The Pilgrim’s celebratory roar echoes all across the Lake.
Lincoln and I remain quiet. We watch the stirring red water. A fish leaps out of the Lake, snatching a Pit ruffian corpse floating on the surface.
The water bubbles. Scarlett’s bloody bag floats to the surface without its owner. Like the corpse, a fish leaps to the surface, tearing the bag to shreds.
Lincoln’s head sinks as he releases a long breath. His Associate Cog ejects from his hand. It takes to the air and circles around him, emitting blue light.
“I’m sorry,” he says, struggling not to stutter his words between chattering teeth. Droplets of frozen ice drop from his clothing as he squeezes his fist. “I’ll get Pierce over to help search for her, but it’s pushing ten below zero. I have to change clothes and raise my body temp.”
Aggressively shivering, he performs a string of hand signs to Pierce on the opposite side of the Lake.
While signaling back, Pierce says something to Terra next to him.
Terra nods. She says something to Noah, who hurries away with several others. She then starts marching around the edge of the Lake. Pierce, Summer, Ayameko, Owl, Rabbit, Preacher Wainwright, and dozens of Pilgrims follow her.
“Wait for Pierce and the others; it’s still dangerous.” He runs along a path that goes deeper in The Ramble. “I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
Propping my leg on a rock, I reach down and yank a zipper just above the back of my icy boots. A stream of grayish-red water drains out.
I scoop a handful of snow and cast it into the bloody Lake. ‘Naught may survive in these odious waters I created anyway!’ My palm slaps against a glass tree. ‘Perhaps instead of ‘Fairy,’ I should change my name to ‘Devil.’ At least the worst thing fairies do is steal children, not create hellscapes!’
Sir Mouser slips out of the arc suit. He sits in front of me. While swinging his tail lightly back and forth, he stares at me with a curious gaze.
‘Sir Mouser, I fear Scarlett is already gone, but prithee, assist me in giving the area around the Lake a thorough search.’
He spins around and then races up the side of a tree.
“Notice: The Mistress’s Erysichthon value has already risen to ninety-two.”
I make a slight nod. {Aye. I thank thee for the warning.}
Earl moves to my side. “Query: Is the Mistress troubled?”
{’Troubled’ is an apt word, I suppose. Not only has this day been a tragedy that’s multitudes worse than the one we only just mourned, but it was also something that my personal matters helped cause. Then, after rallying the Pilgrims, our attackers still managed to leave with little resistance and likely only chose to leave because they considered the camps thoroughly ravaged. Finally, despite all my rashness, I failed to save anyone with my own actions. It feels like I am a child bumbling about on the streets of London again.}
She plops down on the ground next to me. “Remark: This one thinks the Mistress may be exaggerating the Mistress’s culpability. This one once overheard a fleshie refer to something like this as a ‘pity party.’ Query: Does the Mistress know if this situation qualifies as such a party?”
I shake my head. {Mayhaps. I do not know what that is either.}
Hugging her lantern with a frown, she asks, “Query: This one is curious why the Mistress did such foolishness for that fleshie?”
{I see Terra and thee share the same opinion on my actions.} Stumbling to my feet, I respond, {All I can say is, though Scarlett’s actions were clearly steeped in revenge, it was an act of self-sacrifice that required courage that would steal the heart of most. Scarlett earned my foolishness, especially since she is… was the same as Jessica... while also being Jessica’s antithesis.}
Earl tilts her head with a doubtful expression.
{Jessica showed a willingness to bring suffering unto others for her revenge, while Scarlett showed a willingness only to bring it upon herself. ...I have met many Jessicas in my time, but few Scarletts, and so I acted.} I attempt to sheath my sword, but it refuses to slide in. The tip is bent from spearing the fish, and there are several nicks in the blade. {And in the end, it amounted to naught. My lack of action before today pushed both Jessica and Scarlett down opposing, but equally dark paths.}
While clicking her tongue, Earl goes to stand. “Response: The Mistress, unfortunately, hasn’t forced the fleshies to do anything. Recommendation: Avoid foolish actions in the future; there is no fleshie deserving of such high-risk acts from the Mistress.”
{...I suppose that it was her decision to give her life.} My eyes search the Lake and then drift toward Sheep Meadow. The trees there still burn, and occasional gunfire still echoes. {Yet, thou shouldst already know that I am often selfish, distrustful, and, as I have come to realize this past month, insensitive. ...But my greatest flaw might be that I suffer from a ‘foolish fondness.’}
“Statement: None of those sound like flaws to this one. Query: But what does the Mistress mean by ‘foolish fondness?’ Can this one alleviate the Mistress’s suffering?”
