Chapter 10

Snow began to fall on the city as Vesta sat in front of her window it had been six day since the shift had happened and she had mixed feelings about being in the new world. It wasn’t like she missed her old world or her old body for that matter, but there was just something missing.

A chime from her door indicating that someone was in the hallway broke her moment of thought. With a thought she opened a holographic window that floated in front of her that showed a live feed of the outside of her door.

“I gave at the office.” Vesta said as a joke.

“Good morning.” Spark said holding up a cup that Vesta could see was steaming just a little.

“Come in.” Vesta said unable to resist the idea that he might come bearing coffee.

The door slid open and Spark walked into the room. He did indeed bring two hot cups of coffee and the room filled with the delightful aroma. Vesta eagerly accepted the beverage and began to sip it down to wake her soul where it still wanted to slumber.

“It’s odd to see you relaxing.” Spark said considering Vesta’s situation. She was sitting with her legs curled underneath her in a chair that sat in front of a window that overlooked the city.

“Everyone has to take a day for rest. Otherwise they fall apart.” Vest said with a smile.

Spark walked over to another chair that sat next to Vestas and sat down. He took a sip of his own coffee, “I guess you make a fair point,” He said with a hiss of enjoyment.

“Do you miss home?” Vesta asked after a few moments of silent enjoyment of the drink.

“Like Earth?” Spark asked.

“Yeah.” Vesta said with a contemplative nod.

“Honestly, not really. I miss some people that I knew, but I mean I act like I’m awesome but really I was kind of an asshole.” He said with a shrug.

“No!” Vesta said with a loud fake gasp.

“Alright, alright.” He said holding up his hand.

“I miss something, but I can’t really put my finger on what it is.” Vesta admitted after a small chuckle.

“Silence.” Spark said with a sigh.

“What, no.” She said shaking her head.

“Oh, come on. I could see from a mile away how you felt about him.” He said making blowing a raspberry.

“Dude you’re crazy.” Vesta said pushing her hair out of her eyes.

“I’m sorry that boy was blind as a bat if he couldn’t see the way you felt about him.” Spark said crossing his arms.

The room fell into a dead silence. It was the most awkward that Vesta had felt in many, many years. She found the liquid in the cup she held to be extremely interesting.

“Anyway, do you know what today is?” Spark asked finally breaking the silence almost ten whole minutes later. She assumed that he was torturing her.

“The sixth day since the shift?” She asked looking at him.

“Yes, but it is also Christmas Eve. I’m going out today to check out some of the small shops that have sprung up from our new citizens. I want to spend money with them so I’m going out to get you a Christmas gift.” He explained standing up from the chair.

“It’s CHRISTMAS EVE?!” Vesta asked.

“December twenty fourth, zero A.S. You don’t have to get me anything at all, but if you’re interested, we could have dinner later. As friends of course.” He said with a bow.

“That sounds like fun. Yes,” she cleared her throat, “as friends.” She said.

Spark gave her a friendly smile and nod before he left the room. When she was alone with her thoughts, she realized that he had hit the nail on the head. It was Silence that she missed, but not him specifically. It was the relationship that she was always trying to have with him that she missed. Tossing her feelings at him and hoping they stuck.

That was then and this is now she told herself as she stood up. He wasn’t there and there was no telling if she would ever him again. She didn’t need to pine over something that never actually existed.

After a nice hot shower Vesta suited up to go mingle among her citizens. She needed to find a gift from someone that she knew less about then she thought that she did. Instead of taking the elevator down to the main floor she took the two flights of stairs up to the roof.

From the top of the huge building she looked down at the city she was building. In the commercial zones that she had designated Vesta could see that there was a market area that was starting to form. The rectangular area was surrounded by new shops, but there were also smaller stands that had been erected in the center.

With a blink and a miniscule amount of energy Vesta appeared on the street outside of the new bazaar. Even with the snow that fell there were dozens of people walking and shopping in the market.

“Merry Christmas!” A man dressed in a Santa suit yelled as Vesta walked by. He rang a bell and was being followed by a man and a woman who were dressed as elves. The elves were handing cookies out to people as they walked by.

Vesta smiled, though no one could see it as she walked into the bazaar. Right off the bat she saw goods of varying values and qualities. There were stalls that were selling various resources that were needed for the crafting systems in the world. Crafting was something that Vesta had spent a good deal of time working on before the shift but had not even looked at it since.

