“Not until you control yourself you won’t.”
The scene playing currently was slightly surreal.
Three beautiful people around a bonfire, the tallest and shortest amongst them naked, the tallest one lecturing the only dressed person in the area like she was scolding a little child.
Earlier in the day Enio had spotted someone or something apparently walking with Princess Ana’s body, their last thought was to follow her but next they know it’s night and they apparently transformed and went berserk.
After explaining this they insisted they had to go out and find her, only for Regina to reject the proposal in an unusually commanding voice.
When the words left Regina’s mouth she was already feeling guilty, she expected Enio to react with anything from indignity to anger… but she certainly didn’t expect them to look at her like a pet denied a stroll.
She took a deep breath, and sat near Enio.
“Enio, I don’t know about you, but I’ve come to consider you a good friend in the short time we’ve been travelling…” She put a hand on their shoulder and continued “And even if I didn’t, you’re such an upstanding person that I would use every resource at my disposal and cash in every possible favor to find Her Royal Edge’s body just on principle.”
Enio looked down sheepishly, feeling the sincerity in Regina’s voice.
“But it’s that same sense of friendship that compels me from stopping you on your tracks right now.” Regina gently kicked a pebble into the fire while she briefly sorted her ideas “Let’s say I do as I said I would and we find the body thief… if a mere glimpse made you transform, imagine what finding her might actually do.”
Upon hearing this, Enio sighed as if defeated.
“I’m not gonna stop you if you want to head out. It would be a rustin’ shame, but I won’t get in your way…” Regina then straightened up and said “But! If you allow me, I can help you control that form.”
“Can you… really do that…?”
FSHIIIIIN!
Without making any overt moves, Regina flashed gold and changed into her alloyed transformation. Then, no sooner had Enio and Carmen’s eyes gotten over the sudden burst of light…
FSHIIIIIN!
…it happened again and Regina was back to normal.
“Ow…” Carmen protested rubbing her eyes.
“Mind you, being able to do what I just did takes years of practice and effort, and not like I can transform without extra flair under pressure, but I can help you control yourself in a day or two.”
“Why didn’t you propose that before?” Carmen asked, still blinking away the golden flash.
“Because I didn’t have any idea what made Enio’s transformation kick in, and our first encounter wasn’t exactly a good example to take from.”
Carmen wondered for a moment if Regina was acknowledging how she herself got carried away when fighting Enio in their first encounter, but then she remembered that Enio’s transformation that day happened because Regina blew up the Onyxglint pillar and there was some sort of reaction there.
Speaking of which…
“Hey Regina…” Carmen started.
“Yes?”
“Back then you reacted so fast it’s like you knew what happened before you saw it… Did you see Enio transform? Or did you feel it?”
“Felt.”
Enio turned to Regina surprised, and Carmen was about to ask her to elaborate, but Regina continued immediately after.
“As I’ve alluded to before, Onyxglint… or rather griefite, has three key properties that make it an interesting material.” Regina put up her right hand in a fist and extended fingers as she itemized “Once active rather than inert, it can change shape disregarding mass equivalence, it can store and transmit frequencies and thoughts, and it can mimic living tissue almost perfectly.”
“Almost perfectly?” Carmen asked.
Regina pulled back her hair, the purple marble-like scar starting in her right eye and extending through her right temple in full display.
“It can perfectly replicate the chunks of my brain and eye that got blown up in my fateful experiment down to functionality and texture, but it cannot replicate hair follicles, as you can see.”
Carmen quietly winced at the morbid nonchalance in Regina’s voice as she said this, but Regina continued.
“Thus if part of my brain is made out of griefite, and griefite can resonate with thoughts coming out of other griefite sources; and when a lot of emotions at once make you transform, it stands to reason that I would feel if and when Enio transformed from overwhelming emotion.”
“Is that why I lost control when we first met?” Enio asked through their pangs of shame.
“And why if we find Riftman or his lackeys you might lose control.” Regina said in a tone that was colder until she caught herself “The pillar when we met was overloaded by them with… thoughts, basically. And when it exploded the vibration from all the stored things in it resonated with your own piece of Griefite.”
