Sunlight warmed my face, lighting up the darkness behind my eyelids. My eyes fluttered open under the assault of the golden glow, my blurry vision taking a few seconds to focus.
I lay in a cozy room, fully furnished with a soft bed and pillows, shelves that lined the room stacked with ancient books, and a wooden vanity with an oval mirror. But none of that was what caught my eye first. The first thing that I noticed was the fact that it was not actually sunlight on my face, but the gentle rays of a glowing yellow ball floating in the center of my room. Like a miniature sun, it hovered still in the air with no discernible way of staying afloat. Surprisingly, despite its brightness, the light coming off of it was in no way glaring or harsh on my eyes, unlike the lightbulbs of Earth.
Earth.
The thought finally brought everything rushing back, the wacky events of the past few days flashing through my mind like a montage. The rescuing spaceships. The conversation with Anabella, the trip I took to get the pole. The gray-robed men with tridents on their faces. The way they had utterly overwhelmed Ren and me in strength. The way they had used us as hostages. How they had almost killed Ren.
After that, things got a lot fuzzier. I saw fire. A lot of fire. It coloured the memories like an orange film, as if I was looking through a flame to see. As if it had enveloped me entirely. But the fire was different, not like the first time. This fire was soothing, calming. A balm for my exhausted body.
I also felt the faint traces of another sensation, a memory so improbable that I was sure it was a creation of my imagination, a dream. A very, very satisfying dream. A dream where I pounded the faces of those gray-robed men in, let loose all the frustration I’d been holding in at my helplessness. Made them regret hurting one of my own.
But there was no way that had actually happened. Those men had far too much strength for me to fight with them on equal standing, much less actually beat them. Even if the strange fire increased my offensive capability, I thought, there is no way it gave me that much of a-
And then I felt it. A sudden sensation, a sudden realization that stopped my train of thought in its tracks.
I felt light, incredibly light.
The Flux flowed within me more smoothly than it had ever before, reacting instantly when I called on it. Raw strength flooded my body as the Flux coursed through me, leagues above what I was used to. I clenched and unclenched my palms as inky black smoke rose off of them, drawing intricate patterns in the air.
“Huh,” I said out loud, “maybe…”
I trailed off, thinking, but a soft knocking on the door of the room interrupted me.
“Miss Ruby, are you awake?” a timid, muffled voice followed.
“Huh? Oh…uh, yeah. Yeah, I’m up.” I answered, caught off-guard and slightly off-put at being called ‘Miss Ruby.’
The door swung open at my answer, revealing a young girl no older than fifteen. She was clad in black and white robes that somewhat resembled a maid’s outfit, and the demure bearing she entered my room with lent credence to my guess.
“Hello Miss Ruby,” the girl said, giving me a little cursty that embarrassed me more than it did flatter me. “My name is Grace. I have been entrusted with your care for the duration of your stay on this S.T.A.R. If you have any questions, I’d be more than happy to answer them for you. Or, if you’d like, I could take you on a tour of the ship, as you will be spending quite some time here.”
I had thought that Anabella was overly sweet and ingenuine, but this girl was on another level. I could tell her shyness wasn’t fake, nor her unwillingness to meet my eye, but her words and tone were so rehearsed it sounded like she was a programmed NPC from a game.
“Well, a tour sounds great, and I’ve definitely got a lot of questions,” I responded. “But first things first, please drop the ‘Miss’ thing. I’m only two years older than you at most, and it feels really weird. Just call me Ruby.”
Grace laughed awkwardly. “Of course, Mi-Ruby. If you feel good enough to go right now, I can answer your questions as we walk.”
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I smiled at her, getting up to my feet. “Oh yeah, I’m fine. Let’s go.”
“I’ll take you first to the infirmary,” Grace said as we began to walk, stepping into the metal hallway that waited outside my room. The ambiance of the hallway was starkly different from the room. It was like stepping out of a homey cabin and into an underground bunker or lab. Everything was made out of sheets of dull, lifeless gray metal, with lines of pure white lights running along the length of the walls.
