Cecilia threw herself to the ground, bringing the elf standing beside her with her. Metal creaked and groaned, snapping and shattering into shrapnel thrown through the air by the thunder erupting above them. She squeezed her eyes tight, daring to look only when the echoes of the guns were far away.

That was when a stab of pain reached her shell-shocked brain. She barely groaned, craning her neck to see a jagged strut of metal protruding from her shoulder. Noting its presence, she turned her attention to everything around her.

“Mph!” something groaned. What confused Cecilia was where it came from. She looked down, seeing the elf pressed against Cecilia’s chest and struggling for a breath of air. With a great effort, Cecilia picked her chest up, giving enough room for the elf to breath, easily ignoring the prick of the metal strut. “What happened!?” Vitnami shouted. She looked around like a confused hound before locking her gaze on Cecilia’s shoulder, “You got hurt again! Let me get up and-”

“I wouldn’t,” Cecilia cut in, “Structures made by Clockworks don’t fall apart because of a few well-placed shells. They blew the wall to kingdom come. We’re probably trapped.”

“But, your wound! It’s-”

“Fine. I’m fine, you’re fine, and at least Nib’s fine. I’ve gone through worse. I’ve… gotten through worse,” Cecilia comforted. It was only after she said it that she realized that the last sentence was more for herself than it was for the elven alchemist.

Vitnami seemed to understand the purpose of her words, a frown spreading on her face, “You don’t believe that…” she stated. Not questioned, but stated, “You still feel it.”

“What in the names of the Creators are you talking about?” Cecilia hissed, her lizardman throat taking control for a moment, “I’m here, pinned under rubble, instead of being a fucking zombie-” she stopped for a moment, “You set me up!”

Vitnami wriggled her arms out from under Cecilia and firmly took hold of her face, “I did no such thing. Listen to me,” she said, Cecilia far too occupied with keeping the man pounds of shredded metal from falling on them, “Calm down. You’re hurt, I know that. You don’t, but I do. Calm. Down. Talk to me.”

Cecilia felt a sting far more potent than mere physical pain come from deep within her bosom. She felt her eyes water, but she kept it in, a sudden, strong resentment flaring up so passionately that she wanted to grit her teeth, “Why should I?” she spat, “What do you know about me? Have you felt everything taken from you, again and again, until you’re just a puppet being danced around a city who pretends to be helping!? Have you!?”

Vitnami did not avert her gaze, did not shy away from Cecilia’s rage. That alone gave Cecilia pause, but the unceasing, unrelenting gaze was something else entirely. She turned away, anger growing uncomfortable within her, Vitnami letting her go but still staring into her eyes, “Cecilia… I know your pain. I know what it’s like. Do you know what it’s like to be hated? To never have anything in the first place?”

Cecilia snapped her gaze back to the elf, “What do you-”

“I was always hated. A Ultgu, they called me. An unwanted,” Vitnami began, “My village was always… economical about food. In the plains of the southeastern Vast. That’s where I came from. We never had enough. Never enough food, enough water to drink, enough tools to use, enough things to do to level up. We fought over scraps of everything imaginable. Traits were an uncommon commodity, usually spent on [Thaumovore], just so some of the children could have a little more to eat…”

Vitnami’s eyes wetted, almost breaking into tears. A wave of panic shot through Cecilia, “Wait, please- If you-”

“Then I was born,” she continued, cutting through Cecilia’s words, “An unwanted, bastard child between two married people. I was thrown out…” Tears began to sprout then, trailing lines of wetness down her face, “They hated me… They hated me. They took anything I made and never let me have anything for myself. I… I ran into the desert. I couldn’t stand it. I decided to die over living just to serve them.” The few stray tears had evolved into an intense bawl, shattering Cecilia’s heart as she kept the weight of the metal from crushing the woman beneath her, “I almost died so many times! But the Creators wouldn’t let me! They sent me forgotten water skins and dying birds! Old knives and guns! I-I just couldn’t die! They wouldn’t let me!”

Cecilia had enough, pulling the elf into a tight embrace while shouldering the weight above them, “I’m sorry,” she said, “I’m sorry.” She repeated herself over and over, sheltering the sobbing elf in her arms.

Vitnami wept for a few more minutes, crying into Cecliia’s shoulder, before finally taking a deep breath, “I… I didn’t mean to share so much. I didn’t want to overshare bu-but I just-just felt something. I’m sorry.”

“No,” Cecilia firmly said, “I’m sorry. I made you say that. I threw a tantrum without knowing what you went through. I spat in the face of your kindness. I’m sorry.” Vitnami shook her head, hugging Cecilia and squeezing a bit tighter than her wound was happy with.

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“Your wound!” Vitnami let out, “I forgot! I’m sorry- but there was so much that-”

“Shh… Calm down. I’ll live,” Cecilia shushed, trying her best for a motherly smile.

“Pfft…” Vitnami giggled, “Sorry, but you look like you’re trying too hard. Alright, alright, I’m calm now. We’ll have a talk later about you, but… how do we get out? I’m not… very strong. Nor do I have enough corrosion solution for all of this.”