“I want to learn to control myself…” Enio said, their voice suddenly bereft of the earlier shame and urgency in finding Ana’s body “On my honor as a Royal Knight, this lack of self-discipline must stop.”
Regina slapped Enio in the back and stood up.
“Then tomorrow we’ll go to the clearing you carved earlier and get to work. For now let’s go back to the research station so we can all sleep properly, no need to guard and such.”
Regina then started gathering everything. She testingly tapped Carmen’s clothes and passed her the pieces that were driest before she went to their auto to sort more stuff.
“This makes it the second time I’ve made Miss Carmine stop a rampage of mine” Enio said, approaching Carmen with their eyes averted while bowing “I will make sure that the efforts are not in vain nor repeated.”
“You can look now.” Carmen told them after putting on her sleeping dress, unable to hide how flattered she felt that Enio exercised that modesty with her and not Regina “Also, no need to be so formal, please…”
“They enjoy it, let them have it…” Ana said in tone equal parts exasperation and endearment.
“Alright…” Carmen shrugged before she straightened up and added in a playfully level but melodious voice “Dearest Royal Knight, I believe you won’t disappoint in keeping your promise, but please keep in mind that I would help you as many times as needed, for I know you would do the same.”
Enio let out a smile and bowed to Carmen before joining Regina in preparing things to go back to the research station.
“Wow, you really are a natural at the whole protocol and formal speech thing.”
“I hate that.” Carmen replied covering her face in annoyance “I hate hate hate hate that…”
After a sigh from Carmen and a chuckle from Ana, the former asked.
“You felt Enio transform also, right?”
“Yeah, I can feel that, I also felt when the things started popping out of the ground in Station 51.”
“Does that mean The Original Sin is made out of Onyxglint?”
“Huh… maybe? I’ve never seen Onyxglint forged like a metal this way. The fact that inert Onyxglint is so useless is kind of a big point.”
“The sound you made when I hit you wasn’t metallic though, is the thing…”
As she spoke, there was a stray thought that started earlier and kept creeping up to the surface, demanding Carmen’s attention.
Then, as everything was all packed up and the only thing left was to douse the bonfire…
“Regina.”
“Hm?” Regina quietly exclaimed as she stopped herself from pouring a bucket of dirt onto the fire.
“Onyxglint can mimic living stuff it gets in contact with, right?”
“Yeah?” Regina answered, deliberately holding herself back from adding at least five different clarifications to that statement.
“And the planets showed us the origin of it colliding with the planet, creating the belt.”
“Mmhmmmmmm…?”
“If Onyxglint is so prevalent, it can mimic life, and comes from something colliding with the planet, then-”
“Princess…” Regina interjected, cutting Carmen off “You’re on the precipice of a question that people smarter than both of us combined have argued for centuries now, and that’s not the sort of thing you should be bothered by before going to sleep.”
Regina dropped the dirt on the fire and helped Carmen up before adding…
“Such a juicy question deserves you in top shape, not exhausted from a very eventful day.”
“So what’s the plan?”
Carmen’s voice was slightly nasal from a fit of sneezing as she asked this. On the whole she felt like her first proper exposure to the elements in this trip could’ve been worse, but the threat of a cold wasn’t something she appreciated.
“I guess there’s some context needed to properly understand the plan…” Regina mused “I’ve never told either of you of when I went to a cave ready to die, right?”
“No…” Carmen said, slightly alarmed.
“It’s related to what we’re gonna do, so bear with me for a bit.” Regina added very casually “So this takes place a while after I first transformed and Riftman and his followers were all creepy about it. Do you remember that one?”
“You did an experiment, Onyxglint went through your eye, you transformed, woke up tied to a bed, Riftman freed you but was being weird about it, right?” Carmen asked to confirm.
“That very same story, yes. In the aftermath of that whole situation I ended up with a very annoying voice in my head…”
“You too?!” Enio interjected in an uncharacteristically loud voice.
“I suspect it’s a side effect of the alloying process, I have my theories… but yeah, me too.” Regina told a surprised Enio “In my case it was constantly taunting me about how everyone just wanted to use me, how I was only valuable to others as a commodity rather than an individual… and how I should just let loose, show them what I think about being treated that way…”
“Huh…” Carmen mumbled.
