The foreigner’s bagged and tired eyes remained wide open and awake…staring at that same ceiling as she always seemed to do. It was night, but it hardly felt as such.

Indeed, it was the last night of the sixth month of this new year, thus marking a day…or rather…night of reignited, and relentless, festives and celebratory antics. Even though her curtain was closed as firmly as possibly, quite the light penetrated through, nevertheless.

Compared to the festives of the second day of the new year, somehow this midpoint of festivities seemed far more intense. No doubt, some of this may have to do with the increased inhabitancy of the area around throughout the last dozens of months since new year’s dawn—Coastfield was, after all, a rapidly growing city…which may also half-explain why her rent always seemed to grow higher and higher with each passing month.

Ugh. She laid there, in her bed; her ears were being violated by all of the…denizen noises outside. Though…as of late, ever since that peculiar night…such denizen noises were not…as irritating as they had been—or at least, not in the…same way as they had been. If anything, there was, perhaps, a certain…‘soothingness’ to such sounds of laughter, joy, and happiness.

Truly…such was always more preferable to the…well…to the opposite.

However, her reemerging tolerances to the denizens, their noises, and their antics…did not at all imply that she was laying there without misery, for she certainly was not.

Indeed, she felt awful in more ways than not, extremely so. Lethargic, weak, foggy-minded, and very…dry—truly, a strange experience, one hard for her to really explain…this sensation of being dry on the inside.

In retrospect, such had been going on for quite the some time…she had just never noticed the lingering…accumulation in the background. But as of late, it had only seemed to have worsened with each passing day. By this point…it almost seemed as though her cheeks were ‘sinking’ or something.

Despite being largely her usual flat affect and collected state on the outside, internally…she has been becoming…irritated and agitated over the smallest of things, and not at all due to prior reasons. Such as these denizen noises: the noises themselves being denizen was not the source of this irritation, unlike before; rather, it was the simple fact that it was so very noisy in general; her head was already rather foggy and hurting enough…sensitive in ways different from before.

Ugh. She wondered as she heard all the ruckus and sounds befalling the world outside…was there an entire parade marching through her street or something? For it certainly sounded like such! How?! The street her apartment housing building was attached to was narrow, it could not possibly…

Or…actually…maybe it could; hmm…indeed, the more she thought about it…the more…she could see it.

She sighed. Great, now she was curious; she wanted to inspect. Yet in spite of her interest and will…her figure and body refused to move, affixed thoroughly to her bed…and not from an inescapable sense of comfort, rather…she felt so very…well not necessarily weak but…simply unable to move. Truly, it was hard to explain even though…she perhaps ought to be familiar with such by now.

Yet suddenly: trailing whistles and piercing booms.

Flash after flash of exploding sparkly lights penetrated through her curtained window, pulsating almost as it flared her room in curtain-suppressed color. In almost an instant, protocols and instincts enacted their will as the foreigner, with grand haste and without any delay, sprung up and lunged out of bed, going prone onto the ground as she scrambled straight under her bed.

Moments passed her by, the whistling launches and booming flashes continuing…yet nothing happened. Confused…she cautiously waited…only for more nothing to happen. Even more confused, she cautiously…crawled out from under her bed…standing back up.

She rushed to the window, flinging open her curtains. Her breaths remained guarded, her alert and attentive eyes watched…as what seemed to be primitive rockets were fired from the ground across much of the city…lancing high up into the sky…detonating in a loud yet colorful array of sparkly patterns and glimmering shapes…huh…

She nodded her head…her instincts calming down…her mind standing down…right…

She stepped back somewhat…right…she had forgotten…‘fireworks’—as the locals referred to it—not primitive artillery.

Indeed, such ‘firework’ displays were not that common in these lands…at least from what she had witnessed so far, thus…she was not really used to such things; they sounded so awfully similar to artillery…even if still distinct, those booms most especially.

Though…with her attention now grabbed…she began to watch as her ignited eyes stared; so sparkly, so shiny, so…weird and…well…weird. The patterns of glimmering colors especially…were so…huh…

She could infer from observation alone that they were using a mix of gunpowder, chemicals, dyes, and…maybe even the arcane.

No…these were arcane imbued ‘fireworks’, hence the absolute…the absolute…she had not even…the words or really…feelings to describe what she was looking at. Indeed, she did not really feel anything comprehensibly or really…think anything, yet her eyes remained…fixated; her mind remained attentive. She could not help…but keep…staring…as she gravitated back to the window.