As I am about to answer her, I hear the crunch of footsteps in the snow. “Suffering? You aren’t hurt, are you?” I hear Terra ask. “I already sent Noah to go help Ethan and Nyle. So I can take the Pilgrims and my men around to drive the residual attackers out if you need a moment’s rest.”
{Nay.} While shaking my head, I turn to find Terra studying Earl and me with an expression of relief. {What I suffer from is a foolish fondness, for the foolishly lionhearted.} [1]
Terra raises an eyebrow.
Shaking her head, Earl says, “Dissent: Mistress, this one thinks it’s a fixable flaw. This one recalls a rejected adaptation named ‘Away with the fairies’ that could help.” [2]
Terra sighs as Pierce, Summer, Owl, Rabbit, and the others walk up behind her. She opens her mouth to speak yet freezes when a droplet of water hits her cheek.
The Lake’s surface begins bubbling next to us. Something huge erupts from the water.
Everyone falls into the snow as a shadow blocks the sun’s remaining light.
There’s a loud crunch above us. It becomes eerily calm immediately afterward.
“Notice: This one has begun the transformation of Node 6 and the surrounding vegetation.”
I look up.
Overhead is the spider colossus’s carcass impaled on a glass tree that’s still rising higher as it completes its transformation. The abdomen, legs, fangs, and face are missing; it’s only the spider’s trunk remaining.
The spider’s remains make a squishy noise as it settles further down on the glass tree’s stalk. It comes to an oozing halt six feet above us.
There’s a popping sound.
A pale girl tangled in algae tumbles from the top of the spider’s corpse. Algae strands snag a branch, suspending the girl in the air.
Preacher Wainwright yells, “It’s her, it’s Scarlett!?”
Jumping to my feet, I sprint toward her.
My sword slices at the algae that binds her to the spider’s corpse. Its blade weakly tugs the strand, failing to cut anything. {I think my haze is too thin, and it’s making my arms weaker! Mayhaps the cattail!?}
{I doubt your cattail will help much.} Terra hurries over. {You’d have to be cautious around Scarlett, and even the spider had a hard time pulling algae from its fangs.}
Stabbing the sword into the snow, Terra and I try to unravel the algae.
Everyone else rushes over to help.
“Move it, amateurs,” Rabbit says, pushing everyone away from Scarlett.
Owl follows Rabbit, and together, the two spend a few seconds examining the algae.
“Not so bad!” Owl remarks. “There’s clearly a pattern to the madness.”
Rabbit snaps her fingers. “Yep, I see it too!”
They begin to unravel the algae with a keen finesse.
Pierce faces the Pilgrims. “Ditch one item of clothing; she’s going to need it.” As Pilgrims toss their clothing into a pile, Pierce lays them out, making a bed of warm clothes. “Hand warmers, feet warmers, anyone have those in their shoes or gloves?”
Several Pilgrims nod and quickly remove white pads from their gloves.
“Any males who aren’t a physician or already helping, leave now,” Terra says as she starts removing Scarlett’s drenched clothes. “We have an abundance of people here to help, so just leave your warm clothes and go, or I’ll feed you to the turtle!”
Most of the men leave as we lower Scarlett’s partially undressed body unto the bed of coats. Pierce places ‘hand warmers’ on her torso and covers her. Rabbit dries her hair between two dry hand towels.
Owl places his hand over Scarlett’s mouth. “She’s not breathing.” He moves his hand to her neck. “And there’s no pulse.”
With his mouth half-open, Preacher Wainwright shakes his head. “N-n-no!” he stutters. “She can’t be; we’ve already lost so many!”
“M-maybe not!” Ayameko kneels next to Scarlett. “I’m a ‘woofer,’ and we were told that when it comes to hypothermia, a patient isn’t dead until they’re warm and dead.” [3]
I stand and move to the side as Ayameko places her hands on Scarlett’s chest. “I’m going to start CPR, and I need someone that can help me time my compressions!”
Pierce stoops to Ayameko’s side. “I gotcha!”
Everyone, excluding me, seems to understand what this ‘C-P-R’ thing is.
“Preacher Wainwright, I need you and—” Ayameko glances at everyone’s expressions and then points at Summer. “—and you, the lady with the black hair and rifle, go find a stretcher or something we can use to carry Scarlett!”
