A New Morning

He awoke to sounds of alien birdsong and clicking of strange insects as the light creeped in through a small window above him. The cramped room made of clay walls and wooden floorboards proved itself quite resistant to the same cold that had threatened him just yesterday.

A small window just the height of a forearm sat high in the wall to his side, lighting the room. He could see enough through the window to know that the neighbouring building was so close, that no matter the size of the window it wouldn’t let in any more light.

A small bedside table had his pistol resting on top of it, untouched from the night before when he’d negligently just thrown it down where anyone could reach it while he slept. He looked around for his companion, who’d already irresponsibly borrowed his pistol once before, only to find her sitting on her legs and resting the back of her head against the wall.

Her eyes were closed, and her body tense, she looked more like a stature than a real person. The only movement about her was the gentle swaying of the dark lines inscribed in her skin. It didn’t look like a very comfortable position to sleep in, yet her face was peaceful.

Leaving her to her rest, he addressed his injuries for now, seeing how far his healing had progressed. The skin where he’d been cut open had already healed closed, with the stitches still weaving through his itching flesh.

His arm still had a considerable amount of repairing before the skin would heal over, and unsurprisingly the bone was the same as it had been. The bones in his arm and the loose ribs in his chest would take an especially long time to heal, though he hoped not too long. He couldn’t be sure what would happen without his daily doses of ‘food’ filled with numerous questionable substances, very much like his ‘food’ as a child but with a slightly different texture to it from the new additives.

The bruising across his body was still a deep purple in many places and a sickly yellow in others but for the most part they didn’t hurt anymore unless he pushed against them powerfully. Something that he avoided doing since his arms were too weak to be doing much work anyway.

He felt thankful that this was the extent of his injuries he couldn’t afford to remain wounded like that for too much longer, not here where he was still unsure who was an enemy.

Shifting out of bed he accidentally knocked his rifle, which had been leaning by the bedside, reacting as quickly as he could he slapped at the gun trying to catch it but only succeeding in pushing into the ground quicker. It made a loud thump as it hit the wooden floor, the sound startling Lilith who’d been resting nearby.

Standing and unsheathing her sword in a heartbeat she turned to the source of the noise finding Matt rising from his awkward seat with both hands held up. “Good Morning.”

“A casual morning greeting to you too, Krilm. You should learn better etiquette before waking a sleeping warrior up with your carelessness. Next time I might just kill you before I wake up.” She sheathed her sword but her eyes were still glaring at him with a burning intensity.

“I’m not the only one who should learn some manners.” He muttered picking up the rifle and checking the floor for marks where it had fallen.

“I’ve been training in etiquette since you left your mothers breast, but an ignorant Krilm like you wouldn’t recognise true manners if you were sitting at the kings own table.”

“Again with the mother thing?”

“Eh-” She suddenly realized her mistake, “Ever since you… ever since… forever!” She turned from him going to a bucket of water that he hadn’t noticed earlier and rinsing her face while groaning. The water dripped back into the bucket with minimal spillage.

Matt rubbed at his hands where the blood from yesterday had stained his skin. Across his entire body was very much the same, crimson stains or dried dirt covering his skin in layers leaving him filthy and the bed he’d been sleeping upon stained the same colours as himself.

“Where do I clean up?” He approached the bucket Lilith was using hoping to at least clean his hands and face.

She looked at him and rung the rag that she’d been wiping her face with. “You do look like you dove into a pile of shit and corpses.”

“I wish I could disagree.” He didn’t need to sniff to smell the filth on him; radiating from him. Wetting his face with the cold wash cloth he suddenly noticed something strange with the way he was talking to Lilith.

“Wait a minute. Say something.” Water dripping from his face he turned to Lilith spraying water everywhere.

“Your disgusting.” She replied before he’d even finished speaking.

“Ungu.” Disgusting it meant disgusting, alongside definition he could smell a faint smoke in the air and somehow knew it as tobacco even though he’d never actually seen the plant or even read about it.

