She looked at Yelena in her arms, then at the Fire Keeper beside her. That faint unwillingness was dissected once more.
I want to protect them.
I want to become someone they can rely on.
I... want them to see me differently. Why am I thinking this way? Why them? Why not just one of them?
Her heartbeat was slightly irregular. This wondrous feeling seemed to be appearing for the first time in her brief waking life and her long dream life. It was unfamiliar, yet faintly familiar in some way. She did not quite understand what was happening, but instinctively felt that she ought to ignore it for now.
Ignore it, but do not extinguish it. Follow her own thoughts and stumble onward like this.
"Idiot." A voice seemed to come from beside her ear. She could not make it out clearly. Perhaps it was an auditory hallucination.
"How much longer are you going to stall?" But before that voice could be etched into her memory, it silently faded away.
Silence.
Her heart cooled, and her body settled down again. Yet the traces left by those emotions did not disappear. Instead, they sank deep into her cognition, where they slowly settled.
Miss Surtr lowered her eyes.
A few seconds later—
"Let's go to the next warp point." She spoke to the Fire Keeper without explaining why, issuing only a simple command.
The Fire Keeper gently obeyed.
"As you wish, Miss."
Golden miraculous light blossomed, then vanished. Several minutes later, sentries belonging to Farlan arrived at the ground where the three had once stood. They sealed off the area within a one-kilometer radius, then dug up and transported away the earth bearing their footprints, along with everything three feet beneath it, to the depths of Farlan. Not long afterward, Farlan