Chapter 19: The Weight of Her Legacy

A/N: The trapage of the snackage lackage package continues.

Mikhail's hands moved absentmindedly, as if with a mind of their own, fingers fiddling with pieces of scrap and parts.

He let them. Stopping only made his head hurt and that horrible itch in his chest burn. Ignoring them, he instead stared blankly at the unsorted pile of salvage in front of him.

Knees curled up to his chest, hands just out of sight, he sat on hard, old wood, surrounded by crates. The cargo hold of a salvaging Titanvessel.

Some of them were closed up, but he instinctively knew they were sorted into grades of sellable salvage - things that could be worked into machines and tools of everyday life, others that would be melted down into component metals and eventually be used in something else.

Gold condensers, retro diodes, helix tubes, locust springs, modern resistors, winding gears, strong screws, hollow lanterns, siren nuts, fancy bolts, snow transistors, leaf coils-

With a twinge, his head thumped angrily, grinding the list in his mind to a halt.

"Ah, so this is where you got yourself to, eh?"

He flinched and spun his head at the approach of an Ardainian, diving suit still on, though his helmet rested underneath the crook of his arm. The man smiled, holding up his free hand like he was trying to appease a startled anlood. Mikhail was more annoyed at himself for flinching than for the man intruding on him.

Saying nothing, Mikhail just turned back to the pile in front of him, and heard the man slowly approach behind him after a few moments.

His hands ever continued on their quest.

"It's rather dark here in the hold, you know. Shouldn't be too hard to convince Alasdair to spare an ether lamp for-"

"It's not dark."

Dim, but hardly enough to need a light to see. The light filtering through the hold's now open door made seeing even easier.

"Heh, maybe for you, lad, but I can hardly see a thing! Salvager helmets have lamps for a reason, yeah?"

The man let off a big hearty laugh, as if he'd said something really funny. The laughter trailed off and for a while, it was silent, save for the sound of Mikhail's hands continuing to work with the scrap. He wasn't looking at it, just letting his hands do what they wanted.

The man behind him cleared his throat, the sound of heavy boots thumping across the wood. "So, what are you making, lad?"

"I don't know," he simply stated.

"Don't want to spoil the surprise?" He chuckled. "I guess I can understand."

"No. I don't…know what I'm making."

And it was the truth. But it felt…right, in a way. Wrong too, like someone else was using his hands. He'd never been that interested in Hugo's tinkering. Or machine parts. Or salvage in general.

"Er, I see. Is that one of your innate skills as a Blade-"

"I'm not a Blade." His hands froze, clenching whatever they'd been working on. Burning anger flickered to the surface. And the glow seeping through the fan-shaped lump underneath the loose, ill-fitting tunic the crew had given him seemed to him to shine in the dark-that-wasn't-dark of the cargo hold in spite of his statement. "I'm just…Mikhail."

"Mikhail…" the man breathed out, with a relieved sigh and Mikhail heard him mutter, "Finally, a name," before he spoke up louder. "That's good, lad."

Mikhail's hands went back to tinkering. His eyes still never left the scrap pile in front of him.

"Knew someone else with that name once," the man pressed on. He was doing that 'reminiscing' thing adults usually did when they didn't know what to say. "Good man from Coeia. Bit too much of a philanderer for his own good. Though I guess it didn't matter much after Indol and Mor Ardain sank it."

"Malos sank it."

"...Sorry?"

"Malos. The other Aegis."

"Don't think I've heard that name. Wasn't the term 'Aegis' getting bandied about a lot when Torna sunk, and the last Emperor - Architect rest his soul – died? Think I heard about it in canteens whenever we stopped by the Trade Guilds."

Mikhail's forehead scrunched in confusion. How did he not know there were two?

"Yeah," he snapped his fingers, "I remember hearing something about the Driver - he was some sort of royalty I think - being charged with uh…some crime or other by Indol near when Torna sunk. Big sum for info leading to his capture too. Had most of the crew drooling at the reward money."

Addam was wanted as…a criminal?

He chuckled wistfully. "Not that they'd be fool enough to take on a Driver and Blade partnership, especially if they're really that powerful. Haven't heard anything about that for a few years now, though. I wonder if anything came of it?"

A few years? Had it really been that long…?

"So, anyways" the man cleared his throat, "you said it was this Malos character that sank Coeia? Where'd you hear that?"

"...Lora told me."

"S'pose that's how info goes 'round, I guess. Well, the whole situation's a big shame no matter who done it. Coeia was one of my favourites of the main Titans. Never did a bad trade for salvage when I was there either, far as I can remember. Torna sinking's a big shame too. Lotta industry trade when they weren't being stuck up…er…"

He trailed off of whatever he'd been about to say. There was a creak of wood and out of the corner of his eye, Mikhail saw the salvager lean with his back resting on a stack of crates to the side of him. "So…who's Lora?"

