It takes a long time for the stream of volcora to finally stop coming. From the increasingly distant sound of explosions, it sounds as if the fight had also moved away from our location.
Silently, Baylee stands from where she’d sat near me on the floor of the apartment complex lobby and peaks her head out the door. Looking around, she eventually nods to herself and motions for everyone to gather around.
Standing, I move and join the circle of people in the center of the lobby. The only ones here are us and fourteen soldiers, including Margret with her tablet but not the commander-looking soldier whose name I’d never caught. I hadn’t seen when the other soldiers had gotten separated from us, but I have a small hope they are sheltering in a different building somewhere.
“It looks clear outside,” Baylee says. “I think we should be okay to move if we want to.”
“Move where? There are volcora everywhere,” Claire asks, her normally lively voice sounding… broken.
Turning my head to look at Claire, my eyes widen at what I see. Before, when I’d seen her, her red life force was blazing with passion. Now, though… it had dimmed significantly. Not because of any wounds — I know that she is uninjured. I’d learned with Akari that mental wounds can affect life force just as much as physical ones. She must be taking our situation worse than I’d previously thought.
“Back to the aperture,” Baylee says. “We will go back out, contact GDF Headquarters, and get reinforcements to help us with this space.”
“Not trying to contradict you, ma’am,” Margret says, looking up from her tablet. “But I’m not sure we have strong enough reinforcements available to deal with this space. They already sent Stardust Angel, and she’s one of the strongest sentinels in Shinara, if not the strongest.”
Baylee’s breathing hitches, but she nods. “Okay. That still doesn’t change that we need to go for the aperture. Us dying in here won’t accomplish anything.”
“Baylee,” I say, speaking up for the first time. “Celeste says that this was likely caused by a volcora called a mind flayer. She says that they are weaker physically than they are with their mind magic. If we can find it, it could be possible to kill it and save our mentors.”
Baylee turns to me with a look of surprise on her face, “You want to stay and try to fight?”
I nod seriously, “I do. Imagine what would happen if all those volcora that just ran past us ended up on the streets. How many people would die? Even if we can get out and ask for help, how long would that take? Would they even have more sentinels to send? This incursion zone will break down before they can get more experienced sentinels in here to deal with the problem. We are already here; we are in a position to do something about this.”
Baylee stares at me for a long moment before shaking her head. “No, it’s too risky. Even if it is technically possible, it’s my job to make sure we all get home alive. Prof even told us that we aren’t supposed to try and play hero. Going for the aperture is the right move.”
“Serena is right, Baylee,” Akari says, cutting into the conversation. “Those people outside in the slums, they don’t have anyone else. If we leave now, we are leaving them to die. If that’s our only option, we will do it, no question. But, if there is a possibility of saving those lives, we owe it to them to at least try.”
Baylee sighs, looking to Margret. “How much time do we have left before this space breaks down? Would there be time for us to get out and evacuate the slums?”
Margret looks down at her tablet and taps a few times before shaking her head. “No, ma’am. We have about eight hours and twenty minutes before the breakdown begins. Even if we were able to get the warning out right now, it would be next to impossible to get that many people evacuated. Not to mention that we don’t have anywhere to evacuate them to. Shinara is full to bursting, and we don’t have any kind of infrastructure further outside the slums where they would be harried by stray volcora outside the city.”
Baylee nods, taking a moment to visibly calm herself. “I suppose all of this comes down to just how possible this is and what the rest of you think. We know what Serena and I think; what are other votes?”
Akari takes my hand in hers, “I’m with Serena; we can’t leave those people to die.”
Near us, Haruto looks conflicted for a long moment before speaking up. “I’m with Baylee,” he says, his voice muffled slightly by his helmet. “This attempt to kill a mind flayer feels like it is far too much for our current capabilities. We can save more lives in the long run by not taking risks like this. We should play it safe.”
I glance towards Margret and the other soldiers near them. “What do you all think? You guys are stuck in this situation, too. Are you looking to cut your losses?”
Margret and the other soldiers share looks between themselves, seeming to have an entire unspoken conversation. We wait for a long moment before Margret finally shrugs. “We will follow the wishes of the sentinel team. We knew what we were getting into in spaces like these. If you all feel it’s possible, then we’re with you. If not, let’s retreat. I’m no more keen to throw my life away than you are.”
Thus, all eyes fall on Claire, who seems to be doing her best to look smaller than she actually is.
“Claire, the final vote is yours then,” Baylee says with finality in her words. “Try and stop this, or live to fight another day?”
