Onboard the armoured truck heading back to the command post, Lorian and Alaric found themselves sitting on a metal bench with the Vanguard Yuna and two other soldiers on the opposite side. On the outside, other soldiers were either riding on the roof or hanging on the sideboard as the vehicle carefully moved along the street.

  Lorian slouched forward with his arms resting on his lap. He stared at the wall behind Yuna and the soldiers, trying his best not to make eye contact. He felt odd sitting in the truck of their perceived enemy, especially considering that he had only fought against them less than a year ago. Alaric, on the other hand, seemed unbothered and remained calm as he leaned his head on the wall while smugly staring at the stone-cold soldiers.

  Yuna, assigned to monitor their two guests closely, felt the tense silence between them to be a little deafening. After their heated conversation in the graveyard, they hadn’t exchanged a single word along the way. Beneath her serious mask, regret was building up in her heart, reflecting how estranged she had become from Lorian after they were separated. The bonds from years of growing up together felt wasted after their relatively short separation led them into differing paths altogether.

  Secretly, she did miss those old bonds. So, to kill the time while trying to rekindle the same sentiment in Lorian, she broke the silence:

  “Hey, um… Lorian?”

  “Yeah?”, Lorian coldly turned his eyes toward her.

  “I just wanted to ask… after everything settled down on the night of the incident, where did you go?”

  “I… wandered for a while before finding a cave to sleep in”, he slowly recalled.

  “How did you feel back then?”, she asked some more.

  “Lost… and lonely”, he answered.

  “So, you were left all alone, too, huh?”, she commented.

  “Too?”, he questionably repeated.

  “Hadrick was already unconscious by the time you disappeared. I couldn’t carry him, so I had to leave him behind to save myself”, she guiltily confessed.

  Lorian stayed silent after listening. He had learned of that from Matina and understood that Yuna wouldn’t be able to carry Hadrick by herself. While he may disagree with what she had become, he never harboured any blame toward Yuna for leaving his friend.

  She added: “Sometimes, I wondered… Had the three of us survived the ordeal together, things might have turned out differently”.

  “We wouldn’t feel as lost as we did, and we might’ve made better choices afterwards with three brains together”.

  “What do you mean by ‘better choices’?”, he warily asked.

  “Umm… like, finding our way to Tachyon together so we could take proper refuge there?”, she said.

  Hearing ‘Tachyon’ immediately killed off Lorian’s interest in continuing their conversation. He replied: “Hmph! I knew it. With whom you have become today, of course, you’d say something along the line of going to Tachyon”.

  He looked elsewhere while saying: “Sorry, but if you still think that you could make me inclined toward aligning with Tachyon with words alone, you’re mistaken, Yuna. I’ve seen enough to see through the lies”.

  She felt hurt listening to Lorian speaking so arrogantly to her. Even when she wasn’t parroting the United Federations’ words, she realised that Lorian would remain vigilant on her as long as she continued to be a vanguard. Not that she was willing to give up on her loyalty to Tachyon for his sake, but she had hoped that he would at least not see her as a permanent enemy.

  “No, Lorian! You’ve misunderstood!”, she tried to win him back. “It wasn’t even about Tachyon specifically—”

  “It’s that… our old friend, Catarina, could’ve given us the help we needed”.

  “Catarina?”, Lorian's eyes widened, surprised to hear that long-unspoken name. He turned his gaze back onto Yuna.

  “Yes, she and her family were doing well in Tachyon. Her father had helped me through a lot when I had only arrived there, and I’ve been living with them for a while now”, she truthfully said.

  “The Ambersaps... I remembered how the adults in Tragula used to call them arrogant and selfish for leaving the village. So, they came to help Yuna in the end?”, the thought crossed Lorian’s mind, realising the irony.

  “Oh, so… they still care about Tragula after all this time?”, he asked.

  She replied: “They do. Cat even told me that if there had been other survivors, her dad would’ve done everything he could to help them too”.

