Kary found herself floating, weightless, drifting through empty space as naturally as if she was breathing. It was like she had been born to float, to endlessly drift through the vastness of space, undeterred by the celestial bodies' gravitational pull, unbound by their space-time distortions.
She felt weightless, a being as light as a plume, gently making her way across the empty plane. However, at the same time, she felt heavy, so incredibly heavy that she thought she might collapse into a black hole at any moment. Even then, she continued to move, without attracting anything or being attracted by anything, simply passing through strange objects that didn't particularly seems to belong in space.
They were simple objects, small things belonging to her past life, things that she thought to have left behind quite some time ago. She saw her table in the distance, the books piling up and slowly moving outwards. She saw the desk in which she seated in school, the white board filled with nonsensical equations and words that refused to make sense.
Furthermore, she saw the apartment where she coexisted with her mother, its walls slowly being swallowed by the darkness, their contents vigorously devoured, until nothing but the disapproving gaze of her mother remained, lingering in the air, judging silently the girl. Kary cowered under the cold gaze, its sharpness used since she had been born as a way to subdue her.
Even after dying, even after being reborn into another plane of existence, a place where no one knew her and where no one could judge her, that hateful glare still followed her, refusing to disappear into nothingness as all the other things had. It felt restricting, suffocating, painful. Her breathing became ragged as her mind showed moment after moment of relentless abuse, the reality she so badly wanted to forget.
She tried to scream into the void, to bed that it stopped, but no sound came out, for no sound could travel in the vacuum of space. Tears began to form around the corner of her red eyes, dripping into the ground that wasn't there just now. She was at home, though calling it 'home' might be giving it too much credit. Her 'house' perhaps, the place where she went to spend the night.
She was in the kitchen, kneeling on the ground as spiteful words filled with sarcasm and dripping with annoyance were flung at her. They came too fast; she couldn't process it, the confusion overwhelming the pain she was supposed to be feeling. An open palm approached her, ready to hit her cheek with strength uncharacteristic of the old woman to whom the hand belonged.
Closing her eyes, Kary awaited for the slap, but it never came. Slowly, she opened her eyes, only to be confronted with the sound of sirens and the smell of smoke. She looked around, startled, only to find a car half-melted into the ground, its owner's cries for help echoing through the cold concrete wall that surrounded her.
Kary recognized these walls, which created a small room in her school, a place where the sports utensils were stored. She knew by heart where it was located and how to get there from basically anywhere in the building, for she had probably spent more time there during her childhood than she had at home.
Ah, childhood. Good times... no. Even if she forced herself to look back with rose-tinted glasses, the pungent smell of leather, mold and greasy food refused to leave her mind, a constant reminder of where things went spiraling down. She doubted she would ever forget the day her father left her, the state he left her mother in, the constant violence he had always taciturnly allowed, cranked up to eleven.
The tears began to flow uncontrollably, filling the little storage area with unnatural speed; Kary couldn't even feel her sobbing, but she knew that, if she could, she would be bawling her eyes out, emptying her every emotion into this empty space. But, regardless of how real it looked, that was all it was: empty. Fake. Crazy machinations of a broken mind, forgotten and abused, left on the brink of collapse.
In the closed, dark, underwater room, Kary reached out to her knees, allowing herself to float, weightless, in fetal position. Water entered her lungs after she was forced by her own body to take in a deep, moist breath. For all intents and purposes, she should feel scared; she should be terrified of the idea of drowning. Hell, she should be feeling something, and yet, she felt nothing but the ice-cold water surrounding her, compressing her, tightening around her body like a rope around a neck.
She saw the last bubbles of air leaving her mouth and disappearing into the air, before the entire room began to collapse in and on itself. Unblinking, the drowning girl saw the walls coming closer, becoming more distorted, more unnatural, impossible in their architecture and questionable in their design. She noticed the blue light from the water growing dimmer, melting into the dark walls, the dark, boundless space, until there was nothing left to see. No walls, no basketballs, no Kary, nothing.
At last, Kary closed her heavy eyelids and, with a silent sigh, allowed herself to be taken by the darkness. For a few moments, her mind raced to engrave this worrying dream into her brain, but, before long, it, too, began to fade away, like memories from a time long past. She tried to scream once more, to force her body to remember everything that had happened here. But... where was here? What was she doing? What was it again that she wanted to remember?
