Above the Clouds, Beneath the Sea

The overbearing stroke of a chill winter wind brushed the wisps of early morning fog from the cliffs of Altera, sweeping them off into the sky below as a solitary shadow stretched out over the dew covered plains. With his sword in hand, Raven stared out into the sea of drifting clouds as they swirled over the island's shores and faded into the sunrise. Steady and slow, Raven drew his blade down in a smooth, precise motion, shifting his right hand quickly and swinging the blade out to his side. His breathing was calm and measured as he walked through the motions of every attack, picking up speed with every repetition. For a brief, unreserved moment of peace, his mind was quiet and empty save for the thought of the path his blade followed.

As the first beads of sweat gathered on his brow, however, a spark shot through his memory and dredged up a singularly unpleasant image of a corpse, warm and freshly dead.. In the middle of a strong swing, Raven stopped and shook his head, dismissing his momentary distraction and shifting back into a defensive stance. It was not that the memory of any given death would have shaken him, but as he continued to maim the empty air, a certain person's death flickered in and out of his thoughts. He paused, breathing in deeply and trying to clear his head only to find that the sight of Seris's body tangled in the brush and twisted into a bloody knot of broken limbs would not leave him. Turning sharply, he felt his chest tense up and his heart began to race, pounding violently against his ribs as though it were throwing itself against the ground over and over.

With a familiar rage kindled in his eyes, Raven lashed out recklessly, slashing and clawing at a large boulder just behind him. When he saw the face of his beloved, cold and dead, he struck out with his fist. When he heard the choked whisper of her last words, he thrust his sword into the stone with such force that the tip snapped and flew off into the morning mist. When he could finally think back further and felt the light kiss of her laughter across his neck, he lost all restraint. Thrashing wildly, he threw his nasod arm out and scraped away huge chunks of rock, punching and slashing aimlessly as his memory flooded his eyes. Panting desperately for breath, he drove his left arm into the stone and fired off a relentless burst of flame.

For nearly a minute, a tiny patch of Altera's surface lay covered in a thick haze of smoke and ash. As the bitter edge of a frigid wind cleared the air, Raven stood huffing and panting, his breath billowing into the air like steam as sweat dripped from the edge of his jaw. Staring out at the destruction and waste he had just caused, he lowered his head and dropped to the ground, sitting with his legs crossed and his hands on his knees.

...That wasn't helpful at all. Raven finally steadied his breath and turned to face the dull glow of the sun on the horizon. Clenching his fists tightly, he straightened his back and scowled at his own lack of control and discipline. Rage and regret struggled within him and robbed him of the morning's peace and calm. He felt his bitter spite boil over as the memories of his lost comrades, his lost fiancée, and his failure to protect them flashed through his mind and, all at once, he felt the weight of regret over his mindless revenge. More than anything, he felt shame and he cast his gaze to the earth as though he were awaiting a harsh judgment.

This is pointless. If she had seen me like that... if she knew what I'd done since then, would she really forgive me? As he thought back to the days when Seris was alive and they were happily ignorant of the schemes set into motion around them, he realized that he lost more than just his compatriots over the past three years. There was something more, something that, in the midst of everything that was taken from him, he could have kept through a thousand deaths and yet, when he saw the field of corpses scattered before him, he threw it away. It wasn't something so simple that he could give it a name, but now that he sat and thought back on everything, he felt that even if Seris were alive, he would no longer have the right to face her. The life he had been leading, the reckless destruction and death he rained down on Velder and its knights simply for wearing their kingdom's crest, was something he couldn't stomach any longer, even if his spite and rage would never completely fade.

Lashing out like that... No, just using this arm at all... He raised his left arm and spread out his claws. It'll end up hurting everyone around me. His thoughts turned to Elsword and Aisha and the burns on their hands and arms from Raven's own desperate attempt to protect them. Though he knew it would only be a matter of time until he had a better grasp of his nasod arm and how to use it without causing any collateral damage, but at the same time, he wondered if the risk would be worth it. More than that... after all the wounds they've already suffered, they don't deserve anymore. Not by my hand. If I keep holding onto the past with such a death grip, I'll just be a danger... no, a hindrance to everyone. He clenched his jaw and scowled fiercely as he shut his eyes and furrowed his brow. But there's no way I'll ever forget..

