Have Your Tickets Ready

We made our way to the Verrenville train station, looking for the line that would take us to the capital. People were in full panic mode, eagerly awaiting trains to take them to their jobs in the capital city.

You’d think because of a demonic takeover their bosses would be lenient and let them take some time off from work, but nope. Some of these poor guys even lost their jobs for not coming into work for a while.

On a similar note, but a far less depressing one, we had a job to do ourselves in the capital. Because of the demon attacks, the queen of the country has offered us a chance to meet with her and discuss ways to fix the world. She even claims that she may have a way to reach dad, but they’ll need to talk it over with me to be sure.

There was some time before our train would arrive. It was dark out too. With the stressful atmosphere of people tapping their feet and cursing under their breath, it was hard to get comfortable.

Our newest party member, Miss Lauri, wasn’t one to let the tension get to her. Instead she was more than happy to speak up her mind.

“Oh my poor darling!” she shouted, wrapping her arms around Yamin. “If only I were there to make those nasty demons go away. I knew I shouldn’t have left you all alone!”

“Gah!” Yamin cried out from accidental suffocation.

Maybe I shouldn’t underestimate the power of a mama bear, but I had a few doubts that she’d be able to take on demons.

“Miss Lauri, can you really fight?”

“Sure can! Nothing can withstand my patented Mama Chop!” she playfully chopped my head. Yamin took in a breath when Miss Larui’s released her suffocating hold.

That must have been her signature fatality. I should think up some cool finisher moves too…

“I’ve survived it before,” Yamin mentioned. “She used to chop me all the time for sneaking cookies out of the cookie jar.”

“Oh no, not the cookie jar,” Indena sarcastically remarked. “What a rebel.”

Miss Lauri shrugged. “You survived because I wasn't even using 1% of my full power.”

The way she looked made me feel like she was just joking, but with magic, anything is possible. It was a lot cooler to imagine she was really strong but needed to hold back so she wouldn’t destroy the universe or something.

“Lauri,” Uncle spoke up, his arms crossed and giving her a serious look. “I get levity. But you do realize the scale of this threat, right? Your daughter is in danger.”

Uncle takes things very seriously, especially when it comes to protecting us. I’ve gotten a few good laughs out of him before, but he’s a hard nut to crack when times are tough.

“Oh, lighten up, Mel.” She brushed her bangs. Her tone became decidedly more serious. “I’m aware of what happened back at Urnan and here. I’ve also heard reports from all around the world of demonic activity. That’s why I decided to join up and see if my scientific expertise may be of service.”

She said “around the world,” so things weren’t just happening around us.

“Miss Lauri, how do you know about the other demons around the world?” I asked.

“Esma is a hub of information. You know how many different countries pay homage to the Holy Lands?” She turned to Uncle. “As a scientist, I can’t quite say which one of these claims are true without proof, but I will tell you that something awfully fishy is going on here.”

So far, most of the demons we’ve seen were summoned by someone in a group of cultists known as the Family of Sai. The first demon I ever encountered was a Krampus type, summoned by a Family of Sai member. The second one was made by a god known as Cassanna, and the third and fourth major ones were also summoned by another Family of Sai person. Cassanna’s demon was an anomaly in this equation, but maybe he was still related somehow? I’m not sure.

I folded my arms and put a finger to my chin, considering everything. “Each of the Family of Sai members kept saying they wanted to shroud the world in darkness, all to reveal the true nature of man.” I paraphrased. “Does anyone know what they mean?”

Everyone was quiet for a little as we tried to consider the possible meanings, but it was really hard to think about with what little we knew.

“One thing I’ve noticed…” Yamin spoke up, “you remember how Mella said that gods and demons need mana? They take it from people. Once people are drained, they end up like those skeleton demons back at Urnan.”

“Don’t forget about here too, no?” Marek said.

She brought up a good point. I think two things happen when a demon takes over. They suck all the mana from the air, which makes everything look like a spooky Halloween stress dream, and then they steal all the mana from people, making them turn demon-like too. The only way to save a person at that point is to use stardust to exercise their souls and jumpstart their spirits again so they can make more mana energy.

“You guys think that the Family of Sai’s trying to take away everyone’s mana?” Indena asked. “Would that reveal our ‘true nature’ or whatever?

“Scripture does refer to man as ‘seeds of darkness,’ so it’s very possible,” Yamin said.

“But what do they stand to gain from that?” Miss Lauri asked. “I assume they’re after something more.”

Yeah. It would be silly to just turn off the sun and have a bunch of spooky skeletons running hobbling around the world.

“What’s the point of the Family of Sai, Indena?” I asked her, needing a reminder of her perspective of the organization.

“Well…uh…” she shrugged. “We mainly focus on making people really strong.”

Everyone, especially Miss Lauri, shared a really disappointed look at her.

“Care to explain that?” Miss Lauri rolled her hand, holding her forehead like she had a headache.

“Something about making us all like gods. Like, so we don’t have to rely on those high and mighty beings anymore like we used to. Fate would be in our hands.”

She was always saying how she didn’t really like the divine. Now it kinda makes sense to me if this was part of her religion. Or, lack thereof. I couldn’t wrap my head around how that would have anything to do with eternal darkness though.

If this darkness was supposed to reveal man's true nature, how would that feed into their goal of trying to have fate in their own hands?

“So the Family of Sai want to be gods. That’s what you’re saying?” Yamin asked.

“Not exactly, but yeah. We want everyone to be that powerful. That way we all control our own fate, not leave it to something we can’t even see. No idea why someone would need darkness to do that though.”

Fate’s a big thing to control. There’s so many factors to consider that even my computer mind had a hard time comprehending them all. If human’s wanted that sort of power over the future, it seemed like they’d have to evolve a lot to make that happen…

TOOT TOOT!

CHUGA CHUGA! CHUGA CHUGA!

The rumbling sound of the train rolling in shook the train station. It was coming in from the north, heading south down to the capital city.

“This one’s our ride,” Marek said.

“We can continue this conversation once we get to the capital,” Uncle said. “Once we meet with the queen, she’ll want to know all these details.”

“Right,” Indena nodded. “Hey…they ain’t gonna hang me for being part of the Family of Sai, right?”

“Why would anyone do that?” Marek asked. “You’re cooperating, no? And you won’t be hung simply for association. Unless you do something really evil, you’re safe.”

“Still. I don’t trust your church, and I know they’ll get involved.”

Yamin fiddled with her star shield necklace, then took a breath.

“They won’t hurt you. I promise.”

Indena normally didn’t take Yamin’s assurance, but for some reason, that seemed to cause her some comfort.

Yamin was an Ecclysian church member. That’s the organization that ventilates me as the Eighth Star Angel.

Darn…I mean, ‘venerates’ me.

Speaking of which…if they wanted to do something I didn’t like, I could just step in and stop them. I did it once before, and I can do it again. Being considered a saint has a lot of privileges like that.