Kary awoke with a jolt, startled and confused. Her mind was fuzzy, unable to remember anything from the night before. She struggled to form thoughts, to convey her ideas, to act upon said thoughts. She felt heavy, as if she had been asleep for a long time. Curiously, despite how utterly spent her body felt, the girl herself felt... surprisingly alive. No matter how much she scrambled her mind, she could not remember the last time when she was this energetic.
If that was a good or a bad sign, only time would tell, but she was feeling uncharacteristically optimistic. That optimism, however, would never be able to accomplish anything if she were to remain still like a corpse, much like she was right at that moment. Straining her ears, she could make the sound of people talking, though what they were saying remained a mystery to her, despite being pretty sure that she knew whatever language was being spoken.
Gathering all of her meager courage, she attempted to ask them where she was, but no voice left her throat, only a dry, almost silent hiss. Once more, she tried to exert the power of speech, only to once again fail. Annoyed at the frailty of her own body, she tried one last time, now putting her all into making any sort of sound that could be understood,
"Where... am... I?" She slowly articulated. Her heavy eyelids still refused to allow the entrance of any light into her eyes, so she could only rely on her other senses to get a grasp of the reaction of the people who had probably brought her here... wherever 'here' was.
She could hear the sound of fabric, followed right after by heavy footsteps on the grass below, probably enough to leave dents for quite some time. The noises became louder and louder, until the two people stood right beside her. From high above, a deep, somber voice spoke, presumably to the figure flanking Kary.
"Is she awake?"
"... Maybe? I mean, she did speak, but her eyes are still tightly closed. Perhaps it’s just her body doing weird things"
"Let's hope she is, in fact, awake. You know what happen to those who get possessed by demons in their sleep, right?"
"Wasn't that just speculation? I don't think there was ever any proof that those poor souls had ever met with the demons, or that they were possessed by them. Fear mongering, is what they called it in the military. A very efficient strategy, if you ask me, but completely unfounded in truth"
"Shh! Careful, you crazy woman! Don't you know that they have eyes everywhere?! Do you have any idea about how many of the people here pray for a deity or the other? You should know that they don't take blasphemy lightly..."
"Well, yes, I am very much aware of the scary number of both young and old who continue to adore the gods as if they were responsible for all the amazing stuff we have developed over the years. Honestly, every time I hear them praising something as 'the gods' miracle, I can't help but feel pity for the author. After all, you wouldn't particularly enjoy having your work attributed to some nameless entity nobody has ever seen, would you?"
"... No, I guess not. Just... make sure you never say this near the rest of the folks. Most... don't take nearly as well as I did"
"Yeah, yeah. I'm not that dumb. Most importantly, you should check if the girl is awake. After all, there are a couple of things I want to ask her, and I can't exactly do that if she's still passed out"
"Why me, though? Aren't you the woman here? Shouldn't it be your role to comfort the kid after she survived such a rough night?"
"Fine, fine. Tsk, you and your sound logic" Kary once more heard the sound of fabric shuffling, before the woman once more began to speak, her voice appearing to be much closer than it was just moments before. "So, girl, are you awake?" To that, Kary tried to nod her head, but her stiff body refused to comply. A few unsavory and unladylike noises escaped her lips as she exerted all her strength into moving her neck, eventually managing, through great effort, to weakly nod her pale head.
Noticing the girl being almost unable to move her body, the woman held Kary's shoulders with both hands, her grip much stronger than what the tired and still wounded girl expected. Ignoring the noticeable discomfort on the girl's face, the commander began to fiercely shake the pale figure's body, rocking muscle and bone, throwing her organs around like Ping-Pong balls.
If Kary hadn't been awake before, now she was fully conscious and ready to fight for her life. Her eyes opened in an instant, the sudden intake of light momentarily blinding her. After a few more seconds of incessant, violent shaking, she began to notice some of the features of the place she was in. Nothing too detailed, of course, since her situation at the moment didn't particularly favored detailed analysis, but she could see that they were in some kind of crude building, the ceiling high and the floor a green carpet.
In front of her was the face of a woman. She tried to discern more details about her, but the vertigo she felt and the growing need to empty her stomach were pretty damn good at maintaining her figure a blurry mystery. Sure, she could see that she was a stark contrast with her own deathly pale body, the unique, bronze color beautiful enough to make Kary's sight firmly fixated in the shaking mess of colors in front of her.