"...She's…family."

"She your Driver by any chance, or…?"

"I'm not a Blade," Mikhail repeated, more forcefully this time. The core crystal embedded in his chest throbbed painfully out of sync with the beating of his heart again. "She's dead."

"Ah, didn't mean to dredge up bad memories like that."

"People die all the time."

Over and over and over…

"Look, lad, burying whatever grief you're carrying away's only gonna make it come out stronger later." He paused a moment, before adding with a sigh, "I'm not really the best at this sort of thing, but if you ever want to talk about it, I'll lend an ear so long as you're on board."

Mikhail slipped back into silence, simply staring at the pile in front of him.

The man sighed. "Anyways, we just finished our last salvage run of the trip, and we're making for the Voltis Trade Guild once we weigh anchor again. Chairman's good far as Nopon fellows tend to go, and there's honest work there for Blades and Humans alike if you don't wanna stick around us salvagers."

Mikhail said nothing.

Eventually he left Mikhail to his own devices. Time pressed on. He heard laughter from the other salvagers up above the hold somewhere. Eventually that died down too, leaving the lapping of the cloud sea against the bottom of the wood of the vessel hitched to the balloon-like Titan outside.

His hands kept going. His eyes never left that scrap pile.

Until at last, they stopped. That unnatural drive within him satisfied, his eyes drooped.

When they opened again, he lay on his side, a weight draped around him. A blanket. Beside him, a bowl of simple curry.

Sitting up, he looked down in his palm. A device sat clutched in there.

A cloud sea compass.

He knew how it worked, what the dial meant where it pointed, how to use it to tell the tides, how to calibrate it to whatever Titan he was on, how to use it in the open cloud sea, how to orient yourself toward the World Tree, how to-

The core crystal pulsed. His head ached.

His small hand clenched around the compass, enough to make indents in the skin of his palm and fingers. The pain in his head increased, his heart started pounding, and without warning, something dark and faintly glowing burst out of the compass.

They looked almost like gloomy, pulsing feathers, puncturing the now ruined device.

The itch on his chest burned.

He snarled and threw it across the hold, where it crashed against the wall, shattering.

Clicking the cover to the cloud sea compass closed, Mikhail stood from a crouch where he had been peering down into the small crater of cooling, melted rock. Nearby, a dead body rested next to a cliff, and not too far away from that, a small canyon had been partially blocked with a rockslide. He let off a low whistle.

"He sure moves quick," he muttered to himself.

At least it seemed Lora hadn't been taken down without a fight. Whether it was her doing or collateral damage, it made it easy to tell he was on the right track.

There was no doubt in his mind that this had been a coordinated attack. He'd gotten suspicious when Nia, Dromarch and Cressidus hadn't come back from gathering more food from the wastes, and sure enough when he'd stepped outside of the abandoned mining camp they'd set up in, he'd quickly been ambushed.

He shook his head blithely at the memory of their shock once he'd sliced through their ether net. The looks on their faces were priceless. It never got old when normal Blade suppression tricks didn't work on him like they 'should'.

He cricked his neck, working out a kink that had been building for the past hour.

Well, okay, he'd still been caught in the net, and that was just embarrassing. If any other members of Torna had been around, he'd have never lived it down. Ahkos and Patroka probably would've lorded it over him for weeks.

The blood-red tattoo on the arms of his ambushers and the one on the dead man by the cliff made it pretty obvious who was behind this. But what did the Bloody Lobsters - or more likely, Dagas - want with Lora?

Come to think about it, Dagas hadn't paid her and the Aegis any mind back in the really-should-have-checked-if-it-was-still-abandoned industrial district. The flesh eater had been focused on trying to get through them to him.

Somewhere between then and now he'd probably figured out that Lora was the Aegis' Driver, but how would that fit into the royal coup he'd overheard them plotting? Were they planning on trying to use her?

His foot tapped a restless rhythm. He and Lora didn't see eye to eye - how could they, after how much she missed out on? - but he couldn't just leave her. Not to mention how Jin might react if he had to tell him he'd lost her. The man was usually calm, but with the storm Lora had brought by coming back…

Mikhail shuddered.

He glanced down at the cloud sea compass in his palm - one he had made on the fly since their escape from the capital with some extra parts he'd pinched from when that boy, Rex, had salvaged them. Checking the direction, he pressed onwards into the wastes.

Uncomfortable, tense silence was Lora's unfortunate friend as Dagas led their procession through the wastes. He walked alone at the head of the group, leading them in the opposite direction Mikhail had been taking them.

