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Pain. A sharp one.
Eunie jolts awake, clutching her right eye. Just as it always does, it hurts—even more so than the last time. The feeling of something sharp stabbing into her eye...but she can do nothing to stop it, not even heal it completely; she can’t even cure it temporarily, as though to relieve the pain for a moment.
Thankfully, the flash of pain doesn’t last too long. It stings a bit, yes, but she can quit clutching her eye now.
Finally putting her hand back down, she looks around their tent. A bit dark, but bright enough to tell no one else is awake, if she couldn’t already tell by all the snoring.
Well, then. She lies back down, staring right at nothing in particular. There isn’t much to stare at, anyway. It’s a snuffing tent, after all.
It’s pretty sparkin’ weird, she thinks. Not everyone remembers...whatever happened in their past lives. Queen’s feathers, even Eunie herself doesn’t remember much besides her— no, past her’s final moments. And to make such a strange rarity even worse, there’s a special gift to come with it: this snuffing needle-like pain in her eye.
She hasn’t told the others directly, but they’re certain to have noticed. Taion, of course, knew, considering they read one another’s minds once they interlink. None of them ever spoke about it, though, save for her partner’s single inquiry about it. ‘Sides that? Zilch.
She’s kinda grateful knowing they’re not trying to pry into it. Though they will eventually, she feels. When the pain gets bad enough, they’re sure to ask about it. She can already tell they’re worried, anyhow.
She’ll talk to ‘em eventually. Just gotta wait for the right time. There isn’t really much to talk about, though, is there? They already know about her being aware of previous Eunie’s life, even going to Colony 5 to investigate Gold-ranked colonies, much like the one past her’d been assigned to.
“What would I even say?” Eunie mutters to herself. “‘Hey guys, I’ve got this unbearable sparkin’ pain in my eye that I can’t seem to heal! No biggie, though, right? Alright, hop, hop! Continue on!’”
...
“Queen’s sake,” she hisses. There’s no way she’s falling back asleep with all these crap-filled thoughts in her mind. Standing up, she makes her way out of the tent.
She’s greeted by, albeit incredibly dark, the sight of Colony 11.
...Right. She’d forgotten they were here.
She walks around mindlessly, surveying the area around her. Normally she’d be a tad bit more on guard thanks to all the psychos residing here, but it seemed there was barely anyone awake besides the soldiers keeping watch for sudden attacks, so she didn’t have much of a reason to.
A bit of a shocker if you asked her. No idea why, but she’d assumed it’d always be chock-full of training soldiers even ‘til this hour. Guess not, though.
“Huh. Even maniacs need some good ol’ shut-eye, s’pose.”
She continues walking, taking in the sight of the colony. Honestly, ignoring how insane the inhabitants are, Colony 11 is downright wonderful. Makes sense; while they don’t exactly receive help from the Queen or a Consul anymore, it was still a Silver rank colony. Bonus points for it being Kevesi... It adds a slight feeling of nostalgia to it.
Eunie finds herself stopping her little adventure at one of the corners of the colony. She grabs the black bars of a very familiar ladder, huffing out a laugh.
Climbing up this watchtower every time she and the gang visited Colony 11 had become natural for her at some point. She has no idea why or how it happened, but it did. A load of Ardun crap, to be honest. Still, she always found herself sitting atop the tower, watching nothing in particular, and, of course, it would always be by Ashera’s side; she seemed to like this place even before they’d met. Every time Eunie had come up here, the taller woman was already found seated, having her fair share of the view, or was there getting comfortable beside her a few moments after the winged girl had arrived.
This time, once she reached the top, Ashera was already settled in her usual spot, closer to the right. As usual, she walks over to the girl’s side.
“Aha! There you are, dear. I was starting to think you wouldn’t show up this time!” Ashera turns around, assumingly having heard Eunie’s footsteps. She waves excitedly before patting the spot next to her. “Welcome back to our humble abode!”
Eunie makes a face but tiredly waves back regardless. “You call this our abode?”
“Well, I don’t see why it wouldn’t be! Obviously, this colony is already my home, but the watchtower is different, is it not? I come here often, you come here often, and we hang out, sitting down and watching the sky... It’s like our own little hideout!” Ashera grins.
She rolls her eyes, taking a seat on her usual side. “Yeah, sure. You can call it that, I guess.”
“Then it’s settled! Our little hideout, it is!” the girl chuckles. “Anyhow, it’s awfully late. Care to let me know what you’re doing up here?”
