Shadows of Alrest

by kiben007

It had taken unthinkable sacrifice, but with Malos dead and a new Elysium to call home, it seemed like the world had been given a second chance. But old habits die hard, and not everyone is willing to see the world change for the better. Even with the Aegis gone, the work of her companions is far from over. Sequel to my previous work, "Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Atonement"

29. Elysian Garden, Part 13

Zeke woke to the feeling of something brushing up against his face. It tickled a little, and he tried to stifle a laugh as he dragged himself awake. Then he remembered where he was, and the laughter escaped him in an overexcited giggle.

This wasn't like him at all. Normally, he would've been more composed than this. But how was he supposed to stay composed with Nia's head resting against his chest, idly brushing her ears against his face as she slept?

The noise woke her up, and there was a flash of confusion behind her eyes before she remembered what had happened the night before. Then she smiled at him and laid her head back down.

"What're you giggling about?" she asked.

"Your ears," Zeke said. "They keep brushing up against my nose. It feels funny."

"Want me to move?"

"Nah." Zeke reached up and began playing with one of the ears. "I'm fine like this."

"You're really having fun with those, huh?" Nia asked.

"Yeah, well I don't call you Furry Ears for nothing, do I? This whole relationship thing was really just a long ploy to get me unfettered access to these bad boys."

"Oh, come off it," Nia said, pressing a hand against his face.

"What, I'm suddenly not allowed to make jokes anymore? This is our whole thing, Nia. Are we really going to give that up?"

"No," she said. Then she grabbed his shoulder and pulled herself over until she was straddling him. He let go of her ears for a moment, practically mesmerized just by the sight of her looming over him. "But right now, I think I'd rather you put that big mouth of yours to other uses."

She leaned down and kissed him again, startling him a little. Not that he really minded. Still, being with Nia was a vastly different experience when compared to all his past relationships. Usually, he found himself taking the lead when it came to physical intimacy, but if Nia was so eager to take charge, then he was the last person in the world who was going to stop her.

Unfortunately, the world had other ideas. Because just as they were starting to get into it, there was a knock on the door, and Nia shot upright like someone had just caught her naked in public. Which, discounting the undergarments she had on, wasn't too far from the truth.

"Nia?" Mikhail asked. "You awake? The meeting's supposed to be starting soon."

"Oh shoot," Nia muttered, scrambling off the bed as fast as she could. Unfortunately, her feet got tangled in the sheets as she moved, and she flopped unceremoniously in front of her wardrobe with a loud thud.

"You alright?" Mikhail asked.

"Fine!" Nia insisted, a little louder than was probably necessary. That didn't seem to convince Mikhail, though, because he cracked the door open and stuck his head in.

"What's going on in here, I—" He stopped abruptly as he noticed Zeke sitting upright and shirtless in her bed. A moment later, Zeke noticed that his clothes were strewn haphazardly around the room, which probably gave Mikhail the wrong impression of what had happened last night. They'd come back here after the party to have some time to themselves, and Zeke already wasn't wearing most of his clothes thanks to the tournament, so he'd just kind of thrown them wherever. But to Mikhail, it probably looked like they'd… Had…

Sex…

Suddenly, the idea of having sex with Nia flooded his brain. Him. And Nia. Having sex. It was a very, very powerful mental image. Overwhelming, even. Enough to make him blush just thinking about it, which certainly didn't do anything to clear up the misunderstanding here.

He and Nia hadn't actually done it, yet. They'd barely been together for twelve hours; it was certainly too early to broach the topic of… Carnal relations…

Again, the image flooded Zeke's mind, and as a result, he couldn't really muster up any kind of response as Mikhail stared at him.

"Ah," Mikhail said. Then he gave Zeke a knowing smile and closed the door again. "The meeting's in ten minutes, but… Take your time."

"Mikhail!" Nia protested. "You twit! You can't just go barging into people's rooms without permission!"

But from the sound of things, he was already gone, leaving Zeke and Nia alone in her room again.

Zeke did his best to shake himself out of his thoughts, but with the two of them wearing barely more than their undergarments, he found that rather difficult to do. Now that the idea was inside his head, it refused to leave, conjuring up all manner of ridiculous fantasies in the process.

"What're you staring at?" Nia asked, shooting him a glance as she tried to untangle herself from the sheets.

"You," Zeke said.

"You think this is funny, do you?"

"That's not really where I was going with that."

"Hm?" Nia stopped what she was doing and stared up at him, confused.

"You're beautiful," he continued, deciding to spell it out for her. "I honestly can't believe how long it took me to notice."

"Oh," Nia muttered, blushing and drawing into herself a little. "Yeah. I guess… This is just going to take some time to get used to. I've never really been in a relationship before, so…"

She trailed off, then after a moment, looked away.

"Nia, we were just making out in your bed two minutes ago," Zeke said. "Given that, is it really so hard to believe that I think you're gorgeous?"

"Physical intimacy is easy," Nia said. "There's nothing to think about, you just do. But emotional intimacy is a lot harder, for me. I'm not used to it. It feels like every time I stop paying attention, all of this is just going to slip through my fingers."

"Having second thoughts?" Zeke asked.

"Of course not," Nia said, finally looking back at him.

"Good," he said.

"I'm just…" Nia paused for a moment. "This is a lot to take in at once, especially from someone like you. I love you, but it'll probably still be a while before my gut stops telling me that everything you say is supposed to be some kind of joke or tease."

"Well, I can think of some other ways to be a tease," Zeke said. It took Nia a moment to parse the innuendo, but when she did, she smiled to herself.

"Maybe later," she said. Then she finished pulling herself out of the sheets and stood up. "Right now, we've got work to do."

"Do we, though?" Zeke asked. "Putting together this Leftheria thing is Mikhail's job, not yours. You don't need to be there. And wouldn't you rather come back to bed and pick up where we left off?"

"I would," Nia admitted. "But we're still Caretakers, and I can't keep putting work off forever. Yesterday, I tuned all that out and just went for it. There wasn't time to think about the consequences. And I'm happy it worked out. Being with you is the first thing I've had to look forward to in a long time. But that's not a headspace I can really occupy if I'm going to do my job. Which means that for right now, this—" She motioned between herself and him. "Will have to remain a strictly after-work arrangement."

"I…"

Zeke sighed. He couldn't really argue with her logic, there. But it still stung a little to hear she would be putting her work as a Caretaker first, when the thing he wanted most was to get her out of that mindset.

"Yeah," he eventually said. "Makes sense."

"That's not going to be a problem, is it?" Nia asked.

"No. A little disappointing, maybe, but…" Zeke shrugged. "If it's what you want, then it's what I want. Whatever pace you want to go at, however long you want to take to figure things out on your end, I'm good with it."

"I…" Nia smiled and shook her head. "Y'know, I think part of me was hoping maybe you'd push back a little. Insist we rush things a little more."

"Well, considering we're both sitting in your room in our underwear, I think we took things pretty fast last night. And if you'd like to go back to that, then all you need to do is say the word. I can rush things as fast as you'd like."

Nia smiled to herself again, blushing a little.

"Like I said, maybe later." She turned and began fishing through her wardrobe, looking for where she'd stuffed her dress. "But for right now, we've got work to do. And I think I'd like the chance to let all this settle in. It still doesn't really feel real, at the moment."

"You and me both," Zeke muttered, shaking his head. Then he too swung out of bed and started gathering up his clothes, slowly getting himself dressed. "Though, I don't know if the others are really going to afford us the opportunity to go at our own pace."

"What do you mean?" Nia asked.

"Well, Mikhail just saw us, and I'm willing to bet he's going to tell Rex. And Rex won't be able to keep his mouth shut to save his life, which means everyone from the old gang is going to know about this within the hour, and it's only a matter of time before word makes its way to Pandoria. I'm especially not looking forward to that one. She's going to want to know every sordid detail so she can use them to embarrass me in the future."

"It won't be that bad," Nia insisted.

"Past experience says otherwise," Zeke said. "Though, she actually likes you, which can't be said of any of my exes. So maybe she'll ease up on the antics for your sake."

"I don't really care what the others think," Nia said. "They can badger us with all the inane questions they want, but we're not under any obligation to answer. And personally, I don't really feel like pouring my heart out to Pandoria or Mòrag. At least not until I've had some more time to let reality sink in."

"Mòrag?" Zeke asked. "Why are you so worried about telling any of this to Mòrag?"

"Story for another time," Nia muttered, slipping her ear covers on. "Ready to head out?"

"Sure," Zeke said. He strapped the last of his belts on, and the two of them headed out the door. Normally, having something to look forward to helped him get through the day, but in this case, when that something was the most gorgeous woman in the world, it felt like enough to drive him mad. But his self-appointed job as a Caretaker was to support Nia and make sure she took care of herself. That went double now that they were in a relationship. So for her sake, he'd just have to suck it up and get to work.

Predictably, they were the last to arrive to the meeting, and they did their best to maintain an air of professionality as they entered the room, trying not to let on what had happened last night. But someone, probably Mikhail, seemed to have already started spreading word of what he'd seen, because all eyes were on them as they took their seats. Mòrag and Brighid especially, who both stared at Nia expectantly. Was that what Nia had been referring to earlier? Had they been egging Nia on the way Pandoria had been for him?

In a way, it made a kind of sense. It would certainly explain a few of the weird things that had happened the day before.

"So how did things go?" Mòrag asked, raising an eyebrow at Nia.

"Well," Nia said, trying her best not to give anything away. Zeke kept a stony expression, too, but it was all he could do to keep it together under Mòrag and Brighid's scrutiny. They remained like that for several seconds, locked in stalemate, until Mikhail stood up and clapped his hands together, getting everyone's attention.

"Alright, that's enough," he said. "We've got more important things to get to at the moment than the latest schoolyard gossip."

"You aren't at all curious to know what happened?" Rex asked.

"Not at all. In fact, I feel like I already know too much, all things considered. So let's just get down to business, alright?"

"Did I miss somethin'?" Nal asked, looking between the five of them.

"No," Strix said. "At least, nothing that's any of our business."