For a long moment, we all watch Claire. She stares at the ground; her pupils are dilated, and her breathing is heavy and nearly frantic. She hardly seems to hear or even see us, and her red life force seems to be even weaker than before. Something is wrong, but I don’t see any influence from the mind flayer like I had with Audrey.
“Claire?” Baylee repeats, a note of concern in her voice.
Frowning, I study Claire. Her posture, her breathing, her dilated pupils. My eyes widen with realization. “She’s having a panic attack,” I say, stepping forward towards my large friend. “Everyone back off; give us some room.”
For a moment, everyone just looks at Claire and me before Baylee snaps, “You heard her. She’s the team healer; give them some room.”
With that, everyone moves away to the other side of the room while I gently take Claire’s hand and lead her away from the others. “Come on,” I say softly, “Let’s sit down.”
After sitting on the ground myself, Claire eventually follows suit, once more placing her head in her hands. She pulls her knees up to her chest, made only more difficult by her crimson armor.
“It’s okay, Claire,” I say softly. “Take all the time you need. I’m right here with you.”
This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Leaning against the wall with the older and larger girl, I simply wait and provide my presence and comfort. Laying my hand on her armor, I allow my will for her to heal flow through me. Even though I don’t have a healing ability, even though it probably shouldn’t work. I feel the power engendered in me by my title stirring and moving into Claire — just as it had with Akari.
It’s strange, this energy within me. It seems to be doing something, but I can’t exactly quantify what. Still, it had helped Akari, so all I can do is hope that it will help Claire, too.
Ever so slowly, Claire appears to calm. Her gasping breaths stabilize into steady breathing, and her eyes finally focus. I give her a while longer, just sitting with her. Together, we just listen to the rainfall and the soft murmurs of conversation from the other side of the room. It feels so peaceful in that moment; it’s easy to forget the dangers outside this little space. Easy to just sit and listen to the rain, smell its unique scent, and allow myself to be at peace.
Finally, after giving Claire a moment of clarity, I gently prod her to speak. “Hey,” I say, keeping my voice as soft and gentle as it can be. “If you want to talk about what’s bothering you, I’m here to listen. You don’t have to suffer this alone.”
Claire lets out a soft sniffle, “Y-You wouldn’t understand. I’m s-sorry. I just need to pull myself together.”
“You are hurting, and that’s okay,” I tell her. “If you don’t want to tell me what’s bugging you, you don’t have to. Sometimes, though, it can help to talk about it. Or, we can just sit here and listen to the rain.”
“W-We’re wasting time,” Claire murmurs. “T-This space is going to break down and… and…” She can’t seem to bring herself to say the last words.
“If this were a physical wound, you would feel fine waiting for me to bandage you up. Why should a mental wound be any different? It’s okay to be hurt. It’s alright not to be strong all the time. That’s why you have a team to help you and why we need you to help us when we are hurt,” I tell her, my soul seeming to resonate with the words. Somehow, I feel like I know what to say. As if my title, my magic, were guiding me.
“I-I…” Claire’s voice breaks. “I can’t do this, Serena.”
“You can do this,” I tell her gently. “You are a sentinel. You are amazing. Besides, did what you supposedly can and can’t do stop you when you jumped in that fountain? Did it stop you when you accepted your bond? Did it stop you from coming to this incursion zone to fight something so terrifying, all for the sake of protecting people who might never know your name?”
Claire offers me a small smile, then lowers her eyes again. “I… I only did those things because… I just hate them so much. They killed my brother, my parents, everyone I knew. The only reason I survived is because I hid, and now… all I can think about is how much I want to hide.”
I’m startled by her words but repress my reaction from showing on my face. Had her family been killed when a town fell to the volcora? That would make sense as to why she seemed so intense whenever the volcora were brought up. Maybe even why she charged ahead of the group when we engaged our first foe. And how had that gone for her? She’d been knocked to the ground immediately, nearly killed. That can’t have been easy for her. It put her back in that mindset she must have had when she was hiding from the volcora before. And now?
Suddenly, everything seems to click about Claire, and all I want to do is wrap my arms around the girl to comfort her. I want to take away the pain afflicting her — that had clearly been affecting her for so long. Still, just like with Akari, I know it won’t be so simple. There’s no such thing as an easy cure for something like this. It’s the type of thing that stays with you forever, influences your decisions, and ultimately your entire life.
Sitting beside Claire, I allow my own eyes to fall. “I’ll be honest with you, Claire. I don’t feel any different. Right now, I want nothing more than to be at home, in my apartment, with my dad. Safe. I would love to hide and just wait for the space to break down. Then just… keep hiding.”
