Enio, Regina, and Carmen walked back to Station 51.
Despite all the future struggles they felt expanding ahead of them, they had to gather their belongings if nothing else. Carmen also had a rope to return but she was able to leave that off on the way in.
When they arrived a few minutes later, they found what seemed like everyone in the Station neatly gathered on the main street where the stage for the festival was set. The remnants of the Onyxglint golems all over the place.
“OUR PLANET-SENT SAVIOR HAS RETURNED!!!”
At this fanatical scream, everyone prostrated themselves in unison.
Immediately after this happened, Carmen crouched, covering her face with her hands, effectively looking like a small ball of a person and emitting a frustrated “Guuuuuuuuuuuhhhhhhhhhhh…” sound in a droning manner.
“LOOK! EVEN THOUGH WE KNEEL TO HER SHE KNEELS TO US IN RETURN!!” exclaimed the same fervent voice that Carmen was now recognizing as that of the middle-aged man that asked her to open up a box in what seemed like forever ago.
“Shut up shut up shut up…” She muttered under her breath.
“Cut them some slack…” Regina said jovially while shrugging “Their festival got interrupted by a crisis, they could use a messiah, or two… or three…”
“Their festival…”
Carmen said this as if remembering something important and stood up quickly with an audible crack of her knees. She then walked big strides to the stage and was looking how to get up when she noticed Enio was already there and offering to boost her upwards.
With their swift assistance she got to the place where she left her heels earlier and switched to them.
She dusted off her dress with slight frustration, checked herself in a mirror, and walked to where she had been what was probably mere minutes ago that felt like weeks now.
Regina caught up with Enio at the front of the stage just in time to see the spectacle begin.
Carmen started reciting the Parable of the God Children again, but this time she was not holding back on the spectacle.
She emoted back and forth, her voice cracking with emotion and the air around her crackling with energy.
As the parable continued, red and green fireflies gathered around her as the scene required. Everyone was dead silent just looking at this spectacle.
Enio had a face of pure bliss watching it all happen. Meanwhile Regina was visibly shocked, completely taken off guard by all of it.
Everything they were, everything they had been
It was all the fabrication of infantile make-believe
The world was nothing but a theater stage
And they played their parts to perfection
For these God Children in the beyond
Silence held in the air for what seemed like forever.
The fireflies around Carmen vanished, and she addressed everyone in her normal tone as she said…
“Let the 46th anniversary of the Westward Break begin!”
Silence…
And then, suddenly, and in scary unison…
“WAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!!!”
A single united roar of approval and joy.
Some cried, some laughed, some laughed with tears in their eyes.
The stall vendors rushed to their abandoned spots to fire up their booths, the musicians rushed to their instruments, people started moving around the debris into a single pile to be handled later.
A crowd was then approaching Carmen but…
“DON’T!!”
ZAP
Warning lightning bolts kept them all at bay before they could surround her, however benign their intentions might be.
“Don’t… lose your… time… with me…” She then said to dissimulate her displeasure while smiling “We all fought to make sure you can celebrate, so the least you can do IS celebrate, right?”
Everyone that was about to approach her shifted their faces from fear to admiration as they ran to join the festivities.
The magnanimous royal act worked again… and Carmen hated it.
“Can WE approach you at least?”
Carmen turned around to see Regina on the stage and Enio jumping to it in a single leap.
“Sorry you had to see that…” Carmen said with genuine embarrassment
“What? Seeing a performer of Royal Cidglaive Troupe caliber as young as you recite the God Children Parable with Planet Singer flair? Oh no how awful of you.” Regina told her dripping with playful sarcasm.
“Planet singer…?” Carmen muttered, but before she could ask anything else, Enio let out a big yawn that commanded everyone’s attention.
“It’s been one sandblasted day, I agree.” Regina nodded.
“Where are you two staying?” Carmen asked.