“What the hell?” He clutched at the back of his head where it began to hurt when he tried to drag out the memories associated with Tabaco.

“Great you learned a new word now repeat after me, Matt is disgusting.” She continued ignorant of his newfound realization.

“I can understand you.” He whispered.

“You’re a little dim-witted aren’t you?”

“No, I… I mean the language, I think I understand what you’re actually saying but it’s weird like it hurts to think about it.”

“I’m sure for a creature like you it is painful to learn new things, maybe it’s best to give up.” He could understand what she said wasn’t meant as a question.

Finding it difficult to properly communicate with her, Matt gave up and tried to speak. He tried to speak in an alien language that was somehow making sense to him. “Will you please just listen to me. I think I know your language.”

She paused staring at him without moving, his head was aching badly and he could feel blood running down his nose as he tried to connect his understanding of the language to reality. Lilith suddenly hit his sternum winding him.

The shock rendered him unable to breathe for a few seconds and broke his concentration apart. Breathing heavily and trying to regain his senses he found himself staring upwards at Lilith’s face, a small line of blood ran down from her nose.

She started to say words but they seemed foreign nothing more than pretty sounds, even his mental link only brought back fuzz as he tried to understand her.

She lifted him up by the collar of his shirt until he was inches from her face. “Don’t ever do that again.” She whispered quietly before walking away from him. For a moment, Matt thought that he saw fear in her eyes.

Impossible, he realized throwing away the worthless thought.

Lilith speaking almost as if to change the topic turned back to face him, this time he could only understand through her thoughts once again.

“There is a place, a public bathhouse that is rarely used.” She looked genuinely thoughtful, “It never should have been built in the first place but at least you could make some use of it I suppose.”

“So long as I can wash off this smell I have no complaints.” He murmured while wetting his hands in the cold water trying to hide away the curiosity that might just lead him to his death.

“Gather your belongings and we will leave then.” She’d already had all of her possessions on her from before she’d even gone to sleep and stood by the door waiting for him.

“At your command.” He replied thoughtlessly her sharp nature too much like that of a superior officer for him to differentiate while still half asleep.

“That wasn’t a command.” She replied sharply glaring at him, though at this point he was almost certain that that was just her usual appearance.

“No? You sounded just like my officer so I just thought…”

“I don’t give commands, I’m not an Okiniu. Anything I tell you to do is a choice, either you do it or there are consequences. Sometimes those consequences will be the smell on your skin or sometimes it will be my blade cutting your skull from your neck. But the choice is always yours.” She coldly and matter-of-factly laid out her point of view in a way that was reminiscent of an old friend. Though with less concern for his wellbeing.

“I suppose so.” He couldn’t fully understand what she was saying but decided that it would be best to work with her for now. “Then shall we be off.”

“If you behave yourself then I have no complaints. At least none worth voicing to a worthless Krilm.” The sensation of her glare faded as she turned to open the door.

“Could you give the Krilm thing a rest already? My name is Matt.” Completely ignoring him she opened the door almost charging into someone passing by. The young woman’s eyes swung around looking straight past Lilith who was standing on top of her and directly at Matt before turning to Lilith.

The young woman was the same as he’d seen last night before he’d gone to sleep, at full height he guessed she was around 155 cm tall with her shoes on. Her long dark hair was wrapped up in a strange way atop her head, it was wrapped up around itself so that it was pointing directly up at the roof before falling down and tied again at the back of her head.

“So, what is a beautiful young lady like you doing with a curse and a sword. If it weren’t for those horns I might just push you back into that room and start this day with a little bit of excitement.” Lilith stepped backwards as if struck physically, meanwhile Matt was trying to hide the fact that he was understanding the words that came out of the woman’s mouth; unwilling to die just yet.

“You… couldn’t…”

“I know, I know, but surely there is some room for fun. Maybe if your friend there was involved, you can just watch. It wouldn’t be the first time for me to help entertain one of your kind.” Lilith was blushing so brightly that it seemed her face might just explode from the heat of it.

