What...?

o_O

I was bored!!

A Campaign of Distraction (P. IV)

Kyra shuffled behind Amanda, somehow managing to keep in step with Mira. Her affinity with her was so strong that they began to trust each other just minutes after meeting. Mira suspected this was because of Amanda's sweet-talking prowess, having seen the better part of it when she was in Doned's Faction.

It had been roughly a week since they had met up with the man named Markus; it was hard to count if you slept through the daylight and behaved nocturnal. Markus, for some reason, liked the night a lot more than daytime. Either that or something was wrong with Markus in the head, Kyra couldn't decide.

They trekked through the thin layer of snow on the road towards the dark Port Sarim just a stone's throw away. They had been doing so for a few days now, making their way slowly to the port.

"We should be there in time to catch the Borealis," Markus whispered, and Amanda nodded with less enthusiasm than a dead person. Despite being one of the Luna children, she didn't have enough energy to constantly keep their progress hidden as well as trek behind Markus.

Kyra turned to Mira. "Are you from Earth too?"

Mira sniffed. She smiled and nodded. "I was from Singapore,"

Kyra's expression brightened. "I'm from Singapore too."

There was an uneasy silence as they continued plowing through the snow. Then Kyra piped up. "When I asked Markus about Singapore, he kept saying that it isn't the same place anymore."

Mira nodded, then sneezed.

Kyra waited for an explanation, but it never came, so she prompted Mira. "Why isn't it the same place anymore?"

"They say it's been attacked by Ichor,"
"Who's Ichor?"
"It's not a who,"
"What?"
"It's a sort of parasitic crystal,"
"Parasite?"
"Yes,"
"What does it prey on?"
"It doesn't have sentience, Kyra,"
"But you said it's a parasite,"
"Yes,"
"So what does it live on?"

"I don't know how to answer that, Kyra," Mira sighed. Kyra wanted to press on, but she saw that Mira had resigned from the conversation by the expression on her face. She saw a tear roll down her cheek.

"I-I'm sorry, Mira," Kyra stammered. Somehow, she had managed to hurt her as well."

Mira tried to reassure her. "It's okay Kyra. The cold just got into my eye. It's always like that,"

They had reached the port by then, and Markus told them to wait on the cold concrete in the lonely port. Kyra looked out to the distance seas at the docks below, and she could faintly see a small boat rippling across the sea towards them.

Amanda gasped. Mira looked at her.

"That's now our boat, is it?" she whispered.