Book 5 - Chapter 35 - Minor Interlude – Rani – To Hunt a Predator I (Patreon)

AN: There's a chance I might merge the next chapter into this one. If I do, I'll post it as part B.

After Decia had joined their team, things briefly improved for Rani and the rest of the girls that labored beneath War Sentinel Solace’s vengeful whims. For half a year, they enjoyed significant successes. Shimagu survivors—small groups, never enough to outnumber their own team—were found and purged one after another. For a time, they found new enemies every few weeks, but such promising momentum couldn’t last forever.

Within two years, they were finding a shimagu or three a season. And then even that turned into a prolonged dry spell.

Rani tried—Solaris knows she tried—to get Solace to back down and abandon the hunt. She had hoped that the passage of time would cool the woman’s fervor. But even as the Legions brazenly abandoned them and left them increasingly starved for resources, the War Sentinel refused to stop. Instead, their trips to the quiet remnants of Spearpoint base became increasingly infrequent and they relied more heavily on hunting and foraging to keep themselves fed.

Despair and frustration had mounted among the other women that served under War Sentinel Solace. Rani had worked to rally their spirits as best she could, of course, but it was only by the grace of the gods that the group held together long enough for things to turn around.

Solace herself wasn’t unaffected either. Forgotten by the people that she was meant to inspire, the gleaming symbol tarnished. The gold built into her armor lost its luster for lack of polish. The white paint chipped and aged without maintenance. Even her white cape became irrevocably stained and tattered, yet she remained unwilling to ditch the impractical and oft-tangled garment. Solace was no longer a symbol for anyone, but the propaganda she embodied was still essential to her existence in some way that Rani could never hope to sympathize with.

Rani felt absurd as she carried out her daily routine. Each day they hunted, straying further and further from Remus as Decia tried to find tracks or other signs of passage that might belong to shimagu. When they made camp, she soothed the women as best she could. In Solace’s tent, she provided their leader with a [Rejuvenating Massage]. After Solace was asleep, she indulged in a few precious minutes of personal time—often spent passing silent tears, as she finally let herself properly feel and process her multitude of fears and stresses. And each and every morning, she prayed to Solaris—for a sign, for guidance to their enemies, for any assistance that the goddess could spare. Truly, anything would do…

And then one day like any other, the goddess finally answered her prayers. She hardly knew what it could mean when the sun grew in the sky and the day’s heat became perilously intense, but it was undeniably a sign from Solaris.

Two nights later, while they made camp, they received a new lead. A pale-skinned scout in Legion armor approached their camp. After the man was cleared by Solace, he reported that he’d seen a group of disparate creatures travelling together. He didn’t tarry for very long (“I have enough provisions to complete my mission, ma’am, and my search Skills function better at night.”), but his information paid off.

Five more shimagu were eliminated. The simple animals that they infested weren’t even able to put up much of a fight, but the glory of their grim task hadn’t been a concern for a long time. More ‘enemies’ that would have likely never threatened anyone or anything were permanently dealt with and morale improved, at least a little.

And from that moment, their ill luck improved. They still weren’t finding shimagu every week or anything so absurd, but they became far more successful than they had been. One month, a late-night disturbance that drew their attention led to Decia finding a trail—with three shimagu-infested hosts at the end of it. On another, a legionary scout reported an oddly jittery member of a gnoll caravan. They caught up to the caravan, and a half-crazed youth attempted to kill War Sentinel Solace with a sharpened rock. He and his parasite perished before they ever reached her, of course.

It was vaguely uncomfortable to listen to the caravan thank them for murdering a teenager, yet Solace handled it with aplomb and managed to extricate them without any unwanted gifts. Admittedly, they could have used more supplies, but no matter how detached the woman was from the world, she still possessed just enough sense to recognize her team’s discomfort.

Progress continued to be made. There was still no glory to be had, but at some point, each and every member of their group had become numb to the rank butchery of their task. A one-armed, half-starved ogre was brought down with the same ferocity the team had once used to face off against the long-eradicated twins.

Some shimagu had attempted to blend into communities of elvenoids. Others became isolated hermits that lived in squalor, struggling to eke out a meagre existence. But the rest had continued to run, as if they somehow knew that they were being pursued. With every season, Solace led them further and further from familiar lands.