The remnants of the Bloody Lobsters - which was still a sizable group - that Malos hadn't taken out were hardly what she'd consider good conversation partners, eying her and Pyra as they travelled like they were an explosion waiting to happen.

This tension seemed to amuse the actual explosion waiting to happen to no end as he silently goaded the gang members into trying to start a fight. Thankfully, they were wise enough to not rise to the bait, so Malos and his Blade instead ended up trailing her and Pyra - just slightly too close for comfort - a smirk on his face whenever they looked their way.

The distance that Dagas kept from them held true as well when they made camp later that night near a natural steam vent, and then the next day at an abandoned mining camp. It reminded her of some of the stuck up nobles she and Jin had worked for. 'Above their petty organization' indeed.

Always apart from them.

Unlike the abandoned camp Mikhail had led them to, this camp – though it looked just as desolate - had hidden supplies stocked by Dagas' men beforehand that the Bloody Lobster gang members helped themselves to. Dagas 'graciously' - his word not hers - gave her and Pyra - the rations as well, as it "suited ones of their station."

She accepted it, not because of his "piety" but because food was food. Being picky when her stomach was involved was never something she and Jin had been able to afford. Dagas sequestered himself away after that out of sight of the rest of them.

At least it seemed he would hold to his word of him and the gang members here not attacking them for now, though Lora wasn't holding her breath. Fear or not, Malos had killed a number of the group here after all. The fact that Dagas seemed so callous about the death of those people was…telling.

"Have you seen any sign of anyone following us?" she asked Pyra in a hushed whisper as the stars set in again, eating the strips of dried armu meat, fruits, and nuts provided.

"Nothing yet." The small shake of her head sent her bright red hair rustling back and forth, and she shifted herself on the shelf of rock they'd ended up perched on slightly away from the main body of people. "It's just been the occasional monster sizing the group up. No sign of the empire or Mikhail."

Lora hummed and took another thoughtful bite of the jerky. Definitely a bit stringy, but not bad overall, especially with whatever the spice was that had been interwoven into the meat. Made it peppery, and a bit spicy. Addam probably would have hated it.

She was about to make another comment when a shadow fell over the two of them.

Internally tensing, she looked up at Malos, whose arms were crossed, an eyebrow raised as he considered the two of them. "Mik's surprisingly good at not making a scene when he wants to be. I'd worry more about mister pomp and circumstance flipping a lid."

"Like you're one to talk," Lora muttered, though plenty loud enough for him to hear. Consistently having Malos lurking around in the open had turned the initial gnawing anxiety and anger of him into a biting irritation.

He spread his arms askance. "Since when have I hurt you since you awakened?"

She clenched her teeth in answer since he was technically telling the truth, but… "You know what I mean."

He smirked and sauntered closer and she abruptly stood, taking a half step back, her hands drawing up into fists as he… sat down near the edge of the rock she and Pyra were on. He took a slow, purposeful bite of the same batch of jerky Dagas had "bequeathed" to him, tearing into it while he stared ahead.

His Blade wasn't nearby - he seemed like a bit of a loner - but that didn't incite much confidence considering what she knew first-hand what Malos was capable of without him. Chancing a glance at Pyra, she noticed she hadn't stood like she had, but she saw her hands clenched in her lap. Their eyes met and Pyra gave a little shake of her head.

Gradually, Lora unclenched her fists, and slowly, deliberately, sat back down and scooted closer to Pyra. The stringy, peppered - but definitely meaty and therefore at least somewhat delicious - meat strip in her palm went uneaten as she kept a close eye on him.

He sighed loudly as he finished off the strip he was working on, rolling his eyes at her strained reaction. "Didn't I already tell you that I'm here to make sure you don't die right now?"

Pyra took a small bite of her own jerky. "Even if we believe you, that doesn't mean Lora and I have any reason to trust you."

"Good thing you don't need to. You just need to not let Lora die, same as me."

"I'm right here, thank you," Lora interjected, annoyed. "And why would I even want your protection anyways?"

"You weren't complaining when I saved you the trouble of dealing with that sniper, were you?" Malos shrugged. "Besides, don't ask me. Ask him."

Lora's eyes narrowed. "Him?"

"You're talking about Jin, aren't you." Pyra didn't phrase it like a question. In fact, her answer was so certain that it made Lora wonder if she knew something she didn't. Had she talked to Jin before?

Chuckling, Malos tore off another bit of his jerky. "You really have no idea how much he cares about you, his precious Driver, do you? If you asked, I bet he would destroy the world for you."

"What? Jin wouldn't do that even if I-"

"Stop pretending like everything's the same. You haven't even talked to him since she," he tweaked his head at Pyra, "brought you back."

