Intermission #22: Remade

Gij's fingers twitched in irritation, scratching the newly healing sores on her shoulder, as she swiftly navigated through the various screens by firelight. Despite the many mixtures she had consumed, the toll Trina had taken on them so many days ago was still fresh on her skin.

“Where is this refuge design?” She voiced her frustration aloud. Flicking past another incorrect model, she caught a notification flashing at the edge of her vision. She blinked it to the side, wanting to concentrate on her task at hand.

"You should hurry up."

Gij frowned at Carda’s message. “Building takes more time than killing, Carda,” she sent back with her voice, using the messaging system that Tacey had ingeniously devised with counterfeit Aspects of Perception. Taking a deep breath, she superimposed another refuge model on the broken foundation before her, thankful for the glow it provided in the dark, early morning. Through her vision, the new blue outline juxtaposed starkly against the fading yellow. She murmured her dissatisfaction, unaware that her words echoed back through the communication system.

"Does it have to be perfect?"

“If you want it to work, yes it does,” Gij said sharply, her fingers once again finding an itchy sore to scratch. “Vina said this refuge was destroyed, but I didn’t think she meant this. I mean, you should see the state of this thing.” She sighed, gazing at the obliterated structure in front of her. It wasn’t just destroyed – it was as if an immense force had plummeted from the sky, crushing the ground beneath. “I’ll have to fix the ground, and select a new rune map for the base before I can even think of reassembling the refuge.”

"We’re falling back to the third line."

"The night is almost done, but our forces are exhausted."

Empathy for the beleaguered army filled Gij. The same fatigue weighed on her, a lingering remnant from what everyone was now calling Trina's Broken Balance. The cause for why Trina had exacted a price from their bodies as well as their skills was unknown, but emotions were running high within the army as well as within The Twelve. More than one person began to question Trina’s benevolence in light of the suffering she had inflicted on the entire world. The lasting feelings of exhaustion even after all this time were having a heavy cost on morale.

Pushing the weariness aside, she began her repairs in limited available light. She melded existing foundations, refining the mixture and purifying the constituents. The interplay between her masonry skills and her divine aspect was a dance of finesse, quickly setting the foundational stones with no wait time for curing. As she continued her work, she finally spotted the exact refuge design that had once stood in this place. “Ah, there it is,” she whispered. Lining it up, she placed it over her freshly laid foundation, her eyes sparkling with the joy of creation.

But before she could proceed, another message flashed.

"Just letting you know. We’ll be there in the next few hours."

"Haco will be arriving very soon. Sooner than us."

"She wants to talk to you alone."

“What did I do wrong?” Gij asked nervously.

"She wouldn’t tell me."

"I think The Darkness has been whispering stories about you."

"Just stay calm and you’ll be okay."

Gij’s heart pounded in her chest at reading that. The Darkness, Stine as Vina had called it, often did this. It loved to pit The Twelve against each other. But if Haco was upset about something, she knew from experience there was no knowing how she would react. Scratching at her sores nervously, she tried to return back to her work, beginning the first steps to laying down the predefined rune map. She had no idea how it worked, but she knew exactly what it looked like and set to making it happen. An hour later though, she heard the sound of pounding hooves and looked up to see Haco’s intense figure astride one of their war mounts. In one hand, she held fire aloft to light her way.

Trying to seem unperturbed, Gij waved. Haco's voice was soft but carried an edge when she dismounted. “Gij, let’s talk about Vina. What did you give her?”

“I… I…” Gij hesitated, meeting Haco’s fiery golden gaze. The realization hit her—The Darkness had betrayed her about the Valanire figurine. “I’m bound by a promise not to tell. Trina will kill me if I tell you.” She flinched upon seeing Haco’s face twitch at her words.

“I know how promises work.” Haco said softly. “Talk around it. If I’m not satisfied, we’ll see if Carda can release you.”

“The previous Gij bound me with promises before she died.” Gij kept talking, hoping to calm Haco down, but through her nervousness she had trouble controlling the volume of her voice. “She bound me with a lot of promises when she gave me the aspect! I don’t know who all are supposed to receive these items or why the items are important, but it was the only way I could become the next Gij. She even bound the actual aspect to the promises!”

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Haco’s eyes narrowed down on her, “She did what now?”

“The objects! She deconstructed everything she wanted protected into Trina’s system so they couldn’t be recreated without the aspect. Then she promised the system itself that whoever bonded with the Aspect of Creation would recreate the objects for whoever needed them. I promise you, that’s the truth!”

Haco listened intently, digesting the information, but at some point, her thumbnail made its way to her teeth. She dragged the nail down a tooth and then spoke. “Semep is still trying to help Shan and Priya after all those years. Killing her didn’t stop this,” she mused aloud, then glanced over at Gij. “You really messed things up for us, Sela.”

Hearing her predecessor’s real name was unexpected. The previous Gij had never been so transparent as to share her name. Hearing her own name after so long was equally disturbing. Haco had never called her Sela before, and Gij worried what she insinuated by using it.

“I’ve been in contact with Vina through our cooperation agreement. After The Broken Balance, she refuses to go to Trina. She still holds our Aspect of Nature, but will not return it to Trina as we asked her to do. She’s locked herself and her people in Valanire.” Haco’s eyes seemed to give off their own light in the dim morning darkness. “You should know, Vina hates Valanire. The Darkness told me some of what happened there. And yet she still went back and locked herself away beyond anyone’s reach. Not even my own. Do you know why she would go back?”

Gij swallowed hard and nodded her head.

“But you can’t tell me, or you’ll die,” Haco said, gently shaking her head. “I suspected something when I examined the mission assignments. You switched the Valanire mission to Vina and Norimor, didn’t you?”