Summer glances at Terra, who waves her off.
They leave just as Earl appears above Scarlett, sitting on the spider’s mangled carcass. “Celebration: Mistress! This doughy pile of fleshie meat will be a colossal gain for the Tower and the Mistress! It might even be enough for a partial extension of Fairy’s Pantry!” She grins, exposing her razor-sharp teeth. “Statement: With the exception of all that’s happened to the Mistress, this was the best day ever!”
I nod, continuing to watch everyone do their part to help Scarlett.
Pursing her lips, Earl asks, “Query: Has the Mistress decided to give the fleshie to Tenebrous?”
{Nay... But to treat this type of affliction, I was taught to pour warm water down their throat, rub their body until warm, and then “to bed them next to a warm woman.” They are doing more than that, so I… I do not know what else to do to help.}
“Counter: This one thinks the Mistress may be mistaken. There is possibly something the Mistress can do.”
{Then tell me what I may do!}
“Response: This fleshie was awoken using the Mistress’s haze. The Mistress may be able to warm and stimulate the fleshie’s squishy meat if the Mistress Tempers them quickly enough.”
{Will that work!?}
Earl shrugs. “Answer: This one doesn’t know, but this one is interested in seeing what happens.”
{How much heliotrope is available?}
“Response: Not nearly enough for a heliotrope cloud, but there’s enough for the Mistress to absorb it and take on a heliotrope form.”
I nod.
Earl vanishes as I hurry behind a glass tree. ‘Prithee, my status, Cosmic System.’
The Cosmic System’s blue wall appears.
Name: Constance Nightingale
Race: Kiln
Seed Type: Tower [Sprout]
Variant: Oort Stained Glass
Forms: [Particulate] [Collapsed **Inaccessible**]
Shell Level: 4
Flame Level: 2
Durability: 55/68
Mana: 173/310 [118/155 Max Shielding]
Erysichthon: 98/155
Inborn Effects: Corrupting Oort Cloud
Adaptations: [Independent Cords··] [Comrade Cracker] [Throng of Haze] [Twofold Living Pupils··] [Snappish Beads] [Paste Pearl (0/5)]
Skills: [Feline Whip (N-8)] [Gluttonous Naturalist (ID-1)] [Supine Humorism (N-1)] [Tenebrous Sneak (N-10)]** [Invasive Scrounger (N-4)] [Mana Crunch (N-6)] [Glister Squire (I-5)]**
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Titles: [Roanoke Lost] [Parasitic Thief +] [Trailblazer (Humorism)] [Towering In Footprints]
Chronicles
Independent Cords has superseded Cattail Tendrils.
Twofold Living Pupils has superseded Negating Membrane.
** Awaiting selections of subsequent skills or extensions.
‘My Erysichthon is even higher than it was a moment ago.‘ I push the wall away and step behind the glass tree. ‘Fortunately, I have the Snappish Beads adaptation to supplement some of the loss.’
Pulling the arc suit’s zipper, I quickly exit it.
As the arc suit hits the snow, the node begins to release slivers of heliotrope haze. My body attracts it like a sponge attracts water.
Someone shouts, “Still no pulse!?”
“Negative,” Pierce answers.
My hands take on a grayish-purple hue.
Moving to a red puddle caught between a ring of stone, I study my eyes. As usual, they are two bright purple spheres, but now there is a second light at their centers. One is a dull gray and the other a radiant violet.
‘Irises, I have irises.’
As my body continues to absorb more heliotrope, I move nearer to the puddle. The dull gray and violet irises take on a fluttering shape. It’s difficult to see without moving very close, but these irises are, in reality, two small haze butterflies drifting in the sea of purple.
‘...I hope Terra finds them agreeable.’
While I stare, something different starts to happen with the heliotrope. Tiny pellets of violet begin to develop inside the haze. It’s much like what I observed earlier in the heliotrope cloud, except now it’s restrained to the interior of my body.
It looks as if the starry sky has been drawn into me and my dress.
Inside, the three other varieties of haze become more distinct. Sable, vermillion, and hoary drift and spin between the stars, keeping themselves from tangling with the other types.
A purple wall appears.
Earl Interface:
Notice: Erysichthon has fallen to zero. The proportion of heliotrope haze has risen far past its default level of 1.53% to 52.01%. The ratios will return to default levels over time.
