“Alright, here you go, kid,” Nyx said aloud to a closed bathroom door. In her hands were a clean change of clothes, retrieved for Amaris. The door opened some to reveal the pinkette with her hair down, smiling gratefully at Nyx before accepting the clothes from her.

“Thanks for getting these for me. I can’t.. I can’t go back there yet. Not after-”

“Don’t worry about it. You don’t have to explain it to me,” the older woman interrupted, giving Amaris a patient smile. “Just get yourself cleaned up and then we’ll head out.”

Nodding in understanding, Amaris then closed the door, the sound of the shower turning on soon following after. Nyx stepped away to sit on the edge of the bed, falling back onto the bed with a small groan. After their earlier conversation, Amaris had brought up how she needed to get new clothes. Understandably, the girl was still shaken up about what happened in her home, unsure if she can go back there soon. So Nyx offered to go there in her place. It was just a change of clothes, right? It didn’t seem like too much of a hassle to Nyx, especially when she wanted to stay on the kid’s good graces for the time being. It’d make looking after her easier.

So Nyx went off back to the farmhouse, the fencing outside and the patio having yellow “do not cross” tape across it. The wreck inside was still there, holes in the walls and floor with bits of broken furniture around. She didn’t really expect for them to clean that up, but the mess upstairs was another thing. After Nyx went up to the second floor, she found that the blood was still there, dark in color. The parts leftover of the attacked family were cleaned up, taken to a hospital for further investigation. Nyx did wonder if it was a good idea to bring this up to Amaris at any point, that the remains of her family - what was left of them anyway - were being preserved until Amaris gave the word on what to do with them.

Given Amaris’ state of mind at the moment, Nyx figured it was better to wait until the girl stabilized first. Right now, with the memory and grief still fresh, it’d just push Amaris further into despair. For now, she could use this time to get to know Amaris better, to figure out more about the girl’s past and what it was about her that let her encounter those monsters to begin with. It couldn’t be a coincidence that she’s the only one to have seen these interdimensional realms, found the monsters within, and also survived it to be able to talk about it. And on top of that, why she was immune to the effect of that monster core. Nyx found it almost unsettling that she (and anyone else that was curious about the core) ended up succumbing to laughter and happiness every time they touched the core. Yet Amaris carried it around like it wasn’t a big deal.

If that wasn’t weird enough, Amaris can also apparently pull blades out of her body, which Nyx found out when the pinkette was recalling the fights with the monster for the report. And Amaris gave a little demonstration by having metal claws extend out from her hand, retracting them back into her. This in itself was outside of the norm. There was so much that wasn’t clear about Amaris herself. Hopefully Nyx can figure out some more when they took the train to the city. The sooner they had a better understanding of their one clue, the closer they can get to closing the case.

The bathroom door would open up, Nyx lifting her head some to see Amaris step out of the steamy bathroom. Her hair was still wet and down, the pinkette wearing a tight black crop top and black pants. She held a towel to her long hair, trying to dry out the excess water.

“Was it really a good idea to wear this? I only ever wore this one to stay at home,” Amaris said with some hesitation, rubbing her bare midriff.

“The way I see it, this makes it easier to minimize clothing damage from your blades,” Nyx started, pushing herself to sit up. “We can’t have you go shredding your clothes every time you decide to pull swords and daggers out of yourself, right?”

“Well.. yeah, you have a point.”

“Of course. Now get your shoes on, we have to head out as soon as possible.” Nyx stood up and smoothed out her clothes some, Amaris quickly heading back into the bathroom to hang the wet, used towel onto the towel rack. Stepping out again and grabbing her clean socks from the counter that Nyx also brought, she sat on the bed for a moment to get her socks and boots on. With that done, she stood up and approached Nyx, who looked her over once and then nodded. Turning to head out, Nyx opened the door and waited for Amaris to follow before closing the door again. It was then that Amaris realized they were at a motel and on the ground floor, not recalling that from last night. Then again, it wasn’t like she’d have been able to notice anything given the circumstances.

Nyx would lead them toward her nearby parked car, unlocking it and settling inside, with Amaris following her lead and getting inside. Well, this much she did remember, the familiar interior of the car reminding her of last night’s drive. It was still difficult to believe that her family was gone just like that. Yet she couldn’t bear to go back to that house again. She didn’t want to be there to see the destruction, their blood, and have that prevalent silence hanging over her. It’d be far too much… and yet it didn’t feel right to suddenly avoid the one place she called home. It felt like her own feelings were trying to tear her apart from the inside out, her hands starting to shake again. She pulled them close to herself, pressing against her stomach to steady them.

“You alright,” asked Nyx, looking at her with concern.

“Y-yeah.. Let’s get going.”

Unconvinced by this, Nyx stared for a moment before shrugging and putting the car in reverse, pulling out of the parking spot and then driving out of the parking lot. Amaris looked out the window to distract herself, watching as they drove by the buildings of Glimmerport. To think that this was what got her to head out to the city - the same monster that stopped her before had ended up being the cause of it. If she had the energy for it, she would have chuckled at the irony, but she didn’t have it in her at the moment.