“Well, I came here in a Meteorotive so I actually haven’t slept aside from a short nap in a cargo parking lot and another one on the way here if I’m honest.” Regina replied while becoming suddenly very aware of her exhaustion.
Enio made as if they were going to say something but then realized… were they actually staying in an inn? They thought of it as a small inn, but in retrospect, it might be more like an improvised storage room that someone lent them to be nice…
“Well, both of you grab your things and come to the Oakland Promenade.” Carmen replied “I’ll make sure you have nice rooms when you arrive.”
The next day, at the hotel’s restaurant, Carmen was unnerved to see she wasn’t the center of attention.
She didn’t want the attention, but when something becomes the default and things change, it’s only natural to be worried that something’s wrong.
Looking around she found a table with plenty of space, and what magnetized everyone’s eyes.
It was Regina, in a dangerously transparent babydoll, having a very small breakfast while reading some papers.
Carmen couldn’t take her eyes off Regina, though it wasn’t out of lust, far from it.
If you were to ask her at that moment what she thought of Regina her answer would be “I miss Tia, I wanna go back home and tell her how I truly feel about her, I wanna embrace her in all of her softness, I wanna-” and so on and so forth as her thought process got more and more explicit.
But where lust found no home, curiosity invaded nonetheless. Just how transparent was that babydoll? How much did it show? Did Regina cover her nipples? If so, just how deliberate is all of it?
“Good morning, Princess.” Regina finally said, snapping Carmen out of her trance.
“What are you reading?” She replied while sitting down. Part of her wanted to protest at being called “Princess” but something told her Regina wasn’t the type to heed those things.
“You remember all the weird devices that were tied to the big rock yesterday, right?”
“I do” Carmen replied, pushing back the need to admonish Regina for pointing guns at her.
She got swayed by her speech yesterday about what might happen if this Riftman guy isn’t stopped, but part of Carmen still wondered how much she trusted it all. And the annoying part is that despite her doubts, her gut was telling her to trust Regina.
“Well, this is all the readings and whatnot I got from it” Regina took a sip of the tea in front of her and added “Chances to get this kind of info don’t come often…”
“What was that all about anyways?” Carmen asked, focusing on her food to not bring up Regina’s past string of faux passes.
Regina made as if she was going to speak, then closed her mouth, then opened it again before closing it and putting the papers down to sort her thoughts.
As she leaned seductively on the table to sort her thoughts, Carmen was able to see that the nipples weren’t visible… they were covered. This woman is the sort of woman that travels with skin-colored pastries to cover her nipples and Carmen did not know how to react to this fact.
“So you remember the sword Enio carries around on their back, right?” Regina finally replied.
“The Original Sin, was it?” Carmen replied.
“The very same…” Regina added with a look of amusement at Carmen’s good memory “The Original Sin is a Meriemite relic. Though it looks like a ceremonial greatsword, its material and the patterns on it make it emit a frequency that dampens griefite.”
“Emit how? Like heat?”
“No, more like…” Regina tapped the spoon in her tea against the table, making the spoon ring for a brief moment “More like this. If the Original Sin hits a griefite deposit, the frequency the impact emits would make that deposit dormant.”
“Then you don’t need to hit the rock, do you? Just hit the sword with something like it’s the belt’s clumsiest guitar.”
Carmen then looked up only to see Regina looking at her with… pride? It was probably amusement, but it certainly felt like how headmaster Clint looks at her sometimes.
“You’re a very smart young lady, did you know that?” Regina finally said.
Carmen was wary, what game was this lady playing? And more importantly, why did this piece of praise get her to restrain a smile? Was she that easy to please?
“But you’re right on the vein there.” Regina added while leaning back “You also remember the name of the man I mentioned yesterday, right?”
“Riftman… Jimenez, was it?”
“Yes.” Regina was filled with the same look of proud amazement but continued talking “He developed the Appleseed, a replica of the Original Sin that’s its inverse. Instead of dampening griefite it stimulates it.”