With his past and present locked in a dead heat, Raven glared harshly at the clear, crimson sky and suddenly he found himself thinking of Rena. His scowl relaxed and he shook his head out, turning his face back to the charred stone in front of him. That woman...what was it she said? Drifting back over the last two days, he tried to recall which of Rena's words had made such a significant impact on him and soon found that no single sentence really had; rather, it was everything she had said, and the cheery, gentle way in which she said it that made her every word burn into his memory. With a cold gust stinging at his face, he could almost hear Rena's lyrical voice as he pushed himself up to his feet.

'You've gone through a lot of pain though, and I won't tell you to forget it... but is it really doing you any good to keep torturing yourself over your past?'

"No." Raven answered into the wind as he returned his sword to its sheath and turned his back to the ruined boulder. "It's never going to do me any good. I can't forget, but I can change the way I keep their memory." As he began walking back to the nearest of the Ponggos' tunnels, the spite in his eyes faded and a powerful resolve took its place. If you're right, then nothing is beyond repair. It might take all of the next fifty years, but I swear, I will correct the chaos I've caused.

The soft clink of steel falling onto stone rang out through the underground as a heavy screw slipped from Eve's grasp and tumbled across the ground. Glaring sharply at the errant screw, she reached down indignantly and pinched it off the ground before returning to her small, makeshift repair station in front of a large, humming metal box. With the screw placed upon a folded cloth alongside dozens of other tiny components and wires, Eve brought up her console and began to check the condition of each individual part.

It seems that Moby and Remy will take much longer to repair than I thought. It is fortunate that there is a working fabricator here, but it is in poor condition. And outdated.

As entered a few commands into her console, the large humming box before her whirled to life, flickering and sparking with startling violence. After a moment, the machine's growling fizzled out into a low purr and finally into silence as a single, shining new bolt rolled out of the small window at its base. When Eve reached down to pick up the part, a soft lump of fur bumped into her leg. Looking down immediately, she saw a tiny, wobbling baby ponggo clinging to her leg.

"Uwaaaa~" The baby ponggo bonked his head against Eve's leg and giggled. Suddenly unsure of what to do with herself, Eve glanced around the area and then down to the child.

"Please remove yourself. I have work to do."

Her plea went ignored. "Uwaa! Uuuuwaa!"

It was readily apparent that this infant had no grasp of any language and so could not be reasoned with. Unsure of how to proceed, Eve attempted to ignore the child and return to her work. That plan did not go well. Eve soon found the tiny ponggo climbing up onto her clothes and she quickly set down her tools and delicately lifted the child from her side and set him down several feet away. As soon as she turned back toward her tools, the child had once again tumbled into the back of her leg. As fortune would have it, a desperate voice rang out through the tunnels at just that moment.

"Aidan! Aidan, where are you!" A panting, elderly Ponggo stumbled out from the shadows and into the soft glow of an electric lantern. Upon seeing the child, he hurried over to Eve and stretched his hands out. "Oh, Aidan! Come over here, you rascal. You know grampa can't keep up with your spry little feet."

"Uwaa!" Aidan detached himself from Eve's leg and waddled over to his grandfather, wobbling clumsily into his arms and cooing happily.

"I'm terribly sorry, I hope he wasn't a nuisance to you." The elderly ponggo turned to Eve meekly as Aidan tugged gently on his beard and gnawed on his collar.

"No. It was no trouble." A blatant lie, albeit unintentional. Eve merely said the only thing she could possibly think of at the moment. Her experience with such emotional creatures, especially children, was sorely lacking. Her face showed the slightest signs of discomfort as she turned back to the scattered shells of Remy and Moby while the ponggo child and his grandfather retreated into the winding tunnels nearby.

"Oh my, you're not hurt are you Aidan? Here, let me see your hands..."

"Uwwwa!" The warm echo of their voices quivered in the cool cavern air, leaving Eve alone with her work once again. With all distractions gone, she focused on her console and soon had the large fabricator buzzing and growling once more, producing all manner of shining new replacement parts for her drones. Within the hour, however, she noticed that a small group of young ponggos had gathered behind her and were watching anxiously as Eve soldered circuits and straightened electrical wires. Though she could only scarcely hear their conversations over the sound of the fabricator's constant grumbling, their incessant chatter became an immediate distraction.

