Chapter XV: The Call For Liberty
"once the evil men have been rebuked, condemned to the fierce flames, call me with the blessed."
The morning sun was slowly crawling towards the horizon, soon to start illuminating the district where the Warriors would face their decisive battle later that day, provided Pieck's intel about where the Scouts were located was correct. Regardless, it was wise to be prepared for their battle at any moment. A fresh pot of coffee was brewed and the Warriors sat around it in total silence. Reiner and Bertolt's eyes were fixed on the kettle while Zeke's gaze shifted between the two of them.
Zeke knew it was on him to break the silence, so he cleared his throat and began, "I see nobody wants to volunteer to share."
Bertolt didn't take his eyes off the coffee pot as he spoke his timid response, "Is there any reason to?"
"I can't have my brave Warriors heading into battle distracted by their bad dreams," Zeke reasoned, "I need you both to have clear heads."
"What about you?" Reiner asked, actually looking up to him, "If you had a strange dream about her like we did, then shouldn't you get it off your chest to clear your own mind?"
"Hm? Giving me orders now, Reiner?" Zeke questioned with dangerous amusement as he reached over to scratch his opposite ear. He saw Reiner gulp hard and his eyes went wide as if he made a huge mistake, but Zeke followed up with a surprising acceptance, "No, I see where you're coming from. Lead by example. Follow my own advice..."
Reiner had started to hold his breath after he posed his last question but now he felt it was safe to release it. He had to wonder if Zeke's first comment was him sincerely being annoyed and he only 'corrected' himself to keep tensions low before their critical battle was at hand. Reducing how tense things were there was the goal of Zeke's recent choice to send Priss away after all, so it was believable he'd continue to do whatever it took to maintain their sense of duty for the sake of the mission.
However, the leader of the group wasn't keen on sharing what he had seen in his personal realm of sleep. He figured that his underlings were not going to question what he told them though, so he went ahead and shamelessly twisted the truth for the sake of jump starting the conversation, "She was her usual self to me. Loud, crass, accusatory for no reason. I ended up shifting into my Titan and eating her, but even as I brought her to my mouth she didn't break down into fear. She just went on berating me. The only thing that silenced her was crushing her between my teeth..."
"Mine was similar," Bertolt chimed in; Zeke's own willingness to volunteer gave him the encouragement he needed to join the discussion, "She was so hostile when I hadn't said or done anything. She claimed I had feelings for her to try and get a rise out of me... then she mocked me for not being very... memorable."
"Acting true to life for you as well I see," Said Zeke. He reached out to the pot and poured a cup of the steaming hot coffee into his mug, "Anything else?"
"Y-Yes," Bertolt confirmed. Zeke passed the pot to him and he took it to pour some for himself, "I killed her. I burned her face in the campfire and broke her neck, I thought it was a fitting death for a witch like her..."
"You're quite correct about that actually. In less civilized times, women who were suspected of being witches were burned at the stake or hanged, so it seems your dream was somewhat historically accurate..." Zeke was oddly entertained by this notion, and his tone obviously reflected that. The other two Warriors found his digression strange and Zeke quickly noticed their puzzled stares, "Ah, sorry about that. Couldn't help myself. Go on."
"Right..." Bertolt murmured. He passed along the pot to Reiner before continuing, "But once I killed her she just got right back up. I had felt so good after I thought I'd ended her, but she just won't stay down. She won't... just go away..."
While Reiner found it unsettling that both Bertolt and Zeke had similarly themed dreams, he was more disturbed by the violent and personal nature in how Bertolt murdered Priscilla. To eat someone in Titan form was one thing, it was quick and lacked a personal connection – but Bertolt made her suffer first by savagely burning her before giving her what he thought would be the finishing blow of breaking her neck.
"...She was just upset in mine," Reiner spoke once he pulled himself out of his thoughts on Bertolt's brutality, "Upset to the point that she suggested I... take your place, Warchief Zeke."
"You mean kill me?" Zeke added in immediately.