New dangers awaited them, but their team was strong. Even Decia had finally unlocked her third class. But even with Solace’s half-assed healing suffusing them, they gradually depleted their other supplies that kept them hale. The healing potions were the first to be expended, followed by fresh bandages. More and more, they were forced to rely on Solace’s healing.

Yet no matter how far they roved, they continued to find legionary scouts. Some claimed to be seeking promising sites for future Reman cities, others claimed to seek possible trading partners, a few just claimed to be ‘searching for threats’ without elaborating any further, and one even admitted to getting lost—and thanked them profusely for directions back toward home.

With every group or individual shimagu they killed, they waited and hoped for a System announcement that never came. Nothing so simple as levels, of course.

Each time they erased another shimagu from Pallos, there was a chance that it could finally be the last.

“If we can’t make any headway into the damn forest, shouldn’t we assume the shimagu couldn’t either?” Tarla was the first to voice the sentiment, though it had been in the back of Rani’s mind for two days.

As best as they could tell from their extremely outdated intel, the forest was the domain of the enigmatic kitsune. Solace had insisted they make contact, just to make the kitsune confirm that they weren’t harboring any shimagu escapees. It was sensible enough. Paranoid, but a sensical breed of paranoia that they could all agree with.

Except the forest seemed to repel them. For three days, they attempted to journey into the forest, moving in a more-or-less straight line per every Skill they collectively possessed, only to find themselves back where they started. Trying alternative locations to make their forays made no difference. Attempts to announce their intentions and requests were answered only by the forest’s typical noise. And any path markers they left—no matter how forcefully or permanently they were applied—vanished the moment they took their eyes off of them.

“We should not be so quick to abandon this. If one of the vermin has truly infiltrated the kitsune, we might never complete our task. A single newly risen twin could undo all that we have done, and Remus may never know the threat has returned until we face a renewed war.” It was almost refreshing to see Solace embracing her iconic personality with such vigor once again.

Too bad she was still just as insufferable as ever.

Rani was still unwaveringly loyal to the woman, but as years passed by without more news from her family, it got harder and harder to understand why they were still trying. Every species on Pallos needed a certain minimal population or they were fated to fade away, even without anyone spurring them on. The School of Sorcery and Spellcraft’s lessons had been clear about that.

And it was all but certain that they’d already driven the shimagu well below that threshold. Moreover, what few individuals remained were scattered with the winds. Even if they had once possessed plans to regroup, it was beyond unlikely that any of them would choose to do so.

If they just returned home—if Rani just went back to whatever remained of her family—the shimagu would still be fated to die out. For Solaris’ sake, they had done their job! The goddess even guided them to strike down more, to make the end result absolutely inevitable!

It was hard to keep going. Goddess, it was hard.

But War Sentinel Solace refused to be placated. She was never going to let something as fickle as fate see her ill-placed vengeance wrought. She alone remained determined to see the last shimagu erased by her own—

Rani’s thoughts scattered as she rushed to snatch up her spear. Pentera and Decia had been the first to react, of course—Rani was just following their lead as they suddenly armed themselves.

Not that it took her long to find the cause. [Warrior], written in a pale red that was typical of someone that hadn’t yet unlocked their third class. Yet the woman had somehow managed to reach their campfire before Decia’s powerful senses or Pentera’s speedster-adjacent reflexes could react to her approach.

“Hel—” Solace was the slowest to respond, hampered by her dismal physical stats, yet even she managed before the legionary scout bothered to speak. A bolt of intangible Brilliance, undoubtedly imbued with her Void-based shimagu purging Skill, passed through the scout’s neck harmlessly. “—lo. Lovely night, isn’t it?”

The uninvited woman was seemingly unbothered by the lightshow, showing no obvious reaction to what sure as spit looked like an attack.

“How you get ‘ere, hm?” In the heat of the moment, Decia managed to misplace every single language lesson Rani had given her over the past three or so years.

“I walked. You were all quite caught up in your meeting, and I didn’t want to interrupt the great Sentinel by bowing and scraping. But since I have your attention, I would like to say that I am a big fan of your continued good work. You and your team have a work ethic that all too few can match.” The stranger’s red eyes slowly worked their way up and down Solace’s armor-clad figure.

“Thanks. Did you need something?” Rani tried to seize control over the conversation before anything else could go wrong.

“Not really, I just stopped by to rest my sandals for a moment. I mean, I’m sure such wary and astute women as you all are heard the scuffle off that way just as well as I did. It’s been such a long time since I heard the shimagu tongue, after all.” The scout waved vaguely to the north-east, before she switched to fiddling with her laminar breastplate.