“So kid, I have to ask… Are you from here or are you one of the Connected,” Nyx suddenly asked, causing Amaris to jump a little from the break in silence.

“Uh… I don’t really know,” Amaris admitted, turning her head to look at Nyx and then focus ahead at the road. “I don’t remember anything, honestly. I just remember waking up in a grassy field and wandering out. Then I stumbled onto the farm.. And they took me in.”

“I see. Nothing else beyond that, eh?”

“No, nothing at all.”

“Well, it’s likely you’re one of the Connected since you don’t really have any of the usual abilities that the Lumians have. That being the fire, water, earth, air, and spirit powers.”

“Huh.. And you’re a Lumian?”

“Well, sorta. I’m Lumian in the sense that I’m from this world,” Nyx explained, shrugging her shoulders. “In terms of country, my homeland is Asmaria, the islands to the south.”

“Oh! I wondered why you looked kinda familiar,” Amaris started, looking a little excited. “I’ve seen some Asmarians working at the docks. Tan skin and purple-colored eyes are the usual traits - er, from what I noticed, anyway.”

“You’re not wrong,” chuckled Nyx. “I headed out here because.. To put it bluntly, the islands are kinda boring. There’s not much to do there, so I migrated over to this country of Thiacia. And that’s when I realized the islands weren’t so bad since there weren’t nearly as many problems here than there.”

“Is it about those tensions over in the city? My family mentioned it some time ago.”

“That’s one of the problems. Thiacia doesn’t want to keep getting more Connected, our sister country Exaltos to the north isn’t opening their borders to let some in, and now we have a problem to the west with the barrens.”

Hearing all this, Amaris realized how much she didn’t know about what was going on anywhere outside of her town. She didn't know where to start with that one, but there was one thing that piqued her interest.

“What are the barrens,” she asked, looking at Nyx curiously.

“The barrens? They’re… They’re exactly what they are - dead land where nothing grows,” Nyx started, her gaze on the road but growing more serious. “Quick question, but were your family followers of the Lumian faith? Worshipped the gods?”

“Not really… Mom and dad always believed you got what you worked for. They didn’t really agree with the faith much.”

“I see, then you don’t know much about how this world was made and all. Well, I’ll try to keep it simple: There were the two goddesses Vesper and Halcyon, who represent order and chaos respectively. Vesper discovered a lost soul in the void of this universe, who didn’t know how he got there but he just was. His name is Joren. Vesper and Joren grew close to one another, and they decided to create a world together. So the world of Lume was born, but Halcyon, who was dormant for most of that time, awoke to what happened between them, and she wasn’t happy about being left out like that.

“But she didn’t want to start a fight about it, so she went to Joren and offered him a bit of her own power - the power to break the walls of reality, the divides between universes, to draw in people from other worlds. She had hoped he’d be indiscriminate about it, but Vesper kept Joren from bringing malicious people. Halcyon grew upset and just decided that if she wasn’t allowed to have any influence on this world, then it didn’t deserve to exist. She went on a rampage and started destroying villages, towns, settlements, anything that people were starting to thrive in. Her power and fury were so intense it corrupted the lands she attacked.

“Those lands became the barrens, the life and spirit of nature absent from them. Anyone who uses fire, water, air, earth, and spiritual powers can’t use them at all there. There’s just nothing to draw from. But that’s not the worst of it… Some people have tried to go back there, to rebuild what was lost. What they didn’t know was that setting foot on that corrupted land would have them afflicted with delirium.”

“Delirium? What.. What is that?” Amaris’ blue eyes held concern about this affliction, having never heard of it before.

“Basically, it’s something that mostly affects the mind. The longer you stay in the barrens, the worse it gets. I heard it starts out with distorted vision, then you start to get hallucinations, a fever sets in, and then.. The mind deteriorates into insanity. People don’t usually make it out of the barrens alive, and those who did survive were usually lucky to have had someone go rescue them quickly enough. All because of Halcyon’s lingering chaos energy.”

“Wow… I had no idea that something like that was here,” Amaris said soberly, fiddling with her thumbs on her lap. “The way you talk about the gods, though.. They sound a lot like normal people, sort of. Bonding, getting jealous, getting angry… But what happened to Halcyon? Who stopped her from destroying the world?”

“It was Joren. See, he became the earth god, taking in the souls of the departed on these lands. He did receive some power from Vesper too, which I think is what helped him to stop Halcyon. He ended up absorbing her, and no one has seen her since.”

“So Joren is a good guy, because he stopped her,” Amaris said hopefully, Nyx chuckling a bit.

“Well, he is in a way. But he also kind of changed after that… because he started to bring in Connected of all types, regardless of their morality. Might be ‘cause of Halcyon but I guess that’s better than dealing with a rampaging chaos goddess.”

