To Plan For the Future

> ”Did you know Atlas Sid was supposed to have a third word? Skyfarer. I was asked to redact it from the official title. Said they didn’t like the acronym for it. I had to agree.” ~Jaylene ‘Atlas’ Morphinnel, J.A.M.

“So, did you come up with the name for the Atlas Sid?” Frein asked as they ignored the rest of the M.E.S.S., skipping all the interesting things that tugged at his curiosity every which way in order to get to the shooting range. He could come back for them some other time anyway.

“Oh, yes,” Jaylene replied. “It wasn’t actually Atlas Sid when I first received it centuries ago. I forget the name, though. Should be in some record somewhere.”

“Oh?” A mechanism squeaked at Frein’s left side, isolated by four thin walls. He couldn’t see what it was.

“There’s a history book for Atlas Sid, if you’re interested,” Kristel suggested.

“Always am.” There was a large bucket on the far right. It could be a trash bin or the weird moving lights surrounding it could be an indication of something other than garbage.

“You like reading books or something?” Jaylene asked.

“Yes, ma’am.” On his left, he found—

“Oh, drop the ‘ma’am’, Frein. I liked it better when you were calling me Jam. Kat calls me Jam anyways.”

“Fair enough. Jam it is.”

The group entered another hallway. It looked so much like the previous narrow path that Frein had to double check whether they were going back or not. Katherine assured him they were heading deeper into the building.

“I don’t remember you having a firing range,” she said.

“Repurposed it. Used to be for volatile meiyal experiments.”

“Oh, the B.O.O.M. Room, I remember that.”

“What’s the B.O.O.M. Room?” Kristel asked. “That sounds dangerous.”

“Big, Overloaded, and Oversaturated Meiyal Room,” Jaylene replied. “It’s for…” she gestured to the side like a teacher prompting her students for the answer she had obviously provided.

“Big, overloaded, and oversaturated meiyal,” Frein replied, feeling the gesture mostly directed at him. “So, what’s the new place called?”

“No idea,” Jaylene sighed. “Too recent, and no one’s come up with any good acronyms.”

“Wouldn’t you have figured that out during the renovation?” Frein shrugged.

Jaylene smiled and pointed a finger at him while her other hand worked on another security panel. “I really like him, Kat. Not afraid to ask questions. The previous boys were too easily intimidated. This guy, right here, is a man.”

“Thank you,” Frein said, feeling confident. “But I’m already taken, Jam.”

The felintine made an amused laugh.

“You said you didn’t date other guys?” Frein asked Katherine, dramatically lacing his words with betrayed feelings.

“Oh, yeah, about a dozen,” she replied sarcastically. “Kissed them all and everything.”

“Everything?” Kristel asked, not getting the joke.

“She was still a virgin when I had her back on Earth,” Frein explained without hesitation. Kristel blushed, Jaylene laughed a bit harder, and Katherine smacked the back of his head.

“Ow!” A thought entered Frein’s mind. “Unless Samesia can heal it?” he asked genuinely.

Katherine hesitated so Jaylene beat her to it. “It can,” she said. “But do you truly think this sweet child of mine is that kind of a person?”

“Never doubted,” Frein answered in a heartbeat. “Just curious. Actually, if it’s possible, then we can do some more weird—”

“Shut it!” Katherine said. “I didn’t date anyone else before you, alright?”

Just then, the security doors opened to reveal a narrow pathway. Inside, Frein saw a large field on his left, sectioned off by transparent mirrors. There was another door for them to get through, and Jaylene continued her self-indulgently slow process.

On his right were three separate rooms with their own security doors, but they looked less impressive. He imagined they were utility rooms like restrooms or locker rooms and the like, but he couldn’t see past the walls except for one that had a window. It looked like a lounge room, complete with seats and coffee stations.

Frein almost missed that he had never seen a coffee station in Brymeia before. Then again, he had not seen a shooting range, a floating vehicle, and a lot of mechanically advanced appliances and devices before boarding the Atlas Sid either.

“So, how many times have you done it?” Jaylene asked, interrupting his thoughts. “Just curious.”

Frein didn’t answer right away, shifting his eyes to Katherine, who in turn, looked at Kristel.

The Princess shrugged hopelessly. “I guess, I’ve heard and witnessed enough. I have to get used to it at this point.”

“A lot,” Frein and Katherine replied at the same time, turning back to Jaylene.

“A whole lot,” Frein added.

“A disgusting amount,” Katherine added as well.

“It’s not even funny.”

“Especially after he learned Siffera, he just wouldn’t stop. At all. It’s crazy.”

“Okay, stop,” Kristel said finally. “I said it’s fine, but you didn’t need to rub it on my face!”

“I’m not,” Frein replied, hiding a smirk. “I won’t.”

“Oh, come on!”

“You walked right into it, Kristel,” Katherine said.

“Do you guys talk about your sex life so freely with other people?” Jaylene asked. “Feels like you two are used to it.”

“Not really,” Katherine said.

“Only when asked,” Frein added to it. “She usually stops me if she feels embarrassed.”