She had barely nodded when Haco continued. “Of course you did. No one else would have sent a beginner like Vina to something like that unless they had motivation to do so. Are you able to at least tell me why you did that?”

“I… I couldn’t give Vina her object without you suspecting me of betraying The Watch. I sent her there in an attempt to satisfy my promise to my predecessor!” she admitted. “Please, Haco, understand, I hoped Vina would figure it out on her own without me needing to get further involved.”

Haco smiled, displaying her perfectly white teeth. “You’re so good at keeping promises, and yet you’re also truthful with me. I really do appreciate that. It’s a vast improvement over your predecessor. And yet… you had a conversation with Vina and did not report it.”

Gij’s eyes widened, and her heart began to race. She knew the consequences for failing to report any interaction with critical personnel identified by The Watch. Now, she found herself in a dangerous position—a potential confidante to Vina, her loyalty under suspicion. “The Darkness…” she started to say, trying to defend herself, but the words caught in her throat. The weight of Haco’s piercing gaze silenced her, making her acutely aware of the precariousness of her situation.

“It told me everything, Gij. I also know the topic of your discussion. How did she react when she realized your feelings for Ebba?” Haco asked calmly.

Gij's emotions swirled—sorrow, fear, shock—all at once as she recalled her interaction with Vina. “She appeared remorseful. She cried when she realized how much I was hurting from Ebba’s death.”

Haco nodded. “That explains why Vina left Termilly briefly. I bet she visited Ebba’s remains out of guilt.”

Gij looked back up at Haco, still processing her flurry of emotions. Hearing that Vina had returned to Ebba’s remains added to her emotional load, filling her with hope and surprise. “She did?! Where is Ebba’s body?”

Haco stared deeply into her eyes, and Gij felt as if Haco was searching for something inside her. “Termilly has fallen to The Darkness. You won’t be going there alone, but you’re missing the most important part. You enabled Vina to become lost like Trina. She’s becoming physically and emotionally unreachable. I’ve been in limited contact with her through the diplomacy system, but she’s become completely irrational since Trina took our experience. She believes the system is trying to kill her, or maybe Trina is trying to kill her, and that she must protect her Dedicated above all else.”

Haco paused for a moment, and Gij tried to blink but found she couldn’t. She tried to look away, but those golden, burning eyes were impossible to escape. They continued their search of her, and she felt herself break out in a cold sweat.

“I think The Darkness is turning her away from us since she is our only connection to Trina. I worry our very last chance to revive Trina is slipping through our fingers. I was hoping she would have returned Zera’s aspect by now, but I may already be too late to save her from The Darkness.”

Tears began to roll down Gij’s face, and soon she was trembling, her breath coming in quick, shallow gasps. “H… Haco...” she stuttered as panic rose within her.

“Almost done, dear. Just listen to me, and it will be over in a matter of moments,” she whispered. “I had hoped to see Vina return The Aspect of Nature relatively quickly after Tacey found her. I would have given her even more aspects once she had signed the cooperation agreement. None of that will happen though unless we can find a way to still push Vina toward Trina.”

Gij’s eyes felt hot, burning as if they were heating up in her skull. Tears streamed down her face as she whimpered. Despite the pain, her mind sharpened, and she clung to every word Haco spoke.

“Vina trusts you, and I want to trust you. When she reaches out to you again, you must convince her that Trina is her only solution to saving her sisters. We need her to understand the true threat of The Darkness and the importance of our mission. If we fail to bring her back, everything we have worked for will be lost.”

Haco’s eyes flared, a golden heat radiating from them, compelling Gij to accept her words. The burning intensity in Haco’s gaze seemed to strip away Gij's resistance, leaving her exposed and vulnerable. It felt as if Haco’s conviction was seeping into her, leaving no room for doubt.

“I understand, Haco,” Gij said, her voice steady despite the turmoil inside. “I will do everything in my power to help Vina see the truth.”

Haco's expression softened slightly, a hint of relief in her eyes. “Thank you, Gij. Your loyalty means more than you know. Now, finish the refuge and prepare for our next move. We don’t have much time.”

Haco turned to move toward her mount, but a notification suddenly appeared before both of them:

World Quest Updated: Return the stolen Aspects 3/127 World Quest Updated: Destroy the fake Aspects. Fake Aspects remaining 321,312,002

Gij read the notification and her heart jumped for joy. After everything they had suffered recently, Trina had still received an aspect. This was also the confirmation she needed. Vina had returned another aspect to Trina. “Vina did it!” she said happily, her voice echoing with newfound hope.

But Haco’s face did not share the same joy. She looked away while she flipped through her screens. Her frown only deepened. “No. That wasn’t Vina.” Her eyes snapped back up to Gij. “We still have work to do.”

Gij’s heart sank at Haco’s words, realizing that her reprieve was only temporary. Haco's expression turned from stern to almost regretful, a rare glimpse of vulnerability. "We are running out of time, Gij. Do what you must," Haco said quietly from atop her mount.

As Haco rode away, Gij stood there, the weight of her mission pressing down on her. She knew that the path ahead would demand everything from her, including her integrity. She took a deep breath, wiping away the lingering tears, and steeled herself for what lay ahead.

Gij turned back to the broken foundation, her resolve hardening. She would complete the refuge, she would find a way to reach Vina, and she would do whatever it took to save this world. With renewed determination, she began to form the final runes, her mind focused on the task and the uncertain future.

The morning sun began to rise, casting a faint glow over the horizon. It was a new day, and with it came new challenges. Gij embraced the light, allowing it to chase away the shadows of doubt. She was ready.