As he turned onto a narrow street, he bumped into someone.
"Ouch," Lucid muttered.
Before he could step away, an arm grabbed the back of his head and pulled it toward the figure he'd just collided with. Panic flared instantly.
'What the—'
A voice came sharp and unyielding.
"Where were you?" Two simple words, but they carried weight enough to make his pulse spike.
He tore his head away from the person's chest, taking a deep breath to steady himself.
Lucid would normally sense danger. Again and again, in crowds, in social situations, he remained blind as anyone else, unless the person carried genuine ill intent. For some reason, that particular type of threat always registered.
He looked up at the figure standing before him, taller than himself, a body both elegant and softly curved, giving way to pale skin visible at the shoulder and collar. Dark robes concealed most of her form except for that exposed shoulder and upper thigh, the effect somehow both graceful and intimidating simultaneously.
It was Ayame, apparently in her full form now, uncharacteristic of her usual restraint while moving through towns and cities.
'Maybe she's trying to make a point,' he thought.
Lucid looked her up and down. Seeing no immediate threat, he relaxed his shoulders.
"Oh, it's you," he said.
"She's the one you shared your blood with," Alice remarked within his mind, her tone carrying pointed interest. "Still find it fascinating that she accompanied you all the way here. Is this my competition?"
He didn't reply. Alice was becoming increasingly skilled at teasing and probing around his thoughts.
"Sorry for bolting away like that," Lucid tried explaining, omitting certain details for reasons he couldn't quite articulate even to himself. "I just saw something at the edge of my vision."
'Could I trust her with everything?' he wondered internally. 'Could I?'
She looked at him and managed a faint nod.
"I will accompany you," she said. "Arthur is preparing for departure."
She spoke slowly, softly, her voice carrying an unexpected quality that eased something tense in his chest despite himself.
"She's even soothing you through mere conversation," Alice remarked dryly. "Talk about demon magic."
"She's not," he hissed internally.
"Denial," Alice sang. "How very on brand for you."
He looked up. She observed him through deep, abyssal eyes, standing there quietly like a sentinel awaiting his command.
Then she turned.
"Wait," Lucid managed.
She turned back, lips parting slightly in question.
"Thank you," he said, "for helping me inside that domain."
Ayame observed him silently. She didn't reply, didn't smile, showed no visible reaction whatsoever.
But Lucid noticed it anyway. Her eyes softened, just barely, just for a moment.
Then she turned again, looking back over her shoulder before stopping entirely.
Lucid stopped too.
She turned fully toward him, gesturing forward with her hand.
"Can you hold my hand?" she asked.
Alice spoke within him immediately. "Oh, a marriage proposal. The demoness is proposing. Should I start planning the ceremony? I do enjoy a good ceremonial ritual."
He tuned her out, lingering for a brief moment before finally acknowledging Alice's continued running commentary.
Suddenly, involuntarily, his hand jerked upward and held hers.
'What the—'
"Oh, this is exciting," Alice noted with far too much enthusiasm.
He looked up. Her eyes carried a slight red tinge, diluting the darkness that usually filled them completely.
She gestured for his other hand.
This time he took it consciously.
'That wasn't me,' he thought, realizing something significant. 'Last time I checked, blood manipulation wasn't something she was capable of.'
"Fascinating," Alice mused. "You're being puppeted and you still sound annoyed rather than terrified. Truly, your priorities remain intact."
In that instant, her form began shrinking slightly, meeting his gaze while retaining the same plumpness and delicate features, though her hands felt notably softer now instead of hard.
She breathed out slowly.
"Touching you helps my blood circulation," she said in a low tone, holding his gaze steady.
Lucid suddenly withdrew his hand, clearing his throat.
"Yes, anytime," he said.
Alice threw another comment his way, though he initially tuned her out.
"Is this what you've been doing during my absence?" Alice asked, mock disappointment threading through her tone. "Holding hands with mysterious blood-manipulating women? And here I thought you missed me."
"Indeed," Lucid said triumphantly, more to spite her than anything else.
Suddenly he felt pain unlike anything else. He clutched his chest against the brick wall beside him.
"Was that necessary?" he wheezed internally.
"Absolutely," Alice replied cheerfully. "Consider it divine correction."
His so-called divine partner was now giving him a divine heart attack, apparently her preferred method of relationship maintenance.
Ayame reached out, worry crossing her face.
"Oh, look at her worrying for you," Alice said, delight evident in her tone. "How touching. Truly, be still my nonexistent heart."
"Shut up, you bitch!" Lucid snapped internally.
Suddenly the hand holding his clamped down with unrelenting force. Ayame wore the same blank expression, but the softness in her eyes had sharpened considerably.
