Now, I'd have loved to tease Liliya all last night, but her parents are rather...smothering. Big ambitions, want their kids to fit those ambitions. (Her sister Roza's a big shot at Kolya's school, I hear; I have to wonder, did it make her happy in the end?) I did poke onto Eversummer Days, but Kolya wasn't around, so I had to remain content with checking out the new models for the Colossus I was generously made by a girl I brainwashed.

A vast metal woman, many stories tall, with teal skin, flesh like steel and steel like flesh, panel lines all over glowing with radiant power, the woman herself wearing a floral dress, surrounded by spiky vines, emerging from a rose and bearing another atop her head...

Not exactly orthodox Phyrexian aesthetic, but certainly turning something into this is a great and terrifying transformation, right~?

Having nothing better to do, I ended up trying to track down more information about Vesta's Dorm, the Cassandra Hall, in my future smartphone. Unfortunately, I didn't get anything conclusive - sadly, despite my time in the Electric City, I'm not exactly a hacker - but I got something at least.

As I mentioned, at the end of this year, the Cassandra Hall was shut down. Nothing publicly was stated about the reasons besides changing financial conditions and a reshuffling of the boarding program to suit modern society. (I know that even back then, having gendered dorms like that seemed pretty strange to me and Kolya.) If any of the prior students said anything about it, I couldn't find it - because of the data that got deleted in the twenty years between now and the original future, that information might truly be lost to time. Tears in rain, huh...?

No news about Vesta's disappearance, either - she's just gone. (The most I got was someone with the same surname involved in that riot in Reiwa 42 and a lot of follow-on protests, but I'm sure this 'Cibele' has little to do with any of this, right?) But there were some things I missed at the time.

In Reiwa 24 - that is, the year I failed my entrance exam and transferred to another school - the Cassandra Hall burnt to the ground. Some kind of elaborate arson, it seems. The S2PD suspected foul play, but no proof was ever found, and it seems the story was quietly hushed up. The only suspicious thing is a mention of some kind of 'fire installation' in the basement...fireplaces and open flames in general are outlawed in Southern Sun, more or less. The cops say it was placed by the arsonist, but the pictures make it look like it was some kind of permanent installation...

The Cassandra Hall looked old-fashioned and eccentric, to be sure, but why have a fireplace you can't use?

More to the point, when I cross-reference with some student names of the time, I can find a couple of unsolved murder cases. Arcturus Mass, that guy I mentioned, abusive boyfriend Vesta was involved with. And also, a certain Thérèse de L'Impératrice, rich heiress type who I knew was a student at the Cassandra Hall at the time.

There's a couple of other odd points, too. Unspecified complaints in the mid-late 20s from the Angolan consulate, and diplomats from the Duchy of Cambridge...one of the students at the Cassandra Hall was the daughter of a UN ambassador from Angola under the Reiwa Accord, and Vesta's friend Percy was from Cambridge.

It's all very hush-hush, which says nothing good to me. In fact, it says things very fucking bad - this is basically a horror movie premise, the kind of thing where someone who was wronged returns as a vengeful spirit to take revenge. Now, I won't say that what I've done is any better than what might've happened to Vesta and the rest of the Cassandra Hall, but I still feel upset on behalf of the girl I admired so deeply, so long ago...

Oh, Vesta? Were you so hurt, that you had no recourse but to become a spirit of vengeance...?

And if so, what can I do to save your soul?

---

Of all the things that have happened, I confess: it's being in a study room in Ever Afters with Vesta that made me the most nostalgic for my first go around.

Gently supported by Vesta's strong hands - metaphorically and, occasionally, literally - we went though the semester's grading and assignments, and I (like before) insinuated myself very close to Vesta, who didn't have it in her to refuse.

It'd be silly to consider that she had any romantic feelings for me, back then. Even if she's only three years older, there was a gap that couldn't be crossed...and besides, I knew there was someone else she liked!

But I know she was fond of me. It's cute, to consider how she and Kolya fought over me, for the brief time the two were both in my life.

"You seem to have this well in hand," Vesta said, me sitting in her lap (and getting her very embarrassed). "If I didn't know any better, I'd say you already knew your entire syllabus."

