SPECTATOR

By MargaritaDaemonelix

Chapter 10

You've been working in the hospital for about three hours when you get another chance to talk to Rena. Unlike you, she's been working overnight, and it shows in her tired eyes, her clothes, even her bloodstained hair.

"We didn't really get a chance to talk earlier," says Rena as the two of you address the next patient, whose skin was skimmed off by a falling chunk of a building. "You're Aisha, right?"

"Yeah," you say, pouring some isopropyl alcohol on a clean cotton pad. The patient winces as you gently dab the wound with the cotton, turning it from crisp white to a burnt bloody maroon. "And you're Rena."

"Yes," she says, sounding delighted. "How old are you? I'm twenty eight… I think."

"I'm twenty," you tell her, your mind on autopilot.

Rena seems genuinely surprised. "Woah," she says, pausing in her bandaging. "I thought you were maybe fifteen, sixteen tops."

You can't help but laugh nervously. "Yeah, I haven't grown much since I was twelve," you admit.

"Are you from one of the less stable cities?" She asks softly. You notice her sheepish smile as she tries to tuck in her large chest and fails.

"I'm from Bethma, if that's what you mean," you respond. "Didn't always have enough to eat, growing up. Even my mom used to call me a washboard."

Rena sighs. "I wish I could have a smaller chest," she says wistfully, poking her own. "It gets painful with large breasts, y'know, and there are a lot of cute things that just don't look cute unless you have a small chest."

"Maybe if we swapped chest sizes for a day," you suggest. "I've always wanted to see what it's like to have big jugs."

The patient coughs. "Uh, I hate to interrupt, but… Uh…" He turns red all over. "I'll shut up now."

Rena immediately enters her mother hen mode, which you find seems to work only when there's someone to fuss over. "I'm so sorry, you poor thing," she chitters, wrapping his leg wound in bandages and sticking the rest of the roll in her bag. "Drink lots of water, get lots of rest, and remember to let the wound get some fresh air in a few days!"

"I will," he promises, standing up shakily and taking a step. "Thank you."

As he leaves, Rena looks around, sighing. "There's not many people left," she says, putting a hand on your shoulder. "How about you go visit your friend? Bring him something to eat and get something for yourself. He's been looking after his sister all morning. I'm sure he could use a companion."

Her pained smile and her rumbling stomach make you want to say no, to tell her to get some food for herself, but she waves you off with a stern glare. "I had some food right before the bomb dropped," she assures you. "I'm not that hungry. Go on."

You almost desperately want to stay and help, but you give her an awkward smile and back out of the room, then the hospital.

The streets are still filled with chunks of stone, dirt clods and pieces of the shattered barrier in some places. A sharp piece of metal is embedded in a wall overhead. Most of the lights that once illuminated the inner city are broken or shattered, and in one case, crashed to the ground and nearly killed a man. The explosion caused pieces of the outer city to fly inwards, ricocheting off shops and landing nearly a kilometre into the inner city.

The marketplace is relatively unscathed, though most of the stalls are empty and a few closer to the blast are somewhat damaged. All the stall owners that aren't hurt are pitching in to make nutritious, filling meals and handing them out to those on break from repairs.

When you reach the head of the line, a young woman whose face is streaked with tears is spooning rice with vegetables and meat onto a paper plate. "Could I get two servings, please?" You ask.

She doesn't even answer verbally, just follows through mindlessly with the task of serving food. You take your two plates, mutter out a hasty "thanks" and leave the marketplace behind.

You only remember the Sieghart apartment number because Rena told you what it was in passing. The residential area is still fraught with the crying of children and adults alike. You pass by an open door where a man is trying to hold his wife back from running out. She's screaming horrible things at him, clawing at his face. A shiver passes down your spine. She reminds you just a little too much of your mother.

When you finally find Elesis' home, the door is closed. You can't knock on the door or press the doorbell, so you raise your knee and thump it, three times.

There are footsteps inside that rapidly come down the stairs and to the door. The lock clicks, and then the door swings aside.

Elsword looks grief-stricken, if anything. "You want something to eat?" You offer, holding out one of the plates for him.

He shakes his head. "Not hungry," he says. You hear his stomach rumbling, but his gaze is firm. "Come in. Elsa is sleeping."

You follow him into the apartment. It's simplistic, and you can't help but admire Elesis' bold contrast of the functional parts of the house versus the aesthetic parts.