  “Really?”, Lorian intrigued. “But, didn’t the Ambersaps leave Tragula because they were getting hated on by many of the villagers? Are they really going to help everyone?”.

  “I believe so. Though… I think it would be better if you talk to Cat directly. She happened to be in this city too, so I’ll see if I can bring her to see you”, Yuna casually said.

  “Huh?! She’s here too?”, Lorian was deeply shocked.

  .

  .

  .

  Arriving at the military command post in the city, formerly a park, now filled with portable office cabins and reinforced tents, Lorian and Alaric were escorted into one of the cabins and were left waiting in there by themselves for a while. It was a nicely decorated cabin with simplistic elements, with white cushioned chairs, cosy lamps and a few ornaments placed on the cabinets. There were tinted windows that let them see the outside, to which Alaric stood before one while saying:

  “Hmm… one-way windows that block the outside, with a welcoming interior. They must’ve placed us inside a guest cabin”.

  “Well, that’s assuring. At least we can assume that they see us as guests, not captives”, Lorian responded as he gently sat nearby.

  Alaric slowly turned around and faced Lorian with crossed arms: “I must say, your dynamic with your old friend really is an interesting one”.

  “You were both unyielding in your current resolve, yet both of you shared similar memories to ponder upon together…”

  “Why do you find that interesting?”, Lorian questioned.

  He fondly smiled: “Well, it’s nothing on its own, really. But it had me wondering, is returning to nostalgia the only way to calm down the fire of disagreement?”

  “Because, to me, it felt like we’re just reversing time. Or more precisely, like turning back to the earlier pages of the storybook. I find it rather… unsettling”.

  “What’s the problem with that?”, Lorian asked.

  Alaric answered: “You see, turning back to the earlier pages may bring us to the moment when the story was happier and more na?ve. But the later pages have been written down, so regardless of how many times we go back, the story would unfold all the same”.

  “But, that’s a storybook. Surely our lives aren’t like storybooks, right?”, Lorian responded.

  “You mean, by going back, things could’ve changed?”, Alaric asked him.

  Lorian pondered for a moment, carefully deciding on how to answer. As much as he wanted to answer ‘yes’, he knew that the world didn’t work like that. Eventually, he said: “Not that we’re actually changing the past, but looking back to how it all started can surely give us a better direction, would it not?”

  Upon listening to his answer, Alaric closed his eyes and took a deep breath. The answer appeared to weigh heavily on him, as he reflected on every part of his journey and wondered whether what Lorian said could hold up.

  He muttered: “Looking back to get better direction, huh…”

  Just as they had finished chatting, the cabin’s door opened up. Their attention was immediately drawn to it as they saw a military officer walk in with Yuna behind him.

  He stopped by the door and greeted them: “Good evening, Mr Ashwood and Mr Vither”. He delightedly smiled at them with dignified confidence.

  Both of them replied to his greeting politely before preparing themselves to talk with him as the officer came to sit in one of the chairs facing them.

  “Well, well…”, the officer in his honour-decorated grey uniform leaned back on his chair. “Look how far you’ve gotten. Your crew went from being an unimportant airship crew down on the footnote to becoming the most infamous one in all of Equilibria”.

  “And it’s all thanks to you, Mr Lorian Ashwood”, he gazed toward Lorian’s serious face. “Your ‘specialness’ has led you to become one of the greatest disturbance forces in all of Equilibria. Everyone had their attention on you”.

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  He then moved his gaze to Alaric: “That’s to say, you probably wouldn’t have made it without the help of your uniquely capable crewmates”.

  “Before we continue, allow me to introduce myself. I’m Sergeant Brent, or you could also call me Commander Brent. I’m a strategic negotiation officer from the Triple I.O.. Put simply, I regularly negotiate with my foes, be it Rustbed pirates or Everbloom rebels”.