"Jin's a good person," Lora insisted. "Stop dragging his name through the muck."

He scoffed in irritation. "You and him are both so frustrating, you know that? Clinging to the ideal of the other, clinging desperately to old memories. How long is it going to take to sink into your thick headed skulls?" He turned glaring right at her. "He broke, and your words were the reason why."

"The thought of you forgetting me…It's like one heart is being ripped in two."

"I won't forget you! I refuse to forget you! How could…I ever…

Lora's hand went to hover over her shared core, over her missing heart.

"After I found him rotting in an alley," Malos continued, "he would still talk to your frozen corpse. Like you were still there. No matter how much I tried, I could never convince him to really let the memory of you rest. He never fully allowed himself to move on; even with a new purpose, he always looked back."

But it was also the only reason she was sitting here right now, wasn't it?

She let out a steady breath. Hearing a lecture like this from Malos was…frustrating, to say the least. "Maybe it was wrong of me to put that burden on him alone. Maybe it was selfish, thoughtless of the years he would go on without me, but is what you gave him really any better?"

"Heh." He turned back away from her looking over the camp, though she could still feel a glare coming from out of the side of his eye. She glared resolutely back. "There's that fire in your eyes again. I'd almost say it's a pleasure to see it after your little stunt of cheating death."

Lora didn't dignify him with a response.

"I'd say the whole things's been a riot, but honestly, it's just obnoxious to see you alive."

"Hmph." So much for any semblance of civilized conversation. Her part of the shared core thrummed under her tunic. "I could say the same to you. I bet you were just too stubborn to die."

"Good comeback." Smirking, he tapped the piece of armour that covered his core crystal. "Thanks to Father's gift, you and I are above petty things like death, aren't we?"

"Our situations are completely different."

Malos laughed, but though it was brief, Lora caught an…emptiness to its tone. "You humans are such fragile things. There one moment, gone the next. Your pathetic marks on the world forgotten as the next generation of idiots tramples on your graves, even as they make the same mistakes, over and over. And all the while their world dies around them and they don't even notice. A true cycle of idiocy."

Lora shot back. "You're underestimating us, and the impact we can make because you've never seen the good in the world."

"Oh really?" He eyed her coolly. "How much did seeing the good in the world do for you when the Empire's inquisitor tried to capture you just for being the Driver of the Aegis? Just for her power, for what you both might do?

"They don't know Pyra like I do."

"You really think you know that face she's put on?"

"I trust her." She had to. "That's enough for me right now."

"Lora," Pyra began, "you don't have to…"

"The empire got history mixed up," Lora asserted, cutting Pyra off. "They're scared. Scared of what they remember you doing, Malos. What you brought on the world."

"Oh, do tell me my own history, Driver of the Aegis." Malos rolled his eyes. "Don't pretend like she wasn't a part of this."

"She didn't want the destruction that came from your clashes."

"Heh. Up until that last one, I got the feeling like she didn't care one way or another." He shook his head nostalgically. "Oh the ruins we left in our wake."

"But she was learning to care."

He cocked an eyebrow. "Is that so? So you swooped in and cleared centuries worth of garbage and rumours? The Inquisitor listened to your every word and believed it? Had a good chat as she was ready to lead you off in chains? That fight with her on the rooftop was just a spar? There were no misunderstandings at all?"

He'd seen that too? How long had he been tailing them?

"That's not…"

He shook his head disdainfully. "You're being torn this way and that by the whims of everyone around you. Do you even know what you want, or are you just following her, hoping by chance you'll end up on the World Tree? You think things will work out by themselves?"

"I…"

"I just want my family to be happy."

But she couldn't say it.

"Malos, that's enough." Pyra cut in sharply.

"Suit yourself. I know who and what I am, what my purpose is. You both only thawed out less than a month ago, but you've been nothing but drifters; salvaging vessels caught in storm after storm."

"Why do you care?" Pyra retorted, her voice firm, a simmering anger underlying it. Something tingled in the back of her mind.

"Because it's pathetic seeing my dear partner reduced to this." He shook his head. "So stuck in running from what you are, running from the past to see the world for what it's become. For what it always was."

"Shut up," Lora growled out. But her tone wavered. Why did he have to be so…

"Oh? Gonna cry?"

"Just stop it," she hissed out through clenched teeth. "Can't you be busy being our 'guard dog' or something somewhere else?"

"So you're making it official now?" Malos smirked, before he abruptly stood and made a mocking bow, being sure to meet her eye. "I'm so honoured, Lady Lora. As your 'warden,' I'll be sure that no harm befalls you. Jin's honour."

He left, but the tension he always seemed to bring lingered.

