Nicole R.

@sainiku.bsky.social

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She/Her Cat mom and budding author 🚫 No AI Fuck it - we pride. 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈

A fearful panic rose from deep within my chest. “What do you mean?” “Don’t worry, I’m not some heathen,” she assured me. “I just see the history of this place in… a bit of a different light than what the Church probably teaches. My father taught me a lot about the world. Most of which I can’t… or shouldn’t talk about.” “Does this have something to do with him being a ‘Sentinel’?” “Pretty much. Don’t get me wrong, it’s…” She paused, and leaned her head back, rubbing at her neck. “The Sentinels and the Church worked together. Not directly like the Templars do, but they had faith in each other and worked towards common goals. I was taught that the Church and Templars handled the sanctity and protection of the people, whereas Sentinels and Guardians would protect the world and the land itself. If you were to go and ask Archbishop Gabriel what he thought of Sentinels, I’m sure he would have nothing but good things to say. Even though… They’re all gone now.”
Magik kill combo in Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls
Give me a franchise and I'll tell you my favorite character
Dragon’s Den was just a small fishing village, but it’s founding was famous for being an extremely tense moment just after the war that Cratara waged against the Dragon Lands during its founding. The dragons had set the borders of their land, and Cratara decided to test their limits, planting a small village right on the edge. It put the dragons in an awkward position. They could have either responded to it as being an act of aggression, or done nothing, and respected the borders they themselves had implemented. In the end, they chose a more neutral option and issued a warning, designating a no-man’s land between their borders, where neither would be able to settle. However, Dragon’s Den — having already been established — was allowed to remain. With its purpose being fulfilled, it faded into obscurity. The only times it was ever mentioned again was in history books, at least as far as I knew.
Photo of Quest 64 being played on a CRT TV
Chapter 3: Introduction of Marissa. 6th year magical girl. 5th rank (Red). 20, in college.
Chapter 2: Introduction of Lisa. 2nd year Magical Girl. 2rd Rank (yellow). 17, junior in highschool. This introduction is more geared towards world building. It features Lisa going to a government headquarters located in the middle spire of a city, and her being reprimanded by a trainer there. She appears meek and easily influenced. She shows promise but has failed her 3rd rank exam twice. It shows better shots of the city, showing the dome that it’s in. And it shows her heading back to her home in a different city. As she’s transferring from a between-city train to a city train, she gets a text on her phone. She looks conflicted but decides not to get on the train and heads to the bathroom. She pulls her wand from her bag and transforms. The transformation is almost instant, and she immediately begins casting a spell. A teleportation circle appears around her as she casts, and after a moment, she disappears in a small flash. She appears in another small room with a dim light. No windows, and only one door. The only thing in the room is a small machine that hums lightly. She quickly un-transforms and walks to the door and goes through it. The door leads to an alley, and she seems to make sure she closes the door behind her. (these are teleport points). She arrives at an apartment area, where local police are already cordoning off the area. One of the officers is talking to a magical girl in red. The moment Lisa sees the red magical girl, she gasps and blushes lightly, obviously recognizing the girl. Flustered, she puts her head down and walks past the area. Disheartened, she takes a deep breath and sighs.
Chapter 1: Introduction of Sarya. 2nd year Magical Girl. 1st Rank (blue). 17, junior in highschool. Loves animals, and has 2 cats. Most her friends have moved away to Elysium. But she had already begun to grow apart from them anyway, due to her magical girl training. Close friends with Rachel. The two became close after their mutual friends moved away. Episode is a Day-in-the-life of a seemingly normal highschool girl. (Background Hints: She excels at science). On her way home with Rachel, she gets a text message and doubles back, saying she forgot something (something to do with theater class, another background hint). A monster is attacking a child in an alleyway. Sarya rushes in and slashes at the monster, getting its attention. Sarya is small and agile, slashing with a sword that grew from her magic wand. Eventually, she wounds it by cutting off its leg. Her sword disappears and she draws power into the wand, blasting white light at the creature. The creature seems to dissolve and disappear, removing all remnants of him. After the blast, the wand seems to go into a lower-powered state. Sarya takes her phone out and calls back to headquarters. Mentioning that the monster was attacking a child and that the child ran off. As she is talking, it’s revealed that Rachel is hiding around a corner, appearing to be in shock, as she whispers the name “Sarya”.