“You’re the one who was here first... Well, whatever, I just woke up and couldn’t fall back asleep, is all.”
“Nightmare?”
“Huh? Nah, wasn’t that. What made ya think so?”
“You don’t look much like you’re in good shape, if you haven’t noticed. So, you’re just tired, then... Well, I suppose the mighty Ouroboros don’t get much time to rest, do they?”
“Yep, that. Just tired,” Eunie lies. It was believable, probably, as she was pretty tired too, besides the whole eye pain thing.
But spark all, said pain ruined the whole believable part. She groans, a flash of pain hitting her, and quickly clutches her eye once again.
Ashera’s quick to react. “Wha— Eunie? What’s wrong?”
It wouldn’t be easy to lie about this now, considering it’s just the two of them here, but she figures she doesn’t really have a reason to anyway. She decides she’ll just tell her the truth; not like anything bad’ll come out of it.
...But she’ll do that once she’s able to. Right now, all she can do is wince at the pain. It won’t be long ‘til she can think straight again, though. The aching hits her like an explosion and leaves like a storm.
Ashera stares at Eunie, her eyebrows furrowed. She places an arm around her, surprising the girl a bit, but keeps it there until the pain subsides.
Just a few moments, and the pain slightly goes away, with only a bit of it remaining. She puts her hand back down and takes Ashera’s arm off her. She doesn’t move away though, keeping the short distance that the other seemed to close within the short amount of time.
“Sorry about that. I’m good now.”
Ashera stares directly at her. Eunie can’t see it, but she can definitely feel her gaze burning into her skin.
“...Eunie, was that...?”
“It’s kinda like yours, I’d reckon,” she says, gazing at the stars in the night sky. “Just a li'l flare, and it’s gone. Stings a bit after it though.”
“So you really do remember...” Ashera murmurs.
Eunie nods.
“...Hey, mind if I do the storytelling this time?”
“Go right ahead. I’m quite curious myself,” Ashera replies. She closes her eyes, but bobs her head once, making sure Eunie knows she’s listening.
“Right, then. Surely as commander you know all about colony ranks, yeah?”
“Mhm.”
“Well, a while back, we made a visit to Colony 5. We were told it was a Gold colony, yet ever since they reached that rank, no one’d heard snuff about ‘em again. I got interested, so we all went to investigate.”
She grimaces, thinking back on it.
“Bodies. Everywhere. We got to a cave that led the way to the colony, and there were husks all snuffin’ over. When we finally reached the place, the answer to why was sitting right there for us.
The colony ranks are all a sham. You lot were pretty damn close to it, being Silver and all, but turns out all Gold colonies just get massacred by the stupid Consuls. Everyone assigned there gets slaughtered ‘til no one’s left. Crap’s seriously all fun and games to them.”
Ashera opens her eyes, turning to face the girl beside her. Eunie’s face is...full of anger, sadness, and fear...maybe even more, at once.
“You’re probably getting where I’m goin’ with this, ain'tcha?”
“Your colony,” Ashera stares, her gaze directly on Eunie once again, “it was a Gold one, then, I’m assuming.”
“Bingo,” exclaims Eunie. She huffs out a chuckle, although it sounded rather...sad. “All my memories of my past lives only showed me my last few moments. I had no sparkin’ idea what’d gone on in my colony ‘til that visit to Colony 5. All I’d see was me running, everyone else in the colony running, some Levnis falling right on me, and that...ugly thing...staring right at me. The last thing I could remember is the mudder stabbing me—that other Eunie—in the eye.”
She rests her chin on her knees, her body positioned like a ball. Her grip is incredibly tight, her nails digging into her legs. It doesn’t seem like she’d noticed though.
“That’s all for my story. We’re even now, ain’t we? I know yours; you know mine.”
“Yes, I suppose so,” Ashera lets out a laugh. “We really are the same then, aren’t we?”
Eunie rolls her eyes, mumbling, “That’s what I’d come to learn, yeah.”
Ashera’s laughter wears down, and her face turns neutral again. It looked like she wanted to say something, so Eunie turned to her, hoping she’d say what she wanted to.
“What is it, dear? Do you need something? Staring won’t help me decipher what it is you want, I don’t think!”
“I should be telling you that, you spoon.”
Another boisterous laugh. Someone’s bound to have been woken up by how loud this girl is. “I suppose you’re right! Though it’s not much, really. I was just thinking, ‘So my eyes really weren’t tricking me when I noticed it!’”