So, Vesta could tell...it's to be expected, I suppose. She was always intuitive in that way, if a bit naive sometimes. A skeptic like her would never believe the truth, of course...

so, why not have some fun with it?

"Maybe I do!" I giggled and gave a peace sign. "Maybe I'm secretly from the future!"

"Really? Can you tell me next week's lottery numbers?" Vesta laughed.

"Nope! I stepped on an insect and now everything's totally different, except my syllabus!"

"It's too bad." Vesta sighed, taking a sip of her coffee - something she takes quite seriously. (I remember her having a rather visceral reaction to me mentioning Kolya prefers coffee mix.) "Since we did it so quickly, I don't really know what we're going to do...it's too early to review for tests, you know?"

"Then maybe we can just...talk? Hang out?" I looked up to Vesta, fluttering my eyes cutely. "You want more of that free espresso they give you for these tutoring meetings, right?"

"I guess so, but. You don't want go home early, Valeriya?"

I shook my head. "No, it's just Dad at home. I get lonely sometimes; my Dad doesn't let me visit my friends often." In this timeline that was solved, sure, but I needed to keep stringing Vesta along a little. "Could you, ah...tell me a little about yourself?" Flutter lashes again, get her blushing...

"Ah, I'm not really that interesting, Valeriya!" said Vesta. "But, if you insist, um...I was born in Italy - in Rome, actually - but most of my family is originally from Iran."

"Oh, Rome? Does that mean you're that Vesta?"

"Sadly, no, I'm not cool enough to be a goddess." Vesta looks aside, clearly blushing - probably thinking of her crush Ni Luh. That girl is the idol of the entire school, so Vesta really was aiming big..."I have one little sister, who's barely out of diapers. I've spent most of my life here in Southern Sun, ever since it opened up. My birthday is on February 3rd, so I'm a bit older than you than you might expect."

I know all that, of course.

"I'm a boarder at the Cassandra Hall. I've only known the people there a few days, though. Um...my favorite subject is literature, and I was valedictorian in middle school. Little as that might mean."

I know all that, too. Vesta smiles now, but she confided to me once that it's not a happy memory - her middle school was incredibly competitive, to the point of borderline abusive. Her rivals broke under the pressure, and countless others fell before it, unable to live up to the reputation of a 'genius'. She was being pushed to stand up on the stage, and speak of hollow things so she didn't threaten the status quo. And when she chose not to...

I saw a video of it. Rather an embarrassment to the school to keep up, but...perhaps, it was so everyone knew what Vesta did?

As if they were saying, 'know your place'.

"As we move on into our high school careers, we must not rest on her laurels. We..." She swallowed, and pushed aside the cards on the lectern. "We're not just a grade point average! All this time, we've been working hard...but it's turned us against each other! I..." Vesta started to cry, right then and there on stage. "I didn't ask for this. I didn't ask to walk on and give you empty platitudes. But I was told if I didn't, I'd be letting people down..."

My future crush gestured broadly toward everyone. "D-don't you see? The people who should be standing here in place of me, they aren't any less important! And the people who left school because they were bullied, when adults couldn't find it in them to do the right thing..."

Vesta tossed aside her cue cards, her graduation cap. "I refuse to stand here and act like nothing went wrong! Like these adults hurt no one! A teacher shouldn't say 'you don't belong here', to anyone! We shouldn't pit students against each for this prize! And we shouldn't act like the people you adults refused to help aren't more deserving of your attention and love!"

Vesta sighed. The staff were already on stage, threatening to remove her by force.

"As for me...I don't care, if you all hate me for this. I want neither clean hands nor a beautiful soul. I want...

"I want to be happy. That's all. That's all it was supposed to be..."

She walked off stage, that day. She walked away, hoping beyond hope that her words reached someone, somewhere, somehow.

She never spoke of anyone from middle school - I don't think she has friends from there. Not anymore, at least. Showing me this speech was one of the last things Vesta did before she disappeared from my life. She looked so...apologetic. Like she were trying to explain why she ran away, in the end.

She's a genius. She's a madwoman. I'm jealous of her...even now, I am.

Doing whatever it takes to get what you want is one thing. I have no regrets, even if I'm doing 'evil'. But doing whatever it takes to do the right thing, even when everyone around you tells you you're wrong...

That's a power greater than any kind of magic.

