A week or two later—after traversing the longest bridge, the most slippery wasteland, the muddiest swamp, and the most depressing forest imaginable—they were still one iris gem short.
Rose might have been bored along the way if she hadn't been so annoyed at absolutely everything. The ring hadn't started inducing nightmares again, thankfully, but that was about the only positive thing she could find about her situation. She still hadn't slept well since she'd put the stupid thing on, and she hadn't gotten any closer to figuring out where the other one was, other than 'not here'.
In fact, Rose had taken to talking as little as possible lately out of fear that she'd end up snapping at her companions, which of course hadn't really helped matters. She'd explained the situation to the best of her ability, but then they'd wanted to know why, and she couldn't explain or they'd insist she take the ring off—so she'd just said rather shortly that she was fine, and that shut them up.
At the cost of their companionship, it seemed. Over the past several days, Sorey and Alisha only dared to look Rose's way when they thought she wasn't watching, and even the seraphim hadn't openly addressed her in days… except Dezel. Sure, they hadn't had any of their delightfully sleep-deprived conversations since that night at the Gaferis Ruins, but he still stayed close even when everyone else steered clear. That was enough to keep her sane.
…Until now, anyway. They'd scoured every inch of Lhitwerg Woods they could access, but there was still no priest in sight, and this had been the only lead they'd been able to find. Rose's heart almost stopped as a terrible possibility occurred to her too late, throbbing through her head like lightning, and she had to grit her teeth so as not to scream.
Had Amethor led her on? Had he just been buying time for the Lord of Calamity? Had Rose dragged the Shepherd along on some sort of wild goose chase? And why, in the name of all Five Lords, hadn't she thought of that likelihood much sooner…? Dezel rested his hand on her shoulder; as she looked up at him haltingly, she realized they were both trembling slightly, and took a deep breath to try and relax.
"So, now what?" asked Edna, emerging from Sorey, and the other seraphim followed suit as she opened her umbrella and turned to face Rose. "You told us there'd be a priest here, because Father Murderer said so," she told her, not troubling to hide her accusatory tone. "Did you come up with a Plan B in case he was lying?"
Rose scowled. "No," she responded tersely, as calmly as she could while her nerves were so raw. (Trust Edna to pierce right to the heart of the matter without so much as a thought for her comfort.) "Amethor had every reason to trust me at the time," she explained, as much to convince herself as the others. "He even gave me one iris gem himself, so there's no reason he'd lie about the second. That priest has to be around here somewhere."
Everyone shifted in place uncomfortably, but no one dared to contradict her, which made Rose angrier still. They were supposed to be friends, right? She may have warned them she wasn't going to be too talkative, but that hadn't been an invitation to ignore her altogether. What kind of friends could they be, if they were so afraid of offending her?
"I'm pretty sure we've checked every corner of this place for priests, so it can be assumed he's not here anymore," said Mikleo eventually, his voice edged with an exhausted sigh. "Any other ideas about where he would have gone?"
"I didn't notice any priests on the way here," mused Lailah, lifting a thoughtful hand to her chin. "The nearest settlement is…" She trailed off, frowning slightly, and Rose scowled at the resident know-it-all until she remembered she'd spent the past who knew how many years locked in a sanctuary in Ladylake—so she could be forgiven for not remembering everything about modern Rolancian geography.
"I guess it'd be too much to ask that you remember this place, Dezel," sighed Zaveid, glancing sideways at his fellow wind seraph. "I don't know if you're from around here or not, but this was about where we found you."
"Then why don't you tell us where to go?" shot back Dezel irritably, crossing his arms and shifting his feet into a more steady stance as if prepared to fight. "You know a lot more about this place than I do."
Zaveid only shrugged, ignoring the barbs in his tone. "Figures," he sighed, shaking his head. "I did hear tell of a village founded here some time ago," he continued, crossing his arms thoughtfully. "Undine? Rondoline? Something like that. It was supposed to be a church-based project, so maybe our priest buddy is staying there."
Rose frowned faintly. A settlement? Here? The Sparrowfeathers had steered clear of Plitzerback Wetland for a long time, so she wasn't exactly up-to-date, but she could have sworn she hadn't heard of any settlements in this area lately. And in this day and age… "I've got a bad feeling about this," muttered Rose, images of the ruins of Marlind flashing through her head.