I push the purple wall away and stand. My body emits a violet light upon everything surrounding me. At night in this form, I imagine I could be spotted from hundreds of yards away.
Before walking out from behind the last tree, I take a moment. I have never shown myself to any common Pilgrims before. Only Terra, Lincoln, Lorcan, Rabbit, Owl, and a handful of others have seen me.
I shake out my hands and prepare myself to be gawked at.
Walking out, I stand there with clenched fists. ...No one except Sir Mouser notices me.
Sir Mouser bounces from a tree branch, hopping atop my head. His body absorbs some of the heliotrope to match my appearance.
The chilly wind blows, and strands of radiant heliotrope drift off with it. ‘Enough! This is not the time for shyness!’
Sir Mouser nods.
I hurry to Scarlett’s side.
“Who’s light is that?” Pierce asks.
At the same time, Ayameko shouts, “Any sign of a pulse!?” When Pierce does not answer, she looks back. “What is it, the stret—” Ayameko stops speaking.
Everyone has ceased working on Scarlett. Now, as I feared, they only gawk at me.
Covering my shoulders, I hurry closer.
Several Pilgrims lurch away from me, screaming,
“What is that!? It’s got a tentacle!?”
“Is that a cat on its head!?”
“First mushrooms, now aliens!?”
Their eyes dart around my figure, gulping in every detail.
I glance at Terra. {Prithee, make them stop ogling me.}
“Always surprising me,” Terra murmurs with a blink.
{Terra, I am uncomfortable.}
Frowning, she snaps her fingers. “No more rudeness and no more staring! It’s just Fairy and her companion!”
Galtry yelling at them causes their faces to lose all color.
“Fairy has a pet cat? And it’s a fairy cat!?” Ayameko whispers to herself.
Drifting to Scarlett’s side, I kneel beside her. {I require a moment with Scarlett. I do not know what I am to do, but I am about to do something.}
She stands and waves everyone back. “Give Fairy some more room!”
All the Pilgrims respond to her quicker than she can say the words.
I roll back one of the coats exposing Scarlett’s navel. The wound across her abdomen has partially sealed itself. Though it’s still a gash, and blood has ceased running out of it. There are cuts on her wrists and a bruise around her neck from where the algae dug into her.
‘She might have grown stronger when the spider perished, but that cut on her abdomen is deep, it should still bleed.’ My eyes examine her chest. I cannot see into her like I could for Nyle, Ethan, and Ayameko. ‘Earl, how do I...’
As I am about to ask, the haze responds first. Many of the little stars inside my heliotrope body depart.
The stars glide around Scarlett and me like hundreds of fireflies. A thin mist of heliotrope haze builds into an orb around us.
Half the stars float into Scarlett’s half-parted lips. Nothing seems to happen; I do not see any spinning haze inside her chest.
Moving closer, I examine her thoroughly, and that’s when I notice it—a thin sliver of pale haze.
‘There is naught but hoary. Is it too late?’ I hesitate to do anything further, but I realize the hoary is thinning. ‘Prithee, Scarlett, I pray thee shall forgive me for what’s about to happen.’
The hoary sliver spreads outward inside Scarlett. As it does so, more of it drifts from around where her heart is. The hoary resists the heliotrope, facing it in a battle of wills.
Heliotrope is the victor as several more violet stars drift through Scarlett’s lips. Hoary is driven into Scarlett’s limbs, yet much of it passes up her nape. Her blue eyes dull; losing what little light they had, they become bluish-gray.
The laceration of her abdomen, the cut on her wrists, and the bruise on her neck all heal, leaving only scars.
Her body spasms and convulses.
All the stars flow back into me.
Several people hurry over and hold Scarlett’s arms and legs. Someone forces a piece of bark between her teeth, trying to stop her from biting off her own tongue.
“Hey, stop! All that craps an old wives’ tale!” Pierce yells, trying to squeeze his way to the front. “Don’t shove anything into her mouth! And don’t hold her down like that; turn her on her side!” [4]
Hardly anyone hears Pierce over a woman shouting, “Look! Her hands!”
I look down. Scarlett’s fingernails have fallen off; the veins running from the nail bed have turned dark. A honed gray glass sprouts from the cuticle, replacing her lost fingernails.
“It stings!” a Pilgrim says.
The Pilgrims holding Scarlett’s limbs gasp, releasing her. They flip their hands. Their palms are red from where they held Scarlett.