"I really don't like him," Lora murmured. How in the world did anyone put up with someone like that? She tried to picture the Jin she remembered working with him and failed.

"You can say that again." She felt Pyra's arm wrap around her, her hand squeezing her shoulder. "Are you going to be alright?"

Lora leaned into her partial hug, setting her head onto Pyra's shoulder. "I'll…be okay."

They sat there like that for just for a time. Their conversation had attracted the attention of some nearby gang members, but they still stayed far enough away that they probably hadn't overheard. Lora closed her eyes to them for a moment and just breathed,

"I'm sorry if it felt like I was speaking on your behalf too much," Lora murmured. "He just…gets right under my skin."

Pyra's hand squeezed gently. "It's okay. I remember what I did, Lora, and it wasn't all great. But, thank you for sticking up for me like that."

"Of course. But, I just…need some time to think. Sort out my thoughts, you know?"

"Alright. Do you want me to get you some tea? I think I saw some that I can get Dagas to 'bestow' on us if you want."

She chuckled at the small attempt at humour. "Yeah, that'd be nice." She raised her head and gave Pyra a small smile. "You're a star, Pyra."

Pyra smiled back squeezing her shoulder briefly - their affinity link bursting to life in a tingle of fire in her mind for a fleeting instant - before she stood and made her way over to where the rations were stored.

Yet even after the herbal tea was fixed, even though it seemed to help calm her as she and Pyra drank it together, even after both of them silently worked on her charms until their eyes drooped, Malos' words didn't go away, burrowing into her mind.

"Cressidus." Nia hissed quietly. Her ears leaned forward, listening intently for a response, but only got a loud snore for her trouble. "Oi, Cressidus!"

"Is everything alright, my lady?"

"Not you, Dromarch."

She could almost see him drooping in disappointment in another separate cell they'd chucked him in. "I would be happy to chat if it would make you feel better."

"You can't break us out of these cells, can you? No offense."

A rumbling sigh, accompanied by rustling as he probably settled into loaf position or something if he wasn't already. "I suppose not."

"Don't worry about it. I'll make it up to you later or something, okay?"

Walking to the bars of her cell, she glanced about to the small area she could see, which wasn't much, but it didn't sound like anyone was currently super close. Guards occasionally went by on patrol, but no one was here at the moment.

Cressidus' cell, from what she remembered as she'd been brought in - which was less than she would have liked after being drained from being in an ether net for so long - was adjacent to her own.

Still, she pitched her voice as loud as she dared back towards where they'd put the other Blade. "Hey, you big lug, how long are you planning on sleeping anyways? You've been sluggish like that since we were caught. Aren't you always going on about sleep schedules being an important part of your health?"

"Buh?" There was a snort as Nia heard the other Blade stopped snoring.

"Sheesh, of course that's what gets you to stir," Nia muttered.

A loud almost echoing yawn sounded, followed by loud, audible pops. Was that him stretching? "Did you say something, Nia?"

"Nothing, big guy, but I've got a question for you, now you're up."

"Yeah, what's up?"

She toned her voice down this time since he was awake now. "What do you fancy our chances are of getting out of here?"

He let out a hearty laugh that made her ears flick, wincing at the volume and making her reflexively peer through the bars to see if anyone was coming to check the noise. "Give me enough time to rest and recharge my ether reserves and I could probably break through these bars, no sweat! Your's and Dromarch's too."

"Well that's a relief." These cells were probably built to hold regular old humans. No ether suppression that she could feel at any rate.

"Pardon my scrutiny, but is that wise, my lady?" Dromarch rumbled from his cell. "Cressidus is without Master Mikhail, and you saw as well as I did how well guarded the encampment was as we were led in. Not to mention the size of the forces on guard."

"Well, yeah, but-"

"And surely," he pressed on in spite of her, "you must have seen how steep the natural walls were as our captors led us through the rocky chokepoint here. A quarry turned into an ether mining extraction area by the looks of it."

"I mean, I saw those big machines too," A couple of the big machines had been running, "but-"

"Not to mention the impressive Titans mounted with weapons and other machines of war I spotted throughout the camp, as well as the many towers and guards at the top of the cliffs and walls that would prevent us from-"

"Ugh, no need to natter on, Dromarch." Her back pressed against the bars and she slid down. "We get it. We're trapped."

Again.

Not to mention she was stiff, sore and drained after being caught in an ether net and dragged across the wastes in less than ideal accommodations with less than ideal companions. Present company excluded.

She slid down the rest the way, flopped on to her back, arms and legs sprawled out on the stone. There was a cot on the other end of the small space, but she didn't feel like it at the moment.

She groaned loudly. Dromarch was right, unfortunately.