"Well, we all know what that means," mumbled Sorey, his eyes clouding, but said no more about her feelings. "We'd better get going if we want to get out of here before nightfall. Do you know where that village was, Zaveid…?"
But his Sub Lord only shook his head, letting out a long breath. "Sorry," he responded, and though his tone hadn't changed, his voice felt heavier. "The last time I came back here, it was just so I could take care of a corrupted acquaintance," he explained, leveling his gaze at the ground with unusual solemnity. "I didn't stick around long enough to visit."
Sorey nodded in understanding, but it was Dezel who broke the ensuing silence. "Zaveid and I can try reading the wind once we get out of this damn forest," he remarked. "It might take a while to find out, depending on how far away the place is, but we should be able to head in the right direction, at least."
"You can do that?" asked Rose, blinking at him. They hadn't ever really been lost before, so she supposed there hadn't really been any reason for him to say so if he could, but… still, it seemed like the kind of thing they should have known before it became immediately relevant.
But Dezel just shrugged. "Only one way to find out," he replied, and Zaveid nodded and braved a smile. Rose rolled her eyes as Sorey and Alisha exchanged an exasperated glance; apparently, they were willing to stake the outcome of their quest on their shared abilities without any idea whether it was possible at all. (Maybe those two were more similar than they'd thought.)
"Well, we've got two able and willing wind seraphim," agreed Edna, spinning her parasol. "We may as well use them."
"Right," responded Sorey uncertainly, exchanging an apprehensive glance with Alisha—probably concerned about the morality of 'using' his seraphim—but nodded nonetheless. "Let's move."
The next couple days were something of a blur, given that all the scenery looked and felt much the same—hot and humid and sickly green. Even with Edna and Mikleo to fend off the mud and rain, they couldn't really do much about the persistent heat.
Rose hadn't noticed her state of perpetual perspiration half so much on the way to the forest, but maybe that had been because she'd been so focused on getting to their destination. Now, their journey felt very much like pointless, almost sleepless slogging through marshland in search of a village that may or may not exist, navigating by the breeze alone.
By the time the winds finally led them to the settlement, as desolate as Rose had anticipated, she'd almost completely lost the ability to think straight. Ironically, that might have been the one thing keeping her sane, since she was reasonably sure that without the haze of exhaustion to numb her soul, she'd be much more exhausted and frustrated than she had been in a long time.
Consequently, sharp-eyed as she usually was, it was actually Alisha who first spotted a statue in a ruined alleyway, and the seraphim emerged to investigate. It was a work of art, out of place amid the grim scenery. Detailed. Lifelike. Far too much so.
Rose's eyes widened as she took in the stony visage of a priest, his eyes featureless and wide in terror, his carved teeth grit. He held up an iris gem in a petrified hand as if in the vain hopes that it could dispel some evil, and Rose had a sinking feeling that they hadn't seen the last of the Forton sisters after all.
As if the thought had summoned it, a thick, slick sound like something slithering through mud drew Rose's attention, and Rose jerked her head up as everyone around her exchanged anxious glances and settled into combat stances. There was no way they could fight in a space this enclosed, and Dezel couldn't lend his strength to any of them.
"Please don't find us," muttered Rose fiercely to herself, and sudden warmth sparked through the ring like an electric shock: she inhaled sharply, and Dezel glanced down at her in concern, but there was no time to reassure him. "Please don't find us," she repeated, almost praying as she concentrated on the ring.
The world turned momentarily airless as a haze expanded haltingly to fill the alley, obscuring the exact shapes of everyone around Rose… but, though she could still see their smeared outlines, as in Pendrago, her companions evidently did not enjoy the same advantage.
Giving a collective gasp, they glanced around wildly, offering comments as indistinct as their forms; the clearest voice was Mikleo's. "Where is everyone?" he asked, alarmed. "I can't even see myself!" he added, looking down at his hands—his voice acquiring a panicky edge.
Rose couldn't discern Dezel's exact expression, but his voice was somewhere between annoyed and amused as he muttered, "What a nightmare."
"Are you using the ring again, Rose?" asked Lailah apprehensively, and Rose nodded before remembering she couldn't see her… but before she could do more than open her mouth to say yes, Zaveid spoke up, his tone as serious as any of them had ever heard it.
"Shut up!" he hissed urgently, sounding much more like Dezel than his usual flippant self, and the group quieted down—perhaps too late. The hellion slid to the entrance of the alleyway and paused, peering at them as if trying to see through the illusion: Rose's heart almost halted in her chest, and she found herself praying more fervently now. What if the magic faltered…?
