Land of the Blades

13. Gold

Phos and Antarc were walking ahead of me, talking about the changes that had happened since the last year. I wasn't paying too much attention, while I really wanted to meet Antarc there was another reason why I couldn't sleep.

I hadn't forgotten it. The words of Ventricosus about the humans, and the two figures that were among the Lunarians, specially the one with the sword. I knew her... but at that point I didn't know how or from where. I knew, however, that if they came back, Antarc wouldn't stand a chance against her, and I didn't know how strong Adamant really was. Even if he was truly indestructible, she could probably collapse the building and crush everyone inside. I couldn't allow that to happen.

I knew I needed to tell them, especially Phos. She was my best friend, but after what she had said to Adamant, I started to notice something on the other Lustrous. They were all devoted to Adamant, blindly so. As I have said to her, I didn't thought he had bad intentions, but there was something about him that didn't sit well with me. Maybe it was just his voice, or his attitude, I didn't know. I didn't had enough information, so I could only keep going and hope for the best.

Antarc took us all the way to a beach, with Phos barely managing to get there crawling. I offered to carry her, but she said it would be pointless if she didn't do it herself. On the ocean, there were large ice formations that resembled Lunarians, but Antarct told us they were Ice floes.

—Sensei once called them "Sinful ones" and I couldn't get that out of my mind. And also...

One of the ice floes started to sink under the ones next to it, and there was a horrible roar produced by the ice scraping against each other. The sound and the vibrations was enough to make Phos crack a little and fell to her knees.

—Their screams makes it difficult for the others to sleep, so we will crush them.

He leaped directly to one of the ice floes, digging the heel of his shoe on its surface several times and then using her serrated sword to give it the finishing blow, making it explode into several pieces.

—Give it a try.

—NO WAY!! —Phos yelled.

I wasn't too interested in that task, so I just acted as a watcher in case the Lunarians were to appear. Phos and Antarc had a conversation about knowing and exploring their limits, and that seemed to convince Phos to try it. Her first attempts were a bit lackluster, breaking her own face and almost falling to the ocean a couple of times. Antarc resigned to not see any improvement on Phos, so he made her cut the ice slowly with his serrated sword, while he kept breaking them at record speed.

We also had to remove snow from public places back at the school, even the rooftop. Phos fell a couple of times from it. We had to visit the place where everyone else was sleeping regularly, because they all had quirks that would become a problem if they were left unchecked. Bort would walk while sleeping, and the only solution was to throw a blanket over her. Dia will kick around, and the only solution was to throw a blanket over it. Jade will slip out of her clothes, and guess what the solution was? Even Adamant would start crashing into pillars after spending some days without meditation.

—ANTARC! SHIRO!! —Phos yelled one day where we were again crushing Ice floes. I got closer too since I got worried— This is the end for me.

—Are you going to give up now?

—No, it's not that, but the ice floe talked to me! I must be going crazy. The winter is scary after all.

—No, you are fine, they do that —Antarc said nonchalantly.

He told us that the ice floes were crystals just like them, with minerals inside, and could make noises that sounded like words.

—But I heard it clearly, "it hurts", "it's painful", "I wanna go home", they say.