I sit down in the bathtub, closing my eyes and enjoying the brief respite of peace after a long day of fighting for my life. It’s odd, in a sense. The day the System arrived, I was… I don’t know if I was happy, but I was certainly excited at the possibilities. A high that ca crashing down only a day later, when I learned about my mother’s passing.
Now, it’s these fleeting monts of normalcy for which I long, where my responsibilities are limited to taking care of myself and not causing too much trouble for others. I’m reminded of the ancient Chinese curse about being forced to live in interesting tis. I understand now exactly what they an, for ever since the System arrived, interesting is every day.
Oh, Mother, I do miss you so. I wish you were still here. You always were fond of Chloe. I don’t know how you would have taken the news that the two of us are now dating and bonded together through a magic greater than either of us. But I choose to believe that you would have been so happy, and would have offered us your support.
“Hey love,” Chloe ssages
as I slink my head underwater. “Looks like Alana just sent a text. Apparently Lindsey and Stefan are in town this weekend; they want to know if we want to et for dinner.”
“Yeah, that sounds great. We’ll need to leave a bit early though since I can’t fly right now.”
“Alright, I’ll let them all know.”
Weekends. Hadn’t even given the days of the week that much thought as of late. The harpies… Did they attack on a Friday? Or was it Wednesday? I honestly have totally lost track. What even is today? I slip out of the tub and check my phone. Looks like… Friday, June 23, 2023. Just over three months since the System arrived as per the Gregorian calendar. Third day of sumr, and sure does feel like it.
I stretch as I slip into a robe and try to figure out what to wear. Personally, I’d like to wear my armor. I feel most comfortable in it, and should the worst happen, I’d like to be protected. But, at the sa ti, I’m not supposed to be fighting. We’re not going on a date— sadly— but I imagine Stefan and Lindsey are going to suggest a nicer restaurant for our etup, one with a dress code a bit fancier than ‘anything that won’t get you arrested for public indecency’.
I don’t have much in the way of fancy clothing, unfortunately. Never have, due to my family’s previous financial situation. Now I have money, and I finally understand the adage that while you can remove a person from near-poverty, it’s far more difficult to remove poverty from a person. Eighteen years of knowing that we don’t have much, of not being able to afford fancy als or nice clothing leaves my wardrobe sowhat lacking. And even with nearly half a million dollars in the bank, I can’t help but think that it should be used to procure crafting materials or more gemstones— spellstones? Or anything else that’s going to save far more lives in the long term, rather than such frivolities.
I do have one outfit that might work, though. A black sundress I picked up at a thrift store as a gift for my seventeenth birthday. I slip it on. It’s a bit tight due to all the muscle I’ve built up since the System arrived, but it still fits. It was rather fortuitous that it happened to be in the pile of clothes I took from my old place back before…
Yeah, what a day to be thinking about my parents. I should be moving on and moving forward but, sotis, I guess it’s like that. I accept the thoughts and allow them to fill my mind without judgent. I haven’t really had much of an opportunity to properly grieve with everything that’s going on. Now’s as good a ti as any, I suppose.
And so I cry. Chloe arrives a mont later, wrapping her arm around
and handing
a box of tissues. For a good while, I sit there on the bed, Chloe next to , rubbing my back, letting
lean into her shoulder. I– I don’t have to be strong right now. It’s okay to be weak. To accept. To let go. I accept my emotions. I know Chloe does as well, her warmth and comfort only building since she stepped into our bedroom.
I don’t know how much ti passes while we remain like this. We’ll probably be late. I’ll probably look like a wreck all evening. And yet, I just can’t be arsed to care.
“If you want
to say that you’re not up for it, I can always call Alana,” Chloe ssages.
“No, I– I think I needed this, though. And I think we should still go; if nothing else, I’d like to ask Lindsey if she can [Identify] these strange apples. I’ll… I’ll go wash off my face.”
“By the way, Sera. That dress looks absolutely amazing on you.”
I pull Chloe in for a quick kiss. “Keep buttering
up like that and you might see it on the floor when we get ho tonight.”
“Are you threatening
with a good ti?”
I wink. “I might be.”
We arrive at the restaurant— a regional Italian place along the riverbed front— perhaps a little too early. I wildly overestimated how long it would take us to get there; even without flight or using my magic, the two of us are quite capable of keeping up with and even outpacing highway traffic for short distances. I’m… not at all sure as to the legality of pedestrians on the toll roads, nor our obligations for how much to pay. They charge tolls based on the number of axles on the vehicle, and I don’t think the Turnpike Authority has properly determined the fares for sprinting on the toll road at seventy miles per hour. We end up paying the fare for a two-axle vehicle. Just once, though; we’d be driving together if either of us had a working car.
It doesn’t take too long before everyone else arrives. Alana arrives with Jasmine once again, and the way the two armored ladies steal glances at one another, I can’t help but wonder if they are sothing a little more than a [Valkyrie] and her apprentice. And then Lindsey arrives in quite the stunning red dress, her boyfriend or partner or current fling— whatever they are— right behind her. Sohow, despite Lindsey’s eye-catching dress, the hulk of a man standing three inches taller than even Alana— herself half a foot taller than Lindsey and — manages to draw everyone’s attention. Then again, I’m still wearing my wings, so I’m not one to talk.