Her friends' outlines shivered, as if in response to her doubt, and she forced herself to maintain her confidence. It hadn't failed her before, and it wouldn't fail her now. The haze stabilized with her thoughts—and after another breathless moment, the hellion turned away from them and moved on.
Several silent seconds came and went before any of them dared to draw breath again. Reluctantly, Rose tried consciously releasing the illusion, her lip twitching in the beginnings of a wince as the ring cooled right back down again. It would be too dangerous to fight a hellion like that if they couldn't even see one another.
"Oh, thank goodness," sighed Alisha, looking down at herself and smoothing out her tunic carefully—but thankfully didn't mention the ring or its power, though Rose spotted Lailah scrutinizing her carefully. "Now, are we going to purify her?"
"If we can," mumbled Sorey, exchanging a worried glance with his Prime Lord. Alisha hadn't been there to see that the other two snake-ladies hadn't gone quietly, and this one probably wouldn't be an exception. "Lailah, what can you tell us about her? She looks like Cardinal Forton's other sister."
"This is Euryale," explained Lailah hesitantly, so softly the others had to creep closer to hear. "Beyond that… I don't know. Medusa-type hellions tend to be women with high degrees of self-righteousness and hatred," she added. "So she's not necessarily related, although—it wouldn't surprise me."
"Dezel," began Mikleo quietly, after a brief pause, "you're the only one of us who can really stand up to her, but you can't armatize with anyone anymore. We'll try to support you as best we can, but… we'll be counting on you."
"He can armatize with me," pointed out Rose, and everyone stared at her incredulously. "Maybe it's not a good idea to risk it right off the bat, but if push comes to shove, I know I can manage." Honestly, she was tired enough already that she probably wouldn't even notice. Hell, even mana toxicosis wasn't any worse than Plitzerback Wetland to begin with. As far as she was concerned, the universe could bring it.
Sorey shook his head in anxious exasperation, but didn't contradict her; instead, he only shifted his grip on the hilt in his hand. "Ready, everyone?" he asked, glancing at his friends, and received nods of confirmation all around—some more resolute than others.
As one, Dezel and Zaveid sent out a breeze to assess the situation; it returned almost immediately, apparently bearing news. "She hasn't turned back around yet," remarked Zaveid, as the air stilled around them. "Should be able to take her from behind without too much trouble." Edna threw him a dirty look, but there would be time to rebuke him for his word choice later; now was the time to act.
They emerged from the alley cautiously, took note of the hellion's location not too far away—and, at Sorey's signal, charged.
Their sneak attack went about as well as Rose could expect: surprisingly so… but, that said, she was not well-equipped to fight. After a few weeks of comparatively little rest and comparatively many battles, her reflexes were suffering, and it was all she could do to dodge snake heads and jump over that lashing tail, let alone attack.
The best she could manage was the occasional Dream Slasher, leaping into the air and focusing her aggressive energy into the shape of spectral knives so she wouldn't have to throw her real ones away. Fortunately, five seraphim and two other humans did quite a bit to balance out the stage—but being unable to risk looking at her face meant that they had little choice but to be cautious.
The seraphim formed a pentagon around Euryale, each of them casting different spells, while Sorey and Alisha circled the hellion more closely, sword and spear dancing in their hands. The multicolored flashes of blades and artes and their various effects all blurred together in Rose's mind; she'd never felt more useless in a combat scenario.
She couldn't cast spells, but she'd be more of a liability than an asset if she got in close like Sorey and Alisha… unless she could somehow squeeze twenty-four hours' worth of sleep into the space of a single second. (Even Dezel's repeated, arte-augmented urges for her to concentrate couldn't do that.)
Resigning herself to acting as a distraction, Rose took to dodging strikes, drawing Euryale's attention away from her more useful comrades. Still, this one put up much more of a fight than either of her sisters; she didn't stay surrounded for long, slithering out of range with astonishing speed to swing her tail at Lailah in an attempt to break the circle of seraphim.
"Luzrov Rulay!" exclaimed Sorey and Mikleo as one, making ready his bow as it sprang into their hands, but Zaveid got there first: his pendulums curled around Euryale's tail, and he pulled with all his considerable strength to restrain her, skidding slightly in the mud; Lailah finished her spell in the nick of time and darted away, and Alisha's spear glanced off the hellion's scaly armor as she stabbed downwards.