Softly, Elsword opens the door to Elesis' room. The dim glow of a small table lamp is the only source of light in the room, but even in the darkness, you can make out the features of Elesis Sieghart. Her hair is just as red as Elsword's, maybe even more vibrant or a little darker. Her breathing is calm and paced out naturally.

"The doctor's final verdict was that she passed out from stress and a lack of sleep," he murmurs as he sits down on the bed next to her sleeping form and pushes a strand of her hair out of her face. "Although I'm pretty sure I also kinda scared her when I just magically showed up."

"Elsword, it's not your fault," you remind him. "Your sister is a strong woman. She can handle herself."

"Yes, but I should have been there for her!" He exhales slowly, like he's trying to clear his thoughts. "What can I do to help her out? To lessen her stress a little?"

The two of you sit in the darkness, watching Elesis' chest rise and fall with her breathing. "I just want to make up for the years I lost with her," admits Elsword quietly. "I had a really bad time coping after she… Left. Our parents didn't know what to do either. We had to bring ourselves back to society, little by little."

He sits up. "And now my sister's this huge general or something and has so many people that she needs to take care of," he says. "I don't know how to feel about that. There's so much responsibility on her, and I'm…" He's quiet again for a moment. "I'm no one. Someday I'll go down in history as the younger brother of the leader of a revolution."

"But you are someone," you argue. "You're Elsword. You are more than your sister's younger brother. You are a force to be reckoned with. You wanna know how you can make her proud? Do something. Get up and do what you can do best."

You're literally shaking his shoulders at this point, and your hands are beginning to tremble, but you're firm in your words and your beliefs. "Stop comparing your weaknesses to other peoples' strengths," you tell him. "Use your strength against their weakness. You can do more and you can be more."

For a heartbeat, Elesis' breathing is the only sound in the room. Elsword sighs. "I can go help with the cleanup," he mutters, shrugging you away and standing up. "Watch Elsa. Tell me if she wakes up."

As he leaves the room, muttering things to himself, someone else comes in. "Hello," says the boy at the door, pushing up his round glasses as he stands in the doorway. His hands are trembling behind his back, clutching a book tightly. Even in this darkness, you can tell you've found one of your own. A bookie, they used to call you back in Bethma. This boy is no different.

"Hi," you tell him. "I'm Aisha Landar. What's your name?"

"I-I'm Allegro," he says. "Miss Rena told me to look for you."

He's about the same height as you, and still has traces of baby fat that probably make him seem younger than he actually is. "What does she need?" You ask.

He shakes his head quickly. "Oh, it's not Miss Rena who actually needs you," he admits. "I'm actually General Lento Lucero's secretary."

The name Lento registers in your mind. "Lento is the one who suffered the back wounds, right?"

"Yes," confirms Allegro. "Usually, if General Lucero is incapacitated, General Sieghart will take over management of Feita, but since neither of them are currently able to do much..." He sighs. "It's my turn to take over the reins."

"How old are you?" You can't help but ask.

"Eighteen," he blurts out. "I'm turning eighteen this year."

He's a lot older than you expected, to be honest. Then again, for him to be a fucking secretary, he has to be at least a legal adult, shouldn't he?

"Wow, kid, you're young," you tell him, standing up and dragging him out of the room by his sleeve. The food on the desk can wait. Elesis needs her sleep. "Say, what do you need help with?"

Allegro turns to you, his eyes wild and desperate. "Everything," he says. "I don't have any idea as to where to start. People are getting tired without a planned out schedule. Lots of the chefs are on break, and the few that are still working have been overworked. The clean-up crews are all over the place, and it's not effective!" Tears are beginning to leak out of his eyes, and you can see why. The lack of effective work drives you up a wall too.

"Calm down, Allegro," you tell him, handing him a tissue from a box sitting on Elesis' dinner table. He blows his nose with it. "Look, do you have a database with all these statistics?"

He nods. "In the library. Are you going to compile something?"

You sigh. "Look, kid, I didn't spend nearly nineteen years of my life being emotionally drained by my own mother just to show up and not do anything," you tell him. "We can throw something together and turn this city into a functioning train again. Lead the way. We're going to the library."


The Feitan Library is certainly not what you'd expected.

Or at least, the one Allegro's taking you to isn't a normal library. You go past a school(you think it's a school? There are children mingling inside) and enter a large room full of books, which you assume is the library he's speaking of. Yet Allegro steers you away from the massive bookshelves and the stacks of (unsorted!) books, instead bringing you to a staircase down, where you're greeted with rows of black cubes with green flashing lights.

