning related?" Rio asked as she felt sick of her empty threats as if the morning drama wasn't enough for her. She was used to this side of her, but sometimes that was overbearing for her.

"Do you even ask this? It's somewhat a rumor and looks like I've to also cover this next week, but yes, I can say that something is going on between those elite families." Meilae was gazing distantly as tried to remember that. "And I'm also sure about Kner being the person behind all these."

"How dare you say that? He can never do that." Rio was now tipping with anger. It was enough. Why was Meilae being so inconsiderate regarding this matter? She agreed that there might be some authority issues in her, but that doesn't mean one can judge anyone like that. After all, how much she knew him?

"There are sources of him being with many girls. You're lucky that nothing has happened to you yet." Meilae suddenly straightened herself as if she was dealing with a business.

"He has not even touched me!" Rio went from weird high pitched to sudden low as her ID started vibrating.

"That's not even necessary. His sweet words are enough to hypnotize the weak hearts of us women. I'm blessed that I'm not one of them" Meilae counted something in her left hand but her eyes were on the table.

"Yes, he is nice. I agree with that. But he can never go that far." Rio took out her ID from her bag to see the notifications.

"But what if that's something his parents tell him to do? Or someone from the Lonphour family paid him to bring people?"

"But he's rich." Rio was frowning as she had to say the facts to someone who already knew a lot of things. Her ID showed her a number of things she had to do within a very short period of time. Her heart started sinking at the amount of work she had in front of her.

"Money is not the only thing." Meilae's were already on Rio ash she looked up hearing that. What he could possibly want to have after so much of wealth? His father had benefited from being the chairman. Besides, they had a chemical industry. And also, his mother had a business in Moritzeim. What would he want more than that?

"Do you have proof?" Rio felt lost trying to find the answer. If Meilae was right, then she must have something to support her accusations.

"First of all, friends don't ask for proof. But if you really want it, wait for what I bring this week." Meilae straightened herself up once again as she sensed the approaching end of the conversation.

"I think you're just jealous like everyone. Did you ever have a boyfriend or any male friend in your life?" Rio had only fifteen minutes to reach her workplace, she just blurted out whatever came to her mind.

"Yes, I have. And I know whom to keep in my life. Not like you, who likes to roam with anyone." she was back to her ruthless mode and decided not to speak much.

"You're the worst literally." Rio prepared to leave her seat as she felt it was useless to explain someone something one didn't want to understand. She didn't really believe Meilae could have any male friends let alone have a boyfriend.

"Ok. Then wait and watch what he does." that was all she could say. Meilae also prepared to leave by paying her bills on the table. Rio was the first to storm out of the cafe. She suddenly felt better as she didn't realize she had been sweating in the cafe for long. Rarely she had any solo conversations with Meilae. She got to experience one that day. It would take some time to say whether that was interesting or not.