After waiting for half an hour outside, we co to two realizations. First, without magic to keep
cool, standing outside on a sumr afternoon really sucks, even at half past six in the early evening. The lack of a breeze makes it so much worse than when we’re sprinting along the highway, and flapping my wings back and forth doesn’t help all that much. And second, that Stefan feels incredibly inadequate about being the only one of the six of us who doesn’t have a flight ability, now that Lindsey has [Wind Walk].
I picture Lindsey flying around, carrying the hulking behemoth of a man standing right beside her. It’s endearing, but it’s also incredibly funny to imagine. I try not to chuckle too much, but I’m sure a bit of a giggle escapes .
“So,” I ask Lindsey, “Are you two planning to stay here longer term, or is this just a short visit?”
“A long weekend. I might not be officially enlisted in the forces anymore, but I still wanted to check in with my friends and family. But yeah, Stefan and I will be heading back on Tuesday…” She trails off for a mont. “I know you all had to deal with a wyvern and then a swarm of harpies. We’ve had so similar attacks. A giant flock of winged monkeys actually, like, straight out of The Wizard of Oz.”
“Oh goodness,” Chloe says. “How did you all deal with it?”
“With a lot of casualties,” Stefan answers. “As I understand, between your spell and Nicholas’s [Ether Cannon], I think the final death toll was… sixty-two? Over in Red Clay City, we lost nearly three thousand. It was horrific fighting through the streets, hundreds of us whittling down the swarm for what felt like hours. Even still, I count our blessings that the death toll wasn’t even higher. We have Kristil to thank for a lot of that, actually. Her and the living forr mbers of the Order of the Wilds, who fought in exchange for a reduction on their sentences.”
“That’s…” Chloe says.
I feel a twisted relief setting in my stomach; it doesn’t completely absolve
of the lives lost as a result of [Black Hole]. But knowing the counterfactual was thousands more deaths makes
more confident that the decision I made was probably a net benefit for protecting human life. Even if I really didn’t have the right— legally or ethically, at least— to make that decision.
“Wait,” I ask. “How are people being kept as prisoners, Lindsey? I thought you had implied that it wouldn’t be possible to do so.”
“Most of them are genuinely penitent. The fact that there are folks like
willing and able to put down any who don’t accept their sentence does provide the stick.”
But then, that just begs the question: Who puts down soone like Lindsey? What about ? I’m pretty confident there’s no one on Earth right now capable of fighting against
if I use [Seraphina Overlimit]. Sure, I’ve only got a minute and eighteen seconds with it, but seventy-eight seconds is more than enough ti to wipe out a small army.
That’s a sobering thought. It really does add appeal to the idea of having so sort of grand council of high-level fighters coordinating behind the scenes to keep society more or less running as it has been. Then again, that’s about a step removed from a shadow world governnt, and would an that ordinary people have exactly as much agency as this council allows, and not one bit more.
Dinner cos amidst a variety of idle chit-chat and catching up. I decided on a shrimp scampi dish, while Chloe went with so gnocchi smothered in at sauce. I didn’t even know she liked the strange mini-dumplings, but I suppose we all continue to learn more about ourselves and each other with each passing day.
All in all, it’s fun, just getting to enjoy sothing akin to a triple date without having to focus on life-threatening or world-shattering problems. Just the fact that I put a few too many red pepper flakes on my al and got to enjoy the sensation of capsaicin burn all evening.
It’s not until the end of the al while we’re all chatting around the mostly empty table that I reach into my pouch and grab one of the two apples we found back into the dungeon and present it to Lindsey. She looks at it with an incredulous stare.
“What is this?” she asks.
“That’s what Chloe and I wanted to ask you,” I say. I lower my voice to the barest whisper, knowing full well that Lindsey can both hear
and read my lips. “We found two of them in the Tower Gauntlet, in a hidden room. We don’t know what they are or if they’re poisoned or safe to eat or what, and we were hoping you’d be willing to [Identify] them for us.”
Lindsey looks at it and her eyes imdiately go wide. “What the fu–,” she mouths. She reaches around to her pack and frantically starts scribbling sothing down on a sheet of paper.
She hands the note back to
straight away, though she hesitates for several seconds with the apple. I’ve got to imagine it’s sothing extraordinary, the way she almost seems to covet it. Finally, though, she relents and hands the apple back to .
She gives
two words of advice. First, that knowledge of these apples better not get out in the open, lest all-out pandemonium occur on a global level. The way she says it suggests that she won’t hesitate to do whatever must be done if information about the fruit leaks out. And second, that she and Stefan will be postponing their return to Red Clay City. For on Tuesday, once my [Ether] channels have healed, all four of us will be going into the Tower Gauntlet again.
As I read her note, I imdiately understand why on both accounts.
[[Level Apple (64)]: An extrely rare and delicious fruit ford at the confluence of vast cosmic energies. Eating this fruit raises a being’s level by 1. (To a maximum level of 64; Experience set to the threshold of the consur’s next level)]
Reviews
All reviews (0)