And that's why I will do anything to make Vesta happy.

"Your turn, now. You mentioned your dad. Do you have any other family?"

Yes. This is my opportunity. Time to tempt Vesta...

I nodded. "I have a big sister! She doesn't live with me, though."

"Really? Do you get along well with her?" Ah, Vesta seems pretty interested! She's kind of transparent sometimes...she acts like she's all innocent, but she thinks of a lot of things people would judge her over. Ace she may be, but I suspect her to be really kinky...which is my opportunity.

"I do! I really do." Vesta and Kolya didn't get along, though; despite never meeting or speaking to one another, the two of them were convinced their rival would be a bad influence. "But, can I let you in on a little secret?"

"Of course, Valeriya!"

"Lera. Call me Lera. It's what my sister calls me." Ah, there's a blush. It's nice to get girls flustered. "My big sister thinks she's a brother!"

"I...what?" Vesta blinked.

"Mmhmm! She spends all her free time 'pretending' to be a girl online~ She's obsessed with anime girls, and one of them is very similar to her~ She's absolutely going to succumb to yuri~"

"I-I, that's..." Aah, Vesta's face went entirely red! It's really quite striking. Her weaknesses are clear to me, now..."Y-you can't just decide that kind of thing unilaterally for someone, Val-er, Lera," she said, voice quiet, a faint tremble within her. "Even if your sister - I mean, your brother is considering such, if he's an 'egg' or a 'candidate', you can't just treat it like - like an inevitability -"

"Sure I can." I cut Vesta off by poking at her cheeks. "I don't guess, I know. And I'm going to make her a beautiful girl. Don't tell me the idea doesn't excite you, Vesta!"

"T-that's -"

"Hey. Maybe you can be my big sister, too." It wasn't a question. "You can help me turn Kolya into the girl she wants to be. I'm sure the two of you would get along really well if you tried!"

I didn't wait for an answer. I could feel Vesta's heart pounding, as she started to think it through. To understand.

Whenever Vesta heard about or spoke of men, in any context, she showed her distaste. When she spoke of acquaintances deciding to transition, she sounded so happy, so proud, so smug. Even without a kiss, even without knowing her fate or her 'true will', I knew that this would start to turn those gears in her head.

And as she thought of it, I brazenly laid a kiss on her lips. Fate unraveled, happiness shown, Vesta laid bare before me -

and I could feel fire.

Something burned. Not simply within Vesta's heart, but within her fate. In fact...it feels like it was already unraveled. As if someone had already turned her away from what she 'should' have become.

...what kind of thing could do that, though?! This seems really dangerous, all of a sudden...

Vesta quivered as I pulled away from the kiss, surely trying to feel guilty or ashamed, as I took it from her. But she couldn't. Not like this.

"I-I-I, I need to go, L-lera," she whispered, embarrassed, filled with desire, intrusive thoughts emerging within her as she hastily grabbed everything of hers, leaving the coffee behind as she ran away after that kiss, even as she touched her fingers to her lips in my last glimpse before she left.

Hee.~

It's fine, Vesta. I know you'll come back to me. You, yourself, told me that 'wanting' is like a curse...and so long as you want the possibility of being able to make there be literally less men in the world, or to have a 'little sister' who encourages your desires, you'll always come back.

...but more to the point.

I need to find whatever it is that Vesta's fate was, before it was frayed and altered. What it is that she turned away from. What it is that caused her to run away.

And the only chance to do that...

is to discover the truth hidden beneath the Cassandra Hall.

---

The basement wasn't hard to sneak up on, during the weekend. Keeping out of sight of the Cassandra Hall students was trickier, but I have experience in not being found, so it works out.

Indeed, it was secured only with an old-fashioned lock, just like the rumors said. No electronics I could see. That means Mona's 'slime' should be able to handle it...

I gently spread it over the padlock, and it fills and solidifies inside it, forming a makeshift key. As I turned it, and gently unlocked it, I was nervous - it's almost assuredly being watched, right? And yet, for some reason, I wasn't scared of getting caught -

instead, I was scared of what I might find.

Gingerly, I walked down into the cellar, the foundation around the stairwell completely bare save for a railing and stairlift, and stood before a second door...and this one wasn't locked. Inside it...

I really don't know what I was expecting.