I trail off, letting my words hang in the air. They’re true, after all. I’m terrified, yet I still have a purpose. “We can’t let more die, Claire,” I say softly, the room having become entirely silent at some point other than the light rain. “We hide in our cities, and even there, we aren’t safe. We bury our heads in the sand so we don’t have to look at the threat looming over us. We’re losing.”
I pause, letting my words sink in before continuing, “I agree with Baylee and Haruto; I want to live to fight another day. Get more experience slowly in a carefully controlled environment. But how many times can we live to die another day before that catches up with us? At what point do we say, enough is enough. Anyone here would tell us that it’s impossible to save the people out in those slums. That it’s impossible to save our mentors from a mind flayer. But as soon as we give up, as soon as we write human beings off as a lost cause, that’s when we truly lose.”
I tuck my own knees up to my chest, hugging myself tightly. “Maybe it’s naïve, but that’s just how I feel.”
Once more, Claire and I sit side-by-side, listening to the rain. Claire seems deep in thought, and I don’t want to interrupt her any more than I already have. I’d said my piece; now, it’s up to her to come the rest of the way.
It starts in her eyes, a gleam of mischievous intent. Then, a small smile makes its way onto Claire’s face, immediately bringing me back to when I first met her. When she’d gotten me soaking wet by jumping into a fountain for no reason whatsoever. I can’t help but grin as I see her red life force flare back up to life. Claire is back, the weird, probably a bit insane, girl that I had come to love so quickly.
Claire turns to face me, her own face lighting up with a grin of her own. She wraps a large arm around my shoulders, “I’m with you, Little Blue. Enough is enough. Come on, let’s go kill us mind flayer. When we get back, we can wash off its blood in the fountain — together this time.”
My smile only widens, “As long as you’re there to jump in with me, I’ll do it any time, Claire.”
Scene Break [https://i.imgur.com/ESIIWUW.png]
“Right,” Baylee says, leading our discussion as we all once more stand in a circle. “We, for some godforsaken reason, have decided to try and kill a mind flayer. How do we do it?”
I turn towards Margret, “Because it’s so powerful, it’s probably the anchor for this space, right? That means finding it is easy; you can just lead us right there.”
Margret bites her lip, thinking for a moment before giving a slight nod. “I would find it highly likely it’s the anchor for the space. That or the anchor is an item that it’s guarding. Finding it being easy isn’t so accurate, though. We can detect the aura the anchor gives off, so we can always tell what general direction it’s in; that isn’t the same as a route to it, though.”
Baylee nods, “Got it, so we can probably find it then, if with a bit of difficultly. What are we going to do once we have found it.”
“Well, I’m going to start stabbing it till it falls over,” Claire declares confidently.
“Riiigght,” Baylee intones. “Anyone got a better plan than that? Do we know what this thing can do?”
For a moment, we all stare blankly at each other. “Celeste, any ideas?” I ask mentally.
Celeste sends me the equivalent of a mental shrug. [I have no idea what its capabilities are beyond what I already told you.]
After we all silently stare at one another for a few minutes, Baylee speaks up once more. “Great. So, like Claire said, we find it, then stab and shoot it a bunch of times until it falls over,” she says dryly.
“We should probably try and rush it. If we pressure it enough, it will probably have trouble mind-controlling us. It took it at least a minute or so to really influence Audrey. It was kind of a gradual thing. Also, I should be able to see if someone starts getting influenced,” I inform the group.
This leads the entire group to stare at me. I wilt, moving to slightly hide behind Claire to escape from their gazes. “What? What’s wrong?”
Baylee nods, “Serena, you could see when they started getting influenced? How? I know you warned us something was affecting their life forces; is that how you knew?”
“Wait, back up,” Haruto says, cutting in. “Lifeforces? That’s nothing I’ve ever heard of before. I thought your ability was to control mist or something?”
“Sorry,” I say. “There was this whole thing where I got a title, and I could see life forces and the mana toxicity was really bad at first, but… it’s a whole story. Anyway, yes, I can see people’s life forces, and I saw a sort of black power invading their life forces before they went crazy. That’s why I warned everyone.”
Baylee nods again, “Okay, so Serena is our early warning system. At least the way to the mind flayer should be mostly clear. It sounded like it threw the majority of the volcora in the space at trying to kill our mentors. So, hopefully, there should be minimal activity on the way there. Although, I can’t imagine it left itself completely undefended. Anyone have anything else to add?”
We all look around and shrug. “Go team?” I offer.
Baylee rolls her eyes, “Right. Let’s get started then.”