She could see what probably was the man who had been speaking to the tanned woman in front of her. He appeared to be wearing a dark set of clothes, though any details beyond that were impossible for her to discern. For now, she simply needed to endure the torture she was undergoing, unable to have a say in it, forced to have her brain bouncing around her head like a DVD logo.
Her consciousness began to once more diminish as her body struggled to handle the constant rocking and the nauseating amount of sensory information she was receiving at every moment. Eventually, she began to catch only a few glimpses of the world around her in between the darkness that permeated the corners of her reality. Time seemed to stretch and bend, its logic no longer enough to describe whatever it was that Kary was feeling.
After what seemed to be an eternity, the incessant shaking finally came to a halt. Kary felt angry, confused, dizzy, tired, and hurt. Angry at the sudden and uninvited journey through higher planes of existence, confused by the lack of continuity between the day before and now, dizzy from the rather rough wake up call. Tired and hurt from the fight she just had, though she wasn't sure about how long ago in the past said fight had occurred. She felt so many things at once, so many stuff she wanted to say, to ask, and yet, nothing left her throat.
She could feel her gastrointestinal acids coming up, undeterred by her fleshy insides. It hurt, the burning sensation enveloping her whole. After the strange but powerful woman stopped shaking her, Kary immediately dropped to all fours, trying her very best not to look up. After all, she wasn't really looking forward to seeing this world's natives reacting to her puking her guts out.
There wasn't really much in her stomach, since she hadn't eaten anything since she arrived in this world, but whatever was there was soon enough very much not. On the ground, a small, transparent puddle of acid ate its way through the foliage, all the way to the floor. Staring intently at it, Kary couldn't help but feel disgusted, though at what exactly she didn't know. Maybe at herself, maybe at her frail body, maybe at the monstrously strong people inhabiting this place.
Slowly, very slowly, she looked up from her shameful position, expecting distressed stares, perhaps an astonished look, perplexed, even. Contrary to her expectations, though, the woman seemed to be completely taken aback by the consequences of her actions. Her eyes were teary as she looked at the pitiful girl on the ground with deep regret. On the side, Tom simply stared daggers into his irresponsible commander, all the while wondering just how skilled she would have to be to be able to have this position even when her mind is filled with nothing but worms.
The woman keenly felt the cold stare from the burly man, his gaze almost burning twin holes into her empty head. Still, she didn't try to make any sudden moves. Even with her usual lack of awareness, she could still understand that she had messed up. If she had to be honest with herself, then she would justify her actions just now by stating that she had been spending way too much time around her fellow knights, and that she had become unaccustomed to treating regular civilians like that walking ceramic pots they were.
Still, she couldn't help but feel ashamed at herself. After all, was a knight who couldn't control their own strength anything more than a sad failure of a human being? It should have been part of her duty, to protect the innocent and use appropriate force to deal with whatever evils were thrown her way, but she had utterly failed this deceivingly simple task. As a knight, she felt ashamed of herself, of her inability to properly act like one, despite her previous boasting to Tom.
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Even as she drowned in self-pity, she could not draw her attention from the wide-eyed girl who still stood there, on all fours, like a petrified dog who had been turned into a human by some forbidden magic. She looked to the bronze-colored beauty kneeling on the ground, and, from her, she stared at the stoic man carrying an axe not too far away from them.
Feeling much more awake now, thanks to the rather crude method employed by the tall lady in front of her, Kary decided to repeat her earlier question, this time in a much more natural way, as the hardships of keeping herself awake had all but vanished.
"Where am I? What happened to me? And who are you?" In a sense, this held some resemblance to her meeting with the god of boundaries, though the situation had changed quite a bit. For once, she wasn't speaking with an all-powerful being that could wipe her out of existence at the mere thought of it. It also helped that she could see the people she was talking to, and that they didn't sound like eldritch horrors belonging to the deepest pits of hell. On the contrary, they seemed quite normal, the definitely abnormal strength aside.
Of course, normal people usually also didn't carry around giant axes, but that was just one of the things she would have to accept if she were to live in a fantasy world. After all, much like any self-respecting fantasy world, it had to take place in the medieval ages; otherwise it would be harder to make it into the most generic slop story ever. Kary almost wanted to roll her eyes at the lack of creativity shown by the deities, but, after the Wikipedia incident, few things regarding the gods' creative ability would be able to surprise her.