"Nearly three hundred systems contain all our data," says Allegro, his voice swallowed up in the whirr of the computers. "The ones using Arabic numbers contain digital copies of every book in the library. The ones using Roman numerals have the files of every citizen in El-" He pauses. "Feita. Yes. Every citizen in Feita."

You roughly scan over the rows of computers in the faltering light overhead. Even with your shitty vision, you can see that more than half the computers are labelled with Roman numerals. "That's way too many computers. Allegro, do you have the files of every citizen of Elrios in those?" You snort.

"Yes, actually," he says, blushing and turning his head away. "Got them from the Sander Imperial Archives just a few days ago."

You stare in shock at him. Out of all the responses to your joking statement, this isn't something you'd expected. He's only seventeen, and yet he's already got the prowess and talent that hundreds of grown men and women twice his age can only dream of. "Let me get this clear," you say slowly, enunciating every word. "You hacked the Sander Imperial Archives."

"In my d-defense, it was during the crisis with the Head L-Librarian," he stutters, looking down into his hands. "There were virtually no defenses on the files."

"Wow," you manage. By all means, you're shocked. This is a genius at work, a child with so much potential! "Allegro, you should really stop undermining yourself. You've literally accessed one of the most secure collections in Elrios! We have so much to work on now."

"You mean for the revolution," he says quietly. "General Sieghart keeps talking about the revolution. The big plan. The game changer."

"Yes," you tell him, starting up the nearest computer. You may not be the best with technology, but you can put together a simple spreadsheet and work out a schedule just fine. "Elesis has some big plans in mind, doesn't she. Is she still mad about the last revolution?"

"Possibly," admits Allegro. "Ever since she came to Feita, she's been nothing but supportive of us. I can't not admire her for her bravery. She was my age when she joined the last revolution."

You haven't thought of it that way before, but now that you've put it into perspective, Allegro seems so much younger, and Elesis so much older. "Out of all of us, I think she needs a break the most," you say. "You can go take a break, Allegro. I'll handle this."

He nods. "I'll be in the library. Err, the other library."

It doesn't take long to access the Feita files. Allegro must have spent many nights sorting them, reading through each one, even adding his own comments to many. The desktop is littered with folders and shortcuts, names ranging from "Ree" to "morpheus" to "deleted". Certain files have shortcuts in a nameless folder, such as Elesis Sieghart, Lady Evangeline Nasod, Raven and for some reason, the Head Librarian of the Sander Archives.

You pull up her file, which is already in red, indicating that she's dead.

File: Sourcream, Luciela Rowena

Birthday: July 16

City of Affiliation: Sander

You've learned that "city of affiliation" really refers to your rank in the social ladder. Sander is fairly high up, approximately on the same level as Hamel and second only to Altera.

Parents: Sourcream, Abraxas; Sourcream, Elenora

Siblings: N/A

Status: Deceased

Allegro does have a series of notes on the file, mostly pertaining to her mysterious death. One does catch your eye, though.

See Lucas, Lucia.

A quick search finds this "Lucas, Lucia" person in the Lanox archives. She has white hair and vibrant blue eyes in the ID photo, just like that of the late librarian's photo. Their birthdays both show up as July 16th. However, Lucia Lucas appears to be nine, turning ten, whereas the late librarian was at least thirty-one when she died. The similarities are uncanny, even though one is a woman and the other a child. You bookmark the file for later and close it, opening a new spreadsheet and naming it "schedule".

Within an hour, you've searched the databases for the nearly fifty thousand people in Feita, connecting it with the files in the hospital to find who is able and unable to work. The number of confirmed deaths seems to be low and stable, but creeps up once in a while and causes you to backtrack five minutes of organization. The number of missing persons decreases, on the other hand, giving you a little more wiggle room.

Overall, by the time Elsword finds you in the library(did Allegro tell him you're here?) you've got a wonderfully planned out schedule put together, and you've sent it to every functioning sector of Feita-the hospital, the marketplace, each individual repair ward, even the residential sector. He's got a mug of water in hand. "Aisha, you've been in here for an hour," he says, voice drowning in the noise.

"I know," you tell him, taking the mug and gulping down some of the water. You didn't realize how dry your mouth was until now. "But hey, I got the rest of the city back in order."

Elsword sits down beside you. "I helped Raven clear the outer city," he says. "And then Rena told me to go find you and bring you some water, and here I am."

"Well, you did follow her orders correctly," you mutter.