The woman was more than merely suspicious. Especially since they were camping just outside the presumed territory of masters of Mirage that had already misled her team multiple times over the past three days.

Not that Rani could muster even the tiniest bit of surprise when Solace announced that they would set out to investigate at first light. The woman’s zealotry was far too irrational to be concerned about a dubious source.

There were two logical possibilities. Most likely they were either walking into a trap, or they were sent off on a wild raptor chase that was even more pointless than their usual directionless hunt.

“You’ll all wanna see this.” But, as unlikely as it seemed, Decia’s awed words suggested that they were on the right track.

They followed their scout as she retraced her steps, moving in close-knit formation. Conventional Legion doctrine recommended a widespread approach, to prevent a single [Mage] from eliminating an entire squad, but their unique circumstances changed the formula. Tarla’s Skills largely required those that she protected to be very close and they would be up a creek if a shimagu managed to eliminate Solace—or, to a lesser extent, Hestia or Axia—with a surprise attack.

Not that Decia seemed to be terribly worried. As they picked their way through the underbrush, she was oddly animated, smiling nonstop as she led them through the untamed wilderness.

The reason why was somewhat obvious, once they arrived.

A small section of the woodland had been utterly devastated in a pitched battle. Broken trees were scattered across the ground. Conjured or manipulated stone littered the area. But the most eye-catching bit came in the form of four dead ogres—large, muscular brutes just like the shimagu’s preferred combat hosts.

And each of them had been ripped apart so thoroughly that it was obvious at a glance, even before they drew near.

Wary of a trap, the group moved to the center of the forcefully cleared area, then Rani, Tarla, Pentera, Umbra, Prima, and Decia roved outward in an expanding spiral, leaving Solace and the [Mages] safely in the center. The immediate vicinity was eerily silent, yet there was no trace of any threat.

“Dead shimagu here.” Axia held up a stick with a runny goop trail connecting to the back of an ogre’s bloodied skull, as the physical classers made their way back to the others.

The other ogres were much the same. They weren’t just dead, each and every one of them had been brutalized. Something had slashed open the bellies of two of the ogres, gouged out the eyes on a third, and the fourth was a mass of minor but exceedingly numerous wounds—mostly gashes, as if it had been slashed by claws over and over again.

Axia had found the only ogre that was missing much of the back of its throat. For the others, they had to desecrate the corpses to check for parasites.

“Dead shimagu. Less than twelve hours. Host’s been dead a bit longer, I’d bet.” Tarla announced.

“I’ve got one too.” Umbra confirmed.

“…Empty.” Rani wished that she could be surprised, she truly did.

But it was hard to miss that her ogre—the blinded one—had tried to drag himself away from the area before he succumbed to his wounds.

“What coulda—could have even done this? The conjured rock sure looks like they’d tried to restrain whatever it was and failed.” Decia finally released the question that had probably been bubbling at her lips since she first discovered the scene.

“Therizinosaurus, maybe?” Hestia chimed in.

“Un-bloody-likely. I’m not as good as Decia is, but I don’t see any dinosaur footprints here.” Pentera shook her head as she checked under yet another tree branch, looking for more clues.

“Decia, we can make guesses later—see if you can find the trail that brought them in or any sign of tracks leading out. Pentera, once she has the route the ogres came from, you have five minutes to check to see if there’s anything interesting back that way.” Rani handed out orders, since Solace was still too busy examining the dead ogres.

If their overspecialized [Healer] could glean anything from the bodies, it was a better use for her time than having her pretend to be a [Leader]. There was a reason Rani had taken a class for it when she unlocked her third.

A short time later, Pentera took off on her assignment, right about the time Solace finally stood, shaking fallen leaves out of her ruined cape as she did.

“This wasn’t done by a knife or a sword. Even the crudest blade ever made would have left cleaner cuts. The ogres were killed by claws, short ones. Whatever did this to them didn’t even have terribly sharp claws, this was a feat of strength. There was also…” Oddly, the tarnished icon seemed to be hesitating, which was rather unlike her.

“I found a trail! Footprints. Human, I think.” Decia’s excited voice interrupted whatever Solace was grappling with.