Patiently, the girl waited as the woman tried to regain her composure, much to Tom's amusement. He might've even laughed at her perilous situation, were it not for his desire to maintain his image of a powerful, mostly silent warrior in front of the newcomer. He wanted her to look up to him at least until she found out just how disappointing he was. By then though, he would hopefully be already far away, whatever compliments he happened to receive carefully treasured and cared for.
The pair of man and woman shared a few significant glances, trying their best not to alarm the girl too much. If they suddenly said that they had found her bloody body in the middle of an abandoned city at the crack of dawn, she would surely be horrified, and left with eve grater questions. So they had to organize everything properly. The woman began to think about what to tell and what to omit, using every ounce of her brainpower to carefully spin the tale about whom and where they were.
Satisfied with the tale she had concocted, she began nodding to herself as if she were an enlightened mage. Of course, that couldn't be further from the truth, but the girl didn't need to know that. She made a shooing movement with her hands directed at Tom who, understanding the silent plea, quietly took his leave, finally able to resume his search for the doctor. Now, alone with Kary, the woman began to speak in a way much too different from how she had been bantering with Tom before, though the girl pretended she hadn't noticed.
"Hello there, girl. My name is Asteria, and I am a humble commander of a platoon of knights, though, right now, they are far away training for the rough times to come. What about you? What are you called?"
"...Kary"
"Kary, huh... what an unusual name. I don't think I've heard a name like this before, and I've been to many remote places. Seriously, you should see the names some peasants from the more... isolated regions sometimes name their children. The poor kiddos, I feel so bad for them! But I digress. You asked me where you were, right? Well, you are currently located in the heart of the city of Táfos, or, at least, what little remains of it"
"You see, this city was destroyed a long time ago, despite its international importance and its — albeit annoying — somewhat honorable decision of never ever interfering with wars that did not involve them. In the end, though, it fell, just like every civilization the came before them, and every civilization that came and will come after"
"Because of its importance, periodically the king of this territory Your Majesty Thomas the V, sends both explorers and researchers to see if they can uncover some of the more obscure questions we still have about this city. What is happening here is precisely one of these expeditions, and my group, one of the four designated to map this part of the place, happened to stumble upon your unconscious body"
"Unconscious...? Wait, what happened?"
"So you don't remember? Hmm... I guess I would have to tell you this sooner or later anyway. Might as well do it now, so that you can at least let your emotions flow while I'm here. Between you and me, I doubt the doctor will care for you any more than he would for a pile of horse excrement, though don't ever tell him that I said that. All things considered, I still have much left to enjoy of my life, and it would be shame to die so prematurely because of a silly joke"
"Must be nice, huh..."
"...What?"
"I said that it must be nice to enjoy life this much, to be this full of life. I doubt I could ever be like that"
"Come on, don't say that! I know you might not be feeling the best right now, but there is no need to lower yourself this much, okay?! You are not alone here, and you can trust me, though I don't expect you to trust a strange so readily. Instead, I would be pretty concerned if you did" With an awkward expression, Asteria slowly approached the girl, who didn't know how she should react.
With a gentleness which was completely missing but a few moments ago, the tall woman slowly put her arms around Kary's arms, pushing the comparatively small girl into a tight embrace. Her human warmth, something almost completely missing from Kary's life, spread across her cold body, bringing about something the girl couldn't quite describe, but that she also didn't particularly dislike.
She felt Asteria's hand caressing her soft, silvery white hair, their bodies very slightly rocking back and forth in a soothing motion. It was a completely different level of care than what the girl had ever experienced, and that completely shattered her. Quietly at first, she began to sob into the woman's shoulder, her trembling arms firmly wrapped around Asteria's toned torso. Soon enough, though, the girl completely gave up any pretense, allowing herself for once to let everything flow out.
As she felt snot threatening to leave her nose, she tried to distance the woman, but her strong arms refused to let go. She kept patting the girl's head, continuing to soothe the clearly distressed girl, until Kary managed to express in its fullness every dark secret that she had taken with her to her grave.
Every moment of abuse, every thought about giving up, every wild imagination about fleeing from her house, every time she looked at the window and considered jumping, every day she lived, wondering what she was trying to accomplish. Every insult, every case of veiled violence, every subtle school bullying, forever retained in her bitter mind. Her every fear, every hope, every laugh, every cry, she let it all out in the form of tears. She cried and cried, dirtying the practical clothing used by Asteria, dampening her high quality clothes, squeezing her tight as if she were afraid of letting go.