"I'm still worried about Elesis, though," he says, laying his head down on the table. "You've seen firsthand how this city doesn't run without her. She's out like a rock right while they need her the most. We need to put life back in this city, somehow."

"Elsword, that's…" You can't bring yourself to finish the sentence, because he makes sense. Elesis Sieghart is a natural leader, and without the leader, Feita cannot function. "You know what? We're going to make her a leader again. If she's the only life this city has, we're going to pump life back into it."

"I'm sorry, but did you just-" Elsword looks like he's about to strangle you for making a comparison like that, but you stand firm in your beliefs.

"We're going to write her a speech," you tell him. "Something that'll instantly get the city alive again. Something that will get them to stop putting up with the chaos. We've had so much happen this year alone, and it's barely just April! The Head Librarian was assassinated. There were protests in Elder than led to a series of arrests and murders. And now Feita has been bombed. I don't know about you, but I can't live in a world that doesn't take the lives of the people seriously."

You don't know when you stood up, but now you're yelling at the computers, yelling at Elsword who looks terrified. "Yikes, chill, Grape," he says, pulling you back down into your seat. "Take a chill pill. Breathe. I know you want to write a speech, but that's not exactly our forte."

"Aha!"

The sweet voice of Rena Lire echoes through the library as she bounds towards you, dragging Raven along. He's dropped the lab coat, leaving him in a completely black outfit that blends in with the dark library. "I knew you two had eloped off to somewhere," says Rena, smiling playfully.

You're suddenly thankful for the darkness, because your face feels like it's burning. "Who said anything about eloping?" Splutters Elsword, waving around a computer mouse frantically. "We're working on a speech for Elesis."

Raven makes an oh of understanding. "Motivational," he says. "If there's one thing Elesis is really good at, it's encouraging a crowd to rise."

You start to pull up a blank text file before realizing that there's no way you can get it to Elesis digitally. Instead, you begin to scour the archive room for paper.

Eventually, you find a dusty old printer that still has some paper in its cartridge, which you open and empty out. The dusty cloud threatens to choke you, but you cough it out and bring a few sheets of paper back to the desk where Elsword, Rena and Raven are now seated.

You pick up a pen that you found lying around, and you begin to write.


Feita Residence 00026, 5:10 pm.

You're only faintly aware of your existence when someone pushes aside a strand of your hair from your eyes, and it slips by your nose.

It gets more irritating until you finally give in to the temptation. Even though you really don't want to wake up, you sit upright in bed, sneeze, and immediately lie back down.

Beside you, a familiar chuckle brings you back to reality. "Your sneezes still sound funny, Elsa."

You turn around and open your eyes to face Elsword. God, he's grown so much since the last time you saw him, right before you left for the protests. You've missed so much of his childhood. It's the only thing you've ever regretted about Altera-that you lost so much precious time with your brother. "I'm sorry, Els," you tell him. "I fucked up again, didn't I."

"It's alright, Sis," he assures you, smiling sadly as he gently pats your arm. "Aisha and Allegro took over management and stuff. Lento is recovering well. You need your rest. Allegro says you haven't slept in nearly three days."

You can't bring yourself to make eye contact with him, because you know it's the truth. "How are Rena and Raven doing?" You ask.

"After the head doctor found out Rena was from Altera, he put her in charge," says Elsword, laughing to himself. "I think he surprised her more than anyone else. As for Raven, he's helping out with cleanup and rebuilding. They realized that his prosthetic arm has a lot more strength than he thought it did. He can lift entire chunks of walls without breaking a sweat."

You can't help but smile as you sit up. "Sounds like Raven alright." You squint at the clock on the wall in front of you. "Ah, shit, I should probably get back to work, Els."

"You should probably be resting, though," he reminds you. "You literally passed out, Elesis. You've never done that before."

"Feita doesn't run without a leader," you laugh bitterly. "C'mon, Els. We need to get going."

Elsword's eyebrows shoot up. "Shit, I forgot to tell you!" He curses, digging into his pants pocket. "Aisha, Rena, Raven and I wrote you a motivational speech."

"Aw shucks, you didn't have to do that for me," you tell him, climbing out of bed. Thank El they didn't change you out of your day clothes. You grab your white jacket from the back of the chair at your desk and slip it on, over your black tank top and shorts.

"It's not that," says your brother. "We wrote a speech for you to say. As a leader."

"Oh."

"The people of Feita need you, Sis," says Elsword, his eyes full of light. "We're all putting our faith in you."

Oh, how you envy his innocence. You constantly have to remind yourself he's turning twenty soon, because the way he views the world is so childish, so one-dimensional.

"Very well," you sigh. "Let me see this speech. Can't be bad if everyone pitched in, right?"

He finally manages to tug the ripped paper out of his pocket and hands it to you. As you look it over, you see the different handwriting styles at play-Aisha's wide, loopy writing, Raven's quick scrawl, Rena's grandiose flourishes, and of course your brother's trademark scribbles. You can barely just make out the words of the speech, but it's well written.

"When should I go read this?" You ponder, stuffing it into your pocket. Elsword clears his throat, coming back into the room with two plates of food. You smell fragrant rice and sweet carrots, alongside the bittersweet scent of overcooked beef.

"We should probably eat something first," he suggests. "You haven't eaten since before you passed out, and I haven't eaten since I got here."

As if on cue, both your stomachs rumble in unison, causing you both to laugh. "Food sounds good right about now," you admit, sitting back down and taking a plate and a spoon from him. "Where'd you get this from?"

"I don't know," he admits, digging into his rice. "Aisha got it for me and then she just left them here."

You inhale half the plate in a heartbeat. Elsword scarfs down his entire plate in about half the time. Even as a child, he was a very fast eater and ate so much. You'll never understand your brother and his absurd eating habits.

As you make your way through the surprisingly tender beef, Elsword tries to recall some of the damage done to the city. "From what Aisha's calculated, everyone is accounted for in the city," he says. "We've found all the people labelled missing. I think the death tally right now is at a hundred and forty-six."

Your gaze locks onto something beyond your plate. "That's a hundred and forty-six lives lost," you mutter. "A hundred and forty-six killed. The entire population affected. The bomb wasn't a big one, but it destroyed my city."

Elsword is silent for a moment. "There are about three thousand in the hospital at the moment," he says. "About two hundred are in critical condition and under intensive care. Aisha got every person with even remotely some medical experience to help out with bandaging and stuff, and Rena assessed those with more training to look after the people in the emergency ward."

"Aisha does have a thing for organization," you say, scooping up the last of your rice and shovelling it into your mouth. "I have yet to meet her, but I can see why you like her so much. You could use a wife who puts some order in your life."

Your brother turns as red as his hair. "I don't like her in that way," he says.

Even the tips of his ears are red. You decide that your brother must have seriously jumped off the deep end for this girl. "Alright, if you say so," you tell him, unable to wipe the shit-eating grin off your face. "Tell me if you want to move out of my apartment to live in hers, though-"

Elsword punches you in the arm before you can speak again. "Let's just go," he groans, leaving you alone in the bedroom. You laugh lightly to yourself as you clean up the oily paper plates and collect your cutlery.

He sure has grown up over the years. The last time you saw your brother, he was a tiny, scrawny little boy, ten centimetres shorter than you. Now, he's finally beat you in height, and quite possibly both your parents as well. After all, Lowe and Anne aren't the tallest people, and you still have no idea who your biological parents are.

His childish demeanor has changed, too. The untameable fluffy hair he was known for during his childhood seems to never go down completely, but he's managed to smooth it down and grow it out a little. He ties it off in a ponytail at the back and two shorter locks at the front. The giant red t-shirt he used to live in has been shrugged aside to make room for more practical clothing. The way he carries himself, his posture, how he walks with pride, has completely changed.

He's no longer just your little brother. Elsword has become your equal, a warrior in his own right.

"C'mon, sis," he says, dragging you outwards. "The others are waiting."

Your door locks automatically behind you, like always, but like always, you check it again to make sure it's locked. "Alright," you tell him. "Lead the way."

You have to steer him out of dead ends a few times. You really don't understand how Feita was designed, and why it was designed to be so confusing. You suppose there's only so much you can do within a mountain. Streets curl down nearly a hundred metres underground, and shoot up another thirty or so towards the top of the mountain. While the blast of the bomb didn't extend past about two hundred metres inwards, you'll still have to check the supporting structures underneath the outer city and the parts of the inner city affected by the impact.

It's a small wonder you're still alive after that blast, to be honest. Allegro said it was because you were behind the rock partition of the inner and outer cities, and also because a chunk of a building that landed near you acted as a shield. Still, you'd like to not press your luck with life-or-death situations for the next few centuries, thank you very much.

"Ey, Grape!"