"Hey, look, she's making a fish."

"No stupid, that's not a fish, it's a robot"

"Stupid~ I meant it's a robot fish."

"Why would she make a fish? She's a robot."

"Well, we eat fish, so maybe she needs to make fish to eat them?"

"What? That's stupid."

"No it isn't!"

"Then go ask her!"

"No way!"

"I dare you! I dare you to go up and talk to her"

"Are you crazy? She's a machine, she'll rip your arms out like what happened to Aimee's dad."

"Hey, what're you kids doing? Don't bother people when they're working." Standing at the back of the chamber, Elsword glared at the gaggle of children harshly.

"Shhh!" One of the children turned to him and pressed her finger to her lips. "If you make too much noise the robot will hear you and-"

"That is enough!" Eve rose from her seat and turned back toward the children, her face stern but her eyes cold and wounded. "I will not permit you to disparage the name of the Nasod. We are not machines."

As soon as she turned to address them, the children shrieked and scrambled away, racing frantically to escape Eve's scoldings. As soon as they had gone, Eve stood staring off into the shadows, one arm crossed over her stomach as she gripped her elbow uncomfortably.

"That was regrettable..."

Elsword scoffed and laced his fingers together behind his head. "Don't worry about it. They were just being brats. It's obvious you aren't like those things we fought with before."

Eve shook her head slowly. "No, that is not what is regrettable." She walked back over to the remnants of Moby and Remy, staring aimlessly at their tattered shells. "Even if I am the last nasod, I am still the queen. It is my responsibility to establish diplomatic relations with other species in this era. They were only children, and even newborn Nasod are immature... but I shouted at them regardless, simply because they could not yet distinguish between true Nasod and machines in the shape of Nasod. It was... most likely a poor decision."

Elsword lowered his hands and thought for a moment. "To be honest, I don't really get the difference either... Before you showed up I just thought nasod were all machines and stuff."

"No, true nasod..." Eve raised her head and her gaze drifted off to a scene from her memory, a distant fragment of light from her very first glimpse of the world. "Even though we are not made of flesh and bone, Nasod are living creatures. What you saw before were tools and weapons. They have no more life than the ground at your feet or the sand in the desert."

Elsword's mouth shifted to the side and he scratched the back of his head. "I guess I get it... probably. But, if you're worried about what people think about you, why don't you try to be more friendly?"

Returning her hands to work, Eve considered Elsword's statement and wondered whether or not he was insulting her. After some difficulty, she decided that he was not, though she made note of his apparent lack of delicacy. "Nasod are never friendly or cruel. We do not have the emotions of humans and other species, therefore we have no need to act in such a way. Nasod do not have friends." Another blatant lie, albeit unintentional. As Eve continued piecing together Remy's carapace, Elsword grimaced slightly.

"Well yeah, but aren't we all your friends?" Elsword looked to her quizzically, more confused than anything else. "I mean, maybe not Raven, but the rest of us, probably."

Eve blinked, her hands frozen in place. The shock of his claim sent a burst of questions through her thoughts as she struggled to verify the requirements of 'friendship'. "T-That is impossible. It has been less than three days since we first met. Even among humans, relationships require a prolonged period of time to develop." She blushed lightly and kept her face turned down at the bolts and screws in front of her.

"Yeah, but we fought together, and you helped us get out of that mountain." Elsword suddenly recalled the faint memory of a stinging pain on the side of his face. "Oh, right, you did slap me though, so I guess you don't like me much, but Rena really likes you already, and Aisha probably does too, not that I can ever tell what she's thinking..." Elsword scowled as his thoughts turned to Aisha and their most recent altercations. Smoothing out his glower, he turned and headed toward the nearest tunnel, calling back to Eve over his shoulder. "Anyway, don't say stuff like 'I don't have any friends' or anything like that. It sounds depressing. I'm gonna go grab lunch, I'll see you later."