"Stupid Mik," she muttered. "Stupid 'royal vendetta.' Stupid hot springs." Oh, that sounded so nice right now. Why had she insisted on not going? "Stupid inquisi-whatever, stupid Rex, stupid running, stupid, stupid, stupid! Guh!"

"Are you quite all right, my lady?"

"Oh, I'm right peachy, can't you tell?"

"It'll be alright, Nia, you'll see!" Cressidus sounded practically chipper. "Mikhail's still out there, and Lora and Pyra are super strong. I'm sure they're coming to help us out!"

"Yeah, yeah. I get it. Thanks for the optimism."

She used an arm to cover her eyes. Cressidus might be right, but it still didn't make her feel any better about it all. Why did she have to suddenly suffer the consequences of Mik's past like this?

Actually, come to think of it, was there anyone in Torna that didn't have a stupidly complicated past that came with enough baggage to weigh down a gogol or three?

Not that she was exempt from baggage either. Her arm slid down off her eyes stopping over the slight bump at her sternum, the yellow of her jumpsuit hiding the truth from everyone, including her sometimes.

But drawing on that wouldn't solve anything right now, would it? If anything, it would just cause more problems if their captors knew.

Aaannnd great, now I'm brooding again. Way to make yourself feel included in the group, Nia.

Letting her hand fall back down, she shifted on the floor to make herself more comfortable. Before long, Cressidus was snoring again and eventually, she tried to follow his example.

The rocky road sloped down, not enough to make tripping a huge hazard for Lora, but enough that it was noticeable. The path snaked through a valley that made it free of Mor Ardain's more prevalent winds, especially this close to the Titan's edge.

She started seeing piles of stones that seemed deliberately arranged to slow down progress-barricades she supposed. Eventually, at the end of the path, two prominent towers stationed like sentinels greeted their group before the path opened up into a large area.

"Hail, Lord Dagas!"

"Lord Dagas returns!"

"Lord of the Wastes!"

As cheers started coming from past those two towers - which looked more like they'd been commandeered as watchtowers rather than built - she noted large red banners draped down their length, embroidered with gold and with a large white skull pictured at the top.

Well, that's promising…

The first thing she noticed were large machines that she had no idea of the use for towering in the centre of the encampment, large lever-looking things on them bobbing up and down into the ground. It brought the smell of raw ether, pricking a memory of her and Jin taking a job that had led them into the mines of Coeia. The smell wasn't as potent as that experience, but the odour lingered in the air.

Maybe they were used to harvest ether or something? She really didn't know, but whatever their use, it looked like Dagas' men had set up around them rather than assembled them themselves. A veritable tent city nestled and protected by the body of Mor Ardain, high rocky walls and metal barriers surrounding the parts that weren't nestled against the Titan.

An army. Hundreds, maybe thousands of them.

"Heh, I'm almost impressed," Malos commented dryly, sounding just about anything but impressed as he sauntered in like he owned the place. "Last I heard these maggots hardly had a few troops to their name, and now look at them."

As calls made their way around the camp, the size of the crowd that had come to greet them wasn't anything to scoff at, cheers abounding around, echoing up through the encircled area. Most of them were dressed in what looked like Ardainian military uniforms of some variety. Dagas soaked in the cheers all in with royal-like grace.

When the flow of people coming out to meet them stopped, he held up a hand, and silence made its way through the assembled soldiers. Someone brought a small stand for him which he stepped up on.

"Brothers and Sisters! My friends!" His voiced echoed loudly through the encampment. "You have done well to gather our forces and settle so quickly here as we move towards our final victory. To the future of the Glory of Mor Ardain!"

"Glory to the Empire!" The shout went around with cheers and clapping, whooping and hollering until Dagas held his hand for silence again.

"But today is more than just a step forward. It is a glorious day indeed, for I come laden with more than I could ever have hoped. A legend walks among us." He swept his cape back gesturing boldly at her and Pyra.

Oh please no, don't tell me he's going to-

"The rumours abounding in Alrest are true. She has returned!"

Whispers, and conversations erupted through the assembled crowds around them, blending together in a cacophony of noise, but she still caught bits and pieces.

"He brought the Aegis-"

"That's her Driver?"

"-shorter than I thought she'd be-"

"-reports from capital-"

"-won against the Inquisitor-"

"-went toe to toe with Lord Dagas as well-"

They were getting the completely wrong idea, but like with Mòrag, Lora doubted there was anything she could say that would correct it. She tried her best to look unfazed at the attention, but felt like she was failing miserably.