"Aight." Nal shrugged. "Y'all want my report, then? Things in Duthract turned out pretty interesting."

"Is that where you and Qadar were?" Mikhail asked.

"Yeah. Personal business, but some unexpected good came out of it. Rosa's agreed to a sort of alliance. She'll back us up if we get into any trouble with Spessia or the Coalition, and in turn, she's asking us to do the same thing."

"I see." Mikhail frowned. "I would've rather you not agreed to something before we put it before the community for approval, but I can't imagine they'll reject the idea. It seems like basically the same stance we're taking for Leftheria."

"Is that a deal we're really going to need?" Strix asked. "We already have the Coalition's protection."

"We don't know if that'll last after we pull our stunt in Leftheria," Nia said. "After that, I can't imagine many of them will be too happy with us."

"The Restoration Department won't condone attacking our allies," Mòrag said. "If they wish to harm you, they'll have to go through us."

"And we appreciate that," Mikhail said. "But I'm still willing to take Rosa's deal. It'll be good insurance, it takes the wind out of Spessia's sails, and it might even dissuade the Coalition from attacking Duthract unprovoked. Wins all around, as far as I'm concerned. With any luck, the rest of the community will feel the same way."

"Sorry to ask," Rex said, cutting in. "But who's Rosa?"

"Rosa Luxien," Nia said. "Secretary General of Duthract and the head of the People's Liberation Movement."

"Right." Rex nodded. "So they're not throwing in with Spessia?"

"I managed to talk her out of it," Nal said. "Took some convincing, but she came around. And we managed to take down that Saur guy while we were at it."

"Sounds like you two had a productive trip," Mikhail noted.

"So did I," Zeke said. "Pandy and I took a jaunt over to Fonsett on our way back from Tantal, and I managed to sneak in a visit with the Praetorians."

"Again, really wish people consulted me about this stuff," Mikhail said. "Please tell me you didn't do anything stupid."

"Of course I didn't. Who do you take me for? I got them to agree that, if any fighting broke out in the region, they'd do their best to protect the villagers."

"Are you sure we can trust them?" Nia asked.

"Jibril isn't a liar," Zeke said. "She gave me her word, and I believe her. If push comes to shove, we might even be able to reason with her, which I did not think would be the case."

"I see…" Mikhail nodded to himself for a moment. "Good. Then I think that's probably the best place to start with Leftheria. When we head in to defuse things, I'll go talk to Jibril and see if I can get her to back down."

"I wouldn't hinge our plan on your diplomatic skills," Brighid said.

"I'm not. If I'm being honest, I'm not really going there to convince her of much, anyway." Mikhail manifested one of his fans and placed it on the table. It bore a strikingly similar resemblance to Jibril's own weapons, now that Zeke got a better look at it. "I'm going there because she deserves to know I'm dying."

"You're her Driver," Nia realized. "I don't know how I didn't put that together before."

"I suspected as much," Zeke said, which was a lie. But now that the resemblance between their weapons was so glaringly obvious, he didn't want to admit he'd missed it.

"Well, I can hardly fault you for wanting to go talk to her," Mòrag said. "But we still need a plan beyond that."

"I'll do my best to reason with her," Mikhail said. "If I can make any progress on that front, all the better. But you're right. Which is where you come in." He pointed to Mòrag and Rex. "We're splitting this up into three prongs. I'm going to try to convince the Children of Humility to stand down, or if it comes down to it, evacuate rather than fight back. The two of you will focus on everyone else.

"Mòrag, you know the Coalition best, so I'll defer to your expertise with how we should proceed with them. My people will be at your disposal for that, so long as you don't put them at any undue risk. Rex, I think you should take a small contingent of anyone Mòrag doesn't need and begin evacuating the village as soon as we arrive."

"I think Rex would be better served with me," Mòrag said. "According to the terms of the Elysian Treaty, the Coalition can only mobilize its armed forces in a defensive capacity, or if another nation has requested aid. Likely, they will justify the attack by claiming they are coming to Leftheria's aid against the Praetorians. So if Rex requests their departure, then I'll have enough legal standing to arrest whoever is in charge of the operation."

"Why me?" Rex asked. "It's not like I have any authority."

"No, but you are the Aegis Driver, and your words carry a great deal of weight. Niall invited you to the summit to represent Leftheria's interests because the Coalition does not recognize the Praetorians as the legitimate regional government. So they've already endorsed you as an authority on such matters, whether you hold any real political power or not."

"We're really relying on the Coalition legal system here?" Strix asked.

"Hardly," Mòrag said. "This is simply to provide enough justification to remove those leading the assault from their positions. Once I have them in custody, and they no longer have the ability to act against us, I can use my position as head of the Restoration Department to force the armed forces to stand down by declaring Leftheria a Zone of Restorative Interest. Once that happens, commencing the assault will mean attacking my agents, and I think very few members of the military will be willing to risk that. It would cause a great stir amongst the populace and damage the Coalition government's legitimacy."

"And if all else fails, I doubt anyone in the military would be willing to go up against the Flamebringer," Brighid said.

"I'd rather not hinge this operation on my reputation," Mòrag said.

"Neither would I. But we might as well get some good out of it at some point. And everyone in the army either idolizes you or thinks you're the scariest person in Elysium. Probably both, for a lot of them. So long as you're there making your presence known and taking charge of the situation, they won't raise a hand against you."

"Alright, that's all well and good," Zeke said. "With any luck, it'll get the Coalition to back off. But it doesn't actually solve the problem. The Children of Humility will still have their Abbey smack dab in the middle of occupied territory. What are we doing about that?"

"Well, I'm hoping I can get Jibril to see reason," Mikhail said.

"Tall order, that," Zeke noted.

"Maybe. But if we manage to avoid open war, then I think we should be able to drag her to the negotiating table regardless. Make it clear that we can't bail her out a second time, and if she wants her order to survive, she's going to have to start playing by the Coalition's rules. I think, so long as Mòrag and the Restoration Department are there to provide the muscle, and Rex makes himself scarce while we hash out the particulars, then we have a shot at reaching a compromise. Something to keep the Coalition from coming back, at least."

"I doubt that'll happen," Nal muttered. "This whole deal with the Praetorians is just pretext. I've a feelin' their real goal is to occupy the Ridge."

"The Coalition doesn't need more land," Mòrag said. "Not in the immediate, at least. The way I see it, this is a preemptive strike against Spessia's allies. If we can remove the Praetorians as a threat, then they'll have no reason to attack."

"Spessia hung the Praetorians out to dry; they're already not a threat. Like I said, it's just pretext. Sure, maybe it'll make a war a little easier, reduce the risk of havin' to fight on two fronts. But I'll bet my hat what they're really after is the Titans."

"For what reason?" Mòrag asked.

"Core Chip production," Zeke said, picking up on what Nal was getting at. "It's been the Coalition's top priority for a while now. They might have said that the concessions to Duthract were about keeping the peace, but we all know the real prize was the mountain of Core Chips they shipped over in exchange. Leftheria has a lot of Titans that nobody lives on that'd make prime candidates for Core Chip mining."

"I see…" Mòrag frowned, digesting that information. "It does make sense. But if Niall is really the one leading the charge on this, then I can't see that being their primary motivation."

"Maybe not for him," Nia said. "But for the rest of the Coalition? I wouldn't put it past them."

"All interesting points to consider," Mikhail said. "It'll certainly help inform how we approach any negotiations. But I don't think it actually matters in the immediate. So long as we get the Coalition to back off, then we can work out a more permanent political solution later. Maybe loop Leftheria into that agreement with Duthract, for example. Essentially make them a protectorate of the Gardens."

"I don't know if I'm comfortable with that kind of political expansion," Nia said. "Even if we have the best of intentions, it could still be exploited in the future."

"I don't think many people back home would be keen on that deal either," Rex said. "But you're right that we can figure it out later. It's not like we can realistically come up with a solution until we can come to terms with the Praetorians anyway. What we do will look vastly different depending on whether or not they still have a presence in the Ridge after the dust settles."

"Sure, I suppose we can leave that for later," Nia said. "Have we figured out who's actually going, yet? I assume Mòrag will bring the whole department, but who from the Gardens volunteered to contribute?"

"I have a list of names," Mikhail said. "Vess, Mabon, Krogane, Vantya, Vale, Crosette, Dahlia… We should probably check that they're all still committed to this, now that I think about it. I guess I'll handle that later today. But in terms of Caretakers, I had kinda just assumed we'd all be going."

"Absolutely not," Strix said. "I'm staying right here, thank you very much. Someone has to stay and keep watch while the troops are away."

"Adenine should probably stay as well," Nia said. "And I doubt Kalarau will want to go either."

"Of course he won't," Zeke said. "The man barely leaves his room."

"He's actually been getting out more," Mikhail said. "He helps Agate's team with repairs, most days. But Nia's right that he probably won't want to participate. What about Qadar?"

"What about her?" Nal asked. "She'll go or she won't. No use stressin' about it, it'll work itself out either way. But you can bet yer ass I'm goin'. If worst comes to worst, I ain't got no qualms about pullin' a trigger or two."

"If it comes to that, then that sort of defeats the whole point of going," Zeke said.

"All the same. Gotta have contingencies, just in case."

"So the four of us, then?" Nia asked. "Plus Qadar, if she decides it's worth her time?"

"It would certainly help," Mòrag said. "You and Zeke are both heroes of great renown. Many in the Coalition idolize you. Just being present would greatly increase our odds of success."

"I…" Zeke paused. Mòrag was right, but honestly, going out and playing hero against the Coalition was the last thing Zeke wanted to do. He had just decided to take more time for himself, and he and Nia had a lot of stuff to work out.

"Not feeling up to it?" Nal asked. "That's new for you, Prince Boy. Yer usually the most gung-ho about this stuff."

"I'm not a prince anymore," he said. "And if Mikhail really needs us, then sure. I'm game. But I don't want to leave Strix behind as the only combat-ready Caretaker."

"Hey," Strix said, presumably glaring at him. "I can handle myself just fine."

