After what had happened, everything fell away. Only a part of her recognized that Ludwig brought her away from the scene and back to the broken elevator. He said something to her, shouted at her even, but she didn’t react. She couldn’t. Her mind was elsewhere, wondering where they had gone wrong.

There was some kind of shock and then they floated up the elevator tube. She felt how she got lighter in Ludwig’s arms. Gravity was gone. She stared at the tube’s segments slowly passing by, and the donar below milling around. They had stopped to move, to act according to some unknown force’s wish. For all she knew they were really mindless … just like zombies. The future they had fought so hard to avert had come to pass.

Ludwig murmured something else as they arrived at the academy level. He pushed himself off of the tube’s wall and through the hole, grabbing the upper rim of it to somehow arrest their further ascent. Everything here reminded her of Lilian’s vision.

Some donar were milling about in the front of the academy, probably the ones that had followed them out when Ludwig pursued Orphelia. The face of her sadly smiling friend appeared before her, and Lia started to sob. She buried her face in Ludwig’s black robes and cried. She cried and cried and didn’t notice or hear what was happening around her.

When her tears dried, and she stopped sobbing, she wasn’t in Ludwig’s arms anymore. Instead, she was floating somewhere in the dark. Part of her hoped that when she turned around, Orphelia would be there, smiling and then embracing her. Her mind just didn’t want to accept that she was gone. It rather wanted this to be an elaborate prank.

“Are you okay?” a familiar voice asked in an unfamiliar tone. “What happened?” Was that Eclaire?

Lia shook her head. She didn’t want to answer. It felt like a betrayal, as if it would really become reality, if she spoke of what happened.

“Mister van Ragd?” Eclaire raised her voice, but spoke away from her. “What happened?”

“I don’t really know,” came his voice. It sounded distant. “I think it’s some kind of mind-magic field that’s affecting every donar that’s been vaccinated. It was interrupted when I … destroyed its focal point. But then it also expanded uncontrollably and affected almost every donar, which explains why gravity has vanished.”

“That’s not what I meant.” There was a bit of heat in her voice. “What happened with Lia? Why is she like this?”

“I … I don’t want to talk about it.” Ludwig’s voice faded as if he turned away from them. He couldn’t even acknowledge what he had done. A bit of anger flared in Lia, but she felt too drained for it to become a raging fire.

“What do we do now?” Robert’s question was met with silence. “Please. Someone! Tell me!”

“Mister van Ragd.” Eclaire sounded calm and collected. “You’re our teacher. You should know what to do.” Her plea was also met with silence for a moment.

“Mister van Ragd!” Her school mate’s voice got louder, bordering on sounding shrill.

“I …” Finally, Ludwig spoke. “I don’t know what to do. I haven’t known for weeks. And now … Now I have to assume that most of the donar on the station are zombies …”

“Get your priorities straight!” Eclaire almost shouted and Lia looked up at the red head. “You’re not here to solve the problem. You’re here to protect and guide us! That’s what being a teacher means.”

Lia saw Ludwig out of the corner of her eyes. He was staring at Eclaire with an open mouth.

The girl turned around and looked at Lia. Eclaire put a hand on her shoulder and pulled her closer. “What happened?” she asked again, this time far more gently. Then she added: “What happened to you?”

Lia still didn’t answer. She had no idea how.

“What happened to your eyes?”

Eclaire’s question made her blink. As far as she was concerned, nothing had happened to her. She could still see everything as she had done before. Then she remembered a scene where she had seen herself, her eyes changed, little stars shining out of irises the color of space. It had been in the queen’s vision. Something the queen hadn’t wanted her to see. A vision Lilian had cut short.

Slowly her fleet of thoughts began to dock at the same station. She still didn’t know what choice Orphelia had to make, but it had resulted in this mess. And the former queen had known. She probably had even steered everything into this direction, working toward this outcome for years.

Her anger began to flare once more. That was when Eclaire of all people embraced her in a hug.

“I don’t know what happened, but please don’t become one of them as well,” the impera said into her ear.

Lia was stunned, and her anger retreated to the back of her mind, stewing there. She slowly raised her arms and pulled Eclaire gently off of her. “I won’t,” she answered and forced a slight smile onto her lips.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

“I think it’s best to try to get off the station,” Ludwig finally announced. “You’re right, I … we can’t do anything here.” He sighed. “We should also find the principal and impera Joy.”

“We should go out there and search for others?” Robert’s voice sounded like a squeak.

“I have to.” Ludwig looked at the student in question. “Miss Eclaire is right. I and the other teachers are responsible for you all. We need to get everyone we can to safety, and we have one advantage, many of the others don’t have: We still have a donar in her right mind.”

Lia felt everyone’s gaze settle on her, while she stared at Ludwig.

“Do you really want to continue to use my mana, after what you’ve done?” she hissed at him, and he flinched.

“As I told you before, we didn’t have any other choice.” He didn’t met her gaze. “And you agreed with me. Otherwise you wouldn’t have supplied me with mana, isn’t that right?”

Lia averted her gaze. He was right. She couldn’t just lay all the blame at his feet, some of it did belong to her. Seeing that black snake from her dreams, and how it wanted to strike at her, to get her, had made her panic.