Still blushing and trapped in her thoughts, Eve set down her tools and pressed her hands against her knees as she stared intently at the empty air. Nasod do not have friends. He must be mistaken. Perhaps it is normal for humans to assume attachment to one another after having a shared experience? It is not possible for nasod to have 'friends'... but... perhaps... Eve began to breath a bit more heavily and her hands tensed up. Perhaps it would be beneficial to foster a sense of social solidarity with others? For the sake of establishing diplomatic relations for the future of the Nasod. She nodded firmly to herself, picking up her soldering iron and opening her console once again. With her hands hovering over Moby's circuits, she paused one last time. Human relationships... I still do not entirely understand them.

As the morning passed on into the afternoon and the village began to bristle with life and activity, Eve finished entering a final line of code into her console and waited anxiously. Soon, a soft hum radiated out from her drones as they flashed and flew into the air at her side. Reaching out carefully, Eve placed her hands on Moby and Remy and patted them on the head.

Good. All repairs were successful. An odd, bittersweet warmth ran through her as they hovered quietly at her side. Eve tried to run an error check to trace the source of the strange sensation, but after coming up with no results, she attributed the feeling to mild overheating and she decided to return to her room and rest for a bit. Upon arrival, she found Rena sitting on the edge of her bed and mixing a thick, pale liquid in a wooden bowl. As soon as Eve entered the room, Rena turned back and smiled brightly at her.

"Oh, welcome back." Rena quickly took note of the two drones floating at Eve's side and tilted her head slightly. "Ah, are those nasod too? Did you find them somewhere near here?"

Eve shook her head firmly. "No, these are my drones, Moby and Remy. I have repaired and reinforced them to combat parameters." Moby and Remy followed close behind Eve as she stepped gracefully across the cluttered floor and took a seat on the side of her own bed. Turning back to the mixture in her hands, Rena's smile softened and her eyes narrowed.

"Why would you need them to be able to fight?"

"It is necessary." Eve stared calmly and spoke with a solemn resolve. "I am not a combat model, and there is not much I can do on my own if I encounter enemies such as those we fought in the palace. I will need to fight if I am to discover what has happened to the Core."

"So you're going to go on your own?" Rena looked up anxiously pulled her whisk from the bowl, allowing the thick, gooey mixture to drip down its side.

Glancing toward the ground, Eve sat in silence for a moment and then turned back to Rena. "No, I will accompany you all in your search for the El. I believe that will lead us to the Core, and it would be best if we worked together."

Nodding happily, Rena gave another broad smile and returned to her stirring. "That's good, I'm glad. I would've had to stop you if you said you were going out there alone."

Unsure of what to make of Rena's concern, Eve simply nodded and returned to her thoughts, wondering whether or not Elsword was right when he said that Rena was already fond of her. Minutes passed as Rena continued mixing the milky syrup until it became a dense paste. Scooping out a small patch of the shimmering substance with her fingers, Rena reached down toward her injured ankle and rubbed the paste all over her foot and leg. As she returned to the bowl for another handful, she noticed that Eve's eyes were fixed on her and likely had been for some time.

"It's an herbal compound." Rena spoke as though she were answering a direct question, though she was really just narrating her actions for Eve. "It'll help the injury heal a lot faster than it normally would."

Eve shifted her gaze from Rena's ankle to the scars and bruises that covered her shins and shoulders. When she wore her traveling clothes and all of her gear, Rena's skin seemed bright and vibrant, free of any blemish or flaw. Seeing the record of wounds scattered across her body, however, Eve realized that this was only because Rena was adept at hiding her injuries. Turning her attention back to the strange, pungent paste, Eve tried to recall what little she had learned about human anatomy only to find that her records were over a thousand years old and, more obviously, ill-suited to understanding elves. "It seems very difficult to repair a body made of organic material"

"Oh, you mean skin and bones and such?" Rena splattered a large glob of gel onto her foot and massaged it into the skin around her heel. "You're right, it's not very convenient, and it can take a long time to recover from even small injuries if you don't take care of them properly. What about you though? It must be a lot easier to take care of yourself when your body isn't this fragile."