“The infirmary?” I asked. “Why there?”
“Well, I’m sure you are worried about your friend, no? I’ll take you to meet him first. But there’s no reason to worry. He’ll be perfectly fine soon. He just has a little more recovering to do than you.”
“Are you talking about Ren?” I asked. “Is it because he got stabbed in the chest? Are you sure he’ll be fine?”
Grace nodded confidently. “I’m sure. Anabella took care of his stab wound, so that’s not a problem. And the Mother Saintess herself looked at him as well, and she assured us that he would be fine, despite his condition.”
“His condition?” I asked, confused.
Grace smiled sadly at me. “I think it's better if he explained it to you. But trust me, if the Mother Saintess has declared him to be fine, then he’ll be fine. And you should consider your friend lucky to have gotten her attention. You probably don’t know, but having the very Mother Saintess of the Grand Order look at a patient is not a luxury just anyone can afford in the universe.”
“Who is this Saintess person? Is she strong? She sounds important.”
“Well she is strong, and she is undeniably important, but her strength is not what makes her so valued. It’s her healing prowess. She is among the most proficient healers in the universe. The legends say that there is not a disease she can’t name, not a plant in the universe she wouldn’t recognize. It’s said that no patient she has ever attended to has succumbed to their illness. But she is a little eccentric in that regard. She does not choose her patients based on their ability to pay or their status, but on the kind of disease they suffer from. She loves new and interesting cases, so she’d rather help a commoner suffering from a strange illness than a prince suffering from a common one. Even Planet Kings cannot get her to answer their call if she isn’t interested.”
“So why did she take a look at Ren?” I asked, connecting the two pieces of information. “Was his condition so unique?”
Grace shook her head. “I don’t know, to be honest. Only Anabella was there when the Mother Saintess treated your friend. They haven’t really talked to me about it, but I’m sure your friend will explain everything.”
I smiled, knowing that it was actually highly unlikely that Ren would be willing to explain much about it. If there was one thing I knew about Ren, it was that I knew very little about him.
“So, where are we going right now? Like, this ship?” I asked, moving on to a different topic.
“We’re headed to the Grand Order's home planet, Adonis. It’s one of the major planets, ranked 6th of the major hundred. The presence of the Grand Order makes it easily one of the safest planets in the universe. Although we allow each nation to govern itself independently, we enforce a set of principles that no one is allowed to violate, regardless of their status or strength.” She smiled as she spoke, her face and tone emulating exactly the same salesperson vibe that Anabella had given. “And because of how peaceful the planet is, it has become a hub of art and research that’s recognized by all people. Sciences of all kinds flourish there, and their advancements have made Adonis into a true garden, beautiful as its namesake.”
I shook my head as she finished her pitch, not believing the obviously rehearsed speech in the least.
“Really?” I asked her, a knowing smile on my face. “Well, what do you think of the planet?”
Grace smiled at me. “I love the place, of course. It’s my home.”
I sighed. “No no, I wanna know what you really think of the place. What the problems of the place are.”
Grace was quiet for a moment. “It is not my place to say,” she said finally, her voice quiet.
“Oh, please,” I said. “I can tell you have your own opinions about the place. And I might not know much about this universe, but I doubt there is any place anywhere that is a legitimate heaven. ”
“Still, it is not my place to comment on the place that gave me so much.”
“Why?” I challenged, annoyed – for a reason that escaped me at the moment – at her unwillingness to assert her own opinion. “Because you're a maid or servant or whatever?”
Grace laughed quietly, avoiding my eyes. “We’re here,” she said suddenly, just as we arrived at the latest door in the seemingly infinite hallway we had been walking through.
“Hmm?” I asked, confused.
“The infirmary,” Grace answered. “Your friend is waiting inside.”
I smiled sadly at her. “Alright. I’ll see you in a bit then, I guess.”
Grace returned a small smile back to me, waving her hand in front of the metal doors and ushering me in.