With the pseudo-war raging on throughout the night, the city began bracing for a long couple days of fighting.
Among the city’s denizens, those in the areas near the fighting began crossing their fingers. After all, there was always the possibility of a stray attack putting their home into the solid category called: the past.
Yet, because of how expansive the city was, most of the battles fell into areas directly owned and managed by each of the respective organizations. Given most of the damage would land within the headquarters of a large organization, the city was lucky.
Federation of Obsidian, Cerulean Dynasty, and the Church of Eternity. These three organizations weren’t mere organizations outside of Marcen’s Cliffs, they were juggernauts. The three largest establishments that had their hands hidden in the shadows, dominating the rest of the world.
Whether the money came from businesses or literal countries, they, FOR SURE, had the money to pay for their own repairs along with the ones needed for any collateral damages caused.
In one of the farther neighborhoods though, one of the rings furthest from the “heart” of the city lying on the land was a certain teashop.
Astrid, within the Leaves of Dawn cafe, was a little worried. On occasion, loud shockwaves would sound throughout the city as the sounds of battle edged all the way to where they were.
Judging from how far the battle seemed to be though, it wasn’t Astrid’s biggest worry. Valencia, who Astrid believed could whoop just about anyone’s behind, had reassured her to relax as well so...
Relaxing, Astrid was doing!
Splayed out on the upstairs living room’s floor while Valencia ran the shop downstairs, Astrid had some headphones on and was broadcasting some videos on to the TV while working on her anniversary art piece.
With the sheet spread out on the coffee table, Astrid kept her pencil moving while letting her mind wander.
Her sketch looked quite nice...
For the background, she had based it off of Marcen’s Cliffs itself!
It was, surprisingly, really quite hard to find anything about Marcen’s Cliffs online as always. The picture alone had been buried under a huge amount of random internet garbage!
In fact, having checked earlier, Astrid was so surprised there wasn’t some sort of live stream broadcasting the current battles in the city! She didn’t even mean those suspicious phone only streams from some trespassing bystander who probably didn’t have a functioning sense of self-preservation.
There wasn’t even a news broadcast!
Back in the city she used to live in, everything, and she meant everything, had a broadcast somehow. One news station somehow had a near monopoly with the fire department, so they’d broadcast every fire in the city...
Then another did the same with the police...
Another kept following the various schools in the city, and another was just a more general station...
Some of them certainly were immoral—that fire department news station, for example, had constant flack about depicting death—but at least Astrid knew she could find coverage on everything she wanted to...
Marcen’s Cliffs had none of that!
The news came either in newspapers, or just online newsletters anyone could sign up for.
Thanking the Library of Truth for, hopefully, giving her truthful news every morning, Astrid took a moment to pause as a faint gnawing feeling grew in the back of her mind.
Something just didn’t feel right...
Sure, Astrid was dense, she’d admit that without a moment of hesitation. School was NOT a happy place for her.
But wasn’t the media situation just... a little weird in Marcen’s Cliffs?
These hulking organizations Valencia spoke about—albeit with a bit of a condescending tone—had power dwarfing what seemed mortally, or immortally, possible...
Tapping her pencil to her chin for a couple moments longer to ponder the thought, Astrid just shrugged. Getting distracted by a flock of birds outside the window, she shelved the question without too much resistance.
What point was there to thinking about it too much?
Her art piece wasn’t going to finish itself, after all! She had better get back on the grind! She still needed to finish the sketch, then ink it, then paint it!
Unbeknownst to Astrid though, it was this mindset of procrastinating her deeper thoughts that had left her in such a blissful misunderstanding regarding the true, almost mind-breaking nature of Marcen’s Cliffs.
“I should listen to music if I actually want to focus...”
One quick switch from random videos later, Astrid was back in the zone. Her blond hair was tied into a low ponytail, her art supplies were spread in their perfect orientation, and her snacks and water were set at just the right distance to be within reach, but away from her art.
With the sun sending its golden sunbeams through the window, the afternoon hours ticked by as Astrid’s hand blazed across the page, bringing her imagination to life one pencil, pen, and paint stroke at a time.
Singing along to a dumb little love song under her breath, Astrid felt a quiet laugh escape her lips as she drew herself dragging Valencia towards the ocean with a picnic basket in her other hand.
Unconsciously channeling her powers as she worked—even if healing her pencil had no actual effect—Astrid seemed to almost sparkle under the afternoon sun. Her powers radiating off of her as a plethora of small birds, squirrels, butterflies, and more began gathering by the windowsill.
Taking a break from her art, Astrid made her way over to the windowsill with her phone in one hand and a glass of water in the other. Blessing the little creatures one by one, Astrid sent them on their way while taking a sip of water. “How did it become this late already...”
Getting cut off by what sounded like a pretty huge explosion, Astrid just... eased the window closed once more as a huge plume of smoke rose into the sky. “Well, it doesn't seem like much changed in the time I zoned out.”
With her phone buzzing, Astrid looked down to see a text from Valencia.
[I’m cleaning up downstairs now. Since you mentioned you were making “a gift” and “to not disturb” this is just a heads up to perhaps start finishing up? Or would you like some more time alone?]
Sending a quick [Cleaning up now!] in reply, Astrid slid her way back to the coffee table and spent a couple minutes putting everything away.
Her anniversary gift was still not done...
Sighing, Astrid could only lament her own past decisions. Why did she choose such a large piece of paper?
Pulling out her phone as she stored the half-finished painting back into her closet, Astrid sent a text to Valencia while opening the Marcen’s Cliffs community gathering website. This whole art session just reminded her she needed to sign up to attend one of those art gatherings in the park.
Browsing the sessions, Astrid bit her lip while thinking before settling on one a couple days away rather than the one in the morning.
Hopefully, by then, all the fighting would be over...
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Astrid has a very impressive case of nothing to see here or be concerned about, everything is fine.
Astrid must be starting to suspect that something is different about Valencia if she hears explosions and still thinks that she could take on whoever is doing that.
Astrid still doesn't know that Valencia is a God right?
She has witnessed Valencia in a number of fights and as far as has been revealed never seen her lose. Also has seen a lot of demonstrations of Valencia's power such as superspeed and I think flying as well.
Getting warmer, Astrid!
Oh, Astrid, you were so close to being on the right track!
TFTC!!!
Thank you for writing.
Thanks for the chapter!
Thanks for the chapter!