“I promise to try and not kill anyone we come across.”

Lia noticed out of the corner of her eyes that Ludwig floated toward her. She didn’t look at him. Part of her still resented him for forcing her into that situation.

“Please. We need to help everyone.” He laid his hands onto her right arm. “Right now, we’re the only ones that can.”

When she still didn’t react, Eclaire spoke up from her other side. “Lia.”

She slowly raised her head and looked at the redhead, who was biting her lower lip.

“I know that we haven’t started off on a good relationship. And I know that saying sorry when we need you doesn’t seem very genuine. But not everyone, not every impero, has treated you badly. Will you at least help them? Will you help Robert?” Eclaire gestured at their class mate, and Lia stared at the frightened looking boy. Were some of his hairs singed?

Robert looked at her. His eyes were wide open, and his mouth seemed to form the word “Please.”

“I can’t protect them without your help,” Ludwig admitted and held his hand out to her. “So, please … trust me?”

Lia stared at the offered appendage, her thoughts battling one another in her head. Finally, rationality won out and she took the hand. “But only until they are safe,” she whispered.

“I’m not asking for more.” There was a slight smile on his lips. He looked somewhat relieved. Had she ever seen him smile? She wasn’t really sure.

“Let’s go then.” Eclaire pushed herself toward the door. Lia looked around and noticed that they were in Eclaire’s room, which was probably a good idea. There wouldn’t be too many donar in the imperi’s dormitory.

“Wait. Lia and I should take the lead.” Ludwig somehow pushed himself forward and dragged her along. “I know where the maintenance shafts are. The probability to meet a donar there is lower than on the rest of the station.”

“Sounds good to me,” Eclaire agreed, and opened the door. Ludwig pushed himself toward it, stopped at the frame and looked outside. Then he pulled her along an through.

It was eerily quiet as the floated through the corridor of the dormitory. They stopped at a door that was not the entrance, and Ludwig allowed a device to scan his retina. It opened upward with a hiss and Ludwig checked the corridor before floating inside.

Lia recognized the ring-corridor that led to Miss Joy’s office as well as Ludwig’s room.

The situation reminded her of the vision that had confirmed her suspicion that the vaccine was to blame, only that they had been alone. But if the situation was still similar, then they should hit some patrolling zombies soon enough.

They kept moving through the corridors, with Ludwig pausing at every intersection. He was probably drawing from the countless times he had seen this happen. Then, he stopped and pressed himself against a wall, and opened the door with the help of a panel. He almost pushed Lia inside and gestured the rest to follow before quickly following himself.

Out of the shadow of the room, they noticed two donar pass. Probably station personnel. Something about them was strange, but Lia couldn’t make out, what exactly. After they passed, the door hissed shut, and Ludwig turned around, sighing.

“Are they supposed to roam like that?” Eclaire’s voice was just a whisper. “When some of the donar turned, they attacked us, but none of the moved from where they were.”

Both Lia and Ludwig looked at the impera, then at themselves. Lia felt a shiver run down her spine. “They’re regaining sentience?” she whispered.

“Then … whatever we did down there … only disrupted whatever had taken control of Orphelia.” Ludwig had become pale.

“Speaking of which … where is Orphelia?”

Eclaire’s question felt like a stab into Lia’s heart.

“I,” Ludwig started, then gulped audibly. “She … didn’t make it.” He turned around, not facing anyone in the room. “Whatever got a hold of the donar, got to her first. I … we couldn’t save her …”

Lia could almost feel the horror on Eclaire’s face. She put the clues together and stared at them with wide open eyes. Robert didn’t seem to notice anything.

“Come. Let me get you to the docks. After that I will try to find the rest of the people that are still sane. Maybe Miss Joy can find a way to reverse all of this …”

Ludwig floated to the door and opened it. Lia didn’t look at Eclaire either. She felt guilty. Her mana had been responsible for ending her friend’s life. She followed Ludwig silently and suddenly heard Ludwig speak: “Lillian Saggitarius. It’s a pleasure to meet you again.”

Lia looked up. There she was. There was the former queen and the rest of the pirate captain’s.

When Lillian’s eyes met hers, and Lia saw that same sadness she had seen just before they departed EDEN. Once again, one thought came to the forefront of her mind: The former queen knew. She knew and even steered everything in this direction.

“Lia,” the queen greeted her, “before you do anything, please hear me out.”

“You knew!” she accused the former queen openly. “You knew!”

“Yes, I did,” she admitted. “I knew and I sought this outcome, because the alternatives would have been much, much worse.” Lillian’s expression was open, sad and full of hope. “So, before you blast me with fire or a beam of light, let me explain.”

“Yes, please do explain,” Eclaire demanded and hugged Lia from behind. The winter and the fall captain agreed with her class mate.

Lia’s mind hung on a few other words the former queen had spoken. “Before I blast you?” A cloud of confusion cooled her anger down. A part of her realized, that the spring captain still knew things that they didn’t. Things they might need to resolve part of this situation.

“Will you hear me out?” the former queen asked. Lia couldn’t quite pin her tone down, but it sounded like hope, as if something had changed in an unexpected way.

Once again, Lia found herself simply nodding toward Lillian’s request, hoping that she wouldn’t regret it once more.