Book IV:

Of Princesses and Peons

Chapter XXXII

"What do you mean they're gone?!" Gabriel said in shock.

"I mean they are on a ship that's already halfway across Alrest, they're flying over a large desert, but not the same one as the Ardainian desert," Azami answered.

"How does Azami know this?" Rafi questioned.

"Every rare blade has a special ability and special skill. I have the ability to see anywhere I want to look. I simple gazed upon my lovely driver and I knew exactly where he was," she giggled as she pointed to the mechanical socket she had on her face in place of her left eye.

"What about Poppi?!" Rafi asked.

"Poppi agreed to stay with Juliani, she is safe here in Mor Ardain," Azami answered.

"She... agreed?"

"Rafi won't stand it! Poppi can't be with Juliani!" Rafi yelled. "Friends must save her!"

"Look Raf, If Poppi's safe for now then we need to go after Silas and Acacia, we can worry about her later," Gabriel said.

"Poppi will be fine, she's a tough girlie!" Kassandra said empathetically.

Rafi seemed annoyed, but he silently agreed.

"Well, shall we?" Malos asked, appearing out of nowhere.

"And where the hell have you been?" Gabriel interrogated.

"Exploring, but it seems I'm out of time, let's move," he replied, getting on the ship.

"C'mon Gabe, let's go," Kassandra said, tugging at his wrist.

"Right, right, c'mon Kassy," Gabriel said before getting on board. "They should be somewhere in the Scorpox Desert to the East if Azami is correct. Hold on Silas, we're coming."

...

We had been wandering the desert for what seemed like days, but it had honestly only been for a few hours. The scorching sun and the burning sand did not make traversing this place easy. I also had no water, and finding some was becoming much more of a necessity. It also didn't help that we were occasionally being attacked by scorpoxes, giant, Great Dane-sized scorpions with claws that could easily pop your limbs off and armed with a deadly neurotoxin. Sheba constantly refused to fight or aid me in fighting so it was left to me to defend her and myself. Why I thought I should help her, I didn't know, but I kept doing it. And with her being a water blade, she was doing much better than I was in this environment. She was much more worried about the sun's affect on her skin than me trying not to die.

An average-sized scorpox jumped out from the sand and went to sting Sheba. I jumped between them and used my ether shield to block it as I thrusted my sword into its skull, killing it.

"You let him get to close to us, peon. Do better next time," she said.

It was at this point that I completely snapped.

"Alright I have had enough!" I yelled. "You want to get back to wherever the hell you want to go, that's fine by me. But how about you either help me out or shut the hell up? You've betrayed people who are willing to stand with you and help you out, so how about a little less whining out of that traitorous mouth of yours?!"

She seemed taken aback, as if she didn't know what I was talking about. "Well it's not my fault you never once tried to help us fit in with you. This is obviously your fault."

"My fault?!" I yelled. "How am I supposed to help you fit in?! I can't even help myself fit in! I'm traveling with people I don't understand, trying to be someone I don't understand, and acting in ways I can't comprehend. All you've been doing since we got here is flirt with Kassandra and other random girls and complain that we don't have enough 'cute girls'. You didn't even bother training when I was trying to increase my skill under Mòrag and to top it all off I've been protecting you this entire time, even AFTER you betrayed us and all you can do is act like a gigantic bitch!"

She let out a gasp as she looked down. She then turned abruptly away and began floating away in her bathtub.

"And now where the hell are you going?"

"Well clearly we'll survive better on our own so I will go ahead and take care of myself!" she said as she tried unsuccessfully to hide her tearing up.

I stood there for a moment and sighed.

"Great," I said to myself. "Now somehow I'm the asshole..."

She definitely moved faster than I thought she would, I'd already lost her.

I sighed again. "I guess I'll go find her..."

...

"Is everyone ok?" Acacia asked KOS-MOS and Mythra.

"Yeah, I cant believe she was just gonna leave us to die," Mythra stared.

"It appears we were en route to the far north of Alrest. However scans indicate that we crashed in the Scorpox Desert, named for its high scorpox population," KOS-MOS informed.

"I see, well we need to regroup with Silas," Acacia reminded them.

"The possibility of his survival is very low," KOS-MOS said.

"He's alive," Mythra chimed in. "I'd know if he was dead."

"Which way do you think he went KOS-MOS? He could be injured," Acacia asked, worried.

KOS-MOS stopped as she ran calculations in her head. "During our descent the cargo bay was opened. Judging from the time he separated from us to the time it opened, there is a ninety-nine percent chance that Silas was back there at the time. From that point in time to the time we jumped, we had moved approximately fifteen miles, as the speed of this craft is extremely high. Given windspeed, falling patter, and the height we jumped from, he should be approximately ten miles west of this point."

Acacia stared at her in disbelief. "How can you run all those numbers so quickly?"

"My blade skill is called Mental Arithmetic. I have the fastest calculation of any blade," KOS-MOS stated.

"Let's go, we need to move fast," Mythra recommended.

"Right, let's—" Acacia started before getting cut off by a voice.

"You three aren't going anywhere," Sonata, the musical blade, said as she appeared out of nowhere. "I saw you try to make your escape, so I'll deal with you now."

"Mythra, get going," KOS-MOS and I will handle her.

"Got it," Mythra said as she ran off. Splitting up wasn't a good idea, but at this point they were out of options.

"You sure you can keep to the beat hun? You don't seem to be the dancing type and your blade is more robotic than a computer," she laughed, as she spun a microphone in her hand, the other end of this microphone was an ether dagger.

KOS-MOS threw Acacia her ether cannon and transformed her own arm into her R Cannon. She fired three blasts at Sonata.

She spat out sounds into her microphone that sounded like drum beats, and with each one she dodged the blasts with ease.

"Unless you think you can stick to the staff, you'll find yourself in a lot of treble!" she giggled.

"Acacia, It appears the enemy functions on specific rhythm. It is advised that we strike inside of this rhythm in order to effectively attack her," KOS-MOS analyzed.

Acacia sighed, "I can't dance, are you sure there isn't another way?"

KOS-MOS did a front flip forward and landed on one hand, holding her body into the air, she then brought herself up on her index finger, holding herself in perfect balance.

"I am equipped with extremely advanced perambulation, all of my movements are carefully and precisely tuned to accomplish even the most complex of tasks. I believe this will be of no issue."

Acacia was kind of taken aback, she didn't realize KOS-MOS was so intricate.

"You think you can hold your own on the dance floor? This oughta be good!" Sonata stretched out before throwing her hand in the air and giving a wink. "Alright then little girl, show me what you got!"

Readability Level: 11-12th Grade

Time Taken: 4 Hours