Gambit Interior, medium-large 1 room apartment, messy, dark. An alarm goes off. A woman grunts and rolls over in the bed at the far corner of the apartment. Two cats are seen stirring in the room as well. The woman picks up her phone on the floor by her bed, unplugs it from charging and turns off the alarm. Fast cuts of a breakfast being made, shower and hygiene stuff, feeding her cats. The young woman (15, “Sarya”) packs a large backpack with schoolbooks and a compact magic wand (as if it was normal). She walks out the door saying goodbye to her cats. Outer view of a school, mid-afternoon. Schoolbell rings. “Did you hear about Krissa?” Interior classroom. Kids seen eating lunch, standing/walking around, sitting and talking. The Sarya and another girl (Rachel) are seen talking while eating lunch at their desks. Sarya shakers head head (with her mouth full) implying “no”. Rachel – “Her dad was apparently interviewed for a job at Elysium!” Sarya’s eyes widen in surprise and swallows her food. a big grin grows on her face. Sarya – “please tell me she’s moving…” Rachel – “already gone.” Sarya smiles happily at the news and opens a cup of pudding.
1. what is your dominant hand? 2. How young were you when you started writing for pleasure? 3. What’s the first thing you remember writing or have evidence of writing? (Bonus if you show us) 4. How do you write? Straight back at the keyboard or gremlin mode under your blankets with your phone? 5. What’s your favorite thing to write for fun? 6. Have you ever written something out of spite? Tell us about it. 7. What’s your favorite writing snack? 8. What does your writing space look like? describe your physical environment 9. Accessories sold separately: what are your writing accessories? 10. Imagine you get famous as a content creator: describe your videos 11. Where is the weirdest place you’ve ever been bitten by the writing bug? 12. When you aren’t writing where can we find you? 13. Write in a void or write with a village? 14. Your most recently created OC has come to life, you react how? 15. When you’re deep in the flow of writing, what disturbs you? 16. If your book/story was a mixed drink what would it be? 17. Name your muse or talk about your inspirations 18. If a mind reader could currently read your mind, what would they get? 19. When writing acoustic do you prefer pen or pencil? Maybe you like to write in marker? 20. Have you ever had any health issues that caused you to have to stop writing? How did you cope?
Thankfully, he was strictly limited to leather armor. Otherwise, he’d be trudging through the ruins in his beloved half plate, which he was rarely seen without. Even still, his pride made sure to carry the heaviest supply pack between us.
Flowers in a vase on a table
Finally, it was time for a lesson. I wasn’t sure why I was even asked to participate, but I did. We sat on the ground and Liz placed a tiny metal object in front of each of us. She looked down at her three pupils, and a bit of her confidence came rushing back. Not as profound or overwhelming as before, but it was there. “I want you three to shake your screw without moving your box,” she instructed. “What?” I took the object into my hand and began inspecting it closely. It was a hollow metal rectangular prism, small enough to fit in my palm. I shook it a little, and I could hear that there was something inside of it, but there weren’t any openings. It had been welded shut. Liz grabbed her coffee off the ground and leaned against the side of the train, sipping at it as she watched us. Instead of trying to solve the impossible problem, I allowed my mind to wander, and to think about what it must have been like to work under her.
“Some days I wish I hadn’t given you my gun,” she quietly mumbled, taking another file and opening it on the desk. “I had a practice, you know. In Anthosa. A good number of patients. And now… I just have you. You and your family and friends. All due to an… acquisition of sorts.” “What do you mean?” “I am now a royal physician.” She stared, her eyes attempting to bore their way through my skull for a moment. After failing that, they seemed to give up, turning downward to her work. “Your mother ‘gave’ me the job… An offer I quite literally couldn’t refuse. Your old doctors were a bunch of chickenshit cowards who were too squeamish at the thought of potentially getting killed by their patient.” “I—” “My gun, did you bring it? If so, could you just shoot me and get it over with?” She took her pen and signed the document in front of her.
