Standing on a wall, I watched as hundreds of humans were slowly escorted towards and into the base, like cattle being herded into a pen. Behind me stood Maji, Greyback and Lumisara, the three of them silent for the time being. Maji and Greyback had initially looked shocked upon seeing Lumisara, but neither parties had said a word to each other since meeting up.
The Fairies on the other hand flooded the base, all of them seeming eager to have arrived at a new home. As usual, only Rebecca and I could see them, with no one batting an eyelid to just over 400,000 Fairies swarming the base it was obvious they kept their magic active to stay hidden.
Hearing a familiar pair of footsteps coming towards me, I kept looking out towards the humans entering our base. The footsteps stopped at my side, a heavy sigh announcing their arrival.
“You know, Deven, a sigh like that shows your age.”
“And you're responsible for half of it. You ran off, became a Queen and came back in time to turn the tides of a drawn out battle. Then you drop a nuke and announce you've brought over eight hundred people along before escaping up here.”
“Hey! I didn't escape, I'm overseeing.”
Deven chucks and turning to him, I could see bags under his eyes. Patting his shoulder, I smile softly. “Looks like things went well here. I can take over again.”
“Thanks, but I'll do a handover before you take over, there is a lot that happened while you were gone. So, Queen of the Spirits are you? I saw the Fairies, god damn you brought a lot of them back.”
“Wait, you see them?”
“My eyes see through illusions. At first I didn't, but I've also been training while you've been gone and now I can. I take it the three behind you are also Spirits?” Deven turned and looked at Maji with a stiff smile. “I remember you. Gave me a good nap you did.”
Maji glances at me and shrugging at her stare, I lean back and just tilted my head. Maji simply nods towards Deven. “I had very little time to complete my objective at that time, I apologise for suddenly using Sleeping Magic on you.”
Deven grins and shrugs his own shoulders. “It’s fine, I got your message. I won’t lie, I became a bit worried that you didn’t go all that voluntarily back then, Ruby. Nice to meet you three, my name is Deven, otherwise known as Sheep.” The three spirits introduce themselves to Deven and once done, Deven turns to me.
“So, how are you doing, Ruby?”
Still leaning against the wall, I look up at the sky, pondering his question. “I’m fine. I’m changing though, Deven.” Looking down at him, I tilt my head towards the humans being escorted in. “Recently Rebecca and I have started seeing those humans…people as different from us, separate…weak. I don’t know why, but I know before thinking in such a way would have been terrifying for me, yet right now I feel indifferent. As if it’s completely normal to consider those humans as lesser than me.”
Deven walked over and leaned against the wall next to me, staring at the ground for a minute before speaking. “I see, so it’s happening to you, too. You’re not the only one, those who hit Lvl 3 first have started to think like that. The more they adapt to their new found strength, the more they view those that aren’t Lvl 3 as lesser beings, myself included. Thankfully Diana and Joshua have anchored my thoughts, but I can’t help but think the same.”
“Joshua?” Confused for a moment, it hits me as I grin. “I see, so Diana gave birth successfully?”
“Haha, I figured you might’ve forgotten. Yup, it’s a boy, he’s turning four months soon. The pregnancy lasted longer than usual, which we put down to being thanks to our different bodies. He’s a normal human though, through and through.”
“Congrats, Deven.” Patting his back roughly, I looked towards the sky again, my voice turning serious. “Do we know if he has the System as well?”
“At the moment, we don’t know. There haven’t been any signs, but it could be the System shows itself later.” Deven shakes his head before looking at me. “Oh, Diana said when you returned you’re to go see her. Would you like a tour of the new base? We’ve expanded rather heavily.”
“How have you expanded? I thought expansion wouldn’t be possible since we had no…wait, you guys had a breakthrough with using mana crystals as a fuel source?” Looking at him with some excitement, I saw him shake his head once more. Obviously seeing my confused expression, Deven grinned.
“Electrical cars. We got a breakthrough.” Stunned, I looked at him before realising what that meant.