He felt genuinely scared. Ayame and anger never combined well.
"I meant nothing," he said quickly. "I was just cursing myself."
"Smooth recovery," Alice remarked, sarcasm dripping from every word. "Truly, a masterclass in damage control."
She let go, though she didn't nod or offer approval, simply kept her eyes fixed on him.
"You take it back?" Alice asked.
"What a good boy."
Something twitched within him at that condescension.
"Hey," he thought bitterly. "How about I throw this makeup in the river, huh?"
Silence.
Nothing.
"Yeah, like that thought," he muttered, unsurprised by her lack of response.
Ayame seemed to notice his internal struggle, though she said nothing about it, simply watching him with that particular blend of sharpness and patience that made him feel perpetually assessed.
They moved into the market streets together, passing a specific vendor along the way.
"Oh, Lucid, how about we stop here?" Alice proposed, sudden interest coloring her tone.
Lucid looked at where he was walking, finding a particular vendor's stall catching his attention. They sold items that were, his eyes widening slightly with recognition.
"These are electronics," he muttered.
What he saw amused him despite the strangeness. An old radio with a rusted antenna, looking like something buried and forgotten, left in the ocean, then eventually pulled out again.
He saw destroyed gadgets resembling phones, thoroughly wrecked beyond recognition.
He scanned the stall, cataloging everything methodically.
A handgun, cut cleanly in half.
He spotted a ventilator, a street sign propped against a crate.
These were all items from Earth.
"How curious," Alice remarked, genuine interest replacing her earlier teasing. "Relics from your homeland, scattered across a market stall in this realm. Fascinating."
He looked at the vendor, an old man reading nothing but a newspaper, completely bald, wearing glasses perched low on his nose.
The vendor looked up at Lucid.
"Oh, that jacket looks familiar," he said.
"Didn't I just sell that?"
Lucid looked down at himself, at the life jacket he still wore. He'd put it on during their beach visit, when Arthur had strapped it on him like it was nothing unusual.
Come to think of it, he'd never actually asked where Arthur had gotten it, or what it truly represented. He hadn't even considered it strange, as if a life jacket in this medieval fantasy world was somehow the norm.
'What even counts as normal anymore,' he wondered.
He'd seen trains flying through voids via rails that materialized from thin air. He'd witnessed holographic projections displaying images with startling clarity.
"You do have a habit of encountering technology that shouldn't logically exist here," Alice observed.
The Scattered Realms, for all its gritty medieval aesthetic, didn't feel technologically backward at all. There were rumors of a faction so technologically advanced they weren't even considered part of the Scattered Realms proper, a faction no one dared confront directly. He'd heard they possessed weapons of mass destruction, being the origin point of the Celestial tracks and golden pathway railway systems.
He'd thought it might be Vex, but no, not when he considered it further.
He looked around, then addressed the vendor directly.
"Did a young man with blue hair purchase this?" he asked.
The vendor nodded, still glancing at his folded newspaper.
"That young buck is one heck of a haggler," he said. "And here I thought knights of Vex were noblemen, always throwing around sacks of coin wherever they went."
"Seems that wasn't the case."
That confirmed Lucid's suspicions.
"So this place, these things, what exactly are they?" Lucid asked.
"Huh? Do you live under a rock or something, kid?"
Lucid stiffened slightly.
"Well, you do sleep in a train," Alice pondered helpfully.
He ignored her.
"These are antique relics of a prophecy named Earth," the vendor explained.
"Guess it fits," Lucid muttered.
"So this Earth, where is it?"
The vendor looked at him as though he'd asked the most obvious question imaginable.
"Ha? Kid, you might as well ask me where the hell heaven and hell are."
"I have no clue," Lucid admitted.
He glanced at Ayame, who watched everything with quiet detachment.
The vendor pointed his thumb toward Lucid.
"Was this friend of yours born yesterday, lady?"
She looked at Lucid.
"He called me a bitch," she said flatly.
"Oh, she's not letting that go," Alice commented gleefully. "Excellent. I approve of her memory retention."
The vendor studied Lucid with visible scrutiny, the kind that made him feel like his very bones were being examined.
Lucid tried steering the conversation elsewhere.
"Well, I mean, where did you get these, if this so-called prophecy of Earth is so great?"
The man considered the question.
"I bought them, obviously. They're super rare. Some of these are worth as much as half a diamond."
"Five hundred platinum?!" Lucid muttered. "That's expensive."
"Indeed," the vendor continued. "I managed to acquire them from a mutual friend who works in Everlight."
"These antique relics are from the very Archives of Tomorrow."
"Archives of what?" Lucid muttered.
"Your friend might have dementia," the old man sighed, addressing Ayame directly.
"Anyway, are you buying or not?"