‘I knew it was my fault that it happened…so why am I still thinking about it now? It’s been almost four years since we last met and almost three years since we’ve lost touch! I just can’t help it…if only I could turn time back…’

“Tien, watch OUT!”

“Huh?”

Ducking just in time to avoid a flying kick, Tien gasped out a barely audible “Thanks!” before pulling herself back into the fight. Out of a corner of her eye she saw Eric shielding the man they were supposed to protect, a Professor Eidenberg, whose research into several controversial artefacts had led to this inevitable attack. To her right was yet another of her colleagues, a fifteen-year-old by the name of Miles who seemed to be enjoying himself.

‘All over the place as usual,’ thought Tien with a sigh, ‘it’s a wonder he doesn’t ever get tired.’

“He probably lives on a diet of sugar,” her boss, Quinn Kay, had once said. Quinn, who possessed remarkable skills of deduction, had formed their team under the order of the king to serve as a secret investigative branch. Though his brilliance was in high demand in areas of research, he declined all offers save for the ones that interested him. He was currently absent because, as he had said earlier, he “would be more of an obstacle than anything else,” since the only thing he could do to aid them would be to “throw inanimate objects, and even then, with very bad aim”.

Eric gestured to them to fall out, motioning desperately to Tien to drag Miles out of the heat of the fight. Neither words nor a simple hand motion was enough to pull him away.

Tien had brought another two men down before she reached Miles’ side. “Whoa!” she cried, dodging Miles’ fist. “Sorry!” he yelled in reply, landing said fist into an opponent’s face with a crunch. “We’re leaving,” called Tien, as she swung backwards to avoid another hit, “You’d better come before Eric loses it.”

“Aww,” grumbles Miles, “We were just getting to the good part.” Grudgingly he pulled back, knowing full well that once Eric ‘lost it’ he would be covered in bruises for a week.

g.T.y

“I really don’t know how to thank you,” gushed the Professor, shaking Quinn’s hand warmly. “If my findings had been lost…why, I don’t know WHAT I would do!”

Retrieving his hand from the professor’s enthusiastic grasp, Quinn led him towards the study at the far end of the hall. “If you don’t mind, sir, I would like to speak with you about a matter of some importance…” The rest of their conversation was cut off as he shut the soundproof door, sealing the room off completely from the outside world.

“OW!” yelped Miles, as Eric tweaked his ear sharply the moment Quinn and the Professor disappeared from sight. “Wha- ow ow ow ow OW!”

“That,” said Eric coldly, “is for ignoring my signal. How many times do I have to tell you?! You HAVE to look out for my signal and OBEY it!!”

“I didn’t see your stupid signal,” muttered Miles, “OW!”

“And THAT,” continued Eric, “is for not noticing my signal. In the future you HAVE to take note of it. It’s IMPORTANT! You could get yourself seriously hurt one day!”

“Stop treating me like a KID!” yelled Miles.

“YOU ARE A KID!” yelled Eric in reply.

“Calm down,” cut in Tien, “I think there’s been enough fighting for one day.”

“Right,” said Eric, straightening his shirt, “Good work today, Tien. As for you,” he growled, glaring at a sullen Miles, “you get to do guard duty as punishment. Stand at the door and keep a lookout for anything unusual.”

Muttering under his breath, Miles stomped over to the door separating the hall from the rest of the building. Just outside the hall was a large room lined with French windows that opened out into the gardens connected to the main residence of the royal family. The building was occupied with rooms fitted especially for their use, including two extensive archives containing documents relevant to their investigation. Uninformed outsiders knew the place as an old library, and only the initiated were allowed in.

“You should learn to listen to what others tell you, Miles,” said Tien as she set a first-aid box down on a nearby chair and opened it. “We say it out of concern.”

“Yeah, right,” he grumbled, “Eric’s just picking on me.”

Tien silently daubed antiseptic on a cut on Miles’ cheek. She had long since learned not to get involved in disagreements between Miles and Eric. Most of their squabbles started from minor issues, often ending in full-fledged fist-fights of which Eric was almost always the winner. Even so, it did no good to hold Miles back. He was determined to fight it out, no matter how predictable the outcome.

“Hey! That stings!” Miles flinched as Tien rubbed antiseptic over a large raw patch on his calf.

“Really,” said Tien, ignoring his protests, “you should at least try to be more careful. Block the attacks properly; don’t welcome them with your body.”