“And that’s what caused the incident yesterday… was one of them nearby, then? Hitting one of those Appleseeds until the big rock awoke.”
“No, they’ve been working from a distance by now…” Regina’s eyes returned to the papers “They’re bombarding places with the frequency in hopes of causing the chain reaction I mentioned yesterday, but they know better than to bring too much attention to themselves…”
Carmen noticed that Regina’s face was turning more and more severe. She reminded her of the face of the doctor that checked Lucretia when she broke her arm and almost lost it.
“Normally you only see the effect after the frequency bounces off a monolith, but thankfully this one was fresh enough that I was able to discern the direction it got hit from since the echo of the frequency…” Then she snapped out of whatever serious trance she was in and looked up at Carmen “Sorry, do you need context for anything I said so far?”
“I get the idea…” Carmen replied while wiping off her mouth “Where did it come from, then?”
“The Forsaken Belt.”
Carmen kept eating until the couple of seconds required for her brain to truly parse what was said finally kicked in.
She said nothing because why tell Regina to repeat herself? She pledged herself to Regina’s cause and now that cause was going to take her to the part of the Khanon Belt that’s barely explored even now.
“I take it I won’t have a chance to go back home and pick some stuff up?” Carmen replied finally in a meek voice.
“Oh that’s not a problem.” Regina said in an exaggerated way meant to defuse the increasing tension “I would’ve suggested it if you hadn’t, honestly. Where do you live anyways?”
“On Station 35…” Carmen replies with relief.
“Station 35? You made it sound like you came from Station 11 or something. Yeah, we’ll leave for that tomorrow so you have a chance to be home. Hope you don’t mind if I stay and rest there for a couple of days too. I’m gonna assume Enio has nowhere else to be also.”
Carmen felt a knot on her throat. Everything was piling up so suddenly and this gesture of kindness went a long way in dousing the fire inside of her head.
As she opened her mouth to thank Regina, out of habit if nothing else, a small commotion filled the restaurant.
Tracing the commotion led both of them to seeing Enio. They were stumbling half asleep while dressed in a very loose white shirt that hung showing one of their shoulders, plus a baggy pair of shorts.
The commotion was because Enio came into the restaurant with The Original Sin wrapped in bedsheets, due to having ripped the bandages the day before.
“Enio! Over here!” Regina exclaimed casually, making Enio’s stumbling shift direction slightly.
After Enio sat and rested their head on the table to continue sleeping, hotel staff were approaching to bring attention to the unorthodox use of their bedsheets when Carmen raised a hand and made the staff member stop immediately.
“It’ll be fine. Your sheets won’t be damaged. In fact, could you do me a favor? Please send as many rolls of bandages as you can to my friend’s room.” She added in a level but conciliatory tone.
The staff nodded excitedly at being given this task and headed off to fulfill it. Completely forgetting her duties towards the establishment’s property.
Carmen then turned her attention towards Enio.
To think that the kind red-headed Blazer that the planets told her to follow transformed into a rampaging beast yesterday, it feels almost like a dream, like something fake.
Just yesterday she had seen Enio running around doing so many errands and now they looked so tired, like they didn’t get a chance to sleep in a proper bed for a long time, let alone the exaggeratedly soft beds from this hotel.
…more importantly though, how did Enio keep their hair so well? And their skin looked so soft, you’d be fooled that this was a noble of some sort instead of Blazer, let alone a “Royal Knight”.
“Carmen Carmine…”
Hearing her name, Carmen looked up at Regina.
“Carmine… Carmen Carmine…”
“Yeah that’s my name.” She replied weirded out.
“And what a name!” Regina said with a chuckle “If my name wasn’t already perfect I’d be so jealous of it.”
Again with the flattery, again it was working too well, and again Carmen felt annoyed that she was that easy.
“Still though, I’m trying to remember a noble house of Carmine but I can’t seem to remember any.”
“Because there’s none.”
“Are you in exile, then?”