  “Now, I believe that Yuna had given you offers that you couldn’t resist. That’s why you’re here, aren’t you?”, he asked.

  Lorian quickly stared at Yuna, who was standing guard behind Commander Brent’s chair, before redirecting his attention back to the sergeant: “Yes. We want you to clear the Strife Striders criminal charges in Tachyon and free our friend, Finley Delaney, who had been captured by the local authority there”.

  “Quite the high demand, don’t you think?”, Commander Brent commented.

  “Those are what were offered by her”, Lorian replied.

  Commander Brent chuckled lightly, before continuing: “Sure, but at the same time, would you be able to fulfil our demands as well?”.

  “And what are they?”, Lorian asked.

  “Let’s see… You have taken our artefact and claimed that it has helped you in uncovering the truth behind the Tragula Incident. Additionally, throughout your disappearance, we have been digging up other intel and found that you’ve once shown the bracelet’s power with a Golden Iris inquisitor back in Vostreurhiel”, he said as he set his eyes on Lorian’s wrist, where the Contact Bracelet rested.

  “You… knew of that already?”, Lorian was surprised.

  “Of course, we do. You’d think a military superpower like ours would just twiddle our thumbs while waiting for you to reappear and tell us?”, he bragged. “Let’s just say, everything from this world that you know of, most likely, we knew of it first”.

  “But whatever secrets are held by the Contact Bracelet are definitely not of this world, which means you get to know it before us”.

  “So, do you see where this is going?”, he asked.

  “You want the same secret I shared with that inquisitor?”, Lorian guessed.

  “No, for everything you’ve shown to that inquisitor has already been collected by Seirion’s Golden Iris, which has been secretly leaked to us already”, he said.

  He leaned forward and stared directly into Lorian’s eyes, ominously saying:

  “We want to have the answer to what you’re looking for: who was the culprit behind the Incident, and what is he capable of? I believe that the angel ‘Matina’ must’ve told you about it already, am I right?”.

  Shiver travelled down Lorian’s spine as he heard the sergeant mention Matina’s name out of the blue. It terrified him just how persistent the Tachyonians are in knowing everything, that even their adjutor’s name ended up in their hand.

  While he appeared anxious in front of the sergeant, he secretly consulted Matina via the Contact Bracelet:

  “Matina, you’ve been silent this whole time! Help me here! What should I do now?”

  Matina replied: “Calm down, Lorian. There’s nothing to be worried about here. Just told him about Marcus Gray and what he was doing”.

  “But, Alaric’s here. He still doesn’t know the whole truth about his teacher”, Lorian argued. “Plus, how should I describe what he’s capable of without revealing more about you and your power?”

  Matina replied: “Alright, just say this to them…”

  In the moment when Lorian was talking to Matina, Alaric noticed that Lorian had been looking in his direction anxiously. He had already suspected that Lorian was talking to Matina directly, but it made him wonder: “Why is he looking at me? Is there some secret he and Matina have been hiding from me?”

  “So, what do you say, Mr Ashwood?”, Commander Brent continued.

  Lorian spoke up: “Well, here is what I’ve learn about the culprit that unleashed the Heavenly Ray…”

  After almost an hour of spilling highly valuable intel to the strategic negotiation officer and defending against his persistence in digging up more than he deserved, Commander Brent finally left the guest cabin with Yuna. Inside, Lorian and Alaric were left all alone once more.

  “My goodness, you sure give out everything to them, did you?”, Alaric expressed.

  Lorian replied: “Well, there’s more to that—”

  Alaric quickly plugged Lorian’s mouth shut with his hand and slowly whispered: “Shh, don’t let your guards down. We’re still in enemy territory here”.

  Pulling Alaric’s hand down, Lorian said: “But, aren’t they gone?”.

  “Look up that black bulb on the ceiling. That’s the kind of CCTV that records both actions and words spoken in this room”, Alaric points toward the device in the dark corner.

  He continued: “Whatever you’ve shared with them, that should be it. Don’t let them get more, okay?”.

  Lorian nodded.

  Shortly after, the door of the cabin was knocked. It was Yuna, and she came to tell them:

  “Alright, just as you requested, your airship has been allowed to land properly in Nova. They’ll be arriving at the airport in a couple of minutes, so you can come out and wait for them already”.

  Yuna and some other soldiers escorted them back onto their truck, where they then brought them to Nova’s airport, now directly controlled by the Tachyonian Military.

  Just like all the other airports in Equilibria, the airport wasn’t built with runways, but with piers and platforms where airships could descend and anchor down like normal ships, just that the ground below was dry. It had clearly seen better days, as the airport’s original structures with their traditional Everbloom elements were all in bad shape, while shiny and intrusive Tachyonian additions like cables and antennas only made the whole place more of an eyesore.

  “Wow, look how ‘beautiful’ the Tachyonians have made this airport into”, Alaric said sarcastically as they walked onto the main platform.

  “So, this is Nova’s airport, huh?”, Lorian expressed as he gazed around. “By the look of it, it must’ve been affected by the civil war as well, I believe?”

  “It does. Even before the Civil War actually started, this place kept being bombed by both sides of the rebels. It’s pretty impressive, actually, how most of the stone bricks remained mostly intact after getting pounded by missiles and magic repeatedly”, Alaric said.

  As they were chatting by themselves, suddenly, Alaric caught a glimpse of Yuna coming over to them with two other girls of her age by her sides. He told Lorian about it:

  “Hey, kid, look over there. It seems that your friend is coming over with someone”.

  Lorian turned around and squinted: “Hmm, who are they? And those blue vests look familiar, don’t you think?”

  Eventually, the girls arrived in front of the two gentlemen, and Yuna introduced her friends to them:

  “Hey, Lorian, Mr Vither. You still remember that I promised to bring Catarina to you, right? Well, here she is”.

  “Uh… Hey, Lorian. Still recognise me?”, Catarina waved at Lorian.

  Lorian dropped speechless for a moment as he tried to curb his disbelief that the girl in front of him was his friend from long ago. His mental image of Catarina was still stuck back when they were 11, and to see her now grown-up and matured put his brain to an abrupt halt.

  “Catarina… you’ve changed a lot”, he slowly said with eyes widened.

  “Well, I’ve been living in Tachyon for years now, so it’s no surprise that I look very different today”, Catarina replied.

  Between Catarina and Lorian, both had a feeling of awkwardness toward one another. Apart from surging nostalgia and eagerness to ask many things, the facts remained that to Catarina, Lorian was labelled as a dangerous individual to the United Federations; and to Lorian, Catarina and her family had voluntarily sided with Tachyon. Despite the warm faces on the surface, deep inside, both were trying their best to be vigilant against each other.

  While the two were waiting for the other to talk first, the third girl at the scene, Miranda, interjected with zero regard for sensitivity. She openly joked to Lorian’s face:

  “Wow, so you must be Yuna’s and Caty’s friend who stole the artefact from the museum, huh? You reckoned you could rob a bank for me, too? That’ll help me get rich fast… hehehe”

  “Miranda!”, Yuna scolded, “Don’t be saying things like that! You’ll put everyone in trouble!”.

  She then apologised to Lorian and Alaric: “Uh, sorry for my friend’s loose mouth. Her name is Miranda’s by the way, and she got to Nova with Cat as volunteers for Tachyon Help and Aid Organisation, or THAO for short”.

  “Volunteers?”, Lorian questioned.

  “Yup, we came here to help the locals with aids donated from Tachyon. Giving things like books, food donation, medicine… that sort of stuff”, Catarina replied.

  Lorian continued: “So, were you sent to Nova specifically, or did you choose to be here?”