Miles snorted. “I’ll fight however I want to- YEOW!”

“Then don’t complain when I patch you up,” replied Tien hard-heartedly. “There, all done.” The sight of Miles covered in bandages was no longer an unfamiliar one. Even the royal attendants had gotten tired of whispering behind his back as he walked past. It certainly wasn’t a strange sight to Tien, who was mainly responsible for making sure that he was properly treated. Eric preferred self-treatment to any other kind, while Quinn had not, as of yet, suffered any injury serious enough to require treatment, save for a severe migraine every week or so as a result of late nights and copious amounts of caffeine.

“Tien?”

A soft voice from the outer room caught Tien’s attention. Looking up, she spotted a tired-looking girl peeking into the outer room. Tien rose to greet their unexpected visitor with a smile. “Is something wrong, Eunice?”

Eunice shook her head gently. “No, the royal residence is relatively problem-free this week, only…” she bowed her head and motioned to Tien to draw close. “I believe the princess has finally decided to settle down! Nothing is certain, of course, but her suitor is rumoured to be arriving soon. The staff are all in a secret hype about it! Having said that,” she raised her head and coughed before continuing in a louder voice, obviously for the benefit of Miles’ ears, “I’ve been sent to inform you of a royal summon. His Royal Highness, King Dominic II, has requested for the presence of Masters Quinn Kay, Eric and Miles as well as Mistress Tien at the Royal Court tomorrow morning.” Eunice smiled before curtsying briefly. “That is all. Now I have to return to the princess’ chambers to aid her in-“ Here she cut herself off and bit her lip with a guilty look, obviously realising that she had almost let the cat out of the bag. “I’ll be going then,” she whispered hurriedly, before bobbing another curtsy and walking off as quickly as she could without appearing undignified.

Miles groaned loudly. “No way…I’ll have to get up early tomorrow too?!”

As he followed this with a long list of complaints ranging from the classic ‘younger people need more sleep’ to his personal favourite ‘we grow the most when we sleep’ (a subtle allusion to his mild height complex developed after months of being unable to look Eric directly in the eye), Tien pondered over Eunice’s less-than-discreet bit of gossip.

Princess Adrianne was the only child of the ruling monarch as well as the oldest in her generation of the Royal Beaumont line. Her parents, His Royal Highness King Dominic II and Her Majesty Queen Sonya, were both very indulgent and very sympathetic in turn towards her. It was certainly no surprise that the king would go to such great lengths to announce his daughter’s engagement, even to the extent of inviting the four whose existence he had tried to keep secret. ‘That he would use the official morning session to this effect,’ thought Tien, ‘would mean that the princess is certainly going to get married.’

By this time, Miles had subsided into a prolonged sulk. Tien’s half-hearted one-word answers clearly showed that she wasn’t listening to (or appreciating) his grievances. He had folded his arms tightly across his chest and was waiting for her to notice his silence so that he could catch her eye with an injured look. Unfortunately for Miles, Quinn chose that moment to exit the study with the Professor, causing Tien to start down the hall without even a glance in his direction.

As she reached him, Tien could hear the end of Quinn’s conversation with the Professor.

“-no need to worry. As of today you are officially under the country’s protection and your research will be safeguarded. If you would kindly proceed to the outer hall, Miles will see you to the upper gardens, where an escort is waiting.”

Tien and Quinn stood side by side in silence for several minutes as they watched the Professor thanking a sullen Miles repeatedly. When the Professor’s deep voice had faded away, Tien turned to Quinn with a questioning look.

He shook his head. “Another dead end, I’m afraid.”

Tien sighed. “So his research was of no use?”

Quinn rubbed his forehead tiredly. “Of no practical use, at least. As I feared, it turned out to be just another false lead. He did delve slightly into matters of that era, but he couldn’t tell me anything I didn’t already know.” He slumped onto the floor and stared at the ceiling as if he was in a daze.

Tien had worked with him long enough to know that he only struck such a pose at times when he ran out of available options. The past few months had seen them chasing after several promising leads, but none of them had proved to be very useful.