“Yeah?”
“No, that’s just very… ver… ACHOO! Sorry *sniff*, it’s very fitting for you, I guess. The voice’s taunts, I mean.”
“They were, and they were getting louder and louder with every single day, I grew more and more worried I’d lose control, and…” Regina trailed off as if she stumbled upon something unpleasant “Let’s just say I wasn’t in a good space mentally at that point for reasons I frankly don’t wanna tap into right now so I decided to buy a ticket to the Forsaken Belt, retreat to the wilderness and let loose. With any hope I’d get near Station 24 and they’d put me down or I’d starve to death.”
Tense silence held inside the auto until Regina broke it.
“As you can probably guess by me being here right now that didn’t happen. Not only that but none of it played anywhere near as intended.”
“ATSHOO!”
“Health.” Regina exclaimed in response to Carmen’s sneeze “Things started as I thought they would with me retreating to a cave and then just letting the voice take over. Everything went blank but then when I regained control I was still in the cave, the cave was just… messier, with slashes everywhere. No animal bodies or blood anywhere, though. I suspect they just kept clear off the cave.”
“FWACHOO!!”
“Wealth.” Regina responded to the sneeze with the traditional follow-up “The voice was still there, though, so I allowed it to take control again but this time I was aware of what was happening. The voice was in control of my body, it pulled frustrations I had long forgotten and shouted them as I went crazy inside the cave.”
“COUGH!”
“Do you have a fever?” Enio asked.
“Not… yet, I’d know if I had one, I’m very sensitive to that.”
“If she gets one, there’s medicine beneath all the maps in that compartment” Regina indicated Enio before continuing “As time went on, the voice and I had a bit of a conversation, and as the conversation went along I started to get more and more control of the transformation.”
“Wait… I COUGH I think I know what your plan to help Enio is…”
“Oh? And what do you suspect, then?”
“You’re gonna let Enio transform and then fight them, aren’t you?”
Enio turned slightly concerned towards Regina.
“Fight is not the right word because it suggests I’m going to try and overpower them. My plan is to be more like a sparring partner.”
“Do you think it’ll work?” Enio asked.
“Your transformation is very angry…” Regina said with her voice almost drifting into deep thought “I don’t mean just in behavior. I’ve felt it both times we’ve clashed. We need to exhaust you, to let that excess anger flow out.”
“In short, you think it’ll work.” Carmen interjected.
“I wouldn’t play with your or Enio’s life, never forget that, Princess.”
“To gain control I must lose control…” Enio muttered.
“Scales are only balanced after being unbalanced…” Carmen said.
“Oh?” Regina exclaimed, curious.
Carmen lifted a finger as if telling Regina to wait, then her face contorted as if ready to sneeze before wincing in pain.
“Rusted gears… the sneeze fled…” Carmen protested before resuming the topic “Anyway, I was just quoting something I read ages ago. Sometimes you do need to lose balance to know what balance even entails.”
“Not bad wisdom…” Regina chuckled “Where is it from?”
“A cheap… ATCHOO! Novel I found on a bargain bin…” Carmen blew her nose and continued “The author was very weird about women with thick dark long curly hair, but that scene about how to achieve balance the scales must start lopsided and adjusted stuck with me.”
“I did this?”
Enio looked shocked at the uprooted trees and the marks on the ground.
“Having that power on our side would be one void of an asset, not gonna lie.” Regina said while studying the landscape herself.
“So where do you want me to be?” Carmen asked while carrying The Original Sin.
“Stay near the Auto” Regina replied “If things get messy I’ll need you to throw me Her Royal Edge so we can snap Enio out like last time.”
“Alright…” Carmen then leaned on the Auto right besides The Original Sin.
Enio and Regina then walked a few paces into the center of the clearing.
“What do I do?” Enio asked.
“Just… let loose.” Regina shrugged “Give in to the voice. Go wild and I’ll meet you blow by blow until you cool off.”
“Any tips?”
“Yeah, don’t let the voice bully you but don’t push against it. It’s not wrong but its suggestions aren’t right, try to see where it’s coming from.”
