“Really, you’re getting more?!” Jaid whispered to the woman sitting across the booth from her as soon as the waiter left. For the first time since she’d become a Fiend, she felt like she wasn’t eating much at all after watching a mountainous feast devoured in front of her.
Kada set aside her last plate that she’d just scraped clean, stacking it onto the ever growing pile of dirty dishes at her side. “Well, I haven’t eaten for… how long did you say it was again?”
“Over a year,” the knight had to remind her once more.
“Damn, that’s crazy,” The Mermaid mused. “I know I keep asking but it still doesn’t feel real. For me, it really felt like no time at all. Like yesterday we arrived at the prison, and a few days ago we were at the tournament and you made your wish. Seriously, it’s insane that I slept through all of that. Maybe I have a hidden time travel power!”
Jaid sat in silence, slowly toiling away at her own food as she watched the woman scarf down her tenth full meal at least. She’d also experienced a bit of a time jump, though much shorter than Kada’s. After hearing that woman’s voice right after the New Year’s countdown, Jaid had fallen unconscious. She woke up a few hours later in a hotel room, with Kada in the next bed snoring away. Somehow the lazy louse had managed to fall back asleep after just waking up from her literal coma.
Phon must have figured out what The Paladin’s intentions were too. Because Jaid had never actually mentioned where it was she needed to go, but they ended up there anyways.
“So is that your ascension then?” Kada waved her half-filled spoon to emphasize her inquiry, the missing half stuffed in her mouth.
“I guess so,” Jaid looked over at the young girl sitting in the booth next to her, happily eating her own third plate. The child had popped out a few minutes after they’d entered the diner, when the knight just so happened to glance at a sign saying that kids ate for free. Unlike her other clones, they weren’t literally connected at the hip. The young girl was entirely independent, swinging her feet as she happily ate her food.
“That’s pretty good then,” Kada admired the change. “If it means you can like summon clones without having to touch them, I can see that being super useful.”
“Yeah, it would be,” Jaid thought about all the implications and freedom it could provide, but didn’t want to dwell on it too much at present since she still needed to focus on the mission ahead.
“Well you’ll have plenty of time to mess around with it here soon!” Kada started getting excited. “Remind me what we’re doing here again. Busting someone out of prison, right?”
“Yes…” the knight didn’t really want to talk about it, but the person helping her deserved to know. “It’s Dura. He left the Central Peace a few months ago. Yet even then he still talked to me, blew up my phone with messages every day. And then suddenly, it stopped entirely. So that’s when I got worried and started looking for him, and only found his location about a week ago.”
“And with how things currently are, it’d take far too long before I could convince the CP to sanction official action against Humanity. That’s just more time that he’d be suffering, so it was a big part of my decision to leave. I have to help him, because no one else will.”
“Wow… Dura,” Kada thought back on The Monk. “Y’know, I never guessed he would have left. Sure, he seemed like a free spirit who wouldn’t do well with orders, but he always looked like he was having so much fun everyday.”
That brought up another topic that Jaid didn’t want to discuss, but it was a story she probably needed to tell. “I thought the very same,” Jaid longed for days gone by. “He was annoying, a pain in my ass, but I always thought he’d be there. However, there was an incident…”
“The Central Peace was raided by a Fiend, Kalter from Above if you remember him. He just broke in through the main entrance and descended the floors through the hidden stairs. Somehow he knew exactly how to get in, to get past the hidden passages and defenses. And once inside, he knew exactly where he was going.”
This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.
“Every person on his list, he headed right for their quarters or their offices. He didn’t target any civilians, only soldiers that got in his way. And he made it all the way down to the Representatives floor before anyone could even put up a fight. I was out on a mission at the time but was recalled immediately. By the time I made it back, though, it was already over.”
“Dura was the one who stopped him, the best choice for it really. But it wasn’t so simple. Even though he managed to completely trap Kalter in his scroll, The Athlete never gave up resisting, trying to break free. As long as he could budge the paper even a fraction of an inch, he could keep applying his Curse to it and push back.”