"Sure, but if you're the only one on duty, then a large enough attack could overwhelm you. It's happened before. There's only so much you can do on your own, and I'd rather not leave us in a position like that. I think it'd be best if Nia and I stayed behind, just in case Spessia or the Coalition try anything before the away team gets back. I doubt either of them are going to take kindly to our efforts to broker peace, and if you get into the thick of negotiations, it could be a while before you get back."

"Guess that makes sense," Rex said. Then a smile crept onto his face. "Though, are you sure that's the reason you want to stay behind with Nia?"

"No idea what you're on about," Nia said, brushing him off. "But I agree with Zeke's assessment. Unless you think you'll need either of us on your end, Mòrag?"

"I think I'll manage," Mòrag said. "You two deserve some time together."

"This one of those things I missed?" Nal asked.

"Like I said, not our business," Strix said. "Though if we've moved on to the topic of Nia and Zeke's sex life, then I think I'm done here."

Zeke prided himself on his ability to roll with the punches. Take things on the chin and keep going without losing composure. But that was one sentence he had been completely unprepared to hear, and for a moment, it felt like his brain was misfiring. He wanted to reply, but his body had completely forgotten how to form words. And even if he could, he had no idea what he'd say. This wasn't something he was prepared to deal with.

"So something did happen last night!" Mòrag exclaimed, practically jumping out of her seat.

"That much was already obvious," Brighid said, shooting the pair of them a coy smile.

"Perhaps," Nia said, managing to maintain a rather regal composure despite what had just happened. Or maybe she was just more comfortable with the topic in general? She did say she found physical intimacy rather easy, so maybe talking about it wouldn't bother her so much?

Not that it bothered Zeke, necessarily. It wasn't like he'd never had sex before or anything. But it had been a while, and if he got lucky enough to get that far with Nia, he wanted it to be special. He certainly hadn't been expecting to broach the subject in front of everybody during a meeting like this.

"Come on," Rex groaned. "Strix saw you two hook up after the party, so there's no use hiding it. How did things work out?"

Slowly, Nia turned around to glare at Strix, and he shrunk back into himself a little.

"Snitch," he muttered.

"Ah," Nal said, finally realizing what they were talking about. "So this really ain't my business, huh?" She turned and waved an accusatory finger at Mòrag, Brighid, and Rex. "What's wrong with y'all, badgerin' them about their personal lives like that? Ain't they entitled to some privacy?"

"We're just curious to see whether our efforts have borne fruit," Brighid said.

"Alright, I am officially moving us off of this topic," Mikhail said. "We've still got details to hash out for who's going with whom and how exactly we're going to approach the situation with the Coalition, but since the three of you aren't coming with, then you're free to leave."

"Come oooon," Rex protested. "You can't leave me hanging like this."

"No," Mikhail insisted.

"Thank you," Nia muttered. She stood to leave, and then looked at Zeke rather expectantly. He managed to drag himself back to reality long enough to stand himself up.

"We'll leave you all to it, then," he said, giving them all a wave. Quickly, he and Nia shuffled out of the room, with Strix right behind them. The moment the door closed behind them, however, Nia whirled around and glared at Strix again, and he stepped away from her as quickly as possible.

"What happened to giving other people their privacy?" Nia asked, stepping toward Strix rather aggressively. Zeke was still stuck in his own thoughts, but the aggression was enough to drag him back to reality, and he put a hand on Nia's should before she could reach Strix and give him a piece of her mind.

"Alright," he said. "Let's rein in back in, there."

"Honestly, I expected better," Nia continued. "Mikhail barged into my room unannounced and caught us red-handed, and yet he apparently managed to keep his mouth shut. You're the last person I expected would be engaging in this kind of gossip."

"Hey, it wasn't by choice," Strix protested. "The three of them kept badgering me about what I'd seen, and I had to say something to get them off my back. So I told them the truth. I saw the two of you go back to your room last night. But that's all. It's not like I saw what happened after, so I couldn't have gone into any of the gory details even if I wanted to."

"There's no—" Nia pinched the bridge of her nose. "There's no details to go into, you git. It's not like we had sex or anything, we were just moving things to somewhere with a little more privacy."

Again, the mention of sex sent Zeke's brain spiraling out of control, and he lost his grip on Nia's shoulder. Apparently, he had more feelings to process about this whole situation than he thought.

"Wait, you two didn't fuck?" Strix asked.

"You don't have to be so vulgar about it," Nia muttered. "And no, we didn't."

"Then what's the goddamn point of—" He stopped himself and shook his head. "Sorry, no, you're right, you're entitled to your privacy. If you two want to be boring and chaste, then that's entirely your business. Don't let me stop you."

"If we're so entitled to privacy, then maybe you could avoid running off to gossip with Rex and Mòrag."

"Like I said, I didn't want to, I just…" He sighed. "Y'know what? It's not worth it. Sorry I said anything, it won't happen again, all that crap. Can I go now? I've got patrols to get back to."

"Fine," Nia muttered. Immediately, Strix took off down the hall, eager to get as far away from Nia as possible. Then, with a sigh, she turned around and looked up at Zeke. "So, what, I'm just not getting any backup here?"

"Hm?" Zeke asked, shaking himself out of his thoughts again.

"Are you even paying attention?" Nia asked. "Anything at all going on in there?"

"Mostly, I'm thinking about what we're going to do tonight, after we get off work."

That was a lie. Mostly, he'd been caught in a spiral of imagining what Nia looked like naked, and then feeling guilty about that for some reason, and then wondering why he was feeling guilty since they were in a relationship now, and on and on and on. But what he'd just said would also be good to think about. And it might serve to keep his brain distracted in the meantime.

"I thought we agreed we'd keep things professional while we're on the job," Nia noted.

"Sure, but I can still think about it, can't I? And I figured we should do something fun tonight. To celebrate."

"I guess," Nia said. Then she shook her head. "I should've socked Strix one when I had the chance. I mean, where does he get off talking about us like he knows what's going on, anyway?"

"Well, we could always get back at him," Zeke offered.

"How so?"

"There was this thing going around back when I first joined. Everybody making bets about what his eyes look like under the wraps. We still haven't found out, though, because he's been having too much fun keeping everybody guessing. If you want some payback, we could try to figure out what he's hiding under there."

"So, I'm upset that Strix won't give us our privacy, and you think the best way to deal with that is to violate his privacy?"

"He's only doing it because he knows it's frustrating the rest of us," Zeke protested.

"I feel like I should be shooting down this idea," Nia noted.

"But?" Zeke asked, hearing the hesitation in her voice.

"But I did make a promise to take more time for myself. Try to have some fun. And this does sound like fun. So sure. After we finish up for the day, let's find Strix and give him a taste of his own medicine."

"Great," Zeke said. "Now I just need to put a plan together for how we're going to pull it off. Kinda hard to ambush a guy who can see everything."

"Well, don't think about it too hard," Nia said. "We do still have work to do, and I'd rather not have you wandering off into your own head again."

"Do we still have work to do?" Zeke asked. "I haven't heard anything from the others, and nothing's exploded today, so—"

"Heads up," Akhos said, interrupting him before he could finish. "We're getting a distress call from Kalarau. Something's gone sideways with that Artifice he and Agate dug up, but he didn't stay on the line long enough to tell us what had happened. Is anyone available to head out and deal with that?"

"We're free," Nia said, immediately springing into action. "Zeke and I can go see what's up."

"Oh really?" Patroka asked. "You two don't have anything better to do?"

"Nope," Zeke said, doing his best to shut down her line of questioning. "Shoot us the location and we'll be right over."

Akhos did so, and the two of them got moving. Patroka kept bugging them about what had happened last night, though, so after a minute Zeke just pulled his earpiece out entirely. Nia did the same.

Even without the two of them listening in, though, she was still entirely focused on the task at hand. Enough that it made Zeke feel a little guilty for how far away his thoughts were, today. Normally he had better focus than this, but this whole business of love had really thrown him for a loop. He was having trouble even thinking about things other than her, at the moment, and she expected him to maintain professionality while they were on the job together?

It was a tall order, to be sure. But standing around grinning like an idiot wasn't doing Nia any favors. At the end of the day, he was here to help her, and it would be pretty stupid if falling in love with her ended up getting in the way of that, somehow. So he did his best to knuckle down and put his thoughts aside as they moved.

For right now, their job as Caretakers had to come first. He could go back to grinning like an idiot when the day's problems had been dealt with. And unfortunately, the universe didn't seem keen on giving them a light workload.

---

Nia had thought that doing this would make her feel better. She had thought that, if she just went for it, she'd be able to exist without having to feel guilty or ashamed of her thoughts. And last night, she had felt better. Throwing herself into the heat of things with Zeke had felt indescribably good. But now that she had enough time to settle down and let her thought catch up with her, the pit in her stomach had only gotten worse.

She didn't deserve this. She didn't deserve to be happy. She didn't deserve to have Zeke, someone who loved her and cared about her, when she'd done what she did to Dromarch.

She hated thinking that way, but she couldn't escape it no matter how hard she tried. She couldn't help but think that telling Zeke how she felt and trying to make a relationship work had been a mistake. That she was only setting herself up for some bigger failure or disappointment later on. This couldn't last. It shouldn't last, even if she wanted it to. It wasn't fair that she got to be happy, after everything.

Except it was fair. It was what she deserved. She just hated that she had to keep reminding herself that over and over again whenever she looked at that stupid, perfect smile of his.

Work was a good way to distract herself from all that. If only Zeke didn't insist on tagging along and constantly reminding her. Except she also really, desperately wanted him here with her, because she did not like the idea of having to be alone with her thoughts either. There was no good way to resolve that contradiction.

There was no good way to resolve any of this. It was why she'd made up that stuff about wanting to take things slow and give herself time to figure things out. Really, she already had everything figured out. She knew what she wanted, and all she had to do was reach out and take it. Zeke had already said he was on board for whatever she wanted to do, and there was a lot she wanted to do with him.

The only thing standing in the way of that was herself. The thoughts constantly sitting in the back of her mind, telling her she didn't deserve this or wasn't good enough. She needed to deal with that if she wanted to give Zeke the attention he deserved, and right now, she didn't have a way to do that. She had no idea how she was going to deal with this.

