“Stay here for me, Umbra,” she said and turned back to enter the building. There had been notebooks and scraps of paper on a table there, along with a number of mismatched pens and pencils.
“I’m sorry to use this without permission,” she said, not knowing the objects’ owner and thus not exactly sure to whom she was apologizing. Still, she felt compelled to express her remorse aloud. She picked up a notebook slightly smaller than the one she and Noctis had used, as well as a pen.
In a rushed scrawl, she wrote, I’m safe. She would have liked to add the date, but she’d forgotten to ask Sol about the current month and year.
She dashed back outside to find Umbra faithfully waiting just beside the entrance to the building.
“Please,” she asked the Messenger. “See that Noctis gets this.”
Umbra had always managed to convey the notebook safely to Noctis before, no matter where he was. Even when Lunafreya had been cloistered in the training grounds, and when she’d been hiding away in Altissia, still the dog had managed to relay their messages without trouble. So this new message would surely find its way as well.
“Please hurry!” she pleaded, but Umbra stayed firmly planted in place, shaking his head from side to side.
I can’t, he seemed to be saying.
“Why won’t you go?” she asked.
But Umbra only stared back in silence. Though the dog did not speak with the words of man, he was still a Messenger of the gods. If he refused her plea, there must have been some reasonable explanation.
“You cannot,” she surmised. “But tell me. Noctis is safe, yes?” she asked again, at which point Umbra nuzzled against her.
Everything will be okay, he seemed to say. Please don’t worry.
“Do you mean to say it is not yet time for us to reunite?”
Umbra’s tail began waving more vigorously than before. She gently embraced the dog’s warm body.
“Then I shall wait,” she said. “Thank you, Umbra.”
Umbra gave one more wag, tail held high, and then he was gone. Lunafreya let out a small sigh. It was the first familiar face she’d seen in this new world into which she’d been thrust so bewilderingly.
Speaking of which, where was Gentiana?
She felt certain Gentiana had been there at the end, right as she slipped into the slumber of death below the waves at Altissia. It would have brought so much comfort to see her again. Until Umbra’s appearance, it hadn’t seemed a possibility. Perhaps Gentiana, too, was aware that the Oracle had returned to life. And if Umbra could visit, surely Gentiana would be able to as well.
Lunafreya thought of the many things she wished she could tell Gentiana regarding what had transpired, and of the many questions she wanted to ask. The outpost was not far from Tenebrae. Surely a visit was not out of the question. The thought sparked new strength and determination within her.
When Lunafreya turned back toward the motorcycle, Sol was still speaking with the woman named Cindy.
Sol had been ready to thank the gods when she finally got through to Cindy. The bike was in bad shape. She’d been worried half to death that it might be beyond repair, that it would have to be scrapped altogether. But Cindy, ever the genius mechanic, was making everything all right again.
And she was doing it all over the phone, to boot. Cindy had rattled off questions on how the bike was behaving, which Sol answered as best she could. The answers must have been good enough, because Cindy almost immediately seemed to understand what was wrong and started giving instructions for how to get the bike up and running again.
And the level of detail! Cindy had it all covered, right down to which parts weren’t kept on hand at the outposts, and what Sol could use as substitutes for their repair.
“Yeah, I think I’ve got it,” Sol said, once she’d located everything they’d need. “Thanks, Cindy. You’re a lifesaver.”
And Cindy had replied, in her usual upbeat tone, “Aw, honey. Don’t you worry about it.”
“Hey, while I’ve got you,” Sol ventured, her voice suddenly hushed, “something kinda weird happened. Wonder if I could get your opinion.”
Sol glanced over her shoulder. The Oracle was busy playing with some stray that had found its way to the outpost. She didn’t seem to be paying the least bit of attention to the call with Cindy. Perfect.
“I ran into someone. The Oracle.”
“Say again?” Cindy said, her voice shooting up an octave. A reasonable response, to be fair. There wasn’t a soul on the Star that didn’t know the Oracle died in Altissia ten years ago.
“That’s who she claims to be, anyway,” Sol continued. “Think there’s any chance she’s for real?”
Cindy fell silent. It took a while for her response to finally come.
“Well, honestly, I don’t know what to think” was all she said.
That seemed like a reasonable reaction to Sol, too. She didn’t know what to think, either, even with the supposed Oracle standing right before her eyes.
“Anyway, wonder if you could pass the word on to, y’know, Gladio and the rest of ’em,” Sol said. “Sooner’s probably better than later.”
She intentionally tiptoed around titles, referring to the Shield by name and avoiding the word “Kingsglaive,” too. Cindy would know what she meant and get word out to those in charge at Lestallum.
Out of the corner of her eye, Sol noticed the Oracle looking in her direction. The dog was nowhere to be seen. It must have run off. Time to wrap things up, before the woman got suspicious.
“Okay, then, I’ll talk to you later. Thanks again, Cindy,” she said, and ended the call before Cindy could reply to the request.
“Hey,” she turned to the stranger. “Sorry to keep you waiting.”
Sol casually waved the woman over, and the Oracle hurried near.
“My friend Cindy gave me the rundown on how to fix up the bike. I’ve never had a crash this bad, so some of this is kinda new to me.”
There was a good way and a bad way for a bike to fall. A good fall didn’t leave more than a few scratches on the rider or the bike. Sol had always been a natural, ever since’d she started riding. She’d taken some spills, but never bad enough to really mess the vehicle up. So she’d never had to learn how to do serious repair work.
“I truly am sorry,” the Oracle said, her shoulders slumping slightly. She seemed to have taken Sol’s earlier jab to heart and really did feel responsible for the accident.