“No, I mean that I’m not from a noble house.”
“Wait… really?” Regina asked, surprised.
“I mean, I am half royal. My father was 3rd Count of Arson or whatever. But I was also abandoned as a baby, so you know…”
“I’m gonna be honest, Princess. I find that hard to believe even now.” Regina told her, her one visible eye open really wide belying her surprise.
“Why?” Carmen added, confused.
“Because the command you have over everyone in this station is something not even actual royals I’ve met can do so well. Just look at how you got someone from the hotel to ignore Enio AND procure bandages like you own the place.”
And then realization hit Carmen, and she covered her face letting out a frustrated, droning “Guuuuuuuhhhhhhhhhhh…”.
She got into letting people treat her like a Royal because it was easier than trying to make them leave her alone, but did she get so into the role that she stopped noticing she was doing it?
“You okay?” Regina asked her.
“I hate this…” Carmen muttered in a muffled tone “I hate hate hate this…”
The next day was the day Carmen was looking forward to… or at least the day she originally looked forward to.
When she left Station 35 a few days ago she only wanted to go back from the scarier, bigger settlement into the one she knew best.
But now here she was, bringing back a quiet “Royal Knight” and a scantily-clad strange woman that kept talking all the way back about the one time she was stuck in the roof of a water tower that was on fire.
This was all already a lot, but her mind was occupied with another concern, and the fact that it was a concern was, unto itself, a concern.
Lucretia would be waiting for her. Not just in the sense that she would be receiving Carmen due to Headmaster Clint being busy, but in the sense that both all but confessed their feelings for each other and now…
…now what?
Carmen should be excited, but there was so much stirring in her mind that she didn’t hear a word Regina said on the way back despite talking nonstop for the three and a half hours they were on the road.
When the transport got back to Station 35 Lucretia turned excited towards the opening door, only for her smile to turn into a mix of confusion and anger as a tall blonde woman only barely dressed and someone whose gender was completely irrelevant to their sheer beauty went out before Carmen did.
And when Carmen finally got out, her frolicker-in-headlights look didn’t help whatever tale was quickly snowballing inside Lucretia’s head.
“Carmen, who are these people?” She finally said in a dry tone that was half restrained anger half restrained crying as she took stiff steps towards her.
Regina knew a thing or four about girls assuming adultery when she was around and held back a small giggle at the silliness of it all.
“We’re just humble Blazers that have pledged their lives to Lady Carmine.” Regina said in a fittingly theatrical tone as she grabbed the sides of her thin dress and bowed. Enio followed suit with a complex bow so quickly that anyone would think they both practiced this beforehand.
“E-Eh…?” Lucretia mumbled, suddenly disarmed and her emotions scrambling to readjust.
“It would be a disservice to tell the tales of Lady Carmine’s exploits in saving Station 51 while standing here, especially considering that I’m sure you two have a lot to catch up to.”
“What? No! It wasn’t just me that-” Carmen’s instinct to protest asserted itself, snapping her out of her dumbfoundedness.
“Oh don’t be so humble…” Regina gave Carmen a firm pat of her back meant to make her lose balance and push her towards Lucretia “Enio and I will take the luggage and greet the headmaster while at it.”
She moved to do exactly that, but she was aware her words fell in deaf ears.
Regina noticed how quiet and distraught Carmen was when they were riding back and despite her best efforts to lighten the mood or even get a reaction, Carmen remained within her own head.
There were plenty of reasons this might happen, but the moment they stepped out and were greeted by another young girl with that very specific crack in her voice that Regina was subject to in college so many times, she got a good idea of what had Carmen so distracted, even if the the specifics escaped her.
“Let’s go Enio” She finally said, grabbing whatever luggage the redhead left aside “We’ll be blasted into their world if we don’t give them space.”
“And where’s Carmen? Did you see where she headed?” Headmaster Clint said after roughly an hour of Regina explaining what happened in Station 51 in more detail.