But that was a problem for later. Right now, they were on the job, and she needed to be focused on work.

For whatever reason, Adenine's group had brought the Artifice out into the wilderness. Maybe to dispose of it? After what had happened yesterday, Mikhail had probably told them to move things where they were less liable to cause property damage. Or, at least Nia assumed that's what had happened. It's what she would've done, if she'd been the one to handle the situation.

Though, if it had been up to her, she would've told them to pick a better spot. If they wanted to blow it up, it would've been better to find a wide open field. Instead, they'd decided to drag it out to a large gash near the base of the left fin. The entrance was only a few dozen peds wide, and the walls were tall enough that any explosion they set off inside would be forced out along the gash's length. Setting anything off in there would be a death trap. But it didn't seem like that was the issue they'd run into.

Most of Agate's team was sitting at the entrance to the gash, and they were in a pretty sorry state. A handful of healers tending to a whole lot of wounded. But they didn't look like they'd been caught in an explosion. It was more like they'd been ambushed. As Nia and Zeke arrived, Kalarau limped out to meet them, leaning on Dahlia for support. He had a series of severe burns across his chest and shoulder, and it looked like one of his legs had been crushed and hastily put back together.

"Finally," Kalarau said. "I was starting to think nobody was coming."

"Communications got cut off," Nia said. "We came as quick as we could. What happened?"

"We fucked up," Dahlia said.

"I fucked up," Kalarau corrected her. "This was my idea."

"Nah. We all agreed to it. Seemed like a good idea at the time, just…" She shook her head.

"We can assign blame later," Zeke said. "First, we need to know what happened."

"We've been trying to get into that machine we dug up," Kalarau explained. "Agate thought it might be a good idea to crack it open and get Adenine to poke around inside, see if we can repurpose any of it. But this thing's got armor like I've never seen before. Crossette hit it with everything she had in her workshop, and all that did was start a few fires and piss off Mikhail."

"It's an Artifice, right?" Zeke asked. "We've killed Artifices before, they're not that tough. Even Aion wasn't invulnerable."

"We don't know what it is," Dahlia said. "We think it's an Artifice, on account of how we dug it up out of an old battlefield. But nobody's ever seen one like it before. Not even Mikhail or Adenine, and they both fought in the Aegis War."

"I only got a look at it the once," Nia said. "But yeah, it didn't look familiar. Why bring it out here, though?"

"I'm not really sure I understand the particulars," Kalarau said, "But people started tossing around the idea that maybe it was still… Alive? Is that the right word?"

"Not quite," Dahlia said. "The thing was too tough to explain with just thick armor. So we got to thinking, maybe it's still active?"

"All the Artifices lost power," Nia said. "A friend of ours saw their power source vanish into thin air right before the World Tree blew up."

"Well, not all of them," Kalarau said. Then he pointed at Zeke. "His still works, somehow."

"People aren't really supposed to know about that," Zeke said.

"Oh." Kalarau sighed. "Sorry, I'd just kinda assumed… You were showing it off a lot back during the fight with Shieldwall, so I figured it was common enough knowledge."

"You've got an Artifice?" Dahlia asked, staring at Zeke.

"Sure do," Zeke said, holding his eyepatch up momentarily. "But it's a special case. Doesn't work unless it's plugged into me directly. Found that out the hard way when Orion pulled it out of my skull during the attack."

"Maybe it's like with Aion, then?" Nia suggested. "Even after the Zohar went up in smoke, it still had enough energy bound up in its core to destroy the World Tree. It's possible some of the other Artifices are in the same boat."

"Maybe," Dahlia said. "But whatever the case, we figured it had to have some kind of shield reinforcing its armor. Like a Blade shield or something. So if we couldn't crack it open by force, we figured we might as well jump-start the thing and get it to open by itself."

"That's why you dragged it out here," Nia realized. "So if it came back online, it wouldn't be able to slip away."

"Yeah. But we really underestimated how much firepower that thing was packing."

"So it worked?" Zeke asked.

"Unfortunately," Kalarau said. "I hit its core with all the ether I could muster, and after a few seconds, it unfolded and started tearing apart everything in sight. Everyone who isn't too hurt to fight is busy trying to keep it contained further inside, but…" His expression darkened. "That thing was powerful. I don't think they're going to hold out forever."

"It's a good thing we came along, then," Nia said. Then she pressed her finger to her earpiece and tried contacting the others. "Did you guys get all that?"

There was no reply. Just static.

"It's jamming the comms too," Dahlia said. "The asshole's persistent."

"Peachy," Zeke muttered. "Are we still inside Strix's range?"

"I'm not sure," Nia admitted. "Though you'd think he would have let us know about this earlier, if that was the case."

"He can't watch everywhere at once," Kalarau said.

"Yeah…" Nia sighed. "Do you guys have anyone you can send back to the Gardens? We might need more backup, depending on how this goes."

"Are you kidding me?" Zeke asked. "The two of us can handle basically anything. We took on Aion. We can take down one of his shittier cousins no problem."

"I'd rather not take chances," Nia said.

"I'll see if I can find anyone," Dahlia said.

"Let me help," Nia said. "I can patch up the worst of the wounded before we head in."

"I appreciate the offer, but we've got this handled. Agate needs your help more than we do."

"Not really the time to be prideful," Zeke said.

"I'm not. But healing takes time, and none of the wounded are in critical condition. We'll manage. It's better you focus on containing that thing."

"If you insist," Nia said. But even so, it didn't feel right to just leave everybody wounded like this. So she reached out with her water and took a moment to patch Kalarau's leg back together and heal the worst of his burns. "Kalarau should be able to supply everyone with ether until I get back."

"No rest for the weary," he muttered, leaning off Dahlia and taking a moment to stretch his leg out.

"Thanks," Dahlia said. "Really, I…" She looked away for a moment. "I know we don't see eye to eye, but I'm glad you came when you did. I wasn't sure what we were going to do about this."

"It's my job," Nia said. "And if you'll still have me, I'd love to rejoin the repair crew, when I can."

"That…" Dahlia hesitated for a moment. "I suppose I can't stop you. And we could use the help."

"Great," Nia said. Then she turned back and looked up at Zeke. "Ready to head out?"

"More than ready," he said, giving her a massive grin as he pounded one fist into the other. "It's been a while since we've had the chance to duke it out with an Artifice. Should be fun."

They headed into the crag, leaving Dahlia and Kalarau behind to look after the wounded. It widened as they went, so there was at least enough space to move around, but Nia still thought bringing it out here was a bad idea. Sure, maybe they'd kept it from running off, but they'd also trapped themselves in here with it. Artifices were dangerous enough, but the unique ones like Siren or Ophion were downright unpredictable.

And despite how much Zeke liked to brag about it, they'd never actually successfully defeated Aion. It had taken everything they had just to hold that monster in place for a few minutes, and if Rex hadn't defeated Amalthus and shut it down, then they would've lost way more people than Dromarch that day. Nia didn't like the idea of going up against an unknown Artifice without the rest of the old team to back them up.

"We should've brought Poppi," Nia said. "She and Esra could've just swooped in and shut this thing down no problem."

"Yeah, but where's the fun in that?" Zeke asked. "This may be the last time anyone gets to go head-to-head with one of the Dark Aegis's Artifices. There's no way I'm passing this up."

"You're really gung-ho today," Nia observed.

"What are you talking about? I'm always eager to have a go."

"No, you're always eager to show off," Nia said. "But normally you get serious whenever there's actual risk involved."

"Figured me out already, have you?" Zeke asked. "Guess I shouldn't be surprised. Normally, yeah, I wouldn't be pumped about walking into a big fight like this with civilians in the crosshairs. But ever since that row with Mòrag last night, I've been itching to go another round with you as my partner. You make it interesting."

That gave Nia pause for a moment. She didn't normally enjoy fighting, but last night had been fun. Normally, the only times she got the chance to strut her stuff was when someone was in genuine danger, so it had been nice to get a chance to flex her skills without anyone being in any actual danger. That she'd been doing it with Zeke had only made it that much more exciting, so she could see where he was coming from.

But they didn't have that luxury here. People could be in danger, and they were still on the job. They couldn't afford distractions.

"Be that as it may," Nia said. "We're here to take out this Artifice, not to have fun. The safety of Agate's team comes first."

"Of course," Zeke said. "We'll get 'em out no problem."

"I wish I shared your confidence," Nia muttered.

"It's not confidence."

"What?"

"We're partners, now, so I guess I can tell you. None of it's confidence. When I say something like that, it's not because I think the outcome is guaranteed. It's so that, now that I've said it, I don't have any choice but to follow through. Failure stops being an option."

"Do you approach everything like that?" Nia asked.

Zeke shrugged. "Prettymuch."

Nia shook her head. She didn't really get what he was on about, but if it worked for him, then she couldn't really argue. And if nothing else, it was nice to get another look behind the curtain. It was still a little annoying that he thought he had to put on a front around her, but he'd let his guard down around her more in the last two days than he had in all the time she'd known him. Hopefully one day, they'd be close enough that he wouldn't feel the need to keep that guard up at all.

That was something to focus on later, though. Right now, they had an Artifice to destroy, and as they headed further into the crag, she could hear laser fire echoing from deeper inside. There was a fight underway, and Agate needed their help. Wordlessly, Nia tossed Zeke a sword, and the two of them picked up the pace.

After a moment, the crag opened up into a pocket, big enough to house the Artifice with enough room leftover to maneuver comfortably. Thankfully, Agate's team had at least taken a few basic measures to keep the Artifice trapped. They'd pulled a series of giant spikes out of the canyon walls to prevent it from just flying out, and they'd blocked off either entrance with a series of stone barricades, each manned by half a dozen Blades who all fired at the Artifice from behind cover while Agate and a few others engaged it directly, face-to-face.

Which was still, by far, the most striking thing about it. The face. Every other Artifice had looked like a colossal suit of armor come to life. When they had faces at all, it was usually just a pair of eyes shining behind a large metal helmet. But this thing had an actual face, with eyes, a mouth, and a large black lower jaw that almost reminded Nia of a beard.