Euryale hissed, her living hair swiveling back to snap at Alisha, and the princess jumped backwards to avoid them. Rocks jutted up from the ground like jagged teeth to ripple under the hellion's body… and Dezel's sharp winds shot through the air, strengthening the armatized Sorey's arrow so that it took one of her serpentine heads clean off.
Shrieking in agony, Euryale whirled around to face him, smashing the stone growing all around her. Deflecting a stray rock flying at her face, Rose leapt over the hellion's tail, and only as an afterthought brought her knives down in an off-balance Lightning Tiger Blade.
She realized something was wrong even before she felt the pain of a snakebite shoot through her arm; her muscles spasmed and her fingers slackened, and she dropped her knife with a gasped curse. Damn it; how long had it been since any of their enemies had so much as touched her? She must be slipping more than she thought if a stupid snake had sunk its teeth into her…
"Rose!" shouted Dezel, sprinting over to her side, but Euryale followed him; Alisha stabbed at her with a fearsome cry, and Lailah and Zaveid teamed up to block her path with a vortex of wind and fire. Sorey and Mikleo separated ("Hephsin Yulind!" exclaimed the Shepherd and Edna immediately afterwards), and the water seraph set to work casting a healing arte.
Rose gripped her remaining knife more tightly than ever, her knuckles turning white out of fury. "I'm going to kill her," she muttered, glaring daggers at Euryale, and Dezel supported her by the shoulder as she swayed in place. "Nobody touches me. I'm going to kill her! Dezel, I can't stand this anymore," she added, as Mikleo's purity healed the bite on her arm. "This fight is gonna take forever with only one armatus, and—"
"Look out, you two!" cried Lailah urgently, and Dezel threw Rose behind him effortlessly as Euryale turned on them, beams of blinding light searing the ground as she glared in their direction. Dezel ignored them, repelling her with his pendulums in conjunction with Mikleo's spontaneous waterfall.
Rose's arm tingled as the feeling returned to her fingers at last, and she eyed her knife on the ground some distance away. "Dezel, we have to armatize!" she exclaimed, rolling out of the way of another strike from her serpentine hair; Sorey, in conjunction with Edna, drove his gauntlet into Euryale's tail, and she screeched and whirled around to face them.
"It's too dangerous!" shot back Dezel, wrapping a pendulum around the snake head that had snapped at Rose; Zaveid followed suit from the opposite direction, holding her back as Alisha thrust at her exposed stomach.
"More dangerous than a giant snake lady that can turn us all to stone?!" screeched Rose, scrambling to pick up her knife. Thanks to a well-timed burst of flames from Lailah, she managed to leap back safely, tossing in another Dream Slasher for good measure. "If you want us to make it through this fight, you better help me!"
"Come on, Dezel, your vessel's asking you to get inside her!" yelled Zaveid, grinning maniacally, and withdrew his pendulums to cast a hasty Hell Gate; Mikleo picked up the slack in the meantime with a couple intertwined jets of water, but Rose was too busy scowling at Zaveid. (There was a time and a place for innuendo, and this was neither.) "Are you really gonna turn her down?"
"Shut up!" snarled Dezel; Rose opted to concentrate on the battle that mattered instead, and noted that Sorey's eyes were closed and his teeth were grit: his accuracy was suffering because of it. All dirty jokes aside, Zaveid was right for once; they needed Dezel's armatus if they wanted to end this quickly.
"I need you, Dezel," remarked Rose more quietly, panting, as she stumbled to a halt next to her seraph. Her muscles seemed molten from the fatigue that came with prolonged insomnia; she'd never been so ready for a fight to be over. "I didn't feel any different until after you left last time, and I need your strength now," she added, swallowing dryly. "Just… after it's over, catch me if I fall."
Dezel stared at her for a moment, and the battle seemed to vanish around them as their eyes locked… but their connection vanished as he bowed his head. Euryale slithered in a circle in Rose's peripheral vision, gaining momentum, but she didn't dare to look at her lest she turn to stone. "Now or never!" she exclaimed, both nervous and excited, as the hellion whipped her tail toward them; she already knew which it would be, and closed her eyes with a fierce grin.
"Lukeim Yurlin!"