Reiner blew on his hot coffee for a brief stall, "Yes, sir."
"What an absolute gem she is," Zeke added flatly. He brought his drink to his lips and sipped, but it was far too hot still and he was burned for his foolishness, causing Zeke to flinch and curse under his breath. Being a shifter though, a burnt tongue would easily fix itself right away.
"But she expressed honest remorse over feeling that way," Reiner continued and blew on his coffee again before he took a cautious sip to ensure he wouldn't make the same mistake Zeke just did, "But after that things were just romantic between us. I don't think that's important to either of you though."
Zeke was suddenly right back in his own dream where he was the one getting treated so lovingly by Priscilla. His experience was closer to Reiner's than Bertolt's, but he could never openly admit to that. What benefit would it offer to let Reiner know anyway? He told himself that it would only raise tensions once more... and on top of that, there was the one thing that he definitely couldn't share. It would be bad enough sharing the erotic as well as romantic elements, but there was something that the other two weren't aware of about him that came up in his dream.
"I know about you."
The Warchief's eyes glazed over as he vividly recalled it.
"How you're..."
Even if it was a product of his own mind and had no basis in reality, the fact that those words came out of her pretty mouth was unsettling all the same.
"A royal."
All things considered he had a pretty great time in his subconscious romp, but that brief moment will always be what stuck out the most in his memory; it was the most 'off' thing about it all, and there was a whole lot 'off' throughout that dream, but he could (and did) brush most of it aside for his personal satisfaction... but her saying she knew he was of royal descent lingered with him more than any of the divine pleasure she had provided.
However, thinking back to his dream at all lead to it's entire contents flooding back to him in explicit detail. Having such erotic imagery dancing through his head would be detrimental to focusing if the associated feelings were left unresolved. The best way to describe what needed to be done was to 'get the poison out.' Being unable to rid that from his system would leave him in the worst position of them all if he didn't do something.
"You seen more distracted than either of us, sir..." Reiner spoke up when he noticed Zeke zoning out.
"Hm..." Zeke hummed, reaching up and scratching his ear again, "Astute observation, Reiner. I'll take care of it though. Go and ready yourselves."
It was now midday, meaning there was enough light coming through the house's windows to do a little poking around. Priss made her way through her kitchen where she delved through drawers and cabinets to look for matches and candles. The various furnishings that were closer to what Marley had (according to Zeke anyway) were still very unusual to her, even in their nonfunctional state, so she didn't even bother to tinker with them. After going through several drawers she finally pulled one open that put a smile on her face.
"Aha!" She cheered upon finally finding what she was looking for. She grabbed the candles and matches to keep nearby in case she found herself in need of them, but her moment of triumph was interrupted by a deep rumbling in her stomach that was so loud it was almost embarrassing despite her being alone.
...Definitely time for a snack, she thought.
Priss swiftly returned to the living room and tore into the box of supplies. The food provided by Zeke was just more of those bland field rations while the only drink was water. It wasn't exciting or appetizing, but it had to do. She grabbed a ration, removed it's packaging and took a big bite. While she was quite aware that her exposure to moonlight would keep her sustained, Priss figured she needed to do more than merely subsist since she had a precious life growing inside her. Who knows how much her own ability could transfer to her fetus anyway, especially considering it was only 1/3rd Hyperian on top of it not getting direct exposure to the light of the moon.
The science of the moon beams and their effects were a mystery to her, but it was not information she wanted to legitimately pursue so she was content with wondering about it just to keep her mind busy. Absorption via the skin? But was that all? Perhaps it somehow made it to her blood stream after passing through her skin? For a member of this supposedly glorious race who were meant to be a direct opposing force to Titans, this whole synthesizing energy from a form of natural light was awfully similar to how they functioned as well.
"Sun and moon..." She said while she chewed, sending crumbs falling from her lips and onto her shirt, "Silver and gold..."
As she pondered the broad implications, Priscilla patted her stomach and looked down, "So what will that make you? A star?" She cooed softly as her mouth curled into a smile, "Yeah, of course... you'll be our little star!"