“Don’t tell me you sold your soul without even losing your innocence! Aaaaahhhh such a tragedy… it makes my heart weep.” The strange young lady was making strange remarks that left Matt clueless as to what she was even speaking about. He might discover if he thought about it more deeply, as he had before, but that would probably draw Lilith’s ire.

Lilith’s face was contorted into something between rage and embarrassment, the woman standing in front of her was blocking the door with a casual stance. “Name.” The word escaped Lilith’s mouth forcefully like she was spitting out something inedible.

“Oh, where are my manners. Dearest young lady I am Rlokitesita,” She snatched Lilith’s hand and attempted to meet it with her lips but Lilith pulled her hand free just a moment before she was kissed.

“Such a shame.”

“Lilith.” She spoke her name forcefully, the shame starting to fade back from her face.

The words made Rlokitesita freeze for a heartbeat, “The princess, I see. That’s why… and you?” She turned her eyes to Matt holding out her hand his direction.

“Roderick Matheson. It is a pleasure to meet you, Roki- lokite- Rloki-” As he stumbled over her name she leant down kissing his offered hand on the palm, sending tingles down his spine.

“Rloki, is fine. Rod?”

The name had an awkward sound to it that made him shudder, the only people ever to call him that hardly knew him at all. “Matt.” He specified trying to lose that awful name as quickly as possible.

“Matt? I suppose it’s not quite as cute as rod but if that’s your name, then what can I do?” Rloki turned to Lilith, “He’s a foreigner? I’m not familiar with that language.”

“He’s from somewhere far away; I don’t know the name of the place. You don’t need to worry much he rarely says anything worth hearing.” She seemed a lot more liberal when she was no longer the topic of conversation, but he suspected that she was still clueless that he was listening in.

“I have other ways of making myself understood.” She looked his way and winked.

“Feel free to try so long as you leave me out of it.” Lilith spoke as she tried to edge her way to the door.

Rloki, as if feeling her attempt at escape, moved backwards quickly blocking her passage, “Well I shall not hold you here for any longer but if you stay tonight as well, then please, come down and watch my performance. I can make your stay worth the time.” She spun on her heels and quickly left them behind with questions filling Matt’s mind and Lilith’s face still fading back to its natural colours.

“I heard what she said but didn’t understand half of what she was saying.” Matt followed Lilith talking to her back as she walked, accidentally giving away his use of knowledge that she’d forbidden.

“Wait until you grow up a little.” She deflected with little thought, her eyes scanning around as if searching for threats, “I wouldn’t be so sure that that person was a woman either, with their kind it’s hard to tell.”

“Their kind?”

“People from Saruthor, they are all like that to some degree.”

They managed to make their way down a set of unstable and uneven stairs through to the lobby of the building without any trouble, Lilith quickly turned to the man standing behind the counter. He’d just finished passing breakfast to a man dressed in a long coat.

“I would like to reserve the room for a time further if it is no inconvenience to you.” Unlike the night before she didn’t need to speak up to be heard, the place was dead compared to how it had been last night.

“Of course, of course, you are doing me a service just by coming to this ramshackle inn.” The man was again speaking with Lilith in a tone that was truly and fully passionate, the words that he spoke were filled with the utmost respect.

Lilith didn’t seem affected much by it, quickly ending the conversation and leading Matt out the door but before the door was even closed he sensed an emotional thought spill from her mind, “Just let it go already, I’m not her anymore.”

Outside was a thoroughfare of people going about their business, live animals bleated, squealed, and screamed as they were lead around through the muddy streets; the people cried out in voices even louder.

“3 plat and no-”

“8 plat for this, look at it there’s no fat to it at all and-”

“Did you hear about the attack yesterday-!”

“-New type of Magic I heard.”

“Are we going to lose the city?”