Noticing something, Pierce brushes Scarlett’s blonde hair to the side, exposing a ring of gray glass around the crowd of her head.
Her body goes limp.
We watch in silence as Scarlett blinks. A small red tongue pokes out as she pushes the bark from her mouth. “Cold… Dark,” she murmurs. Her dull eyes glance randomly about. “Has God lead me to Hell? Am I at the bottom of the Pit?”
Everyone remains deathly quiet while Terra waves her hand in front of Scarlett’s vacant eyes.
As if she’s staring straight through Terra’s palm, she focuses on the glass tree limbs overhead. “...Light,” she whispers, tracing the twisting branches of the glass with her eyes.
Her irises follow the limbs until they eventually find me. “...Who are you?” she asks. “Why are only you and some trees here alone?”
Terra takes her hand away. “Can you hear me, Scarlett?” Terra questions.
With a blink, Scarlett asks me, “Was that you? I guess I did ask you some questions, but… How do you speak with no mouth?”
Shaking my head, I point at Terra next to me.
She looks at Terra’s lap. “I see a silver book. Is that what you’re trying to show me?”
I shake my head once more.
“There’s nothing else over there. Just the book and a few trees.” Scarlett bites her lip in frustration. “Everything is just black.”
“I understand. Who you’re seeing is the Fairy, so don’t be scared,” Terra adds.
“Fairy!? But, no. I’m sure I should be dead. It was so cold, and there were monsters, there’s no way.”
As Terra tries to explain something to Scarlett, I search for answers. {Earl? What has happened to her? Why can she not see?}
Earl appears next to me. “Query: Is the fleshie blind to the material realm?”
“A girl? ...Are you okay?” Scarlett blinks, asking, “And did you say something?”
“Are you in any pain?” Terra asks.
“N-no… I feel numb… maybe a little empty.” Her head tilts in the other direction. She gazes at the Tower’s sharp peak in the distance. “The Tower? It looks so lonely in the sky alone. ...Has it always been so sparkly?”
“Confirmation: This fleshie has lost the ability to observe the material realm but appears to be competent in perceiving the spiritual.”
“What did you call me? A fleshie?” Tilting her head, Scarlett asks, “What does that make you?”
Earl grins, causing Scarlett to flinch. “Answer: Less chewable for one.”
{Earl, stop scaring her.}
“Who are you talking to? What do you see?” Ayameko asks.
“Ayameko!? Is that you? I-I’m looking at a little girl holding a lantern. She’s standing right next to me,” Scarlett says, staring over Ayameko’s shoulder.
With a snicker, Earl vanishes as Ayameko flinches and looks behind her.
Glancing at Terra, Scarlett, and me, Pierce says, “She might be hallucinating.”
Summer and Preacher Wainwright return, carrying what looks to be a cot from the medical tent. They place the cot adjacent to Scarlett.
“Wasn’t easy, but we managed to get it,” Summer says. “Saw the missing Líng Nian too. It’s been recaptured.”
“We ran into the Hex Church Bishops, and they helped us,” Preacher Wainwright adds between huffs. When he looks at Scarlett, he gasps. “Scarlett, you’re awake!? Oh, thank the God in Light!”
“...P-Preacher?” Her eyes widen. “Where are you? I think the Fairy saved me somehow. I’ll try to explain what I was told. I… I can’t see!”
Pierce raises his hand at Preacher Wainwright. “You two can talk all you want later. We need to move her, but try not to touch her bare skin,” he says.
“Without touching my skin? ...Is something wrong with me?” She lifts a hand and watches it intently. Twitching her a finger, she mumbles, “I can see myself too, but my nails? Those don’t look like they’re acrylic.”
Using the pallet of coats, they move Scarlett onto the cot and rush her toward Terra’s camp on Cherry Hill using the pallet of coats.
Around me, I hear the fervent whispers of the Pilgrims,
“Did we just witness a miracle?”
“...I mean, it could be magic, but Fairy definitely just brought that girl back from the dead.”
“If the Fairy can bring people back to life, then what about her Mistress?”
“Maybe we should join the Glass Quandary after this?”
In tandem, they turn and gaze at me with probing eyes.
Time creeps onward.
----------------------------------------
+1 Orenda
3 Stat Points Remaining
Achieved Novice Mana Crunch [Grade 7]
Near Cherry Hill, I sit at the peak of a glass oak tree, holding a two-foot-long glass skewer in my hands.