The woman herself didn't seem to mind nearly as much as Kary. She simply stood there, as still as a rock, silently allowing this unknown girl to vent the frustrations of a lifetime on her shoulders. For she knew the importance of let everything out once in a while, to let herself be dominated by her emotions, to not bottle them up all the time. Asteria had made this mistake, and she still remembered those days as her darkest ones. She knew this pain. This need to overflow while not knowing how to, she had felt it in her skin; it had been engraved into her bones.
And so, the least she could do for this girl was to show her one of the many outlets for her emotions, one of the many ways through which she could avoid being completely destroyed by them. She knew she wouldn't be able to provide much help for the girl, but at least this much she wanted to do.
Kary didn't know just how long they had stayed like this, nor was she willing to measure it. Eventually, though, her eyes began to grow heavier, her mind more clouded, until she once again collapsed from exhaustion. Her body went limp in Asteria's arms, but, even then, the woman continued to hold her, swaying back and forth as she remembered her own traumas, hidden deep beneath the drilling from the knight academy.
She only realized that Kary was already fast asleep when Tom returned with the doctor following a few steps behind. He wore a crow mask, which, according to the man himself, represented the symbol of his order, though Asteria never got to know the name of it. Maybe they were just that secretive, or maybe the man had simply forgotten to tell her. Whichever was the case, the fact was that he was here right now, and that he would give them his diagnosis whether he wanted to or not.
"Who's the patient?" The man asked, his voice muffled and slightly distorted because of the headgear he wore. Without skipping a beat, Asteria answered: "Here", before pointing to the girl sill on her arms. She didn't know if the man had missed such an obvious thing or if he simply didn't care enough.
"So, will you let me see her or will you continue to hide her with your body? If you didn't want me to take a look at the girl, then you wouldn't have called me. I have more important things to do, you know?"
"Okay, okay, I'm letting the girl down" The woman said, trying her best not to allow the venom rising through her throat to reach the words she spouted. She wanted to at least pretend like she was indifferent to the annoying nature of the doctor, though that required a lot of effort on her part. It was impressive, really, the way he so naturally could be this annoying. Every time they requested his help on the past few days, he would ask them to be quick, since he always had 'more important stuff to do', though what this stuff was, nobody knew.
After lowering the girl to the mattress where she originally was, the doctor silently approached, his footsteps almost non-existent, as if he was gliding across the floor. He cot close to the girl, before he started touching various parts of her body. First, the forehead, then the place above the heart, and then he got up.
"Already finished?"
"Yes, the girl is fine, just tired. I suggest you watch her closely after she wakes up"
"Wha —"
"If my work here is done, I would like to get going. Have a good rest of the day, Tom, Asteria, and mysterious girl"
"Hey! Wait a bit, would you?!"
"What for? The patient is fine. My help is not needed. And so, I thought it appropriate to see myself out. It seems that I was the only one thinking that, judging from your stares. Well? Then tell me? What the heck you want me to do?" Despite wearing a mask the hid his every expression, Asteria could still picture the look of utter annoyance he most certainly had behind it, as if he was daring them do ask for more help;
The woman really wanted to know some sense into his mind, but, remembering her position, she decided to act as the bigger man — or woman, in this case — in this situation. After all, it wouldn't do her any good to be known as a commander prone to yelling at innocent workers. As annoying as it could become, she did have to walk on eggshells most of the time in order to maintain her reputation as a harsh yet fair leader. She would never allow a prick calling himself a doctor shatter her image. And so, she forced a thin smile on her face, before answering.
"Alright, alright, I'll leave you to your own devices. You can go now, if you so please. We'll stay with the girl in the meantime" The man with the crow mask simply nodded his head, before walking towards the flap that was used as a door. Without even caring to say his goodbyes, he walked through it much in the same way he had entered: completely silent, like a specter of the night who, for some reason, had decided to become a doctor.
No matter how much Asteria tried to comprehend the man, she could never for the life of her figure out why he had chosen a profession he seemingly hated so much. It wasn't as if he had been forced to pick this, right? As a kid, he should have time to developed his mana and shape it to his desires. If he had the strength and the wealth to become such a renowned doctor, than what was it that kept him from pursuing his true interests?
