Chapter 16 subtitle
A/N
Um... Hi. So it's been nearly a year now huh… Wow my math has to be pretty bad to be thinking that three weeks somehow equates to 298 days later…
Regardless, I am more or less going somewhat stable as of now. And provided that statement did not Jinx me I will be making a comeback.
Now for those of you here from Louise Summons a Titan : Don't worry its not abandoned and a new chapter will be out soon! I promise you that.
Last thing I have created an instagram page with some very early concepts of Louise and Atlas's armor. My user handle is Sir_J_Morningstar
Now then with that out of the way onto the Chapter!
Human Settlement : 14 Years since Risen
Louise furiously slammed shut the bulkhead door right behind her. Molten metal squeezed through the cracks in her grip as her Sol light burned bright fueled by her anger. Turning on her heel she stomped down the hall leaving a trail of white hot boot marks in her wake.
She was not comfortable with her ghost being exposed. She could barely count on her fingers the number of times she had gotten close to losing her faithful companion, each time closer than the last. The utter lack of caution reminded her of her early days on Mercury, content with living peacefully in an abandoned town, not a care in the world.
She had become stronger, smarter, and she was cautious to the T- "Stronger maybe, smarter certainly, cautious… eeeh, up for debate."
Louise blinked owlishly at Saito, he wasn't in her head so he couldn't have read her thoughts - "You're forgetting I spent fourteen years solo with you. Your thought patterns were the only company I had whenever you decided to take an impromptu nap or read a book." Saito said, reading Louise's thoughts again. "Seriously, I don't need to be in your head to know what you're thinking."
Louise childishly stuck her tongue out at him.
"That goes for facial expressions too…bleeeeeah" Saito created a hologram of a tongue sticking out of his shell in response.
The two then entered an intense staring contest for a moment before bursting into a fit of giggles, which swiftly snowballed into full-blown laughter. The jovial moment served to extinguish Louise's anger and flames, both metaphorically and literally. Her footsteps no longer left a white-hot trail just a tame red.
Coming up on her destination Louise decided it would be more fun to jump down than to bother with the poorly welded ladder. So she leapt over the ledge and dropped down. On landing she found her good mood souring once again. In front of her was the one species that she was least comfortable around. Humans.
The company came in the form of a pair of guards who were currently posted at the exit Louise had chosen to leave through. In her head Louise silently debated looking for a separate exit, or just simply blinking past them and out the exit. Unfortunately, some silent part of her demanded that she hold her head high and press forward. That under no circumstances was she to show them any sign of weakness. Her image as a Guardian must remain strong above the common folk.
Upon noticing her approach, the two guards shifted uneasily on their feet. One of them took notice of the trail of glowing footsteps she left in her wake and gulped. "Something you need?" The guard to the left of the door asked uneasily. Clearly, her presence made them uncomfortable.
"I'm going out." Louise stated, as she confidently strolled towards the exit. "Will that be a problem?"
The two guards exchanged a look between themselves, then another nervous glance in Louise and Saito's direction. She met their gazes behind her helmet, not once breaking her stride. When she finally got close to the hatch the two guards both took a step back… without opening it.
Louise felt her eye twitch. 'Do they expect me to open it myself!? Isn't their whole damn purpose on this base to open this thing for people like us!?' Louise wanted to yell at the guards, maybe throttle one for their lack of respect. She was a damn Guardi- Louise quickly composed herself before she spontaneously combusted, literally. Then a painfully familiar voice echoed in the back of her mind, she just couldn't recall who it belonged to. 'They aren't worth it. Don't tarnish your reputation for a pair of commoners.'
Without moving her head Louise silently glanced at both the guards on either side of her. They were both sweating profusely due to the rise in temperature caused by Louise's emotions going haywire. Based on the look of unease in their eyes she could easily deduce that they suspected her as the cause. Deciding she had better things to do than answer questions she quickly knelt down and reached for the wheel on the hatch.
One of the guards noticed her action and quickly spoke up. "Just wait a sec so we can put some ear plugs in. That rust on that hatch makes-"
With a simple flick of her wrist the unpleasant noise of rusted metal filled the confined space. Louise's helmet dampened the noise, but the guards weren't so well equipped. From her place above the wheel she could see their weapons were hanging by their shoulder straps as the guards clutched their ears desperate to block out the earsplitting screech. Luckily for them, Louise had provided enough force to spin the wheel quickly, unlocking it swiftly, ending their torment. Pulling open the door she saw a ladder down to a set of stairs that would take her to the settlement. She froze.
Time around her slowed to a crawl as her instincts flared.
A hand reached out to her – A CLAW
A lean human limb with five fingers – A stocky limb with only three alien digits.
Turning, she saw a human face twisted with annoyance and pain-A four-eyed monstrosity with partible mandibles open to bite her.
She tried to act reasonably - Her body moved with a will of its own.
She slipped through the hatch and gently sealed the door behind her - She pulled herself through the hatch slamming the path shut behind her.