You blink. Your brother's sudden shout shakes you out of your thoughts. Ahead of you, a small group of people is running over. You recognise Seris-no, Rena-'s familiar blonde hair as she bounds ahead of Raven and the purple-haired girl you assume is Aisha.

"Elesis, dear, you're awake!" She beams, grabbing your hands and bouncing up and down. "Are you feeling okay?"

"Yes, Rena, thank you," you tell her, smiling. Rena's laughter is contagious, you swear. "How's it going out here? Has the majority of the chaos settled down?"

"Fortunately, yes," sighs Raven, rubbing his temples. "If I had to lift up any more walls I think I would have thrown one at somebody."

"I've done a lot of organizing," says Aisha, shaking your hand, "and it seems that Feita is stable for the time being. A little structural damage here and there, and of course there's the three thousand in the hospital and the hundred and fifty dead, but overall we're recovering fairly well."

"Speaking of which," says Rena, "did you get our speech?"

"Yeah," you tell her, taking it out of your jacket pocket. You still feel like it's too late or too early to be reading speeches, being heroic, but their bright smiles give you strength.

You make your way to the ruins of the outer city, where many people are resting. Even though your limbs are screaming no, your heart is screaming yes as you climb onto a fallen piece of building.

There's something red jammed in the crack between the two walls, too vibrant to be blood or anything natural. You yank it out and nearly fall off the rock in the process, but you've got a bright red umbrella in your hands.

Maybe it'll help you be more dramatic. Not that drama would help now.

"Feita!" You yell into the city. Your own voice bounces back at you. As the waves of people turn to face you, you realize that the broken dome has formed the effect of an amphitheatre.

"Tonight, our city lies in ruins," you say, your voice quieting down. "Did we deserve this?"

Aisha's writing says "pause for dramatic effect", which you nearly read out loud. You silently hold it in though, standing up straight. "What did we do to warrant the destruction of our home?"

Your audience bristles. You can't let them get out of hand, though. Your job is to promote a peaceful ending to a violent story, not to destroy a living nation.

"Altera has tried to put out our fire," you tell them solemnly, "but it has only added to our flames. As our home stood for us, so we shall stand for our home. When the barrier collapsed in on itself, the ground, the earth, the very mountain shook, but our people stood. When an Alteran bomber lit our home in a massive explosive corona, our people stood. When Altera threatened people of a different city, they came to us for salvation."

You've forgotten the speech, you're making stuff up on the spot, you're forgetting to breathe, but you've never felt so alive, so empowered. "We will avenge all our siblings who have fallen," you tell them. "Those one hundred and forty-six people will never be forgotten. We will use their sacrifice as our motivation, to get up and bring our city back to life! Pull up those signs!" You point at a collapsed building with your umbrella. "Clean up that broken window! Even after the last ray of hope is swallowed up by darkness, we will continue to fight for our freedom and our city. We may not be warriors, but we fight with our words and our numbers and our beliefs."

You pause for a moment to breathe, taking in a deep breath before continuing. "There is no greater victory than that in ourselves, when we find who we are."

As you drive the tip of your umbrella into the crumbling concrete and raise your fist into the air, the people-your people-begin to scream out their support. Tears are cried, have been cried, will be cried. Pain is felt, has been felt, will be felt.

But good things are coming, have come, will come. Change is appearing, has appeared, will appear. And when the time comes, you'll finally have faith in yourself, your friends and the future again. You'll take little steps until you get there. But for now, they're all you've got.

And at that moment, when the people of Feita begin chanting out your name, with Elsword, Aisha, Rena and Raven at the very front of the movement, everyone you've ever known and loved pouring all their faith into you, for once, just for a moment-

You feel like the leader you want to be.


A/N: honestly what has the speech assignment done to me I wrote a speech on the spot and it turned out to be for nanowrimo rip me use rhetoric in your writing it's fun

I've honestly had such a shitty week though like this chapter took me nearly five days to finish thank gog I had reserve chapters(aka chapter 9) well I'm fresh out of reserve chapters right now but hey ONE MORE CHAPTER TO GO

Thank you to guest user Hello Stranger for bringing me back to life with your kindness, and also to EternaPhoenix for being so supportive every step of the way. I love y'all bbys

teasers are for the next few books. Lu won't show up anymore in this book but she does have a major role in the next few. also the "deleted" folder is very, very important to some of the characters. Also, Ree is a nickname. I might make a minicollection for oneshots in this universe.

Don't worry folks Lento does not die

~MargaritaDaemonelix