It wasn’t every day that Amelia was asked to meet with the Minister’s little brother for coffee. Odds were good that it had little to do with her or her job, but she couldn’t be absolutely certain so she’d accepted. It wasn’t as though she was close to Rabastan, in fact she doubted he’d have known her name before she became news. Regardless, she was curious. What on earth did he want?
There was something both comforting and nerve wracking about being in a crowded place again. It was unlikely that anyone would try anything targeted toward her with this many witnesses around, but none of them were really watching her. And even if they were, how many would intervene if something happened? Hopefully she wouldn’t have to stay long. Amelia liked to pretend that everything was fine and there were no lingering effects of her abduction, but she’d still positioned herself with her back to the corner, taken note of the exits, and flinched when the door slammed.
Probably just the caffeine making her jittery. Not like her captors had provided her with regular coffee breaks.
Luckily Rabastan didn’t keep her waiting long. She smiled thinly when he came up to the table and shook his hand.
“Nice to see you, as well. I was surprised when you wanted to meet. I assume you have something specific in mind that you wanted to discuss?” she asked, deciding not to beat around the bush.
Rabastan folded his hands on the table looking abashed. Really he was glad she wasn’t beating around the bush, all the trivial small talk would have been dull. “Yes actually. It’s not a particularly pleasant topic I’m afraid.”
He hesitated for a moment, as if trying to find the best way to phrase what he had to say. “As you may have heard my fiancée, Emma, has gone missing, presumably abducted by the rebel group that call themselves Aversio.” He looked up, keeping his face sombre, but subtly scanning Amelia’s face for any tells. He didn’t know for sure if she was a part of this group, but it wouldn’t be a massive stretch of the imagination. Especially as she was someone who had recently had their life so utterly ruined by the so called enemy.
“Thanks to the newspapers, I know that you have recently gone through something similar. It’s been four months since she was taken, and I suppose I’m starting to lose hope. But then I heard you’d returned, after all that time, it seemed like a miracle, and I suppose it gave me back some of that hope.” Complete bullshit of course. Yes he was perhaps a little stressed that his finacée had gotten herself kidnapped, and it wasn’t exactly an ideal situation, but this whole ‘hope’ spiel was so far from the truth it made him want to laugh.
“I suppose one of the things I wanted to ask is, is it as awful as I’m imagining, for her? Will she be someone completely different if- when she comes back?” He stopped as if remembering himself. “I’m sorry, these must be horribly intrusive questions, especially form someone you hardly know.”