She landed gracefully hearing a few curses from the guards - She slammed into the ground, her enemies exploded with rage, furious their catch had escaped their grasp.
She shrugged her shoulders and made her way to the stairwell down to the street - She moved with cautious steps through an urban environment where the Fallen thrived. Their traps lined the streets and their snipers had ample vantage points.
Saito seemed to be floating around erratically. Had he seen something odd? - WHAT WAS HE DOING OUT!?
Seeing Saito suddenly snapped Louise out of the sudden trance she had found herself in. Her breathing became erratic, her focus shot. Suddenly she felt as though she was seeing double. Two realities layered over one another On one hand a golf ball sized sun hung high in the sky, shining down over a thriving human settlement built next to the capsized carcass of an old cargo ship. - On the other, a massive sun made up the east horizon, a desert landscape littered with once human buildings taken up by Fallen raiders.
"Louise…"
The streets were filled with human activity, shopkeepers called out to sell their wares.- The streets were littered with traps, Fallen captains bellowed out orders to their crews.
"Louise."
Human settlers bargained over prices - Fallen bared teeth and snapped their mandibles arguing over Ether rations.
"LOUISE!" Saito's voice finally snapped Louise back to the proper reality. "Thank the Traveler, are you alright!?"
"I'm fine" Louise answered immediately.
"What!? No! You are not fine!" Saito yelled. "You just had a psychotic breakdown!"
"No I didn't…" Louise defended weakly.
"Uh, yes you did! And I don't need to go poking around in your head to prove that!"
"I was just taking notice of how different things are here compared to mercury."
Saito sighed. "This was a mistake, you've probably already gotten in enough trouble after your… borderline explosive exit from the ship." 'I really hope those guards are okay. Last thing we need are more enemies.' "Let's just head back to the command center and hang around Atlas for a bit, yeah?" 'Hopefully that'll prevent another outburst.'
Louise looked at Saito, then down at the Axe she had been carrying with her from the command center.
"No." Louise stated firmly.
"Why not?" Saito asked.
"I'm not about to give up because of some stupid paranoia!" Louise growled. "I am stronger than that! It will not hold me back! It won't!"
To Saito her determination did not appear to stem from proper reason, it seemed, almost childish. "Louise, you can't just control these outbursts, and simply being determined to fix them won't change anything. We need to get back to Atlas so that if you do have another breakdown there will be someone strong enough to stop you."
"I said I'm fine damnit!" Louise yelled, but upon seeing the look in Saito's eye she immediately regretted it. "I-I… we need to go."
Atlas heard the noise of the metal door slamming loudly echo down the hall. In his gut he had a sinking feeling he knew exactly who was responsible. The commander - Sarah, who had been sitting across from him when the noise rang out shot up straight, her gaze solely focused on the origin of the noise.
"Is that normal?" Atlas asked, knowing that based on her reaction it very clearly wasn't.
Sarah responded with a nod and an affirming huff. "Damn idiots didn't remember to lower the door… although it's not usually that loud." A slurry of colorful words echoed after the noise. "Nor do they usually get this frustrated." Sarah continued, suspicion etching her words.
"Is that so…" Atlas replied in what he hoped was a nonchalant tone. 'Damnit Louise… Gaea can we open a private channel to Louise without the commander picking up on it?'
'I'm afraid not dear, with our current proximity to all this receiving equipment we are caught in a web. Any signal I try to send out will surely be traced back to us.' Gaea's tone was somber.
"Damn Risen! Trying to make us go deaf or something!" A few of the guards' complaints managed to reach the command center. Atlas simply closed his eyes and let out a sigh of defeat. They were meant to be earning the trust of the settlement, not alienating it.
Sarah did not miss Atlas's reaction. "I take it you've come to the same conclusion I have then."
Atlas opened his eyes to meet the commander's gaze. "I assure you that despite her attitude she means well." Atlas said in a level tone. "I have met thousands of humans, exos and awoken alike in my time. And I have cut down plenty of my kind who were driven mad by their power. I am confident in my judgment of her character."
Sarah searched his eyes for any trace of deceit, finding none she posed another question. "How long would 'in your time' entail, how old are you really?"
"A little over-" "The exact number in years." Sarah interrupted. Atlas glared at her, feeling only slightly bothered by her interruption.
"Gaea?" Atlas asked, turning to face his companion hovering over his shoulder.
"We have been bonded by the Traveler for two-hundred and fifty-five years now" Gaea responded fondly. "As a matter of fact, your two-hundred and fifty-sixth birthday is just a few days away! I do hope we can celebrate it back in the city once more… maybe we could visit that one ramen place we are oh so fond of. Oh! Why don't we bring Louise, it would be such a wonderful first meal for her-!"
"Ahem." Sarah abruptly cleared her throat, interrupting Gaea's cheerful ramblings. "Setting that aside for a moment." Her tone was noticeably lacking its earlier bite. "I must admit it is quite the feat to have survived so long… and while I am willing to… offer leniency to your apprentice. I must demand that she remove her helmet in the presence of others."
