The Martial Unity

The four of them studied her with dubious expressions. Even Runark and Misha frowned this time. Even if her princess status gave her words an undeserved aura of credibility, what she had just uttered was just too hard to believe.

”You feel tingling sensations on your skin, and you think you can sense infected worlds?” Misha furrowed her eyebrows. ”Ever heard of paresthesia? Go visit a doctor.”

”It’s not medical,” Ria insisted. ”I know it’s not, because when I turned, she shifted in her chair. ”The distinct points of the tingling change… like fixed laser points as you move past the beam. Like they’re constant. At first, I thought I caught some kind of rash but, I realized it when we traveled from the Strehegeld Star System back to the Arima Star System that the sensations were changing in location. And these sensations…”

Her tone grew pointed. ”These are the same sensations that I felt from the virus when I was on the planet. The exact same. It truly is like looking at stars in the night sky and knowing that each of them is a sun, just extremely far away.”

The analogy made it a bit more cogent to the other four, even if they were a little skeptical nonetheless. Misha’s cybernetic eyes wandered about as she fell into thought. On the one hand, conventional rules of thumb told her that this was a patient confused about a paresthesia condition.

On the other hand, the virus of the infected world clearly targeted her. As did the other homoarachnoids. As did the transcendent one that fought the Emperor of Water.

On top of that, she hinted at something ’different’ about her that her bodyguard supposedly knew, and the Martial Sage hadn’t denied it. That meant that this wasn’t simply happening inside her head.

Then there was the fact that she was the daughter of the sole Martial Transcendent of human civilization.

Anything was possible, as far as she was concerned.

”Alright,” she replied nonchalantly. ”We’ll have the opportunity to put it to the test. If it is as you say, then we’ll have no trouble finding infected worlds with one-hundred percent success at a shocking rate.”

”Ria, is this really true?” Siliscia drew closer to her with an intent gaze. ”You’re not making this up, right? You can actually sense infected worlds?!”

Ria nodded with a serious expression.

”That’s amazing.” Sternon stared at her with an impressed expression. ”You’re like a walking esoteric tracker then. Do you have any idea how priceless that is?”

”He’s right,” Misha added. ”Truly, I would love to get started on this right away. It seems quite novel that you would have an infected world detection system in you, but you said something about needing to go back home?”

Ria heaved a deep breath. ”I need to understand… all of this, because right now none of it makes sense. Given that I almost got captured because of it and faced a lot of danger, I’m owed an explanation as to everything that is happening.”

”It’s, what, a week to and from Planet Sarantel to Gaia Prime?” Sternon asked. ”That’s two weeks to get back. Oh, but you’ve gotta be able to access the VIP wormhole transit system, right?”

”No,” she turned towards him with a pointed stare. ”I mean, yes, but I don’t want to use it. I want to go the normal way.”

”You want to waste time?” Misha raised an eyebrow.

”I don’t want to draw attention,” she insisted. ”I didn’t come out here all the way with an alias by myself, Runark, and my trust bodyguard only to make a big fuss. You can’t use those transit systems while hiding your identity.”

A moment of silence hung in the air.

”Then… why don’t we come with you?”

Misha’s question flummoxed Ria, as if she hadn’t even considered it.

”Come with me… to the Kandrian Empire?” Ria asked with a surprised tone.

”Yes,” Misha replied calmly. ”The reality is that even though this mission has proven that we can trust each other with our backs, we have only met a few days ago. I propose traveling together if we are to remain a team. As I said, I would like this party to continue. Runark and Sternon seemed to agree.”

She turned towards the Siliscia. ”Do you still want out?”

Siliscia shook her head vigorously. ”Nonono! I’d like to stay.”

She turned towards with a burning intensity in her otherwise lukewarm sapphire eyes. ”If you really can do what you say you can, then I think my objective is best served by joining you.”

It was so honestly self-interested that Ria wasn’t even sure what to say to those words. She thought elves were supposed to be immaterial and social, but perhaps it wasn’t wise to generalize.

”Besides, I haven’t been to Gaia Prime in forever, so it would be a good opportunity,” Misha remarked. ”It has the best core R&D in all of human civilization, including for hemotechnology; it would be good to visit some of my blood kin and see what they’ve been up to there.”

”I…” Sternon hesitated. ”I don’t have anyone. But it would be good to go back nonetheless. Also…”

He directed a nervous glance at Ria.

”What?” She raised an eyebrow.

”…Nothing. Never mind.”

”I would like to speak with the Mothers of Nature and give them a direct report of everything that I went through in Planet Amadeus III and the Strehegeld Star System,” Siliscia offered. ”I have one problem going to Gaia Prime.”

Everybody was on board. Ria fell into thought as she considered them coming along with her. It hadn’t occurred to her before, but the more that she thought of it, the more it attracted her.

She would be taking her friends to go back home to meet her family. She couldn’t wait to introduce them to her mother and father.

”Then it’s settled.” Ria grinned at her party. ”I plan to depart immediately. Let’s get going!”

”Wait, right away?”

”Yes, go pack some clothes and supplies and let’s get going. I want to catch the earliest space shuttle to Gaia 792 and then take a direct shuttle to Gaia Prime.”