The question that was now plaguing her was what in the hell would she get for Spark. The first stall that she stopped at was the home of crafted weapons. The crafter was a specialist in melee weapons. There were dozens of swords and other blade-based weapons. Given that they were crafted Vesta and Spark both had far more powerful weapons given that they had earned them in raids.

The next stall was filled with low level crafted armor. A good start for new players, but nothing that would really help Vesta or Spark. She moved on from the stall and continued to shop.

It took her twenty minutes to get from one end of the bazaar to the other. She came across stalls that sold everything that she could think of from serums to clothes. Everything was at the lower end of the levels, but her city was only a few days old, so she considered that it was doing well.

After all that though, she still didn’t have anything for a gift. She started the loop of the shops that had been established. Most of them were just more of the same compared to the stalls that she had looked through. Their owners just had more money to get started than those who chose to start a stall.

Vesta stopped in a shop called Talya’s artifacts. As she walked into the small shop, she could feel the energy coming from the items on the glass shelves. With the shop’s name being what it was Vesta expected a dust old shop that was dark with random items on wooden shelves. Instead this place was like an art gallery with white walls bright lights and glass shelves. Everything was neatly categorized and lined up perfectly on the shelves.

“How may I help you today?” a woman asked walked out from behind a all glass counter. The glass was not clear like the shelves however it sported a clouded texture.

“Well I’m in search of a gift.” Vesta admitted walking through the shop.

“A gift on Christmas Eve? What an impossible task. Luckily you’ve come to the right place.” The woman said with a bow, “I am Talya the owner and sole employee of this shop and might I say that it is an honor to have our lady in my shop on this day.” She said with a smile.

“Thank you. Do you really think that you can help me?” Vesta asked.

“I’ve traveled the world in search of artifacts to populate the shelves of my store. I was once set up in Axiscore but recently felt that it was getting too crowded and left in search of a place of a new home.” Talya said with a smile.

“Well I’m sorry that you’ve had to uproot, but I’m glad to have you here.” Vesta said.

“As for your gift,” She walked over to a shelf that was a grid like layout of nine shelves each held a different colored orb, “You should give one of these a try.”

“And these would be?” Vesta asked without the slightest clue.

“They are experience orbs.” Tayla said with a slight smirk.

“That’s it?” Vesta asked a little underwhelmed.

“Ah I understand your confusion. These orbs aren’t ordinary orbs. They give you experience, yes, but you live the experience that you gain. This orb,” She picked up the orb that was glowing red, “You relived the fire wars of the Yolrian era.” She explained.

Vesta took the orb when offered and a vision filled her mind. She was on the frontlines as a massive battle waged in all directions. The sky was streaked with fire and the heat was intense around her in the air. It would have been a battle that she wanted to be a part of but not necessarily something that Spark would care for.

She came back from the ‘trailer’ for the orb but didn’t get a chance to check out any other. The crowd outside began to devolve into screaming. Vesta handed the orb back over to Tayla and bolted from the store.

It wasn’t easy but Vesta moved her way through the crowd towards where the screams. The people had gathered in a circle around whatever was happening. When she broke through, she found the man who was dressed as Santa laughing madly with his hands outstretched.

Around him there were about a dozen people foaming at the mouth and viciously lunging at the crowd. Vesta recognized one of the people who had taken a cookie from the men dressed as elves that had been walking with the Santa Claus.

Vesta threw herself into the circle and knocked back one of the rabid people from biting an onlooker. She was careful not to injure the man who was snapping at them like a wild dog, but he was relentless.

“Who are you?” She demanded of the not so sane looking Santa. Upon a closer inspection she noticed that there was blood around the collar of the suit, and it was filthy.

“Well, I’m Silent Night.” He said, “Ho, ho, ho.”

In a ridiculously fast motion Silent Night lunged across the space between them in a red and white blur. Vesta managed to throw her arms up to block in the incoming attack. She was knocked back onto her butt, however, she was able to kick up and send the jolly imposter end over end.

“Are you seriously a villain dressed like Santa Claus?” Vesta demanded as she jumped off of the ground.

“The evilest most vile man on earth, why wouldn’t I?” He asked licking his lips when he stood.

“How in gods name do you figure?” Vesta demanded in astonishment.

“Don’t you know? Santa Claus hates poor people!” He said practically seething. He reached into his bag and pulled out an assault rifle. Leveling the weapon at Vesta he didn’t hesitate to open fire even with all of the people around them.