Atlas failed to withhold a wince. Which sadly did not go unnoticed by Sarah.
"Will that be a problem?" Her voice suddenly dropped into a cold tone.
Atlas suddenly found himself in a bind. If he put his foot down and demanded Louise leave her helmet on it would lead to unwanted misunderstandings. But if he showed her face… He didn't want to think about how their escorts would react to a child carelessly throwing themselves into battle only to be cut apart by enemy fire. Not to mention that if word got out that the Traveler resurrected Children to fight their wars… it would not paint a bright image.
"Perhaps… I could offer you a compromise." Atlas said weakly, Sarah's eyes narrowed with distrust, but she did not speak up. "Why don't you look at her face yourself… and then decide whether or not you want our escorts to see her face."
Sarah raised a brow at his offer. "Is it that serious?" She asked in an exasperated tone. 'Just what is the deal with this Risen's face!? Are they a miniature fallen or something absurd? What would that be? A smolin? No, that sounds too cute.'
Atlas nodded gravely.
Sarah heaved a sigh, her shoulders rising and falling with her breath. "Fine." She finally said. "But if I find out this is all over some petty reasoning I will be demanding compensation for all this nonsense."
"And what would you be asking for as compensation exactly?"
"Munitions… weapons, I hear you Risen are quite the hoarders. It shouldn't be too much of a problem for you to part with some of your equipment. Besides, you have an eternity of time and the freedom of immortality at your fingertips. Us 'lightless' don't have the luxury of going out for a stroll these days." Sarah spoke in a sly tone. To some these demands might have seemed excessive or extortionate, but to many such demands from the city were simply another day in the office. They needed the equipment to survive. To a Risen killing a dreg was as easy as breathing, but to a lightless, it was quite the struggle without the proper tools on hand.
"Fine. We can negotiate these terms once our reinforcements arrive." Atlas said begrudgingly. "I do believe they will also be bringing some relief supplies with them as well." 'I just hope they still have them when they get here.'
A small Alessa class ship was currently performing air acrobatics in the sky, zipping about doing loops around the other two personal crafts that were flying with them.
"Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee" Came Violet's cheery voice over the radio.
"Hey Vi? Might want to be a little careful with that ship. We did just get these things after all, and considering who we are going to be visiting and who these ships used to belong to… well I don't think they'd appreciate them arriving in pieces." Jaeger's voice interrupted. "Also you might want to stop before Athena figures out how to use the radio on her ship-" "VIOLET YOU LITTLE SHIT! STOP THIS MADNESS THIS INSTANT!" Athena's furious voice cut off Jaeger's warning.
"Never mind. Also, language," Jaeger said with a sigh.
"Weeeeeeeeeeeeee- uh oh… OH NO-!" Violet's panicked cry was suddenly cut short as she disappeared under the clouds. Both remaining guardians held their breaths waiting for her ghost to pronounce her dead. "Damnit who put a building there! This property belongs to the clouds!"
Both Jager and Athena let out a sigh of relief as they heard Violet's voice over the ship's radio.
"Violet!" Both Jaeger and Athena yelled. " Are you okay?/Is the ship okay?"
"I'm fine, the ship uh… don't worry about it." Violet said with a nervous chuckle.
"I calculate a 95% chance that we should worry about it." BD interjected over the open radio.
"Don't worry about it" Violet repeated.
"I am very worried about it, and you telling me not to worry about it has me worryingworrying about it even more! Violet! What did you do?" Jaeger pressed.
"Eeeeeeeeeeh, don't worry about it. On an unrelated note I think I'm gonna practice my urban flying skills. Get a feel for flying between the buildings and below cloud level… completely out of sight from you guys." Violet said before adding in a hushed tone. "Psst. Hey pixie do you reckon we could hotwire the jump drive to work in the atmosphere?"
"NO/NO!" Jaeger and Athena both yelled at once. "I calculate a 0.3% chance of survival, alternatively in order to increase those odds I would suggest-" "BD Can it! We aren't giving Violet any more bad ideas! Not after the sparrow incident… Violet! Get your damn ship back up here before I have Pixie do it for you!"
"Awww, but the view is so… mediocre down here" Violet whined dejectedly.
"Don't make me come down there." Jaeger warned. "Tell you what, I'm going to count to three, one… two thre-" "Alright alright jeez dad. I'm on my way up." Violet said sarcastically.
"Good."
True to her word a few moments later Violet's ship rose above cloud level once more. The damage to her ship was… very apparent. The entire left side of the once pristine ship was covered in scrapes and dings. The front of the left-wing had also been crumpled inwards indicating a collision, and to top it off a rectangular piece of metal plating was flapping in the wind while hanging on by a thread.
"Ok, be honest, how bad is it?" Violet asked concerned.
"You just got that ship, Violet." Jaeger groaned.