“1 plat is more than a fair-”

“You are a fine young lady surely you wouldn’t mind my trading with something more than the plat in my purse.”

The last voice sounded a little familiar but he was quickly caught in the flow of a different direction. Having been snatched by the wrist and dragged along the road, Matt found himself stumbling to keep up with the rushed Lilith.

They both gathered stares but the amount of attention she garnered was far greater than himself, he could hear whispers from the crowd as they walked.

“Princess?”

“You mean that princess?”

“It can’t be.”

“No, it is, I heard-”

“Should we talk to her?”

“Why did she-?”

“I wonder how she-?”

“The King hasn’t been the same since.”

“She should’ve stayed.”

As the whispers grew unbearable she rushed through the crowd with added speed and an expression on her face not to be messed with. While others were crowded, and need to push to get through, before Lilith a bubble of space was maintained by the awed citizens and their undisguised stares.

It was strangely exciting for Matt to hear so many loud voices calling out at once. The town of his youth was never nearly so lively and it sparked a hint of jealousy to see such a prosperous town, living and breathing, loud and messy. This strange mix of fear, joy, and jealously formed within him as he listened to the strange people talk.

Matt couldn’t quite understand what was going on but it was obvious that they respected Lilith a great deal, and for more reasons than just her status as a warrior. In fact, everyone kept on bringing up the term Princess, which from his studies referred to a lady in a high social status, possibly part of the ruling class of an emergent society.

They walked out from the wider road onto a thinner street that was much less populated. Lilith visibly less tense now that she wasn’t surrounded by adoring citizens, and now that she was able to feel the temperature drop and taste fresh air.

This area seemed to be residential, as there were no longer any items being thrown around and people rushing to gather things that they wanted or needed. Everyone here was a lot more quiet and respectful and although most of them tipped their heads at Lilith as she passed them, they did not lower themselves to mindless chatter. Though even as quiet as they were they held a vague liveliness that was absent from the town-kids of his childhood.

Matt suddenly given the chance to walk beside Lilith rather than being dragged behind her, released himself from her titanic grip. “What was all that about? All the people here seem to be quite talkative, I don’t think I’ve ever heard so many voices at once before.”

“Don’t you live in a city?” She spoke with a hint of curiosity that she had tried to disguise.

“No, I tried to stay away from towns when I was a kid but even then, none of them were ever like this. Everyone was so quiet it was frightening, the same was true after I grew up too.” He thought back to his dream from last night, surrounded by drab grey walls and expressionless people.

“A city of grey, it’s hard to believe that a place like that exists outside of dreams.” She pushed forwards quickly after that line, and soon they found themselves totally alone in a quiet part of the city. Even so, the footprints in the mud, the houses, each made slightly different to the next, and even distant sounds of people yelling, gave a completely different sensation to the quiet towns of his home.

Lilith walked slowly, contemplatively, towards a massive open topped building, one of the few buildings made of stone he’d seen in this city. Strangely, although the building was impressive compared to all else that stood around it, it was surprisingly quiet here.

The massive arches led inwards past a dividing wall and into a single massive pool of clear water. Sunlight shone down through the massive opening in the roof, or more accurately the complete lack of a ceiling. The light refracted off of the cool water making it shine like a crystal. The water was even clearer than the river water from his childhood.

Stone so pale white that it hurt to look at in the light, covered the walls and floor. It was not so much as touched with a hint of dirt or colour. He was surprised at its beauty compared to the concrete walls and constructs of his own home. Although plain and colourless it was still somehow beautiful, a gentle and soothing appearance rather than the harsh sensation that flowed from age old concrete.

This was a place of obvious excess, and yet no one was here other than them. In fact, it seemed as if they were the first to step inside since it’s very construction. A fine layer of dust rested over the surfaces unsettled by their sudden entry.

“So, there are no showers?” Matt asked searching the room for something of the sort, even some kind of primitive waterfall would have been enough.

“Showers?”