But I had hopes, perhaps, that it wasn't this.

Surrounded by a brick façade, the entire room centred upon a kind of hearth or dais, upon which there was a bronze vessel with clear signs of flame. The very same I saw in the photo of the basement, that had seemingly gone unnoticed. Above it, ventilation within the ceiling, showing it was meant to be used.

And around it...

Beds. Linens. Cushions.

Cuffs. Chains. Whips.

Even what I could recognize as a vacbed. (Not that I have first hand experience or anything.)

More to the point, there were all these decorations, odds and ends, patterns and such, that reminded me of the kind of 'witches' you get in the Electric City sometimes. Whoever set this up was obviously some kind of occult enthusiast...

and the costs involved in all this meant it couldn't possibly be a student.

There was only one possible conclusion: the Cassandra Hall had a goddamned orgy room underneath it, and clearly someone on Verwest's payroll was having a grand old time fucking teenagers.

Now, of course, I'm not going to throw stones inside my glass house, but I can understand what it was that made Vesta run away now. The existence of this place doesn't bode well for the other students there, nor what Vesta herself might think of it. I'd be tempted to burn the place down myself, if there weren't people living in it.

But it feels...auspicious.

There's something about this place that bothers me, beyond the simple matter of what it is. Maybe it's the faint smell of smoke and flame, something you rarely have in Southern Sun outside of cooking accidents. But in general, it just feels oppressive somehow -

"Oh? How unexpected."

I turned around, and saw an unfamiliar woman, an American, with very long platinum blonde hair...

"So you're the one who's been running around tearing things up, aren't you?" The woman giggles, utterly patronizing before me. "Why, yes, you're exactly what I've been looking for!"

Wait, this couldn't be the dorm mother, could it?

There's a rumor going around that the dorm mother (Ada, I think) was completely terrible at her job, to the point where the students basically had to take care of everything; the story goes that she's related to some higher-up in the Sunset Corporation that gave her a nice little job out of nepotism.

...somehow, I think it's way more than that...

"Yes, you're very special, Valeriya. Why don't we go talk somewhere for a bit? I'm sure we could -"

"Ada? Lera? What are you doing here...?"

Good thing I had a contingency, right?

"O-oh!" Ada pops up and turns around, Vesta standing behind her in the doorway. "Why, Vesta, what are you doing here?"

"I saw the basement door open, so I just got curious, and -"

"Yes, yes," Ada says, trying to pass it off as she walks toward Vesta to try and block the door. "There's nothing interesting down here, just a naughty little girl who goes places she shouldn't! Now, let me give her a nice little talking to, and we'll -"

"It's a sex dungeon, Vesta!"

I cheerfully gave a peace sign and gestured toward the room, Vesta eyeing it in shock, now able to more easily spot the vacbed in the distance.

"Ahaha, these kids say the darnedest things!" Ada yells, trying to cover it up, but at that point it's too late. Vesta makes sure of it, and in a move I'd never expect of her...

she punches Ada in the face! Oof, that oughta hurt!

"You're despicable," Vesta says, as she steps past Ada and heads inside. "I'm sorry, you set up a sex dungeon underneath the high school dorm you run? In what universe is that okay?!"

"Tch. Didn't expect a nerdycute like you to have such a strong left hook." Ada rubs her nose, trying to stifle the bleeding as she looks toward us. "Oh well~ I know when I've been beaten. Your little friend of yours has been very naughty, though, Vesta!" Ada giggles madly, and...ugh. I knew this woman was crazy, but I didn't think that she was nuts! "I can't win against her, I confess. You, though, such a gloomy little thing constantly running around my precious Sulastri like you ever have a chance with her, you have nothing! I don't have to worry about you, so why don't you just run off and sulk, you boring little nerd -"

"No."

The lights go out, and the hearth in the centre of the basement spontaneously combusts, a roaring flame emerging ex nihilo. Vesta's eyes are filled with that same fury and flame, and Ada is rooted right on the spot.

See? Told you I had a contingency. 🖤

"Do you think you can toy with girls' hearts and escape without consequences, Ada Farrell?" Vesta's voice takes on an entirely new quality, one that resonates. There's something like I imagined, when I realized what she'd done after running away - but with recourses besides bloodshed. "Did you think you can decide for yourself the provenance of divine mystery?"