"It's… well it could be wors-" "YOU TRASHED A SYMBOL OF STRENGTH YOU HIVE KISSING MORON!" Athena cut off Jaeger once again.
"Yeesh, sounds like someone's been hanging around Lord Shaxx a bit too much." Violet remarked with a wince at Athena's harsh tone. "But seriously though, is it really that bad?"
"Yes." Jaeger deadpanned.
"Is it bad!? IS IT BAD!? I OUGHT TO DRAG YOU OUT OF THAT SHIP AND TEAR YOUR FU-*kshrrrt*" Athena's enraged rant was abruptly cut short by radio static.
"My apologies for the rudeness. However, in order to minimize our distractions and prevent further accidents I have calculated it would be in our best interest to leave Athena's commlink on mute for the time being." BD's robotic voice chimed in helpfully.
"Fair enough," Jaeger agreed with a nod. "Oh, and Violet?"
"Yes?"
"No more showing off."
"Understood…" Violet said using her personally trademarked kicked puppy tone. Glancing out the side of her cockpit window she caught a glimpse of the damage she did to her wing. She let out an involuntary grimace at the sight. 'Traveler help me, the Iron duo's gonna kill me…'
Louise found herself once again drumming her fingers on her thigh as she made her way to the main street of the settlement. Gaea had apparently taken a scan of the settlement as they were making their descent from Atlas's ship. The kind Ghost had sent Saito the data when they'd announced they were headed out.
Currently, the duo were making their way to the largest 'street' that ran alongside the belly of the capsized tanker. The 'walkway' that they were using was really just a bunch of wooden planks sunk gently into the earth.
'I suppose it's slightly better than sand though… it's easier to keep my footing on solid ground… but do they seriously expect me to walk on this crap!? Is it really so hard for them to at least use cobblestone!? If I slip on these planks my new boots will be ruined by that muddy soil! … Huh?' Louise paused for a moment to raise a hand to her helmet. 'Again… why am I thinking like that? Does it have to do with those memories?'
"Something wrong?" Saito asked, having noticed Louise pause.
Louise shook her head dismissively. "It's nothing. I just miss my gun."
Saito gave her the look of 'I don't believe you but I'm going to let it slide for now.' before floating back over her shoulder.
Now wasn't the time to get caught up on trivial things, the blacksmith in the settlement would soon be packing up to head to the city with them. Once they were on the road Louise will have to be on guard, which means no time to chat up the smith about forging techniques. Sure she'd been getting by so far on her own, and now in the city, she had access to a gunsmith, but she still liked her blades. A reliable blade did not jam or run out of ammo as an enemy rounded the corner. A blade also did not care about how windy it was and suddenly decide to cosplay as a kite and veer off course. A blade did not-!
"Louise you're on fire!" Saito suddenly interrupted her rant to notify her that she had in fact spontaneously combusted.
"Eep!" Louise jumped slightly and began frantically patting her arms to extinguish the flames that covered her form. Unfortunately, her frantic movements had no effect, only intensifying the flames.
"Louise, it's your light! It's fine!" Saito frantically warned. "It doesn't hurt does it?"
Louise stopped frantically slapping her arms for a moment to examine the inferno that was running up her arms. Taking a moment to gather herself she realized that the flames were not burning her. She then began to slowly try to regain control of her breathing… breath… at… a… time.
And with each breath in… and out… the fire on her arms slowly calmed… and calmed… until it was little more than a glow radiating off her robes.
"Better now?" Saito asked softly, and despite his lack of lungs, Louise could imagine he was holding his 'breath'.
"Yeah… yeah, I'm fine now." Louise replied. 'You should have warned me earlier… useless ghost.'
"What?" Saito suddenly asked, "sorry I didn't catch that last part."
"It's nothing." Louise quickly replied. 'What the hell was that? For a moment there I just… snapped.'
"Man, you certainly are a special case. I've never heard of a Guardian's light acting up because of their emotions. Must just be a warlock thing I guess? Although wouldn't it make more sense for a Titan to have that trait? Or is it that you warlocks are just more in tune with the light…" Saito began mumbling out his own theories.
"Hey leave the thinking to me, if you think too hard your eye might just burst out of its shell." Lousie snipped jokingly.
"You mean like how you did when you first tried to cast a healing rift?" Saito shot back.
"I think the fault lies with the instructor on that one." Louise returned, folding her arms.
"You still exploded though."
Louise huffed and continued on her way. It was most certainly not because she had no more comebacks to his argument. No, there was no point in continuing that argument, it would only take them in circles. Yes, that was definitely it.
'Now it shouldn't be too difficult, I just need to locate the blacksmith and dema-uh-ask him a few questions.' Louise involuntarily shivered. She needed to get those impulses under control. If only she knew her greatest challenge now lay ahead of her… people.
For the briefest of moments Louise's surroundings molded around her, shipping container stacks suddenly bent and reshaped into ancient concrete structures. The mud beneath her feet suddenly became sand. A gust of dry wind blew through her, carrying the desert heat along with it.