As her essence collided and combined with that of her seraph, Dezel's life force crashed over her like ocean waves, and Rose laughed aloud as it seemed to refill her own; even if she suffered for this later, it would be well worth it. At this point, she'd all but forgotten what it was like to fight at her full strength: in that moment, Rose wanted nothing more than to prove she deserved him.
The rest of the battle was just as much of a blur as it had been before, though perhaps for slightly different reasons. Now, Rose experienced it through a haze of aggressive euphoria instead of desperate exhaustion, allowing Dezel to guide her movements as she tapped into their shared pool of power. Though Dezel's influence had veiled Rose's sight, she felt her way around the fight. It was exhilarating, in a word; she hadn't ever remembered feeling like this before, even armatized.
This was vastly different than vesselhood, realized Rose in the back of her mind, as she flipped gracefully backward in midair to dodge a clumsy strike; this was a combination not only of their strength, but of their very identities. So little remained between them that Rose had to be careful not to lose herself in him; it was far more difficult to keep secrets when they were collaborating so completely—but, she thought dimly, whatever she felt, he seemed to feel the same.
Maybe that was why all these formless thoughts and intense emotions were so overwhelming…
"That's enough!" called Sorey, his voice distant to her ears despite her sharpened senses, and she halted reluctantly. It would be so easy for them to strike the final blow; why was he hesitating? Something prodded at the edge of her tired mind, and she remembered with a jolt of shock and shame that Euryale was a hellion—so Sorey probably wanted to try purifying her.
Yeah, we'll see how well that works out. Rose didn't hear the words, but she may as well have, so clear were Dezel's emotions inside her; what a stark and welcome contrast from the constant layers of secrecy that had separated them such a short time ago.
"I know now!" cackled Euryale, her breaths labored and her voice high and rasping. "I know how bottomless is human desire. You glorified me as a saint!" she continued, ranting on. "You pushed all of it on me! You did nothing to help. You let disease take the children, one by one!" She wailed in almost unearthly anguish, setting Rose's hair on end. "None of it! None of it was my fault!"
The wind must have needed its eyes checked, because unless Rose was much mistaken, she just… vanished. Zaveid called out, and Sorey shifted back next to them, but that was the only indication Rose had that her senses were not deceiving her as a pool of pure malevolence opened beneath Euryale and swallowed her up. (Talk about going straight to hell.)
"Dang… we couldn't purify her either," murmured Sorey, and—after another, tense pause—they all sheathed their weapons. No surprise there, Rose wanted to say; but, unsurprisingly, Edna spoke up first.
"Not doing so hot, are we," she observed dryly, turning to face Rose. "Okay, Dezel, you can come out now." She felt his apprehension in her heart, and reassured him silently, encouraging him to leave her: after a last pause, he obeyed, and Rose braced herself for the worst.
…But, though she swayed slightly in place as control of her own body returned completely to her, she didn't feel any of the peculiar lightheaded weakness that had marked her previous armatization with Dezel. "You okay?" he asked her, his voice softer than usual in concern.
Frowning, Rose stared down at her hands, flexed her fingers, shifted in place, and finally stretched—but nothing happened. In fact, it felt as though their energies had balanced out enough that she even felt a little more awake than she had going into that fight. "Y-yeah," she told him finally, looking up in guarded relief. "I don't know why, but… I'm fine."
Dezel opened his mouth, probably to ask something along the lines of what, but Lailah paced forward to examine the two of them curiously. "It would seem your connection has stabilized," she observed, crossing her arms. "Even if it's still unofficial, your pact is at least mutual. At least, I'd guess so," she added thoughtfully.
"How?" demanded Rose, putting her hands on her hips, and exchanged a brief glance with Dezel. "He swore on vengeance, right? It's not like he's suddenly forgiven that seraph, and it's not like I've turned murderous or something. Well, no more murderous than usual, anyway," she amended.
Zaveid snorted disbelievingly, and all eyes turned to him. "You sure?" he asked, raising his eyebrows. "You were a little scary in that last battle." To Rose's surprise, she spotted more than a few nods of agreement; she would have loved to argue, but even if Dezel hadn't seized control, she had about as much recollection of her actions as she'd had during her days in the Scattered Bones. (Oops.)
Dezel fortunately opted to ignore this comment, and cleared his throat slightly as if to draw their attention away from Rose; she gave him a somewhat wan smile of gratitude. "Does this mean I can actually live inside my vessel now?" he asked, addressing Lailah.