The rest of it was strange, too. Its armor was a matted bronze color lined with gold trim, and a series of gold circles poked through the armor along its arms and back. There were also lines of glowing red ether crisscrossing the whole thing that reminded Nia of veins of blood. Its back was hunched, despite how tall it was, and most of it was a large hump that provided cover for a central conical engine that extended back from its torso. Though it looked pretty badly damaged, and only gave off a faint glow compared to the ether lines running along the rest of it.

Its central body was a large gold ball covered in swooping bronze plates and supported by a pair of comparatively spindly legs. The arms were hulking armored things, each almost as long as the machine was tall, but the legs were barely even half that size, with armor only on the front that left several joints and support braces exposed from behind. Those might've made for a good weak points to hammer on, but the challenge would be getting that close in the first place.

Despite its size, the Artifice moved with surprising speed, wielding a giant, two-pronged spear against the team that was scrambling to keep it contained. The whole weapon was filled to the brim with a glowing green liquid that Nia had at first mistaken for simple ether. But the substance spilled out wherever the machine swung its spear, and it ate away at everything around it almost like acid.

"Incoming!" Nia shouted, bounding over the barricade and unleashing a torrent of water at the Artifice. But immediately, it leapt back and away, swinging its spear through the oncoming squall. The moment the spear passed through the water, she lost her grip on it entirely, as if the ether had been forced out of it somehow.

"The liquid displaces ether!" Agate shouted, taking the opportunity to erect a wall between her team and the machine. Immediately, two of her men who'd been wounded scrambled back behind the far barricade, and two more stepped forward to take their place.

"Get your wounded out!" Nia shouted, throwing out a much larger wave of water at the machine. Even if it could displace her ether, she could still overwhelm it with sheer firepower.

Though, that hardly seemed to matter to it. Rather than bother to negate the attack, it just buckled down and took the full force of the hit straight to its armor. She tried to whip up the water that cascaded around it into tendrils, but they didn't even have enough power to damage the joints, which she'd assumed would have less protection.

That absurd tenacity certainly reminded her of the other Artifices, at least. It had taken great lengths to even put a scratch on Aion. But eventually, they'd managed it. And as threatening as this one seemed, it was no Aion. Even if it seemed tough, there had to be a way to hurt it.

As Nia kept up the surge, trying to maintain its attention, Zeke darted past her and activated his Eye, summoning the clouds from his cloak and forming a facsimile of the Artifice's weapon in his off hand. The machine darted to the side, thrusting its spear at him, but he caught it between the prongs with his copy and held it at bay. Then, with a great heave, he put all his weight behind the spear and managed to push the machine back, pinning it for the moment lest it let him slip past and skewer it with the spear.

Immediately, Nia rushed forward and took her sword back from Zeke. With a leap, she swung for the machine's head, but it managed to block her strike with its free arm instead. Still, she wasn't going to give up here. She poured water out and over the machine, trying to find any minute weakness she could exploit. At the same time, she began compressing water along the length of her blade, creating a pressurized stream that flowed in tandem with the cutting edge.

With the machine effectively pinned for the moment, Agate's team took their time to regroup, while she stepped forward to join Nia and Zeke. With the spear still pinned, she reached into the ground and pulled out a large column of rock beneath the machine's arm, pressing up against it as Nia bore down. Their combined efforts finally made a dent, and Nia could feel her sword start to cleave through the armor, inch by inch.

Unfortunately, the machine noticed too, as it immediately shot a burst of the green displacing liquid at Zeke. It couldn't do much to the spear he'd made, considering that it made from solid Cloud Sea, but it did force him to let go momentarily or risk finding out what would happen if it touched him. That moment was all the machine needed to bring its spear around and slam it into Nia.

She threw up a shield, but she knew it probably wouldn't do much against a weapon capable of nullifying the ether itself. Still, it did have to pause for a moment as it cut through the shield, and she took that moment to slide down its arm, carving a long gash in its armor. Then she rolled under it and swung up, aiming for the connector between its leg and the spherical central body.

Again, her sword didn't penetrate the armor, but at this point, she wasn't trying to damage it. She'd already made the cut. Zeke would know what to do next.

As the machine spun around and swung at her again, Zeke rushed forward, having shaken the liquid off his clouds and transformed them into a pair of large hooks. He jumped and rolled over its large back, and the moment he landed next to the arm, he dug the hooks into the gash. His Eye and his Core Crystal flared simultaneously, and with a burst of superhuman strength, he began to pry the gash open further.

The Artifice lifted him into the air, intent on slamming him into the canyon walls before he could finish, but Nia wasn't going to let that happen. She gathered up the water strewn around the battlefield and formed a series of large tendrils, catching the machine's hand and arm before it could crush Zeke. Then, to keep it focused on her, she began manifesting more water, forming a dozen copies of her sword in the space around her and firing them at the Artifice's face.

Faced with the oncoming storm of blades, it opted to turn the tactic back on them. Rather than wielding the spear against Nia or trying to cut through the tendrils, it slammed the bottom of its weapon into the ground, producing a large geyser of liquid that was about to rain down across the battlefield.

Thankfully, Zeke managed to form his clouds into a shield above them before the rain could begin falling, but it did force him to abandon his work widening the gash on the thing's arm. He scrambled over to Nia, avoiding swings of the spear, and she passed him her sword while she directed the water copies, trying to take passes at the wound they'd made while keeping the arm anchored in place with her tendrils.

Agate, for her part, threw out large chunks of crystal from the head of her axe, trying to draw the machine's attention, but it didn't really pay her much mind. She took that opportunity to erect a large pillar of crystal that managed to catch its spear arm, momentarily pinning the Artifice in place.

It didn't last, however, as the instant it was caught, it spun the spear around and drove it through the tendrils holding its free arm in place. That allowed Zeke to rush in without having to worry about the spear, but it also freed up the other arm to move again. Immediately, it spun around and slammed its fist into Agate, knocking her against the far wall and breaking her concentration, which freed the spear arm again.

As it turned the spear against Agate, however, Zeke rushed in and caught it by one of the prongs, putting himself precariously close to something that could eat through solid rock. Nia intensified her assault on the Artifice to compensate, creating a series of water tendrils that dug into the gash on its arm, but that didn't manage to get its attention. It adjusted the spear, preparing to shoot out a jet of liquid directly at Zeke's face, and Nia threw out a large wave of water, hoping to knock it away.

Before either could happen, Zeke made his move, jumping up and thrusting Nia's sword down the barrel. The Artifice tried firing anyway, but it took a moment for the stream of liquid to eat through the sword, and Zeke used that moment to thrust the spear up and away, digging it into the wall above Agate.

Nia's water arrived a moment later, sweeping him and Agate up in a large wave and carrying them back around. Zeke began gathering ether in his core, and Nia split him off from Agate, sending her back toward one of the barricades while she and Zeke charged the Artifice again. It wrenched its spear out of the wall and charged at them in turn, sweeping the point at Nia's head. She managed to block it with her sword and throw a wall of water out at the thing, drowning out any attempts it might make to spew out more of the green liquid, and they remained locked against each other for long enough for Zeke to get back to work.

He swept the shield of cloud up into a ball, trapping all the displacing liquid it had collected inside. Then he drove that ball into the gash and let it spew open, flooding the wound with the displacing liquid. It didn't seem to do much at first, but after a moment, the ether lines along the arm began to flicker out, and the machine tried to pull away. But Zeke didn't let go, instead pouring all the electricity he could muster into the wound.

That seemed to do the trick, sending sparks flying all over the place. The machine began to shake uncontrollably, and the moment it was no longer putting pressure against Nia, she slipped past it. Frantically, it ejected the wounded arm and tried to scramble away, but that left an exposed, unarmored joint connection. A real weakness that Nia could exploit.

She recalled all her water and brought it around in a large stream. Then, just before it reached the joint, she compressed it as thin as she could, forming a large spear that skewered into the machine's arm socket. Zeke immediately stuck his hand into the stream, electrifying it and continuing the assault on the machine's internals.

It swung the spear around in one last, desperate attempt to stop them, but Zeke recalled the clouds up into another spear. Nia caught the head of the machine's weapon with her sword, and he drove the clouds down the barrel. Then she summoned another wave of water and began to push from behind, building up pressure until Zeke's spear shot straight through the machine's weapon, shattering the chamber of liquid and spilling it all onto the ground.

After a moment, the machine collapsed, unable to hold up under the stream of electricity coursing through its body. But it wasn't dead yet. Nia could still see the head moving back and forth, looking for an escape route. So she hefted its spear into the air and spun it around, aiming the point for the machine's chest. Zeke figured what she was doing and stepped behind her, grabbing onto the end of the weapon, and together the two of them thrust it forward. It cut through the Artifice's armor with surprising ease, and with one heaving thrust, they forced the spear through its chest and out the other side.

As they did, they must've struck some part of the engine mechanism, because a large ball of flame erupted from its back, tearing the engine to pieces and finally exhausting whatever had been powering the thing. The lights along the rest of its body dimmed, and after a moment, its eyes unfocused. Then it slumped over unceremoniously, collapsing against the canyon wall.

Nia stood over it, weapons at the ready, just in case this was some kind of ruse. But after a moment, it became clear the thing was finally dead, and she let her arms drop to her sides.

"Is anybody hurt!?" she called out, turning her attention back to Agate's team. "I can help whoever needs medical attention!"

There were a few cries of reply from the team as they regrouped, and Nia took some time to move through the ranks and help stitch people back together while Zeke looked over the wreckage.

"Shame you had to blow it up," Agate muttered, getting to her feet with Nia's help. "I'd wanted to turn it over to Adenine, see what she could pull out of it."

"I'm sure she'll be able to salvage something," Nia said. "But the important thing is your team made it out alright."

"Yeah…" Agate shook her head.

"If you don't mind me asking… Why go through all this mess? No offense, but you're really not much of a salvager. Why risk this?"

