Gas had broken two dollars a litre and looked set to break two fifty by the time the week was out. Kraj noticed, but the currently disguised Kobaroian woman only vaguely registered. She had a mission to accomplish. A mission that was essential to ensuring the sacrifice of her fellow clan members had not been in vain.

With the gas tank filled, she headed over to the convenience store, grabbing what nuts or trail mix remained, as well as a couple cartons of fruit juice. Walking from the fridges to the counter, she noticed many of the shelves were bare. Oddly, the toilet paper was one of the most empty sections.

Did humans think thin paper would somehow protect them from an alien invasion? 

Either way, she walked up to the counter, where she found a rather out of it employee waiting. The man took several seconds to notice she’d arrived and jumped slightly when he did. 

She worried for a moment that her holographic human disguise had failed, but the man’s mutterings revealed it was just her height and the fact he hadn’t noticed her despite said height.

“Have you heard the latest?” the man muttered as he rang up the total.

“I am not sure?” Kraj replied. “What is ‘the latest’?”

“An alien government just held a press conference,” the man said, eyes not quite focused. “They’ve… it’s just… well, it’s so real, you know?”

“Mhmm,” Kraj muttered, before taking her purchase. As a Kobaroian born on Earth, it wasn’t exactly surprising news to her.

She left the man to his rather odd little crisis and headed back to her truck. It wasn’t too much further now until Hammer City. A regional focal point of unusual energies that made it both the perfect place to hide the real Imperial Regalia from any further searches and to hopefully find an oracle. 

Waiting for the true heir(ess) to the throne to come to them had failed. The rumours from smugglers of the M’tethon being on Earth seemed to have been true. While that seemed less world ending than the contacts had made it seem, it meant she had to take a proactive approach before it was too late. Before further remnants of the First Dynasty started poking about.

Thankfully it wasn’t too much farther to drive. Especially as highway lanes heading into the cities of the Greater Toronto and Hammer City Area were all but abandoned. Lanes heading out were another matter, of course. Bumper to bumper traffic had dominated for the past several kilometres. People were trying to flee, convinced an invasion was imminent. 

She supposed after what the radio had said happened in one of the eastern cities it wasn’t too irrational, but she wondered how many of them had any specific plans. Anywhere to actually stay. Or an idea of how long to stay out of the city before they had to admit the truth and come trickling back. Returning to their jobs after burning through all their vacation days.

At least it was all sufficiently dramatic to not make her feel alone in having had her life turned upside down. That the death of most of her clan and the need to leave their hidden village for good wasn’t forgotten as the world rolled on as per normal.

She made it into Hammer City proper a short while later, and slipped down York Boulevard to head towards the city center. She knew there was a small ‘cultural centre’ for off-worlders somewhere downtown. She had an address, passed on by a contact her clan had trusted, but she did not know the city well enough to know where that was exactly. 

After finding somewhere to park, which was fairly easy with the city mostly abandoned, she grabbed the box which contained the imperial regalia and set out on foot. 

She felt nervous carrying such a precious artifact on her person, but she was fairly certain she could fend off any human that attacked her. A fully grown female Kobaroian was not easily overpowered. As well as the protection that came from the world thinking the regalia was destroyed.

She set off towards Gore Park, hoping one of the shops there would be open, so that she could ask for directions. Only to feel an odd vibration from the regalia. She kept moving in that direction, finding the vibration increased. Not enough for someone to hear it, but enough she could feel it. 

After an arcing path along King Street, she found herself outside somewhere falled ‘Crooked Giovanni’s’. Stepping in, she saw the store had only two people in it. One seemed to be an employee, a short and slightly pudgy redheaded man. The other figure was also a human male, a bit above average human height with black hair.

The second one seemed on the edge of a nervous breakdown, while the first looked tired. She had expected them to be discussing the latest news, but was surprised to discover that was not the source of stress for the taller one.

“See? See?” he muttered, pointing to the screen of a portable computer. “It says right there. Forty pages. Forty. With the diagrams. Not eighty. Not the eighty my supervisor is suddenly asking for.”

“Dude. Aliens just blew up Halifax. I think you can stop worrying about your thesis,” the redhead replied.

The taller human let out a high pitched whine and seemed ready to continue the conversation when the redhead noticed Kraj. 

He slipped out around the counter and smiled up at her with the waggle of his eyebrows. “He—llooo there, ma’am. How might I help you?”

“I…” she started, feeling the buzzing growing stronger in her pocket. 

One of these two was… no. Surely not? Not this tiny flirt. Or the other one with messy long dark hair who seemed a broken soul.

Yet the regalia would not lie about having detected imperial blood.

Blinking and looking around, she realised it was a used electronics store. Which meant she could leave the regalia here. Leave it and trust its song would pull in the true heir to the Second Dynasty. 

Despite the logic, she couldn’t help but hover in uncertainty. It seemed so risky.

|Yes| came a whisper in her mind.

A whisper that was not hers. But that made the decision for her, as she knew it was the regalia’s. O’tmyil’s.

“I found something odd while cleaning out my garage. I thought I might get a few dollars for it here?” she said.