“Appreciated, but I meant advice on letting loose…”
…
Minutes passed, Enio and Regina just stood while discussing something but nothing happened.
“Everything alright?” Carmen shouted their way.
“Too alright…” Regina told Carmen while approaching her but keeping an eye on Enio “As expected from a royal knight they’re not letting themselves be taken over willingly.”
“I might know what’ll trigger the transformation…” Ana sounded very distressed “But I’m not happy to share it…”
Carmen approached Ana as if she told her a secret in her ear, her face turning very sour as she heard more and more.
“Yeah, I wouldn’t be happy either…”
Carmen then turned to Regina and whispered something into her ear. Regina’s face became a mix of indignant and sour.
“Princess, I don’t appreciate that idea.”
“Nobody does…” Carmen sighed “But provocation might be the key to getting Enio to let loose.”
Swallowing her displeasure, Regina walked back to the designated arena she and Enio would spar in. In the few steps between the corner where Ana and Carmen were, and where Enio was, Regina considered her options and groaned at the realization that provocation would indeed be the key.
Before Enio could say anything, Regina shouted in a patronizing tone of voice…
“THIS IS JUST SO TYPICAL OF THE SECOND-RATE LOSER FROM THE HERALD CLASS.”
Enio turned around in shocked recognition of the insult.
“You’re useless even at being useless! The one time you need to let loose on purpose and you can’t even do that right!!!”
Enio’s face was frozen in shock. It was clear that they recognized what Regina was trying to achieve, but the voice in their head was becoming louder and louder with each word.
After an almost imperceptible pause where Regina gathered some emotional strength, she finished by adding the one bit shared with her that she fully understood the inferred weight of.
“Really, you’re the perfect nanny for the bastard princess. Can’t wait for both of you to bring the house to a shameful end!”
…
Rationally, Enio understood what Regina was trying to do.
Rationally, Enio could see and sense the pain in Regina’s voice as she shouted that.
Rationally, Enio was aware that Regina was weaponizing a rhetoric she had no way of being aware of unless Ana or someone else from Meriem’s royal court just told her.
But rationality escaped Enio.
On a good day long before the incident at Oldsteed Plains left them with an Onyxglint scar near their chest, Enio would’ve felt the surges of anger flow through them.
But now the other voice in their head didn’t let the anger flow away. It reverberated inside Enio’s head, all the anger they thought long gone was bubbling up and had nowhere to go.
Old anger, new anger, focused anger, general anger…
…
As purple veins creeped up Enio’s neck, they gritted their teeth in order to let out a few words with what little control they could wrestle.
“I’m… counting on you… ReginaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!!!”
FSHIIIIIN!
With a guttural scream that cracked their voice, Enio flashed purple and transformed, immediately rushing towards Regina.
“You won’t regret it.” Regina muttered calmly before flashing golden and meeting Enio’s fist with her own.
BOOM
The clash of both punches at the same time left a shockwave that Carmen felt all the way back near the Auto.
“Should we… be concerned?” Ana asked.
Carmen stood wary of the fight taking place in the distance. She put her hand near the Original Sin, but after almost a minute of suspense she relaxed. Relaxed enough to sit on top of the Auto to see the fight, even.
“It’ll be fine.” She finally said.
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah…” After sneezing into a handkerchief, Carmen continued “I’ve not had the opportunity to really pay attention to Regina’s way of fighting, but she’s definitely the type to play for keeps with no honor… so y’know, the fact that she’s meeting each one of Enio’s punches means she’s being deliberate.”
“I guess… should we be worried someone will see all this?”
“Regina said something earlier about researchers around here being used to ‘voidsent noises happening whenever The Lady Death Forgot is around’… whatever that means, so I’m gonna guess we’re fine…”
They watched the fight unfolding for a couple of minutes until Carmen tentatively mumbled…
“…bastard princess?”
“Do you know what a pseudoroyal house is?”
“Can’t say I do.”
“It basically means that it carries on the authority of an original royal house but the blood’s been diluted or outright replaced.”
“Which one is it in your case?”
“Replacement, my great great grandma wasn’t a royal when she married into the crown, just a powerful aristocrat. So when his husband died the continuity of the royal institution remained but the bloodline was no longer royal.”
