Rising Shards

When we got back, Tik and Mars brought Penteldtam to an empty classroom to look him over, then they checked us to make sure no one was hurt. Penteldtam hadn't said a word since we left, and maybe that was for the best.

"We're fine, I think," I said. "I feel like I didn't really do anything." I was trying to be more aware after Ana called me out on my passive nature.

"In this situation, we really didn't have much of a chance to contribute much," Lillia said.

"Passive observers we were," Oka said.

"Eh, you were moral support, that's important too," Mars said. "And you didn't do anything to screw that operation up, that's huge, trust me."

"You made it out in one piece, also very important," Tik said. "Your sister would not be pleased if I let anything happen while she was away."

"Are you going to tell her about this?" I said. "She's back tomorrow, but if you tell her now she'll probably just drive home right away."

"I think we'll update her when she's back," Tik winked.

"Thanks," I said.

Mars went to check on that while Tik brought Penteldtam somewhere.

Oka winced, not sure if she should say bye or anything to him. She elected not to.

"How are you doing?" I asked. "Seeing an uncle like that has gotta be rough. And that 09 news, too..."

"Well, I'm not great," Oka said. "But I'm not...super terrible yet? If things are ever normal for five minutes, it's gonna feel freakier than everything getting upended every two weeks."

"Yeah..." I said. "How about you, Lillia?"

"It got dramatic at times, but honestly the worst part outside of the Syval frustration was finding a book that reminded me of Ko," Lillia said.

"Dang, I'm sorry," I said.

"Thanks," Lillia said. "I got through it, at least."

"But still..." Oka said.

"I'll be fine," Lillia said.

Oka, Lillia, and I weren't sure where to go now. The big crowd was still there, all lined up for shirts or something. Raytris got spooked by the amount of people and went back to the dorms. We tried to ask what was going on (well, Oka and Lillia did, I clammed up when I tried to talk to anyone I didn't know in the various lines). There was a lot of gossip going around that I couldn't exactly follow. Apparently right before we got back, some big monster showed up with Reed already taken care of. And that superhero guy Tokickaman was also involved?

"Wasn't he over in East Valataran?" Oka said. "I can't keep up with this."

"Nor do I really care to," Lillia said.

"Does anyone see Kalei around?" I asked. We saw her for just a second on the feed fighting a void monster. It too fast to make much of it out, though.

"We'll keep a lookout, I'm sure she's alright," Oka said.

A bunch of girls shrieked. Seth Kerres, Gwen, and Achilles were passing by, looking somewhat out of sorts.

"My best friend, Lucian...how could he..." Seth said.

Gwen patted his arm. "It'll be alright, we'll find a way!"

"We got a problem...we got a problem..." Achilles said. "This just pisses me off so much!"

The trio was swarmed by people, an almost absurd sight for us on the sidelines.

"Achilles is sad! He does care about Lucian!" Some random person exclaimed, which got cheers for whatever reason.

"I don't give a damn about him, or Seth Kerres, or any of you!" Achilles said, earning more shrieks. "We got a problem?"

As the guy started screaming at everyone, he only got cheered more.

"You know, it's gonna be a relief when this move finishes," I said. "I think I've had enough of all of this Falling Shards stuff."

"Yeeep," Oka said.

"You don't think we're gonna have to remember this Seth and Lucian and Gwen lore, do we?" I asked. "Or this Reed business?"

"I sincerely hope not," Lillia said.

"For real," Oka said. "I've had my fill of anything boy related."

"I suppose that's some lesson we can take from all this," Lillia said. "We'd discussed and joked about a big Falling Shards visit to test our interests, and now we have an answer to that."

"And that answer is I am incredibly not into men," Oka said. "I knew that already, but sorry guys."

The crowd continued to follow Seth and Achilles, Gwen lost somewhere in the sea of people.

"I think they'll be alright without us," I said.

We decided that was a good point to head back. Lillia had to get her wagon, anyways. Whatever good furniture we could find was already picked over, and I still had a ton of gender exploration pamphlets I didn't get to hand out, so this was pretty much a fruitless mission.

The wheels of Lillia's wagon squeaked as we got back to our dorm. Very few people were around, but it felt a lot more welcoming than Falling Shards did. We decided to hang out at Oka and Lillia's room.

"Ugh," Oka flopped on her bed and rolled around. "I'm beat."

"Me too," I said, climbing up to join her on the top bunk. Lillia sat at her desk, getting out a notepad to jot some things down.

"You're not doing homework already, are you?" I asked.

"No, just writing down some notes from today," Lillia said. "I wish I could've gotten something out of Syval. He got so suspicious when we tried to ask what he was doing with Kalei."

"Yeah..." I said. "You think Anastasia meant it when she said she knew what Kalei's thing was?"

"I hope she was just lying," Oka said. "I don't wanna think about what it could be if it's something she knows and we don't. Kalei wouldn't do that to us."

"Right," I said.

Lillia didn't answer.

"We should do something fun now," Oka said.

"Like what?" I asked.

"Selfishly, I want to go watch a play," Oka said. "If I wasn't so tired I'd say we should go see what's playing in town."

"I'll check," Lillia said, already searching on her phone. "If there is something, my family could potentially drive me."

"Maybe Tik, Kara, and Mars could?" I suggested. "If they're not still busy wrapping up the Penteldtam situation."

"I'd say Berin could, but he's probably dealing with all that, too," Oka said.

"You should check if Avel-Bee is playing, that one looked great!" I said, trying to sound serious. Both Oka and Lillia glared at me until they realized I was kidding.

"Never," Lillia said.

"It's funny though, it started as a failed stage show, but the movie made them go back and actually do a live one," Oka said. "I pray it's never a choice for our theater department."

"If you do, you should play Avel-Bee," I said, barely getting the words out without laughing.

"Nooo! I don't want to play a creepy old man!" Oka said.

"Oh, Avel-Bee is playing tonight at one of the LE theaters," Lillia said.

"No!" Oka pouted and crossed her arms. "Find something gay. With lots of women."

"Lots and lots of women," I said.

"Women," Lillia said solemnly, and we all nodded.

"Oh!" I said. "See if the Fallen Field theater has anything."

"Fallen Field...that doesn't have anything to do with Falling Shards, does it?" Oka asked.

"I sincerely hope not!" I said. "That's where Stella does a lot of her plays, they do lots of gay ones."

"Oooh," Oka said. "Maybe one day I shall perform there..."

Lillia found one playing at the Fallen Field that was described as "A bundle of toxic relationships overlapping in comedic soap opera bliss as a group of working women find their place in the big city," which sounded pretty entertaining. After being stuck in Falling Shards and Reed's dungeon for a while, we were all feeling spontaneous and keyed up, so it was a relief when Lillia's parents said they'd give us a ride.

For the rest of the night at least, we could put our worries aside. For just a bit, we let ourselves not think about everything at Falling Shards, about Ko, about Syval and whatever was going on with Kalei, about Penteldtam and 09, and about Anastasia.

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