“Mark the trail for Pentera; we’ll start moving. Decia, keep within sight of the main group. Be vigilant, we don’t know if this is an ally, infected by our missing parasite, or if it’s some sort of monster.” Rani gave her order after soliciting a nod from their Sentinel.

There weren’t many good explanations for what they had found. What could leave human footprints, yet claw its way through four ogres that seemed to have been in remarkable condition until they had the misfortune of meeting whatever slew them? Rani’s mind kept wandering back to a rare threat, something that supposedly hadn’t been encountered in Remus for centuries—yet had been confirmed beyond their borders.

Changelings. Murderous creatures that could replace ordinary people of any species. Their capabilities were… murky, with historical records seldom agreeing with one another, but most intelligence agreed that changelings ate the victims that they replaced. And if a changeling could eat an ogre, it stood to reason that they could tear an ogre apart.

The idea that a shimagu might have infested such a lethal creature was something of a nightmare scenario. It wouldn’t change the fact that the shimagu were doomed to die out, but if one of them gained such a dangerous host… Well, it wasn’t hard to imagine them seeking revenge instead of fading away in some hole in the ground.

They had to put it down.

…Goddess, it had been a very long time since Rani felt half so motivated.

The trail was impossible for Rani to track, but Decia remained confident in her ability to follow it as they moved. She found fragments of the shallow footprints, missing leaves, or bent underbrush—traces that were too subtle for Rani to find them, even with their scout pointing directly at them—and kept them moving at a decent pace.

She was their only hope, since Pentera's own investigation found nothing of note, but the pressure never seemed to bother the ex-slave. If anything, she was in her element and she offered them a bright smile alongside each and every report she gave them while they progressed.

Or at least she did until the moment they found their next unexpected scene. From there, Decia was just as visibly baffled as the rest of them were.

“It just… fell.” Decia confirmed what they could all see.

Powerful tracking Skills were hardly required to see the obvious. The handprints were deep where their quarry had finally tried to force itself back to its feet, and the upturned dirt and fallen leaves could have only been caused by a clumsy tumble.

But why? Unless someone was stupid enough to let their stats become wildly unbalanced, tripping and rolling like a small child was next to impossible. Once someone leveled much past 320—and it was hard to imagine that anything could have caused the devastation that they witnessed without a level significantly higher than that—even [Mages] were reliably steady on their feet. And it wasn’t like there were any insidious hazards in the vicinity! There was no trace of roots poking out of the ground, nor any rocks in the area. They were almost out of the woodlands too, and the growth in the area was thinner as they reached the outer edge of the wild.

There wasn't even any signs of blood being spilled anywhere along their journey to indicate that the presumed host was suffering from a severe wound.

Even stranger, it plainly took multiple attempts for their quarry to right itself and stay on its feet. Even once it accomplished the feat, the trail became suspiciously easy to follow—as though the entity had spontaneously transformed into a bumbling toddler! But no, the deep and brazenly footprints were a match for an adult human woman, which was alarming in and of itself.

Sure, there were a lot of creatures with similar feet, but Rani’s changeling theory felt more probable than ever.

They continued their journey. Decia couldn’t find any trail except the stumbling, shuffling one, but she remained vigilant for any sign that the entity tried to leave a false trail or double back. The group whispered their theories to one another as they progressed, but no one had anything that was even remotely compelling. An elf might have been able to rip apart the ogres, but it was hard to imagine that they could be so clumsy. The foot size and gait were all wrong for a dwarf or orc. And while the System could give anyone claws, it was hard to imagine that the Legions would have allowed any scout to have such an ineffectual Skill in place of the more typical recommended loadouts.

Rani kept her theory to herself.

“We’re close. Less than two hours out. But something else is weird. Anything past three occurrences ain—isn’t a coincidence any longer. Usually when trails are hours old, I see other tracks cross over ‘em, and I haven’t been seeing that this time. And four times now I’ve seen the tracks of animals—fresher than these—stop before they got too close and turn back.” Decia chewed on her lip nervously after she finished her latest report.

“Any noteworthy scents?” Rani asked once again.

“Still can’t get much except the stench of ogre blood. Whatever it is, it got pretty covered in the stuff.” The scout shook her head.

“Right. Alright, we’re taking a break. We’ll catch up before dark either way, and I want us fresh. Tarla, Pentera, Hestia, Prima—take a nap for an hour and a half. Solace, you’re getting a full three. The rest of us are on guard, until first rest shift is done. And I mean sleep. You can chatter, eat, and shit during your watch, ladies!” Rani made her decision.

