Chapter Text
The breeze across the Cloud Sea was growing steadily stronger and it was making Nia’s ears tingle. She tugged the hood of her jumpsuit up over her hair and ears for some added protection. It was probably for the best. Folks seemed less likely to bother her when she had the hood up, but even so it was rare that she wore it. Why the things, with their shaped sections for ears, were so popular amongst Gormotti was a mystery to her. Gormotti ears were so sensitive. It always felt like she could feel the hood’s cloth brushing against her ears.
Even now, years after creating this form, her body often felt unnatural. She thought of Gormotti ears as sensitive, but was that even right? It wasn’t like she was a real Gormotti after all. It would be idiotic to ask someone else a question like that. Are your ears sensitive? Psh, like hell she’d ask.
A shout from somewhere behind her on the boat shook her from her reverie. It had been surprisingly quiet and peaceful for near enough to an hour, but now that the day was growing brighter and warmer more people were coming up onto deck. Mostly it was additional crew members, but there were parents and their children traveling as well. Plus a whole batch of salvagers getting shipped out for some kind of job. A mish mash of idiots, desperate refugees, and money hungry sailors. Perfect ship for someone like her to take passage on.
Nia had taken up a spot toward the front of the boat to enjoy the fresh air and get away from her tiny cramped room shared with six other people all sleeping on slim hard-framed cots. Dromarch had declined staying in the room and had instead spent the night out on deck. In fact, he was somewhere on the left side right now, munching away on some sort of fish he had caught. Dromarch being Dromarch he had casually caught a jumping fish out of the air as it passed by. ‘Now if only he would catch a second one.’
The sound of children playing was starting to fill the air. It made her feel a little nostalgic as usual, but she didn’t turn to watch them. She had seen the other day that one of the families on the ship was Gormotti. Seeing a bunch of young Gormottoi kids playing happily wasn’t on her top ten list of fun things to do. Top twenty list of things that made her want to crawl into a hole? Maybe.
This clunker of a ship had already made three stops on its way to its final destination before returning to its base of operations. Supposedly there were two more, one of which was a two day halt in the middle of the Cloud Sea for the salvaging team to haul something up. Nia had taken passage when it made a stop at Nardron Trade Guild, where she had been staying for the last few weeks. Their prior stop had been at the huge Argentum Trade Guild where most of the salvagers had come aboard. The captain had explained their presence, but Nia hadn’t been interested enough to listen.
One place was just like the next after all. Stay on the move, don’t get recognized, don’t get tied down. Don’t get invested. Don’t get personal. Don’t make trouble. Avoid law enforcement. That was just the way of things. There were too many risks. She had to stay at least three steps ahead of the Praetorium.
Sometimes she wondered if Dromarch knew what the real problem was. How they kept getting found. He was smart and good at observing the world around him, better than she was honestly. He had to know, but in all this time he had never said a word. Nia wanted Dromarch around. She needed him. Even if both of them knew that Dromarch was the problem.
It would have been so easy, after assuming her new form, to slip in and out of society. Sure she couldn’t have lived in the same place for more than a few years at a time, but it wouldn’t have been constant running and looking over her shoulder. Just making sure to avoid suspicion about her lack of aging by moving on every so often. She looked like any number of young Gormotti girls and her age was hard enough to guess. Some strangers thought she was in her early teens, but nearly as many assumed she was in her early twenties.
Because she had no age, not really. Oh she had been alive for decades, sure, but people like her...well she was different.
Instead of living that comparatively easy life, in a moment of loneliness and desperation Nia had Awakened Dromarch. Her constant companion. Her friend. Her confidant. Her Blade. What a mad concept that was.
Stray Gormotti girls of indeterminate age didn’t draw attention. Stray Gormotti Drivers did. Especially unregistered ones. There was no way for her to register as a Driver. She had no home, no record of her birth, not a damned thing. Nia didn’t exist. Well, not the Nia most people saw. She was pretty sure a very different picture of her was on a list somewhere.
One tiny slip that drew attention to her and all of a sudden people wanted her Driver registration number. The Praetorium had, after a single encounter, made note of Dromarch’s appearance. Now they tracked her by his very distinct countenance.
Yet neither of them talked about it. She would never leave him behind, even if it meant making her own life easier. And Dromarch knew that leaving her to make her life easier would only bring her loneliness.
So they ran. And they hid. And they had each other. Someone like her...the only person she could possibly have at her side was a Blade. