I wasn’t sure what I had said exactly that made Kassie look at like that. She hadn’t given a yes or no answer — just that look, the kind that made you feel like you’d stepped on sothing sacred without realizing it. The whole atmosphere curdled into sothing awkward, and I ran out before I could make it worse.
I thought about Maggie too. I hadn’t had much ti to communicate with her because she still scared the shit out of . Every interaction felt like walking a tightrope over a pit of sothing hungry. And I certainly didn’t want to end up with another near-death experience.
’What’s her deal? Even Kassie wasn’t this annoying...’
Granted, Kassie was soone who hated the church as much as I did. We had that common ground, at least — a shared enemy made for easier conversation. Magdalene was soone who served the church. Although I felt like she knew deep in her heart that the Church had betrayed her, she seed very reluctant to believe it. There was a wall there, thick and old, and I didn’t know if she’d built it or if they had.
’Maybe she didn’t see enough evidence before she died?’
I didn’t know the thing with zealot folks, but there was sothing about them that unsettled , sothing I never truly could understand. Take the pretty boy for example. He was strong, seed quite intelligent too. The kind of person who should’ve been able to see through bullshit like it was glass. And yet he gave himself to such obvious propaganda play.
’Or is it not obvious to them?’
One could not truly say. And to be honest, I didn’t want to care too much. I was very reluctant to. Because caring for their perspective felt like it was going to bring so much nuisance that I didn’t want to deal with. It was easier to hate from a distance, to keep them as shapes in my mind rather than people with reasons.
I just wanted to raze the religion to the ground. After rescuing Emma, of course.
But then I thought of other religions. I rembered Nisha ntioning that there were about six religions in Ealdrim, each with their own thod of indoctrination. It just so happened that the Radiant Faith was the strongest and most practiced.
’I wouldn’t say just so happened... they had to have put terrifying effort. Kassie tore them down eight thousand years ago. But here they are... still standing.’
Eight thousand years. That was a long ti to nurse a grudge, a long ti to rebuild from ashes. But ? I was going to eat and leave no crumbs. Kassie left crumbs when she fought them, and that could’ve been the only way they were able to grow back. They had to have been roots and seeds she had overlooked.
With Kassie, Maggie, and the other villainesses I’d be getting, I was going to create an army and destroy the church with the precision of a surgeon who wants to steal organs during a procedure. Clean cuts, leaving nothing to regenerate.
My gaze sharpened as I lay atop the upper bunk with my hands curved behind my head. My eyes were fixed on the ceiling, watching nothing, thinking everything.
Thinking of the future, and trying not to think of the past.
It was tough here. So many things I’d had to adapt to — things that were so difficult at first but now had beco the shape of my life. For example, the thought that no one was coming to save my ass. That was a hard one to swallow, and it still caught in my throat sotis.
I couldn’t easily dial 911 here. If soone decided to fuck up, if I couldn’t protect myself, then I might as well start saying my prayers. And I wasn’t the praying type.
My situation, of course, was unique because of my villainesses. But what if...
This what if was another drive of mine for growing stronger, especially since Kassie had expressed without words that she was not going to take part in my childish banters with other humans. I was on my own for the small stuff. Maybe the dium stuff too.
I stretched my hand out towards the ceiling and squeezed it into a grip.
’Get a grip of your own future.’
Then my whole room shook.
Not a gentle tremor — a violent lurch that threw against the wooden railing of the bunk. I propped myself up imdiately, scanning the cramped space with narrowed eyes.
The ship trembled again, harder this ti, accompanied by a crashing sound muffled through the walls but impossible to ignore. It was sothing that didn’t just scream — it traveled through the bones of the vessel itself, vibrating up through the floor and into my teeth.
I jumped down and lurched outside, sprinting across the hall of rooms toward the deck. Crew mbers poured out of doorways around , a chaos of half-dressed bodies and shouted curses.
"Hiaaaa, what in the gods’ balls is that?!"
"Ah, fucking Solaris, I was just beginning to sleep!!"
"I swear it better not be Nollem ssing up the mast again!"
Everyone sprinted through the narrow passage, shoulders colliding, and in monts we were spilling onto the deck— too, despite my aching body screaming at every step.
When I got to the deck, though, and slowly raised my head, my body seed to forget it was aching.
It all just went cold.
Everyone on the ship was running around screaming:
"Hold the mast!"
"Weapons!"
"Set up the turrets! Open the damn turrets and stop looking like a bamboozled fool!"
"I... I... I’m—"
The sky had darkened above us, thick clouds rolling in like sothing had summoned them. Thunder cracked across the heavens with a fervor I’d never heard before — not weather thunder, but sothing alive, sothing responding.
And then I saw what they were all looking at.
Never in my life had I set eyes on sothing as monstrous as this.
’Goddamnit! Can’t I catch a break!’
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