“Water that falls from the roof like heavy rain.” He explained without frustration, though it was unusual to have to explain everything, he had yet to get irritated with doing so.

“Nothing like that.” She muttered under her breath a blank look on her face as she looked around the massive room as if taking it all in.

“This bath is the only way then…” He looked into the water with a spark of fear in his heart, he quickly buried it away somewhere deep inside as he moved towards the water’s edge. Although it had been some time since the incident, his fear of water deeper than his waist was still crippling.

Having located something that passed for soap and a small cloth sitting atop a short stand at the side of the bath he started to take off his gear starting with the rifle. At least the relative quietness was enough to give him confidence in his ability to protect the weapon, if anyone came near they would be impossible to miss.

Having placed everything at the side of the bath he stripped off his uniform and underclothes folding them neatly and placing them at the edge of the pool of water.

“Are you joining me or just waiting?” She stood at the side of the bath, staring at him, confusion written plain on her face.

“He really is just a boy.” The thought barely a whisper. “I’ll be fine.” She said finally turning away from his naked figure.

Matt stared into the water in silence as she offered him a moment to himself.

A moment to face his fears.

A moment to choose between moving forwards or back.

With a sigh, he sat at the edge of the bath, dipping his feet into the water. The sensation of nothing solid under his feet and the pull of the water at his flesh was almost enough to startle him into throwing himself away from the bath. For a few moments, he sat quietly without moving, breathing deep slow breathes to combat his anxiety.

Eventually finding the strength to move he started washing off his legs and hands. When the outer layers of mud washed off, layers of blood underneath became clear. He felt as if it was a never-ending task before he finally reached his own skin underneath the gunk. The water nearby turning from clear into a slightly muddy colour in reaction to his efforts.

“Don’t tell me you’re afraid of the water.” She’d turned back to him at some point, her face slightly flushed like it had been earlier today.

“I won’t then.” He continued his endless struggle against layers of filth, a battle which was almost as challenging as his current battle against the rising tides of terror in his heart.

For a while he sat at the edge of the water carefully splashing himself clean and wiping away the grime with the cloth he’d found nearby and working away the deeper filth with the soap. After a while of silence, he looked across to Lilith who was sitting at the edge of the water only a short distance away, she didn’t seem bothered by the silence, in fact she seemed less grumpy now than she ever had been in his experience.

She splashed the water with her unbooted feet, the waves washing all over the pool of water, and after a while she started to think loudly enough for him to hear.

“This really is beautiful, what he wanted this to be, really was beautiful… but no one is ready for this. They can’t just change in a day, but you could never understand them, could you, brother. You are constantly trying your hardest but this… this is how it always ended. You never did any of it the right way.”

He could sense the emotions washing over her in waves, this place seemed to bring it out of her. The silence was peaceful but slightly sad now that he could sense her thoughts and feel some of her emotions. The sounds outside were of a busy city and yet this beautiful place was almost completely abandoned; this place that should have been completely filled with jovial noise and life was dead.

“They should have just let you stay in that land over the horizon far away from these people. They hated you from before the first day they’d even seen you, you were nothing but a reminder that their beloved queen was dead and replaced by a young child who could hardly even look upon the people. You should never have been forced to come back here.”

Matt tried to distract himself from the words ringing in his head, from the emotions dragging him down towards the waters. Gradually his eyes returned to the water at his feet, the emotions within starting to drag his mind beneath its depths. An entire world existed beyond his distorted reflection.

Faces drifted along beneath the surface, faces familiar to him. The names escaped him only because he ran from them finding escape in ignorance, tears started to blur his vision as he heard whispers from beyond that distorted reflection.

“Save us. Save us!”

A hand appeared from beneath the surface of the water snatching his foot. Before he could let out a scream he was dragged into the realm beyond. The waters around him quickly turned dark; he could not sense the bottom of the water beneath him nor the surface above. He was left alone in the nothingness but strangely he felt comfortable here, he could feel no panic even though the air in his lungs was losing its value.