“But Elissa had influences from the outside. Her father and I would often travel for our work, and would frequently take her with us. She was unique in that way. Most ludari hated the idea of leaving the city. Why would you want to leave a place that provided so much for you?” “Sense of exploration?” Spiral interjected. “Curiosity? Thrill of adventure? You see, that’s the thing I don’t understand.” She put her glass down without finishing it. “I don’t believe for a second that every ludari could have been in Ambros at the time of the Ashes. The entire thing never passed the smell test to me.”
Piiiiiiiiizzzza
Gunsmith cats omnibus, a rose under glass, and a mostly eaten cake
Cam whispered and gently shook my shoulder. “Jane… Jane…” I groaned in response from the very edge of sleep. “I really need you to get up. Spiral is downstairs,” he said, panic in his voice. So what…? No, wait… That can’t be right... My mind slowly tried to cross over into the waking world… And when it did, it suddenly began firing on all cylinders. I threw off the covers, a raspy shout escaping me. “Excuse me?!” My pulse skyrocketed, blood surging, rushing in my ears, and causing my head to spin. Pushing through it all, I forced my legs over the side of the bed, sitting up. I began lightly slapping myself in the face until the world around me felt at least a little more coherent. “She’s eating breakfast downstairs,” he explained. “I went down there to grab you a muffin or whatever they had, and she’s just… sitting there.” “Did you… talk to her?” I squeezed my eyes shut a few times as I tried to shake my weariness.
How can she do it? How can she be so strong, after everything she’s been through? As if answering my questions, she said the words I never expected to hear, even though I really should have by then. I knew them so well, as I had practiced them in my head every night we spent together, until they felt foreign and strange. Yet, when she said them with such tenderness, both in body and soul, they resonated as strongly as the crystals of the World’s Edge. “I love you, Jane.” “I love you, too.” The words came out quickly, desperately, almost clumsily, flowing like a river in a storm before a single thought could dam the way. At the last possible moment, I had decided that I didn’t trust my brain not to mess it up, so I trusted my heart to get it right instead. All my silent rehearsals, gone to waste… … but her smile couldn’t have been brighter.
“You held back,” he growled. “You didn’t use the blade.” “I know,” Liz mused. “I don’t want you dead. I don’t want anyone dead. The only evil here is you. A monster, acting like an honorable man.” Raziel grunted as he carefully rose to his feet, his face scrunching into a grimace from shooting pains as he moved. “You always knew just how to twist the knife. But you were right… I certainly won’t forget this. Being duped by the Hare, again, into a fair fight? I should have seen it coming. “The Hare is dead, Raziel. You should have left her claws buried with her.” A chuckle rose from him, but it immediately devolved a torturous coughing fit. It was hard for me to watch, as one of my oldest friends was left doubled over and gasping, catching his uneven and labored breath. “Don’t make me laugh…” he pleaded, grabbing at his chest. “To think that you of all people were the Hare. Life’s just a cruel joke, isn’t it?” “For people like us? Yeah…” Liz’s smile was far kinder and more sincere than I expected, a hint of regret present on her brow.