« …supposo…quod jo forșita videre l’attracțion potsíem…çhanqua’st adúc gașpaellaģiosë glupettù paulo… » she murmured out loud to herself; perhaps she could see the appeal, although it still seemed a bit…wasteful and silly.

She sighed as she leaned down and against the closed window’s edge, her elbow resting as her cheek laid on her knuckle…her eyes still attending.

« Mah…síc videtùr mî solù…nec-na me addeçet judiçéae talés quidem façhere…ĵustë’șom quída trüper violettae de la Federația…ménimë unè denizen » she murmured out loud further; oh well, what did she even know? After all, she was just a Remnant trooper, not at all a denizen; indeed, it was not her place to judge such things…in spite of the fact she often did.

She sighed yet again; « Ôh ecca…jomet ad me’pșù com clarâ voçe loquents palan…aliqua quae haud soleo aģhere saepe…est çeù și cogitaționés de me exfluitat la mente » she mumbled to herself; oh, look at her, talking to herself out loud, something she hardly ever did; always in her mind, her thoughts were.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

« Vox vox…haec est…mea vox, la vox de me est haçe…hmm…qualem softa vox et…leves est pro me…aut ad me? Pro me? Ad me? Mî Méhi-ve. Pheh…quale léngua eștranģea com quâ loquemos; némî af modois loquerí potest, maximë’ta hâc aetate…it is no wonder that we must use this language instead…ita ‹ Standarda Léngua Ģenerales › appellatùr noștra primaría…but where est la ‹ standarda › én ead? Mah, whatever…both are las antiquissimas lénguas mortuas » thus she continued to mumble to herself, letting her thoughts flow out of her mind and bleed into words…talking to herself.

« Ôch…verë, ģebberbarbosë quidem loquo… » Oh, truly, she was speaking nothing but gibber-gabber.

The foreigner continued to watch this show and display of fireworks as it continued on from afar, slumping down as she leaned ever-more onto the window’s frame. The fireworks only intensified and became more potent as time went on. Each flashing boom was accompanied by cheering hails; indeed, for it was the first for many eyes…to see such a flashing display.

Though, she began to notice…as she stared out from this window with such attention—something she hardly ever did—just how…intriguing the view from this window and angle was. She was on the highest—thus fifth—floor of this rather wide and tall building. Her window was situated in a way that gave adequate view of the rest of the city while not being overly obscured by the other buildings around.

Indeed, her building was rather tall compared to the rest around; thus, she had a rather good view of the night-sky—for better or worse. Although, she could hardly see any stars at all this night. Discounting the sheer quantity of lights polluting the night-sky, it was rather cloudy; moonless too, thus it would otherwise be the among darkest of nights. Likewise, the sky was clear of griffons, obviously and thankfully—such obnoxious creatures, those griffons were.

Her window faced in the direction of Coastfield’s…well…coast, thus its grand port and dockyard districts, and its center and interior…the heart of the city itself. Yet owing to the sheer size and scale of this growing settlement…all she could really make out was a sea of urban sprawl, with the inner-walls afar blocking any visuals of everything else beyond.

Right…she recalled to herself…this settlement was split in two, segregated somewhat. She never ventured past the outskirts that were contained within the outer-walls.

Hmm…right…from her understanding, despite the fact that the inner-walls contained the oldest parts of this city and was where the central administrator…or right ‘ruler’ or that ‘Count’ or whatever…resided, it was not actually all that different or better than the outskirts. In fact, the outskirts was ‘newer’ and more ‘modern’ than the interior of Coastfield—at least according to what she had heard, since again…she had never been there.

Her former associate herself had hardly ever ventured there either, especially anywhere closest to the docks, and also tended to avoid specific routes and areas leading to the inner-walls, all due to « abstracted affairs that are best not looked at or…acknowledged, to be honest; …there are somethings that you cannot truly become used to, » thus according to her former associate.

Hmm…although, the foreigner could make out one specific detail of that which laid within the inner-walls…she could see the topest parts and tips of the Count’s towering grand palace, the largest…thing in the entire city; an ‘engineering’ and ‘architectural’ ‘marvel’ of these lands, so she had heard, situated right in the center of the heart of Coastfield.