“So, got yourselves a new machinist, ey?”
“No, actually. Thanks to the trial and error research you’d done before disappearing, we put a small team of engineers on using those notes you left and they succeeded in creating electrical vehicles.”
“Ah, so that’s what happened.” A bit bummed out, since I had wanted to crack that research, I still felt happy that they had managed a breakthrough and kept operations up.
“Don’t be down about it, Ruby. A ton of improvements still need to be made, right now they’re just big, bulky vehicles that don’t match the speed of regular cars. That’s where we need you, to condense the cars down and make them more efficient. Plus, we have a huge backlog of work that needs to be done, now you’re back you’re going to be very busy. I want at least a month to spend with Diana and Joshua.”
“Of course, easily granted. Now, we have a few emotional problems to sort out. I saw how Aerith, Melody and a few others looked at me. Who knows what?”
“Ah, yes, I’d heard you’d received the cold shoulder from Aerith. Everyone below Vice-Leader, barring those a part of the original eleven, believe you had gone out in search for a fuel supply and more people, taking Rebecca with you. Vice-leaders, the original group and Isebelle know the truth, that you were led away by the Spirits to become stronger. I did not share the true reason, which is that you were to become the next Spirit Queen as I felt I’d leave that up to you to know. Oh, Diana knows the full truth. She’s expecting you in a fancy dress, heels and a crown of sorts. Even expected wings for some reason.”
Looking down at what I’m wearing, which is mostly military clothing and vest, I chuckled. “I have the dress, but fuck wearing heels. Last time I wore them was for my wedding rehearsal, my feet were killing me the entire night.”
Chuckling, Deven looks me up and down. “I can’t imagine you with wings either. I did expect a crown though, aren’t you meant to be a queen now?”
“Sure doesn’t feel like it right now. Though I suppose it’ll come with time, right now all that’s on my mind is to get the new arrivals sorted.”
“That's the only thing, is it?”
“That and throwing Rebecca into bed. It’s been way too long.” Both of us chuckle at that before just chatting about nothing in particular, more just casual conversation about day to day stuff. Before long, all of those that were in Jokestar’s clan finally all entered the base. There were others working out in the battlefield, cleaning up the corpses, moving them away from the base, and collecting anything of worth.
“Right, let’s round up the Vice-Leaders and get the full story out there.” Deven starts to walk in the direction of the stairs down from the wall before turning to me. “Oh, right. Just be ready for some criticism. Those who are understanding are myself, Diana, Dawn, Ghost, Jupiter and Geralt. Trinity, Geode and Silver are indifferent. Aerith, Melody and Lemon aren’t happy that you ‘took off’ without considering them. I believe the full story will change their minds, but it might take some time for them to come around. Even now Aerith believes you should be removed from being the leader.”
With that, Deven leaves while I deliberate on his words. I knew that convincing those three that leaving that day wasn't meant to be the start of a year and a half of being absent would prove difficult, but ultimately what is done is done. I wouldn't have the luxury of time to really care if they were happy or angry at me. It could cause problems at a later stage, but right now I couldn't really be bothered to care.
If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.
“My Lady, we apologise if we have caused you grievances with your people.” Glancing at Maji, I wave my hand casually.
“You're not at fault, nor are you, Greyback.” Seeing Greyback look a bit frustrated at himself, I shake my head before looking into the sky again. “Ultimately it was my decision to stay and I'm grateful I did. The real question here is what are you three going to do now?”
“I will remain by your side, O’ Queen of the Spirits.” Lumisara’s ethereal voice rang out without hesitation, her eyes locked onto me.
“I too will stay by your side.” Maji says, followed by Greyback stating the same. Shaking my head, I looked at Maji.
“Actually, I want you and Greyback to do some tasks for me. Maji, your ability to teleport is vital to me. I need you to scout the surroundings of our base to locate anything that might be of use to us.
“Greyback, I want you to assist my researchers and help deepen their understanding of magic. I know you’re not aware of how our technology works, but if we can raise the knowledge of the researchers they may be able to have a breakthrough with getting magic to work with our technology.”