Regina was about to speak but caught herself just in time to avoid making a crass comment about Carmen to her adoptive father. She nonetheless lamented that the world would never hear phrases like “She’s running a victory lap on her girlfriend” and “She’s catching up and down and all around”.
“She was chatting with a friend of hers…” Regina finally said “Long brown hair, slightly tanned skin, perky boobs and perkier butt…”
“Ah…” Clint nodded knowing upon hearing “friend” that she was talking about Lucretia. The rest of the descriptors wouldn’t have helped much though, since in his mind’s eye Lucretia was still the boyish short-haired girl that bullied Carmen so often. Just like how Carmen was still the kid that tried so hard to get everyone’s attention with her singing.
Though he knew in his heart and mind that “friend” would be affixed to the word “girl” by now if the intervening days were anything to go by.
“They grow so fast…” Clint said, slumping his shoulders and sighing “One day the women of the Station teach you how to change diapers and the next the planets descend from above to give her a mission…”
“Headmaster, if I may…” Regina said in a tone that was clearly struggling to be formal.
“Miss Tempest… rather, Regina, please don’t be so formal. I appreciate the gesture but I can tell you’re being too stiff.”
Regina blinked and her body visibly relaxed while thinking “I tried, at least”.
“Clint, you’ve been way too receptive about the tale with the planets talking to us.” she said theatrically crossing her left leg over the right one in a wide motion and resting her face on one hand “You’re either as dumb as a photo frame or there’s something that made you a believer. And wooden squares don’t rise to become Head Archivists so I wanna know what you saw that made you take it hook line and sinker”.
Regina froze slightly, worried that she overdid it, but was met with a small chuckle from Clint.
“‘And the blonde one loves the sound of her voice way too much’” He said as if quoting someone “That sounds more in line with what Carmen told me over the phone.”
“I mean… she’s not wrong.” Regina conceded while shrugging “You’ve got a smart daughter, maybe too smart for her own good but also not smart enough to think beyond her anxieties.”
Clint smiled a smile of paternal pride before replying
“She told me before the incident about seeing a woman in red and a woman in green. The one in red I caught a glimpse of before she left for Station 51 and I thought I was just suffering early senility…”
He shrugged.
“When you hear a second person tell you about it, either we’re all sharing the same delusion or there is indeed something worth believing.”
“I find it hard to believe myself, if I’m honest…” Regina added in a less grandiose voice “But I likewise find it hard to dismiss it all…”
There was a brief silence, Enio sat there wondering if they should say anything, turned to the Original Sin as if looking for guidance but they found it quiet, melancholic even. So they turned to staring at nothing in particular like a caretaker absentmindedly looking over their charges.
“So you’ll be heading for the Forsaken Belt, then?” Clint finally broke the silence.
Regina nodded.
“If you want to see all the evidence pointing there…”
“It’s fine.” Clint stopped her “If Carmen believes you that’s enough for me. That girl doesn’t trust anyone that easily.”
There was another silence.
“To be honest I don’t want her to go…” Clint admitted “But that’s not just the Forsaken Belt and the risks. If it were up to me she would stay small and innocent, but you can’t stop kids from growing up…”
“Clint” Regina said with an intensity that made him turn around “I promise you this: Carmen’s life will never be more important than anything we set out to do. Your daughter will return complete and healthy from whatever we set out to do.”
“What about yours?”
“My what?”
“Your life.”
“…”
“Is your life more important than what you’re setting out to do, Regina?”
Regina couldn’t answer.
And yet, the fact that she couldn’t answer “no” in her usual brazen way did not escape notice even to herself.
“Like father, like daughter…” Regina mumbled as if admitting defeat.
“I appreciate the gesture and the reassurance, I really do…” Clint leaned back as he said this “But be warned that if you try to baby her too much that will only make her more reckless in proving you wrong.”
“…Enio, can you do me a favor and remind me of that?” Regina said right after, prompting Enio to nod amusedly. “I take it the advice comes from first hand experience.”
