The Path of Lust

Starlust Crusaders Part 3 - Lust Clinic

Pela took a long, ponderous pause before finally speaking again. "So, what's your strategy?"

The group had decided to meet at Serval's workshop the morning after their tiresome journey back from the Snow Plains. Caelus and March sat on chairs next to each other, Serval sat on top the counter strumming on her guitar, Pela stood by the window while listening to the whole story.

Caelus looked back at her with a puzzled expression. "Strategy? Like a plan? I don't have any of that."

Pela sighs. "What do you mean? What about the castle? You did research, you devised a plan and then enacted it."

"Yeah, but it was only that one time, and I winged it for the most part."

"So how are you thinking of going about it next time?"

He shrugs. "I don't know. Find people who need help, touch them and satisfy their desires?"

Pela closes her eyes disappointingly to process his words. "That's a problem. It sounds like that Aeon expects you to spread the path far and wide. If you keep winging it you will not succeed. For starters, how long are you planning on staying here? I imagine your friends at the Astral Express will have to call you back at some point."

March and Caelus look at each other awkwardly. They had not thought that far.

Pela continues, "I highly doubt you and March alone can handle that task even if you split up to cover more ground. Were you even thinking of doing that?"

The couple has no response. Serval watches with a smirk, enjoying the scene unfolding before her.

"Erhm, Pela, I don't think that's our intention," March interjects, trying to break the tension, "we're just going with the flow, trying to help people as we can. We're not trying to change the world or anything."

Caelus moves to talk, but Pela speaks before he does. "That's fair, but it sounds to me you two made a commitment. You were given power for a specific goal and you accepted it. Shouldn't you be taking it more seriously? I'm not saying all of this just to be mean... I am concerned for you two."

Her words hang in the air. The young man seizes the silence to ask. "Concerned? What do you mean?"

Pela hesitates for a second. "If you keep going like this you could end up taking on too much on your shoulders. The more people you help the more responsibilities you will have to deal with. Even if you go about it as inefficiently as you are now, eventually it will tip over. Or were you thinking of just leaving us like nothing happened?"

Caelus is crushed under the realization that her words bring to him. He had not considered how it would fall to him to care for the people he helped beyond that point. So far he didn't have to stick around long enough to face that question.

"That's it isn't it? You're just going to help as many people as you feel like and then go away. It doesn't even matter what the people you leave behind think. You will leave me for the stars, just like Artem did to Anna..."

A suffocating silence hangs in the air before Serval dispels it with a loud chord on her guitar. "Ohh, we're finally getting to the real point," the guitarist hops off the counter and slowly walks towards her best friend. She circles the shorter woman before leaning in behind her ears. "Your time with Caelus felt so good that once isn't enough? You want him all to yourself, greedy little Pela."

"No, I don't mean it like that! I... I mean, yes, I would like more... but wait, that's not the point... Ahh! Stop it, Serval. Listen, what I'm saying is if you really want to help people, then consider what you leave behind. There is no point fulfilling someone's hidden desire if you just replace it with another in the end."