"None taken," Agate said. "At first, I'd just wanted to dispose of the thing, but after we couldn't make a dent, I got to thinking. This is ancient, lost technology, created by the same people who created the Aegises. Just think of what we might be able to learn, if only we could pry it open. I guess…" She shook her head again. "Scientific curiosity got the better of me. And I wanted to give something back to the community. Some way of apologizing for siding with Corvin during the uprising. I thought what we found might help improve our defenses, take some of the burden off the Caretakers, that sort of thing. Except instead, you had to come to our rescue."

"It's our job," Nia said. "I wish I'd known about this beforehand, so I could've told you it was a bad idea, but…" Nia sighed. "I think you're probably already apologetic enough that a lecture from me isn't going to matter much. And nobody got killed. So let's just count ourselves lucky this time."

"I've certainly learned my lesson," Agate said. "Everyone here had to fight at least one or two Artifices during the Cataclysm, so I guess I'd just assumed we'd be able to handle whatever it threw at us. But I really should have known better. I mean, I lost friends during the Cataclysm. We all saw first-hand what these things are capable of."

"Blaming yourself won't help," Nia said. "Trust me, I've got plenty of experience. Let's just focus on the positives, yeah? Nobody died. We all get to walk away. And I'm sure Adenine is going to have a field day with this thing, even if it's a little beat up."

"Yeah." Agate shook her head. "You're right. Sorry about dragging you all into this."

"Like I said, it's our job. But you're welcome all the same."

"And if you ever feel like helping us out with Temperantia's wounds again, then I'd be glad to have you back. Architect knows the work will go a lot quicker with you on board."

"I'll drop by when I can," Nia said. "I won't be able to guarantee anything, but I'll spare as much time as I can."

"Well, maybe not too much time," Agate said. Then, with a slight grin on her face, she motioned over at Zeke. "I won't blame you if you take a little time for yourself."

"How do you—" Nia shook her head. "No offense, Agate, but this isn't exactly a conversation I want to have with you."

"Fair enough." Agate shrugged. "I'm just saying, I think we might have put too many expectations on the shoulders of the Caretakers. You were eager to take on responsibility, so it was easy, but… A lot of us started to expect you to be everywhere at once. I know I did. Even when you're against the idea, it's hard not to find yourself slipping into those expectations. So if you want to scale back your duties and take more time for yourself, then I won't hold it against you. It might be good for everyone's expectations, long-term."

"I appreciate the thought, Agate, but I'm not planning on scaling back. Not until this mess with Spessia is over with, anyway."

"I suppose I should be grateful for that, in this instance," Agate said.

"I'll take what I can get," Nia said. "I'm going to go check in with Zeke."

"I should go collect my people," Agate said, standing up straight. "Thanks again, Nia."

"Any time," Nia said. After a moment's hesitation, she stuck out her hand, and Agate shook it. It seemed genuine, even. Like they were finally getting back to something resembling normal.

It had taken long enough, but Nia was at least glad she'd managed that much. With any luck, the Gardens might even be whole again in the near future.

Well, not entirely whole. She couldn't take back what she'd done to Dromarch, and that would probably always be a point of contention between the Caretakers and some of the citizens, at least for as long as the idea of the Caretakers persisted at all. But these people had been trying to kill her only a few weeks ago, so the fact that they were finally able to work and live together again was good enough for now.

"How's it looking?" Nia asked. She wasn't really sure what Zeke found so fascinating about the machine, but he seemed practically engrossed in it.

"Comms are back up," he said. "Strix is coming out to collect the wreck."

"Good," Nia said. "Should be a good opportunity to ambush him, then."

"Yeah…" Zeke muttered, frowning at the machine.

"You in there?" Nia asked, crouching down next to him. "What's got you so interested."

"It's not an Artifice," Zeke said, motioning at the wreck.

"Huh?" Nia asked.

"There's no control core." Zeke tapped the blue, cross-shaped "pupil" of his Eye. "Every Artifice has a central control mechanism shaped like the Aegis Cores. It's where they store their power and what the Aegises used to control them. Ophion, Siren, Aion, even my Eye. All of them followed that one basic rule. But there's no core on this thing anywhere. And from what the Architect told us, ether wasn't a thing back during his time, so why would any of the Artifices have weapons designed to displace it? It doesn't add up."

"Well, what else could it be?"

"Something from Old Torna, maybe?" Zeke offered. "Though this thing doesn't strike me as Tornan. Feels like too much of a stretch."

"They were capable of building the Marsanes," Nia said. "This thing isn't really much of a feat by comparison."

"Maybe, but Old Torna had abandoned Temperantia for centuries before they developed anything on this level. And the design is all wrong, too, it's… I can't really put my finger on it, but it feels alien, somehow. And I've read a lot about the old country, but I never came across anything like the stuff in this spear. If they'd figured out how to make a weapon like that, then why hasn't anyone else? No, this doesn't…" Zeke paused. "It almost feels like it couldn't have come from Alrest at all."

"Disappointed you didn't get to square off against the last of the Dark Aegis's forces?" Nia asked.

"A little," Zeke admitted. "But I'm more curious as to what I'm looking at. I mean, what the hell even is it? And how'd it get buried out here for Agate's team to find?"

"I don't know," Nia said. "I guess we can ask Mòrag, see if they've run into anything like this. But I'm not really all that worried. If it's not from Alrest, then that means we probably won't be dealing with more of them any time soon. For now, I'd rather focus on more pressing matter, like the mission in Leftheria."

"Yeah," Zeke sighed. Reluctantly, he stood up, but before he could say anything else, Kalarau came by with the rest of Agate's people, and immediately he ran up to them.

"You took it down?" he asked, as if the smoking wreck wasn't answer enough.

"Yeah," Zeke said.

"Thank the Architect," Kalarau muttered.

"No reason to thank him. He's dead, remember?"

"Force of habit," he said. Then he turned to Nia. "And you're feeling up to healing again?"

"What do you mean?" Nia asked.

"You said you'd step back after the whole thing with Dromarch, so…" Kalarau let the statement hang.

Honestly, Nia had basically forgotten about that. She hadn't been in a good place after she'd hurt Dromarch, and she still wasn't, but the last day or so had really brightened her outlook. So much so that, in the whirlwind of everything happening, she'd stepped up to provide healing without a second thought. And nothing had gone wrong, either.

"I guess it's time I stopped moping around," Nia said. "So long as I'm not doing something risky, then I can afford to do some healing. It's pretty hard to cut someone in half when you're just setting a bone or dressing a burn."

"So does that mean you'll fix Dromarch?" Kalarau asked.

Nia's breath caught in her throat, and she looked away from him. She knew he had hangups about his own Blade, but still… She didn't think she was up to it.

"No," she muttered. "Can't take the risk."

"Why not? You just proved that—"

"Hey, Kal," Zeke said, clapping a hand on his shoulder and nearly startling him out of his skin. "Why don't we have a talk?"

Kalarau tried to protest, but Zeke didn't give him a choice, guiding him away from Nia so they could talk in private.

She was glad she had him around. She wouldn't really have known what to do otherwise, other than run away again. And that probably wouldn't have looked good. Still, with the massive pit gathering in her stomach, running away felt like pretty much her only option. The thought of putting her hands on Dromarch again, after everything she'd done to him…

She couldn't stomach it. The thoughts hammered against her head, over and over again, louder than they'd been before. She didn't deserve this. She didn't deserve to have anything good after what she'd done to her best friend.

But she dug her claws into her palm and did her best to shove those thoughts to the side. They were wrong. Even if she didn't deserve to be happy, Zeke did. And he wanted her to be happy, too. So she didn't really have much choice in the matter.

"I deserve to be happy," Nia muttered, trying out the trick Zeke had taught her. She didn't say it because she believed it. She didn't really believe it. But she wanted to. And now that she'd said it, she didn't have any choice but to make it happen.

She was going to be happy, whether she deserved it or not.

---

"Hey!" Kalarau protested as Zeke guided him away from Nia. "Get your fucking hands off me!"

He slipped out of Zeke's grasp and whirled around, his eyes wide, and immediately Zeke stepped in close and grabbed him by the collar.

"What's the matter?" Zeke asked. "Makes you feel uncomfortable?"

"Back off!" Kalarau shouted, shoving Zeke away. "I don't know what's gotten into you, but—"

"Not so fun on the receiving end, is it?" Zeke asked, closing the distance again.

"Excuse me?"

"You ambushed Nia with that shit about Dromarch," Zeke said. "For someone who likes his personal space so much, you're sure keen on making someone else feel uncomfortable when it suits you."

"Hey, don't put this on me," Kalarau said. "Nia has a responsibility to help her Blade. She shouldn't be running away from that. It isn't right."

"Don't you think she knows that?" Zeke asked, glancing back at Nia to make sure they were out of earshot. "Don't you think she'd rather help him? He's her Blade, you moron. There's no length she won't go to if it means keeping him safe. I should hope you know the feeling."

"Yeah," Kalarau muttered. "But if that's the case, why isn't she doing anything?"

"I don't know. Maybe she's scared. Maybe she doesn't trust herself. Maybe she doesn't want to risk making things worse. I don't know the reason. But whatever it is, it's her business, and hers alone. Not mine, and certainly not yours."

"Easy for you to say," Kalarau spat. "You didn't help her cut him in half. I gave her some time after the uprising to get back on her feet, but it's been long enough. She's clearly confident enough in her healing to be helping everyone else. It's time she helped her Blade out, too."

"Not your call to make," Zeke said.

"Well, if she's not going to do it now, then when? When does this get fixed?"

"I don't know," Zeke said again. "Like you said, she's improving. Maybe someday, with enough time and enough practice, she'll be confident enough in herself to take a second shot at healing Dromarch. But you don't get to rush things just because you don't like feeling responsible for what happened. You aren't. Nia's the one who made the mistake, and she knows it. I'm sure she's told you that herself already. Trying to force things isn't going to make it happen any faster. If anything, it'll just make the situation worse."

"Nia has a responsibility to make up for what happened," Kalarau insisted.

"You sure you're talking about Nia?" Zeke asked.

"What the fuck's that supposed to mean?" Kalarau asked, glancing away.

"You got your own Blade killed," Zeke said.