“Then how can you be a bastard in a way that matters? My father is sixth count of jaywalking or whatever so he at least had really stupid reasons to abandon me.”
“There’s no real reason… I’m a bastard the way a scammer is a bastard.”
In the distance they heard Enio’s inhuman howling but Regina continued to meet the onslaught punch by punch, so they went back to the regular conversation.
“Before the tragedy, Meriem was on the way to reform. The royal house was more of a cultural institution with power than a proper ruling body.” Ana’s voice became cold and distant as she recounted this “But the new powers resented my family’s existence. When I was born as a ‘miracle’ despite mother being supposedly barren I was resented as one more obstacle…”
For a moment, the clash or armor against armor grew faster and faster until Regina was forced to push Enio back, resuming the earlier pace of combat.
“For the longest time Royal Knights were more of a monastic thing, focused on developing their combat style. Enio would’ve been the best in such an environment…” Ana’s voice grew even more distant “But we were born in an era that was more militaristic, where their compassion and type of loyalty is a detriment to machines that enforce sovereignty…”
Regina’s shouting could be heard muffled in the distance. Notably they were more shouts of encouragement and hype than taunts and demeaning language.
“Would you say you’re a dam of anger too?” Carmen asked, making sure to not get lost in the spectacle in front of her.
“Different anger…” Ana replied half in thought “To be honest I agreed with everything that was going on. Meriem was a republic in all but name by the time I was born, every state unbound by the Valvion royals would need a standing military as a deterrent… but I was born in the wrong family.”
“Huh…”
“A doll in a gilded shelf, with no power nominal or otherwise, no freedom. Resented by everyone for existing, unable to join the commonfolk even if I agreed that the legacy of my family was shameful…”
“…”
“Enio was and continues to be my only family, the only person that has ever genuinely cared about me.”
“Until now.”
“…”
No more words were spoken after this.
Both Carmen and Ana had a lot to digest after this heart to heart.
Anger sorrow anger hate anger sadness anger anger ANGER.
Enio’s consciousness was lost in a sea of all their pent up anger choking them. But they clung onto staying awake despite their mind wanting to shut down to protect itself. After all, even if Enio didn’t have control over their body they could see Regina’s transformed body diligently meeting their onslaught blow by blow.
As they tried to focus on this, on the anger flooding their mind, and on their body’s automatic motions, it was as if every punch calmed down their psychological maelstrom little by little.
Eventually, the more generalized anger gave way to small pinpoints of concentrated pain, all of them screeching for Enio’s attention, mocking them, radiating more and more anger.
“YOU WERE NOTHING BUT A FORMALITY”
“THEY JUST WANTED THE PATH OF LEAST RESISTANCE TO THE PRINCESS WHEN THE TIME CAME TO KILL HER”
“THOSE INGRATES DIDN’T DESERVE THE PRINCESS’ SACRIFICE”
Enio considered themselves loyal above all else, a Royal Knight to the core since their life didn’t have much beyond that. These thoughts troubled them because to admit anything with them would be admitting that the institutions they dedicated their life to were beyond flawed and outright malicious.
And yet, despite running away from these thoughts for most of their life, they felt easier to digest now.
After all, Regina was letting Enio unleash their anger, and before that Carmen risked her own life in hopes of snapping Enio out of their transformation.
It wasn’t just their travel companions either. Lionzio back in Oldsteed Plains. The cargo delivery couple on the way to Station 51, they were all kinder than anyone in the Royal Knights or Royal House had ever been to them and Enio didn’t even need to pull rank.
Though they pushed against it, Enio kept coming back to the thought that the aftermath of the Meriem Tragedy was a comeuppance for all those organizations. It was an ugly thought, and yet one that gave Enio an uncomfortable amount of satisfaction…
“USELESS USELESS USELEEEEEEEEEEEESS!!!”
The barrage of self-hate by contrast was too much.
“THIS ONE ISN’T EVEN GOOD AT PICKING FLOWERS BECAUSE THAT WOULD MEAN HURTING THE RUSTED THINGS”
It hurt so much because it was validating pre-existing feelings. Enio felt useless, was repeatedly told they were useless, continued to kick themselves from not being able to do anything about the Meriem tragedy or its impact on Princess Ana.