Priss had quickly finished her not so delicious snack and washed it down with a swig of water. She looked back into the box and craved another ration, not because it was tasty but because her stomach wasn't satisfied yet, but she denied herself the urge to eat more. For now anyway. Having just spoken to her unborn son, Priscilla started to fall into continuing her future family fantasy that she began dreaming up the previous night; It was a quick and easy method of uplifting her mood, as long as she could reasonably navigate around the reality of the situation.
Finding the balance between indulging in her escapism and accepting the eventual truth of it was a tricky thing. If she built it up too much in her mind then it'd make the inescapable tragedy even harder to deal with than it already was, but as long as she didn't outright reject it and live in a delusion, was it really so bad to have a little fun? Enjoyable things were hard to find where she was now, so she had to make her own happiness in any way she could.
As preparations were being made, Reiner's head was clouded with worry. Opening up about his dream did nothing to ease his mind – nothing could accomplish that now. Pieck had recently returned from her scouting mission and informed them that the enemy forces were very close at this point, so he and Bertolt had geared up while Zeke ventured outside the Wall to wait with his legion of buried Eldians to transform once their battle began. Once Bertolt had equipped himself, he joined their Warchief along with the Cart Titan.
But his anxieties wouldn't leave Reiner be. Was Priss alright? Did she have enough to eat and drink? Was she getting enough rest? What if there was some unseen danger lurking in an area of Hyperia they hadn't explored together? The place was huge and they only went through a comparatively small part of it in their brief investigation; for all he knew Priss just stuck to where they already ventured but he couldn't help but worry something could happen to her. She had no means to defend herself since they had no spare weapons or ODM gear to give her on the off chance there was something she'd need to fight against there.
"I can't let myself be so distracted... not now..." He said through gritted teeth as he situated himself in the hollow hiding spot in the wall, "But..."
Priscilla's face flashed through his mind in an assortment of different emotions – From her loving smiles, tear stained cheeks, gazes of lusty longing and everything in between. He had to get through this and get back to her. He had to succeed at this mission and return home so he could give his future wife everything he promised her and more... but if he couldn't get his head in the game, he was far less likely to make it out of this alive.
But how could he keep her out of his mind completely?
Reiner also had to wonder what would become of her if he didn't live through this. Zeke still seemed intent on bringing her to Marley so whether Reiner was with them or not didn't matter – it was a guarantee that she wouldn't be abandoned on Paradis and he was thankful for that, but a whole different world awaited her across the ocean, and who knows what kind of things his Warchief would pursue if Reiner were out of the picture. He told himself she was capable enough to stand against Zeke, and he believed that, but what would leave her most vulnerable would be the massive culture shock of seeing what the world outside her little island was like... and having nobody she was comfortable with to guide her through this new world would only make that worse.
He had to get back to her for so many reasons, but he couldn't get lost in thinking about them now. With the Warriors all in position, all they had to do was play the waiting game until the Scouts arrived and they could commence the operation to retake The Founding Titan.
She still wasn't completely satisfied with her 'meal' but Priss remained steadfast in limiting herself to just the one ration for the time being. She stood up and stretched with a loud groan, followed by her arms flopping back down to her sides as she made her way to the nearest window. She glanced quickly to her sack of books and then back outside; her mind wandered to where a nice place to go would be since sitting in her old house wasn't exciting – not that there was much thrill to be garnered anywhere in the city, but it would be better than being all cooped up. The girl grabbed her bag, slid her boots on and left the house.
While it wasn't as nice outside as it was during the night, it was still pleasant enough compared to being shut indoors; of course she knew now that there was an unusual supernatural reason for the night time hours being preferable to her, so the fact that things weren't as refreshing now made sense – As much sense as an otherworldly concept like receiving strength from the moon could anyway. It would be so laughable to anyone else, but she had enough proof from her own experiences to believe it. As she thought about it she started to wonder just how enhanced her strength could be. Reiner was over 200lbs yet she lifted and carried him on the cold winter night, she also remembered overpowering Zeke to the point of holding him down when he clearly should have been able to gain the upper hand quickly in that scenario.
