It didn’t take me long to realize how boring things were going to be on days where nothing important was happening. Not to mention that they weren’t good for my anxiety. Without any construction projects going on that involved manual labor, all I had to do was sit around with my thoughts. All I could do was think, plan, and worry once I ran through all my usual conversation topics with everybody I saw.

Most of the demons still felt uncomfortable around me even if they respected and liked me. That didn’t help. Even though I insisted on us standing at each other’s sides as equals, they still behaved at times as if they didn’t deserve to. Even Enna, who was always at my side whenever she wasn’t having demonic period cramps, still acted nervous around me.

Then again, that might have been because she liked me instead of because she didn’t see herself as my equal.

I let out a sigh and cracked my neck.

I wished that Enna wasn’t feeling sick. All the free time I suddenly found myself with could have been getting spent on flirting with her. I could have been flirting with her, teasing her, and spending time with her. Maybe take things to the next level.

Then again, was that even the right thing to be doing? Was it right of me to go and flirt with somebody and potentially take them as a girlfriend when I had so much riding on my shoulders? I doubted the people of Earth and any other world at stake would be happy about me flirting it up with a cute girl when their future depends on me.

But at least they wouldn’t see me sitting around doing nothing.

Back to the demons’ treatment of me, the only ones who really felt like they treated me as a perfectly normal equal were Thad and Sara. Thad was—well, just awesome in general. Maybe it was his centuries of experience that made him so chill. As for Sara, she saw herself as my superior if anything, but she knew better than to act like it, so she ended up treating me as an equal. Anything less than that would have been too degrading to her.

But I hadn’t seen her since we lost the support of her father. I had no idea where she was or what she was doing.

“Guess I’ll check on Enna,” I said, standing up from my chair at the Council Pavilion to go over to her tent.

I found out where Sara was once I pushed the entrance flap to Enna’s tent aside.

Sara had one hand over Enna’s forehead with another hand over her abdomen. What looked like purple energy, which I had to assume was magic or something similar to it, flowed from her hands into Enna’s body.

“What are you doing to her?” I asked, trying not to assume anything.

Sara looked at me, the depression on her face clear, and said with a monotone voice, “Don’t worry. All I’m doing is numbing the pain and putting her to sleep. I heard her crying, and I know what it feels like, so… thought I would help.”

“Isn’t being a woman great? You get punished every month just for existing.”

Sara glared at me.

“That was sarcasm. If anybody is going to get punished just for existing, I would rather it be politicians and anybody who works for the IRS. Or the ATF. And the DEA while we’re at it. You know what? If it’s a government agency with a three-letter acronym, it belongs on the list.”

Sara sighed and looked Enna over. Enna looked soundly asleep at that point, so Sara stood up and focused her attention on me. “Is there something you want?”

“I wanted to check on how Enna’s doing. But now that she’s fine thanks to you, I’ll check on you instead.”

“I don’t want your sympathy, if that’s what you think.”

“And I wouldn’t want it either if I was in your shoes. But I have been in your shoes. That’s why I’m not offering you my sympathy. All I’m offering you is an ear that will listen to your feelings.”

“How could you understand what I’m going through?”

“I’ll tell you about it if you want to know. But let’s talk in my tent. I don’t want to risk waking Enna up.”

Sara looked hesitant to accept my offer, probably because she doubted what I said, but she still nodded. Maybe she was curious about confirming if what I said was the truth. Or maybe she really did want somebody to listen. Either way, she followed me to my tent.

“Alright,” I said, now in my own tent with Sara. “You can sit on the bed. I already feel like I’ve done enough of nothing today, so I’ll stand.”

Sara might have hesitated following me to my tent, but she didn’t hesitate sitting down on my bed. Not only that, but she lay down atop it as soon as I made it clear I wouldn’t be joining her on the bed.

Though, seeing somebody with a body as hot as hers on my bed made me want to join her on it. I might not have expressed much interest in her before due to her attitude, but her body was incredible.

I avoided checking it out, though, as that was inappropriate under the circumstances.

“Alright, human,” Sara said. “Go ahead. Tell me about how you can supposedly relate to me.”

“My parents never gave a shit about me and abandoned me as soon as they realized I wouldn’t be useful to them,” I said.

That get rid of her snarky tone.

“My father’s Russian. My mother, Korean. They’re both pieces of shit perfect for each other. They got married and came to America a few months before she was ready to give birth to me. Overstayed their visa, had me on American soil, and thought that meant they would get to stay with me and skip all the annoying parts of legally immigrating. I was meant to be an anchor for them. Too bad for them, they weren’t aware of some new, strict laws that took a hard stance against that. They got deported and were supposed to take me with them. Only, they didn’t. They left me in America by myself. Not because they cared about me and wanted me to live a better life or anything, but because I had no value to them if I couldn’t be their anchor. And naturally, the government was too incompetent to make sure they were taking me with them like they were supposed to.”

Sara's expression and tone softened, no longer combative in the slightest. “How did you even find out about it?”

“Because when I was a teen, when the law got modified to allow parents to come and stay with their children who were born citizens, they tracked me down and got in touch with me. I was staying with my old man at that point. I was excited to meet them, but he was suspicious of the whole thing. Turned out he was right to be. They acted like they loved me—like I was their long-lost child they were trying to find for over a decade. But they were pretty shit actors. My old man got the truth out of them. Let me tell you, it did great for my self-worth considering I already lived my life afraid of what my real parents thought of me. Told my old man after all that went down that I wanted to kill myself. He told me to stop being dramatic and to take the trash out.” I couldn’t help but to laugh when I remembered that. “He was a real asshole sometimes. But he only said that because he genuinely thought it would help me. And he was right. It did. Don’t think he would have said that to somebody else if he didn’t think it was right for them.”

“He wasn’t your real dad, right?”

“Right. He was just some old guy who ran his own woodworking shop. Found me when I ran away from my foster home and took me in. Taught me all about what it means to be a real American.”

“Must be nice.”

“I take it you didn’t get the same option.”

Sara shook her head. “There was no running from my father. It was either obedience or imprisonment, just like what happened to my brother. Even now, if he were to feel like I’m running away from him, he would still punish me for it despite what he has done.”

“Have you ever actually loved him?”

Sara looked straight at me for a few seconds before turning her head away. “No. I’ve despised him since I was a child and hate him now more than ever.”

“Then you were only acting like a spoiled princess before.”

“Everything I have done is to earn my brother’s freedom. But… so much for that. You ruined the plan I’ve been working on for years. I thought you would be an excellent choice for this… but I underestimated your… spirit.”

“It’s the American spirit. I’d apologize for it, but that wouldn’t be American.”

Sara sighed. “Nothing matters now. We’re going to be crushed, die, and be wiped from existence. There’s no point in keeping up the act. I can’t even find it in me to stay mad at you.” A window popped up in front of me. “What’s the point when it won’t change anything? All that is left to do… is to wait for death.”

That window that showed up—it couldn’t have had better timing. It almost felt like it was fate. Destiny. “Don’t count us out just yet.”

“Why shouldn’t I? We have no source of population. Everybody else will progress ahead of us. And even if we do find another source, that won’t change the fact that my plan is pointless without my father’s favor. He will never release Zaratheus to me. I planned on winning through you and using that as a bargaining chip, but he won’t value any victory brought by you now.”

“From what I’ve heard about your brother, I’m sure something will be figured out between me and him, so don’t worry about that. The only way to defeat a free spirit is to snuff it out, and Lucy was too proud to do that. That aside, we just fixed our population problem.”

Sara sat up and looked at me. “How?”

“We just found a minor faction settlement.”