“IF YOU WERE STRONGER”
They didn’t have anything to ward them against these thoughts.
“IF YOU WERE FASTER”
Even the thought of how much more effort they’ve put since then was mocked by the voices as just the coping of a useless knight.
“IF YOU WERE THERE WHEN IT HAPPENED”
“IF-”
“IF-”
“IF-”
“IF-”
Enio was on the verge of despair as they couldn’t find ways to push back mentally against this.
But then a thought snuck its way. Another negative thought but one that felt so preposterous that not even Enio could stand to let it go unaddressed.
“THE PRINCESS WOULD’VE BEEN BETTER WITHOUT YOU.”
“NO!!!!”
Enio fought back against this thought so hard that their transformed body let out a pained groan.
…
Enio was introduced to Princess Ana when they were 12 and she was 15.
At that point Enio wasn’t aware that they were assigning them to the princess just to uphold the tradition of every royal having a knight by giving them the least promising prospect of the Herald class.
Rather, Enio felt like it was their chance to prove themselves, to prove to the Royal Knight instructors that they were deserving of the honor, of any honor, of any worth at all.
That day, Enio recited an oath older than the current royal house of Graham…
“My heart is yours, for it will outlast my body and mind.”
But Enio and the princess turned out to be kindred spirits. Princess Ana didn’t treat Enio as a servant but as the family she never truly had. Using her authority as an excuse, she demanded Enio play with her, read books with her, let her braid their hair.
Every year on the eve of making that oath, Enio would repeat it to themselves, and every year the meaning changed slightly.
Before long it no longer was the oath of a knight with something to prove to higher ups, but an oath towards the most important person in their life.
It was the oath that kept them sane as they kept hearing the princess’ voice after the tragedy only to find her inside the Original Sin under some rubble.
It’s that oath that has kept them sane as the seemingly foolish task of finding her body loomed over them.
Enio’s heart belongs to Princess Ana.
Princess Ana’s love has been the only beacon of light in Enio’s life.
A love so intense, so evident, that to pretend it didn’t exist would be like spitting in the face of the queen in the throne room.
A love so strong that not even Enio in their worst self-deprecating state would be able to entertain the idea that either of them would be better off without the other.
…
At that moment, everything seemed to come into focus.
That sense of loyalty…
So what if Enio has always hoped in some way that their instructors are rotting in the deepest recesses of the void? That only means they didn’t earn their loyalty or even their respect outside of being authority figures.
So what if Enio doesn’t think they’re good enough? They’ll just waste away their feeble mortal body in order to not disappoint those they love.
For Princess Ana… for Regina, for Miss Carmine, for Lionzio, for the kind soul that lent them a bed back in Station 51, for the housewives sharing their haircare routine back in Station 35…
Enio’s heart belongs to them, a heart that’s loyal, a heart too dumb to care about complex politics and only knows a kind soul when they see it.
A heart that is now partially made out of purple, marble-like Onyxglint but beats all the same, a heart that’s still beating and capable of spreading kind acts…
…
Back out of Enio’s mind, Regina noticed that Enio’s footwork shifted around.
She suddenly leapt over them, spread the feather blades under her arms and threw them Enio’s way only for each to seem to pass through them.
No sooner had Regina landed that Enio was rushing towards Regina but it was a deliberate run full of technique and thought.
“Looks like you’re back in control, eh?”
Enio’s fist stopped right before Regina’s face.
The fist was slowly retracted and Enio studied themselves.
They WERE back in control… kinda…
Everything felt so intense but also so dull at once, like an adrenaline rush that enhanced your senses.
“YOU WERE NOTHING BUT A FORMALITY”
“THOSE INGRATES DIDN’T DESERVE THE PRINCESS’ SACRIFICE”
Enio noted, distressed, that the voice in their head was still there and arguably just as loud, but they no longer felt like they were mocking them.
“USELESS USELESS USELEEEEEEEEEEEESS!!!”
Enio could hear it all clearer now.
“IF YOU WERE STRONGER”
“IF YOU WERE FASTER”
“IF YOU WERE THERE WHEN IT HAPPENED”
They were laments.
