They ate a quick meal after changing clothes, setting up comfortable chairs and a little camping stove in the middle of the Sanctuary. Vegetables she recognized were chopped alongside ones she didn't, and tossed into a pot of water with meat she knew better than to question the origin of before tasting for herself.

With the weight of a heavy impending conversation on their shoulders, no words were exchanged until the last morsel was consumed.

Kira didn't cry.

Ailsa felt her heart ache with every word. The detached way the girl explained her past, as though it belonged to someone else. Hollow words, empty. So matter-of-fact it was painful to see in one so young.

Until Kira got to the Hawthornes.

Talking about her family made her voice catch, her lips tremble, her shoulders shake. The atrocities of her childhood were stated with terrifying nonchalance, but the loss of the Hawthornes was a raw wound she had yet to fully acknowledge.

Kira didn't expect to spend an astronomical amount of time inside a Gate. She found the situation weird, at first, and then relaxed and adjusted. Ailsa suspected it may have been part of the Haze effect to keep occupants from panicking and hurting themselves inside a Training Gate. Training Gates were meant for the inexperienced, children barely of the age to access their System properly, so of course it would have preventative measures.

She thought of it like a vacation, a short break away from school and chores and other stressful things a teenager would want to avoid. The fact it was an accident out of her control meant Kira could use it as an excuse to lessen the amount of scolding she'd receive once she finally returned.

Suddenly, magic was real.

Suddenly, the System existed.

Suddenly, gods were confirmed to exist.

Suddenly, there were talking monster friends and a place without homework.

Any normal child would have lost track of time and responsibilities in such a situation!

But to then find everything familiar gone without a trace? To not even be able to talk with strangers or properly question the people around you?

Ailsa sighed, rubbing her jaw. No wonder the child seemed detached! A lack of proper childhood development left her immature in some ways, and far too mature in others. Kira was already dealing with countless traumas and then lost her one anchor in life alongside a complete shift in reality. Her default self-defense mechanism involved repression, she shut down her emotions and withdrew.

An understandable reaction, but also much more dangerous given the huge shift in Kira's reality. Shutting down wasn't healthy, she couldn't control when or how her emotions erupted.

She came from a world where the fighting was restricted to Humans only. Humans were the top of the food chain thanks to their advanced technology and weaponry. From what she described of her life, she'd never seen a war zone or loss of life on a massive scale. Her experiences were traumatic and terrible, but limited in scope.

In a world where entire towns could vanish overnight thanks to a monster wave? Combat was unavoidable, everyone would be drawn into a fight eventually. Whether they were prepared or not beforehand was the real concern.

Fighting, and the ability to fight, became a part of Gaea's culture. Friendly spars, training matches, competitions, tournaments, Parties, Teams, Dungeon diving and Shard exploration. All to help people get strong enough to defend their loved ones against rampaging monsters and hostile Maju!

Kira detaching herself as she fought presented a problem. Ailsa couldn't help feeling like the kid would get herself killed if she kept walking down the berserker's path, losing herself in sorrow and hatred until she couldn't even remember what she did in a battle. What if it happened in a spar against a friend? A friendly training match?

The kid would never forgive herself if things got out of hand.

Ailsa hesitated as she considered how to approach the subject. Hearing words like 'toughen up, buttercup' wouldn't help considering her mental state and situation, that was the Dwarf woman's usual response to students lacking emotional maturity but Kira was something of a special case.

She was already tough. But she was also fragile. A conflicting, delicate balance that could shatter at any moment.

Maybe it needed to shatter?

Or would that cause more harm than good?

Ailsa bit the inside of her cheek, running over potential consequences and scenarios until her head hurt from the effort.

"Actually... I got in an argument a couple days... Before. With one of my siblings. Dahlia." Kira hung her head after awhile, her eyes staring at the empty bowl in her hands while looking someplace far, far into the distance. Her voice was hoarse from talking so much, but she kept going like the words she spoke were fighting to break free. "She, um. I found some drugs, when I was doing laundry? In her pockets. I got really mad at her, but she said she needed it to relax. We argued. Then she said 'broken kids make broken adults, I need it to fix me!'