"Who told you—"

"Nobody, I figured that one out all on my own. You freaked out pretty bad when I told you I was a Blade Eater. You insisted I keep my Blade safe, so I'm guessing that's something you failed to do."

"Yeah," Kalarau spat. "You got me. I know better than anyone else what it's like to fuck up like this. Which is why I know that Nia needs to fix this, while she still can."

"Fixing Dromarch isn't going to bring your partner back," Zeke said. "You want redemption? You want someone to forgive you? Sure. I get that. But that does not give you the right to push all that shit onto Nia. Because no matter what happens with Dromarch, this doesn't change a damn thing that happened to you. You're not going to find any absolution here. If you keep going like this, all you're going to do is make things worse."

Kalarau laughed and shook his head.

"You think you know me, kid? You have no idea what I've been through."

"Oh, boo hoo," Zeke said. "I'm sure you had it rough, but that doesn't make you special. We've all had a go of it. So if you want to feel sorry for yourself, go back to moping around in your room and stop dragging Nia into it. She's got enough on her plate already without having to deal with your shit too."

"How does this get better, then?" Kalarau asked. "Because it seems to me like I'm the only one who still gives a shit—"

Zeke slammed his fist into the canyon wall next to Kalarau's head.

"If you ever say anything like that again, we are going to have a problem," Zeke said, his voice oddly level for how angry he was.

"Noted," Kalarau muttered.

"And if you really want to help fix this? Then you'll shut up and wait. Eventually, once Nia's ready, she's going to need your help to perform the surgery. Sure, it'll take some time. But the more you press the issue, the longer it's going to take, and the less she's going to be comfortable having you as her backup. The best thing we can do right now is support her and be encouraging, so if you really want to help Dromarch, you'll learn to play nice."

"She doesn't need encouragement, she needs to pull her head out of the clouds," Kalarau spat. Then he shook his head. "But I'm not sensing that you're giving me much of a choice here, so fine. The one thing I'm good at is waiting. I can wait a little longer. But you'd better promise me you'll do everything you can to get her to fix what she did."

"Sure," Zeke said, though he didn't think his plan would really meet Kalarau's standards. What Nia needed most was support and time to work this out for herself. He could give her that much, but beyond that… It was in her hands. And she was the best damn healer in the world. He trusted that she'd find her way back if given the chance.

"Then I'll take what I can get." Kalarau slipped past Zeke and headed back over to the rest of Agate's team.

Zeke, for his part, stood there, a little surprised at himself. He hadn't really known what had come over him, at first, but seeing Kalarau stand there and badger Nia about something she was already having a hard enough time dealing with had made his blood boil.

Sure, it couldn't hurt to be a little protective. She deserved it, after everything she'd been through. But Zeke didn't like how easily he'd slipped into being angry. It made him feel sick, and Nia probably wouldn't want him doing things like that, even if it was for her sake.

This whole being in love business was really throwing him for a loop, here. He hated being angry, but when seeing someone come after Nia like that, anger felt like the only appropriate response. He was really going to need to re-learn how to control that gut reaction of his. Maybe that was something to talk to Pandoria about? She was the one who'd helped him control his anger the first time. But he didn't really want to be bothering her with this either, so…

Something to think about. In the meantime, he'd just have to do his best not to let that anger slip out of control again.

After he calmed himself down, he looked around for Nia, but she didn't seem to be anywhere.

"Agate?" he asked, singling her out in the crowd. "Did you see where Nia went?"

"She headed back to the Gardens," Agate said. "She didn't really say why, though."

"Alright. Are you guys good to hang out here until Strix comes?"

"We'll manage," Kalarau said. "I'm a Caretaker too, so I'll keep watch over things."

"Alright." Zeke gave them a thumbs up and headed back to the Gardens as fast as he could. With any luck, he'd be able to catch up with her on the way.

Though, it wasn't like she needed him to babysit her. There really wasn't anything to worry about if she got home a few minutes ahead of him. So why was he starting to get so anxious without her around?

Or, no. He wasn't anxious, per say. The moment she was out of sight, he was already wondering where she'd gone. He just wanted to see her again.

He had never, in all his life, been this stupidly, madly in love with someone. It was a little embarrassing, even. He was experienced enough that this sort of schoolyard crush, puppy love ordeal should have been beneath him. But he really couldn't help himself.

Things only got worse as he made his way back and didn't run into Nia at all. Had she run on ahead of him, somehow? That shouldn't have been possible, given he could move twice her speed without breaking a sweat. Had he missed her? Not unless she took the scenic route, and she didn't really seem in a very leisurely mood today. So where was she?

He was about to ask the others if they'd heard from her, but before he could, someone dropped down from the top of the gate and landed in front of him.

Obrona.

"Hey," she said, straightening up and giving Zeke an off-kilter smile.

"Hey," Zeke said, slowly pulling his hand down from his comms. "What's up?"

"Heard you'd headed out to deal with something. Thought I'd wait for you to get back, see if you had a moment to talk."

"Sure," Zeke said, glancing around. Given that nobody was currently shouting at him over the comms, Nia probably wasn't in immediate danger. He'd figure out where she disappeared in a moment, but like she'd said, they still did have jobs to do. And being Obrona's Caretaker was a job he'd unfortunately been neglecting for a while.

"Good." Obrona clasped her hands behind her back and floated in front of him for a moment, but she didn't say anything else.

"So…" Zeke motioned at her, trying to prod her into continuing her train of thought.

"Sorry," she muttered. "Talking to my Driver just feels kinda weird, at this point. Not really sure if there's like, protocol I'm supposed to follow, or…" She trailed off again.

"My fault," Zeke said. "I've been away for a while."

"Nah. I asked you to give me some space, and you did."

"Did it help?" Zeke asked.

"I guess so." Obrona shrugged. "We're putting on a play pretty soon. That should be interesting."

"Really?" Zeke asked. "I hadn't heard."

"Cole and Akhos decided to organize it. We're starting with some simple stuff, since a lot of us haven't really done this before."

"Seems like an odd time for it, what with war in Leftheria on the horizon."

"I think that's the reason they're so insistent we do it now," Obrona said. "People need the levity, and after the uprising…" Obrona sighed. "That got hard to come by. Hopefully this'll change that a little."

"Well, so long as you're having fun."

"Yeah, I… I guess I am?" Obrona phrased it like a question.

"It's not like you need my permission," Zeke said.

"I guess I am," Obrona said, a little more confidently. "Yeah, it's been fun. I think I want to keep doing this."

"Good, good." Zeke nodded. "Sounds like you're starting to find your own footing."

"Is that what this is?" Obrona asked. "It doesn't feel like it. I still don't really know what I'm doing."

"Nobody does," Zeke said. "But so long as you're doing something you enjoy, then I say that counts as good enough."

"Huh." Obrona hovered there for a moment, staring off at the horizon. "Y'know, that's strangely comforting, in a way. I'd assumed there was supposed to be like, I don't know, some sort of checklist I was supposed to follow. Some procedure or method that I could refer back to, to check whether or not I was doing things correctly. But I guess that's not really how it works, huh? Which means… If there's no correct way to do things, then there's no incorrect way either."

"Now you're getting it." Zeke smiled. "Was that what you wanted to talk about? Or—"

"Right," Obrona said, turning back to him. "No, I actually wanted to ask if you'd like to attend opening night. You're my Driver, so I figure you should, I don't know, be there, or something."

Obrona shrugged.

"Do you want me to be there?" Zeke asked. "Not just as a formality or out of necessity, but do you want me to be there?"

Obrona thought about it for a moment. "Yeah. Yeah, I do."

"Then I'll be there." Zeke gave her a thumbs up.

"Cool." Obrona did a small twirl in midair. "So… Uh… What's up with you, lately?"

"Where's this coming from?" Zeke asked.

"Nowhere, I'm just…" Obrona shrugged. "Making conversation, I guess."

"Meh." Zeke sighed and shook his head. "Been mostly doing boring work stuff lately. Planning the mission in Leftheria. Cleaning up after Agate's repair team. I don't want to waste your time with stuff like that."

"I don't mean about work; I mean what's going on with you." She poked him on the chest. "I barely know who you are as like, a person, beyond being my Driver. I want to change that."

"Alright, well uh…" Zeke tried to think about something he could talk about. Mostly, though, his past few weeks had either been work-related or Nia-related. And he didn't want to go divulging stuff about his new relationship until Nia felt comfortable with it, so other than boring work crap, that didn't leave him with a lot to talk about.

"Well, I guess I've been worried about Nia lately," Zeke confessed, trying to skirt as close to the topic as possible without going over the line. "She takes on a lot, and I know she's strong and capable, but… She doesn't have to do it all alone, y'know? Which is rich, coming from me, but still. I get the sense that, even with everything that's happened recently, and even having stepped down as Head Caretaker, she's still pushing herself too hard. And I want to trust her when she says she's fine, but I… I don't know." He sighed. "I just wish she'd talk to me more about what's weighing on her. I try to help where I can but there's only so much I can do if she's unwilling to share the load."

"Have you told her any of that?" Obrona asked.

"Kinda," Zeke said. "Maybe not in those exact words, but I've made it pretty clear how I feel, and…" Zeke tried to find the words, but it was hard. He didn't want to say he didn't trust her, but it felt adjacent to that, a little bit. "Even though she's been open with me about a lot of things, recently, I can't help but feel like she's still holding something back. I don't know what, exactly, but if it's about what I think it's about, then I want to find a way to help her."

"You're getting kinda vague here, man," Obrona said.

"Sorry. It's… Confidential stuff, I guess."

"Confidential? Are the Caretakers keeping secrets from us?"

"Nah, I don't mean like that. It's private. Nia's business. It's not really my place to talk about the specifics."

"Ah." Obrona nodded. "Yeah, can't help you there I'm afraid. I'm still figuring out how to navigate normal social situations."

"I appreciate the thought, but I'm not asking you to figure out my problems for me."

"Doesn't hurt to have someone to talk to, though," Obrona noted.

"Yeah, I guess not," Zeke said. "That used to be Pandy, but we're sort of… Trying new things, lately, so I don't want to go bothering her with this crap. I'll figure something out on my own."

