Chapter 441: Time?

Alex and Amelia emerged from the town hall. They made it exactly one step before Amelia froze in place. She craned all three of her heads back to stare straight up into the midday sun.

“Whoa,” she breathed.

“Okay,” Alex said. “You’ve surely seen the sun before.”

“Of course I have,” Amelia replied. “But I’ve never seen it from here.”

“Does… it look different?” Alex asked hesitantly.

“Yes,” Amelia replied. She looked back down at him. “My planet has a different one. It’s bigger. We’re not on my world anymore.”

“Oh. I’m an idiot,” Alex said, his eyes widening in realization. “You’re not from 274-50.”

“Is that the name of this world?” Amelia asked. Then, before Alex could reply, she went about as stiff as Princess possibly could have. “Whoa. Look at that. Eyeballs.”

Alex didn’t have to guess where she was looking. “Ah. Yeah. That’s the Veil of Stolen Confessions. The town’s bioengineer made it. He’s called Mite. Pretty interesting guy. You’ll meet him soon.”

“I’ve never seen a wall with eyes before,” Amelia said. “Is that how all—”

“No. It’s definitely not normal,” Alex said. “That’s just Mite.”

“Fun,” Amelia said. She turned, her gaze catching on the Forsaken Grounds. “Whoa.”

Alex didn’t even get a chance to think about explaining the bone tower before Amelia’s heads all turned in another direction once more. She jerked as if she’d been shocked.

“What’s goin’ on over here?” Wess drawling voice from the direction she’d looked.

“Another person,” Amelia whispered. “And he’s got a hat!”

“Huh,” Wess said, drawing to a halt alongside Alex and glancing from him to Amelia. “Did Princess just speak? Because I swear I heard some lady’s voice—”

“Can I have your hat?” Amelia asked.

Wess’s words died on his lips as his mouth dropped open. He turned to Alex. “The hell is this?”

“This is Amelia,” Alex said. “Be nice. She’s Princess’ new… personality, I guess. We just entered a contract. She’s been pretty isolated for a while now, so do your best to be nice. There haven’t been a lot of opportunities for her to speak to anyone.”

“I’m not giving you my hat,” Wess said, squinting suspiciously at Amelia. “It’s mine. If you want something made, go ask Barb. This one isn’t for sale.”

“Sale,” Amelia repeated. Her heads tilted in different directions. “I forgot. Things cost money out here, don’t they? I can’t just have them.”

Wess shot a look at Alex. “Dude. You’re kidding me. Did you fucking kidnap a princess to puppet Princess around? I’m all for a prank, but that seems like it’s taking it a few steps too far, don’t you think?”

“She’ll be more than capable,” Alex said. “I’ve got faith in her. But… uh, I don’t actually know what Amelia is. I don’t think she’s a literal princess, but her room was certainly pink enough to be that of one.”

“I’m not a princess,” Amelia said. “Father said always said were upper-middle class.”

Alex and Wess exchanged a glance. The System had definitely translated her words to some degree. But they’d gotten the idea, and it had said about as much as either of them needed to hear.

“Spoken like someone who has way more money than me,” Wess said.

“Okay,” Alex said. “She might be a princess.”

“You know,” Wess drawled, running a finger along the brim of his hat. “Now that I think about it, I might be willing to part with this hat of mine. But it’s real precious. Very expensive. For a sufficient amount of Credits—”

“She can’t bring anything from her world here other than her presence,” Alex said. “Her physical body is still back on her world.”

“Oh,” Wess said. His hand dropped and he let out a huff. “Well, that’s useless, isn’t it? A good day to you both. I’m going to go look for something I can shoot.”

Then he slipped away. Amelia watched him leave with one head, the other two remaining focused on Alex.

“Who is Barb?” Amelia asked, unperturbed by Wess’ attitude. “Can she make me a hat? Or some clothes? It’s improper for a woman to go around without clothes, you know. I’m basically naked.”

“…right,” Alex said. “I’ll introduce you after we’ve met Claire. How’s that sound?”

“Okay,” Amelia said cheerfully, lumbering along behind Alex as he made his way toward the Warped Embassy. She waved a greeting to every one of the townsfolk they passed. Every single one of them froze in place in disbelief, blinking as if they’d hallucinated it. It seemed they hadn’t quite been expecting to get a greeting from the enormous monster. Alex couldn’t imagine why.

Amelia managed to squeeze Princess’ moldable form through the entrance of the Warped Embassy when they arrived at it, and the two of them stepped into the Mirrorlands a moment later. The distant rumble of the storming skies greeted them.

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“Gods,” Amelia breathed as they emerged from the Embassy, craning her necks up to stare upward. “That’s beautiful.”

Alex couldn’t even blame her for staring this time around. The Mirrorlands were an incredible sight to behold. It didn’t matter how many times he saw the purple-red skies. They were equally as hypnotizing as the last. The raw power of this place was like a constant reminder of just how vast the universe truly was.

“That it is,” Alex said. His gaze landed on the gate, where several people had gathered. A grin split his lips. Mite, Derek, and Vil stood alongside Claire and were all caught up in a conversation. It seemed that Mite had been successful at harvesting his energy source. “Shall we?”

Amelia turned in the direction that he was facing. “Oh! People! Let’s go speak with them!”

She darted in their direction — though the word darted really didn’t feel like anything that ever possibly could have been associated with something like Princess. She was a bit too big and unwieldy to dart anywhere.

It wouldn’t have been right to say that she looked clumsy, though. Amelia had somehow made Princess almost look agile. All of the huge sludge monster’s movements had become more measured and agile.

Watching Princess move around like that is so weird. Like an elephant ballerina. It’s oddly hypnotic.

Alex shook his head and hurried after her, arriving just as Claire and the others turned toward them.