Within that darkness, he could see a single bright spark trying hard to be seen. “I’m alive.” A voice whispered from beyond the veil he was beginning to cross. He reached out towards that voice, towards the veil of death.

Unexpectedly a hand snatched the hair on his head and dragged him upwards with the strength liable to tear his hair out, breaking through the surface of the water into the fresh air. Light washed down over him as he was dumped at the pools edge.

Lilith quickly pulled herself from the water still fully armoured and clothed but now soaked through entirely.

“You’re not allowed to die, but the next time you force me to save you like that, I will find some way to make you regret having bothered me.”

Matt was left lying against the side of the water breathing in and out before dragging his limp body away from the bath’s edge. Mind still awash with the feeling of that dark void embracing him and the voice that tempted him.

“Thanks, I guess that means this time is free then.” He coughed and spluttered, mind still somewhere in that darkness he’d left behind.

“I would not make such an assumption if I were you.” Her threat did not go unheard. Matt propped himself up a little and bowed his head to her in proper thanks.

Lying down along the rock, feeling the coolness entering his back as the water slowly ran off of his now clean skin. Matt gradually felt himself returning to his previous nature.

Sitting up he started to wash his clothes in the water which had now diffused into something close to clean, still wary of the water but unwilling to let it scare him into running away again.

“So, what would it take to balance things.”

“Balance what exactly? The food that you have eaten, the bed that you have slept in, the air that you now breathe? For all of it you owe someone.” She spoke with intended venom, wiping herself down with a cloth, clearly displeased over her soaked clothes.

“I… owe for that? I suppose I haven’t worked to support this system. Perhaps that is what you are referring to?” He thought back to how his own society worked. Each adult completes work that they are assigned to and they are supplied with the necessities of life, such as food and shelter. Of course, anyone who was not willing to work as directed were sent for rehabilitation but he’d never heard of anyone going without food or shelter.

“More simple. You owe money for what you have been given, though most of it has been offered to you out of good will for me. Thus, you owe me a debt that is only growing.”

“Money? And I don’t see how I owe you for anything but sparing my life. Did you build that bed and the room that housed it? Did you create that food and lay it down upon the table? How is it that I owe you for what you didn’t do?”

She seemed angered by his questions that were asked out of actual curiosity of her strange beliefs rather than intent to aggravate.

“You owe me because all of that was offered to you out of good will towards me. Because it was all given to me and passed on to you out of my good will. Because I wouldn’t have to rely upon such gifts if you were capable of caring for yourself. If you weren’t just as worthless as a child.” She spat out the words, her earlier peace having long since disappeared.

“Then do you not owe them for gifting these things to you.” Matt asked still confused about the prospect of ownership.

“Which is exactly why you owe me, I don’t enjoy having those debts.” She was turning away from him, clearly not happy about the situation he’d put her in.

“So how am I supposed to survive on my own. How do you propose I eat without relying on others? Forge my own bed and find my own land to put it on?” To him her words and ideas were about as alien as the lifestyle of plants.

“You earn money and buy what you need.” She said as if it were obvious.

“Money? Buy? What are you talking about?” He was unable to understand their meaning even with their mental link.

“You truly don’t understand what I’m talking about do you?” She paused, her frustration and anger giving way to reveal a hint of curiosity. “How do you get your food in your world?”

“I go to the cafeteria where the chefs prepare food… or I eat the food paste that we have delivered.” He said, pausing halfway through as he realized she didn’t understand him.

“Who makes the beds that you sleep upon?”

“The people most talented in doing so.” He replied without hesitation. It was obviously the case, why have anyone else do the work less efficiently after all.

“How do you pay them back for what they have given you?”

“They have not given me anything, they have just lived their lives as they are meant to, as do I, serving to protect the System and Its people.” This time he voiced a rhetoric that was forced to repeat every morning as he awoke and every night before he slept.

