Kris:

  Flying was the most amazing feeling. Sure, she didn’t have the wind blowing in her hair, but it was still incredible.

  They’d spent the first portion of the day in flight, barely taking breaks for snacks and bathroom stops. The trip from Hallitheen to Uriel Point was shaping up to be some ten hours longer.

  So they’d traveled another two hours after the city in a southeastern heading. The original plan was for a change in shift for driving, but with how simple and relaxed the trip had been, there hadn’t been a need.

  Finally, they touched down along the coast where a patch of trees stood, and then they made camp together with the vehicle and one wing angled to cover two directions.

  It was a rare Dreamnight that evening, which surprised Kris, given that she hadn’t bothered to check in advance.

  Sylpharia had a large number of moons with orbits that made moonless nights extremely rare. It was a whole part of their culture, because most nights there were enough moons shining brightly that the stars weren’t easy to spot.

  Sure, more distant moons didn’t blot out the stars, and those nights were common enough, but a completely moonless night was so rare they basically became their own holidays. Those were called Dreamnights.

  With their campfire burnt down to low embers, Kris leaned into Mari as they both stared up at the vast stars in the sky.

  “Do you miss it?”

  Mari glanced over at her question. “Miss what?”

  “I guess it isn’t right to call it your home, but do you miss it anyway?”

  Mari remained silent for a few minutes, clearly pondering the question as her finger tapped slowly at her chin. “It’s hard to say. Because I know how awful a place it was for Marielle. Sure, she grew up there, and sure, she had friends and family. I know there would be some memories from Earth, but then I also know it’s been long enough that nothing would be left to feel nostalgic about.”

  Kris let out a short breath, then turned and kissed Mari’s cheek.

  “Sorry to bring up bad memories.”

  Mari shrugged. “It had been over four hundred years of time in space just to reach the first planet Marielle’s crew tried to colonize. That alone is enough to erase anything she ever knew, even if her world hadn’t gone to shit.”

  Kris sighed, leaning more firmly into her lover. “We’ll find answers somehow. We’ll figure out how she got here and what happened, as well as how long it’s been. I’m honestly pretty curious about it myself.”

  Mari curled in closer as she studied the stars, their constellations likely foreign to her.

  “Anise probably knows a bit, if I ever cared to ask. Her own age is a good indication of how long we’ve been on Sylpharia, at least. We don’t know how long she might’ve remained in stasis on arrival, but there’d be a minimum idea of how many years.”

  Speaking of the girl herself, she was off ‘hunting,’ as she’d put it. Kris had decided it wasn’t a good idea to ask.

  Instead, they both curled up together and let the night claim them with sleep beneath shining stars.

  Bright lights bore down on Kris as she startled awake. Mari moved twice as fast, having tumbled in a quick roll, already crouching behind the wing of the ACV with her Remera in hand.

  “Well, now.” A gruff voice said, somewhere in the direction of the lights. “Look at what a surprise we’ve found ourselves.”

  Kris did her best to clear her eyes as she fully drew herself into a crouch behind a downed tree they’d made camp next to.

  “Looks like a kiltie and some human girl. You know, it’s dangerous to travel alone.” The voice sounded snide, but by the harsh edge to it, the owner had to be a fair bit older, or had really messed up his throat at some point.

  Kris looked towards Mari, and quickly caught Aria as it was tossed her way. With a quick flick, she got the catalyst into the weapon and watched the ammunition tracker inform her of a full charge.

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  “Don’t even bother with your weapons. We’re jamming all the signals that run them fancy magnetic toys you Kilties love.”

  Kris had to fight herself to not grin at his surety over that belief. Even if she’d been using a magnetic weapon, that wasn’t how they worked.

  “Let’s keep this civil and clean. No need to paint the beaches red tonight.”

  When they still didn’t respond, he chuckled in confident amusement.

  “Nothing to say?”

  Mari finally piped in. “You didn’t say anything that needed a response.”

  He seemed to pause at that, then spoke more quietly, clearly asking someone else nearby. “Did I not? Remind me what I said.”

  That was followed by someone repeating his exact words back to him in hushed tones that barely reached Kris’ ears.

