Lunae always felt she had a considerable amount of patience. Never before had she any reason to doubt that. Not until she met Sonera. The silent girl was still caked in the blood and grime of the day before and was seemingly uninterested in her own preservation. For reasons unknown, she could do nothing but wait for Yrix's next trial.
"Sonera." Lunae sighed, kneeling down next to the girl who remained in the exact same position she had been in since the first trial ended. "You need to eat something, please."
Sonera did not respond.
Lunae reached for the girl's hand, finding it limp and cold to the touch. "You fought very hard. You saved me. But your body won't heal on an empty stomach."
She still did not respond.
"If you don't take care of yourself. You'll die. No amount of rage will change that."
Still no response.
"If you die here. You won't get to fight Yrix."
Nothing.
"If..." Lunae stammered. "You won't get to remember him. And you won't be able to protect me."
Sonera stared up at Lunae with a menacing glare. But Lunae, who was typically frightened with ease, didn't move an inch. Her determination to help her new friend clouded all other senses.
"What happened?" Sonera spoke with conviction. "Where's Lunae?"
"What do you-." Lunae hesitated, realizing she was about to be trapped in the one corner she had been trying to avoid since she first spoke to Lila.
Sonera knew her type. She knew it well. Lunae was the kind of girl to feign her weakness and timid nature to seem harmless and approachable. It was a fine tactic. If she ever broke character, she could chalk it up to simply caring about a person. That sort of thing worked on Three.
"Don't even," Sonera muttered, putting her face back into her own little shell. "I know."
Lunae couldn't help but fall in, her voice breaking up and her breath becoming heavy. "Sonera I-."
The soft-voiced girl released an agitated gasp. Shuffling herself next to Sonera, she placed the back of her head against the wall, practically slamming it into position. Lunae was annoyed. Primarily at herself.
"You're right, Sonera. But not in the way you think you are."
Sonera replied sharply, picking at her own fingernails as her hands remained clasped around her shins. "This doesn't mean I'll leave you."
"That's not what this is about."
"Lunae. You don't have to keep up an act for my protection. If that's even your name."
Sonera suddenly rose to her feet, placing a hand on Lunae's shoulder. The girl hardly had time to fix herself in response, her bare feet splayed out across the floor as she twitched with fright at Sonera's touch. She didn't quite know how to feel yet.
"Just stick by me tomorrow. It will be alright." Sonera finished as she began to leave for the dining hall.
"Wait!" Lunae reached out to her, grabbing the girl's hand, its surface still eerily cold. "There's something you should know."
"..."
Lunae spoke as softly as ever, only this time with a tinge of agitation in her voice. It was as if she had been deeply offended. Like she had something to prove. "It's what you don't know, Sonera."
Sonera stared blankly.
"You DON'T know me." Lunae continued. "And that's...acceptable. You're right in pointing out how easily I'd keep it that way. But please...don't assume."
"I understand that pain." Sonera nodded, her voice still monotone. "But let people assume. It's easier that way."
"No!" Lunae cried out, her passion causing her hair to shift for a brief moment, revealing her second eye. "I refuse! They don't know me! And they don't know you! The real you!"
"You'll get over it." Sonera gently pressed her second hand onto Lunae's hold, signaling for her to let go. "I did."
It was rather quiet in that part of the room. But just beneath the audible sounds of Sonera's footsteps was Lunae's stifling rage. She wasn't the kind to lash out like Ivy, or bury it inside like Sonera. She couldn't even deflect like Lila. All Lunae could do was cry, trading Sonera's position as she assumed a similar pose.
She hated being misjudged. It was all her mother ever did for her. And it was all her people ever did to themselves.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - -
"So, are we going to just pretend we don't exist to each other, or will someone break the silence?"
Rena stood with her arms crossed, facing the three other girls who remained. Two of them appeared to be twins of sorts, distancing themselves from all others for reasons unknown. And as for the third girl, who was currently staring at Rena for an uncomfortable length of time, she was a different case entirely.
"The names Alia."
Rena blinked twice, trying to get another good look at the girl who just spoke. Her skin was of a much darker complexion, and her hair seemed to be unusually well-kept in its silky smooth state. She had a plain demeanor, yet an extraordinarily exotic apparel all at the same time.
"You have...purple eyes." Rena scowled. "Was that before or after Yrix?"
"Before." Alia ran her fingers through her straight black hair. "I was already something of a Psion before I came here. Not up to Yrix's standards, but certainly enough to take care of myself."
Rena crossed her arms. "Is that why I haven't seen you much?"
Alia was the cocky type. It didn't take a detective to figure it out. She was already leering at Rena with her whole body, bending her waist to the side, and placing a balled-up hand onto her hip. As if to prove a point, she curved her lips with anticipation before winking with her left eye, dissapearing in a shimmer of Psionic energy.
"Oh," Rena whispered, trying in vain to locate the girl's purple-tinted trace. "That explains it."
"Don't worry now," Alia spoke in a sinister tone as she whispered into Rena's ear from behind. "We won't have any problems, you and me."
"That so?" Rena squinted her eyes with suspicion. She did her best, showing restraint, knowing full well how satisfying it would be to swivel around and flick Alia in the nose. "How come?"
"Because I highly doubt you'll survive Yrix for long. All I need to worry about is whoever ends up being her prized pet. Or did you really think she'd have us fight a common enemy forever?"
And with that, Alia dissapeared once more without a trace. Only Yrix could say for certain where she went, or what she was even doing all day. But Rena didn't have time to worry about that. All she wanted to do was warn Lila, whom she felt vaguely loyal to.