She moved quietly to the outer hall to wait for Miles’ return. He had a habit of interfering with Quinn whenever he was deep in thought and Quinn never took kindly to it. The past few incidences in which Miles had unwittingly interrupted Quinn’s brown study with an innocent “What are you doing?” had ended rather disturbingly. In terms of punishment Quinn was far harsher than Eric and most certainly much more sadistic. Miles could never seem to understand the reason behind Quinn’s ‘uncharacteristic violence’ and was often left wondering about his fault as he kept clear of Quinn for several days.

The shadows grew longer and the sky darkened as Tien waited. When the sun finally disappeared from view half an hour from the time she had taken up her post, Tien wondered worriedly if Miles had run into any trouble. It wouldn’t be surprising if he HAD, especially since he seemed to be particularly gifted at starting fights and stirring people up. (To clarify a point, it wasn’t Miles that Tien was worried about; rather, her worry was for the unfortunate individuals that Miles happened to run into.)

Exhaling loudly, she debated whether or not to leave her post. On one hand, Miles could get himself into trouble by picking a fight, the responsibility of which would return to Quinn, who would in turn take it out on Miles. On the other hand, Miles could return in her absence and ignorantly approach Quinn, who was already frustrated with yet another useless lead, and Quinn would end up taking his frustration out on Miles.

Either way, it didn’t seem like that day would end peacefully.

g.T.y

Having decided to go in search of Miles with the realisation, of course, that it was by far more likely for Miles to have gotten into a fight than it was for him to return in time to start one with Quinn, Tien made her was quickly through the upper gardens to the escort house by the side gate which usually admitted visitors of the upper and lower middle class. Her steps quickened with the thought that Miles could be finishing up his fight and would soon be heading back to face Quinn’s wrath.

As she approached the escort house, she noticed that the shutters were firmly closed. The side gate was also locked, which could only mean that Miles, having arrived at the gate much earlier to find that all the escorts were currently preoccupied in another part of the palace, would have been forced to personally escort the Professor out of the grounds, after which he would most definitely set out to hunt down any one of the escorts to elicit a painful apology.

Swallowing hard and praying that all the escorts had safely eluded Miles, Tien headed towards the front of the main building. It stood to reason that the escorts were busy handling the influx of visitors called to be present for the morning meeting the next day. Guests (or visitors) of a certain social standing were allowed to put up at the royal residence for a night prior to an important event. Naturally their position called for an escort, and escort duty for such an influential group of people was no laughing matter. It was relieving at the very least to think that Miles had enough restraint to avoid starting a fight in the arrival hall…or did he?

Spurred on by this thought, Tien cut across an ornamental garden at the side of a main road by using the short concrete pillars separating the road from the garden as stepping stones. Each pillar was built by cementing three separate pieces of quarry stone together, and they were placed about a meter apart from each other at the edge of a curb, thus bringing Tien dangerously close to the traffic using the road. It was relatively safe, since few cars used that road to enter the palace grounds. Merchants preferred the back road while guests preferred the front. Visitors rarely drove into the grounds, so that particular road was used only by close friends or relatives of the royal family.

The moon was hidden behind a cloud, so the night was fairly dark, and Tien was faintly aware of a car approaching her from the front when suddenly, as she made a jump onto the next pillar before her, she felt the pillar give way, tossing her directly into the path of the oncoming car.

For a moment the car’s headlights flashed harshly into her eyes, and then her body hit the road painfully. She heard a deafening screech of tyres and a loud crash, but her senses were too numb for her to do anything.

“I…I’m not hurt?”

She let out a relieved gasp which sounded more like a sob. Pushing herself up, Tien felt a throbbing pain in her right arm. She spun around to find that the car, which had swerved to avoid her, had hit the curb forcefully. Tien heard a woman’s scream in the background as she rushed up to the car as fast as she could on her shaky legs.

The front of the car was badly damaged, and the windows were so cracked that she couldn’t see the driver’s face. The door on the driver’s side was dented and wouldn’t open. Tien yanked on the handle and pulled with all her weight, ignoring her body’s protests. When the door finally yielded to her effort, she flung it open to reveal the driver unconscious and his body slumped over the wheel.

More screams were heard and Tien thought she heard Miles call her name, but none of it registered fully in her mind except for the driver’s condition. Reaching out gently to tip his head backwards, Tien paled as she recognised the bruised face she held in her hands.

“It can’t be…”

g.T.y

It's been awhile since I last wrote, so hopefully this turned out alright. Please be kind and review!

Thank you for reading 'Goodbye to You'!