Scanning her memory, Eve shook her head softly. "No... that is not entirely true. It may actually be easier to repair your body than to repair mine." As she spoke, her drones drifted over to her side and began rolling around across her bed playfully. "Almost every part of my body can be crafted and replaced, but only if I have the appropriate materials and a fabricator or a machine lathe. More than that, all nasod were originally born of the core, and its method of production is still largely unknown to us. Even if I were to make an exact replica of my core components, I would not function with replacement circuits or processors. Repairing nasod may be faster, but it is far more convenient to heal on your own regardless of what parts and materials are available to you."

"Ah, I guess you're right. We can just eat whatever food is laying around and our bodies will fix themselves after a while..." Rena rifled through the pockets of her bandolier and picked out a roll of gauze and thread. Raising her sprained ankle up to the bedside, she began wrapping her foot firmly until it was entirely covered in soft white cotton. While she was dressing her wounds, Eve remained silent, turning back to her bed and staring at her drones. Occasionally, she would reach out and pat one of them on the head or give them a gentle push, sending them hopping lightly across her pillows. Rena tried to keep herself from prying, but she also wasn't trying very hard. Soon, she was watching Eve's hands as they drifted gently over her sheets and wondering whether the faint haze over her eyes was really as sorrowful as it seemed. Returning her foot to the floor, Rena leaned forward and smiled faintly.

"Eve... were you lonely, when you were all on your own?"

Turning quickly to meet Rena's eyes, Eve composed herself and leveled her voice. "Nasod do not feel lonely." Despite her words, she spoke with a vague longing that gave Rena cause to doubt.

"Oh, I see..." She really must not know how lonely she sounds... I thought it might just be me misreading her at first, but she seems completely unaware of how she feels... oh, maybe I could tease her a bit. "It's just that you looked lonely playing with your drones there."

Eve gave an immediate, stern look of denial while blushing lightly. "I was not playing. This is training for combat."

Rena giggled. "I see, I see..." She sighed fondly and Eve turned back to Moby and Remy, watching as they bumped into one another lightly and rolled aimlessly over the side of the bed and onto the floor. As Eve glared at them sternly, they hovered back up to the bed and sat before her expectantly. After receiving a sharp nod from their queen, Remy and Moby resumed their small bounds and cheerful rolling. Watching the odd spectacle before her, Rena's thoughts drifted into the future and she considered the inevitable conflict ahead of them. More than that, she began to understand the real weight of Eve's sacrifice; though she had spent all those years asleep, Eve has been fighting for longer than any of them in her own way. To spend centuries firing a single shot into the darkness and hoping that it would be enough to revive her people and then wake up to find not only that she had failed, but that somehow, someone was mass producing nasod and sending them off into battle. Maybe it's because she really doesn't have any emotions and I'm just projecting them onto her... but, if she does...

Rena closed her eyes for a moment and smiled gently. "I'm heading out to the market. Did you need anything?"

Eve shook her head firmly. "No, I will be fine."

"Okay~ Then I'll surprise you with something." Rena bounced forward onto her good leg and grabbed a warped wooden crutch, steadying herself as she scooped up her bandolier and slung it over her shoulder. Abruptly turning away from Rena and glancing down at her hands, Eve stumbled over her words, finally managing a quiet, quivering reply.

"T-Thank you..."

"Okay, now take off your pants and hold our your arms."

Raven grimaced and glanced down at his side. "...Do you really need all of this?"

Holding a thin ribbon of measuring tape, a cheerful young ponggo waited patiently as he unbuckled his trousers and stripped down to his underwear. Standing in the middle of the village armorer, which was really just a clothing store that stocked a small selection of travel gear, Raven held himself as steady as he could while the clothier took down the most excessive array of measurements in this history of fashion. After obtaining the circumference of Raven's calves and the width of his knee, the clothier hurried over to a small desk and began making a series of scribbles and notations on a large sheet of vellum.

"Yes, absolutely necessary." The ponggo addressed Raven while speaking into the paper in front of her, pressing her face close to her desk as she furiously sketched out a series of designs. "I've never made clothes for humans before, so I need to make sure I've got everything right! Ah! This is so nerve wracking... Here, give me your left arm again." Raven headed over hesitantly, holding his nasod arm out as gently as he could.

"Do you think I could put my clothes back on now?"