Priscilla snickered at the idea of seeing just how easily she could lift Reiner and carry him around for fun or even something ridiculous like how far she could throw Zeke if he pissed her off enough. She did recall her carrying of Reiner to still be a strain so she concluded that she couldn't ever effortlessly just pick him up. The light of the moon wasn't giving her superpowers, but just boosts to make sure she could manage something she otherwise couldn't – and it tended to be during times of dire need or accompanied by some surge of emotion, as if this power was more of a failsafe for survival than a latent ability to call upon to be a total badass at will like Titan shifting.
….Still, the idea of grabbing and throwing men bigger than her around for various reasons was really amusing.
Priscilla didn't even notice where her feet were taking her since she was getting lost in the fun ideas of 1) throwing Reiner onto a bed and aggressively mounting him in a sex or cuddle frenzy and 2) throwing Zeke down onto a hard surface as roughly as she could – would be a nice bit of payback for him pushing her to the ground. Bonus points if she broke some of his bones. Her aimless wandering ended up leading her back to the giant statue of the sleeping goddess; the deity that was her namesake. It was undeniably an impressive piece of art, but like so many things here, she had no sentimental connection to this central figure to her previous society.
She made her way to the base of the statue and sat down with her back against it for support. Instead of picking something at random like she had done in the past, she sought out something a bit more specific.. and one thing was for sure: she had enough of that journal, so she chose to delve into the book on Hyperia's history instead.
The book was thick and intimidating for a girl like her – as in someone who wasn't into casual research and taking in knowledge for leisure. Priss scowled as she opened it up and was met first with a beautiful illustration of their Goddess that spread across two pages. It was an almost identical depiction as the statue she was propped up against now: laying on the ground on her side where she looked at peace.
Such a benevolent expression would prove puzzling with the words that followed.
Our people were born from the body of our progenitor, Priska of the moon, in the age of the old Gods. She was cast out by the Heavenly Father for consorting with the Devil of Earth – an unforgivable sin. She was stripped of her divinity and her children were bestowed with the righteous task of opposing the Devil's 'offspring' it may someday produce. Bound in this forest, the tears of despair that the goddess wept formed the purified bodies of water and rivers that flow through Hyperia. As her body decayed, our people sprang forth from it with all of us containing a piece of her within us. We are the 'above humans,' this is what the word Hyperian means, to be above all others.
Priscilla scoffed at the pompous absurdity of the name's origin, "What a bunch of assholes!"
Since this remained her only known option for staying occupied, she was glad to find some sort of amusement in what she was reading, dark as it may be. The fun she found in it faded as she thought back to the goddess and her serene expression in the works of art she'd seen of her – why has she been depicted as such when her circumstances sounded so unpleasant? Cast out for sinning, stripped of her godliness and crying until her body broke down over time resulting in a race of supposed pseudo-divine Ubermensch...
The first generation chronicled the history of our creation as they had a close enough connection to our source of life to be imbued with that knowledge, and while that would be lost over time as generations went on, the divinity would still exist within us all. The ancient knowledge would remain in sacred texts that only the powerful governing council had access to. Our interconnection allows us to maintain an intangible link on a psychic level, so the strong governing members used this ability to suppress ancient knowledge of our purpose to oppose the Devils to allow our society to flourish blissfully. It would be many ages before the Devil spawned the Titans, but our reason for existence was etched in the stars since our genesis. The future descendants of the Devil were marked as who we were destined to keep in place, or even destroy if we must, should their demonic ways lead them to subjugate the world as such savage beasts would.