“Yes, My Lady. I can begin whenever you want.”
“Research, eh? Interesting, I can assist them if that is your command, My Lady.”
“Lumisara, can I call you Lumi?”
“If that is your wish, O’ Queen of the Spirits.”
“Lumi, I want you to assist with combat training. I witnessed it earlier, but you know various forms of combat, do you not?”
Lumisara nodded slightly. “I am well versed in swordsmanship and unarmed combat. I am lacking in magic, I only know three spells.”
“That’s fine, I want you to focus on assisting with physical strength. For now, the three of you should take this chance to just relax and explore this base. It’s vastly different compared to the Spirit Realm. If there is anything I can do to make it more comfortable to live in, let me know and I’ll see what I can do. Unfortunately the main builder for the base is pissed off at me, so don’t expect anything too soon.” Standing straight, I stretch before giving the three a soft smile. “Thank you, you three. You’ve been extremely helpful to me and I hope that from here on we keep being a good team.”
The three Spirits follow me back to the ground floor before departing from my side at my insistence. I told them to explore the base and to bring me any questions they may have about the place at a later point. Heading towards the office, I could already sense a lot of Lvl 3s on the second floor, including Rebecca. Judging from her energy, it seemed she wasn’t in a good mood, her energy becoming strained, spiking heavily.
“You don’t need to become their enemy, Bek. At least, not for my sake. You have the excuse of being forcibly kidnapped...” Sighing lightly, I knew she wasn’t one to do that. Stepping into the office, I climb the stairs and arrive by the stairs before the meeting room. Isabelle stood in front of the door, as if guarding it. Upon seeing me, she simply nodded before moving away from the door, gesturing to it.
Without a word to her, I stepped past and opened the door to the meeting room, just in time to hear the angry words of Aerith.
“IF SHE WANTS TO FUCK OFF AND ABANDON US RANDOMLY, THEN SHE SHOULDN’T BE THE LEADER! I DON’T ACCEPT HER IF THAT’S WHAT SHE’S GOING TO DO!”
“Kate, what the hell is wrong with you?! Without her, you’d have starved in that town and likely died! She taught you how to fight as well, so why ar-”
“Don’t give me that rubbish! Things got a bit hard here so she just disappeared. Then all of a sudden she comes back with over eight hundred people?! What did she do, go out, replace us then decide to dump them on us?! When is the next time she’ll just leave us, huh?”
“You don’t know the full story! Just wait till she’s here and she’ll explain ever-”
“Who gives a shit! Full story? Oh she ran off, realised that going back would be oh so hard cause she abandoned us, poor her, we should forgive her. Poor Deven had to go and make up some bullshit like the Spirits only she can ‘see’ led her away. He should be taking her place and she should be thrown out of here!”
“Well, that’ll be inconvenient, Kate. Who’d maintain our machinery if I were to be kicked out suddenly?” Interrupting Rebecca and Kate’s arguments, I look at Kate, feeling a bit amused at what I could only consider a childish tantrum.
“Why are you here?! This is a meeting for leaders, not for those who abandon us at the drop of a hat!”
Raising an eyebrow to this comment, I glanced around and saw Gemma and Michael. Both looked rather unhappy, but not as angered as Kate did. In fact, I saw some concern and curiosity from Michael, as if he wanted to know everything before being either truly angry or happy.
Turning my attention back to Kate, I looked her up and down. She'd barely changed, the only difference is that her hair now had a hairpin in it. Carefully considering my next words, I slowly replied to her.
“Kate, Gemma and Michael. I understand why you're frustrated about the situation regarding me. I will tell you the full story now and leave it up to your judgements as to whether or not you believe me, but there is one thing that won't change.” Staring directly at Kate, I continued. “I will continue to be the leader here, and if you don't like it, you're more than welcome to leave.”
Kate's face became a deeper shade of red as her anger increased. Gemma and Michael both looked rather surprised but didn't have the same reaction as Kate. The other leaders in the room merely nodded as if my statement were obvious.
