It's killing time again.
Cover your face and we'll pretend,
These killing lights can't kill us all again.
-AFI, "The Killing Lights"
The rest of the day was spent pretty much how it had started. With actions that turned from caution and wariness to almost child-like glee and wonder, there wasn't much thought given as to what it could have truly been that had happened. It was far too much fun to figure out just what they were capable of doing until at last, exhausted hours later that they each collapsed in turn onto their respective couches where they had been when it all started.
As the moment wore off came the time for questions, uncertainty returning as realization hit with the strength of any time spent sparring. It had to be short of unnatural, this new found ability they each possessed. While it felt right it did not feel right at the same time, a building sense of dread welling respectively in its own fashion to the pits of their stomach. That it was all at the same time could have been for any reason. That they all spoke up at once about it could have been for the same and more or completely different ones.
But with enough sheepish looks and polite bowing out and even more "go ahead" followed with "no, I interrupted, I insist" they finally slowly spoke in turn.
"I've never heard of anything at all like this. For all of my studies, this seems more in the realm of mysticism or sorcery, and there are no representatives from Saturn here to discuss the matter with them." Whether by design or sheer intelligence, Ami lead the discussion with her simple statement. "It seems far fetched as well that we never had any affinity at all for these elements yet now we can nearly command them in our own fashions."
"Save for Rei, you mean…" She softly murmured but the truth of it cut through the room easily. It was hardly her intention to bring the Martian into the light like that but it was true, of them all only she had anything even remotely like this. Her eyes cut to the same person, who looked to be sitting even more uncomfortably than before from the sudden shift of now three sets of eyes on her.
"Reading a fire is not the same as … as … doing that. Even my Grandfather could not do such a thing." The stress was evident; he was far more than just a relation but a respectful title of sorts. "There's no affinity or whatever you want to call it. No one has ever been able to do that before, at least from what he told me. No one."
"We had old rumors of druids doing this … this storm creation. But most of us thought they were just joking around about it or it was a way to explain the weather. 'Oh, there goes ole what's his face again, musta stubbed his toe so it's gonna thunder for a while.' That sort of thing." Of them all, Makoto had to be the most comfortable with the notion, but it could have been her druidic nature too. It was like she just expected it to happen and thought nothing more of it.
"I've never heard anything like it before." Finally she admitted after a few moments of silence. "Ami is right, there is no one here from Saturn. Sorcery isn't widely regarded with fairness much less acceptance. It is the same as wizardry; to many it is a dying profession or study in light of technological advancements. Do no misunderstand me; I do not regret this but… but why this? Why would the Queen … I don't know if she is capable of doing something like this or not."
"The Queen is the cause, you might very well be right Minako. But if she has kept such sorcery under wraps then what is the purpose of it? The Lunar people love her; you know that more than us. Why would she need to hide such a thing from her subjects?"
She had to smirk inwardly; leave it to the Mercurian to cut to the heart of the matter. "She has been engaging in talks with the Earth, not to mention visiting there with the Princess. I don't know much of Terran politics having had no reason to visit, much less a directive to be sent there. The planet is just as vast as the ones we call … or called, home. Reception might be mixed about sorcery whereas with us… at least the planets I have visited and those I've met, it's considered a curiosity but no one really holds ill will towards Saturn simply because you don't know if they could easily fuck you up without issue."
"So she visits Earth, often for weeks at a time. This time was with the Princess. The whole matter of the Terran monarchy seems still sketchy to me, but the Lunar people are uninterested in discussing even remote rumors of them. It is almost as if we are the planet here, on the Moon, and it is Earth that revolves around us."
"Isn't that how it is though? Ya got all these pompous Lunarians thinking they are the middle of the whole damn system." Makoto chimed up with her dislike of politics. It prompted a roll of her eyes from Ami and a slightly lost but mostly comprehending look from Rei. Shaking her own head she had to give the Jovian a smile. Blunt or not, she spoke her mind and often called it right how she saw it. That it was mostly true…
"I've only heard rumors of the Crystal. I knew it existed but I've never seen it with my own eyes before." Steering the conversation away from swelling egos and pompous people she threw a new topic of discussion out on the floor. "It is as tighty lipped as why the Queen goes to Earth, if not more so."
"I wish there was a way to study it. It has to be a catalyst of sorts, how it seemed to awaken things in us. We might as well call it latent abilities; I doubt they were just bestowed on us but perhaps they were. We have them now and it doesn't look like they will be going away. I have read of things like that, artifacts from olden days or objects created by greater powers. Some even by multitudes killing themselves in succession to empower something. Not that a Mercurian would do such a thing, but we have our own rites and festivals just as you do Minako for your Goddess, or Makoto does for plantings or harvesting. Rei, I know little about Martian culture but likely they have something of the same."
"Just because we have rituals doesn't mean we have these … these whatever you call them. It's like calling one sword better than another just because it has a special name."
"But can you agree that say, a sword made of iron is better than one made of bronze? Iron being stronger than bronze, yet one of steel would best both of them, for iron is brittle if not alloyed with something else. There could very well be that in olden times, times before we came to be, or even thought of, people were gifted items from the Gods and they became these items of power."
Now that was odd, to hear Ami speak of deities when the last she knew, she was more about tangible knowledge written to paper or encoded via electronics to computers. "Wouldn't though these things be coveted by others?" It felt silly to ask but the question was there, burning on the tip of her tongue.
"Precisely!" Came the excited reply, a much more animated Ami perking up instantly. "It may be why they are so hidden, or at least not spoken of. Whatever befell the Terran monarchy, and for that matter however it did so happen, this Crystal, be it a singular use or something of multitudes changed the four of us from not only skilled enough melee combatants and tacticians, but now with an addition of sorcery. Saturn is ages enough away, by the time they could respond to any threat, it would be far too late. Even if it was only capable of creating four people at a time, think of what that means to a brand new civilization. Ours have been established for millenniums, we've searched and created ties with others and here is Earth, new to empires."
"Ya don't mean that she did all that so we could just take Earth over do ya?" The burnette spoke the lingering question that followed on the heels of Ami's explanation.
But for her question all she got was the blue haired woman shaking her head. "I don't know the Queen, and I don't think even Minako knows the answer to that question. It's a valid question though, but we really won't know that answer until the Queen tells us. Or she has Luna or Artemis do it."
A sound of exasperation followed in the wake of that answer, Makoto flumping back on the couch. "Don't mind Artemis. It's Luna that ruffles my proverbial feathers."
"No matter our opinions of the two from Mau," redirecting yet another possibly treasonous discussion back in, "Ami is right. We won't know until we are told, but we know that it had to happen for a reason. Reward for service is nice, and could have been easily handled with just a week's vacation or a bottle of wine. There is something more at play here, and until we know, I want you each to be cautious. The Lunar people are not forth coming with anything true, but we still have friends here. Ami, you know the Librarians. Makoto, you talk to the gardeners quite a bit. I will talk to Dharius and Rei…" She turned, knowing that Rei hated to be called out yet again, but of them all, she would have the best chance of this she felt. "Spiritually, of us all, you are the strongest. I cannot communicate with my Goddess in the same way you can listen to what fire has to say. You were there like the rest of us, and while you are the newest here, even you know that something just does not seem … right … about this. Something has seemed off, for lack of better words, even before I left to Mercury. You could very well be only of us that can find out not only the nature of the Crystal, but what exactly it means to each of us. While Artemis and Luna and even the Queen may very well explain, they will only give us the answers they deem we are fit to receive and I, for one, want to know what changed within me."
A/N: Short chapter as I get back into the writing mode again.