Certainly…the more the foreigner stared, the more she began to really see…just how large this settlement was.

So many people were out on that narrow street down below, dressed in casual and festive attires and…doing all sorts of parading activities. So many lights, so many banners of both this realm and of the Goddess of Summer…waved from building to building to building; truly, it was all becoming so very apparent…the scale of one…primitive settlement. It was as if it were a world of its own.

Right…after all, Coastfield was one of the…or rather it was the largest city in all of this continent, an important nexus hub for trade and commerce…and even military stationing.

Right…that so-called ‘United Central Trade Company’ had an…operations port and dockyard here; their ships, largely merchant and trade oriented, were usually abundant at the coast…or at least so she had heard. Though, likewise, apparently on this day the docks and their activities were halted and cleared…or rather such had been declared days prior.

Hmm…she stared more…although she could not see the coast directly, she could see the horizon leading to it. Pitch darkness interrupted by booming flashes…was all she could see. Yet, she noticed, far off and away…the sky closest to the obscured coastline seemed…as if there were streams of sparkly smoke steaming off from dozens of things below—though such was difficult to truly discern given the distance and…obscurences.

Hmm…but still…right, Far Western ships from the most ‘advanced’ of their ‘states’ and ‘nations’…some of them left behind these steaming trails of somewhat sparkly and arcane-esque smoke that could stream high into the sky…sometimes being visible in the darkest of nights. Thus, the coast and docks…were not completely clear, then?

Truly, her mind became a buzz with so many realizations of…how much she already did know about this place, about this city she had so pretended was her so-called ‘home’. All of these details were simply things she had…heard from both her former associate and…the denizens themselves around…especially throughout her time as a tavern-waitress. But…she never truly attended to these details…nor did she truly think about them or…really comprehend them.

Yet…only now, in this moment, did it feel as though she was suddenly thinking about them; only now what had been just information and factoids in her head…were suddenly becoming realized facts of reality, of the world her own had scanned, of the world she had not simply heard or learned about…but experienced.

Details…indeed; as of late she was, once again, attending more to the details around—something she had stopped doing the past several months as her mind was falling into its own shadow. Albeit, although she was more attentive now, she still did not necessarily care to pay too much attention to local affairs and doings; such still always seemed to be so utterly beyond her.

Boom, boom, boom, boom.

So many fireworks continued to go up and off, some exploding in shapes…images…and even depictions of things and happenings. Truly, these denizens certainly knew how to put on quite the…eye-candy of a show, one alluring enough to even her and those like her.

Her posture slouched even more as her ignited eyes continued to watch; she felt so…weak and drowsy in mind.

What was this…feeling she was so feeling? Granted, she was already rather weakened but…this was different; it was a somewhat more…agreeable sensation and feeling. It almost felt as though that…at any moment…her eyes could just close shut and she would simply fade away…into figurative wooshy blissful goop.

Relaxation? Was that…what she was feeling? Huh…was she being relaxed by all of this? She did not know.

This would continue on as moments passed her by.

Yet, suddenly her ears began to hear; her senses, her nerves, her instincts, her essence and its protocols, all such things were abruptly triggered. Her figure immediately tensed and straightened, her eyes widening in attention, glaring into the horizon afar.

So many fireworks were being lanced into the sky up high, booming and flashing with such noise and sound that all other sounds, tremors, and vibrations in the air were drowned completely out.

Yet…in the background of all of this…different tremors, different vibrations, suddenly interjected.

Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud. Different sorts of thuds, ones far more booming and impactful. Her ears and brain could not possibly pick out these details in full due to all the noise around…but her essence and instincts…were reacting to something, nonetheless.

What her ears were confused by, her eyes, however, could see…flashes…was the horizon flashing in fury? Or was it just the fireworks playing with her vision? Hmm…right…Far Western ships always seemed to love blasting their cannons and batteries during such festives, so…maybe this was an overreaction again?

Yet the tense alarm remained persistent; she remained guarded; her breaths only tensed even more. She had a very…terrible feeling deep down within, as all instincts within her were telling her to take cover.

Then…so quickly, only but a few dozen seconds after she had noticed this thud-flashing emergence…came rising from the horizon in a lancing ballistic trajectory and fall…so many trailing flares…followed by that distinct opera of whistling hellfire.