“Ah. Alex,” Claire said. Her eyes flicked to Princess. “How did—”

“Hello!” Amelia exclaimed. “I’m Amelia! I got kidnapped, but I wanted it to happen, so I don’t think it counts. I’m now contract bound to murder anyone that Alex doesn’t like. I’m looking forward to that. It’s great to meet you! Which one of you is his girlfriend?”

Four stares bore into Princess. Then, nearly all as one, they turned to Alex.

“We’re working on it,” he said simply.

“Did you feed a teenage girl to Princess?” Mite asked in disbelief. “That’s cold, man. Even for you.”

“I didn’t feed anyone to anything,” Alex said. He pinched the bridge of his nose. “Amelia is puppeting Princess around. She’s not physically here. Her mind is, though.”

“The rest of me is back in my room,” Amelia provided. “I’m not supposed to leave. Please don’t tell my father. He’ll get very mad and probably kill all of you. That would be really unfortunate. This is the first time I’ve gotten out in years, so I’d really like to enjoy it for as long as possible.”

“You found a princess to control Princess?” Claire asked, arching an eyebrow as a grin pulled across her lips. “Seriously?”

“Look. I think the System might have a sense of dramatic irony. Don’t blame me.”

“I’m not a princess,” Amelia said. She crossed her huge arms in front of her chest. “I’m upper middle class.”

“She’s a princess,” Mite said. “Daddy’s rich for sure.”

“Yup,” Vil agreed.

Derek tilted his head to the side. “Another princess. There are a lot of those here. Do we have a posse of them?”

“No,” Alex said. “We do not. And please don’t go spreading that rumor. This is Amelia. I believe she’d prefer if everyone used her name.”

“I would. I don’t get to hear other people say my name that often. It’s quite nice, so I would very much like if you used it as much as you all want,” Amelia said. She looked down at Derek. “Do you know you have one or two sharp things lodged in you?”

“Yes,” Derek said. “I’m storing them for later.”

“Oh,” Amelia said. She nodded, as if that made perfect sense. “I see. That’s clever. Are you Alex’s girlfriend?”

“I don’t think so,” Derek said. He glanced at Alex. “Am I?”

“No,” Alex said. “You are not.”

“That would make sense,” Derek said with a knowing nod. “I was wondering if I got promoted at some point. But that would have meant Claire got either demoted or promoted again. And I don’t think either of those things happened.”

Does he think a girlfriend is a job position?

“Why are you looking for his girlfriend?” Vil asked. She sent a nervous look at Claire.

“So I can have girl talk,” Amelia said. “I’ve always wanted to have girl talk.”

“I think you need to have a reason to have girl talk before you do it,” Vil said. “You don’t seek it out for the point of it. Something has to happen first.”

Amelia stared at her with all three heads and six eyes.

Vil squirmed under the many gazes.

“The one you’re looking for is me,” Claire said, rescuing her with a raised hand. “Claire. It’s a pleasure to meet you. I see Alex gave up on the idea of keeping your identity hidden, but I think I can see why. I’m looking forward to seeing what you’re capable of.”

“Me too!” Amelia said. “I haven’t had a chance to do anything at all in a long time. I’m looking forward to working with all of you.”

Mite squinted at Amelia. Then he shrugged. “Yup. Same. I’ll be seeing you around I guess. I’ve got to go build a giant death ray, though.”

“Oh! That sounds fun,” Amelia said. “Can I help?”

Alex half expected Mite to burst out laughing at the offer. But, surprisingly, he seemed to consider it for a moment. Then he waggled a hand in the air.

“Maybe in a bit. I have to do the first parts myself,” he said. “If Alex doesn’t have you doing something and I need assistance, I’ll find you.”

“Okay!” Amelia said.

Mite slipped past them and headed for the Warped Embassy.

“I take it you guys were successful?” Alex asked.

Vil nodded. “Yeah. They got the power source. No damage was done to the city. They’re… a lot more effective than I thought they were.”

“Most people tend to be,” Claire said. “Underestimating someone is the fastest way to get yourself killed.”

Alex coughed.

“What?” Claire asked.

“Nothing,” Alex said. “Just something in my throat. Sorry. Fully agreed with you on that. Not to rush things, but now that we’ve got Princess someone to control her, it might be a good idea to start focusing on preparations. We all need to get ready for the Armageddon Call.”

“I agree,” Claire said. She glanced at Amelia. “We can spend time speaking later today, if you’d like. It looks like you might have a lot of questions.”

“I would like that very much,” Amelia exclaimed, then caught herself and lowered her tone. “Thank you.”

“It’s wise to know the people you fight alongside,” Claire replied with a shrug. “Don’t mention it.”

“How are we going to train, then?” Amelia asked.

Alex and Claire exchanged a glance.

A knowing grin spread across Claire’s lips. “Cracked Steps?”

“You think we have time?”

“There’s no way to know,” Claire replied with a shrug. “But the town’s not in a spot where they can’t defend themselves anymore. We’ve got quite a few pretty capable people here. And if we run at full speed, we can make it to the Cracked Steps pretty quickly. We can’t live reactively, waiting for things to happen and restricting ourselves in the process.”

“I was trying to put a bit more thought into my actions than normal,” Alex said with a smirk. “Guess I shouldn’t have bothered.”

“Not at all,” Claire said seriously. “It’s good to think things through. But I don’t think we should just orbit the town because of the mere chance that the Starfallen use the Armageddon Call or the Bleeding Crown. Especially since there’s no timer up yet.”

“Hey, you sold me the moment you suggested going,” Alex said, raising his hands with a grin. “And we can definitely get way farther than we did the last time we went. Grinding some monsters on the way over will be good as well… and I’m very curious to see just how much more Princess is capable of now that she’s got someone controlling her.”