Cecilia looked around, finding disappointingly little to help them out of their predicament. One of her knives had fallen under them, poking Cecilia’s knees uncomfortably but otherwise unusable. Of all of the scrapped metal around them, none of it was small enough for them to grab and use. Just as Cecilia was about to reply, she heard a creaking above them. Despite constantly hearing the muted echoes of cannon fire above them, Cecilia ignored it in favor of more personal problems. Now, though, the repetitive groans of metal was far from unnoticeable, even when occasionally drowned out by blasts of something or other.

“What’s that?” Vitnami asked, twisting her neck to look around once more.

Cecilia paused for another moment as she heard the creak again, though accompanied by the scrapping of metal on metal, “I don’t know, but if it’s a Clockwork, it’s been nice knowing you.” She suddenly realized what she said, “Oh, shit. Sorry, I didn’t mean-”

“Can you hear me!?” she heard a voice call out. It was from above them, through the mass of metal also above them, “I’m trying to dig you out! If you die, I’ll kick your ass!”

Cecilia ignored the voice for the time being, averting her attention to Vitnami. The elf gave a sad smile, shaking her head, “Don’t worry about it. I’ve come to terms with the Creators’ distaste of my death,” she said, giggling.

Vitnami’s giggle soothed Cecilia enough to take a deep breath and clear her mind. After a moment, she craned her head upwards, “We’re in here!” she bellowed, making Vitnami flinch.

“I hear you! I’m almost… there!” The weight of the metal above them suddenly lightened just enough to make it bearable for Cecilia. It also made it light enough to throw off. She funneled her internal mana into her muscle Trait, exploding upwards with all her strength. The metal was all thrown upwards freeing them. The first thing Cecilia noticed was her bone-hawk, diving down towards her and landing on her shoulder, nuzzling her affectionately. She smiled, turning to see their savior, “‘bout time you got out of there!” Nib laughed, stomping his way over to her, “You alright- Oh Creators that looks like it hurts,” he said, pointing at the strut still stubbornly hanging out of her shoulder.

Bemused, Cecilia grasped the metal and wrenched it from her shoulder, spraying blood in front of her, “Not a problem,” she said simply.

Someone off to the side whistled, “That’s brutal…” the chimeric man commented.

Nib chuckled nervously, “Yeah, that’s more than a little brutal. Do you know what happened to that alchemist?” he asked.

Cecilia rolled her eyes, pointing down towards the pit she had climbed out of. “I’m alright!” Vitnami shouted from below. The elf took a second or so to dart to her feet and step up beside Cecilia, “I… did lose my potion bag, though. All I have left is a few corrosion solutions and a stabilization potion. Nothing with me will fix… that.”

“I’ll be fine unless-” an explosion erupted somewhere off in the distance, sending the air rippling, “What no- Oh Creators…” she muttered. She finally realized that the entire wall had been turned to rubble, including the Sky Guardians, leaving the way open. Despite the scene of destruction around her, she could only look upwards, at the Clockworks flying above them all. It looked like a skiff if it could float and was upside down while doing so. A trio of massive cannons lined each Clockwork skiff, blasting into the desert before the wall in perfect synchronicity with all of the others.

“Yeah… we were doing that too,” Nib said, looking up as well, “If only the bastards had enough forethought to give me a gun… I might be able to help.”

“If they did that,” a human woman with multiple form-altering Traits said, “You would’ve shot Sargent Sparkly tits before they even taught you to use it.”

“Fair,” was all he had to say. Before Cecilia even had time to process the words from Nib, an ear-splitting roar thundered over them all. Cecilia barely even heard the roar when a black blur collided with the airskiff above them, sending shattered scraps of metal across the sky. Without a moment’s hesitation, the airskiff turned its guns on itself, shooting round after round into its hull for the chance of hitting the black blur.

The airskiff, however, did not last, being split in twine after another moment. The black blur then moved on to the next airskiff, tearing into it with even more gusto than before. That airskiff met the same fate as its comrade and the blur then moved onto the last, much larger airskiff. Despite the black blur’s speed, the bigger airskiff did not seem bothered by it, lining up all of its cannons and lighting up like the night sky with mana.

A massive crack nearly threw them all off of their feet, Cecilia having to catch Vitnami before she fell. The black blur stopped for a split moment, just long enough for Cecilia to realize that the blur was a dragon, before it collided with the airskiff with a vengeance. The savage tearing of metal accompanied the thunder of cannons before the last airskiff was torn in twine as well.

The black dragon paused for a moment as the last airskiff fell, looking over the field, before flying back the way it came much, much slower than it came. The dragon continued on, flying until they could not see it over the horizon. “I think that’s a perfect reason to go back. After we find as many people around here as we can,” Nib said.

“Do you have a way to do that?” Cecilia asked.

Nib shook his head, “Unless they’re draining mana around them like you were, no.”

“Oh.” Cecilia sighed, hugging Vitnami from the side. The elf barely shied away. Cecilia smiled. It was nice to hug someone again. Though, the bone-hawk did seem more jealous than before. She would have to groom it for a long while.