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The sky lit up with green subreal flashes as a Wisdom cruiser dropped out of shadowspace.
here we go baby
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Kyr said at last, “What did she mean, she never liked us?” “Pretty unambiguous, Kyr,” said Cleo. “At least, I thought so.”
Kyr already knew that beating Doomsday would change nothing. Proving you were capable of saving the world didn’t mean you could, or that anyone would let you.
How had Mags done the impossible? “Oh,” said Kyr aloud, remembering. He’d cheated.
Unfortunately then Yiso woke up again and turned out to be chatty, so Kyr hated him after all. Not the way you were supposed to hate majo, with the cold implacable fury of the living hand of vengeance. She hated him roughly the same way she hated doing Nursery rotations, supervising six-year-olds who just never stopped talking.
“Go away. Go and—” She swallowed get back to work. What did children even do here?
She didn’t know what she’d done to deserve a life suddenly full of talkative people;
There was chocolate on it. Kyr had tasted chocolate before, of course. It was a reward for doing well; for training well, for working hard, for being the best. She would have said she didn’t like it that much.
Yet part of her was thinking, and she couldn’t make it stop. It was this stupid planet. Kyr had always been able to stop thinking, before. She’d been busy.
Avi had said, hadn’t he, that Ursa had taken a hostage. Kyr hadn’t asked at the time. Now it was all she could think about. She sat silently in her runaway sister’s pleasant light-filled kitchen, eating cookies, thinking about it. And when the child who was plainly Aulus Jole’s son offered her a glass of fruit juice to go with them, she said yes.
!!!
What a weird happy little life he had. What a weird happy little life all of them had. Maybe lives like this had been normal for humans before the end of the world.
Kyr ignored it and kept walking, serene and powerful in the knowledge that she could turn around and kill him.
Nothing the majo can throw at you is scarier than you are, a Drill sergeant had shouted at them once. We are the biggest and the strongest and the baddest species out there. They get you without weapons, they’re still the ones who should be scared. Fight ’em! Bite ’em! Even little girls like you! Nothing is mean like a human’s mean!
“When the alien shows up,” said Kyr, “I’m killing it.” “Oh. Good,” Avi said. “That will definitely help.”
Lucky for me you had that attack of principles, huh. They were scared of you.” “They were?” “Valkyr,” Avi said, “everyone who meets you is scared of you.”
“What am I ruining?” Kyr said, offended. “Humans,” said Yiso. “I always wanted to meet one.” “Am I disappointing you?” “You’re basically just another person,” Yiso said. “I thought you’d be…” “What?” “Scary.” “Everyone who meets me is scared of me,” said Kyr. “Why? In case you make them do exercise?”
“Avi thinks we can win the war.” “Win?” “Yeah.” Neither of them said anything for a while. Eventually Mags said, “It’s weird, but I never thought of that.” “No,” Kyr said. “Neither did I.”
“I take it you are also a terrorist?” they said conversationally to Avi. “What a dreadful waste of your abilities. This is a remarkable achievement.”
How stupid, she thought, as the dart whined and began to heat up for atmospheric entry, as her ears popped, as the majo fighters pulled up and away, fleeing back toward the cruiser. How stupid to assume that anything has rules, when nothing in the universe has ever been fair.
It was lovely, which was not a word Val thought often. But it was, all of it. Her life was good, it was beautiful, it was lovely. And then her work comm went off.
this is relatable
“This universe is in the process of unraveling,” Yiso said. “The Wisdom is broken. Reality is collapsing on itself. I need you to help me.”
!!!
“You need to stop laughing,” Kyr told him as they made for the plastic sheeting at the Agricole exit. There was still no one around, but the shift bells would ring soon. “Why, because I’ve committed too many war crimes?” said Avi, and laughed some more.
“Gaea didn’t make the choices,” Kyr said. “Not all of them. It was you. And me.” She had to stop and catch her breath. “I think it was me as well.”
You’re very welcome, said the Wisdom. Do not expect me to be there every time the world ends. Gaea Station: a dim unspooling line of debris, and nothing more. No commanders, no training scores, no assignments, no purpose. Doomsday was over, over forever. “Don’t worry,” said Kyr. “I’m done with the end of the world.”