We remained hidden when the King and his Eldian refugees first came to Paradis, which we had previously explored to some extent, after they saw defeat at the hands of other nations before we chose to act. We built several supply outposts but these saw little use before we shut ourselves back within our city when the Devil's children came. Titans will not approach us, they will not harm us. It is the inherited weakness from the Devil of Earth's love for our Goddess, but due to the curse put on her by the Heavenly Father the offspring of Priska were forbidden to form any sort of relationship with the Eldians. The curse extended down to our very biology. While it is historically called a 'curse' we have come to see it as a blessing, to be the chosen champions to strike down the devils should they threaten the world.
Priss slammed her head against the hard stone she sat against. A gut wrenching revelation set in that she didn't even consider prior to seeing these words: the realization that her people, and thus she herself, only existed for a hateful purpose. These people came to hail their reason for existence as a blessing due to their perceived superiority over Eldians – or even everyone, but their specific enemy ultimately was the Eldians. They were beings born from punishment and spite who were engineered to destroy; living, breathing weapons.
All at once the people who were targets of her own personal hatred appeared in her mind – those who she'd not think twice about if they died or who she actively wished harm upon. She let a man die with no remorse, she resented everyone who judged her for committing a crime against humanity, she had no positive feelings towards Bertolt and was apathetic at best... but most of all she would have been thrilled to see Reiner kill Zeke; she was so blinded be her hatred in that moment that she wouldn't have stopped him from doing so because her selfish spite kept her from seeing beyond that moment and how bad it would ultimately be for Reiner.
"Is my anger all I that am?" She murmured.
She sat there and wondered if this is how she always would be; if she had any sort of chance to better herself, or if hate was so embedded in her very blood that there was no hope for her to be a better person.
...But did any of the people she felt utter disdain for, past or present, deserve any sort of forgiveness? Delving into her reasons for why she held such negative feelings made her start to sink back into not having any guilt for her actions, thoughts or desires. She was caught in a suffocating uncertainty if how she felt was justified or not in being so angered by others who wronged her to any degree.
Without the reassurance from Reiner that she wasn't bad it was hard to dispel the doubt brewing inside of her. If she was inherently evil, was it even possible for her to become good if her very existence was based in ancient malice? But this idea spread further than just her now: she would be passing along part of herself to her son in the future that wasn't all that far off. The thought that this tiny being could possibly carry on an age old inescapable hatred was soul crushing. This realization didn't make her feel any different about the baby himself, but rather a sense of guilt over an innocent child being burdened with anger engraved in his soul.
She looked back down to the book and saw an illustration of the Devil of Earth standing before Priska, who dwarfed it in size. There was a clear contrast between the two beings: the Devil was twisted and ugly while Priska was elegant and beautiful. Beneath the image were the following words:
The Devil had a deep longing and love for her, someone who had showed it kindness despite it's ugliness, and the most sinful part of her consorting with the Devil was that she had love for it too. The Heavenly Father made it so their descendants could never be together just like his daughter and the Devil were not allowed to be together.
"Punished for loving someone she wasn't supposed to love...?" Priss said to herself.
Priscilla started rapidly flipping pages to move forward through the history, the whole dynamic the the Goddess and Devil was starting to strike a very unpleasant nerve in her – given how it directly tied into how Hyperians and Eldians, and thus she and Reiner, are forbidden to be together. After her frantic page turning she stopped on a random section.
Until the day of reckoning comes, we will live here in prosperity. Nobody outside the governing council shall need to know of the Eldians or Titans until we must take action. We are everything any other race could ever hope to be and more. Peaceful, crime free with a focus on arts and sciences while still keeping the faith in our Goddess strong, because she is ultimately what gave us our power and we must forever be grateful for the gifts she's given us, along with the ones bestowed by the Heavenly Father. All must be balanced: art, science and faith.
Trouble arose for the first time when people's faith began to fall to the wayside. It was a minority of our society, but it was growing in the shadows all the same – and the governing members knew this could only lead to ruin if we were to shirk faith, one of our core pillars of society. And right we were, because birth rates began to decline. Those who had started to drift away from the faith that gave us life were branded heretics and were marked as the ones at fault, displeasing our Gods was the only answer as to why we were being punished in such a way. Thus the heretical women were burned while the men of these blasphemous groups were offered absolution. Once this short lived deviation was stomped out, birth rates rose to normal again, confirming that balancing our faith in our Gods along with our other pillars was key to our survival.
