Zerith and I ripped into bread as we discussed our next plan of action.

“I think I understand better how to use you now,” Zerith said.

Our meal, considering both my and Zerith’s political positions was...meager. Actually, it was basically just mashed up fruit between purple, slightly soft bread. On the side was brownish-purple bread because I guess we needed more, stone cups filled with water, and soup.

“That’s nice and all...but I really need to know why we’re eating...this.”

Zerith shrugged. “What, you think we can spare food?”

“No, probably not. Also, is this breakfast or lunch? I can’t tell...” I looked up at the massive dome window above us, where moonlight filtered through from one of the two moons. I had a feeling that the window was just some magical projection.

“We can consider this brunch. If you need more food, you will need to wait until dinner.”

“So, no breakfast?”

“Yes. Though, as the leader of The Bastion, it should go without saying that I can order as much food as we need. While on the subject of food, I suggest you get in a bit of exercise. You look...how do I say this...” [kinda chubby] “Not particularly fit.”

“Wow,” I said, glaring, “If I could read your mind, I’d be pretty insulted.”

[Oh, right.] He shrugged. “Well, no offense, but it’s true. I understand your expertise isn’t in the physical, but as a representative, you should look presentable.”

“So I don’t look presentable now, huh?” I said, a bit outraged.

“Sure. You don’t look that bad, but you stand out among the crowd, and not in a good way. Get in a half-hour of exercise each day, eat the beans in the soup, and you’ll look like the rest of us in no time.” [At least, I think that’s how it works.]

I scanned the cafeteria we ate in dispassionately. Most people were skinny and scrounged down their meals. Even Zerith was fairly slim, under his robes. If I stayed in this world long enough, I’d probably end up just like him. “Fine,” I said. “I’ll try to beef up.”

For all my heart-pounding gusto about trying to fight for the world, actually doing it required me to resolve myself each time it was tested. I still felt pathetic, but I hoped I could change that.

Zerith nodded. “Good. So, to my understanding, you intend on spending the next day or so carrying the artillery to the priority points. With that in mind, I do need to mention how important it is that this entire operation remains covert.”

“I mean...there’s not much I can do for that, I’m carrying cannons.”

He looked at me like I was an idiot while digging into his bread. He pointed the food at me, like a sword. [The ocean. Monsters aren’t exactly spending their time patrolling the open seas, so you shouldn’t be seen if you stay over the water.]

I nodded. “I guess that makes sense.”

He wiped his mouth. “Good. You should get to that quickly; you never know when the enemy will move. If you have any questions, just write on the paper I gave you.” [I’ve already Messaged Vaazha to gather your navigator so you can leave immediately.]

I nodded. “Yeah, this should be easy enough.”

“Good to know you can handle it.”

I stood in front of the cannons, their parts already mostly disassembled. The process was strangely complex and varied, to my surprise. The barrels were gently let to the ground after the rest of the mechanisms attached to them were moved, including their stands, while the barrels were handled by signature magics. One was let to the ground with a torrent of water, another with a large number of tungsten cubes stacked atop each other, which vanished from the top-down, ensuring the cannon fell just a few feet each time the box supporting it vanished, and the last was let down through the crane.

I had offered to do it myself, but because Vaazha’s Transport Company was already midway, he told me just to let his people handle it themselves.

And, to their credit, they were fast. It didn’t take long for them to be wholly disassembled.

In the meantime, he introduced me to the person who would be my navigator for my trip.

The man wore the same shoulder accessory Vaazha and most of the Transport Corps did and similarly had a violet, though baggy, long-sleeved shirt. His hair was about as shaggy as anyone else’s but longer than normal.

Vaazha moved him to face me, a hand on his shoulder. When he did, he said, “This is Honna. He’s going to be your navigator for the next day or two.”

The guy, basically my age, smiled and held up a hand. “Hey,” he said. [She’s the girl?]. I noticed as he smiled...he...kinda looked cute.

I smiled. “Yo,” I said with a wave.

“If you want, Honna, feel free to explain your signiture magic to her. Or not. I don’t care.” Vaazha walked away, leaving me and Honna together.

“So...what does it do?” I asked.

“Well...” He pulled a necklace with a crystal pendant out from underneath his shirt, then held it out like a pendulum. “If I hold a pendant out like so, it will lead me wherever I need to go. If I pair it with a map, I can route out the path it leads us on.” [Though, I guess that’s not all it does.]

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

“That’s neat,” I said, looking into it. The crystal on it was just a piece of cloudy quartz, roughly sculpted to make a prism.

“Ok...” I looked at the cannons being disassembled. “They’re really efficient, huh?” I said, looking for some conversation topic.

He followed my gaze. “Yep. People with strong abilities like those can be amazing at times.”

“Well, there’s nothing amazing about something you were born able to do...” I said.

“Ehh...”

I looked away and just watched the cannons be unbuilt for the next few minutes.

Eventually, the cannons were set on the ground, and the other parts got moved into piles far from them.

Vaazha and Mariss walked to us.

“That should do it,” Vaazha said. “A well-done job by everyone. Are you ready to carry those away, Psychi?”

I nodded. “Just two? And Honna is going to guide me to the priority points?”

Vaazha nodded. “Yes. If something goes wrong with the navigation, just carry it to a city and navigate from there.”

Honna nodded. “I know, sir.”

