Valentine

"City hall," Wally decided, "If there's any order left in the city, there'll be some bureaucrat sitting at city hall pretending he's still in charge of everything."

I crossed my arms and looked down at Wally, "Your composure is remarkable for someone lying in the dirt," I remarked.

Wally let out a long breath and shook his head. The force and sheer volume of his breath kicked up a cloud of dust and blew the grit off the rocky ground.

"And if order has broken down?" Regina prompted.

"Then there'll probably be a biker gang, some mobsters, whatever, sitting around at city hall pretending they're in charge," Wally shrugged, "Things might not be that bad, though. They still had electric lighting as recently as last night. On the other hand, if they've got power gen somewhere in the city, then their lighting will probably hold out a lot longer than food and water. So who the hell knows? We'll need to go down and look."

Amity leaned forward to look down the crater's interior slope, and Wally visibly shook.

"Well, we can't take the truck down this," Amity observed, "Back down and around?"

"Yeah," Wally agreed. He paused to think for a moment before continuing, "I... think we should camp here for the night. It'll take the rest of our daylight to reach the city in the first place, and I want to see what it looks like when the lights come on."

"Wise," Regina agreed, "I do not fancy the idea of making camp on the outskirts of that, particularly when our cookfires will only serve to announce our presence."

"I've got a mini version of my stove enchantment," Wally corrected, "But the point about the lights is right. We'll back down the slope a bit, set up camp, and once the sun goes down, we can get an idea of where everyone is."

I prodded Wally's side with my foot, "Why not set up camp right here?"

"We're going to back down the slope before we set up camp," Wally insisted.

Wally shuffled backwards until he was well clear of the edge and then rose to enter the truck.

Regina did not bother to hop back into the cargo bed, but Amity did come up to stand on the running board while Wally backed the truck up.

Amity gestured at The Father, already in the sky, "It's First Light. It won't be truly dark until after midnight."

Wally sat half-turned with his arm over the back of the seat as he guided the truck down the slope, "Maybe not," he allowed, "But inside any of those buildings, it'll be dark enough for people to start turning lights on well before the sun goes down. Even with The Father, we should be able to make out some of them," Wally shrugged, "We can get up early if we need to.

He slowly brought the truck to a halt, and Amity stepped down from the truck. It rocked slightly as Wally pulled on the parking brake and then took his foot off the pedal before settling back onto its suspension.

"Do you need any-"

Wally smiled and ruffled my hair, "Just take it easy. I got this."

"Fine, but you'd better-"

Wally made a placating gesture, "I'll enchant the next batch of paint before we go to bed, and I'll put it on first thing in the morning."

I nodded reluctantly and went to sit with Regina while Wally and Amity got to work making camp.

The truck's bed was large enough to house all four of us, so Wally was working to put up the canvas cover, though the rest of us sat under the open sky while Amity got to work on our evening meal.

"Eyes are next," I muttered, squinting into the darkness.

"Pardon me?" Wally asked.

This time we were all lying prone at the edge of the crater, scanning the terrain below.

"My eyes," I repeated, "This might be just fine for you lot, but I'm half blind, and I'd prefer not to announce our presence by turning on a light."

"Val," Wally grimaced, "Eyes are just about the most complicated thing in the body. I'm not even sure this endurance enchantment is gonna do the trick. Eyes are on a whole different level."

"It's telling," I muttered, "If I wanted larger breasts, a narrower waist, or wider hips, that would be easy. Randy noblemen have poured a fortune into researching the enchantments necessary. But enchantments to strengthen my body, instead of making it more desirable to look at, those hardly get any attention."

I heard a soft scraping sound as Wally's arm moved across the rock, and I felt his gentle touch on my back.

"I'll see what I can do," he promised.

"Thanks, but no bigger than an F-Cup, okay?" I grinned, "Too much larger, and it'll only get in the way if I'm trying to fight."

"Uh-"

"Oh, or were you referring to my eyes?"

"Yeah."

