The Queen's daughter entered the room. She was an exceptionally beautiful woman with almost ghostly pale skin and dark blue hair with thick black makeup on her face. She was wearing a long, flowing black silk dress.
"This is my daughter Celeste. I'll have her go along with you two. Just to make sure that you follow through with the task I'm entrusting you with." The Queen said. "Oh and of course, I shouldn't have to say it, but if you ever feel like abandoning your little mission she will be letting me know. If that happens well certainly I think we can all agree that we don't want it to come to that." She said in a threatening tone.
"It's a pleasure to meet all of you. I look forward to working with you two." Celeste said with a performative curtsy.
"Are you sure about this? I've got a bad feeling about this." Leona whispered to Ren.
"I know what you mean, but we don't really have much of a choice." Ren replied.
Leona and Ren left the palace and were escorted back to their ship which had been fully refueled and restocked. While they were gone, the Queen pulled her daughter aside to speak with her before she joined them.
"What is the plan here mother? Surely you don't think that those two actually have a chance of killing Toro Fernandez, do you?" Celeste asked her mother.
"No of course not, but that doesn't mean I don't think that they can't be useful. As long as they can be a big enough threat that they take the Vercheg Navy's attention off of us. And once they out live their usefulness, we'll make a deal with Vercheg to turn them in. It's a perfect plan really." The Queen said, quite pleased with herself.
Celeste joined the others on the ship as they prepared to depart.
"So where will our first destination be?" Celeste asked.
Ren and Leona seemed as if they were reluctant to speak. They still didn't trust Celeste, given the circumstances it was unlikely that they'd trust her anytime soon.
"We were planning on going to Vanda, but we weren't sure if we'd be able to get onto the planet without getting caught up in their security." Ren replied.
"If that's the case, I could get you in with absolutely no problem at all." Celeste responded.
"What? How?" Leona asked.
"It shouldn't be too surprising, we are a planet of outlaws after all. Of course we have our ways of smuggling people through secured borders. In fact, that just so happens to be a speciality of mine." Celeste said confidently.
"If you say so." Ren said skeptically.
On the way to Vanda there was an awkward silence aboard the ship as Ren and Leona were still unsure of how to act around Celeste.
"So are you two dating or something?" Celeste asked to break the silence.
"What? No! W-Why would you ask that?" Leona asked with a flustered expression.
"Are you kidding? As if I would ever go for somebody like her." Ren said.
"Hey! Watch it you jerk!!!" Leona shouted as she punched Ren in the arm.
"I'm just saying, I can understand why she's after Toro Fernandez. What I don't get is why you'd help her. I figured you must be in love with her or something." Celeste said.
"She's actually making a good point. I hadn't thought about it, but maybe he is in love with me." Leona thought as she started to blush a bit at the idea.
"Like I said, I'm not into gorilla tomboy's like her." Ren said. A comment that earned him a harsh punch on the top of the head this time. "What I am interested in is the truth. I simply want to get to the bottom of why she thinks a great hero like Toro is responsible for the slaughter of her village."
"So are you saying that you don't believe her story after all?"
"No, I definitely don't think she's making her story up, but it's so far from my understanding of Toro that I feel like there's more to the story than we realize. That's the reason I came along on this journey."
"I see, so what would happen if her story turns out to not be true?" Celeste asked. Leona turn to pay especially close attention to Ren's reply.
"I'll cross that bridge when we get there." Ren said avoiding the question. "Speaking of getting there, it won't be long until we get to Vanda. Would you like to fill us in on your plan anytime soon?"
"Hmph, of course. Listen carefully, because you need to follow my plan to the exact letter if you want to succeed.