Beneath me, Doctors rush too and fro, attending to at least three hundred seriously wounded Pilgrims. To the west, in an area named Strawberry Fields, are fifteen hundred Pilgrims, all of whom were exposed to the heliotrope and are experiencing an awakening. Then at the Terrace, there are two hundred children that cannot find their families. And lastly, the dead have not been gathered yet. For now, they have been left to lie where they are.
It’s been and will continue to be a struggle. After what the Pit’s Maw has done, it will be much worse.
We have already vacated Sheep Meadow and Frisbee Hill.
Sheep Meadow is naught but cinder and mushroom husks. The primary issue is that the canisters sank into the snow; hence, the snow still has spores that the heliotrope could not purge. Frisbee Hill, on the other hand, is salvageable. It was mostly burned, not pelted with canisters.
As for Pilgrim Hill, Cherry Hill, and Great Lawn, they have been mostly left intact thanks to the heliotrope clouds drifting through early enough that the mushrooms never had an opportunity to disrupt defenses. I also overheard Hoarse remark that Cherry Hill was the origin of the initial explosions. He said the Pit ruffians targeted Terra’s stockpile of resources while everyone was at the quest judging. I suppose attacking the stockpile of resources makes sense if their goal was to coax the Pilgrims into scattering, as Jessica alleged it was.
...There’s also Cedar Hill. But it’s a different, much worse matter. Terra and I will be going there together in a moment.
“Notice: This one has completed the transformation of Node 7 and the encompassing vegetation. Note: All nodes have now cast off their spiritually vacant material.”
Glancing back, I see a tall glass cherry tree made of pinkish glass. It reflects off the Lake’s surface alongside the moonlight.
{It’s lovely. Excellent work as always.} My eyes drift downward where Scarlett lies on a pallet, staring upward. She studies the glass trees with a whisper of relief. {Scarlett seems to find the glass trees comforting.}
Earl shrugs. “Remark: This one shall take the Mistress at her word.”
{I made this for her to use. She should be able to see and use it to help feel her way around. In time I can lengthen it.} While inspecting the glass skewer for any sharp edges along its shaft, I ask, {But doth thou knowest if Scarlett will ever be able to see anything that’s not spiritual again?}
“Response: This one doesn’t know, but this one suspects that there is likely a method. The Mistress can see the material realm with the hoary, so the fleshie might one day find a way to do the same. Though this one thinks the fleshie will never perceive the material realm with the same light it once held.”
{Just as my own hoary vision functioned. The material realm almost seems foreign when I look at it through naught but hoary eyes.}
{Constance,} Terra’s voice echoes in my head. {Owl and Rabbit finished preparing one of the extra suits. Are you ready to go to Cedar Hill?}
{I am ready.}
Turning where I cannot be seen, I hop off the branch and drift to the ground below.
Looking into Terra’s stoic face, I ask, {How art thou?}
She glances down at her bloodstained clothing and raises an eyebrow.
{Aye. A silly question, my apologies… I merely worry about thy health.}
{Thank you.} Terra glances around to make sure no one can see her not acting like ‘Galtry.’ Opening the arc suit, she moves close and holds it for me. {…And how are you?}
Glancing at the injured Pilgrims, I blink.
With a disapproving frown, she says, {A silly question, my apologies.} She shakes the arc suit. {But are you going to put this on, or are you going to leave me standing here?}
{...I suppose not.}
As I slip into the arc suit, she studies my new eyes. {First eyelids, now irises, you’ve got it all, don’t you?} she asks with a slight chuckle. {Well, as a longtime member of the heterochromatic club, I think I’m qualified to say yours are some of the most beautiful I’ve seen.} [5]
My hand moves to my eyes. {I thank thee. Though I had hoped that thee would help me decide on what to use to make them.}
{I don’t really understand what that’s supposed to mean, but I’m sorry I couldn’t.} She exhales a hot breath into the cold night air. {More importantly, I need you to do something for me before we go to Cedar Hill.}
The last of my haze drifts into the arc suit. {What is it?} I ask.
{You need to take a moment to harden your heart.} As she seals the arc suit and straightens its fabric, she continues, {This will be the hardest thing you’ve had to do so far.}
I make a slight nod.
{Then when it’s over, we’ll both have to walk away and prepare Hotel Casale for Fairy’s Pantry opening.}
I nod once more.
She takes a deep breath and closes her eyes. {Because according to Earl, there isn’t enough ‘heliotrope’ left to save everyone.}
....I nod.