Leticia MacCready spent the long rest period she’d been given in her room, head bowed and hands in her hair. How much time had passed with her elbows on her knees, her back hunched over? Her sighs and groans led her to question if she even had the sanity to keep track of time.
What is this room, anyway...? She scanned left and right despite there not being enough in the room to see to justify looking around.
Should she just be thankful it wasn’t a cell? What she’d even offer thanks to, she had no idea.
The walls were white, the room filled with clean air. The door locked from the inside and there was no one outside of the room keeping watch. The bed she was sitting on was clean too, with fresh sheets every time she returned. The only hint of color in the room was a singular painting on the wall, and the crimson fur of the strange cat sitting in the middle of the floor. The cat sat so still it could be mistaken for a decoration, but after leaving the room and sitting in some stupid meeting for hours, she’d come back to find it had shifted in its sleep. It didn’t respond to touch or sound, though—despite obviously being alive. Even when she picked it up, it didn’t respond in any way.
It was one of the six Kings of Beasts on the continent, the beast of peace, a Fairy Dragon.
After seeing it yawn several times, she’d finally come to that realization.
“They’ve lost all five of their senses.” Azalie’s explanation was short. She must not have been very interested in the beasts. “They can’t take in any information about the world around them. It’s terrifying to think about, isn’t it?”
Azalie, her spirit sister, was in the same room. This was another fact that annoyed her, but Leticia shook her head, enduring her irritation. She was plagued by a vicious drowsiness and fatigue, but her irritation prevented her from sleeping. If she could lose all her senses like this cat, perhaps then she could finally get a good night’s sleep...
Azalie’s voice came to her ear. “You should get some sleep. There’s still two hours until our next meeting.”
Leticia looked up, cursing under her breath. Azalie was standing at the door to the room like nothing was wrong.
It wasn’t completely accurate to say she heard her voice with her ears. Leticia sighed, looking down at her hair tangled in her fingers. An even more depressing feeling bit at her. Azalie’s voice didn’t travel on sound waves; it came from somewhere else. This room was definitely bugged, Azalie had told her, but she’d also said that they had no way of listening in on their conversations.
Though initially dubious about it, Leticia had gotten used to conversing with her through thoughts instead of her physical voice.
“How many days have we been here?” she asked her.
Azalie responded quickly. “Three.”
“And how’s our progress?” Since she wasn’t speaking out loud, she couldn’t put her feelings into her words—no, maybe it was the opposite. She wasn’t sure, but she didn’t hide the dark thorns in her emotions as she asked the question.
Azalie gave no indication of whether she’d sensed them or not. “We haven’t made any,” she said, her face neutral. “Krylancelo and the Thirteen Apostles are still stuck at the spirit sorcery barrier.”
“If you know how to get them through it, you should just go and tell them.”
“This deadlock is necessary right now.” She didn’t hesitate to say this either.
“...What do you mean?” Leticia tried to ask her, though she got the feeling Azalie wouldn’t answer. When they were conversing with feelings like this, they could read each other’s responses before they came, which was neither convenient nor inconvenient. But when she could predict the answers to her own questions, it only increased her senseless irritation.
Azalie didn’t answer, just as she predicted. Instead, she said something slightly off-topic. “It seems the priestesses’ attention is split between us on the inside and the Thirteen Apostles on the outside right now.”
“...And on the goddess appearing above the sanctuary,” Leticia groaned, pointing at the ceiling.
“Yes,” Azalie agreed.
“I never thought I’d be killed by an actual goddess.” Leticia rolled her own emotions over her tongue. They didn’t taste like anything. They were neither bitter nor spicy.
But her throat was parched.
Azalie must have been sensing the same thing—even though she was one of those cursed spirits? Leticia wondered, but she didn’t ask.
Once again, Azalie spoke without revealing any of her emotions. “It’ll happen soon...she’ll complete her invasion into the continent.”
“Is there really something we can do? Is there any hope at all?” Leticia raised her voice—her real voice—admitting her own hopelessness.
When Azalie glared at her in reminder of the priestesses’ ability to listen in, she swallowed the words she was about to continue with.
“I’m only here because you said there was a way to save everyone...”
“The Celestials left behind many relics for precisely this time. Including a certain Childman they pseudo-transported to the future.”
“And will those relics amount to anything?”
This debate was one they’d had countless times before, any time there was an opportunity to have it, so Leticia knew what Azalie’s response would be—each time this happened, she said something vague and tried to change the subject.
“Since there’s a possibility Wyrd Glyphs will cease to function when Aureole meets her end, we should really summon the demon king as soon as we can...”
In the end, Azalie didn’t know the answer herself. Leticia sighed, despairing.
“Why are those priestesses against it?”
“Probably because it’s too risky...” Azalie said straightforwardly.
Leticia waved her hand, incredulous. “Still, they’re insane. Trying to abandon the rest of the continent and just save themselves.”
Their meetings were really just them speaking to one of the priestesses—specifically that composed one, Preenia. Each time they spoke, Leticia wanted to dig her nails into the woman’s skin, cold and pallid from spending her whole life in a place like this and never once being in the sun.
The man in the priest’s robes had only shown himself on that first day, but since then, Red Dragons had presided over their meetings. The priestesses had never shown themselves without a guard. It had been one-on-one in that first moment when she was beckoned to the assembly hall, but they’d also used some device to try to take over her mind.
“I don’t know if they’re just being cautious or if they’re cowards, but they only care about themselves.”
“I wonder about that.”
Leticia was shocked by Azalie’s disagreement. “...What do you mean?” she asked, and Azalie gave her a calculating look.
“Nothing,” she said eventually. “I just feel like I can understand them. I don’t think surviving is all that important to them. If they remain trapped here in the sanctuary, they’re just forced to continue with their obligations.”
She kept going without giving Leticia an opportunity to interrupt her. “There’s no life for the residents here. They spend every day just struggling to maintain that barrier. And the people they’re trying to abandon glorify their lives while knowing nothing about the sanctuary. I wouldn’t be surprised if the priestesses are just doing this out of spite.”
“Would they really be so petty?” Leticia said disgustedly when Azalie was finished.
“Of course they would. Isn’t everyone like that? You try turning into a monster and having your friends chase after you and try to kill you for five years. With your back against the wall, even you would kill Master without so much as—”
Leticia snapped. “You brought that on yourself!”
But Azalie just kept going after Leticia’s outburst, like she was talking about someone else. “You think that matters? If it was an accident, would it suddenly be okay, then? That’s not the really petty thing, though. When I got back to my original body, I suddenly started regretting killing Master and my old friends. Wouldn’t you say that’s far more petty?”
“...I don’t want to talk anymore. I feel sick. Leave.” Leticia hung her head again, a hand on her chest where it felt like the contents of her stomach were about to come up into her throat.
Still, Azalie didn’t vanish. She whispered as if to torment Leticia, as if to curse her, “I’m sure the people here would regret it if they actually succeeded in abandoning the continent... It’s easy to feel guilty after the point of no return.”
There wasn’t much difference between what was pettiness and what wasn’t. Despite her feelings on the matter, Leticia understood perfectly well what Azalie wanted to say. Maybe it was because their senses really were connected somehow. The sheer depth of her understanding surprised her.
“If you can’t accept the sanctuary abandoning the outside world, then you have to consider that the sanctuary can’t accept taking risks for the outside world either.”
Even covering her ears, she could still hear Azalie’s grief-tinged voice.