“You don’t know the first thing about it…” Clint replied with a sigh.
Clint prepared a couple of rooms for Enio and Regina to spend the night, and it was while taking a walk after dark that Regina saw Carmen had come back and was staring at Emerith eclipsing the sun.
The faint green tint of the night painted Carmen’s pale complexion and silver hair in an emerald glow. At that moment Regina couldn’t help but be amused at how royal the girl that hated royalty looked like.
It’s said that right after the mothership landed on the Khanon Belt, the royal families became ascetic scholars tasked with preserving everything about life in the colony ship while everyone else braved their new home and settled in.
Legends and folklore thus always paints the royals as thin, smart, dignified… the complete opposite of the picture of inbred decadence that they eventually became.
Regina was about to resume walking to leave Carmen to her thoughts but-
“I don’t wanna leave, I really don’t…”
Aware of Regina’s presence, Carmen spoke without taking her eyes off the sky.
“I love this Archivum, this house… I love the headmaster, I love Tia, I want to live here all my life and wither away into old age here…”
Then, Regina was about to concede and thank Carmen for even considering her plea, but before she could even open her mouth…
“…and that’s why I need to go with you, I guess.”
Regina caught the hint and took a few steps to sit besides Carmen.
“This just feels like one of those novels I’ve read…” Carmen added “If I don’t answer this call to duty something will happen to push me to that duty…”
“You mean Station 35 gets obliterated, that sort of thing?”
“Which, if what you and Enio believe is true, is what might happen…”
And then, silence.
There was nothing to be said, it was as the plan was going to go anyway. However, Regina didn’t like the atmosphere so she decided to do something about it.
“You know, for someone that hates royals you sure act a lot like one, wanting to never leave the confines of your beloved kingdom.”
Carmen turned away from the sky and glared at Regina, only to meet Regina’s playful smirk.
“If you ever feel homesick, we can always plan a quick trip back. Wouldn’t want to leave your girlfriend lonely for too long, right?”
“That’s nonsense.” Carmen retorted.
“Which part of it?”
“All of it!” She answered annoyedly, “You really want me to believe you’d be willing to backtrack all the way here just for me?”
“Yeah!” Regina replied in good humor, and to Carmen’s horror she was being sincere.
“Why…?” Was all Carmen could mutter.
“You’re a rarity, Princess.” This would usually be the part where Regina pats Carmen’s head, but despite giving her a nickname, she refrained from getting too touchy “The world needs more people like you and the fact that your lot is with me is the biggest tragedy about all of this.”
Carmen couldn’t find an ounce of insincerity in what Regina said. Was this the same woman that pointed guns at her? Was this the same creature that went berserk against Enio?
“…which is the real you, Regina Tempest?”
“If you mean the transformation the other day…”
“You’re so… noisy even in body language” Carmen continued while ignoring what Regina was saying “And it doesn’t feel like you’re faking that but it’s also not the true you, is it? Is the reckless berserker the real you? I don’t think you’re lying but it also doesn’t feel like you’re being truthful… I’m just… so confused”
Regina gave it a small consideration, as if this was something she never stopped to think about.
“A woman isn’t really faking anything if she’s wearing makeup, is she?” She finally replied.
“No…” Carmen answered wondering where this was going.
“It takes a lot of effort to keep these looks” Regina said, lifting her arms behind her head and striking a pose briefly “It is an effort I do with all the joy it brings but an effort nonetheless. And just because it’s not how I look unless I exercise and watch my diet, it doesn’t mean it’s any less ‘me’ or any more fake.”
“What kind of makeup makes you point guns at people?” Carmen added, seemingly understanding what Regina meant perfectly.
“Bring it up as many times as you see fit, I will meet you in every instance to repeat that doing that was one of the biggest mistakes of my life” Regina replied with a mirthless smile.
Carmen sighed, prompting a small chuckle from Regina who took her leave.