“Right, yeah, but there’s more, ain’t there? I can see it in your expression or whatever. Go on, not like I’ll be going back to our tent anytime soon.”
There’s a few beats of silence.
“...How about we add more to our pact, Eunie?” she finally cuts through it. “I’ll be your eyes. You’re on your ninth term, aren’t you? I doubt it’d be easy to see through your right one as time goes on. I’ll look out for any danger around you; I’ll be there to protect you, if you so wish.”
“What?”
“I’m known to have quite the good eyesight, I’ll have you know! Just one of the many great skills The Undying Blade possesses!”
“No, no, that’s,” Eunie pauses, shaking her head, “I think our pact is good as is.”
“Oh? What, you think you don’t need my protection? Do you not recall how you nearly died yesterday had I not come to your aid in time?”
“And do you not recall how you nearly died yesterday had I not healed your stupid arse quick enough?”
“I think you should be sounding a bit more grateful to someone who saved your life, dear!”
“The same exact thing goes for you, love.”
“Haven’t we gone through this? I want to die! Why should I be grateful to you for saving me?”
“‘Cause I’m pretty sparkin’ sure the place you wanna die at isn’t by the hands of some random Gogol that came outta nowhere!”
A moment of silence rushes into their banter before Ashera bursts out laughing and Eunie scowls.
“Too right, my dear Eunie! You know me quite well.”
“No one wants to die because of a Gogol, Ashera.”
“You can’t say that for sure, you know!”
Eunie seriously wonders how her patience hasn’t been completely lost with this moron.
“Still, I’m just saying, I believe it’d be a great choice to bring me always coming to your aid into our vows. Besides, you always heal me right up! I’d say it’s a fair trade for me to defend you with my blade.”
Eunie sighs. “See, you say that like you don’t already do that.”
“Well, seeing as I already do it, what’s wrong with adding it to our deal?”
“No, it just sounds...weird to have you defend me out of obligation or somethin’ like that,” she looks away, playing around with her feathers. “I honestly don’t care if you do it or not, but if you will, then do it out of your own desire, ya tirkinhead.”
Ashera’s mouth opens, as though to say something, but she closes it back. Eunie raises an eyebrow, gesturing for her to go on, but the girl only responds with exuberant laughter.
“Ah, Eunie...you truly are something. Always surprising me, you are,” she breathes out, wiping a tear from her eye. “Though, I do like that about you.”
“There are better things to like about me, but you’re pretty sparkin’ weird, so I guess I’ll thank you for it.” Eunie complains, though a smile could be found on her face.
“For real, though, I made that vow on a whim, really, but I think it’s alright the way it is. Let’s keep it that way, got it?” This time, Eunie holds out a pinky.
Ashera chuckles. “So you’re the type to make pinky promises? Unexpected, but I find it to be rather cute, so I’ll consider it one of your many charms!”
“Oh, shut it,” Eunie huffs, her cheeks getting dusted with red. Ashera giggles at the reaction.
Quickly, though, the atmosphere changes as her expression does as well. It’s certainly still Ashera-like, but there’s a look of sincerity on her. She’s managed to still look like her usual self, though a slight gentleness is found on her face. Somehow, her smile at this very moment was prettier than anything Eunie had ever seen.
“Knowing we both have some pain to deal with—something that’ll eventually drive the both of us mad—then all the more should we go through with the pact. You may not be as insane as I am, but who knows what the pain could do to you, Eunie. Someone's got to put our crazy arses down if one of us ever goes on a rampage. I already was down with this whim of yours, but now...”
She holds out her own pinky as well, locking it with the other girl’s.
“...my life is rightfully yours, my dear. And yours, rightfully mine.”
Eunie hadn’t noticed, but a tint of red may or may not have been present on Ashera’s face as well.
She lets their pinkies go, turning to face ahead of her. “Right. So it’s officially official, then?”
Ashera does the same. “Indeed! It’s ‘officially official’ now, so no backing down on the vow you started, alright?”
Eunie finds herself chuckling somehow. “I don’t think I’ve gotta say this again...but I really do promise that I’ll be the one kicking your bucket if things don’t work out. Still, it’s not like I want you to die, so...I’ve always got your back, love.”
Ashera grins, content clear in her expression, as she rests her weight on Eunie’s side. “And I, yours, dear. I’m quite sure I wouldn’t have it any other way.”