Rising Shards

A few years prior, Kalei hung out with Risa like they usually did, just going some random place and wandering around chatting. Risa was a bit quiet, which wasn’t the most abnormal thing. Every now and then, she’d get some weird thing in her head and then be a dramatic mope about it forever until she cried to Kalei about it. This was likely one of those times, as Kalei kicked a rock down a sunny street in summer.

“Something up with you?” Kalei asked, letting the rock skitter a bit ahead.

“Hey, so this is cheesy,” Risa said.

“Uh huh?” Kalei asked.

“We’ll always be friends, right?” Risa asked. Her eyes were innocent and deerlike.

“Pfft,” Kalei said. “Yeah? What are you saying?”

“I’m just…thinking too much about things.” Risa said. “That’s what you always say, right?”

“Uh huh,” Kalei said. “Here, think about this instead.” She rushed and kicked the rock one more time. It shot high in the air, then dinged against the hood of the nearest car. “Ah, crap.”

Risa shrieked, Kalei shushed her, they ran off before anyone caught them. It was fun like they always had. Risa was always fun.

Until she left. Until she randomly found out, or knew along, that she had a rich family, the Taramins, that owned a big soda empire or something. That Kalei majorly blew up at as she left in a limo, never to be seen again.

That Risa stood in front of Kalei now. Like a ghost returning to her. Well, Risa wasn’t dead before, she just vanished from Kalei’s life. She had fangs now. She didn’t look as deerlike anymore. She looked almost…hardened.

“Who the hell is Risa?” Ovie asked.

“Her,” Kalei said.

“Narkissa?” 09 asked.

“Are you going by your full name now?” Kalei asked. “Pfft, why?”

“I wanted a fresh start once my fangs came in,” Risa said. “Are you going to use my full name?”

Narkissa Taramin. That’s your full name. I like Risa better.

“Nah, you’re Risa to me, sorry.” Kalei said. “I mean, if it’s a really big deal I’ll call you Narkissa.”

“Only you get Risa privileges, I think.” Risa said, patting Kalei’s head. Kalei couldn’t deny the butterflies in her stomach from that.

“You’re different,” Kalei said.

“It’s been a long couple of months.” Narkissa said.

Kalei was not at all prepped for this turn of events. Her stomach, still all fluttery, churned thinking of the last time the two saw each other. The hurt of being abandoned by her best friend. Add in the recent realization Kalei had of liking girls and that she probably had feelings for Risa too…Kalei figured her expression probably looked as stupid as she felt inside.

“I’m sorry.” Narkissa said, patting Kalei’s head once more before brushing her fingertips against Kalei’s cheek for just a second.

“I hate to be the one to announce this one, folks,” Ovie said. “But I believe we’re in hell, because Narkissa just apologized for something.”

Ovie’s comment didn’t faze Kalei. Risa either, who just smiled softly. Risa peered around Kalei’s shoulder, seeing her bound wrists.

“Can I untie her?” Risa asked.

“No.” Ovie said. “We need her for this jump.”

“Right, I figured it was something like that.” Risa said. “But I’m sure Kalei won’t run off and start punching people if I’m here. Just for a few minutes, at least?”

“No!” Ovie snapped. “Why would we! I trust you even less than I do her! And also, you sure know how to pick friends, Kalei. First Manure, and now Narkissa?”

“Surprised you didn’t call her Fartkissa or something since you’re so bad at nicknames,” Kalei said, then laughed at her own nickname.

“That one isn’t bad.” Risa said, snorting. Even with her seeming a bit less dorky than before, she was still absolutely a dork, and her snorty laugh was evidence of that.

“Too good for Ovie.” Kalei said. ”Fartkissa. Ha.”

“So why do you need Kalei for this?” Risa asked.

“Kalei was one of the last people who was with Jeans before she was lost.” Ovie said. “We need two to make it work, and something of Jeans’.” She held up a piece of denim. “And I just have to calibrate things, which is taking a while on this piece of junk.” Ovie smacked the machine she had been tinkering with for way too long.

“And who’s the other person that was with Jeans before she got voided?” Risa asked.

“Me, duh!” Ovie said.

“She ran Jeans over with her minivan in a can.” Kalei said. “Which let me and my friends smash up Jeans’ pretty little crystal mask that fused a bunch the void nodes together or something.”

Risa grinned, showing her new fangs (well they were new to Kalei, at least). “I knew you had something to do with Jeans being gone.”

Ovie stood up abruptly and started aggressively typing on the projected screens from her wristband.

“Calling for help?” Risa asked.

“I’m calling for a bunch of drones, because I’m sure you showing up brought a bunch of people, probably from Rising Shards, right to us.” Ovie said. “The drones will keep them busy while I finish up, allowing us to make the jump to wherever Jeans is.” She typed a bit more. “There.”

“You’re going to burn through your quota,” 09 said.

“Like I care,” Ovie said. “They’re made in imagination nodes so they can just imagine up some more.”

Ovie got back to work plotting the jump.

“I don’t know if I can break you out of this one,” Risa said. “So we might be stuck jumping with them a bit longer.”

“Yeah, I figured,” Kalei said. “But still. It’s good to see you, dude. It’s been a rough weekend.”

“Yeah, any association with Ovie Chirhart will do that to ya.” Risa said.

“Heh.” Kalei said.

Kalei almost blurted out that she just got stood up by the girl she had a raging crush on and also found out said girl was dating someone else, but the words stopped in her throat.

“You look like you have a lot you wanna ask me.” Risa said.

“For real…I don’t even know where to start, dude,” Kalei said. “You go to Wildfire Hearts? Are you really into this whole Endoran thing?”

“Yes and no,” Risa said. “My dad’s big into Endoran business, so I ended up here. But I’ve made the most of it.”

Both Ovie and 09 squinted at that one. Kalei paused at the mention of Risa’s dad. Risa was yanked out of Kalei’s life out of nowhere because of that dad.

“What’s he like?” Kalei asked.

“Old.” Risa said.

“Oh my god, like yeah, duh,” Kalei laughed. “But like, what’s he like? You didn’t know him at all growing up, right?”

“It’d take me a long time to explain.” Risa said.

“Fair, fair,” Kalei said. “Are you still doing the sex-ed deal?”

“The what?” Ovie asked. “Actually, never mind. I absolutely don’t want to know. Ah ha!” She smacked the machine again, then paused with her eyebrows raised. “OK! We can go!”

“Are we just leaving Aira and Laenie behind?” 09 asked.

“They knew going in they might not make it to the next jump.” Ovie said. “As long as we get Laenie’s terrible brother back, she’ll be happy.”

“You’re saying it like you thought they might die at this part.” 09 said.

“09, stop acting conflicted,” Ovie said. “I hate to agree with Koridia of all people, but you made it this far. You have some semblance of wanting to be here. Now can we make this jump already?

”Sure. Yeah.” 09 said. ”You’re right. Plus, we still have some checkpoint disks we can place if Laenie manages to figure out how they work in her Exa form.”

”Exactly,” Ovie said. ”And one more thing.” She got her bloodsaber out and ignited it, dripping acid on the ground. “Are you two going to be an issue, or do I have to force you to play nice?”

A few minutes earlier, Kalei would have absolutely not played nice. She would have risked getting acid in her face just to make this as difficult as possible for Ovie. But now something impossible happened. If she bailed on this thing now, she’d lose time with maybe her most important friend.

“We’ll be good.” Kalei said. Risa’s smile hearing that made the whole getting captured thing feel kind of worth it.