The sky over Vacuo is beautiful.
And so big. It stretches far away, from over the endless stretch of water at the edge of the city to the tall, imposing shapes in the distance that jut into the sky—mountains, she's heard them called. She could stare up at the sky for hours—and she's tried to, but it hurts her eyes if she looks at it for too long. And at night, there's so many stars, and the moon is so big and bright and beautiful. Those hurt less to look at, so she spends a lot of time that she's supposed to be sleeping watching them giddily.
She still can't quite believe that she's actually here. When the lights had gone out and the lab had been plunged into darkness, she'd assumed that it was some kind of trick, a trap designed to give her hope before squashing it. It wouldn't be the first time. So she hadn't moved, had just kept lying there in the dark, silent room while she waited for the inevitable outcome.
But—she'd laid there for what felt hours, growing colder and hungrier, and nothing had happened. No one had burst into her room to "surprise" her. The smug man with the mustache hadn't appeared to tell her how stupid she was. There weren't any sounds of anyone else in the building at all.
So, she'd finally let her curiosity get the better of her, slowly pushing herself to her feet and shaking off the stiffness that came with staying still for a long time. No one appeared at the door, or at the window which gave a view into her room. Nothing happened at all as she slowly approached the door and pushed it open.
It wasn't locked this time.
She had tentatively stepped out into the deserted hallway, wrapping her arms around herself for warmth. It was freezing in the building, and her clothes were too thin to keep out the cold. She could feel the chill in the air even with her aura kicking in to try to keep her warm as she made her way through empty corridors towards where she had been fairly certain the exit was.
It's the one area that she had never been allowed to be in the entire time she'd been here, and they've never allowed her to go outside, so it seemed like the right direction to go. She'd been on edge the entire time, fully expecting pursuit at any moment, to be snatched away once more just before she can taste freedom, but it didn't happen.
And then she'd made it to the final narrow hallway that ended in a thick metal door. She'd rushed over to it, finally throwing caution to the wind because she was so close—only to find that it was locked tight. She banged a fist against it. She was not about to be stopped by a stupid locked door now. Not when she was so close.
So she'd taken a step back, and kicked hard, slamming her foot against the door. It had taken her a couple of tries but she managed to bust it open and shove it out of the way enough to step outside. Her breath had caught in her throat as she looked up to see the night sky for the first time.
It was even more beautiful than she'd ever imagined. The air outside had been even colder than the building that she'd just emerged from, but she'd hardly noticed, too busy staring at all the stars in the sky and the moon shining down on the city. It had felt like a wonderful dream.
Vacuo is a much better place to hide than Mantle. Even with the clothes and shoes that that nice woman Joanna had given her, it was impossible to truly escape the cold there. Vacuo is so much warmer. And with all the people that had come here with her, she's pretty sure that if anyone is looking for her from before, they'll have a much harder time finding her here.
That doesn't mean that she's completely in the clear, however. She still needs to lay low, while she figures things out. And she has a lot to figure out about this new world she's escaped to, so many questions she needs answered. Which seems fitting, because the people here have asked her questions that she has no idea how to respond to.
She's got a lot to learn, it seems. It's all worth it, though, to be out here in the sunshine, around other people, not locked underground, unable to see the sun. There's so much she wants to do, so many things that she wants to experience. But first—
"Sev, it's lunchtime! Come downstairs already and eat before it gets cold!"
She recognizes the name that they've been calling her since she arrived. "Coming!" she calls back, pushing herself to her feet and heading towards the stairs.
But first, lunch. Then she can try to answer all these questions that she has.