Dagas pressed on. "Fresh off of a victory against the Jewel of the Empire and the Inquisitor herself, I have brought the Aegis and her Driver! Our victory is-

She tuned out the rest of it, leaning in to Pyra. "Remind me to punch him when I get the chance," she whispered. Pyra nodded absently, a stern yet complicated expression on her face.

Eventually his definitely-not-impromptu speech ended amid deafening cheers. A song burst out among the people, and though it was difficult to make out the lyrics, it sounded extremely patriotic.

The attention was just…ugh. Lora tried her best to ignore it, following Dagas, as he swept through the pressing crowd. Their growing awe, cheers and song made her stomach squirm. Malos seemed to find it all extremely amusing.

Eventually, Dagas stopped outside of a small erected building, probably the sturdiest and most well-guarded looking tent-adjacent structure there.

"So is this finally where we're going to talk, or are you going to posture with us more?" Lora asked dryly.

He folded his arms as he looked down at them. "No. This is not the appointed place. I have urgent matters I need to attend to before then. Roam the camp at your leisure, but do not attempt to leave."

"You think you could stop us?" Malos goaded. "One little slip and your camp would be a smear on the map."

He gave Malos a hard glare. "As usual, your honour guard speaks his mind." Focusing back on her, he dipped his head minutely. "I merely ask for a token of your patience, Driver of the Aegis."

"And my friends?"

"Safe as can be reasonably expected. My compatriots will lead you to them if you wish. I will send for you when we talk on the morrow."

And he swept into the tent without a second glance back.

Morning dawned dully for Nia with a passable breakfast - accompanied by Cressidus' running commentary on the nutritional value or lack thereof of each part of it. However as she finished picking at it, Nia's ears perked up as a cheer went through the encampment. It was loud enough that that it made her ears pull back on instinct.

"Hey, what's happening out there?" she asked the guard when he eventually came to collect their trays.

"Lord Dagas has returned to the camp." His Ardainian accent was especially thick.

"Dagas? Is that the name of the nutter who almost melted us alive?"

The guard shook his head. "He's certainly has power for sure, but he's far from mad."

Were they talking about the same Blade? Even though they'd long since healed, she still felt echoes of the intense searing heat just thinking about the experience. Whatever helps you sleep at night, I guess, but...

"You realize he's a flesh eater, yeah?" The irony of a flesh eater warning him about a flesh eater wasn't lost on her.

She'd basically been minding her own business and the Praetorium had cracked down on her. Made her wonder how Dagas had gone undetected if they were treating him all kingly here.

"It is a badge of honour that we respect."

She blinked in surprise. "Badge of…honour?"

A flesh eater's core crystal being something to be celebrated? The thought sat oddly in her mind.

"Lord Dagas is the head of the spear of Brionac. Born from the ashes of his Driver, he is the weapon that will bring the Empire back into the glory it deserves."

"Patriotic much?" she muttered. Actually. "Wait, hold up. You mean the empire. Like Ardainian Empire empire? The compensating-with-too-many-guns-on-their-palace empire?"

"Not the shadow it's become since the child emperor took the throne." He started pointing emphatically at her after every word. "The real, true might of the Empire and its glory. And don't you forget it, lass!"

"Wow, I'm so scared." She quickly jumped up, ramming into the bars of her cell, smiling widely, teeth bared like fangs. The guy winced, and backed up, fumbling and almost dropping the trays he'd come to collect. Too bad the stupid-looking helmet didn't let her see the full extent of his reaction.

"Pfft!" She bust out laughing as she backed away. "Might and glory of the empire? Honestly, even without Dromarch, I could take you down. One look at you and you're done."

"You think you can take me on?"

She shrugged. "Don't need to. Bet you and all your friends will be burnt to a crisp before the month's out. Or whatever the Praetorium does to co-conspirators to blasphemers against the 'natural order.' Do you really think they're just gonna let an affront to their delicate, pious sensibilities like that slide?"

He huffed, indignantly. "They'll have no choice but to recognize us. Just you watch, lass."

"Riiiight." He turned and started walking away, and she glared at his retreating back. "Keep telling yourself that, you patriotic, stuck up little-"

With a pointed clearing of his throat, Dromarch cut her off. "Should we really be antagonizing the hand that feeds us, my lady?"

"What? It got us some info, didn't it?"

He sighed. "I suppose I cannot deny that. Though it raises the question why a militarized Ardainian dissenter group is allied with a cross-titan gang in the first place."

"Numbers, maybe? Info? I dunno."

Having the same people who'd killed that old scientist woman back in Alba Cavanich working with this group - Brionac, right? - wasn't something that really clicked in her head yet. Not that she was sure she wanted it to, or really cared that much about it.

The cheers and a song finally died down - thank goodness, her ears couldn't take much more of it - and she settled on to her cot, ready to hunker down for a boring day. Probably would be murderously dry and hot even without the sun shining in her cell.