In a burst of movement, she did the best that she could to put herself between the people and the bullets. Her suit did a wonderful job of stopping the weapon’s fire, but she wasn’t fast enough to stop every shot. A couple of people went down and Vesta knew she had to get this mad man out of the city.

She ran towards the man as fast as she could. When his clip ran out of rounds, she dove on top of him and teleported them out of the city. The first place that came to her mind was the camp where they had taken down the gang outside of the city. When they popped into existence, they appeared over a repair robot that was damage when she dropped onto of it.

Silent Night devolved into maniacal laughter from where he laid in the dirt. Vesta struggled to separate herself form the robot and get off of the ground.

“What is so funny?” she demanded standing in front of him ready to end the fight.

“Merry Christmas!” He said with a yellow toothy grin. She hadn’t noticed that there was something in his hand, but she would never forget the click.

No less than a dozen explosions rang out from the city. Vesta watched helplessly as several pillars of flame shot into the sky from different places, most near the market.

“What have you done?” Vesta asked in a hushed tone.

Silent Night could do nothing but laugh.

She wanted to kill him, but she had to go help her people. They were the most important thing to her. When she turned to take one last strike against the man he jumped up and took off running, surprisingly fast away from the camp. She gritted her teeth and turned back towards the city.

In a pop she was back in the market. There were fires burning all around her. This was not a huge problem, however, despite the damage that had already been done. With focus she was able to pull all of the close fire energy in and store it in her body putting out the fires.

She found her way to the center of where one of the explosions had originated. On the ground she found pieces of what seem to have once been a Christmas present.

“What a monster.” She said.

As fast as she could she began to rush around the market so that she could offer aid to anyone that was hurt in the explosions. Once they were able to calculate the injuries, she was happy to find that there were no deaths. The worst of the people were taken to the newly built clinic where they would receive medical attention.

“What happened here?” Spark said flying down.

“A villain named Silent Night.” Vesta said helping a shop owner lift large chunks of debris, “Where have you been?”

“I had to fly a town over to get your gift.” He said in shame, “I’m sorry that I wasn’t here.”

“What’s done is done. Don’t be sorry, get to work.” She said pointing to a pile of wreckage.

“Yes ma’am.” He said with a nod and rushed over to help another shop keeper.

~//~

It would take days to full repair the damage done by the attack with most of the robots for the city tasked on projects. When Vesta and Spark came to a point where they were far enough past completely exhausted to stop the sun was coming up over the horizon.

“Merry Christmas.” Spark said realizing that it was Christmas Day.

“It’s really wonderful that we can mark our small nation’s first Christmas with a terrorist attack.” Vesta said with a puff of frustration.

The two of them were standing in the market alone. Everyone else had packed it in for the night to get ready to celebrate with their families.

“Shall we? I am in desperate need of some sleep.” Vesta asked.

“Yes, please.” Spark said.

Vesta walked over and laced her fingers in Sparks. With a whoosh they were standing in Vesta’s apartment. Snow began to fall even harder than it had the day before. The fresh blanket would hide the fact that most of their little market was ruin.

“Before you go to bed.” Spark said usher Vesta over to the sitting area by the window.

Her suit unfolded allowing her to step out and she couldn’t help but sigh in relief. The suit was self-propelled, but the strain of wearing it all day did take its toll. Spark took his helmet off and set it on the table.

“Here.” He said handing her a wrapped package.

“You know you basically just handed me a bomb.” Vesta joked trying to make light of the even horribly.

“Just open it.” Spark said eagerly.

“I didn’t get you anything. The chaos broke out as I was trying to pick something.” Vesta said as another stall.

“That’s fine, just open it!!” Spark said.

Finding no other reason to stall Vesta tore away the paper that covered the box. She was absolutely terrified of what could be inside. Considering the gift came from Spark it could literally have anything.

When she opened the box, she gasped. Inside was the most beautiful crystal rose that she had ever seen in her life. The diamond-like glass construction refracted the light in many different colors as she turned it in the light.

“I heard a while ago that you had hundreds of roses in your house back on Earth. They don’t have roses on NuValla believe it or not. So, I had this one crafted for you. I was hoping that someone in the city would have had enough skill, but no one has a crystal crafting skill that I could find.” He said with a massive grin on his face.

After gently placing the rose down on its stand where it hovered in small circular motion, she threw herself at him in a kiss. He wrapped his arms around her in a tight embrace.

“I was also hoping that this thing would get me laid.” He said pulling his lips away from hers.

Despite her better judgment Vesta pushed Spark down on the couch and moved on top of him lowering herself down for another kiss.