“Ahah, you know what? It's alright. It doesn't matter how you got separated,” she moved closer to Olivia and hugged her, much to the displeasure of Ansia.
The energetic lady pointed onto her chest and said, “the only thing matters is that you're okay. Now that we are together, we can start to look for an exit out of this nightmare. As a team. What do you say? I think that sounds brilliant.”
Indeed, it seemed like Olivia started to smile a little more as the hopeful eyes of Emily were brightening her up with that huge smile of hers. Suddenly though, Emily noticed how time seemingly froze around her. She had experienced it many times already, anticipating to hear Gieldan’s voice.
“Emily, are you sure about this? It will only make things harder for us – for you - in the long run.”
“Don't worry about the details. Besides, you're a great warrior, aren't you?” she laughed. “If we managed to survive that jungle and that hellhole of a city, then I'm sure the rest is child’s play,” Her smile started to turn into a frown
“I can't just leave her like this. Being all on her own. Just look at her. She tries to hide it, but she's terrified.”
“Do you only say that, because she looks like her?” Gieldan countered assertively.
“Silence!” Emily ordered with a strong voice and threatening undertone, while something red seemed to glow in her eyes. Gieldan had never experienced something like this, as the pure look on her face was enough to paralyze him with shock. Even if it had just been for a moment. As a consequence, the Pansarum around them was broken up. After he realized what happened, he started to smile as well, though only slightly more self-assured than before.
“So? No objections? Then it's settled, glad to have you on board,” Emily continued to exclaim happily. “Then I can finally grab something to bite,” she said as she started to gobble a thick piece of meat. She drafted it from the mountain of food in front of their faces while also emptying her mug in one go.
“I really have to applaud these people for one thing. The food and everything around it is unbelievably superb.” Somehow Olivia chuckled again after hearing Emily talk.
“Hm? What's so funny about that?” she asked with half of her mouth covered in food.
“Please excuse my behavior, but your enjoyment over the food here reminded me of the Personas living in this city.”
“Is that so? Haha, yeah, I can see that. Maybe we are somewhat alike,” Emily awkwardly agreed.
“There is a reason for that,” Olivia replied. “Every meal or drink produced here is only meant for pleasure. You can eat as much as you want, without feeling overwhelmed. Only after a few hours a slight warm feeling of being filled up swells up inside your belly. I guess that means the food here isn't used for survival, but for the sole purpose of its taste.”
“REALLY?!” Emily gasped. “This explains so much, and also why it tastes so damn good. You can munch away, and simply enjoy the taste, without worrying about anything else.” Her eyes were getting bigger and bigger. “Maybe we should stay here after all, Gieldan,” she grinned at the aspect.
“Under no circumstances,” he promptly disregarded her feelings.
“How come you know all this stuff, Olivia?” Emily investigated as she turned back to her.
“To tell you the truth, Ansia and I'm have been in this city for quite a while. So far we didn't manage to travel any further. I don’t know how long it’s been after all this time…”
“Then you must be pretty knowledgeable. That's quite something. So this city represents what I think it does?” Emily tried to calm her.
“It seems to be – It's the city of lust and desire,” Oliva answered.
“Hmm…though, from what I can tell, this city is one of the more pleasant ones,” Emily babbled with food stuck in her mouth, lost in thought.
As Ansia thought them to be distracted, she started to whisper something into Olivia’s ear, which Emily could barely make out, but what she gathered wasn't sounding good at all.
“Don't trust… never forget… everyone lies… smiling, holding the knife… don't give them any chances… We are all that we have… remember that…”
Just as Emily wanted to snap Olivia out of Ansia's claws, she was being bumped into by a group of guys, passing them by.
“Watch out, little girl. If you aren't careful enough something bad might happen to you,” grunted a slimy looking guy with a nasty looking mouth.
“Shouldn't you watch what you say? Otherwise, the rest of your remaining teeth might scatter themselves onto the floor,” Emily remarked cold-heartedly, as she gnawed further on her piece of meat.
“The cat has claws, meow. Just how I like them,” the nasty fellow snuffed and started to march towards Emily.
As the heads of the other Personas started turning, the man that was about as big as Gieldan, and mostly double in size, was building himself up behind the brown-haired woman. Her aspect, however, continued to enjoy the contents of his mug, whereas Olivia was anxious about whether she should intervene or not.
The young woman with the ponytail ignored the vulgarity behind her back. Even the readjustment of the man’s belt, which barely kept his pants up, were far from impressing her.
“Listen up well, kitty. In our hometown, things go about a little different. You simply take what you want, no matter what anyone says. You should show me some respect before I scalp your pretty head in front of your friends,” he threatened her, as salvia gathered at his chubby lower lip, while he pulled an unsightly knife from the halter of his belt.
“How can someone be this dense?” spoke the handsome aspect to Emily’s side nonchalantly and continued with a snack from the pile of food.
“HAE? What do you want, little fuckwad?” The group the angry guy belonged to already started to mock him. “Well, whatever, you dipshits. I'm taking the feisty girl with me. Everyone who thinks otherwise will be silenced by me,” proclaimed the disgusting man proudly through the tavern and put his hand on Emily’s shoulder.