As she looked upwards to the green planet making the sky dark and the land green, Carmen thought that her gut feeling telling her Regina was someone worth trusting maybe wasn’t such a crazy thing.
Still though, to head out and adventure into the Forsaken Belt with just this much… did she have that much faith?
“The two planets descended to bring this up directly…” Carmen thought “Maybe having some faith isn’t so crazy…”
Despite the urgency of the mission and the severity of everything, the three of them stayed in Station 35 for a couple of extra days.
Carmen spent most of her time with Lucretia, something that, as a few other youngsters in the Station pointed out, was “business as usual”.
Enio kept themselves busy helping around the Station wherever they could, by the second day people were already making indirect comments about how maybe they should stay with them. Not in the Station as a whole, but with them specifically.
Regina, meanwhile, spent most of the time on the phone and mailing things. It wasn’t just preparations for their upcoming trip, but also reporting on everything that transpired in Station 51 and comparing her readings with other past attempts.
It was now Clint making a small joke about Regina staying in Station 35 after seeing how deft she was at handling paperwork and data.
Eventually, however, the day to leave came.
Enio was flooded with gifts from a very varied crowd of Station inhabitants pleading them to not leave, there were more people surrounding them than there were wishing Carmen goodbye, though she didn’t mind because she spent up until the last possible second with Lucretia.
“Um… Regina, was it?”
Eventually as the last touches for departure were being set, Lucretia broke off to talk with Regina.
“It was, is, and will continue to be.” She turned around to address her.
“I’m… I’m so sorry I treated you so rudely…”
“Did you? I can’t remember you insulting me, or punching me, in fact I believe this is our first conversation proper, isn’t it?”
Lucretia did not expect this response, she didn’t even know how to continue from there. Regina was containing a small chuckle at the face Lucretia was making as her brain tried to remember where she was going with this to begin with.
“Please keep being friends with Carmen.” She finally said, having given up and just skipping to what she wanted to say.
Regina was about to point out they were barely acquaintances, let alone friends, but she kept quiet to give Lucretia a chance to keep talking.
“She… I don’t know, I think she’s too smart for the people in the station or something. We all love her but she’s too much. Not like bad mood too much but more like she’s… a lot, you know? And when she talked about you it sounded to me like she found someone that’s like her, so…”
“As far as I’m concerned I would die for her” Regina told her in a reassuring tone “But yeah, I will. You’ve got my word, and The Lady That Death Forgot never goes back on her word.”
She said this more out of reflex, but to Regina’s surprise and joy, Lucretia’s face flared with the fire of recognition for her nickname.
Their destination was Station 51 again. By now an operation was being run to bury all the Onyglint golem remains outside. The festival had ended and the bustle was markedly different from when any of them first arrived a few days ago.
What hadn’t changed was the people’s admiration for Carmen. If anything, it seemed like their fervor had only grown in the days since they last saw her.
Insisting she had to go on her mission, however she made sure to head to the Voidslasher as fast as possible.
Though Regina had booked a regular one, the Station staff decided Carmen and her “acolytes” should instead travel on “Nero’s Requiem”, the top of the line vessel reserved for dignitaries and VIPs.
This Voidslasher being for important people only meant seats with more cushioning, however, as the G forces of the half hour trip and its very abrupt and violent stop were just as relentless as with any other Voidslasher.
As the vehicle opened up, Enio was already heading out excited for the new sights.
Carmen stumbled outside leaning on her Fonologium, feeling like her whole digestive system wanted to leave her body all at once through her mouth. A feeling that wasn’t helped when Regina gave her the same spirited pat on the back that pushed her towards Lucretia a few days ago.
As she glared towards Regina, her anger found itself doused by the blonde’s excited look.
“Stand proud, Princess. You’re officially a Blazer.”
Forsaken Gaia – Chapter 8: The Calm After The storm
Written by: Fernando Damas (@ironiclark)