Solace was unhappy, but the Sentinel could deal with it. Rani wasn’t about to let the team rush into what was feeling more and more like an ambush while they were fatigued and stressed out. The break could save lives.

And she could tell Solace her theory after waking her up.

The rest period went smoothly enough, and Rani had the team switch formations once they started moving again. After conferring with Solace, Rani made the call that they would speed up. The trail was too obvious to keep Decia on her toes, and even if their quarry doubled back or switched to a false trail, they could always backtrack after dealing with whatever ambush awaited them.

And she trusted her team’s Skills to keep them from stumbling into a trap, even if they moved at a brisk pace.

Pentera was tasked with sticking to Decia like glue, and the pair were allowed to move a bit further ahead to watch for traps or other threats. For the main group, Tarla had the lead, followed by the cancellers, with Solace sandwiched between the [Mages] after them. Rani took the rearguard on herself and kept her head on a swivel as they jogged along the trail.

The grasses were tall enough to conceal a crouching person, but nothing impeded them as they crashed their way through, following the too-obvious trail. The tracks became fresher and fresher as they progressed, but when Decia reported that the tracks were “maybe twenny” minutes old, they ran into a snag.

Their quarry had fallen into a sinkhole. One that seemed to open into a larger cave system.

Rani went first, figuring her spear gave her the best answer to anything in the brackish water that waited below. Not that it mattered. No matter how she splashed around, nothing bothered her and she finally gave the signal for the others to follow.

Solace couldn’t swim even when she wasn’t strapped into the heaviest plated armor Remus had ever produced, but with Tarla’s help, Rani managed to haul their Sentinel safely through the water.

“She came out on this side. The blood seems to have washed off—can’t get a whiff of it.” Decia reported.

Rani chose not to comment on the assumption that they were chasing a ‘she’. It was as good a word as any until they knew exactly what they were dealing with.

The tunnel was dark, but Solace’s Brilliance element wasn’t just for ineffectual healing. Their Sentinel was also capable of providing semi-effectual light. It was a naturally formed cave with the expected cold, damp air and often treacherous footing, but they managed to keep moving forward.

But their quarry had stopped pretending to be a drunken fool. The tracks had once again become feather-light, which slowed them down as Decia struggled to follow the path across the moist rock. There were just enough signs to leave them confident in the only possible direction that ‘she’ could have travelled without doubling back, but little more.

And then Pallos itself turned against them. At the end of the cavern, multiple tunnels awaited them.

Pentera and Decia hurriedly checked each one, but they were left with four possible routes and a quarry that was suddenly cunning enough to leave almost no signs of passage.

Splitting up was dangerous. Rani wasn’t an idiot, but she knew that if she didn’t give the order, Solace would. There was no way the zealous Sentinel would allow their quarry to escape.

“Tarla and Hestia. Umbra, Prima, and Axia. Solace and Pentera. Decia, you’re with me.” Rani pointed at a tunnel for each assignment. “Don’t be an idiot, any of you. You make contact, make noise. I’d rather this turn into a race than any group try to fight alone. And don’t you dare split up further. If your path forks, pick one.”

Solaris’ light couldn’t reach them, but she still sent her goddess a prayer. Ideally, Decia or someone else would notice some clear sign that their quarry had chosen a route and they could promptly gather and move together.

Life wasn’t so kind. No one came running after them and Decia remained unconvinced that she had found a single sign of passage as they progressed. Rani walked with a burning torch in one hand and her spear in the other and Decia was carrying her bow, though she wasn’t trying to do anything absurd like walk around with it notched and drawn.

The tunnel they had picked gradually expanded in size until they were walking through a speleothem-riddled cavern larger than the one they had first arrived in. They were forced to climb over and pick their way through the dense mineral buildup as they progressed, haunted by the infrequent sounds of dripping water.

The place would probably be beautiful if Rani wasn’t so stressed. She was trying desperately to listen as hard as she could for any danger—or sounds of another team running into difficulties. And she was growing less and less convinced that she had made the right call. If each of the tunnels opened up like theirs did, the cave system was far too large for them to have split up.

She should have insisted that they needed to stay together. If she had countermanded Solace’s order, instead of deciding to pick the groups herself, she might have managed to convince the group to follow her. Solace might not have ever forgiven her if their quarry escaped because of her decision, but Rani was just as responsible for the other women as Solace was.