"Why kill only the women if the men were seen as heretics too...?" She furrowed her brow.
Again she started rapidly skipping chunks of pages. Her patience was growing thin for this task but her frantic rush through the book came grinding to a halt when she saw the words "Human Sacrifice" in large letters at the top of a page. Her eyes lingered on the two words for a while, fixated on why this was a subject again since she'd already gone through the bit about burning female heretics. It was frightening to think it went even further, but that fear did not deter her curiosity...
When birth rates started declining again we began the practice of sacrificing the weaker females. Things didn't start out so alarming but based on the fact that this wasn't the first time in our history that births began declining, we chose to act immediately. The woman who was chosen was incredibly honored since she had lost her purpose of providing children, thus making her a weak and objectively useless member of our race. With being chosen for sacrifice she was providing a service to strengthen the other women by allowing the consumption of-
Priscilla let out a shriek and threw the book away from her when she saw the accompanying imagery: the woman being sacrificed laid out with several other women standing around her and feeding on her internal organs. She didn't see or read the details beyond that they were consuming the chosen one, but her brief glance at the picture made it look like the sacrificed female was still alive based on her face... she only caught a brief glimpse of it, but the face on the 'chosen' appeared to be on of jubilation.
There was a disturbing running theme that was all too apparent now: women were the cause of the Hyperian's problems and they were the ones who thus took all the blame, yet they were continuously depicted as not even objecting. From the Goddess always looking happy or content despite her tragic lore, to women chosen to be killed and eaten while feeling honor and joy. Priss felt like she was descending further and further into a nightmare, but for this to be a mere nightmare would be a blessing since she could at least wake up to something better. A perfect society with no crime, a love of art and with science falling into barbaric rituals in a desperate attempt to appease their Gods – and their heinous attempts at appeasing the divines they were so dedicated to didn't even work. It was all so tragic, but it only made her angry.
The pale girl grunted as she stood up, grabbing her bag of items and then marching over to pick up the book she had just thrown. A renewed rage rose within her accompanied by burning ambition: the desire to remove this history from ever being learned of again. She couldn't erase what she already knew, but she could stop it from ever getting to someone else. She didn't have to tell anyone... And she didn't have to learn anymore either.
She marched home and grabbed the matches she found earlier and she brought them outside where she emptied the things from the bag. Priscilla knelt down and pushed the books closer together, as close as they could get, before she struck a match and dropped it onto the tomes that had been haunting her with their dreadful knowledge ever since she found them. She rose to her feet as the fire spread gradually to each book: the journal, the history, the science and the others she hadn't read... but off to the side she saw the unicorn toy. Her expression softened and she reached down and picked it up. It was soft, cute and vibrant as any children's toy would be. She thought about how much she must have loved it in her youth, probably carried it everywhere and slept with it clutched close to her chest every night... But that wasn't really true at all. Her eyes narrowed as she realized that this item was just as bad as the rest that was burning. Adrestia loved that toy. Adrestia carried it everywhere and slept with it every night. It was not Priscilla's beloved plush, it was Adrestia's.
"...This is nothing to me," She spat and tossed the toy into the pyre along with the ancient knowledge. If she were to sever the ties to this place, everything had to go.
There was a slight pang in her chest in watching something so cute and innocent burn up in the blaze, but what she more strongly felt was a sense of liberation. To carry that unicorn with her would act as a constant reminder of the person she once was and could have possibly grown into. She was not "Adrestia," the highborn daughter of a leading member of Hyperia who was their last hope at saving them all – whoever that stranger was effectively died long ago when she was still a child. The person she was now was what mattered, and she refused to start moving backwards. She was going to keep going forward, just as she had been.
"I'm Priscilla Zi..." She stopped right away having realized what she was about to say wasn't exactly accurate either, only about half right, but it didn't take her long to proclaim her correct identity, "I am Priscilla Braun... nobody else."