"And here we thought one psycho was enough." A shrill, raspy voice called out to Rena from the top of a nearby bunk bed. "Now we have two."
Rena turned to see two identical girls staring down at her, dressed in the same black lace dresses covered with ribbons and bows. They seemed to each sport pigtails of sorts, with minor variations in the black crystalline pins that dotted their dark hair. Unlike Alia, who evoked imagery of a young sorceress from a fantasy novel, the twins seemed more like an uptight cleaning service from a persnickety hotel. Or at least that's how Rena saw them.
"Oh, you mean Sonera? She wouldn't hurt a fly." Rena replied with a smile. "Trust me. She's not that kind of crazy."
"How would you know?" The twins spoke at the same time.
"Because I grew up on a flotilla. I've seen enough crazy to fill a lifetime. And I know both Alia and Sonera's type. Not the same." Rena explained, placing both her hands on her hips as a sort of mockery towards the girls she had become agitated towards. "Trust me."
"Well...that's fair, I suppose." The twins shrugged before pointing towards each other, their feet dangling in unison off the edge of the bunk bed. "We are Mina and Dina. Pleasure to meet you, miss..."
"Rena. And the pleasure's all mine. You two seemed like well-behaved kids."
"I'm afraid the bar is quite low on that count." Mina tilted her head, speaking on her own with a distinctly raspy voice.
"What? With the spoiled Castillo girl tramping around? That's fair, I suppose." Rena chuckled. "Where are you two from?"
"Nowhere in particular. We wander with our two brothers." Dina smiled, smacking her lips with her distinctly shrill tone. "Bounty hunters. Good at their job. Probably looking for us now, poor things."
Rena frowned, her thoughts turning towards something painful. "I'm sorry to hear that. Yrix took a lot away from us."
"How come you haven't changed your outfit completely?" Mina spoke abruptly, changing the conversation almost as fast as she rolled over onto her back, looking at Rena upside down. "It's kinda weird."
"Well, to be honest...I'm not sure how. I saw Sonera do it for a bit. And that little brat gave herself a whole makeover. But I genuinely have no idea how they did it." Rena shrugged.
"Ask Yrix. I'm sure she'll explain." Mina yawned, her boredom becoming apparent. "But basically, you just turn your memories into reality, using the fabric Yrix gave us. Pretty flexible stuff, she knew what she was doing."
"Your memories?"
"Yeah." Dina smiled, showing her perfect white teeth as she nodded her head. "We loved the kind of fit we've got on now since we were girls. Love it almost as much as our brothers love their stupid armor. So when we focused on it, the image and the feel, it sort of just...happened."
"I'm afraid I don't have any iconic outfits in mind." Rena laughed, realizing she was probably the oldest, most mature student left standing. "But I get now why Ivy has one. Stupid little c*nt probably has a whole dresser full of perfect clothes."
"Well...that's a shame." Both twins averted their gaze, ending the conversation on a bitter note. "Nice meeting you though...I guess."
Rena turned to leave, unsure of how to feel. One student was genuinely threatening, and the others felt like they were lost in their own world. At the very least, she didn't feel like her day could get any weirder.
Yrix had other ideas.
- - - - - - - - - - - - -
Sonera wasn't one for small talk. In fact, she wasn't one for talking at all. But something about Lunae's words left her thoughts scrambled and unfocused, as if whatever message the girl was trying to convey had been seared into her mind. It left Sonera feeling something other than concentrated rage at Yrix, and that upset her deeply.
She was so bewildered, in fact, that she bothered to talk to Lila on her trip down the hall. Something about Lunae had rubbed off on her. The way that girl spoke, her soft, soothing accent, and the way certain syllables stuck to her lips were indeed hard to forget.
"Lila." Sonera turned to her acquaintance with a spark in her step.
"Oh." Lila scratched her head with a smile. "Hi Sonera. Is everything okay with Lunae? I was about to go talk to her, but she seems...kinda upset."
Sonera looked down at her bruised feet, unwilling to admit she had done the damage. "Tell her whatever she wants to hear. How are you, Lila?"
"I've been better. Yrix has me running circles around myself, and Ivy still hates me. But the worst part is that I still have no idea what I'm really doing here."
"I know what you're doing here." Sonera pointed at Lila with one of her robotic gestures.
"You do?" Lila shrugged. "No offense, Sonera, but you don't seem to be the observant type. I mean...have you looked at the mirror lately?"
Sonera ignored that remark and focused on her best attempt at a pep talk. "You are here to survive, Lila."
Lila tried not to chuckle a little, placing a friendly hand on Sonera's shoulder. "And there it is. Brutally simple."
"I'm serious." Sonera squinted. "You will survive, Yrix. And you will find whatever it is you are yearning for out there, stronger than ever."
"Why?"
"Because we can't let her win."
Lila's shoulders heaved as she stared at Sonera with a judgmental smile. "Practicing your small talk one-liners on me, huh? Lunae really have you that tied up?"
Sonera frowned, flicking Lila's hand off her shoulder. "I've never known you to be a disengenuous person."
"It's not disingenuous!" Lila giggled. "I get it!"
"Get what?"
"Sometimes...we don't know what to say, so we practice on other people in different conversations. And I'm not one to judge, Ivy's had me flat-footed since I met her."
"I see." Sonera smiled. "I accept your explanation. Perhaps I am...not as focused as I should be."
In a strange act of affection, Sonera patted Lila on the head before turning to leave with another one of her blank expressions. It was a blunt gesture, but Lila understood. Behind all that unbridled ferocity, Sonera had a knack for noticing people. And for what it was worth, she appreciated Lila. Maybe someday she could even call her a friend.
"Don't forget to shower!" Lila called out.