[Crisis Evasion] activated and the world slowed down. Rani didn’t even hesitate, she spun to raise her spear, even as she released her grip on the torch.

But whatever was hurtling toward her twisted around Rani’s spear and slammed her into a dense mound of flowstone. The impact knocked the wind out of her lungs and deformed her armor’s steel around her back. Not that Rani let that stop her—she tried to lash out with the butt of her spear.

Her adversary was a pale woman with piercing red eyes that were touched with a formless, shifting gray sheen that suggested the Gale element. Incongruously, the woman that was outpowering her was tagged as an [Artisan], written in a red so pale that she didn’t even have her third class! It had to be some sort of masking Skill.

The false [Artisan] didn’t even seem to react to Rani cracking the butt of her spear against her leg.

“Get away from her, ah’m warnin’ ye.” Decia stepped into view, her bow drawn and ready to loose.

But their opponent paid her no heed. Instead, she seized Rani by the wrist and wrenched her arm forcibly to the side—nearly pulling her shoulder out of its socket in the process—and seized her other limb in the same too-powerful grasp. Then she bit into Rani’s neck, tearing her way deep into Rani’s flesh.

“Fucka!” Decia’s voice felt distant.

The woman holding Rani shuddered as she continued to bite and chew at her flesh. The woman’s other hand raised and ripped the shoulder guard off of Rani’s shoulder, before she tore through the steel vest as if it was no more durable than a cheap scroll. The sharp teeth continued to quest, ripping muscle and piercing skin. Then she stopped ripping Rani’s flesh and switched to licking at her open wounds desperately.

It should have been agonizing. It should have been horrifying. Yet Rani just felt… warm. Helpless, but warm. Was it some sort of debuff or poison? She had no idea. The woman was gorgeous too. Her hair was black and spiky, her eyes were captivating, and she was dressed in a costume that barely covered any of her generous curves.

And why in Solaris’ name was she even thinking about that?!

Rani tried to rally her senses. She tried to fight back. But either the woman was so strong that she couldn’t hope to oppose her, or whatever the debilitating effect was had rendered her best efforts utterly farcical.

Decia rushed in, wielding her knife instead of her bow. With a cry, she lunged for Rani’s assailant.

The woman spun—taking Rani with her—and elegantly raised a foot as she did. [Crisis Evasion] triggered again, but all Rani could do was watch the events as they played out in slow motion. She still couldn’t free her arms or meaningfully impede the woman’s movements. Instead, in mounting horror, she witnessed their adversary’s foot hooking around the back of Decia’s head.

She saw Decia’s momentum get redirected, as her friend and colleague was driven down by the force of the kick.

Decia hit the ground hard.

Not as hard as the woman’s heel was when it came down on the back of Decia’s head.

Decia favored a bright and sunny smile. She had once claimed that a smile could improve any situation.

But she died with an expression of confusion. Her head didn’t just crack—Rani was forced to watch as it deformed and ruptured like a half-rotten melon.

[Crisis Evasion] had saved her life numerous times. Rani had cherished the Skill. And if she’d had the presence of mind to do it, she would have dropped it then and there, just to spare herself from watching her friend’s death play out agonizingly slowly.

She witnessed the exact moment that the [Ranger] tag winked out of existence—about the same moment as Decia’s splattered brain ejected through the shattered remnants of her skull.

I should have died first. It wasn’t a helpful thought. But even as hysterical fury fueled her body, Rani still couldn’t outpower the damned woman that had just killed her friend. She was dying too, but it was slow, as the woman continued to lap up her blood like a damned animal!

She struggled and fought, knowing it was in vain. It didn’t matter, so what if she died?! She just wanted the woman to feel the pain that coursed through Rani’s heart! She kicked and thrashed, heedless of the damage she inflicted on herself. Blood flowed down her arms as she tore her own skin, trying to free at least one of them from the woman’s unshaking grasp.

Decia… May Solaris embrace her and show her warmth until she returned to Samsara.

As Rani’s own world darkened and blurred, she found herself wishing that she had returned Decia’s affections. The woman had remained taken with her until the day she died, even after Rani had gently refused her.

Surely, Decia deserved better than that.

She deserved better than anything her life had ever given her…

Perhaps, if they met in another life…

Rani could finally…

Her thoughts stopped as her darkened world became impossibly bright.