“And,” Mariss said, before pausing and blinking rapidly...[Oh snap, I didn’t think about what I’d actually say.] “Do make sure you don’t get into trouble.”

“Of course, mam?” he said, a bit confused by the pause.

“So, should I pick up the cannons and get a move on?” I asked.

Mariss nodded. “That should do.” she then looked back towards the cannons, said “Louden,” then yelled, as if she had a megaphone, “Everyone, back off from the barrels! They’re about to be moved!”

The few people gathered around the barrels backed off, giving me more than enough space.

These barrels were by no means small. Standing next to them, even as they laid on the ground, the barrels were almost ten meters tall and far longer. They were each probably way heavier than three houses stacked atop each other.

It dawned on me just how painful this could be.

Welp, I just had to suck it up. I couldn’t stay pathetic forever! I tried to crack my head, shifting it back and forth, but it didn’t work. Urgh...

I raised my hands as if I were holding up the world and lifted the barrels up. Holding them aloft was hardly a problem, though. The big problem would be propelling them forward at the speed of sound for basically a day straight.

I heard Honna say, “Woah” beside me, along with some other impressed bystanders who acknowledged the supernatural event.

“Ok,” I said. “I need a big, flat platform for Honna to stand on during our journey. Could be a rock or something.”

“How about you use some of Mariss’s scaffolding? I’m sure she’d be happy to provide.” he turned to face the woman. “Right?”

“R-right...”

From there, I was given the scaffolding to hold Honna, and after a bit of fiddling, I decided that the best way to carry him, the barrels, and myself, would be for me to hover above his scaffolding with my barrier outstretched to cover him, then to have both of the barrels floating behind my barrier one after another to reduce our drag.

And that was what I did.

“Are you sure that’s safe?” Honna asked as we flew.

It was about two hours later, and I was absolutely bushed. It would have been nice to get some time to rest and cope with everything that had happened to me, but I’d already had a two-hour long nap. I needed to focus and endure.

Speaking of enduring, the mental pressure was almost deafening. Holding these cannons at top speed for so long was like being ten feet deep in water, except for two hours straight and after an existential crisis.

“Yeah,” I said with a yawn. I was splayed out in midair, my eyes barely open as I registered our conversation. A nice perk of my new nocturnal schedule was the moonlight. I couldn’t see as well, sure, but the sun couldn’t get in my eyes, and the two moons were just bright enough, together.

“If you say so,” he responded to my assurance.

I flipped around to look at Honna from above. I had previously stated that he had an attractive charm, but I hadn’t tried to figure out why I thought he looked good. I supposed that it was likley that the combination of his relaxed posture, thin frame, dirty clothes, and shaggy hair each coalesced into a very particular image of someone content but rugged. Maybe there was a bit more.

I secularly pondered this for a while and ignored it when he looked up at me, thinking I didn’t notice. Eventually, he said, “You’re staring really intently. Do...you want me to make sure we’re going in the right direction?”

“Unrelated,” I said, immediately forgetting why. “But sure. I like assurance.”

He pulled his pendant from beneath his shirt, and it tilted towards the same direction we were flying. As expected, my aim wasn’t off.

Pendulums. They were interesting devices, though decidedly magical in nature. People tended to think that the way they swung could be used to ascertain questions about their lives. For example, Emma had bought one and brought it to school one day. I couldn’t remember exactly how it all went down, but Emma, me, and some other girl ended up asking it questions. Emma asked the pendulum if she would get a boyfriend soon, and it said she would, so I got competitive and asked if I’d get into a relationship before her. The pendulum told me no, but…

When it did, the other girl told me she knew a way to beat my friend, and I immediately knew what she implied. Honestly, I wasn’t picky, and would’ve at least tried a relationship like that…

But I changed the subject. I didn’t want a relationship. If any boy, or any girl, had asked me out right then and there, I wouldn’t have had the guts to say yes.

Because, deep down, I knew who I was.

I was a super-psychic, not a schoolgirl.

And nothing would ever change that.

“Hey, girl...umm...Siki? Zhichi? You gotta wake up.”

I woke up some time later to being prodded with a pole. Well, ‘woke-up’ wasn’t an accurate description of waking out of a fugue state, but it works nonetheless.

“Uhhn?” I emoted, blinking slowly.

“I packed lunch. You want it?”

I floated to him and met him eye to eye...well, I was upside down. Meeting people’s eyes upside-down was just another expression of mine. I always figured it was some way for me to show dominance or something, but that never made sense.

He shoved a small loaf of bread into my mouth, clearly a bit weirded out by my choice of positioning. “Did you seriously fall asleep?”

I blinked a few times, confused, before recognizing that I had, in fact, fallen asleep while moving at supersonic speeds.

I would have thought about how strange and helpful that was, but I took a bite into the bread, and my whole, linear thought process swapped to ‘haha, nom-nom make dopamine’.

The purple bread tasted scarily like normal bread, though, it was dense, like the home-baked stuff, and had a sweet tang to it. A good cook could proabably make an interesting dish with it. Speaking of which, Jeremy was actually really good at cooking when he put his mind to it. He once made these noodles by hand and served them to me, and oh my gosh they were so tasty. I told him afterward to save the meal for rainy days, like a trump card against life, but he probably thought I was exaggerating or something...

“Are you alright?” Honna asked, noticing how I spaced out.

I nodded. I missed Jeremy.

“Well, we’re approaching the Fallen Beach. I figured we can take a break on the shore.”