Asteria shook her head, trying to direct her focus to her the sleeping girl in front of her. Try as she might, she doubted she would ever get closer to figuring out the crow-masked man. That is, she would never figure him out unless he decided, out of his own volition, to share his story. But, considering his nature, the woman knew that such a thing happening was more than simply unlikely, but probably just impossible.
That, however, mattered little at the moment. She could let her thoughts wander however much she wanted after this mission was done and before she was returned to her post, but, for now, she had someone to care for. She didn't really know what compelled her to help this unknown girl so much, other than the obvious fact that she had obviously gone through a lot in her life, but she didn't really mind.
If she had wanted recognition or admiration, she could have refused the request to join this group and simply keep patrolling the capital until her legs gave up from old age. If she wanted praising, all she needed to do was to continue arresting wrongdoers. And so, that begged the question: what was it that she actually wanted?
Despite the question being directed to her, Asteria simply could not answer. Despite her usual resolution when doing stuff, right now, she was unsure about what had motivated and what was still motivating her to keep caring for this lost kid. Maybe she was lonely, maybe she wanted to raise a kid, maybe she had simply developed a soft spot for children after years of seeing many of them struggling to survive until the next day.
Whenever she looked at the peacefully sleeping girl in front of her, to her bloodied clothes to the gentle rise and fall of her chest, she couldn't help but feel warm inside. Perhaps all those previous possibilities were true, and she simply didn't know how to deal with them. She almost wanted to laugh at herself, at her inability to understand her own feelings, at her own foolishness.
By this point, she had all but forgotten that Tom was still there, watching the woman's expression repeatedly change, as if she was in deep thought. Of course, the man was curious about what she was thinking about this hard, but he refrained asking, lest she noticed that he was there still and ordered him to leave them alone.
And so, they stayed there, silent, with Asteria eventually sitting by the side of Kary's mattress and gently brushing her long, albeit disheveled hair. Tom also didn't move from his spot, as the order to be dismissed hadn't yet come. At times, he would glance at the completely discordant pair, which, for some reason, seemed to resonate with each other in most peculiar way. On the rest of the time, he would walk around the tent, sometimes go fetch something for them to eat, or simply guard the entrance so that they would not be disturbed by anything unnecessary.
Night eventually came to greet them, the cold winds relentlessly assaulting their surrounding with its haunted noises. Even though he was wearing quite thick clothing, Tom couldn't help but tremble slightly at the sudden decrease in temperatures. Once again, he looked at the duo, only to find Asteria on the brink of collapsing. As silently as he could, he approached them and, thanking the gods that the woman was too tired to react to his approach, quietly tuckered her in with the sleeping girl. She was heavier than he expected, but it made for some good workout, though he wondered if he would ever be able to train in such an unorthodox way again.
Well, not that it mattered much. He had, after all, managed to skip an entire day of interacting with the silent, yet annoying siblings and of listening to the incessant technical conversation of both old and young. Even then, he was still tired, though he also felt somewhat refreshed, something he wasn't really used to feeling.
With a tiny smile spreading across his stoic face, he carefully got up from the side of Kary's shallow mattress and left the tent. He was greeted by the noises he didn't want to hear and smells he didn't want to smell. Maybe the exploration today had been extra fruitful for the people were talking and eating much more than they usually did. By that time, on the other days, most people would be already fast asleep, preparing themselves for the early morning that would come. Today, however, they were in an almost festive mood, with some brave should even starting to sing cheesy songs about love and whatnot.
Tom, wanting nothing to do with them, hurriedly made his way out of the center of the buzz, walking through the ruins with practiced ease, soon enough reaching the stone house he had claimed as his the moment they had gotten there. With a tired sight, he entered through the nonexistent door, making his way through the confusing layout, until he arrived in the room he was using as a bedroom.
And so, as the world around him laughed and cheered, excited about some discovery or another, Tom allowed himself to be lulled by the distant sounds, the annoying songs, and the cold breeze that managed to slip through the numerous cracks present on the walls. Asteria slept peacefully, hugging tightly the girl besides her, her slumbering mind still trying to process everything that had happened during the day. And Kary... well, for once, didn't dream, or had any nightmares. She simply stood there, almost unmoving, resting without a care in the world. For once, she wasn't afraid of the day to come.