“And you’re not embarrassed right now, Kat?” Jaylene asked. She finished processing the security panel and the door behind her slid open. She didn’t enter yet, waiting for an answer.

“I am, but I know why you’re asking.”

The felintine nodded her appreciation. “Thank you. But enough about that. Time for something just as fun but less cringe.”

While the field mimicked the outside feel of a typical terrain, the air within was still artificially cooled just like everywhere else in Atlas Sid. It was a wide field, about a hundred meters across. Almost unreal for the building’s make up, but Frein reminded himself that he only saw the R.A.M. Department building from the front.

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

The field was separated into four thresholds. First, there was the standby area, where storage boxes waited for them. Frein assumed these stored the G.U.N.s and R.I.F.L.E.s. They were particularly small. Some were about just a size larger than his hand, while others were a bit larger than his arm.

The second threshold was the firing area just in front of the standby area. Each section had a safety barrier which looked adjustable to compensate for different heights and stances.

The third threshold encompassed the largest section of the firing range. Here were the target dummies. They depicted various silhouettes, ranging from humanoid targets to common Nightmares. He saw Those That Fell Off a Cliff with a variety of skeletal ribcage legs, arranged in different distances. He even noticed one Jaws Lurking in the Forest currently not in use, but oddly looked like it was actually lurking.

The final threshold was a security measure. Various meiyal barriers were erected in strategic angles to serve as stoppers for what would look to be like bullets.

Meiyal Bullets, Frein thought. He couldn’t erase the correlation of guns and rifles to these devices Jaylene came up with. So far, she was always almost replicating their Earth counterparts one-for-one, modifying them to their meiyal-crafted versions.

“So, who would like to try first?” Jaylene asked with a smile. Her felintine ears perked up, excited. Frein couldn’t help but think it was because someone was about to test drive her prototypes.

He couldn’t blame her. He was excited as well.

“I’ll do it,” he said.

“Choose a box.”

“This one.” Frein selected the small container first. It looked appropriate enough for a pistol.

Jaylene took it from the standby area and carried it to the second threshold, inviting Frein along. She opened the box.

Frein gazed upon what he deemed as a magical pistol. No, a meiyal-crafted pistol. It looked oddly familiar. The barrel, the grip, even the magazine that came with it. Even the trigger and the hammer at the back also looked familiar. The only differences were the remarkable etchings around the design, and a distinct container on each side of its barrel. Containers that looked empty for the moment.

From the box, there were twelve bullets. Empty bullets. Shaped like one, but they looked like transparent glass. Jaylene took one of them and passed it to Frein.

“Fill them up?” she said.

“With my meiyal?” he confirmed

“Yes, just your meiyal. Not your Milled one.”

He did as instructed, filling up the glass casings of a bullet. His dark-red meiyal flowed into it, applying its color to the shell.

“That’s a sinister looking meiyal,” Jaylene commented. The way she said it implied that she knew about him a bit more than she led on. And just now, Frein realized how he was subtly manipulated.

The gesture earlier, pointed at him, so he would volunteer. The motion to follow so that he would leave the two girls in the standby area. It clicked.

Jaylene wanted to talk shop with him.

“Apparently it’s Zerax’thum’s,” Frein whispered, getting straight to the point and delivering to the felintine his understanding of the situation. “Only our group knows about it.”

“Aren’t you too quick to trust?” Jaylene asked. She activated something on the pistol, which caused the mechanism within to slowly Gather and to fill up the containers beside the barrels. She brought out a hand and passed him the rest of the empty bullets.

Frein filled them up easily. “Katherine treats you as her mother, and you have far more experience than anyone else out there. Just wondering if you know anything about it.”

“Good. At least you’re not totally ignorant. I thought you’d depend on her Heart’s Will.”

“We know it can be worked around.”

Jaylene nodded. “You want to know about Visitors?”

“Have you met another one before?”

She shook her head. “Your ancestors are millennia apart. I just know your predicament as the Visitor, and that you should be looking for faunels.”

“I have. I found two. Or, two found me.”

“As far as I’m aware, most of them have been hunted down. When you kill a faunel, they get replaced eventually, but it takes time. Some decades, some centuries. A rather infamous organization has been constantly hunting down faunels in order to disrupt your work. Meeting two is already a miracle.”

This tidbit stopped Frein from filling up the bullet casings. “Don’t tell me…”

“The Cult of the Fallen Dragon. The one that worships Zerax’thum as their god.” Jaylene nodded towards him. “You understand most people won’t like knowing the original owner of your meiyal system, right?”

Frein nodded. “But you’re fine with it?”

“I was made aware in the past. You said you found two faunels. Did you Tether with them?”

“One of them. The other one doesn’t do it.”

“That would be Norazzel, faunel of Dreams and Memories.” Jaylene stared at his eyes, waiting for the realization to dawn on Frein. It didn’t take too long. “Yes, I know about the Dream Realm. I acquired my Fate’s End from it. I just wasn’t sure if you and the others knew about it, so I acted a little normal, if you get what I mean.”