“So Dura had to keep making it tighter and tighter, until there was finally no more resistance. He must have ended up crushing Kalter to death without realizing. The scroll collapsed in on itself, and Kalter’s body was dissolving by the time Dura got it open. We’re assuming that must have been Alk’s doing.”
“But after that, I guess that’s when you could say the fun stopped. Dura was never the same. He tried to hide it, and always kept smiling, but it was obvious to us closest to him. And then one day, he dropped off a resignation letter on our boss’ desk, grabbed his things, and left. That’s not actually how you leave the CP military, but the general is a good man and respected it anyways.”
“And that became the turning point I suppose. As rising tensions grew in the army between the Fiends and humans, several more left as well. A few of our Lessers quit or abandoned their posts, only to end up dead, or in one of Humanity’s prisons, or missing entirely. Laquet grabbed Hickedy and left one night without telling anyone, and there’s been no sign of them since.”
“And Izma grabbed enough food for years and locked herself in her obelisk. Now she wanders around the vents and pipes, fleeing if anyone gets too close. I hope to go back for her someday too, but now’s not the time. And with my departure, I imagine things will only get worse. It’s all just a big mess.”
“Do you regret leaving?” Kada asked point blank, testing if the woman’s heart was really in it.
“No, not yet at least,” Jaid frowned. “I’m sure I’ll second guess things at some point, or it hasn’t really hit me yet, but I’m still convinced that this is for the best.”
“Good, don’t need you turning around and stabbing us in the back… again…” Kada jested but with a hint of cruel truth. “So like, what’s the plan? I guess you’re an expert at prison breaks now.”
“Hardly…” Jaid denied. “Getting you all out of prison was easy thanks to Phon and a few favors to distract the guards. This place is well guarded, and Dura will be even more so. Humanity took over a mental hospital that’s been condemned since the Drazah War. Apparently they use the padded rooms as prison cells. From what I could tell, they’ve built up barriers around it too—watch towers, barbed wire, plenty of guards.”
“The cruel irony,” Kada amused herself. “Taking over that mawhging creepy place when they should be the ones stuck inside by the sound of it. Guess in that case they won’t mind if I melt the whole thing down. But we should probably let you test out your new powers first!”
“Well, I’d like to make sure Dura’s safe before we cause any mass destruction,” Jaid requested. “No offense, but if you just tidal waved the place, there’s a good chance he could drown depending on what state he’s in.”
“None taken,” Kada didn’t mind in the slightest. “My power doesn’t really discriminate so it’s fine to be wary. But we also don’t need to take down the whole place. I can just bust through any pesky walls that get in the way.”
“Okay, well I think I’ll go ahead and scout things out while you’re finishing up,” Jaid went to get up from the booth but found her shirt snagged. She turned to find her other self latched on, grabbing her clothes while looking away and pouting.
“I want ice cream,” the small girl mumbled her request.
“Uhh, I think we’ve had enough already.” Jaid didn’t really want to disappoint the girl, but every bit was going to her own stomach after all.
“But we deserve it!” the pouting intensified. “We did something really hard, it hurt my head and heart so much. So we should get a reward!”
“Okay, fine,” the girl had won the knight over with her logic. “You can stay here and eat. It’ll be a good test of how far apart we can get.”
Jaid went to leave again, but found her shirt still tugged, with even more of a grip this time around. “I want to share it,” the small clone looked at her with hopeful eyes. It was a face that the woman couldn’t deny, so she sat back down and picked up the menu. “That one’s my favorite!” the young girl eagerly pointed to a flavor.
“Heh, it’s mine too,” the irony wasn’t lost, but Jaid wasn’t going to ruin the girl’s fun. And when they ordered, Kada of course decided that she didn’t want to be left out and got some as well. The three of them enjoyed their desserts and the calm that came with it. Hopefully Dura would forgive them for delaying his rescue just a few minutes longer.