“That is not for you to decide! You're one person, we can force you ou-”
“In an effort to prevent you from being regretful for your next choice of words, Kate, I will stop you there. Ruby, please give us your version of events, the full truth that I didn't disclose to everyone.”
A few heads flicked to Deven, some questioning glances and some surprised. Taking Deven's lead in, I nod and turn to the crowd of Vice-Leaders and Managers before telling them everything that had happened since the day I left with the Spirits.
***
“And so you know the rest from there. I had summarised that it would be best not to inform Deven of our ambush because if he changed stragety it may have alerted the enemy.”
The room fell silent, everyone deep in thought. My story had delivered a rather hefty surprise to all of them, leaving them speechless for the most part. The only one who still held a frown looked up at this moment before speaking.
“Bullshit. What Spirits? And you, Deven, playing along with this stupid story! Just because she is your friend doesn't mean you need to lean into her bullshit, even a child wouldn't believe it!”
Majority of the people in the meeting room turned to look at Kate with stupified expressions, but she ignored them all. I saw Rebecca's expression darken and deciding to quell this before Rebecca decided to attack Kate, I sigh and look at Kate.
“I'm fairly sure I know why, it's because you can't see the Spirits, right?” Without waiting for an answer, I carefully grab one of the Fairies off the top of my head and look at it with a smile, speaking to it in the language of the Spirits.
“Can you reveal yourself to them?”
The Fairy looked at me with a joyful expression, nodding furiously as it floated up. Gasps came from around me as I heard people start mumbling.
“So many are around her!”
“I count fifty, and they've been there the entire time?!”
“They're using her like a perch, how cute!”
“They're not used to attention like this, so don't mind them if they seem a bit shy.” The Fairies around me had started to hide from the states, but their appearance had more than convinced everyone and turning to Kate, I saw her looking at them, a dumbfounded expression on her face.
Before I could say anything however, she stood up, threw me a hateful glare before stomping out of the meeting room, leaving everyone in silence. Completely taken aback myself, I didn't know how to react, only glancing at Deven who too seemed speechless.
‘The fuck is wrong with her?! You show her evidence and she's throwing a tantrum!’
‘It’s fine, Bek. Remember, she's fifteen or sixteen, compared to everyone else here she is still a child at the end of the day. Maybe it was too soon to have her as a leader…’
“Right, since Ruby and Rebecca have returned we can now thankfully start to discuss our future. For now, go and rest everyone. You all have been fighting for the last few days, rest up and in four days the Vice-Leaders will reconvene and we will have a discussion.”
Seeming eager to move on, Deven started to shoo people from the office as the Fairies once more cloaked themselves with their hiding magic. Once everyone left, Deven turned to me with a sour expression on his face.
“I don't know what's gotten into Kate. Gemma and Michael at least seem to have accepted your story. It helps that upon returning you turned the tide of the battle. Sorry, Ruby, Rebecca, I'll have a chat with Kate later.”
“It's fine, Deven, it's just a child having a temper tantrum. Plus she's not going to share the actual reason with you, it'll be best to have Diana talk to her.” Saying that, Rebecca sighed and looked out the window.
“Actual reason? Well now you have me interested, but I won't dig into it. I'll leave it to Diana. Speaking of her, you two, come with me, she's eager to see you both again and by now she'd have began cooking for you lot.”
“She knows we are here?” I looked at Deven, wondering when he would've had time to speak to her.
“Nah, but her intuition about you returning today was spot on. She told me a few hours before you arrived that you were on the way. I asked her how she knew and she just giggled, telling me it's her intuition since your arrival would mean less stress for me.”
Staring at Rebecca hungrily, who stared at me with the same expression, I fought with my desires for a moment before tearing my eyes off her beautiful body and looking at Deven.
“Sure, dinner at your place sounds wonderful. Let's go.” Smiling at Deven, who had an amused expression on his face while looking at the pair of us, he gestured to follow him.