An image of a white peice of crinkled paper with black text and decorative symbols over it. It is titled “A Writer Ask Game” with the words “One like, One answer” at thebottom. There are a couple decirative symbols of pen flourishes, a book, and a keyboard. It has text reading “by Theodore Snapdragon” and 75 questions. The questions are as follow (truncated for BSky character limits): What’s your favorite part of writing? What’s the scariest thing you’ve ever written? Do you usually write happy, sad, or other kinds of endings? Who is your favorite author? What’s your favorite type of scene to write? What’s your favorite type of symbolism? What’s your least favorite part of writing? Where do your ideas come from? What’re your favorite themes? What’s the most wholesome thing you’ve written? Have you ever had writer’s block? Do you have a favorite character? What drives you to write? What’s your favorite part of your current WIP? Do you have a favorite of your writing projects? Do you enjoy editing? What’s the saddest thing you’ve ever written? Do you like long or short form writing better? What’s the hardest thing to write? What song(s) inspire you to write? Do you have a specific type of reader in mind when you write? Is your prose more purple or beige? Do you have any monsterous characters, metaphorically or literally? What’re your favorite books? Do you usually write with specific themes in mind, or find them during writing? Does being a writer impact how you see the world? What’s the weirdest thing you’ve ever written? The shortest? Would you say you love writing? Is there a specific author you want to be like? What’s the most annoying task in writing? What’s your biggest grammar pet peeve? Which of your characters do you find yourself thinking of the most? Do you have other passions besides writing? What’s the most romantic thing you’ve ever written? How do you establish setting in your writing? Do you enjoy writing dialogue? How much time do you spend invent
My anxieties argued so loudly that even the thought of sleep was a poor fool’s jest. I kept trying to tell myself that Liz was confident in what she was doing and that I just needed to trust her, but my advice continued to fall on deaf ears. So I did what I always did in times of need. I sat up in bed, and prayed to Rix. I prayed for guidance, I prayed for strength, and I prayed that everything was going to be alright. For a moment it worked. But as the cacophony of fears in my head began to calm themselves, a single sound broke the fragile silence outside my mind. Somewhere below, downstairs. My heart raced, and I waited, but there was no encore. Did I imagine it? I slowly got up, and crept to my bedroom door. The villa was dead quiet once again.
Lina inverse describing the world they live on as an egg on the end of her fork.
“Do you pray at all?” I asked. Liz lowered her head and sighed slowly. It was as if all the tension left her body, and I could sense a deep pensiveness within her voice as she spoke. “Not in a long time. I don’t… think anyone up there listens to me, not anymore. Not after all I’ve been through. I still have faith, I know it’s all true, but I just don’t think they can help me. I’m not sure anything can.” Her eyes wandered over to mine, and a small smile pierced through her melancholy. “I guess that’s not really true. You’ve always listened and been there to help. Perhaps, I should be praying to you instead?” She chuckled at the thought. “Though I suppose Rix wouldn’t like that.” I hurriedly tried to think of a response, but my mind drew a blank. “I… That’s… very sweet of you.” A flustered anxiety filled my chest, so I took a deep breath and let my eyes wander around the cathedral, letting it’s crystalline splendor help me relax and calm my nerves. “Thank you for tonight,” I told her. “You, the food, the view, and coming here… It was all wonderful. You may be the first person to ever get a second date out of me, if that’s what you’d like.”
The question of whom the woman was at the park had seemed so far away, so insignificant. The entire journey there, it had never even crossed my mind. How could it have? I thought it had nothing to do with any of what we were dealing with. But in a way, Erina had been right. The answer to the smallest question ended up becoming the most important of them all. Elissa White was still alive.
“What do you mean ‘when’ we run into issues?” Lusana asked. “Do we not have a plan for entering Vigaras?” “Yes and no,” Liz admitted. “I’ve been there once before, so I know what to expect… But that was before the war, with Merith the third over a century ago. We’re going to start off slow and see where that gets us before we push any harder.” “Why doesn’t Spiral just go in?” Cam asked. Spiral answered for herself. “Hell no. I want nothing to do with them.” Liz seemed startled by her reply, and quickly cut in before anyone else could ask questions. “L–Look, uh… Spiral’s not really from Necarus. In fact, she’s never even been there.”
Merith returned and quickly rolled out an old cloth map onto the table. “Are you seriously asking me to help plan a terrorist attack to disrupt a summit of world leaders?” “That’s exactly what I’m asking,” I confirmed.
Thoughts and words became pointless, I no longer had need for them and their agonizing presence. The rage knew what to do, it was all I needed, it knew how to kill, and in a moment of weakness, I succumbed. My arm raised above, my palm facing the dark starlit sky, and the spell was cast. A spherical barrier of magic appeared around me, hexagons interlinked with one another, forming a tight seal. “FIRE!” The yell rang out, and a maelstrom of bullets came screeching out of their rifles, striking at the barrier, but none could penetrate. The shell instantly destroyed anything that came in contact with it… Anything. My raised hand curled into a tight fist, and the sphere glowed bright in preparation for the end. The flying Promethean machines of war flung explosives my way, yet in their fiery aftermath, the barrier remained. Ammunitions sputtered to a halt, and the men looked at me with stunned confusion. All they had managed to accomplish, was awaken the indignatious fury deep within my chest. My turn. My fist opened quickly, and tentacles from each hexagon flew out in all directions, flailing towards everyone and everything. They writhed and penetrated straight through the soldiers, killing them with bloody precision, their bodies severed into pieces at the slightest touch. Their flying machines were struck, and erupted into radiant flames of retribution before crashing to the ground. The spell was arguably the deadliest of The Six. The Apocalypse Shell.