"No!" The clothier jumped up and her eyes widened. "No! I need more measurements still. Ah~!" She ruffled the fur atop her head and sighed heavily. "I'm sorry, please bear with me for a little while longer... I promise I'll give you a good deal because of all the trouble..."

Raven straightened his back and firmed up his stance, nodding sharply to the clothier. "Don't worry about it. I'm just glad you agreed to try."

"Of course, I won't turn down any customers! I'm just a little bit nervous because it's my first year on my own and-" The shrill tone of a tiny, jingling bell filled the air and the clothier instantly turned toward the door and smiled brightly. "Hello! How are you today? Let me know if there's anything I can help you with!"

"Okay, sure~" From the doorway, the bright melody of Rena's voice fluttered over bolts of cloth and piles of linen. As soon as he heard her familiar voice, Raven turned and locked eyes with Rena, which he later realized only drew her attention to him that much faster. The moment she saw Raven standing in the middle of the shop in nothing but a rumpled pair of blue boxers, she blinked a dozen times and then began to stare, grinning broadly as her eyes fell across him.

"Oh... Why hello there." Rena giggled lightly. "Should I come back another time?"

"No, that's fine..." Raven cleared his throat uncomfortably, "Er... I don't mind..."

"Yes, please stay!" The clothier glared desperately at Rena. "I need all the business I can get! Is there anything you need or want me to make for you?"

"Hm..." Rena pulled herself around to a stack of brightly colored mufflers and scarves. "She could probably use a scarf... do you have any in a darker color? I don't think she wears anything but white or black...Ah, maybe pink, but it doesn't look like you have any of that..."

"Just a minute!" The clothier hopped down from her desk and rushed off into the back of the shop. "Let me check the storeroom!"

With the owner searching frantically through her stock for a muffler in charcoal grey, Rena walked toward the center of the store and browsed through a row of belts and pouches, glancing up at Raven as she leaned against her crutch.

"I was surprised to see you here. What are you getting fitted for?"

"Clothes." Raven answered bluntly, grimacing awkwardly when he realized just how caustic his answer had sounded. "For traveling, since what I have now is mostly shredded." He glanced down at his tattered shirt which, in its current state, looked more like a pile of trimmings and scrap left over from a flour sack than anything to be worn.

Shifting her weight carefully, Rena turned toward a stack of socks and began thumbing through them. "That's probably for the best. It'd be a problem if you froze to death during the night." She grinned and looked to him through the corner of her eye, catching the faintest glimpse of a subtle smile on Raven's face. As she returned to the pile of silk stockings in front of her, her smile faded and she thought back over the past few days. "How are you feeling now?"

Raven turned and glared at the far wall, knowing full well that Rena wasn't asking about the cuts and scrapes on his arms and legs. Breathing in slowly, he held his head up and his voice relaxed.

"I'm alright. I'm sorry I caused so much trouble for you all, but I think I've found an answer."

"I see..." Rena sighed fondly and her smile returned as she turned around and leaned back against a large armoire. Before she could take the time to consider how she might tease Raven about his present state of undress, she found him staring at her earnestly.

"What about you though? How are you doing?"

"Ah, me?" Rena put on a confident smile and lifted her bandaged foot. "It's almost all healed up, I'm just keeping my weight off of it for now."

"Is that really all?" A measure of concern bled through into Raven's normally stoic voice. Rena laughed lightly and pushed off of the armoire.

"You don't need to worry about me like that. I'm pretty good at taking care of myself after a hundred years of practice or so." She winked blithely and Raven chuckled.

"I don't doubt that."

"There, see, that's a lot better." Rena grinned playfully. "That smile looks a lot better on you than your dark, brooding, suicide-face."

"What-" Raven frowned slightly as he remembered his conversation with Rena on the Black Crow. "... That was a bit dramatic, wasn't it?"

"Just a bit." Rena giggled and glanced up at Raven fondly, setting him off balance with a soft, careless smile.

Just then, the clothier finally emerged from the stock room and rushed out into the shop, waving a dark grey muffler over her head.

"Here..." She offered the scarf up to Rena, panting.

"Ah, perfect. Thanks~" Rena reached into her bandolier and pulled out a handful of small coins. "Here you go. Is that enough?"