To her side, a merchant gave her a wave. He opened his mouth in a friendly smile, his long sharp teeth looking like individual fangs caked in the blood of a fresh kill. His skull abruptly pulled back and squished itself to accommodate its second pair of eyes. He leaned forward as his back arched to sprout a second set of crude limbs. His arm extended as his clawed grasp reached for her helmeted face intent on tearing it from her shoulders. Her light will be its prize, an offering to its disgraced house on its faithless crusade to wipe humanity from the face of the Sol syste-
'LOUISE!' Her breath hitched and abruptly her vision shattered as she saw a smiling old man offering her an apple. Saito's voice had brought her back to reality, again.
Unsure of how to proceed Louise took the apple from the smiling merchant. "Um… what do I owe you?" She asked, attempting to drop the pitch of her voice slightly. It seemed to work as the merchant simply pushed her hand with the apple to her chest.
"Nothing at all. Please consider it my thanks for you coming to our settlement's aid in our time of need." The old man said. Louise looked down at the apple. Something like this couldn't have been very easy to come by yet here they were offering it to her for free. 'As they should'.
Louise grit her teeth. 'Shut up dammit, this is the right thing to do.'
"Thank you but… please take this." Louise replied. As if to spite that voice in the back of her head she held out her hand mentally sending the request to Saito to materialize a cube of decent quality glimmer in her palm. The old man looked surprised at the offer, he was speechless for a moment before he let out a humble laugh.
"My thanks Lord," He said, accepting the glimmer.
"Guardian." Louise corrected abruptly. The old man seemed confused. "I- I'm not an Iron Lord…"
"Ah, my apologies, Guardian then." The old man never dropped his smile. "May the Traveler guide you."
Unsure of how to respond Louise bowed her head slightly in thanks and continued on her way.
'Hey Saito?' Louise silently asked through her mental link.
'Yes?' Saito replied.
'From an outside perspective, on a scale of one to ten, how awkward was that?'
The ghost was silent for a moment, and then replied 'Yes.'
'No, I mean on a scale of one to ten how bad?'
'Yes.'
Lousie let out a deep sigh of frustration. 'Nevermind… just do me a favor and step in if I ever happen to… get lost… again'
'Well I do have an updated map that you can follow at any time, although I don't know the layout of this settlement any better than you, so I'm not sure how much help I can offer… oh.' Saito went Silent as it finally clicked in his mind. 'You didn't mean that in a literal sense did you?'
Louise did her best to keep her mind clear so her voice would not tremble as she answered. 'No… no I did not.'
Saito hummed but did not verbally reply.
The duo continued in silence for a few paces, but a moment later the speakers in Louise's helmet were filled with the soft sound of classical music. Louise blinked behind her helmet, at first she was surprised by the noise, but it was only a moment later that she felt the tension slowly leave her body. She recognized this artist, Mozart; she believed his name was. Back on Mercury, she used to listen to this tune aboard her train, her safe space.
'Thank you,' Louise mentally projected to Saito. He hummed in acknowledgement 'I still think Lofi beats are better.' he cheekily added.
'You just have no taste for the upper class.' Louise said as she rolled her eyes playfully.
'Weeeell, there's also Chillstep, Chillwave, and…' 'Don't ruin the moment Saito.' Louise chided, before pausing for a moment. 'And just because some entrepreneur put 'chill' in front of the word doesn't automatically mean it's going to calm me down.'
'You don't know that.'
Louise internally sighed. 'Fair enough but I'd rather not try experimenting when a failure could really tarnish Lord Atlas's reputation. Look, let's just find this blacksmith so I can ask him a few questions. It'd be really nice if I had some idea of where to look though…'
'We could always ask for help.'
Louise shook her head. 'Atlas is probably a little preoccupied with our… exit, so I'd rather not ask him. And the commander likely isn't going to give me any answers without asking any questions herself.'
'Mm-hmm.' Saito hummed in acknowledgment. 'A real shame there aren't any locals around.'
Nodding in agreement Louise continued her walk, lightly tossing the apple the merchant in her hand a few times. She kept walking for a few more paces, watching the apple rise and fall into the palm of her hand, before abruptly stopping dead in place.
Catching the apple once more she suddenly began staring at it intently.
Without warning, she turned on her heel back the way they had come. While in the same motion raising one finger to Saito's eye. "Not a word."
Saito chuckled and silently returned to hovering closely over her shoulder.
'Now armed with the knowledge provided by the wise old villager, the brave Warlock confidently strode to her desired destination. As her robes fluttered in the wind the people basked in her presence. The flames rolling off her form painting her as their beacon of hope towards a brighter future. People called and cheered her na-'
"Louise, we're here. You can stop daydreaming now." Saito abruptly cut in.
"I wasn't daydreaming, I was just narrating with a bit of flair." Louise said with a roll of her eyes.
