See, I'm thinking the important thoughts. Good for me. I pat myself on the back internally.
Finished with your business in Pneuma City now, huh? Tymon presumed.
Yep, now to move on to Forgeton, I replied with spunk before a thought occurred to me, lowering my enthusiasm. Hopefully it won't take as long...
I doubt it will. Forgeton only has a handful of regions. It's not nearly as big as Pneuma City.
Thank God, I sighed with relief. Between you and me, I don't know how much more of these greetings I can withstand in one day.
You're doing great, he chuckled lightly. Everything's good. It's safe for you all to come here.
Suddenly, I felt a heavy hand placed on my shoulders and jerked around to see Tymon standing behind us.
"How'd you...?"
"I came here too before heading to Forgeton," he answered. "Now that you're here, shadow traveling will be the fastest way there."
He transformed to gain access to more energy, then touched a vertical shadow cast on a crumbling wall, bringing it to life. Can't lie, that still creeped me out a little bit.
"Ty, transporting this many of us will be draining, and you already seem a little tired as is," Za'Fia said with concern. "How'd you end up like this in the first place?"
"Group of klevonians tried to kill me last time I was here. Then there was a misunderstanding with the Ryfa Pakt," he stated nonchalantly. "Doesn't matter though; I spent most of the time on meditational healing to regather my strength."
When we stepped into the shadow and emerged on the other side, we were in a stone-and-metal military base. There were a handful of buildings that looked like homes that circled a tall tower with "S-Z" engraved on it, before it stood a statue of a woman half its size, and enclosing the whole area was a metal wall.
But before us stood a uniformed female klevonian with long, braided, brown-and-blue hair. She was dressed in a cute, brown, military-style one-piece with several silver latches, buckles, and a utility belt. She wore a silver open-front skirt that matched her silver cloak. On the cloak was a brown "K.A." insignia. Around her floated four strange, cindium-based, saucer-shaped objects.
Her name was Luna, also known as The Moon General. She was a 3.5-star threat with an EQN of 47,009,980, a resonant blade, whatever that was, and a mystic cintracy called Moon Break. Hm. Bet that's where she got her name. It was strange, though: despite having no elements, she was ranked relatively high as a 3.5-star threat. Even most Crest Heads were only 3 stars.
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"Welcome to Forgeton! I'm Luna. I'll be escorting you for the time being," she greeted us, standing confidently.
"Thanks, I'm Alissia," I beamed as I extended a hand, but was met with a brief moment of awkwardness as she looked at my hand curiously.
"Oh, do you not shake hands here?" I asked her hesitantly.
"No, I mean, yes, we do," she quickly accepted the handshake. "Sorry, it's just that I've never met a klevonian quite like you. Or him," she nodded to Avarice.
"Yes, we've been met with your curiosities already," Avarice stated impatiently. "If you don't mind, can we move along?"
Luna blinked, stunned at his lack of manners, before letting out a strong laugh.
"Well then, follow me," she said politely, ushering us as we headed toward the tower.
When we approached it, we passed by the giant statue on our way in.
"That's our second Ryfa Pakt, Savita," Luna shared proudly. "She's the most distinguished and respected of the many Ryfa Pakt in our history. She was a legend of her time."
"She's beautiful...," Za'Fia commented in awe.
"She was killed by Apollos, the first Ryfi Theos, right? I mean, that's what we were told in Pneuma City," I stated, looking up at the imposing statue, then covered my mouth. "Wait, I'm sorry, was that insensitive?"
"A little," Luna gave a small laugh, "but it's okay. While we all respect her and will always do so, we acknowledge that it was before our time. Even those of us who still practice the ancient tradition of memory trailing can't hold on to the anger of an event from so long ago."
"Memory trailing?" Avarice inquired.
"The klevonians who lived through that period began a tradition of passing the memories and love for Savita down through the generations. It's very similar to sharing a memory with someone you've established a telepathic link with, but you also pass on the emotion if the emotion is strong enough. But while the memory remains, the strong emotional attribute loses its potency over the ages. Now, we all can see how she was, and the things she did for us, which is why we still hold her in such high regard, but the associated hatred after her death has faded."
"For most of us anyway," she laughed again. "Nowadays, it's less of a hatred from an age-old incident and more like an anxiety or angst about a potential enemy. We all can feel the rising tension in the air. Just as we klevonians are designed to seek battle to get stronger, pneumarians are naturally paranoid, and that paranoia has historically led them to oppress or outright destroy other species. So, we do our best to maintain this status quo to prevent any incidents, so long as our people are respected and treated fairly. We don't want any more wars."
"Hmph," Avarice chuckled condescendingly.
"Something funny, pale one?" Luna asked passive-aggressively.
"Yes, but who am I to spoil things for you?" he grinned slyly.
Reign it in, we don't want to tip them off if they are involved, I told him telepathically.
"The statue, it wasn't here earlier," Tymon commented, thankfully getting Luna's attention.
"It was lowered when the alarms went off after your arrival. We take keeping it cleaned and respected seriously," she replied, opening the door for us.
We entered one by one as she stood holding the door open. I looked around at the others and noticed Za'Fia had found her way next to Tymon. She seemed in a lighter mood, as I noticed her color had gone from a bluish-gray to a greenish-pink. She had perked up now that Tymon was back with us.
Once we were inside, we made our way to the top of the tower, where we entered a secure room where five figures stood around a circular table as they wrapped up their discussion.
"This is unprecedented. Why are we—"