Before anyone could've even reacted, she turned around and nailed the hand of the man onto the table with her dining knife.
Just as the painful screams started to come out, the spectacle was stopped by her fist impacting in the face of the Persona while pulling out the knife.
The posse of the wounded sprung upwards and was about to intervene before they were stopped by only one hateful gaze from Gieldan pointed in their direction.
Under cheers and thunderous guffaw, the thugs fled the tavern and left the partying pack of Personas to themselves.
“That's how it's done, lady! Show those miserable bastards that Lussuria’s people are nothing like those shitbags from Greed’s town. Nobody messes with us!”
“Arghghar, this city will never change and I LOVE IT,” it chanted from another corner.
“Hoch-ho, not bad, madam. I could use you for the training of my men. Those pitiful wimps…” A muscle-packed giant shouted at her, gifting her a smile just like everyone else. Half full mugs were flying around, and full-throated laughter and singing were heard again.
Olivia felt as if she was struck by lightning. Never before had she been so impressed by someone else, while also being reminded of how insignificant and worthless she felt.
“Why didn't you help me earlier?” Emily sulkily asked her aspect.
“I tend to reserve my energy for serious threats. Besides, you can handle yourself pretty well already,” he answered as they discussed the event without a care in the world. Like little children they were pondering which one of them was right, as they chewed on their meals. Which in turn made Olivia feel somewhat safer, reaching into the pile of food herself.
“Ouch,” she abruptly belted.
“What's up, Olivia?”
“I think I stung myself on something,” she said as she examined her index finger. A little cut was in the middle of her finger, with blood already coming out of it. Without much thought, Emily ripped off a part of her dress and wrapped it aroun
d the wound to stop the bleeding.
“You do the silliest things,” Emily smirked, seemingly absent-minded, as she gently analyzed the wound. Almost as if she had done it many times before.
“T-thanks,” Olivia uttered and turned red. It wasn't normal for someone to care this much about her without a reward. Even though Emily was smiling at her, she herself was lost in her own mind.
“I know it myself, Gieldan. I'm a bad person. One of the worst, right? I wonder what would you say, if you could see me like this, Lia?” she thought, as her gaze filled with sadness.
“I-is everything alright?” Olivia asked eventually.
Right when Emily wanted to answer, the women were halted by a grumpy mumble.
“These cumbersome little pests,” snarled Gieldan. It looked like he was flipping something from the back of his hand which directly landed in the pile of food in front of the women.
Shortly after, a tiny, tongue wiggled at them from between the pairs of apples. Followed up by a tiny head that looked like a blue lizard. It looked around hastily with its big, dark eyes. The mouth of the little creature was opened so wide that it resembled a giant smile, with no teeth at all. Little by little, the lizard climbed out of the mountain, back onto the table. With lightning speed, it climbed onto Emily's arm. It arbitrarily decided to climb all over her, changing colors as it got along, while Emily curiously watched the delicate wings and body of the reptile-like creature.
“You are so damn cute. I wonder what you are,” chortled Emily, as she warily caught it with her hands, letting it climb all around her fingertips
“Annoying little shits, nothing more,” mumbled Gieldan again, who was now occupied by four of the lizards, which happily climbed onto his body.
“Well actually,” Olivia pleaded. “These creatures are called Dragonlarchs. At least that's the name given to them by this city. They are present essentially anywhere in this district. Their most unique characteristic is, that they change colors like a chameleon, based on the emotional state of the Persona holding onto it,” she described joyfully, as she thought she was of use to Emily.
“That's so friggin' cool.” Emily was ecstatic. “You're so damn cute!” she gasped as she played with the larch, which in turn only made it even happier, changing its color to a warm orange hue with a big smile. Meanwhile, Olivia realized she had spoken without even being asked to, which made her uncomfortable in her own way, until she realized Emily’s soft touch on her fingertips.
“It's no problem, Olivia, really. Whatever bothers you, I won't force you to tell me. The important thing is that we found each other and got each other’s back in this screwed up world.” She then threw her arm around the black haired woman.
“I'm pretty drained after my long journey. What do you say, we both rent a room and call it a night? Even though the sunrise is probably still many, many hours away. We'll start planning after a good night's rest, sound okay?”
Hesitatingly Olivia nodded in agreement. Emily put down the larch, and the four of them searched for a place to stay. Olivia explained to her, that this city wasn't in need of any kind of currency, thanks to their Lord, who wanted his Personas to live their existence as freely as possible. After the incident from before they were allowed to stay at the tavern until they felt like they could move on. Saying their goodnights, both women and aspects went into their respective rooms. As soon as Emily went into hers, she was immediately halted by her aspect.
“I hope you know what you're getting yourself into. She's clearly hiding something. I don't believe that she got separated from her group for nothing.”
“It's fiiiine I tell you.” Emily removed the hand of her aspect from her arm and flung herself onto the wide and comfy bed. “We don't know what happened. Maybe they were really cruel to her, or maybe she killed them. You know how it’s like out there – it's not for us to assume. I choose to trust her, and if it goes wrong, you can blame me if that makes you feel better.”