"I know what she meant. Even if they grab up the pieces, put them back together, glue them in place with silver or gold or whatever else that looks pretty... Doesn't change the fact it was broken before. It just makes something new with the old pieces. But I... Couldn't forgive her using the same drugs That Couple used. I was so mad at her! So I decided to ignore her for a few days until she apologized.

"And then the Gate. And then..." Kira trembled. Tears welled in her eyes, but she looked up at the ceiling to keep them from falling. "I just wanted... Some time to myself! I didn't want... I'll never see them again now, and I'll never get to say... What if... What if they thought I left them on purpose? What if Dahlia thought it was because I..."

Ailsa couldn't sit by weighing pros and cons any longer - she set down her dinner bowl and moved to pull the thin Human girl into a tight hug.

The dam broke. Kira's tears flowed freely down her face, but the blank look in her eyes said she didn't notice. She instinctively struggled against the shorter woman's firm grip, anger bubbling back to the surface through a veneer of sorrow, her hands raining awkward slaps and punches on Ailsa's broad shoulders. Kira's monstrous strength was nothing to the solid body of a high level Bronzen Dwarf - Ailsa didn't so much as flinch.

"I hate it! I hate it! I hate that I can't hate this world at all! I want to level up, and learn more magic, and make friends and see everything that's new in this stupid world, and I've met good people who I can't hate because I can tell when it's fake and it's not fake and they're just good people but this stupid, stupid, stupid world took my family away from me and I can never get them back and I should hate it all and I can't! I don't... I don't know what to do... I don't know how to feel! I just... I just... I miss them so much I can't breathe when I think about them..."

Each word was punctuated with another hit, until Kira's words disappeared under waves of choked sobs and pitiful wails. She trembled like a bird in a storm wind, struggling to stay in the air while everything around was trying to strike them down.

Finally the girl exhausted herself. She lay limp with her head against Ailsa's shoulder, hiccuping softly. Ailsa fished a handkerchief out of her inventory and helped wipe the kid's face, since she seemed too tired to lift her own hands.

Hell Week training was nothing to her, but a good bout of mournful crying was enough to knock her out? Ailsa sighed inwardly, a wry mix of sympathy and concern tangling with amusement at the poor kid's warped way of thinking.

"It's so unfair... Why did everything have to change so much?" Kira whispered after a long few moments of quiet punctuated by sniffling.

Ailsa made her drink a bottle of water after hearing the hoarse croak of the girl's voice, then dragged a blanket out of her inventory and wrapped the kid up tight until only her bright blue eyes could be seen in the cloth nest. She rubbed the girl's back through the blanket, until the moment a now-empty water bottle slipped out and clattered against the ground with a hollow sound that made Kira visibly flinch in surprise.

Chuckling, the Dwarf tossed the bottle in her inventory to use again later. She dragged her comfortable chair closer to the blanket nest so she could relax while keeping the conversation, and the girl's thoughts, away from dangerous waters. "Change happens, it's a part of life. Sometimes its fer the better, sometimes fer the worse, and ye can't always pinpoint how or why. But in yer case... Do ye remember the Proclamation?"

"The... What?"

"That big speech when the System first appeared in yer world."

"Oh... With that... Weird Janus guy?"

Ailsa cringed, resisting the urge to cover the girl's mouth. "Oi, oi, oi! That's a god yer talkin' so casual about, like!"

"Not my god." Kira scowled, brows furrowed, but with the blanket wrapped around her so thoroughly it looked more comical than menacing.

"It ain't like religions back in the Time of Antiquity where yer gods just hecked off and left ye ta yer own devices without even provin' their existence to believers!" Ailsa wagged her finger in reproach. "Gods nowadays be a bit more tangible, see? They ain't metaphorical, they're indisputable! People talk ta 'em, serve 'em, and get killed by 'em for disrespect! Ye gotta watch yer mouth when usin' their name, if they don't punish ye their followers sure will!"

Kira wrinkled her nose. Seeing the girl wasn't going to understand so easily, Ailsa decided to just keep going of her own accord. "Durin' the Proclamation Janus mentioned the War of the Gods. Yer realm lost, so it got merged with a winner ta expand their territory. The big War of the Gods doesn't directly involve us mortals, I think. I ain't a god meself, see, I don't know much in terms of details. There's lesser wars sometimes, skirmishes like, where pantheons change? It involves mortals somehow but the last one was forever ago, ye'd have to question some high-ranking clergy or somethin' if ye wanna learn about those.

