Rising Shards

Aira stared into the fire, hating the empty feeling in her stomach. 09 had set up a campfire for them after the sun set on Vita Coa. The rest of the group stared into the fire as well.

“I feel like we failed.” Aira said.

“We’re probably going to get in trouble for leaving the ship behind, too.” Narkissa said.

“No, I mean.” Aira said. “Like we failed ourselves here.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” Ovie said.

“Then just,” Aira scoffed. She hated the effect Ovie had on her. “Go away, Ovie. If you don’t get it, then stay out of the conversation…”

“I don’t know if we failed ourselves, but I will say I agree with you in a sense,” Ovie said. “The state of our situation: I’m somewhat agreeing with Aira Orbis. So I won’t stay out of the conversation. What, do you want me to just go into the wilds of Vita Coa and get mauled by some robot bear or something?”

“All I’m gonna say is I didn’t fail anything.” Narkissa said. “I’ve been a very good girl.”

“No, you haven’t,” Ovie said. “All we’ve accomplished so far was to get connected to Manure’s sociopathic parents. Who promptly dumped us here and went to go get mystical totems or whatever.”

Arctus and Octa Kathron had brought them through a few void nodes before settling on the one that housed Vita Coa, then said they needed to gather something important in order to “bring the Sharai to us.” Then they left, leaving little instructions for the group other than to wait.

“On that note…” Narkissa said.

“You just said ‘all I’m gonna say,’ that means you stop talking now.” Ovie said.

“But I just thought of something,” Narkissa said. “Isn’t our mission to stop the Sharai? I believe that’s what you said the Exile told you. So why are we bringing them to us? I get the sense the Kathrons are like…allies. What even are the Sharai? Who are they? Did anyone stop to ask ourselves that?” She shrugged at the silent response. “Maybe you should have asked me more before we left. I’m pretty smart, you know.”

“How do you feel about this, Laenie?” Aira asked.

“We didn’t get Rem back…” Laenie said.

“And Jeans…” Ovie said.

“So we failed.” Laenie said.

“So now what?” 09 asked.

“We could tell campfire stories,” Narkissa said. “Octa Kathron said she always told stories around a campfire. I know some good ones. They’re pretty raunchy and offensive, only for the strong minded really, so.”

“I’d rather do as little things Octa Kathron enjoys as possible.” Ovie said.

“We could…go home?” Aira said softly.

“What?” Ovie asked.

“We can’t go back without Rem…” Laenie said.

Aira hated that her suggestion made Laenie look like she’d just stabbed her heart.

“We can…go and tell the Exile what happened.” Aira said. “And get someone more cut out for this to save them.”

Ovie groaned. “We’re not making progress, sure, but. No one can save Jeans but me. The Exile told us this was the safest way.” She grabbed some dirt and threw it into the fire. “No, I’m sorry, what? You’re telling us to leave? After all of this? We risked everything, we abandoned the ship, we went with the Kathrons. How would we even get home now?”

“We’re at Vita Coa…” Aira said. “I think we can find a way back home from here.”

“Aira…” Laenie said.

“I’m sorry, Laenie,” Aira said. “I’m just…after all this, after what we did to Zeta…”

“We didn’t do anything to Zeta,” Laenie said. “We wrote her that note. We protected her.”

“I’d say you both went along with Zeta’s parents torturing her into beast tendency pretty easily for a supposed best friend. I’m not sure a note makes any of that better?” Narkissa asked.

“You went along with it, too.” Ovie said.

“Yeah, but Zeta’s not my best friend, or even slightly my friend,” Narkissa said. “So my pure conscience is clear.”

“My conscience…isn’t,” Aira said. “I don’t feel like I’m me right now. And I hate it. I want to be done feeling like this. Done feeling like I’m fading away into whatever this is.”

“I’d do anything for Rem,” Laenie said. “I don’t care if I fade away.”

Aira remained still, but she felt the alarms blaring in her mind and tried to control the physical alarms. Despite seeing Laenie turn into a literal giant monster, nothing she’d ever done in that form scared Aira as much as hearing Laenie say she’d go even further in this quest. An Exa Cani in beast form wasn’t as terrifying as the vacant look in Laenie’s eyes.

“Um, I think you’re all forgetting something.” Narkissa said. “I still need that favor.”

“Now?” Ovie asked. “Are you serious?”

“It’s an easy favor, I figured out a really nice one.” Narkissa said.

“I hate that I’m kind of curious about this,” 09 said.

“Don’t be.” Ovie said. “Trust me, it’s going to be stupid.”

“It’s not stupid,” Narkissa said. “I’ll give you a hint: my favor is in my name.”

“Uh…” 09 said.

“I want…” Narkissa made sure to make eye contact with everyone around the fire. “A big ol’ smooch from one of you.”

The streak of awkward silences that night continued.

“Well, it’s not going to be from me,” Ovie said. “I’m seeing someone.”

“Right, seeing someone who’s so clearly committed to monogamy.”

“Bitch.” Ovie stood up. “Say anything like that again and you’re not only getting acid in your smug face, but I’m dumping you in the fire afterwards.”

Ovie and Narkissa sniping at each other was normal for this sad excuse of a mission, so Aira wasn’t at all tense about that. What she was tense about was the low growling sound next to her. A low growl that quickly turned into a much louder growl.

“Everyone get back!” Aira yelled a second before Laenie began shouting, letting out horrible wails as she changed into her Exa Cani form. 09, Ovie, and Narkissa backed up. If their fighting had been the trigger, they were her targets. Even if Aira had very little respect for them, they didn’t deserve to get hurt. She tried to have a soothing voice as she turned to the towering Laenie. “It’s alright…I’m here—” The Exa Cani immediately grabbed Aira around the waist, in a harsher grasp than she’d ever done to Aira before.

Aira could barely process the pain in her ribs as she was shaken back and forth, because something else took her attention. Between warbling growls, Aira heard something else.

“Betrayed…me…” Laenie cried in a horrible, wailing voice.