“I feel like I’ve spent the better part of the last two weeks on this godforsaken ship, and I’m not happy about it.” I complained, being strapped into a g-force-reducing passenger seat.
Lucina, who was trying to sleep before we entered hostile territory, lazily rolled her head in my direction to look at me. “It… it still is so strange to me that your world only has the notion of a one true god.”
“And it’s still strange to me that you call your gods ‘Starlords’. Honestly, it sounds like something out of a bad science fiction novel.”
“Doesn’t this whole world seem like it's out of one of your science fiction novels? Since you’ve come here, I’ve wondered on more than one occasion whether or not this universe was just made for you.” The princess said with a drawn-out yawn.
“Why do you become strangely philosophical whenever you’re on the verge of sleep?” I asked, but the princess merely muttered something incoherent in reply before her head lolled to the side limply.
I sighed in exasperation, looking around the chamber. Lucina, Winter, and I were in one of three chambers meant to stabilize a passenger's body while flying at supersonic speeds.
Even then, however, it would take almost five hours to reach the abandoned base where Princess Venus was located. Finally, I shifted my gaze to the other person in the room, Winter. However, as was the reason I hadn’t spoken to her yet on the journey, she quickly averted her gaze.
“Winter, I know direct emotional confrontation isn’t exactly your thing, but I need us to be on the same page before we go into this fight. Why’ve you been badmouthing me to your subordinates, and even going so far as to avoid making eye contact?”
The woman in question opened her mouth to answer, but closed it again immediately. “Sorry.” she said after a spell. “Let me think of how best to phrase this.”
I nodded, and leaned back in my seat. My connection to the other Judgments let me know that Un was currently active, and probably talking to Winter through a private connection.
“Shall I inform you of what’s going on?” Three’s voice whispered into my ear. I physically shook my head before I realized that Three’s voice was in my mind.
“No.” I replied. “Let her decisions be her own. If she wants to consult with Un on the matter, that is her decision as well. It’s not my place to go and decide on who is privy to her thoughts.”
“Understandable, if a little hypocritical. You weren’t very sympathetic to Lilian and I when you caught us back in the Luong Empire.”
I shrugged my shoulders in response, and pressed a button on the chair’s console to put up a soundproof glass barrier. “Unfortunately, humans are hypocritical creatures. We make rules for ourselves, then break them at our own convenience. We understand why certain things are bad for us, but then rationalize partaking in those things away as ‘living freely.’ We know we should treat all humans with a base level of respect, but talk ourselves into respecting people based on our level of relationship. You two weren’t part of my inner circle at the time, so I had no reason to show you any level of human decency. I would like to think that I made it up to you both in the end though.”
“Perhaps to Lilian more than myself.” Three interjected, her tone sounding more distant in the figurative sense.
“Perhaps.” I said, acquiescing to her tone. “Lilian does seem pretty happy right now. Have you spoken to him at all recently?”
“No.” Three sadly intoned. “He seems more and more occupied with rejecting the version of himself that originally birthed me, and fully intends to embrace his masculine transformation. It… makes me feel thrown away. Like a mask discarded out of convenience. It… it's painful.”
I wanted to console the program, but there’s only so much that could be done through a mental connection. “I’m sorry to have to word it this way, but let’s talk about it at length after we rescue Princess Venus. We need to focus on the task at hand, but I want to hear everything from your perspective. From the beginning.”
There was a brief moment of silence in my head, before a small giggle that I’d never heard before rang out. “Let’s do that.”
I nodded to myself, but looked up in time to see Winter about to knock on the glass. She paused mid-movement and I pressed the same button I had before. Winter’s pod shifted back into the position it had been in before, which left the two of us staring face-to-face. I waited, letting her work herself up to say what she wanted to, which didn’t take long at all.
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
“I’m upset at you.” The bluntness by which the statement had been said caught me by surprise. Despite her rough exterior and penchant for getting into physical altercations, I had come to learn that Winter hated emotional conflict. Thus, her being so open about her displeasure caught me completely off guard.
“May I know what it is that I did to offend you?” I asked. Winter’s beautiful face twisted into a frown, but I heard a chuckle emanate into my mind through the Judgment panel.
“I told you he wouldn’t even remember.” Un’s voice chuckled. “I doubt he even gave it much thought. He was probably more caught up in sorting out everyone’s feelings, rather than his own.”