“IF-”
Enio, still transformed, held their hand to their chest. Their instinct to be kind and caring towards others was now redirected towards this voice in their head.
“IF you wanna spar properly I’d be lying if I said I wouldn’t be honored to…”
Regina shrugged
“But we’re both very scuffed, don’t you think?”.
Enio’s maw-like helmet opened and said in an uncharacteristically deep and raspy voice…
“Thank you…”
“So to undo the transformation you gotta… you gotta… hmm….”
Enio and Regina stood around while Regina tried to find words to explain a very vague feeling sort of trigger she hadn’t had to put into words before.
Carmen approached both of them with the Original Sin slung on her back, the curiosity of what these two are like up close when not rampaging being very strong.
She tentatively touched their armors. Regina’s was very slick and smooth, befitting the metal-like sheen on her; while Enio had a rougher and coarse texture that gave their armor a matte sheen. Said sheen was also purple despite the armor being almost snow white.
Though Carmen had never seen snow, for all she knew snow had purple reflections too.
But the thing that made Carmen poke at both of them constantly was the material.
It was hard, it seemed really thick, but to the touch it felt more like nails, or antlers, but also still warm like skin.
Both of them also exuded… Carmen almost wanted to say a smell, but it wasn’t something she felt with her nose; she almost said vibration but it wasn’t something she felt on her body. Whatever it was, both exuded it and they were very different between each other.
“Oh! Got it.”
When Regina exclaimed this, she startled Carmen while she was poking a spot by Regina’s hips
“Is there anything you do when you need to push a thought aside?”
“Push a thought aside…?”
“I swallow, almost like I’m swallowing my anger or whatever else. So if I do that while thinking about not being transformed…”
FSHIIIIIIN!
A sudden golden flash made Carmen stumble back a couple of steps, and Regina was back to normal.
“This happening so often can’t be good for my eyes…” Carmen protested.
“Yeah, sorry, it’s not like I have control over the flash specifically.”
Following the instructions, Enio did an old exercise.
Breathe in.
Hold the air.
Imagine your lungs being filled with all you concerns and fears…
FSHIIIIIN!
And breathe out.
As they did, the transformation was undone.
“You’re all set, I think.” Regina said proudly.
With a smile, Enio put their hand in their heart, closed their eyes…
FSHIIIIIN!
…and immediately transformed again.
“We’ll be at the research outpost, so try to not be seen in that form.”
Enio nodded, and was about to set off, before…
“Wait!” Regina added suddenly “You won’t feel hunger transformed, but you’ll still pass out if you don’t eat so don’t overdo it.”
Enio gave a thumbs up and rushed to parts unknown, leaving behind a gust of wind.
“What was that about?!” Carmen protested “Where are they even going?”
“Isn’t it obvious?” Regina said in a slightly smug tone “I told them they shouldn’t go hunting for her Royal Edge’s body until they were in control of the transformation. Now they are, what do you think they set out to do?”
“Will they be fine?” Carmen wondered out loud.
“Can’t say, but Enio swore their heart to the girl inside that sword and I wouldn’t dare get in the way of that.”
Upon hearing this, Ana made a lot of surprised choking noises that were all the more impressive considering her lack of a throat to choke with.
“What’s up?” Regina asked upon seeing Carmen lean her head towards the Original Sin.
“Ana is just wondering -and I’m quoting her here- ‘how in the nevermore glory of the void with all of its mysteries’ you knew about ‘that oath’.”
“Do you remember the second key property of griefite I mentioned yesterday?”
Why the sudden quiz?
Carmen tried to recall that particular topic.
Third one was mimicking living tissue, that’s when Regina showed how her scar had no hair. First one had some fancy… oh right, first one was how it disregards mass equivalence. So the second one was…
“Storing and transmitting thoughts, right?”
Regina nodded proudly.
“And when transformed my body becomes mostly griefite” Regina then winked at Carmen and Ana “So if I’m being pummeled by someone else like that, it stands to reason I might glimpse into a memory or two by accident.”
Forsaken Gaia – Chapter 12: Oathbound
Written by: Fernando Damas (@ironiclark)