"What, you and Pandoria broke up?" Obrona asked.

"Eugh." Zeke stuck out his tongue. "Can you not say it like that? She's my Blade. More than that, she's practically my little sister."

"Sorry." Obrona shrugged. "But if she's family, like you say, then I don't think she'll mind you leaning on her a little bit. It doesn't have to be a big thing, so long as you don't make it one."

Zeke laughed to himself a little. She was right. Just because Pandy wasn't his partner anymore didn't mean she'd stopped being his sister. He could still rely on her if he needed to, and right now, he was really feeling that need.

"You're not half bad at this," Zeke said.

"I get it from you, I'm pretty sure," Obrona said, smiling. "But thanks."

"I feel like I'm the one who should be thanking you," Zeke said.

"Eh." Obrona shrugged. "Don't mention it."

"Seriously. This helped. Like you said, it's good to have someone to talk to. Help organize your thoughts. But as fun as this has been, I should probably go find Nia. You haven't seen her come by, have you?"

"Nope."

"How long have you been waiting here, anyway?"

"I don't know, fifteen minutes? Maybe twenty?" Obrona shrugged. "I wasn't really keeping track."

Well, if Nia had gotten back before him, Obrona would've seen. Which meant she was still outside, somewhere. Zeke couldn't shake the concern that was settling in his stomach.

Then, a moment later, he remembered the communicators. He could literally just ask her where she was.

"Alright then," Zeke said. "Looks like I've got some searching to do. See you around, Obrona."

"Yeah," Obrona said. "See you at opening night, I guess."

He gave her a wave, and she floated back through the gate.

"Nia?" Zeke asked, activating his comms. "I lost you. Where'd you run off to?"

There was no response.

Alright, Zeke was starting to get worried now. Actually worried. What was she doing, that she couldn't respond?

"She turned her comms off," Akhos said, his voice crackling over the communicator.

"Why?" Zeke asked.

"Dunno."

"Well, does anyone know where she went? Strix?"

"Oh, so suddenly now it's alright if I'm watching?" Strix asked. "Make up your mind already."

"Strix, this is serious. Do you know where she is?"

"Oh don't get your belts in a twist. She's fine. She took a detour and headed over to the old Judician dig site."

"What?" Zeke asked. "Why?"

"I didn't ask. I was under the impression it wasn't any of my business."

"Whatever," Zeke muttered. "Thanks."

Armed with that knowledge, he took off running. He had a horrible feeling that something bad had happened, and he didn't want to waste any more time. Fortunately, it didn't take him long to catch up with her. He found her laying down near the entrance to the dig site, staring up at the Titan weapon still parked in the distance.

"Hey," he said, a little apprehensive as he approached. "What's up?"

"Nothing," Nia said. "Just… There's nothing to deal with at the moment, so I thought I'd take a minute to think."

"Really?" Zeke asked, sitting down next to her. He took out his communicator and placed it next to where she'd laid hers. She looked alright, so maybe…

Yeah. He was just overreacting. Letting his imagination get the best of him. Getting all bent out of shape just because they'd split up for a few minutes. Honestly, it was a little embarrassing.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Nia asked, glancing over at him. "I'm not allowed to relax?"

"Nah, it's just…" He motioned out at the Titan weapon. "Out here? Really?"

"I guess I was feeling a little nostalgic." Nia shrugged. "Everything seemed so much simpler, back then. There wasn't a whole lot to think about. We knew what we had to do, and we did it."

"Plenty still went wrong, though," Zeke said. "Pyra getting captured, Rex nearly giving up, that whole mess in the Spirit Crucible, Praetor Amalthus trying to sink everything… Honestly, it's a miracle we managed to pull it off."

"Sure, it wasn't all sunshine and roses. But we had each other, y'know? You, me, Rex, Mòrag, Tora…" She paused for a moment. "Dromarch."

Once again, Zeke got the sense that she wasn't telling him something. And he wanted to respect her boundaries, but… She was supposed to be his girlfriend. Or well, Nia hadn't been a fan of that label, but still. She was important enough to him that he wanted her to trust him. And he wanted to help.

"You can talk to me, y'know," Zeke said.

"Hm?"

"About whatever's bothering you. I can tell there's something more to everything that's been going on with you today."

"It's nothing," Nia said. "Really."

"Is it?" Zeke asked. "Because it doesn't feel like nothing."

"Zeke—"

"If you really don't want me to pry, then I won't. But I love you, Nia. Whatever's going on, I want to help."

Nia turned and smiled at him for a moment. Then, abruptly, she kissed him. He wasn't going to argue with that, but it didn't really answer much.

"That's one of the first things I noticed about you," Nia said, breaking off the kiss and resting her head against Zeke's shoulder. "You have this seemingly endless capacity to get yourself stuck helping other people."

"Old habits," Zeke said.

"When we first met, I thought you were basically just an annoyance. A busybody. Then after we traveled together, I figured you were just being eccentric. Keeping yourself entertained or something. I thought you'd jump ship after Pyra got kidnapped and things started to fall apart. But you didn't. You stuck by us through so much, and you never asked for anything in return. You just lent a hand like it was the most natural thing in the world."

"Someone had to," Zeke said. "I'm just glad it was me. I wouldn't have met you, otherwise."

"Flattery will get you nowhere," Nia muttered, smiling to herself.

"That's not going to stop me from trying."

"I should hope not." Nia let out a small laugh. "What I'm trying to say is, you're a good person, Zeke. One of the best I know. It took me a while to see that, but it's one of the things I love about you so much. Even when you're putting on that ridiculous act of yours, you're still somehow the most genuine person in the room."

"I'm not putting on an act," Zeke said. "Not right now."

"I know. I still haven't totally figured out how that head of yours works, but I can at least tell that much. I know you care, I know you want to help, it's just… I'm not really sure how you can."

"Well, like I said, you could always talk to me about it," Zeke said. "Even just talking helps, sometimes."

"Maybe," Nia muttered.

"Whatever you need to get off your chest, I'm all ears. No judgement."

"I guess it's worth a shot," Nia said. "I've been trying to ignore this for a while, but that doesn't seem to be working, so maybe it's better to just say it. I feel like I'm being disrespectful to Dromarch."

"How?" Zeke asked.

"I injured him pretty bad. I know it was an accident, but still. Kalarau's right that I have a responsibility to fix him. I know that, but I just… I can't bring myself to do it. I don't trust myself not to make things worse."

"I think you're better than you give yourself credit for," Zeke said.

"I appreciate the vote of confidence, really. But it's still too big a risk. And I'd more or less made my peace with that, even with Kalarau butting into things. The real problem started after I realized how I felt about you. I didn't think it was fair to Dromarch, that I did what I did to him and just got to move on like nothing happened."

"Just because you made a mistake doesn't mean you don't deserve to live your life," Zeke said. "Dromarch wouldn't want you to keep punishing yourself."

"I know. Knowing that is what managed to get me this far in the first place. I know Dromarch would be happy that I've managed to find someone to be with. He was always so worried about me, and…" Nia shook her head. "I know that he wouldn't see it that way. But that doesn't make the feeling go away. It's still there, poking at the back of my mind. Telling me I don't deserve this. That I don't deserve you."

"Is that why you wanted to focus on work today?" Zeke asked. "Why we're keeping this on the down low and trying not to put a label on it?"

"Yeah," Nia said. "I couldn't really bring myself to let this be real, before. But I do want this. I want you, I just… I'm afraid that if we commit to this, then something's going to go wrong. I'm going to lose you, somehow."

"I'm not going anywhere," Zeke said. "You might think you don't deserve me, but if there's anyone who doesn't deserve to be here, it's me. You're the most talented, beautiful, and radiant woman I've ever met. The way you move is stunning enough to captivate an entire nation. And you're strong enough to stand up against the whole world and win. Compared to that, I'm just some guy with an eyepatch and big dreams."

"You are so much more than that," Nia said. "You're the only reason I've even made it this far. I think the Gardens probably would've fallen apart without you here holding it together. No matter how bad things get, you never let it get to you. You're always there with that goofy smile of yours, ready to spout off a few quips and save the day with a wave of your hand."

"That's my point. I don't feel like I deserve to be with you either, but you don't care. You're still in love with me anyway. And I'm probably going to spend the rest of my life thankful for that, because you are the best thing that's ever happened to me. You deserve everything I can give you and so much more. You deserve to be happy. So whatever you want, whatever you need, I'm yours. I'm not going anywhere."

Nia was quiet for a moment. Then, abruptly, she put her hand on his chest and pushed him back flat against the ground.

"Prove it," she said, sliding herself over and straddling him.

"Whatever it takes," Zeke muttered, staring up at her. She smiled at that, then reached down and undid the rope around her waist. Slowly, she started to pull her dress off, and Zeke realized what she was going for.

"Are you sure about this?" he asked.

"I don't think I've ever been more sure about anything in my entire life," Nia said, tossing her dress to the side and leaving herself exposed. "I want you, Zeke. Everything you can give me."

For a moment, Zeke was mesmerized by the sight of her naked body. She was divine. But even with her in front of him like this, the thing he'd been fantasizing about all morning, he still somehow had enough presence of mind to respond.

"We might be here a while, in that case," he said.

"Work can wait," Nia, leaning down and starting to undo the belts across his chest. Which was the only thing Zeke needed to hear. If Nia was really willing to do this, then he wasn't about to disappoint.

He leaned up and kissed her, startling her a little. He'd let her take the lead in the relationship so far, but he was more than capable of taking a more active role. Especially when it came to sex.

Quickly, he stripped his jacket off and threw it out to the side. Then he wrapped an arm around Nia's waist, pulled her in close, and spun around, laying her down across the makeshift cushion. She was blushing considerably, seemingly a little embarrassed that she wasn't the one taking the lead today. But still, she didn't stop him. And, after taking a moment to get the rest of his clothes off, he got his face between her legs and went to work.

This wasn't exactly how he'd pictured their first time, but it didn't matter. What mattered was that he wanted to make Nia feel good. She deserved all the happiness in the world, and he was going to do everything he could to give her that.