The blazing fire consumed all she had fed to it. The books turned to ash and the plush toy was unrecognizable in how the flames twisted and melted it. The material the toy was made of created a very unpleasant smell as it burned compared to the paper and book bindings which made her want to get far away from it. Just to ensure nothing got out of control, Priss kicked some dirt onto the fire and stomped on it a bit to try and put it out, or at least reduce it to a level where it would fizzle out soon on it's own.
But what was a girl to do now? She destroyed the little accessible busywork she had, but it didn't take long for an idea to strike her. The sources of water here were apparently pure and goddamn did she feel like she needed a bit of purification... And so she walked along the river where she sought out a depth she found suitable for her needs. She stopped at the river bank once it appeared that it was about waist-deep; a depth that would work just fine for bathing. Her hands got to work undoing the buttons of her shirt that was in need of being washed. Everything was terrible, but at least her hygiene was one of those unfortunate things she could do something about.
"Ungh... It's all so dirty."
One piece of clothing after another came off and dropped to the ground until she was down to nothing. Once everything was off, she gathered her clothes and brought them to the water; it wouldn't be a full-on proper wash since she had no soap but she would settle for a rinse. Priscilla knelt down and began to soak her shirt, holding it submerged for a few seconds and then lifted it again so she could wring the water out. Before proceeding with the rest of her clothes she found a tree nearby that had branches low enough for her to hang the wet shirt on to dry. She repeated this process with her pants, socks and finally her underwear.
Priscilla returned to the river once all the items were hung to dry and she began wading out into it. The cold water made her shiver the more of her body it consumed, but the shock of it was strangely refreshing.
She chuckled darkly, "Bless the tears of the goddess, huh?" She didn't realize right away what she had just said, but when she did she grimaced and abruptly dunked her head under the water.
Why would I say something like that?
After a moment of lingering beneath the surface she threw her head back, sending droplets of water flying from her hair behind her.
Was I joking?
She brought her hand up to her opposite arm and began to rub it as a way to lightly scrub herself.
Yeah, just a joke. That's all.
"Managed to escape death this time, Reiner..." Zeke coughed.
Reiner's mangled body was held in the Cart Titan's mouth as Zeke rode atop it's head like it were his steed. Zeke had been weakened by his confrontation with Levi but he was in far better shape than Reiner was after the battle at Shiganshina. Bertolt had not been lucky enough to escape and thus they had lost the Colossal Titan to the enemy forces – and losing one of Marley's shifters was bad enough, but the real crime was that they didn't retake the Founding Titan. The Paradis Island Operation was a complete and utter failure.
...At least, that's how the Marleyan government would see it. The Warriors would face scrutiny and punishment, but Zeke knew that he'd be coming out of all this just fine in the long run. It would have been preferable to take it back to Marley, but the Founding Titan was not something he himself needed.
Not as long as he had that girl.
He had to maintain his act of a devoted Warrior to Marley and play the long game that he had started 10 years ago with her brother. Thinking back to that time brought Zeke to memories of his mentor, the one he inherited the Beast Titan from. He made a promise to him and he could only hope the path he chose to reach the end goal would satisfy his father figure, even if it wasn't exactly what he would have had in mind when it came to methods.
"Just wait here," Zeke commanded as he dismounted the Cart titan outside the grand forest where Priscilla was waiting. He threw on his long coat before departing to pick up the haunting temptress hidden away in isolation. Reiner was in no shape to retrieve her – his body was far too damaged for him to move at all, even the simple act of talking was a struggle for him. He was in the process of regenerating, but it was slower than usual due to the multiple brutal injuries he sustained in the battle.
Zeke was in good enough shape to walk at this point as he had an easier time with his regenerating than his subordinate – his wounds in battle weren't as severe. The time spent traveling from the Wall to this place gave him time to regain enough strength to complete the simple task of picking the girl up... and ever the curious man he was, Zeke was interested in seeing this city for himself, even if briefly.