"You were one shoulder rotation away from waving to an imaginary crowd."
"So, I'm a guardian and people should be cheering for my arrival." Louise said, puffing her nonexistent chest. "And then promptly leaving me the hell alone because I really don't know how to deal with them…"
"Introverted, and yet craves attention and fame. If you weren't so terrible at stealth I'd almost guess you were a hunter." Saito said exasperated.
"Ha, ha." Louise sarcastically replied. "So, this is the place?"
The 'place' in question was quite easily the most unique building they had come across within the settlement. The structure was a well crafted wooden building, a stark contrast to all the other buildings and streets made out of refurbished shipping containers. With a roof that reached down to the ground below, the structure gave off an ancient Nordic Viking aesthetic.
There were no visible windows on the front entrance, only a large door lined with metal braces. Louise paused for a moment to appreciate the detail put into the patterns that made up the braces on the entrance. Running her fingers along the material she noticed the slight imperfections that made it clear it was not just some cleverly disguised glimmer.
Reaching for the handle, the large door was nearly twice her height and it let out an organic groan as Louise eased if open. The noise caught the attention of the only person present within the building.
"Hello there!" A deep voice called, "I'll be with you in just a minute, feel free to look around." The origin of the voice was a large man who presently had his back to the door. He appeared to be leaning over a drawing table, likely brainstorming his next project. Even from her current distance Louise could tell the man was massive, not as large as Atlas but certainly close.
Leaving the man to his work Louise decided to look around the room, her eyes catching a weapons rack storing some very well-crafted melee weapons. Louise's eyes were drawn to a short sword that seemed ideal for close quarters combat. Lifting it off the shelf she raised it to eye level, pointing the tip out along her sightline. The blade was perfectly flat, not a single hint of a warp or curve. Bringing it close, she gently ran her finger near the blade admiring its edge.
Entranced, she decided to give the blade a light swin- *clang*
Louise jumped back abruptly as she fumbled to catch the weapons she had just accidentally knocked from their shelf. Spears, swords and daggers all clattered noisily to the floor as she frantically threw her arms about attempting to stop the collection of weapons from clattering to the floor. Sadly, in her panic she'd forgotten to drop the sword in her hand and when a spear descended upon her she reacted instinctively.
Slashing out with an upwards slice she cleanly bisected the spear's shaft. The two pieces falling to the floor on either side of her.
"Shit" Louise squeaked out a cuss as she gazed down at the mess she had just made.
"Smooth… real smooth." Saito unhelpfully added beside her.
"I fail to see any reason why friction has an-... that was a figure of speech wasn't it." Louise cut off her retort abruptly.
"Mmhmm." Saito hummed.
A sudden feeling of dread began to fill her stomach as she remembered that there was a third occupant in the room who just so happened to be the owner of the establishment she had just trashed.
"BAHAHAHAHAHA!" Her fear suddenly turned to confusion as the room was filled with boisterous laughter. "Well you certainly know how to make an entrance don't ya!"
Louise slowly turned her head to face the owner of the shop. He was an enormous man with a braided beard, and long flowing hair rolling off his shoulders. His arms were incredibly muscular, but his torso took on a large barrel like frame with a large beer gut. "I-I'm terribly sorry, I'll be certain to have thi- to clean it up myself."
"Aye, I would hope so!" The man replied through his laughter. "The floor isn't exactly the finest display case now is it?"
Louise felt her face heat up with embarrassment as she hurriedly tried to return the weapons to their rack, although she couldn't help but pause every now and again to admire the quality of the weapons. Every weapon had a criss crossing pattern engraved along their fuller. Louise had tried her hand with engravings, but she had never really produced anything she was satisfied with. After returning the last weapon to the shelf all that remained was the spear whose shaft she had bisected.
Holding the two parts in her hand she looked up to the shopkeeper. "Um… sorry, how much glimmer does this cost?"
The shopkeeper raised a brow. "Glimmer?" He chuckled "It's been quite some time since anyone's made any transactions in glimmer out here. Not since before the dark ages I'd bet. No… out here we trade in goods."
Louise nodded, she had a number of her own mercury-forged blades she could probably trade. With a mental ping to Saito he quickly used some of their glimmer to make a makeshift weapon rack similar to the one in the shop. Placed on it were several swords of varying length and design.
"Will any of these do?" Louise asked, waving to her weapons on display.
The shopkeeper hummed, raising a gloved hand to his chin as he began to stroke his beard. Walking over to the shelf he reached out to one of the weapons. "Do you mind if I…?"
Louise nodded, and he picked up a short sword seemingly at random. "A Goblin's bane. I gave it that name because of how effective it is at cutting up Vex Goblins."
"The Vex you say?" The shopkeeper said turning to face Louise. "My, you must be one tough Guardian to be facing off against those mechanical blunders."
Louise puffed up her chest, the praise feeding her ego.
"However…" The smith added. "I'm afraid you'll find that I got no use for this blade."
