Gabrielle’s eyes slowly opened up as she felt the world around her move. Darkness still surrounded her, and yet the sewers felt perfectly clear to the girl’s view. Her whole body ached, still trembling with the echoes of a pain too intense for her to even understand, her legs were not even touching the floor at all! And yet, everything was moving very slowly around her. Why?

Because, of course, she was being carried. Lucrece grumbled and panted, barely able to hold herself up and yet somehow pushing through her own weight and Gabi’s. The redhead blinked a few times, she really couldn’t understand why this girl kept going through such lengths for her, but she did appreciate it deep down. Still, it was clear that the blonde was tired beyond belief, so out of a newfound sense of responsibility Gabrielle spoke up.

“You can stop carrying me now.”

“Ah shite!” Luci almost jumped out of surprise. “Don’t spook me like that, woman. My heart almost jumped straight out of my throat!”

“That would be gruesome, are you okay?”

“It’s a manner of speaking… don’t worry about it.”

The lancer sighed, shaking her head slowly as she put Gabrielle back on the floor and helped her stand by herself. Her legs felt wobbly at first, but after smacking them a few times Gabi felt confident in her ability to walk again.

“Your turn now.”

“You are not carrying me, I can walk just fine.” Lucrece grinned to herself. “But thank you, I guess.”

“As long as you’re sure…”

The march back to the surface had started, they needed to find either a way back to the main access or a secondary manhole to exit the sewers. Neither of the girls had any intentions to camp there, so there would be no rest until they reached some fresh air. They walked in silence for what felt like hours, without making much progress in the dark, until Luci finally gave in to her curiosity.

“So… that was what you did last night, eh? Getting all glowy.”

“It’s lightning.” Gabrielle answered shortly.

“Right, lightning! You can shoot lightning like arrows, then?”

“It hurts. But sometimes I can.”

“Yeah, I noticed. Do you always fall down like a sack of bricks afterwards?”

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Gabi looked down, feeling the guilt and the shame of such a display pushing down her shoulders. How could she be this weak? She could swear things had gotten easier to endure with the years! Her hands balled into fists, trembling with pumping frustration as she tried to find answers in her own mind. She was stronger now, wasn’t she? And she had managed last night without letting the pain get the best of her. So why now?

Lucrece seemed to catch at least a bit of what Gabrielle was thinking.

“Oi, don’t you think you are pushing yourself a bit too much?”

“Huh?” The swordmaiden tilted her head to the side. “What do you mean?”

“Well, you clearly work all day. You eat less than me and that’s saying something, you barely sleep and now it turns out your weird ‘magicks’ hurt you almost as much as they hurt your enemies!”

“Yes.”

“Don’t ‘yes’ me! That’s not good, Gabi. Your body is sending you messages now.”

“Messages from my body? It can do that?”

“I didn’t mean lit— wait, you know what? Yeah let’s go with that. Yes, it can.”

Another new world of possibilities opened for Gabrielle when taking that into consideration. So her body was talking to her, huh? And it was asking for something, but what? Well, that much was obvious even to the redhead: her body was demanding a break, another long rest.

“Do you know what it is saying?” Luci pushed her advantage a little more.

“It says that I need to rest.”

“Bingo!”

“But I don’t have the time to rest. We are still bound for Caen and after that, I have to find more Demiurges. Resting is for people, not Witches I guess.”

“Now that’s bullshit!” Lucrece frowned, this time refusing to apologize for her potty mouth. “If you don’t take breaks you are going to die, easy as that. How will you continue with your quest if you are dead, girl?”

Gabrielle hated to admit it, but the lancer was presenting a very good point. She couldn’t go to Caen if she was dead, and she certainly couldn’t do anything to stop the Demiurges if she kept fainting when using her trump card. After all, this wasn’t even the first time that it happened… and last time it costed her a Demiurge!

“So what you are saying is that I should not go to Caen?”

Lucrece narrowed her eye, was that really what she was saying? A part of her agreed, yeah! Caen was certainly a big event for this girl, and that would come with incredible stress if the last days had been something to go by. But could she really convince Gabrielle to leave it for another month or so? No, impossible.

So she needed to go for a better option.

“Nah, we are still going to Caen. But we will try to avoid fighting this time…” With a growing pain in her stingy, frugal heart, the lancer added: “We will take a wagon to Caen. That way we can rest our legs and let the beasts do all the job.”

“Horses get tired too, you know?” Gabi said with a melancholic look in her eyes. “Poor horses…”

“Don’t focus on the horses damn it, focus on what I said! We are taking the wagon to Caen so we can get there faster!”

“What about the training?”

Luci winced. Right, she did promise that part! There would be no way to stop for lessons when going in a wagon full of people, either. Lucrece’s heart soared, for now she had a reason to save the money from the wagon ticket.

“All right, fine. We will go by foot, but we will go slower. And we will get some decent rations for the way with our rat money. How does that sound?”

“Funny, mostly because rat money is a funny phrase.”

“Yes or no, Gabrielle. Answer or I will push you into the shit water.”

“Fine, fine. But only if you rest as well. You have been pushing yourself as well.”

That Lucrece couldn’t deny, her body was also demanding a good break from all this adventuring. Even the relief of finally finding a ladder going up didn’t make the pain in her muscles go away at all.

“Alright, I can accept that…” The lancer sighed, taking the first steps upwards. She was so tired, so done with everything already… but it would all be worth it when she received her pay.

Or at least she begged it to be so.