She hesitated, exchanging a brief and unreadable glance with Sorey before nodding slowly. "If the armatus works," she told him, "everything should be fine. Just as long as you don't try to control her," she added, narrowing her eyes. Lailah sounded certain enough, thought Rose; she spoke so carefully only because of her clear disapproval.
As Dezel glanced over at her, Rose nodded as encouragingly as she could, and he returned the gesture before vanishing; his presence settled lightly into her core, and she gasped at the unexpected warmth—but it wasn't an unpleasant sensation. In fact, it felt… quite the opposite.
She actually braved a faint smile as butterflies fluttered to life in the pit of her stomach. Whether Dezel had awakened them by virtue of his presence, or they'd arisen simply because Rose had realized that he was residing inside her, they were eerily similar to the feeling she felt every time she looked at him.
Speaking of which, as Dezel emerged again, she realized with some confusion and a little disappointment that he had somehow acquired his usual shirt and jacket. "Welcome back," remarked Edna sardonically. "I see you've found the rest of yourself inside her. Is she any more comfortable than Sorey?"
Rose frowned in bewilderment until she realized this must be what 're-manifestation' meant. A seraph's appearance was apparently a part of themselves, as she recalled, so if Dezel had been missing some parts of his outfit, it made sense that he'd have to duck into his vessel to change.
Rose wasn't sure what to make of the idea that Dezel had basically just gotten dressed inside her… but fortunately, she didn't have too long to let it sink in. "Wait, so if you two are compatible now," began Mikleo, tilting his head, "what did you swear on? I thought we were supposed to be looking for pact rings?"
Zaveid grinned reminiscently. "What indeed," he remarked, crossing his arms, and stared Dezel down with a mischievous scarlet gaze; Rose shot her seraph a quick look to find him rigid, but couldn't decipher his exact expression.
"It won't do any good to speculate," retorted Dezel, turning his blind glare around at the rest of their companions; they shifted in place, but said nothing—though Mikleo and Edna unexpectedly exchanged a glance. "The important thing is that she's not in danger anymore."
"And anyway," responded Zaveid, moving right along (evidently having found whatever reaction he'd been looking for), "we've got a Storyteller to meet, so we'd best head to Lohgrin."
"Yeah," agreed Rose, letting out a long breath. "It's about time we had a little talk with the old man. Maybe he'll be able to help figure out what the deal is with this pact," she added pointedly, trying to elbow Dezel… but he vanished to rest inside her before she could touch him.
Rose heaved a somewhat exaggerated sigh, kicking at the soft ground, and she could have sworn she heard him chuckle. Damn it; she felt like she'd barely gotten used to Dezel's constant presence beside her, and now she'd have to get used to his presence inside her. Truth be told, she thought she preferred the former, if only so she could get at him if he was annoying her.
"One more thing before we go," sighed Lailah, and all eyes turned curiously back to her. "We have to find out how to take the last iris gem with us."
"R-right," responded Sorey, exhaling, and Rose's heart sank slightly at the realization that their trials were far from over… but all the same, she had the strangest urge to laugh. Defeating an especially dangerous hellion was one thing, but how were they supposed to pry a sphere away from a statue?
Oh man, my inspiration is all over the place these days. Ever since I found out I love Panic! at the Disco, all bets have been off. Anyhow, you have no idea how much of a relief it is to write Dezel and Rose in a normal context again after writing such a creepy oneshot… even if I did have to write a fight scene. I hope I didn't butcher it too badly…
Arthur Moebius: I humbly direct you to the summary, in which [Rose, Dezel] is marked as a pairing. That should be enough of an answer for the time being…
lazycat66: In all fairness, it was first thing in the morning when I received your review, so that worked out nicely!
Sado Nishi: I don't even know how to handle compliments on a scale like this, so I guess I'll just say thank you! It's unbelievably awesome that you're even thinking about what-if scenarios *for* a what-if scenario… and let's not forget that you somehow managed to find and soothe my most prominent insecurity about this fic—that nothing has been happening.
NaotoShirogane: *blushes* Wow, thanks! I'm so glad that chapter wasn't worthless after all, and it means a lot that you think my writing is good enough to want to emulate.
Falsetta-Arias: Thank you so much! I'm amazed that you have no major criticism over about 35 chapters, haha. I hope I can maintain that quality going forward!