"Amity, he's blushing, right?"

"Bright red," she giggled.

"I swear to god- Stop making fun of me for a sec and listen."

We subsided, waiting for a moment until Regina broke the silence.

"It's far too quiet," Regina rumbled.

"It's miles away," I protested.

"The habitation cylinder where I lived was a theme park," Regina began, "A fantasy experience for families, couples, or individuals with a few thousand credits to spend. My domain was several kilometres from the entrance, where the hotels and restaurants lay. It was as large as a small city, and yet, even kilometres away, I could hear the difference between the Halloween or Christmas rush and the off-season. A city has a hum to it, even at night. And one must remember, this is a city of humans. For most of them, this hardly qualifies as night."

"You know how much trouble I have sleeping while The Father is in the sky," Wally pointed out, "It's going to be the same for anyone down there."

"But all the lights?"

As poor as my vision was at night, I could see the city lights plain enough. Every single street, except for portions of the burnt-out section, was lit. And even within that charred ruin, I could see the steady orange glow of human street lamps. Wally had mentioned something about 'sodium vapour', or some such, explaining that it was the sodium that gave the lights their odd colour.

True, there were few buildings lit, but then these were humans. They could do without.

I could even see pairs of lights, in either white or red, moving down the streets. The pattern was the same as our first truck, or, for that matter, the one Simon had constructed.

"A city this size could house two million people, easy. Probably a lot more. This city isn't making nearly enough noise for there to be two million scared, hungry, and thirsty people."

"There," Amity said decisively, and I heard the scrape of fabric on rock, "That industrial area on the edge of the city. I see no lights aside from those on the street. It should be quiet, and we can get our bearings. If we need to hide the truck, we can do it there. Otherwise, that thoroughfare can take us right into the core of the city."

"What is to be done with anyone we find?" Regina asked cautiously.

"If they're not shooting at us? We tell them to grab what they can and run like hell," Wally replied, "We just don't have space for so many people. The biggest problem is simple population density. If we're going to have a shot at keeping everyone alive, we need them to spread out as much as possible. I just hope I'm right and that the city isn't nearly as full as it should be."

Wally slept little that night. Yes, there was The Father, which interfered with Wally's oversensitive human eyes. But I knew that the kind-hearted giant had greater worries.

Two million people? The figure boggled the mind. But even if he and Regina were correct, and there were many fewer humans still within the city, we had not even the space for a few hundred. Even the three cities could only absorb so many. Tens of thousands, perhaps? But not much more. And the question remained, how would we begin to transport so many people to safety?

Wally was not a man to refuse a genuine request for aid. In that way, he was too kind for his own good. What happened when someone inevitably asked him for help? And once it began, it would not stop. Word would spread, and we would be swamped.

Neither of us spoke, but laying there against him, I could tell that he was still awake, thinking.

Had he been in a different sort of mood, I might have slipped beneath the covers. That always seemed to put Wally right to sleep. Instead, I pulled myself up until my head was next to his and shook out my hair until it fell across his face like a blanket.

I heard him sigh and felt his breath on my skin. He rolled over and pulled me in closer, buried his face in my hair, and stilled. His breathing gradually slowed, as much as it ever did, and he fell asleep with his head resting on my shoulder.

He stirred slightly at the sound of distant gunshots but stilled when I stroked his hair and made soothing whispers.

I feared that I might not be able to get any rest of my own, having only been awake for an hour or so since arriving at the crater, but with Wally so warm and so close, I need not have worried.

The room was dark, lit only by scented candles and lamps burning perfumed oil.

The floor was soft, as if walking upon one great bed, and the walls were hung with curtains so heavy they strained the brass rods holding them up. Even the ceiling was covered and gave the impression of a four-poster bed.

I turned on my heel, but my eyes couldn't seem to find the door. Instead, they were drawn inward and down. The room was circular, with several tiers, like you might find in a small lecture theatre.

Reclining on each level were women in various states of undress. Some I recognized from The Blushing Maiden, while others were foreign to me, and many of those I saw were human.