“Is that why you wanted to talk to me in private?” Frein subtly motioned on the two girls chatting with each other in the standby area. “I think they can hear us from here.”

“And they know that I’ll know about it. So they’re not eavesdropping right now.” The felintine signaled Frein to continue filling up the bullet casings. He still had four to work on. “Who’s the faunel you Tethered with?”

“Elizzel.”

Jaylene breathed a sigh of relief that Frein didn’t notice she was holding. Her tension was extremely subtle, almost nonexistent until she released them all. She relaxed, as if she had her guard raised all this time.

“What’s wrong?” Frein asked.

“I know Elizzel. You can trust her.”

“You mean there are—”

“Yes.” Jaylene shook her head, just obvious enough for Frein to notice. “You know about Destiny, right?”

“Yes.”

“Then you know what we’re not talking about, right? Invoking even just the slightest bit of relation to the subject matter we’re not discussing, appears on Destiny, remember?”

Frein nodded subtly. He distracted himself with the rest of the empty bullets, making sure that his mind was clear of any implications. Elizzel and Norazzel, as far as Jaylene was concerned, were the only two faunels they could trust.

And now, Frein knew the enemy.

“This is going to be problematic, isn’t it?”

“I’m only hundreds of years old, Frein,” Jaylene started, passing him the magazine. “I can tell you right now that I have no solid proof. All of this is simply based on my years of experience. Get used to it, I guess. My problems have never left my side even after all these years.”

“Maybe after a millennia, then?”

“That’s not funny.”

“I thought you liked my sense of humor?”

“I was kidding.”

“About?”

Jaylene simply urged him to take the magazine. Frein had no choice but to take it. He loaded the bullets one by one.

“But I do, like you, Frein. In all seriousness. I’m really glad you ended up with Katherine. You’re going to ask her to marry you, right?”

The question made Frein hesitate.

Jaylene sought his eyes. “Answer me, Frein.”

Frein had rolled, churned, chewed, ripped apart, and reassembled the question over his head so many times already. Whenever he had a chance alone, whenever Elizzel was asleep or Norazzel was somewhere else aside from his Mind Palace, Frein always considered this question. And he never found the answer.

So he looked back at Jaylene’s inquisitive eyes, passing on his desperation to a mother-figure he had longed for for the longest time. His voice almost cracked.

“Should I even bother?” he whispered. “I really want to, but I’m so afraid to ask. I only have a year, Jam. I don’t even know if she thinks it’s worth it.”

Jaylene tried to sigh. The anticipation had made her forget to breathe, so that almost nothing came out. “I’m not sure if I should call you smart or stupid. You’re probably both.”

The felintine stopped herself from pointing towards Katherine. She jabbed a finger on Frein’s forehead instead.

“Have you seen how she looks at you?” she hissed. “She wants to have sex with you whenever and wherever! And she’s begging for it, practically pleading for it. I can feel it whenever I’m near her, and it’s making my senses uncomfortable. If you turn around now and ram her in, I don’t think she’ll even complain at all!

“Look, I know love is not all about sex. But you can’t show this in front of me and tell me that she’s not in love with you. So what if you only have a year? Do you think she’d care? Do you think she’ll fall in love with someone else after you die?”

“We think so,” Frein replied and quickly explained to Jaylene about the Tether. They’ve been in the firing area for far too long without moving on to the actual testing, but neither the Princess nor the Lady seemed to be bothered by it. They were in their own little world, talking shop.

“The Tether makes Elizzel become you?” Jaylene confirmed. “As in, does she turn into you? Inherit your body when you die or something?”

“Not physically. Not like that. But it’s my existence that becomes hers. It’s hard to explain without experiencing it. I can go as far as to say that our Destinies aren’t only bonded, but become one and the same.”

“But when you die, she still remains.”

“And forgets about me, thus undoing the Tether. I’d have her explain further, but she’s currently recovering.”

Jaylene took the pistol from the assembly table in front of them. The containers on the side of its barrel were completely filled. Frein could tell they were Brymeia’s meiyal. The felintine passed the weapon to him with her lips twisted in condemnation.

“In any case, that’s not the point, Frein. Whatever it is you’re worried about, it’s pure stupidity. If you ask her, she’ll marry you in a heartbeat. It doesn’t matter if she falls in love again or not.

“I can sort of understand where you’re coming from, dear. But you have to trust me on this one.” Jaylene gripped her pistol in a more proper way, passing Frein her experiment. “Don’t plan for her future, Frein. You can leave that part to me. Plan for your present together instead.”

The words brought comfort to Frein. He realized he had been focused on the wrong thing. Jaylene was right. He had planned to discuss this with Garm, being Katherine’s father and all, but he was glad to have had this talk with her adoptive mother as well.

Frein felt free. It was his turn to relax and release all the tension he didn’t think was present. He took the pistol from Jaylene’s hand.

“Thank you, Jam. I needed that.”

“Well, I don’t do it for free. You can start paying me back by firing at those training dummies.”

“No problem.”

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