Progress Report Currently working on: Memories of Jane (Writing 3rd Draft) Requiem of Worlds: The Mysteries of Jane Sothara Third Draft at 33% Requiem of Worlds: The Faith of Jane Sothara Rough Draft at 100% Requiem of Worlds: The Will of Jane Sothara Rough Draft at 100% Requiem of Worlds: The War of Jane Sothara Rough Draft at 100% The Coven of Eden: Origins Rough Draft at 100% The Coven of Eden: Legacies Rough Draft at 30% All WIP and subject to change.
“She’s refusing treatment.” Lusana sighed and shook her head, seeming to calm down a bit. “I don’t like having personal feelings with the people I’m treating, but in this case I don’t really get a choice. I’ve had two psychologists already try to get through to her, and she completely stonewalled them both. I don’t have any emergency contacts to reach out to, so I’m left with very few choices. I’d like to request your assistance in the matter.” It wasn’t at all what I expected. I dropped the calm facade I wore, and quickly got down to business. “What’s wrong with her?” “Please understand that I wouldn’t tell you this if I had any other recourse. I hate breaking patient confidentiality, but there are some cases like this where I find it’s necessary.” “Lusana, just tell me.”
A date with Liz… I had been on dates before, but they were just suitors, strangers who I cared nothing about. This felt different, Liz was a friend… Is that all she is? Do I really think that? I stared into the mirror, as if expecting an answer from the other side. Yet she just stared back, eyes filled with worry. “What the hell am I doing?” I asked. “Why does this feel like a mistake? There’s no commitment here, I could always back out. There’s nothing wrong… So, why do I feel this way?” Of course, my friend in the mirror didn’t answer. Instead, she just stared at herself with pained anxiety plain across her face. But when a knock came to the door, she built up the courage to stand and answer it.
“Why was that always a thing with you?” Cam asked. “Why did you always steal food off my plate when we were kids?” I shrugged. “You were the only kid who’d eat with me, other than Erina. I’d sometimes steal food from her plate too.” “But why?” He bit into some unknown fruit. “Like, they fed us plenty.” “I saw some kids doing it before and it made them smile.” I shrugged and stole a piece of jerky from his plate. “So I tried it on you and Erina, and it worked.” “I guess that makes sense.” Cam smiled down at his food. “Are you picking on my jerky specifically?” “Yeah, the fruit kinda stinks. The jerky is at least palatable…” I said with my mouth full. “I get the feeling they’re not in a position to care about the taste as much as the sustenance. I wonder if they’ve ever had better food.”
The lobby was far grander than it had any right to be. An extravagantly polished marble desk sat squarely in the center, with two short lines of people waiting, and a few unseated chairs lining either side of the room. The flooring appeared to be wooden, yet my steps produced an unnaturally hollow sound, the echoing of which was only muffled by the gigantic gaudy rugs that hung as decor against the bland gray walls. The chemical scent of sanitation was nauseating, worsening my headache, yet also stifling my desire for a drink. I could see some of the people in line giving me sharp glances from the corner of my eye, as I confidently walked past them off to the side. But no one spoke until I approached the waist-high divider, protruding from the reception desk to either wall, and vaulted over it. “Hey!” A nearby man working in the back called out to me, with startled confusion rather than anger. Behind the reception were rows of small wooden desks atop the shortest gray pile carpeting I had ever seen. Each workstation was filled to the brim with mountains of paperwork and supplies, from which over a half-dozen workers peered across to stare at my intrusion.
