Angelica opens her eyes, only to be met with Nyx's face centimeters from hers, blinding her with her eyes pointed at her like two flashlights.
- "You're awake!" Nyx exclaims.
- "Cousin?..." Angelica mumbles, looking around. She was lying on a makeshift bed in a white room full of unconscious, injured guards. "Where am I?"
- "We're at the headquarters of the Fourth Branch! This is the infirmary."
- "Where is Julian?"
- "Oh he's outside. He asked me to watch over you while he's fighting off cultists with the other guards."
- "Watch over me? Who does he think I a-" Angelica violently spasms as she attempts to sit up, with no success.
- "The doctor said that you're in bad shape, so he injected you with something to make you stay still."
- "How? I should be resistant to poisons…"
- "Maybe, but I've been looking at your life force for a while. It's so low right now that even if he didn't do that, you'd barely be able to walk. Maybe your resistance is tied to it?"
- "You can see my vitality even when I'm not using it?..." Angelica closes her eyes, and a silver-colored aura faintly flickers around her for half a second. She grits her teeth in pain before it disappears. "I… am a bit low on it, yes."
- "Uh huh. So rest up! Humans need to do that." Nyx pinches her cheek.
They suddenly start hearing sounds of people arguing on the other side of the door leading to the infirmary. Said door is pushed open by an irritated Julian, his white shirt turned completely red with blood along with his hair. Behind him, the elf-Nyx was closely following, holding a wet towel.
- "You really should stop fighting. Look at your hair." She wraps her arm around his shoulder and starts wiping off the blood from it.
- "I keep telling you I don't have time for that!" Julian complains, struggling to catch his breath while fighting her off. "I just need another one of these potions they keep here…" He looks around the room, and notices Nyx and Angelica staring at him. "Ah, she's back among us."
- "I am, even if in horrible shape!" Angelica lightly frowns at the elf. "And who may that be?"
- "I'm Nyx." The elf replies.
There's a few seconds of silence where Angelica stares at Nyx, then at the elf, back and forth while Julian walks over to a desk to grab a red phial.
- "I am positive you are not!" Angelica finally declares.
- "She's kinda right." Nyx comments. "But I found out that unlike me and Lady Night, she only has very specific memories. She knows Beatrice, Julian and Vanessa, but doesn't remember Agnes or you. Also, the only god she knows is Solomon."
- "How strange. Well, this confuses me! She will be known as Nyx number two from now on."
- "I object." The elf whips around to glare at her.
- "Then what do you suggest?"
- "Nyx one. The other one can be Nyx two."
- "She is my cousin, hence why she deserves to remain Nyx one!"
- "How about not using numbers?..." Julian comments, opening the phial before slowly drinking from it. Nyx could see his magical energy being restored little by little as he did.
- "So like…" Nyx looks up at the ceiling for a second. "Nyx-Regulus?"
- "Urk." Julian spits out some of the potion, and Nyx-Regulus cleans up the side of his mouth with her towel. "How about no?"
- "Hmmm… Then Nyx-R, for short? Or just R? I've never been good at naming things…"
- "I am content with either." Nyx-R replies. "I will agree that bestowing names has never been our strong suit… But I would rather this than Nyx two."
- "Then it's decided!"
- "On a different note…" Angelica frowns at Nyx-R. "Could you step away from Julian? He despises people invading his personal space."
- "Like you're one to talk!" Julian exclaims, outraged.
- "...I don't believe I was introduced to you?..." Nyx-R glances at her. "Who are you to my son?"
- "I'm not your son…" Julian sighs.
- "Angelica Ironside! And I am his drinking partner!" Angelica swings her upper body upwards, managing to sit up. "I also intend to make him my retainer when I return to Polemys!"
- "I don't remember agreeing to that…"
- "You did, about a week ago!"
- "When I tried out that stupidly strong new drink at Trevor's bar?! That can't count!"
- "...I see." Nyx-R proceeds to completely ignore Angelica, and turns back to Julian. "Come, let us leave. We need to talk about the company you surround yourself with."
- "Yeah, no chance. I gotta go back to the frontlines." Julian replies as he walks out of the room with her.
When they exit, Vanessa's head pokes into the doorframe. She flinches when she hears a loud explosion outside followed by the sound of a building collapsing, and quickly closes the door behind her as she enters.
- "Hey Nyx." She waves. "Oh, and hey Angelica."
- "Greetings, cousin." Angelica grumbles as she lies back down.
- "Cousin?... Oh right, I'm technically your actual cousin…"
- "Indeed you are! Wear that title with pride."
- "I… uh… will?..."
- "Good! Now if you will excuse me, I am going to take a short nap." She closes her eyes and immediately starts lightly snoring.
