Chapter 179: Three Weeks Gone

"Right," Anthony hummed, trying to ignore the many looks they received from the crowds going inside or leaving the rec center. "You were an undergrad, going into law. I guess you have some experience with it. Oh, and I wanted to have a chat with you about your mom later, Rachel."

Rachel snorted, accepting the ball from him to dribble a few times and passing it to Barbara. "My mom— Okay, weird? And while I was ahead in my grades, I was still at the start of my course, so I only know some terms. It’s not confusing to me if that’s what you’re implying."

Dammit, why is even that hard to admit? It’s fair not to be as advanced at that level! Damn you, [Lunar Pride].

"Haha. [Lunar Pride], huh?" Anthony winked, making her ears lower and cheeks color, but he nudged her with an understanding smirk. "I get it’s rough. I actually wanted your help with my Level 10 stuff since you’re the expert. Chill later tonight?"

"Sure," Rachel grunted, trying to let go of the tightness that gripped her chest. "Only if your girl’s fine with you hanging out with another woman."

"Amelia? Naa. She’s cool with you. In fact, heh, she called you both hospital buddies earlier today when we were live chatting. She appreciated the time you spent talking to her over video calls over the last few days. It’s been good for her to have someone else to shoot the breeze with."

Rubbing her elbow, Rachel sighed, remembering how weak the man’s sweetheart was, slowly dying of cancer. "Any luck on a cure in the Quests?"

Everyone was silent as the Legend somberly shook his head, though he still managed a smile. "Not yet, but maybe this woman in the woods we’ve heard about has some kind of remedy. We’ll see. Thanks for asking."

"Yeah." Rachel cleared her throat, moving past her thoughts to continue the previous topic. "As for Erika, she can help catch me up to speed ten times faster than me trying to do it myself. Anyway, we’ll continue to discuss it on the court, along with your weird shoo-in involving my mom, but I will be good to go on a Quest in three days. Bet."

Her brother kissed his wife on the forehead as they were breaking away to their separate locker rooms, making her smile; he was a lot more affectionate than she remembered. However, it was Barbara who stole her attention when they went through the doors to the girls’ side.

"You still haven’t been contacted by Arthur, Charlemagne, or Jeanne, have you?"

Rachel pulled her hair back to reapply her ponytail, the end swinging a bit as Nia answered the saint.

"Oh, yeah," she chimed, rubbing her ears, "the Arthur guy left us a message that he wanted to meet for dinner tonight! Rachel accepted it, so we get fancy food and wine, but, uh... after that creepy lesser god—yeah... I don’t know if I want any."

"Hear, hear," Anthony yelled from outside, probably just catching the end of their conversation. "That dude sucks!"

"Yeah!" Nia roared back, throwing up a fist. "He hurt Nike real bad and cursed me— Dude sucks!"

Rachel smiled at the emotion and the vocabulary the girl copied when talking with people. "We will not be drinking in the first place since we’re both underage, and we don’t have licenses to prove otherwise. The UK’s drinking age is 18, while here it’s 21, but Arthur probably doesn’t know our age."

"Oh..." Nia’s cheeks bunched up, once again throwing her fist in the air. "Now I want to drink the stuff because they say I can’t! The law sucks, too!"

Rachel’s stomach hurt as she laughed with the others at how quickly the kid could change her position on a matter. "As for Jeanne and Charlemagne, I think they’ve been pretty busy with French affairs because that’s all I hear them talking about whenever they’re in earshot... A lot of politics and mostly in a language I don’t understand."

"Not my thing then," Selvaria mumbled in her monotone voice, dangerous tail swinging back and forth as they entered the locker room, spotting Scarlet playing with Coral on a bench. "Ooh! I want to hug the squishy slime bun. Coral, I’m back."

"Fififi!" the bun chirped, flying toward the leviathan to make scary faces that the girl mirrored, making them both laugh while Nia hid behind a row of lockers.

"Why does she always have to be spooky?!" the kid cried to her in private. "How can I not be scared of her when she is scary?!"

Give it time, Nia, Rachel soothed, bumping fists with the grinning, fanged girl as she neared. She’s been nicer to you lately.

"Only because you told her to be... I’m her leader; I shouldn’t have to be scary for her to listen to me."

Letting the bun complain in silence, Rachel went to the locker to change out her running shoes for her court shoes. "Get lonely alone?"

Scarlet shook her head, sweeping her black locks into a ponytail to mirror hers. "Nope! Coral kept me company. She can be a little stinker and mess with people’s stuff in the lockers, though. I’m pretty sure she did something to a few people’s phones."

"I wouldn’t put it past her," Rachel mused, glancing right to see Selvaria and the orange blob comparing teeth. "I have a lot planned for tonight, so you may need to keep an eye on Coral for me a bit longer."

"I’m happy to help," the raven-haired girl chirped, yet her cheer dampened after handing over her phone. "I, umm, I bet you heard already, but Tom said that my father’s funeral is going to be... tomorrow. The flight to Miami is only two hours from here, and it’s, umm, it’s hard to believe that nearly three weeks have passed since, well... since everything happened."

She caught the looks of the other women in the area as others came in and out, more or less minding their own business; over the past three weeks, a lot of things had begun to normalize, including many aspects of the economy. In fact, new discussions were being had in the news, online, and in government about technologies, including magical instruments. Powers were a giant topic, as well.

"Oh," Scarlet added, trying not to look down, "and you got a call from an unknown number. Isn’t it linked to your old phone, so it should come up with the name, right? I didn’t know if you wanted me to answer it or not, so I let it go to voicemail."

"Thanks," Rachel said with a smile, swiping the phone to activate it with facial ID; she had had to update her picture after her transformation, which was both funny and depressing to think about. "I bet it’s Jeanne since the craziness with France’s political scene is starting to settle down, but it sounded pretty intense with those uprisings from past figures."

Barbara hissed, checking her newly fashioned braid. "Yeah, there were some bloody riots that caused some political tension, with some woman claiming the French Parliament killed her husband— She smuggled a bomb into the National Assembly. Crazy shit, but we’ve had our fair share of far-left and far-right terrorist attempts in the past week. I’m glad things are starting to calm down, in part thanks to some of your ear work, Rachel."