"But it can cut through Vex metal like hot butter!" Louise quickly defended.
"Aye. With your light that is." The smith retorted calmly. "Without your paracausal nonsense this blade is as fragile as glass."
"It is most certainly not!" Louise huffed, folding her arms.
The smith only raised a brow.
"Think you can prove it? Then be my guest."
Again, remaining silent the smith merely held the blade horizontally, carefully sliding one hand down the edge of the blade. The dulled blade failing to even scratch the surface of his leather glove.
Louise felt her brow twitch, 'had I been holding that blade it would have cut his thumb clean off!' She sourly remarked mentally.
"Do you mind if I test the blade's durability?" He asked.
"Hmph, go right ahead. You will find nothing wrong." Louise answered, trying to conceal her embarrassment with arrogance.
The smith then tossed the blade in his hand a few times, flipping the blade over in his grip. Seeming satisfied he picked a sword at random from the shelf and laid its tip against an anvil. Raising Louise's short sword above his head he swung down with great force and- *Clang*.
The blade held firm.
Louise puffed her chest smugly, her blade hadn't managed to shatter his, but it didn't completely disappoint her again either. She watched as the smith examined the point where the blades had made contact before sighing.
"I'm amazed this blade held on as long as it did." He said in a disappointed tone.
"Of course you would be, Vex metal is incredibly dense, so you can expect my weapons wi-" "It's cracked." Louise was cut off.
"I'm sorry?" She did her best to suppress her anger but she was quickly reaching her breaking point. "I've inspected that blade a thousand times over. There are no cracks in that blade."
The smith looked to Louise, then back to the blade. Without a word he shifted his left hand from the hilt to approximately the middle of the blade. Getting a firm grip he closed his right hand leaving only his index and middle finger extended. He raised his hand up… and- *ping*
The blade cleanly broke in two.
Louise was in shock… "That.. that was a hoax! A trick!" She suddenly yelled. "You… you know a technique for breaking blades! You… you will be replacing what you've broken!" By the end of her sentence her voice had all but morphed into a shrill shriek. Her hands were balled into fists at her sides as her figure burst into flames.
All throughout her meltdown the smith did not speak once, he simply stared on as Louise threatened to burn his humble shop to ash.
Instead, he simply held the sword at an angle to show Louise the broken end, and a light streak running through the inside of the broken metal. "Your blade was cracked internally. An invisible error that would have occurred during the quenching process." He sighed. "You light is most likely what held the blade together despite the internal damage."
Shaking his head he turned his back to Louise. "Don't walk away from me! You are supposed to help me damnit! I demand your help! I-" "LOUISE YOU'VE SAID ENOUGH!" Saito shut Louise up before she could say more.
"I am deeply sorry for my Guardians actions today… I assure you she is not usually like this. This is only our second… no third… or would it be our fourth…?" Saito shook his shell. "Doesn't matter. Again, I am deeply sorry for troubling you, we will be on our way now."
The smith grunted before moving to the door at the back of his shop. Before he crossed the threshold however, he paused. He seemed to ponder something for a moment before "It will take me some time to pack my things for my move to the city… If you truly are serious about seeking my help then you will forge me a blade. You may only use the metal in my shop except the metal from the blades I have already forged. Do this before I am done packing and I will consider your offer and your apology. I expect both when I return."
"Wait!" Louise said before he could close the door behind him. She paused for a moment to take a breath. "What kind of blade do you want from me? I mean, 'blade' is not really specific you know?"
"You are the supposed master." He gruffly replied. "Get creative."
And with that he slammed the door to the back room behind him and Louise was left alone in the shop.
"Louise what the hell was that!?"
Well not entirely alone.
Louise ignored him, scanning the room she looked for any durable metals that were lying around.
"That wasn't like you."
Tucked against a back wall Louise spotted a barrel that seemed to be filled with various pieces of scrap metal. That would do.
"For a moment there it felt like you were someone else entirely…"
Louise silently made her way to the barrel in the back.
"Hey, are you even listening to me!?"
She was, but she just couldn't trust herself to speak right now. Not after that outburst…
"Come on, the silent treatment now!?"
Louise reached the barrel and began sorting through the various pieces of scrap within it.
"Hey! Stop ignoring me and speak to me!"
Saito suddenly flew in front of Louise's face making it impossible to continue her task until she confronted him.
She did not reply verbally. Only tapping the side of her helmet twice.
"What do you… oh." Satio vanished with a flicker of light and particles.
'Louise what is going… on…' Saito fell silent. 'Why does your mind feel so… different.'
Louise dipped her head as her shoulders sagged. Resting her forearms on the lip of the open barrel she sighed. 'I-... I don't know… this all started when I spoke to Atlas for the first time… it was like something just clicked. In my head a switch had been flipped and ever since then I've just been… changing.'
'Changing… how?' Saito asked softly.