"Y-Yes! Thank you!" The clothier bowed graciously as she accepted Rena's money, quickly running to her desk and depositing it inside. "Please come back and see us again!"

"Of course~" Rena smiled and turned to Raven. "I'll see you later then. Oh, let me know if you're hungry later. It'd be nice if all of us could eat together while we have the chance."

Raven nodded. "Right." He looked down at his bare skin and his crumpled clothes on the ground by his feet. "...This may take some time."

"It's okay, we'll wait up for you." Rena waved and hobbled out through the door and out of the shop, disappearing into a crowd of passing ponggos. As Raven watched her disappear into a stream of hurried shoppers, he felt a sudden tension around his waist as the clothier pulled her measuring tape around him.

"Okay! I think I've almost got it done, just a couple dozen more numbers from you now..."

Raven frowned and steeled himself for another round of excessive measurement. "Very well. Let's get on with it."

Clenching her fist tightly at her side, Aisha walked up to the front door of a small tavern and stopped.

This is the place Rena told me we were all supposed to meet at, right? I just hope I'm not the first one here...

Taking a deep breath, she reached forward and pulled the door handle. Inside, the lively din of conversation wafted through the air and the soft glow of electric lights warmed the room. The moment Aisha stepped inside, however, the atmosphere crumbled. Half of the ponggos gathered in the dining hall paid her no mind, but among the others, several dropped their food and stared warily while a few quietly gathered their things and hurried out of the side entrance. Scowling involuntarily, Aisha swept her eyes across the room in hopes of finding Rena somewhere nearby. Almost immediately, an anxious, jittery barkeep hopped down from his post and rushed to meet Aisha.

"I-I'm sorry miss, we've got no seats available right now. There's a big group coming in just a few minutes from now so you'll have to come back another time."

Aisha fought her frustration and tried to keep a kind, gentle expression. Unfortunately, after forcing herself to smile and wave all day long, a dark glower was the kindest face she could manage. "I'm meeting my friends here. Are any of them here yet?"

"Ah, um, no, as a matter of fact..." The barkeep fidgeted and tapped his fingers together as he did his level best to look as far away from Aisha's face as he possibly could while still facing her. "They've probably gone to find another place to eat, you know, with that large party coming in later and all, so-"

"What the hell's your problem?" From the corner of the room, Elsword stood up from a small table and glared harshly at the barkeep. "There's a ton of empty space all around here. Besides, she can sit with me."

"Ah, but-!" The barkeep looked around and, finding himself in the path of both Aisha and Elsword's piercing gazes, backed down. "I-I guess that'll be okay then." He took a slow step backward and then hurried back to the bar where he tended to a row of chuckling patrons.

"...What the hell is wrong with him?" Elsword mumbled to himself as he and Aisha headed back to the small table in the corner. Sighing wearily, Aisha plopped herself down in the chair across from Elsword and stared out across the room.

"A lot of the people here are afraid of me, because I'm a vicious evil witch who eats children and wears their teeth as a necklace."

"Huh?" Elsword looked up from his bowl of fish stew, "When did you start doin' that?"

Aisha curled her lips in and huffed at him. "I wasn't being serious."

"So why mrnnnfff-" Elsword slurped a thick bundle of noodles into his mouth and chewed on a large fish cheek, swallowing everything in a single gulp. "Why are they afraid of you then?"

"Because..." Aisha began to pout. "I don't know. The Chief said it was because I look like the dark magicians from fairy tales everybody here heard when they were kids, but it still doesn't make sense. It's not like I'm a dragon or an ogre or anything like that..."

"Heh...You're probably stronger than a dragon though, so at least they've got a good reason." Elsword tilted his bowl back and took a sip of rich, steaming broth.

"Was that supposed to be a compliment?" Aisha slammed her fist down onto the table and stared sharply. In the next instant, she relax and lowered her head as her shoulders sank. "Sorry..."

More than a bit confused, Elsword set down his bowl and crossed his arms. "I don't really get it, but, maybe ponggos are just stupid."

"Elsword!" Aisha's eyes went wide and she leaned forward. "Don't say things like that! They're not any stupider than humans, and they can also hear you!"