"What I know fer sure is, the War is inevitable. Religions teach it's a part of reality's master cycle, keepin' realms from stagnatin' ta entropy. From the stories we're taught, yer realm was stagnatin' somethin' fierce and that led ta its eventual loss. Everythin' changed cuz of forces beyond yer control or understandin'. There's nothin' ye coulda done ta help, or stop anythin'. There's no one ta blame. Aside from the old gods of your realm who lost the fight I suppose."

Kira grumbled and sank even further into the blankets. "I already hated the world's gods. If they were any good, people like me and my family wouldn't have suffered as much as we did..."

Nodding, Ailsa pulled some cartons of juice and box of chocolate snacks from her inventory and shared them with the still-sniffling Human child. "Mm, that's why yer old religions tanked after the realms started their merge. Yer realm's gods were so passive and detached from their congregations, when compared ta other gods who walked with their people? Made decrees? Gave blessin's? The old religions got abandoned real fast-like. Pragmatic choice, really. Nowadays there's quite a few big religions, followin' entire pantheons most of the time. And there's a few beloved by all regardless of people's actual religious orientation! Like Janus and Gaea. They don't belong ta particular pantheons per se, but-"

"Gaea? Gaea... Ah!" Kira frowned, then sat up straight as a few mental gears clicked into place. She opened her System screen, making a window visible to display the new trait she earned on leveling up. "Does Gaea have to do with this?"

Ailsa stared at the window, her eyebrows rising so fast they were in danger of disappearing into orbit. "That... Gaea's Pique, huh..."

"Wait a second, isn't my System window in English? Which no one really speaks anymore? How can everyone read it when I show them, I wonder..."

"Well, the System is made ta be understood by anyone. Janus made it so even the deaf could hear its chimes, the blind could see its alerts, the illiterate could read its contents. I don't see Enliss when I see yer screens, I see Metarrin, me first language. Gaea's Pique, huh..."

"Neat, that's convenient. But yeah, Scan just says 'Gaea has noticed you' which isn't super helpful."

Ailsa covered her face with her hands. As soon as they left the Dungeon, she was gonna facilitate a long conversation between Karl DuFeu and her damned fists! He really dropped her into a school without teaching her anything basic about the new world she found herself in, huh?

Idiot dragon!

Stupid idiot clumsy dragon!

"A Pique is... Er... It means ye ain't blessed yet, cuz yer too weak or haven't fulfilled proper conditions, but ye managed ta attract the interest of a god all the same." Ailsa said, picking over her words. "When the requirements be met, ye'll get a special blessin' of one sort or another, much higher than the types of blessin's received from believers who give offerin's or even devout clergyfolk. I... I ain't ever heard of Gaea's interest bein' piqued before... I got no idea what that entails. Ye'd have to ask one of her followers. A Gaean druid, or an oracle, like. Explains why ye handled the safirite so easy, don't it..."

"Oh." Kira sniffled, wiping her eyes and looking up to meet Ailsa's concerned gaze. She blushed and hid inside the blanket again, covering her face to hide completely from view. "Sorry..."

"Fer what?"

"Everything."

Ailsa reached over and tapped the top of where she guessed Kira's head would be. "Incorrect."

"Huh?"

"The correct phrase here is 'thank ye'."

The blanket pile shuffled nervously, then a softly whispered 'thanks' drifted past the dense cloth. Ailsa chuckled and pulled some more supplies out of her inventory. Two tents, sleeping bags, a lantern, some pillows, and the components for making a ward to block projectiles. Monsters outside the range of the safirite's calming aura were known to fire spells or weapons into Sanctuaries from a safe distance to harass people within. "We'll rest fer tonight. I think ye've earned a good rest. Do ye want some snacks?"

"Uh... Actually..." Kira hesitated, then emerged from her blanket nest again. Her shoulders were shaking, and tears shimmered in her eyes, but her expression showed determination instead of anger. She clutched a plain leather photo wallet, holding it close like it was her only treasure. "Can I... Tell you about them? I think... I want to talk about... My family. So people... People remember them. And how good they were."

Ailsa smiled, ruffling the girl's hair. "Sure, kiddo. I'd like that."