[Lauchenoiria]

Nelichē sat at the kitchen table, waiting for Riley to return. Around her was a mess of destroyed objects, smashed shelves and ripped out wallpaper. She twirled the hammer she’d used to trash their apartment in her fingers as she waited for her roommate. The destruction had been a side effect of ensuring that no monitoring devices remained, and had also served as a way for the young Aurora to take out her anger at the situation. It wasn’t as if she’d be willing to share with her former classmate after the confrontation that was about to happen. Not after the conversation she just had with Huatli.

The lock to their apartment clicked and the door opened, Riley holding a bag of groceries as she stumbled into the apartment before freezing, dropping the bag and immediately drawing a knife as she saw the destruction covering the place. Glancing around quickly looking for those responsible, her eyes met Nelichē’s and the two Auroras stared at each other down the hallway for a few moments before either spoke.

“Sit,” Nelichē ordered. Riley didn’t move.

“What’s going on, Nelichē?” she asked warily, not liking the look of the situation. “Has someone broken in? Was it Kerlile?”

“SIT!” snarled Nelichē, slamming the hammer down and knocking a hole into the table. The other Aurora warily walked forward, hand still on her knife, and sat in the chair farthest from her roommate, watching her warily.

“Whatever’s going on, I can’t help if you don’t tell me…”

“Shut up, Riley,” hissed Nelichē. “You’ve done enough already. I don’t understand what possessed you to get involved in a treasonous plot in the first place, but every action you’ve taken since then has only made things worse. You have threatened the unity of two countries, you have threatened the maintenance of peace in multiple regions where war is common and has always been damaging. What I can’t decide is whether you’re incompetent, or if your mission is actually to destroy civilisation.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Yauhmi! I’m talking about Yauhmi! Who has done so much for us, who has allowed us choices for the first time in our lives and who we seem to have betrayed time and time again even as she sacrifices to help us.”

“Has something happened to Yauhmi?” Riley asked, alarmed.

“You really don’t pay attention, do you? Did you think your ill-considered mission was going to be a success? Did you really think you could pull that off safely on such short notice just to protect your treasonous little secret, a secret you endangered this country with when you told it to Huenya’s leaders? You, Riley, are a child, who thinks she can get away with anything so long as she just keeps lying and lying. Well, eventually someone gets hurt.”

“Nelichē, you seem upset, and I’m still not entirely sure what’s happening here.”

“Of course you don’t. So, I’ll spell it out for you. Fix this, Riley, because it’s your fault. Make sure that Huenya doesn’t take the blame for violating the Jinyu Agreement, and end this plot of Robinsons. Or I’ll do it for you. I will go to the press and tell them that Auroras carried out the Cauhloc assault, that we forced Huenya to help by kidnapping their princess. And I will go to the Council, and inform them of your plot, and if they execute me too then so be it. You have 48 hours to do something yourself or I’ll do it for you.”

Riley paled, staring at the other Aurora, blinking more rapidly than usual. “That’s a lie, we didn’t force Huenya to do anything! If you tell the world that, they’ll hate us even more than before, they’ll fear Auroras, they’ll go back to witch-hunts and conspiracies, and the only way your story would work was if Huenya suddenly publicly turned on us. And what exactly has happened to Yauhmi that you’re upset about anyway?”

“Fix it, or I will,” Nelichē said simply, staring unblinkingly at her fellow Aurora. “We’re retired Kerlian agents with specialised training. We’re not some special new species like our fans and enemies alike claim. Being an Aurora was a job, and one I’m happy to give up. Yauhmi helped me and I’ll help her. Regardless of what it takes.”

Nelichē stood, pulling a suitcase out from behind a smashed bookshelf, making sure that the other Kerlian clearly saw the pistol she had at her waist. She took the suitcase, wheeling it past Riley down the corridor to the door as the other woman stared. Nelichē nudged the dropped grocery bag out of the way, then pulled open the door and exited the apartment, leaving the former Eirian Aurora behind to think on her words, and her threat.