"Well, what else could it be?" He glared back indignantly as Aisha lowered herself back into her seat and began to whisper, suddenly conscious of the sea of eyes and ears turned toward them.

"I don't know, but you can't just go around calling a whole group of people stupid like that!"

Elsword furrowed his brow and his mouth wrinkled up awkwardly. "Whatever. I still think they're stupid though. Anybody who knows you would never think you're a monster or anything like that even if you did wear a string of baby teeth or whatever, so it's just stupid that they do."

"Elsword, that's-" Stupid... Aisha couldn't bring herself to finish that sentence. Even though she felt obligated to correct his unfair, sweeping generalizations, the sentiment behind them struck her unexpectedly. He had just proclaimed her absolute innocence with a straight face, like it was something natural, like it was something he had never even questioned. Somewhere, around the back of her neck and spreading down toward her stomach, she felt a strange, prickly sensation, a mixture of deep appreciation along with something that she couldn't quite identify, at least until her stomach began to growl. Blushing lightly, she pushed her chair back and stood

"Wait, tell me what you want and I'll get it." Elsword chugged the last of his stew and set his bowl down with a quiet thud as he rose from his chair. "I'm still hungry, and that guy'll probably try to tell you they ran out of food or some crap like that."

Standing firm, Aisha walked over and stopped beside Elsword. "No, I'll do it. Fish stew, right?"

Elsword opened his mouth to speak but quickly closed it again, nodding quickly as Aisha stomped off toward the bar. Within three minutes, she returned with two giant bowls of fish stew along with a plate of apple bread balanced between them. As she set Elsword's bowl down in front of him, he blinked and stared ravenously at the massive sea of food before him.

"How'd you get all this!?"

Aisha dropped the plate of apple bread between them and took her seat, shoveling a huge chunk of fish, kale, carrots, and broth into her mouth. She savored that single bite more than most anything she had eaten in the past three months, keeping her eyes on her food even as she answered Elsword.

"It's actually pretty useful to be a great and terrible dark magician sometimes. Now that I'm here, all they want to do is make sure I don't get mad at anybody." Returning her spoon to the table, she reached over to grab a thick slice of apple bread and noticed a distinct difference between her bowl and Elsword's. "Ah! You've got way more meat than I do!"

"What? No I don't, yours is just all at the bottom." Elsword protested adamantly as he stretched his hand in front of his bowl, guarding his grouper jealously.

"No, you've definitely got more." Aisha grabbed her spoon and thrust it into Elsword's stew, scooping up a large chunk of meat and sliding it into her mouth.

Elsword pushed his chair back and stood, leaning forward and glaring hard at Aisha. "I'm supposed to have more, I'm still growing!"

"That doesn't matter, I need it more! I'm not gonna stay this size forever!" Aisha aimed her spoon for another hunk of fish floating in Elsword's bowl and he blocked her with his fork.

Elsword stared at her cynically. "That's right. When you get old, you're gonna shrink."

Aisha's eyes flashed with fire and she shoved her spoon past Elsword's and into his stew once more, retrieving a small pile of fish and dumping it into her bowl.

"Tch..." Elsword pulled his bowl closer to his chest and started devouring his stew, hoping to eat the rest of it before Aisha got a chance to stage another raid. For the rest of the evening, the two of them sat bickering over food and exchanging sharp glances and wry grins. Despite their constant quarreling, Aisha felt oddly at ease, as though she had fallen into a familiar, comfortable pattern. Time passed so quickly and she felt so relaxed that it took her nearly an hour to realize that Rena and Raven were still nowhere in sight. As she split the last slice of apple bread with Elsword, she wondered what could have possibly been keeping Rena.

Across town, Rena, Raven, and Eve sat around a small table at a quaint, friendly cafe in the tunnels near the surface. As Rena finished off her salad and Raven started in on his grilled shark, Eve surveyed their surroundings and searched through the crowd.

"Aisha and the Red-Haired boy are very late. Rena, did you tell them we would be here?"

"Of course~" Rena grinned broadly, the slightest hint of mischief gleaming in her eyes. "I wonder where they are~ Ah, maybe they decided to go on a date somewhere." She clapped her hands together and smiled. "Oh well. I'm sure they'll catch up to us eventually."