She thought over his words for a while, confused but still curious. For once her curiosity won over her distain and she replied to him with a straight answer. “Here that isn’t how it works. Here you have to work and earn money that is used to purchase anything that you might want or need. Food, a bed to sleep on, a room to live in, weapons, clothes, all of it is purchased with money.”

“How strange. Then this money is used to indicate service to your society, so those with the most money have given the most to your society.” He thought over the situation briefly. “It must be quite a position of pride to have the most money, as you would be measurably the most selfless man of your society.”

Lilith looked at him as the alien that he was, “That… is a strangely optimistic view… but I suppose for once I will let someone else show you how horrible the real world is.”

Matt ignored her words knowing them to be only more worthless banter, “How then, do I best service this society and earn food and bedding? I cannot do anything that might cause hurt to the people that I am here to save. Perhaps there is work I can do in the castle while I look for them.” He looked up at the clouds in the sky thinking it over.

“What? Do you want to scrub the halls and wash the windows while fighting your way through the castle on a prison break?” She was looking at him with disbelief in her eyes, thinking his words a joke.

“Would that be enough to earn some of this money? Then yes, I would, but where does the money come from?”

Lilith rubbed at the side of her head, staring down at him as if looking at something pathetic. “Look over here,” she pointed at a board that was placed on the inside wall towards the entrance of the building. “This was built as a place for citizens to write messages to each other so that they can help one another when the opportunity arises. It was meant to be a place where people offer and ask for help from others, but since only foreigners actually use this bathhouse it has turned into a kind of bounty board.”

Dressing himself quickly in his still wet clothes, Matt made his way to the board looking at the words written in foreign characters. “There are some things here that you might be able to manage… others are less reasonable. For today I’ll introduce you to this work, it won’t pay for much but for now it’s something.”

“What is it?”

“A surprise. I’ll explain when you get there.” For some reason her attitude, made him more willing to trust her; even though she was outright cruel sometimes.

She was leading them out of the building when they were ambushed by a unique and hard to forget character.

“What? You came here without me? Why didn’t you tell me this is where you were coming?” Rloki came charging at them out of nowhere, Lilith not even looking her direction continued onwards as if she hadn’t noticed the person standing right beside her.

“No words for me? What of you, young man? Going to ignore me like her?”

“I… I don’t know how to talk to you.” His words held more meaning that just lingually.

“Well it seems you’re more talkative but I still don’t understand a thing you’re saying. You are rather cute when you talk though, where is that language even from?” The purposeless interrogation continued, even though none of his answers would ever make sense even if he tried to speak the right language again.

“You don’t know that I can understand you, do you?” He asked while the young woman stroked his back uncomfortably.

“Well, well, what was that? You’re saying that you’re a prince of a foreign land?” The words pouring out Rloki became stranger with every passing second.

“How are you coming up with this?”

“And this lovely princess stole your heart away, and you’ve been following her like a lost pup ever since, even though she neglected you to join the abstinent Knights of Sasahara you still follow after her. How tragic.”

“Abstinent knights?” The words lacked proper meaning to Matt who was still an alien here.

“Please stop interacting with it.” Lilith asked him, speaking quietly and forcefully.

Eventually they’d pushed their way down the road and left the lonely Rloki behind waving their direction, “See you tonight, sweet princess and foreign prince.”

Having left behind the annoyance they moved forwards apparently towards a place where he could prove his worth to these people and earn ‘money’.

Lilith suddenly halted pointing at the horizon, “What are they doing?” Having been distracted as he was, it took a moment longer for him to notice than it should have. He quickly recognised the faint lights of miniature missiles, and the distant and dark silhouette of a drone swarm.

The City walls exploded in a moment, crumbling into nothing as a hundred tiny drones flew through the air firing missiles and poison darts into the crowded city. Lilith charged forwards without a backwards glance, leaving Matt to decide between following her and moving to safety.

On instinct alone he ran forwards, running after the freakishly fast Lilith towards a warzone.