Gieldan started to smile and sat down on a chair next to the door he had just closed. “You're such a thickheaded woman. Looks like I should be on the lookout,” he laughed to himself
“Oh yes, you should,” she answered with a smile of her own.
“It still feels really weird going to sleep, knowing full well it might not even be sunrise when you wake up again,” she continued.
“Well, that's how it works on this side. Seventy-two hours of nighttime followed by twelve hours of daylight. It feels a lot more free to me here than back in your world,” Gieldan closed his eyes as he held watch in front of the door.
“Yeah, I get what you're saying. Still, trying to put everything in order is only natural,” she paused as she started to look at the ceiling, lost in her thoughts.
“Even weirder is the fact that you don't need to sleep. I mean, even the Personas around here do it.”
“How perceptive of you, and here I thought I could fool you into thinking I was always waking up at the same time as you did,” he snarked, right as a pillow came flying his way, which he evaded without even looking.
“It's because my body doesn't need rest. This may be the subconscious, but your human mind still needs to restore its capacities. The downtime is essential. We aspects don't require such complex methods since we're only one part of it - as I’m but a part of you.”
“Waaaaah,” Emily groaned. “I wish you would tell me more already.”
“That's for yourself to discover, not me,” her aspect chuckled. “We were lucky that this city isn't as hostile as the last. We only escaped by the skin of our teeth. You should rest now, Emily. I'm sure another nightmare is ready to greet us when you awake.”
“Don't worry. One day I will discover the whole truth behind you aspects, with me triumphantly laughing from atop a pedestal. Emily Jaeger shall never surrender!” she jokingly answered with a formed fist, before letting out a big yawn and eventually falling into a deep slumber.
Chapter 11 – Doubt
“Ugh, ouch,” Gwyn ached as he felt a pulsating pain on the back of his head. His vision was adjusting slowly to what was going on around him. “Not another blackout, What is going on with me?” he whispered in disbelief. “Where am I?”
“You're fine. Now shut up, you twat,” someone bitched at him from behind. He could hear the insult, but everything else was still tuned out by a monotone sound ringing in his ears.
“Delirias? Are you there?” he asked in his confusion, as his eyes slowly recognized the silhouettes of many people sitting around him.
“Good job on blazoning out my name, kiddo,” his aspect answered, let down. “You really aren't the smartest tool in the shed.”
“Stop the nonsense. What happened?!” Gwyn asked even more annoyed than usual.
“Well, why don't you take a good look around,” and just as his aspect said these words, Gwyn ignored the throbbing pain at the back of his head and took in his surroundings.
“This can't be happening…” he went pale as he saw large iron bars all around him, penned up together with other Personas in a cage.
“Yeah, not one of my most glorious moments either,” Delirias pouted, sitting down next to his partner with crossed legs.
“Shit,” Gwyn promptly uttered as the fragments of his memory came back. “We were traveling with the merchants southwards, along the big street that connects Lusts City with Prides… just when I wondered what these extraordinary creatures were that were traveling with us … we got ambushed.”
“Unfortunately, merchants aren't very good combatants, and the few guards we had with us were easily slaughtered,” Delirias didn't seem happy about their situation either. “My, my our first adventure outside of the big city and here we go, letting ourselves get kidnapped.”
“Why didn't you fight them off?” Gwyn said that almost mockingly as he punched his aspects shoulder. Not taking any of it, Delirias stood up and got close to his face. Baring his white teeth in full view, the aspect smiled and stared him right in the eye w
ith his green, glowing orbs. Scaring Gwyn to death before calmly sitting back down next to him.
“It's because a certain someone got knocked upside down and got himself captured. They would've killed you before I killed them – I had no other choice. Believe me, this bothers me much more than you.”
Gwyn paused for a moment taking in his scenery as the two sat idly together. They almost couldn't see anything, as the room their cage was being held in was barely lit. The few people he could recognize outside of the cage were coated in long black robes, covering their faces, walking slouched over.
“Who do you think these people are? Bandits?” Gwyn asked.
“More like some sort of cult,” Delirias remarked, as they both watched through the iron bars.
“I don't know exactly how long we've been here, but from time to time they come and take one of the prisoners away,” Delirias started to snicker again. “Kiki, it's truly interesting how their screams didn't wake you up in the slightest.”
“I was unconscious as you might remember…”
“Or maybe you didn't care that much,” Delirias followed up.
“Anyway, my guess is as good as yours. We need to think of a way to get us out of here if we want to have a shot at surviving.”
Gwyn looked at the people laying around them. It didn't take long for him to realize that he was the only one even thinking about an escape plan.
Most of them were crying. Completely absent-minded or straight up despairing people that were slowly starting to peel off their own skin by scratching their faces over and over again.
The young man hit up another conversation topic, trying to avert his gaze from the ugly truth.
“Hey, Delirias, doesn’t it feel strange for you as well with such a warped concept of time?”
“Fufu, I see what you're doing there,” A sinister giggle followed, something Gwyn was almost used to at this point, but he didn’t back down from his question.
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