  “Oh, that? Caty chose it up for the two of us…”, Miranda answered while casually resting her arms on Catarina’s shoulder. “We could’ve gone to Rustbed instead and joined in with our other friends. But she dragged me here because she misses her homeland or something…”

  “Well, it’s not that!”, Catarina defended herself. “The person at the sign-up booth said that because of my Everbloom heritage, I could be invaluable in helping connect THAO with the locals better”.

  *Ahem* “Anyway, Yuna told me that you have something important that you wish to ask me, isn’t it?”, she continued.

  Lorian spoke: “Oh, yeah! I remember now. I wanted to ask…”

  “Do your family still care about Tragula and its people after all these years?”

  Catarina’s sunny expression changed to a more serious one after listening to his question. She crossed her arms and breathed deeply before speaking: “To be honest, with all the problems the villagers had with my family, we shouldn’t have any good reason to care. After all, we lived a much easier life in Netrino City as compared to Tragula”.

  “But then, despite everything, we sometimes couldn’t help but wonder: how are those who didn’t have problems with us doing right now? People like you guys, or some of my dad’s friends, for example”.

  “When the news of the Tragula Incident reached us, it changed us altogether. You could say that… we felt guilty. If only we had brought others too with us, my dad said”.

  “For me personally, I believe that despite the issues we had, the people of Tragula didn’t deserve an ending that horrible…”

  Lorian continued: “So, had you found other survivors from Tragula, would you still help them, regardless of their history with your family?”

  “To be honest…”, Catarina spoke, “Before I got to this city, I told my parents: if I were to find anybody from Tragula, regardless of who they are, I would offer my family’s help to them, just like how we did to Yuna”.

  Yuna interjected: “And guess who she did find here in Nova, outside of me, of course…”

  Lorian quickly realised who Yuna was referring to; it was him.

  “Surely, I’m not the one you’d expect, right?”, he awkwardly presumed.

  “You’re right. It’s funny, actually. Of all the villagers of Tragula that I could’ve found, I ended up finding the one who had caused the largest problem in Tachyon instead”, she gently smiled.

  “But, my promise still stands, since I explicitly said ‘regardless of who they are’. After all, when I first saw your face and name on the news, I thought that you must’ve been so lost and misdirected that you ended up doing dirty work for others”.

  “I regretfully said back then: If only I had found you earlier, you wouldn’t been in all of this problem”.

  Catarina stared into Lorian’s eyes with pitiful eyes and said: “So, if you’re still looking for a proper direction to your life, I’ll still be here for you”.

  Her eyes and voice really moved his heart. It made him feel guilty to learn that his old friend had been worrying about him while he himself chose to be doing what he was doing back then. It made him feel conflicted, knowing that he could’ve taken the easier path to continue his life after the incident. It made him question: “How would I have turned out had I received their help instead? What would’ve happened if I were to accept her offer?”

  As he was drowning in confusion, his eyes suddenly noticed the shadow of an airship passing on the floor beneath him. He looked up and saw that the rest of the Strife Striders and their airship had finally arrived at the airport, slowly descending into their anchoring position.

  Looking at the airship, memories of his journey with the Strife Striders flooded his mind. All the ups and downs, the friends and foes they made along the way, and the experience they had gained together, brought him to a realisation that, without it all, he would’ve been a different person altogether.

  He wouldn’t have known who destroyed Tragula, why he obtained the special resolite and what the angels they worshipped really are. Most importantly, he wouldn’t get to see how the 150-year-long war waged by the two empires that shaped Equilibria as he knew.

  As he turned his gaze to Alaric, the man only crossed his arms and calmly said: “Looking back to how it all started can surely give us a better direction, would it not?”

  Lorian smiled, realising that Alaric just said back what he told him back at the command post. With better confidence, he turned back to Catarina and told her:

  “Sorry, Catarina, but I think I’ll pass…”

  “For I know I already have a direction and guidance going forward, and I assure you that it is the one you won’t find regretful”.