She didn't want to think about being here long enough that the sun might do that when the Titan was positioned on its orbit around the World Tree at the right angle. Eventually she'd almost started dozing off when-

"Well look what we have here. Kitty-cat's caught in a cage. And Dromarch's here too."

"Wha-" Her eyes snapped open at that condescending tone, and her head jolted over to look. "Malos?"

"Master Malos is here?" Dromarch asked. He sounded just as shocked as she was.

"Hey, Sever's there too!" Cressidus shouted excitedly. "I'd give you a fist bump, but well, you know."

Sever let out a hissing chuckle, going out of sight to where Cressidus was. "You really must be bored if you're welcoming a loner like me."

"Hold up, how come you're both not locked up like we are?" Nia asked angrily.

He tapped the piece of armour near his sternum. "Comes with the territory."

Helpful as always. "And since when were you here anyways? Weren't you back on the Marsanes with Ahkos?"

"You could say I'm here on assignment from Jin."

"Huh?" From Jin? Had he gotten back from raiding those cores already? "Wait, are we working with these guys?"

He shrugged nonchalantly. "That's up to her. I'm just along for the ride for now." And he started walking away. "C'mon, Sever."

She clasped the bars. "Wait! You're just gonna leave us in here?"

"Not my call." He didn't even look back as he slowly sauntered off. "Besides, I've got stuff to do."

Still as obnoxious as ever.

But he was barely gone a couple minutes before a more welcome voice called out, "Nia, Dromarch, Cressidus! Thank goodness you're all alright."

"Icicle Lady!" Cressidus shouted.

"Still going with that name, are we?" Lora's voice chided teasingly.

"I'm sure I'll think of something better, especially now that I've seen you fight a couple times."

"Er, no need to rush."

"Lora? You're here too?" Nia asked. And sure enough, the red haired woman stopped in front of her cell. She spotted Pyra out of the corner of her eye talking to Dromarch. Nia frowned. "Is it really just us that got chucked in here?"

"Sorry I wasn't there to help you out."

Nia sighed. "Don't worry about it. Probably wouldn't have made a difference anyways. At least someone sane out there has my best interests in mind. I haven't been in here much more than a day and I'm already sick of it."

"We're waiting on Dagas right now. He's…" Lora trailed off.

"A complete nutter?" Nia supplied.

"A bit much, yeah. I promise I'll get you out soon, alright?"

"And you can't do that right now? Actually, wait." Nia cursed under her breath. "Lemme guess. We're bargaining chips of some sort for 'Lord' Dagas?"

Lora kneaded her forehead with her hand. "It's a rotten thing to do, but yeah. I'd hoped he was bluffing about capturing you all."

She leaned in closer, whispering. "Was Mik with you as well? I didn't see him while they were draggin' us here."

She shook her head, whispering back. "He's still out there, somewhere."

"Do you know what Dagas wants from us? Besides glorious revenge on Mik?"

"I don't know yet. We're going to talk tomorrow, but I insisted that I get to see you all first."

"You actually believe he'll be sane about it?"

"Maybe. He was…sort of calmer than we first saw him, but I didn't have much choice in the matter. I underestimated how big of an encampment he'd be leading us to." She reached through the bars and gently squeezed Nia's hand. "Don't worry, we'll all get out of this."

Nia's ears drooped. "Thanks. If you can, at least get us able to roam around, that'd be nice."

She smiled. "I'll try."

She and Pyra left shortly after that - though not before giving Dromarch a head scratch by the sound of it. Dumb fur ball.

Naturally, she felt a little better, even if she was still stuck here. It was…nice to have someone who openly cared, instead of having to sort through veiled sarcasm and banter like the rest of Torna.

Well, Jin was kind of like that when he opened up, but Lora was different.

Frustratingly optimistic, nice, a half decent listener and she was more than decent in a fight. Stubborn though, got flustered easy and definitely out of place.

But she was as good a friend as she could hope for in the situation she was in. More than Mik at any rate. At least Lora's didn't seem to have personal vendettas against her, just all the rubbish that seemed to come along with being Pyra's Driver.

Not for the first time, she wondered what life would have been like as a simple Blade, returning to her core to awaken to a fresh start without all the baggage she carried now. But it was too late for that now. She'd thrown her lot in with Torna and all their eccentricities. She didn't like it all, but it had to be better than roughing it with Dromarch.

Well, she'd see where it went for now, if nothing else.

Another round of another patriotic sounding song started up close by, and her ears winced at the wailing.

…As soon as she got out of this stupid cell.

A/N: *Angry trapped welsh cat noises intensify*