  Meanwhile, Kris was getting used to the amount of light shining on them. She could make out three larger vehicles on six wheels each, all mounted with equipment and ramshackle weapons that looked more like the result of a baby’s first welding machine than anything properly designed and manufactured.

  “Alright, fair enough. How’s about we discuss things in the open, ladies?”

  Mari flashed a few quick hand signals to Kris, who then nodded.

  “Discuss what?” Mari asked.

  The voice boomed even louder, enthusiastically. “How you’re gonna hand over all your food and gear to us.”

  Kris barely peeked out of cover, just enough to aim Aria towards one of the vehicles where all the lights seemed to be coming from.

  Then, the vehicle let out a sharp scream of metal from an implosion as the center deformed and crushed inwards, along with a nasty sound of something flesh and bone being caught inside the compacting mess.

  The lights went out just as a scream emerged from a man’s throat as he howled in agony.

  That sound would be fuel for plenty of nightmares to come.

  Mari followed the sudden darkness with a flash of fire that spread out in a wave around the second vehicle barely a second afterwards.

  By the time Kris had her aim centered on the third vehicle, she heard footsteps behind her, running their way. Mari had given her the signal to handle the vehicles, and she trusted that above all else. Her aim stabilized, and then the third vehicle joined the first in crumpling even as a single man leapt out of it, his friend inside being too slow to avoid the center of the gravitational force that compressed the center into a ball.

  Then the footsteps from behind stuttered as the situation there shifted.

  “Face me! Come claim your just reward for a life poorly lived!” Mari’s voice shouted, sounding both heroic and intimidating at the same time as steel sung out from a scabbard.

  Kris turned in time to see Mari engaged with her sword, a crossbow hanging from a strap around her shoulder. In quick dance-like steps, the people that were rushing at them with junky metal scraps as clubs crumpled to the ground like puppets with their strings cut.

  Then screams echoed from the night as the men in the direction of the three vehicles announced their terror.

  Without much to do, Kris kept her eyes on the move, covering Mari’s back.

  It didn’t take very long, given how poorly equipped the bandits had been.

  After the screams finally died down, a small girl stepped out of the darkness while using a strip of cloth to wipe the blood from her chin. And she was licking her lips, too. One green and one blue eye shone with delight as she tossed the cloth into the fire pit.

  “Anise? If you were out there, why did you let them sneak up on us?” Kris demanded, feeling more than a little annoyed.

  Anise shrugged. “I didn’t actually know if they were bandits until they did something bad. I’d hate to prey upon some random village militia or something.”

  At that, Mari rejoined them as she wiped her blade clean and resheathed it. “Could’ve warned us.”

  Another shrug, though without rebuttal at that.

  Kris groaned as she began to study the results of their handiwork, yet simultaneously tried to ignore the gore mixed in.

  The vehicles were unrecognizable hunks of twisted metal, but the corpses were easy enough to identify. Sylphariens, most likely, with more than half having blonde hair in the typical imperial color. All of them looked like they’d been stuck using scraps and cobbling together gear from repurposed junk.

  “This one is alive.” Anise said, hoisting a particularly pale specimen to his feet and tapping his cheek with deceptive force.

  The interrogation didn’t actually amount to much, effort-wise. Anise had complete authority over the delirious man after having gorged herself on his and his friends’ blood while they were completely incapable of fending her off.

  The results were interesting, though.

  They’d been from Hallitheen. About a decade prior, they’d been run out of the city by some hulking woman with orange hair. The entire ruling class had been kicked out of the city and given enough food to last a week.

  Things had grown dire as they realized none of them had the skills to actually make things needed to thrive on their own. Their only way to navigate was with wind sailers designed to take them across the sand or shallow ocean currents.

  They’d slowly run out of supplies and subsisted on grass and the occasional fish. Attempts to leave the region had resulted in deaths spiking too high to risk it.

  In essence, the gang of bandits were just the ones who knew enough to get by but were too cowardly to take any sort of gambles on a way out.

  For ten years. It was insane, but Sylphariens didn’t actually need much sustenance to barely survive. And they’d turned to ambushing anyone they saw to steal a little extra food or clothing.

  What was really interesting was what he said about the area near where Uriel Point would be.

  “Everyone who goes in that direction dies on the spot.”

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