“Yeah, that sounds easier,” agreed Amaris, nodding.

“Just promise me you won’t go wandering into the barrens alone, alright? People avoid them for a reason now, so don’t go looking for trouble there.”

“I won’t go there, I have enough on my plate as is.” Amaris leaned back in her seat, looking out the window again to see that they had already driven out of Glimmerport, on the way to the capital city of Shimmercrest.

“What’s the city really like, anyway? I heard a bit but I don’t know what to expect,” she asked, glancing at Nyx.

“Shimmercrest? Well… That’s where the Lumian and Connected tensions are. But that’s the biggest concern there. Other than that, the city is really nice. It has these huge walls around to help protect the city, and those walls have warden stones and viata crystals in them. I think you know that’s what keeps everyone’s powers mostly suppressed?”

“Yeah, there’s some in Glimmerport too. The harbor had them, but I think they only brought them down to a point. I still had my strength while I was there, just not at its fullest.”

“That’s right. I think it goes by how strong a person is. The stronger they are, the more suppressed they get, but it doesn’t leave them completely powerless. I don’t think you’ll run into much trouble while you’re in the city. You’ll see that it’s a beautiful city, full of all kinds of people.”

Amaris smiled a little to herself after hearing Nyx’s answer, relieved to hear it wasn’t as bad as she thought it was going to be. If anything, it made her feel kind of eager to see what the city was like with her own eyes, what should have been seen before that monster interfered with her day. If only she could tell everything about the city to her family, like it should have been that day.

Nyx was right - the city really was surrounded by huge alabaster walls. They looked so pure and strong, like they could take the biggest hits to protect the fragile city within. It made Amaris wonder how long it took to build those walls up that high. They would slowly drive past the front obsidian-colored gates, Nyx taking a side street to avoid driving through the marketplace near the front. It looked so busy with all the people there, Amaris’ eyes wide in awe as she caught a glimpse of it. She hoped she had the chance to eventually check out the marketplace and see what they were selling. As they drove on, the pinkette looked out the passenger side window to see the different types of people in the street. Many looked human, while some had skin colors she had never seen before, and others even had animal-like features on them too! Most of them were Connected, weren’t they?

As they continued driving through the paved streets, Amaris noticed they were pulling up to a small parking lot next to…

“The Awful Battleaxe? What is this place,” Amaris asked Nyx, pointing at the establishment.

“It’s a tavern. You know, a bar? The person I need you to meet is here,” Nyx replied, parking the car at the closest spot. There didn’t seem to be any other cars here, and the place didn’t seem like it was open this early.

“Um, you sure they’re here? It looks like we’re the only ones to show up,” Amaris pointed out, Nyx turning the car off and getting out. Figuring it best to step out to hear the answer, Amaris unbuckled her seatbelt and stepped out as well, closing her passenger-side door.

“Don’t worry, I let her know to meet me here. I did it when I went out to get your clothes,” Nyx assured, walking ahead to the door of the tavern. She knocked on it a few times as Amaris joined her, the pinkette tying her hair up into a ponytail with her red ribbon. The door would open up after a couple more seconds, Amaris looking up to see a white-haired woman with.. Fox ears and tails?

Wait a minute… Isn’t this that woman Sterling told me about? The one who helped him find a job?

“Hey, Mei, hope I didn’t bother you with meeting me here too early, but I wanted the privacy between us,” Nyx greeted with a wave. “This here is Amaris, by the way. The girl I told you about.”

“Oh, so you’re the mysterious Amaris,” the fox woman, Mei, said with a smirk, looking over Amaris. “Alright, come on, get in before anyone else sees you and thinks the place is open.” She stepped to the side and opened the door wider, allowing them inside the tavern. Together, the two stepped into the empty tavern, Amaris noting how clean it was. She always thought taverns were kinda messy… but the wooden tables and chairs, the bar itself, the stools in front of the bar, and the floors were nicely cleaned. Maybe Mei really looked after the appearance of the tavern?

Speaking of, Amaris turned to get a better look at her, noting the woman was wearing a red tank top with a low cut and some blue shorts that were about mid-thigh length that hugged the woman’s hips. Her feet were clad in strappy black sandals, the whole outfit casual yet… well, Amaris had to admit that it was kind of revealing too. Then again, it wasn’t like she could say anything when she was walking around with her own midriff showing. Beckoning them to follow her, Mei walked over to the closest table and pulled out a chair to sit on, waiting for them to join her.

“Alright, so what exactly do you need my help for,” Mei asked as she propped her elbows on the table, resting her chin on her hands. She looked at Nyx in particular, gazing through her lashes with emerald green eyes, her four tails swaying behind her.

“It’s simple really,” Nyx started, sitting down as well with Amaris joining them. “I need your help with a little experiment I want to conduct with Amaris. Tell me, Mei… You can siphon out some spiritual energy, can’t you?”