- "She's… really intense huh?" Vanessa turns to Nyx. "How's your magical energy holding up? Your current body is made of pure energy, so I'm worried you could disappear if you lose too much…"
- "I'll be fine! I just wish I could help Julian and the others."
- "Why don't you try one of those tonics?" She points her thumb at the rest of the phials on the desk Julian left. "I've seen people drink them to give their magic a second wind."
- "I tried but the doctor yelled at me. Apparently I have and use so much energy that it wouldn't matter if I drank them, and I'd just be wasting resources…"
- "Oh."
- "Why don't you drink one to go help the others instead of me?" Nyx raises an eyebrow. "When I think about it I've actually never seen you use your magic."
- "Yeah uh…" Vanessa looks away. "...n't."
- "What? Why are you being so quiet?"
- "I can't. I can't use magic."
- "Huh? But everyone else can though."
- "Not everyone. My magic vessels are a bit messed up. My mom is from Polemys, and most people can't use magic there." She extends her index, and a few sparks of light emanate from it. "Now I can use yours, but I can't control it at all. It needs me to micromanage every single particle of light I produce to create anything stable, or else it just blows up. I don't know where you find the brainpower to do that…"
- "I'm used to it! That makes me think, I wonder who's running the laws of physics now that I'm not doing it anymore."
- "You're making the laws of physics happen manually?... Like, for everything?"
- "Pretty much! They started running by themselves at some point, but I think it's just because I got used to doing that."
- "That's… pretty crazy."
- "So if you can't use magic, what do you do?"
- "Going straight for the tough questions huh?" Vanessa has a sad smile, then leans on the nearby wall. "I just have a bunch of physical strength, I guess? But it's not worth much in Specta, where everything's about magic. At some point, I just kind of… settled for not being worth anything. I figured I'd just inherit dad's farm and live the rest of my days knowing I wouldn't do anything that mattered."
- "Oh, so you're an outcast! I think that's the word for it?
- "Yeah I guess that'd be accurate." Vanessa chuckles. "Sometimes I just want to strangle Julian when I hear him complaining about how useless his magic is."
- "Woah! Don't do that, he might die."
- "It's a figure of speech…"
- "Hmmm… why don't you use a sword, like Angelica?"
- "I'd probably end up hurting myself more than whoever I'm trying to hit in all honesty. Plus, what would I do, walk up to Lady Night and try to stab her?"
- "Yeah that wouldn't work, she has an Authority to protect her against that."
- "That was supposed to be a joke…"
- "Actually, she mentioned something during our fight I wanted to ask you about. She said I absorbed hundreds of shards, or fragments, or whatever we decide to call them. She probably absorbed a bunch herself, so how is it that there isn't a much bigger gap in power between us?"
- "From what you've told me with Vincent's reaction to her shadows… I think the fragments inside her are resisting her influence. For example, I know that I can mute your voice when we're sharing a body if I focus hard enough. Maybe they're doing something similar?"
- "Even then…"
- "Yeah there's something else. I think you not only pulled some of Regulus' personality with your fragment, but also part of his magical energy. And since he's such a powerful mage on top of being an elf…"
- "...He would make a much stronger fragment than the average person."
- "Correct! But I'm sure there's a third factor I'm not accounting for."
- "See? You did something!"
- "Huh?"
- "You might not have magic and stuff, but you definitely know more about me than anyone else, except maybe for Solomon."
- "Well all I do with my days is sit around inside your mind, so…"
- "Nope!" Nyx points her finger at Vanessa. "Don't downplay yourself, you're doing a lot more than you think!"
- "Where did that come from?..."
- "You always look so sad when you tell me about yourself. It didn't matter before, but now it also makes me sad. And I don't want to be sad when I'm around you guys."
- "I mean, it's true! I can't really do anything of value, like-"
- "I wouldn't be where I am if it wasn't for you! You know, a lot of stories I witnessed over the course of my existence wouldn't have gotten anywhere without their supporting characters. And you're one of my most important supporting characters!" She retracts her hand to point her thumb at herself. "And if you won't even support yourself, then I'll be your supporting character if I have to!"
- "This isn't about me though…"
- "It very much is! Everyone is the main character of their own story. You only think you're worthless because you gave up being that. You know what? When we fuse back, no more sitting around for you! I'll give you control over our body every other day so you can do stuff."
- "What?! But that's such a waste! You have things to do!"
- "And I decided I have to do this! End of discussion!"
- "Will you stop yelling? Your discourse might be inspiring, but I am not so generous as to let it interrupt my rest." Angelica comments, opening one eye to stare at them.
Nyx looks around, and notices she had woken up about half the unconscious soldiers. They were all staring at her, some smiling, others irritatedly pressing pillows on their ears.
- "Oops." Nyx gets up from Angelica's bed. "Come Vanessa, we really should leave before I make an enemy of everyone…"