The figures in the centre of the room were blurry, indistinct, but their forms grew clearer as I descended further.

The women changed with each passing tier, the fantasies they offered growing darker and more intense. I found my blood rising, and my breath was coming hot and fast as I ran down the last few steps to the bottom.

Only then did the haze rise, and I saw who was gathered in the centre of the room. It was Wallace, surrounded by my friends from The Maiden. Wallace was not taking part, but the others...

Well, I'll just say that Chastity wore only a blindfold and leave it at that.

There was... Who was that standing behind Wallace?

He seemed not to notice her, too busy watching Irony discipline Chastity it appeared, and my eyes seemed to slide off her.

Her form was fuzzy, and yet somehow, I knew she was the most gorgeous creature I'd set my eyes on.

I forced myself to focus. This was my dream- and it was a dream -and while the content was undoubtedly correct, it felt off.

My amulet, aside from strengthening my body, had also bolstered my mind. Without it, I now fell back upon techniques I'd relied upon in the early days of the Cataclysm. When Mind magic was new and terrifying, and there were few defences against it besides a strong will.

The figure came into focus, and an indistinct blur resolved itself into a beautiful human with mouthwatering proportions.

There was a flicker of surprise on her face, so brief that it may have been imagined, only to be replaced with a self-assured smile.

"Ah, the first of my champions has passed her first test," she smouldered, and when she spoke, my body could not help but tremble in anticipation.

Nonsense, this is a dream. My body is imagined.

"Who are you, and what are you doing in my mind?"

She spread her arms, "I am Amora, and I seek champions. If you are near enough for me to reach, you must have seen my city by now."

"Your city?"

"Yes," she breathed, and my skin broke out in goosebumps, "There are others like myself who would use the city to their own ends, but you will not let that happen."

Dream. This is a dream.

I began to take deep breaths, though it did little to cool my desires.

"W-Why would I do that?"

Dammit, I'm letting her get to me.

She gestured languidly towards Wallace and my friends, "Because I reward my champions well, and because my generosity is rivalled only by the horrors of my foes."

I shook my head and turned away, but my foot caught in the bedding, and I fell to my hands and knees.

"Wally said-" I shivered, "Wally said there should be plenty of people here. Get one of them."

"There are many people within my city. Your Wally speaks true. But they are afraid. My victory was meant to be swift, immediate, bloodless. But one of our number overstepped themselves, and we were all of us, punished. What forces remain to each of us scrabble in the dirt, scavenging for food and supplies, too busy to bring a merciful end to our conflict."

I stumbled to my feet and rounded on the woman, "And you want me to clean up your mess?"

"No, I would never put such a burden upon one person," she insisted.

Her hair rippled as she shook her head, and I furrowed my brows as I came to the realization that despite staring straight at it, I could not name the colour.

"Do you think it is coincidence?" she asked, "That two couples should arrive, just when they are needed most? My people are afraid, but I sense within you the willingness to fight for what is right, to fight for your Wally. I sense the same fervour within Regina, I sense her loyalty to Amity. You have been summoned. Aid me and be rewarded."

Wallace- Dream Wallace, held out an inviting hand.

Gods, would that be good. This was all I'd wanted when we were back at The Maiden. Finally, I was about to-

"No," I growled, my voice husky with desire, "That's not Wally. He wouldn't want that."

The woman, Amora, stiffened. Again, it was only for a moment, and then she spread her arms again, a wide smile on her face.

"You have passed the second of my tests, and I am impressed. You will make fine champions. You will wake soon. It will be up to you and Regina to share what I have told you with your Wally and Amity when you do. Let them know of the boons I offer them and what is at stake should they fail."

The woman blurred, faded, and was gone. The other women began to disappear shortly afterwards, like fog boiling away in the light of the sun. The room dissolved, its colours blending into each other until Wallace and I floated alone in a black void. The space between us expanded, forcing us apart, and Wally shrank away, disappearing into the darkness.