They wasted no time in vacating the premises, it wasn't like they had any to spare, they were tired and had at most 3 day's worth of food.
With Heimer leading the way and Gustev at his side they rode along the riverside through the thick of the night.
With the information gathered, they had come to a conclusion that the time within the white space was distorted beyond reason; what felt like minutes to the ones in the pathway felt like days to the others.
And while they had stepped foot into the space in the morning they got out at night, in the absence of more knowledge, it was choked up to be part of the light's influence.
Ren took charge of the carriage that was formerly handled by Paul, he didn't look like he was in the right frame of mind to do so.
—
[A continuous mutter filled the wagon]
Fiona looked at the painting in her hand intensely, it was that of a grey door, she snorted lightly then averted her gaze.
On her shoulder rested the head of Zefroth who seemed to be sleeping admist the journey back.
Herra placed both hands on her head, latching it tightly with her eyes spread open in dread and she kept on muttering incomprehensible words repeatedly; over and over, and over again.
It kept on for a while until Cera whom was sitting beside her intervened. "Hey, calm down." she said in a stern manner but bearing no malice.
Laura observed the interaction.
Herra looked at Cera's face then looked away and continued her muttering as if nothing had happened.
"Hey!" Cera shook Herra by her shoulder.
"Let me be!" Herra screamed, then resumed her acts.
"Stop it, won't you!
What's wrong with you." Cera urged once more.
" Everything…. everything is wrong!
I can't keep on with this, I'm not suited for this…I– don't want to die, what do you mean twelve more of this."
[Sniff hiff] Herra broke into tears, she cleaned her eyes but the tears flowed.
"The world is bigger than we thought everything is so overwhelming, things that we know, things that we don't know…
And then…and then… [sniff]
Why was I even chosen." Herra cried.
"It's alright" Cera pulled her towards her chest and comforted her to the shock of Laura.
"Didn't know she had it in her." Laura thought. "Could've sworn you'd break her leg." she said.
Cera locked eyes with her, eyes full of loathe. "Perfect time to bring this up isn't it." Cera said with Herra still on her chest.
"My bad, I didn't know you both were capable of rational thinking, we really needed earlier." Laura parted the hair strands that were in the way of her eyes.
"I preferred you silent, since you began running your mouth it's been only bullshit." Cera replied.
Laura stayed silent for a while then opened her mouth to utter words, she was stopped by Fiona.
"Isn't it better it just ends here…" Fiona's tired eyes pleaded.
Laura took Fiona's advice and chose not to take it any further than it had already gone.
"None of us want to be here goddammit!" Laura said painfully.
"…that goes for all of us, none of us wanted to be in this situation…not a single one.
I always wanted to join the army, but as an intelligence officer…not whatever this is." Laura grit her teeth and closed her eyes.
She placed her palm on her forehead, then aligned the hair strands again.
"All of a sudden we barely understand anything and I'm now a special officer and…I'm just tired.
[She sighed]
…It's just like she said, I can't handle twelve years of this, and we'll have to do twelve more?
What a joke." Laura's poured out.
I don't think I'll be able to handle any commandment anymore, if their trials are anything like this woman's." Laura said
The mental strain of her trial was weighing on her, she was tired they all were and deep down they were also scared, but they didn't have a choice.
The burden of ridding the world of the commandments was on their shoulders after all, they were the bastions of humanity ones forced to adapt to this situation over a period of seven months; the cracks were long forthcoming.
"...And then there was that woman, there are twelve more of her kind…we couldn't even move in her presence.
The baroness…" said Cera, Herra was now more stable.
"You say you couldn't move but no one there other than I could tell how strong she was.
Incomparable to the chameleon from previously, her strength was bottomless in every sense.
Hah…you know if I could move i'd have killed myself there and there." Laura scoffed with her pupils trembling.
They froze from her last statement, looking at her in shock. "..." Laura didn't speak anymore as silence loomed.
Herra cleaned her eyes, she sobbed no more then she looked at the supplies they had left.
"...I don't want to be in any of those trials again" she muttered but this time her words weren't jumbled up. "Not again…"
"I second that, it was like torture." Laura pulled out her picture. "Do you know what this is?" She showed them the image of a bowl with an inscription — Hyper senses.
"As I thought, with a gift like that it would be strange if she wasn't having any regrets." Fiona thought.
"Isn't that your gift, is it really that bad?" Cera asked.
"Do you think these eye bags under my eyes are for show?..." Laura moved to the front to grab something from the supplies.
"I can feel every living thing around me at all times, it's a miracle I haven't run mad.
It takes days before I can get proper rest sometimes, but that isn't even the reason for ut.
The main reason would bethat I got "chosen" due to having aether, I think that manifested as the gift." She held a bota bag in hand.
She uncapped it and peeped inside "should be enough." Laura thought.
"That's a valid one..." Cera said.
[Slush] The sound the bag made whilst placed on Herra's chest.
"Huh?" Herra gazed at Laura in surprise.
"You were looking at it weren't you, we've had our differences but in the end we are still comrades.
Drink up, it's going to be a long journey." Laura said.
Herra's expression turned heavy once again, "Thanks, I'm sorry for the other night when I lashed out at you."
"It was another one of your actions that was driven by stress, it's alright I understand.
Besides…" Laura glared at Cera. "She's more loose in the head than I am petty, if she's taking a break from being stupid then I might as well take one too."
Herra chugged the water down like her life depended on it; it did.
"Haaa…it's going to be a long twelve years." Cera said. "If we even make it to five."
"I don't think it's that bad." Fiona added as their attention shifted to her. "What I'm trying to say is during that time we might get to experience so much.
Everything's been so horrid that we can't even enjoy the new the world has brought to us, but look at the world around us.
It's much different than we could ever imagine, the waterfall the mountains, the difference in the biome from the empire.
And the journal of the messenger said that these pillars will appear all over the world, imagine what more lays in store for us to see." Fiona found interest in it.
The others looked at her with faces that could only be described as shocked, because unknown to her…
"Is there something on my face." Fiona said a bit coyly.
Herra shook her head "No, actually yes, then again no…argh" she held the bota bag away from her body and Laura snatched it away.
"What are you even saying" Cera pushed Herra's head down to make way for herself to speak. "It's just really rare to see you smiling."
Yes, unknown to Fiona there was a smile on her face, not pronounced but not as subtle as it usually was, she touched her cheeks as she was surprised as well.
"That's like the first time I'm seeing her smile." Herra added.
"Do you keep count of everything?" Laura peeped into the bag. "Did you finish the water?!"
"Annnnd that's the twentieth time I'm hearing you speak." Herra said.
"Fair enough" Laura giggled a bit, she threw the bag to the supply area. "Wait…" Her brow rose and her face tensed up.
"What is it?!" Herra asked clearly startled.
"I can sense something, it's approaching us quickly!" Laura responded.
Fiona's eye locked on to her weapon that was at the front of the wagon.
"For real?!" Herra let out.
"For real." Laura said as sweat rolled down her cheeks the atmosphere in the wagon became very tense. "Nope I'm kidding…you should have seen the look on your face."
Herra who was about getting up frozen, her eyes twitched.
"Wasn't it obvious." Cera said.
"Fair enough..." Herra said as she and Laura broke into laughter.
Fiona sighed in relief as she became drowsy, her body was finally letting in most visible in her eyes — she was tired.
"What's going on?" Zefroth said whilst rubbing her eyes, the laughter had woken her, and suddenly her right shoulder felt heavy.
Fiona rested her head on Zefroth's shoulder, Zefroth was now awake and Fiona asleep.