I sent my light spell towards another shape. It was the exact same, black and disfigured remains. “That doesn’t make any sense,” I countered. “An explosion this size could be hot enough to burn away the flesh, sure. But the metal would have to be heated over an extended period of time to melt like this.” “With an explosion this size we shouldn’t be finding this many bodies in the crater at all,” he argued. “They should have been blown away by the force of it.” I continued looking around with my light. “So then… What do you think?” “A dragon could do it,” he theorized. “Dragonfire over a long enough period of time? Maybe the explosion happened, then guards came to secure the scene and then fought a dragon?”
She said it so plainly, as if it was just a matter of fact. I reached out, placing my hand on hers, unsure of what to say. All the words I tried to come up with in my head felt wrong. But in that silence, she just looked at me and frowned, seeming more concerned about the pain it caused me to listen, rather than the agony of experiencing it herself. I should have been braver, kept my feelings in check, I was just making it even harder for her. “I’ll be okay,” she said softly. “Yeah… I know.” I tried to force a smile, for her sake, though I’m sure it came out wrong. How can she do it? How can she be so strong, after everything she’s been through? As if answering my questions, she said the words I never expected to hear, even though I really should have. I knew them so well, as I had practiced them in my head every night we spent together, until they felt foreign and strange. Yet, when she said them with such tenderness, both in body and soul, they resonated as clear as crystal. “I love you, Jane.” “I love you, too.” The words came out quickly, desperately, flowing like a river in a storm, before a single thought could dam the way. I didn’t want my brain to mess it up, so I trusted my heart instead. All my silent rehearsals went to waste… … but her smile couldn’t have been brighter.
Within two days, we found ourselves hiking far into the quarantine zone. The forest around Ambros was dense, and the trees had thick roots that made every step a bit precarious. It was likely that no people had made the trek for some time, leaving only the creatures of the forest to travel the overgrown trails we followed. I kept having to double-check my compass to ensure that we were headed in the right direction, as our view of the World’s Edge was often blocked by thick foliage. “Are you sure we’re heading the right way?” Erina complained. “It should be just a bit farther in,” Cam assured her.
My anxieties argued so loudly that even the thought of sleep was a poor fool’s jest. I kept trying to tell myself that Liz was confident in what she was doing and that I just needed to trust her, but my advice continued to fall on deaf ears. So I did what I always did in times of need. I sat up in bed, and prayed to Rix. I prayed for guidance, I prayed for strength, and I prayed that everything was going to be alright. For a moment it worked. But as the cacophony of fears in my head began to calm themselves, a single sound broke the fragile silence outside my mind. Somewhere below, downstairs. My heart raced, and I waited, but there was no encore. Did I imagine it? I slowly got up, and crept to my bedroom door. The villa was dead quiet once again.
“I didn’t cry, as a baby,” I told her. “That’s how they knew something was wrong with me. I’d eat, sleep, and need my diapers changed just like every other child, but I’d never cry out for help. I’d never let them know I needed it. I was… different. I couldn’t pull from the Source, couldn’t even feel it. And my eyes… they were gray.” I hugged my knees closer. “Then something happened. Something awful. I think I was… 10 maybe? It’s hard for me to remember. When I woke up, after it was all over… I was someone different. It wasn’t a subtle change, it was extreme. My eyes were blue, my connection to the Source was strong... And I could cry. But it was more than that. It’s as if I could… think for myself. The wants and needs you once talked about… I didn’t have them before that. I was just… I was nothing. Then after… I was someone new.”
Cat
It had been cleaned from the ground up, everything looking brand new, down to the carpeting. My things had been placed in their proper places, even my journal sat upon the small writing desk, but I was far too tired to do anything but sleep. Yet, as I headed to bed, a knock came to the door. My hopes were dashed when it was Lusana instead of Cam. She insisted on watching over me, just as she planned to in the medical wing. I agreed, and she sat in a chair in the corner, almost immediately falling asleep from exhaustion. I followed her to sleep soon after.
The first floor arranged the shelves as though they were pews, and with an open ceiling above, you could see two floors up on either side. The entire building was lit with the glowing blue hue of magic lamplight, and upon the far back wall, a humongous blue dragon loomed in divine splendor upon a stained masterpiece of glass. It was Rix himself, watching over us all.