Louise balled her hands into fists. 'At first I thought it was just shock? I thought I was just so surprised to be in the presence of someone so important it felt like I was compelled to make a good impression.' Her lip began to quiver… she bit down on it forcing it to stop. 'But recently… when we started seeing other people… the lightless… it got worse…' She began to taste copper in her mouth. 'I… I'm scared… I- I think I'm becoming a Warlord.' Tears began to well up behind her eyes.
'Stop.' Saito said firmly. 'Just… stop.'
Suddenly he was in front of her again. Pristine white shell, with three distinct scars gouged into the black material surrounding his eye. The top fin lowered, emanating a serious expression. "I'm taking your helmet off. We need to speak face to face."
"No. Just get back in my head… you can track my emotions better there anyway." Louise said, turning her head to the side so she didn't have to face him.
"Louise, I'm not going to do that." Saito sternly replied. "I'm going to count to three, and then I'm taking it off. Either you do it or I will, regardless we need to speak face to face. One, two, thre-"
With a soft hiss Louise twisted her helmet and placed it atop the barrel. Her long pink hair flopped out and fell down across her back. A single almost imperceptible tear fell from her eye, rolling down her cheek and mixing with a sole crimson line trickling down from the corner of her mouth.
"Louise, I need you to look at me." Saito said softly.
Slowly Louise turned her head to face Saito but her eyes did not meet his.
"Good enough I suppose." Saito hummed for a moment. "First of all, you need to drop this irrational fear of slowly becoming a Warlord. In the fourteen years I've known you, you have shown none of the traits the others have. Well… okay there were a few red flags here and there…"
Louise hugged her shoulders and shuddered.
"Not that that means anything!" Saito quickly amended. "Look, yes you've definitely got an inflated ego… and maybe more than a small amount of entitled brat attitude sprinkled on top… or dumped…"
Louise glared, finally meeting Saito's eye.
"Buuuuuuuuuuut, don't forget that I am literally in your head. And while yes… I will admit your thought patterns have certainly been… erratic to say the least. It doesn't mean you are 'becoming' a Warlord." Saito explained.
"How do you know that?" Louise demanded in a harsher tone than she had intended.
"Answer this, what did you feel when you walked down the streets and passed by the Lightless?" He asked.
Louise wanted to answer 'pride', but she knew that was a lie… What she really felt was "Contempt… and dissatisfaction."
Saito's shell opened upon hearing her words, clearly he was not expecting that. "Ooookay… that's uh… huh."
Louise brushed him away, she didn't want to continue this dialogue. She had a job to do and she'd be damned if she was going to let that smith insult her work again. She'd forge a blade so good it would make him fall to his knees and weep! Yes, he would cry his eyes dry in shame for insulting her! He would…
Louise grit her teeth crushing the line of thought before it could develop any further. She was supposed to be a Guardian dammit!
Her line of thought was interrupted by a low hissing and sizzling sound. Glancing down she noticed that the metal caught in her grip was glowing an angry orange and white. It was so hot that the metal had begun melting and hot droplets were cascading to the floor.
"Louise you can't just drop a bombshell like that and expect me not to worry!" Saito said as he worriedly floated around her.
With a growl Louise grabbed the end with her free hand and tore the metal off. She tossed it aside without any hesitation. The overheated metal would be too brittle to be of any use to her. Instead, she put her index and middle finger together and coated them with void light. In one smooth motion she cut the tip of the heated metal off the old rail piece and caught it in the same motion.
Walking over to the quenching barrel filled with oil she swapped back to Sol and heated the metal to a proper temperature. Satisfied she plunged her entire fist with the glowing orange metal into the oil. Flames shot out of the barrel for a brief moment coating her gauntlet but she remained unphased. The heat never bothered her anyway.
"This will do." She muttered.
Saito sighed, before making up his mind. Abruptly he flew in front of Louise and transmatted the metal in her hands to storage. "Stop. For two seconds just stop."
Louise paused in place to glare at Saito trying to silently berate him for interrupting her work.
"Louise, look around." Saito motioned to the room around them with his shell. "There's no Vex and no Fallen knocking on our doors. So for the Traveller's sake take a fucking breath and calm down!" Saito yelled, his shell pulsing open more with every word.
A/N
And that is a wrap!
Hoo boy I do notwant to remember how long I have been sitting at 7K words for this chapter only for writer's block to stop me from wrapping things up. Thankfully in the next chapter we finally make a move to the convoy and out of this town! The events of which I had planned out… literally a year ago.
Believe it or not this was the planned ending of Chapter 14… yeah that doesn't feel great.
Welp anyhow hopefully I will have Louise summons a Titan done by the end of the week!
Until then here are the reviews!
Oh, and one more thing actually before we begin with those, I will be doing things a little differently now. Taking advice from [ non-nonhuman ] I will be PM short replies to most reviews that are short and sweet, and any that concern a major plot point or raise a really important one I will post them below. (Granted if it's more than one paragraph I'm going to also PM you.)
Right then with that said I will see you all in the next chapter, bye for now!