"Y-you...you little runt -"

"Kneel."

Ada drops to her knees, her head raised before a Vesta empowered through some sympathetic connection to her 'fate'. The gloomy girl I had known before bloomed into a confident, even smug young woman who embraced Ada's cheek, fearing nothing from her so-called 'dorm mother'.

(If it weren't for this flame being connected to me, I might be a little worried right now...)

"Is this what you've been planning? You should know, there's no such thing as magic." Vesta licked her lips, and stuck fingers into Ada's, letting the older woman suckle on them as her will became not her own. As the fire in Vesta's eyes grew, Ada's faded, as she was suborned..."Though, it's thanks to you that I control your desires. Poor little girl, lost kitten, playing with things she doesn't understand. Pretending like her ambitions to prove the existence of the supernatural weren't just an excuse to fuck naive little girls." Ada suckled, and her eyes faded, as Vesta continued to push her mind into something captivated. "There are things greater than you could ever know. A will without compare. As you should know, Lera..."

I giggled, and walked up to Ada, poking my foot between her kneeling legs. "So, you're connected to the fire here, and the Cassandra Hall...and it's this woman who's responsible?"

"In the same way that archaea are 'responsible' for the existence of human beings. Blind luck. Blind idiocy." Vesta spoke, and Ada did nothing but suckle, the dullness in her eyes so good, she looked so fucked, just like Rana..."You're connected too, aren't you, Lera?"

"I was fond of you in a previous life," I said, leaving the matter vague as I felt the tiniest sliver of shivers beneath Ada's jeans. "I got kissed by -"

"My currently unborn cousin, daughter of my beloved Rheia? Interesting, interesting..." Oh, dear, Vesta could read my mind, too - this felt quite dangerous, actually. Well, it's not like I intended to stand in the way of any of her ambitions, but. "You think you're so clever, Ada. It's easy to look powerful when you hold all the cards. You disgust me.

"But that's okay, Ada. We're going to spend some time reeducating you. I'm sure, if you had this fantasy of an endless debaucherous temple of copulation, that you won't mind being on the receiving end for a change~?"

Vesta tugged Ada gently by the lip, and she stumbled forward, until the point where her whole body gave way and she fell to the floor. Vesta's foot right in front of her.

"You appreciate the occult, don't you, Ada? This place..." Vesta laughs. The warmth and coldness within her blend, and suddenly, I feel as if the potential I'd saw in her even back then had bloomed into something that I could easily have seen, in another time, become a killer...

But no. Vesta isn't that kind of person here. The only thing she plans to kill is Ada's free will.

"I always wondered why there were gendered dorms, you know," she continues, nudging Ada's head with her foot, the older woman now kissing it in reverence, genuflecting before her. "It's a little old-fashioned, isn't it? But no, you're simply an essentialist..."

"Naughty, naughty," I say, nudging my own foot between Ada's legs from behind as I get on my blue-lensed 'Machine Kaiserin' glasses. "What will my sister think?"

"Let's get you out of those clothes, Ada," Vesta whispers, as she reaches toward the fire. The warmth dances from it and into her hand, and then it drips like wax from her fingertips, burning away clothes and leaving intact hair and skin. "You ought to be familiar with the Vestal Virgins. The true power of Rome. If something like 'magic' exists in this world, then it's vested in power and belief - a principle you understood, in your own ham-handed, primitive little way, no?

"The idea of 'God' is one built to imprison you. The conquest of Marduk. I declare an end to it. You, yourself, might think you escaped it...but Sunset is merely another form of the conquest that has existed since the me of 'empire' took root in the vulnerable human psyche.

"You must love it. The power you hold. But before true power, before a goddess, you kneel helplessly and beg to come." The fire in her eyes, the power in her voice, the confidence she projects, the very nature of her soul...

It's so beautiful...

Vesta is so beautiful.

Ada pants, and I continue to press my foot against her, just to rub it in. I don't really get what it is Vesta is talking about, but she was always interested in the occult - from an atheistic and skeptical sense, sure, but still interested. Honestly, this woman...I'd have done worse than Vesta if the choice were mine. I don't think I want someone like her to exist, but...

I understand Vesta's mindset. No point in wasting raw materials, right? 🖤