We finally made it. We found what we were fighting for. There are times though, where I’ll go on walks alone, and visit [Censored]… … and I’ll weep openly, and wish I could speak to them one last time. I’ll always regret never having the chance to say goodbye…
“I don’t want to fight you,” I said. “I don’t know how you know Liz, or Alice, or Elissa, or the Hare, or whatever name you know her by, but she’s a good friend of mine and I just want to help her.” He growled at me. “Return home. Elissa needs no help from a suicidal fool, such as yourself.” I wasn’t taking ‘no’ for an answer. “More foolish than someone refusing help from a princess in her own kingdom?!” I forced a wide grin. “More suicidal than an injured dragon, challenging someone who could rupture them asunder?” My choice of words was very deliberate. The dragon’s eyes widened, as he understood what I was threatening. “Your bluffs don’t sca—” I pulled as hard as I could from the Source. “Wait!” he shouted, taking even more steps back. I began following, walking towards him again. “What do you want?!”
Cam was absolutely right, our information was flawed, and the area wasn’t safe. If anything, it proved that Ambros needed to be quarantined for real. I can’t accept this. So many years of pleading, begging to go there, dreaming of standing in the very spot I stood at that moment, couldn’t all be for nothing. There was still so much to learn, so much to discover, it was the opportunity of a lifetime. I knew that if we found the underground terminal Alex told us about, we could find out more about Rinara, more about the ludari, we could even find out more about what happened there. The secrets of the Ashes were waiting, just beyond the next horizon of rubble, I was sure of it. But the crater had just destroyed any chance I ever had of coming back. The moment we went home and reported what happened… I wasn’t about to let that happen. “No,” I stated, in defiance of the truth. Cam sighed in frustration. “Jane…” “There is no crater,” I lied.
My uncle, Prince Alexander, was always more like a father to me. I was adopted into the royal family after being found abandoned at the castle. My mother, Queen Catherine Sothara, had never married or had children of her own, and decided to take me in. I knew there was more to the story, but my mother refused to speak of it. At least there was never a shortage of fantastical rumors about how I came to be. Some believed that I wasn’t adopted, and that she had simply hidden the pregnancy. On the other end of the spectrum, some believed that I was a gift from the divine Rix, given to my mother. Other, more sinister voices, went so far as to claim infidelity, that I was my Aunt Iris’ child from an affair. I tried not to listen or give any credence to them, but I couldn’t help but be knowledgeable of their existence. Whether in the tabloids or on the lips of strangers, most of which were unaware I could hear them, the rumors persevered throughout my life, echoing just behind me with every step I took.
He stood, perhaps to make some grand gesture, or to plead with me, but he didn’t need to. I nearly leapt to him from where I sat, and wrapped my arms tight around him. The dam within my chest burst with a wailing cry, and tears rushed to the surface, dripping onto his breastplate. “I’m sorry… I’m so sorry…” I choked out the words through my sobs, squeezing him close. A moment of fear passed through my mind, but as I felt his firm embrace respond in kind, a wave of relief rushed through me, softening my trembling heart.
It felt closer to a jungle than a forest. Though large trees with strikingly blue leaves attempted to fill the landscape, the stalks and reefs of coral seemed to have grown unimpeded by their presence, creating giant monuments and structures of vibrant colors and shapes. Pinks, reds, greens, and yellows all swirled throughout, yet never mixed or blended together, as if painted on abstractly in layers. Upon the ground, dense overgrown vegetation of all different shades of blue grew everywhere we looked. And while there was no singular source of light, everything in the forest, regardless of color, glowed gently with the same blue glow of magic that I was accustomed to.
Spiral sighed and finally looked me in the eye. “Listen… I don’t know what’s goin’ on with you, and I don’t wanna just stand here and pry, but… For fuck’s sake Jane, everyone is worried about you. Me, Liz, Arthur, your family… Even the papers have been wondering where the hell you’ve been. It’s been four months. What the hell are you even doing out here?”
Bloody corpses littered the central plaza of the ruins. Some of the surroundings buildings looked recently collapsed and charred, yet Rinara floated calmly beside Cam at the fountain, completely unfazed the by the chaos and death she had dispensed. I had somehow forgotten how powerful she really was.