I frowned at the hint, but still didn’t get it. “What do you mean? What are you talking about?”
Winter sighed, and drew along her thigh with her finger until finally saying, “You never gave me an answer.”
I cocked my head. “An answer to what? Did you ask me anything?” Winter opened her mouth with a look in her eyes that conveyed her desire to scream, and Un just cackled louder.
“Do you not remember the night, very recently, if I may add, where you asked each of your female companions what kind of relationship they’d like to have with you?”
My mind instantly snapped back to Winter’s reply to that question a couple of nights ago. I nodded my head. “I remember. You wanted to continue to be my bodyguard, while also keeping our more physical relationship in tact. Was that what this is about?”
I half expected Un to laugh at my confusion, but instead I received a surprising sigh. In the end, Three came to my rescue. “Joshua, what she is upset about isn’t that you heard her out. It’s the fact that you failed to respond to her. You gave her no confirmation, no denial, you just listened to her, acknowledged the choice she made, and then proceeded to move on without giving her a response.”
That's ridiculous. I was sure I… I gave her… “shit.” I muttered aloud, causing a grin to come across Winter’s face despite herself. “I’m so sorry, Winter. Un was right. I was so anxious to hear what you all wanted to do that I actually forgot to give you anything resembling a response.”
“Let me tell you this. As you know, I’m currently in a relationship with Lucina. My only concern in continuing our ‘relaxation sessions’, would be that Lucina would have a problem with it. The thing about that is, I don’t see a world where Lucina has a problem with it. On the contrary, I also can’t see a world where Lucina doesn’t ask to join in. So in the end, my answer is yes, I would like to continue what we have now as well. Especially because you know what type of woman Lucina is.”
Winter chuckled and wiped a tear out of her eye. “Yeah, she’s a big ball of hormones, that one.” Winter sighed, and leaned back fully into the cushions of her seat, seeming to melt into the chair itself.
“I assume that answers your question then?” Winter nodded in response, and gave me one of her gorgeous smiles.
“In any case Joshua, thanks for answering me. I have a much clearer head now.” I smiled to myself and shook my head.
“No, I owed it to you. You don’t need to thank me. If anything, let me know what you want to do once we get back from this whole mess. I’ll make it up to you, I promise.”
Winter closed her eyes as she prepared to fall asleep for the remaining duration of our journey. “I’ll keep you to that, Mr. Paladin.”
I rolled my eyes, but said nothing more as I too closed my eyes, and was enveloped in a sudden darkness.
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…………
Something was wrong. I could no longer feel any physical sensations. I tried to open my eyes, but the darkness remained.
“X? Un! Three!?” I called out the names of my most trusted programs, but received no response. “Cin, Hachi!” No response from them either.
“Is this just a nightmare?” I tried to gain some semblance of control through lucidity, but nothing around me would change to my will, and I was still surrounded by darkness.
“I apologize.” I heard a familiar woman speak. “I wanted to give you some time and advice about the next phase of the trial, but the rest of the council vetoed my action.
A light blinded me from the front, and it took nearly ten seconds before I could make out the form of Alexstasia Bloodcrown. I wiped the tears out of my eyes and noticed that she was more to scale. Still a head taller than me, but the usual ten-foot lifeform seemed only about 7 feet in this space.
“I assume this is about the second Trial of Damocles then?” I said. “Where is everybody? I thought I would need the help of my Judgments for this one?”
Alexstasia smiled sadly. “They will be returned to you at the start of the trial. Along with the people who are currently in possession of them.”
So much for the new bodyguards from Winter. I inwardly sighed. I was ashamed to admit it, but it was only at this time when I remembered the predicament of the Princess. “Listen Alexstasia… Can this wait? I need to rescue-”
“She is in no danger.” The Starlord said. “She is being kept safe in a cryogenic stasis chamber, and the time progression of the world will be protected and kept stagnant by the will of the Starlord of Time, Decidium. When you have finished the second trial, she shall be returned to you and your company.”
“I don’t understand.” I told her. “Why would you all go so far to lure me here. Surely the trial could have taken place anywhere else on Ethia.”
The Starlord shook her head sadly. “That’s where you’re wrong, Joshua. We needed you to be here for the special polarity of the north pole. As far as we Starlords have discovered, this is the only place where we can open up spatial rifts without dire consequence.”
My eyes widened as she spoke. “It could not have been anywhere on Ethia, Paladin, for the second trial will see you returned to Earth.”