Alicia leaned over to Hera as if to whisper, but spoke aloud at a normal level. “He just likes to have an excuse to eat here.” Thorn laughed heartily. “You’re not wrong! Going on 14 years since I first came here. It’s just out of the way enough where it doesn’t get much traffic from the trains, and obscure enough where the people aren’t tryin’ to interrupt when I have meetings here with my Guardians.” “Well, it’s nice to meet you, either way,” Hera said. “Thank you so much for letting Alicia come too. This booth is… where we first met, actually.” Thorn gave Alicia a sly grin. “Oh, I see… Stealing my tricks, are you? No wonder you got the girl.” Alicia laughed. “Fuck you, sir.”
I scrambled to open my bag, and grabbed the sedative that Liz had given me back in Razir. I quickly pulled the safety, and jammed the injector into my own neck. At the end of the day, what I did was a gamble, a risk… But I knew, deep down, that my monster was stronger than hers.
Once upon a time, it was one of the largest cathedrals in the world, but after a fire nearly burnt it to the ground, it was left abandoned for centuries. The previous king of Anthosa saw fit to rebuild it, and have it converted from a place of worship to a place of learning. It soon became the largest collection of knowledge since the dark age, with hundreds of thousands of books contained within. The first floor arranged the shelves as though they were pews, and with an open ceiling above, you could see two floors up on either side. The entire building was lit with the glowing blue hue of magic lamplight, and upon the far back wall, a humongous blue dragon loomed in divine splendor upon a stained masterpiece of glass. It was Rix himself, watching over us all.
I stood confused for a second. “I… What?” “Damn it, Jane…” Cam sighed. “She’s Helen Felknor. We’ve met her before!” What?! I took a step back and grimaced. “I-I don’t…” “Of course she doesn’t remember,” she grumbled. “All she ever cared about was reading the damn books. The people around her were just too far beneath her to even acknowledge. I don’t understand how you put up with it, Cameron.” He smirked and simply shrugged. “Don’t take it personally. Back then, she would act that way to her own mother. Besides, I think you’ll find she’s gotten a lot better recently.” Unable to meet her gaze, I stared unfocused at the tome on her desk. How could I forget? How could I be so stupid? The words felt harsh in my throat. “I am so… so sorry.”
“We all know what happened next. It was a few years after the COM-T line was installed, and I was just getting off of an extra shift. People were talking about smoke in the air, but nobody was really too worried yet.” She took a deep breath and sighed. “That quickly changed. It was in the middle of the night, but all of a sudden the sky lit the fuck back up. It was like time had gone in reverse, and it was fucking daylight all over again. I don’t remember how long it lasted, but it couldn’t have been more than ten or fifteen seconds before it stopped. Everyone was confused as hell about what just happened. But a few seconds later, the shock wave hit. “It wasn’t like anything I’d ever heard of. It didn’t push anyone or hurt anyone, but we could see it zoom through us. Then came the noises, these awful screeching loud noises, then ‘boom boom boom’ all across the city. Every power station went up in flames. The whole fucking grid went down, and the city went dark. What’s worse, was when I tried to cast a light spell… I couldn’t.”
I awoke slowly at first, then faster as I felt my body being opened to the Source once again. But it wasn’t like before, when the Source would fill me completely, instead it was a drip-feeding, only a small amount at a time. As I slowly began to remember what happened, I couldn’t recall what had occurred after casting [Censored]. [...] Have I been captured? Am I moments away from death? Why do I even care? [Censored ] won. We didn’t even stand a chance. I laid there thinking about Tethys and all the things she had told me. How somehow, she was trying to guide us towards a better end. It didn’t make sense. The murals she painted were horrific… Could that path truly have been better than this? Obviously, I wasn’t as perfect as she thought I was. I felt as though it was my punishment for attempting to deviate from the path she had laid out before me. But I didn’t feel pain. Instead I felt numb. I felt nothing… and it felt like mercy.
As Merith began to ruminate on Liz’s claim, her eyes quickly landed on me. “Do remember, Princess, that any information acquired during these talks must never leave this city.” “Of course,” I blurted out nervously. “You can rest assured that not a word shall be spoken to anyone. I, too, wish for your people to regain their glory.” Forcing a smile, I tried my hardest to bluff confidence beneath her piercing glare.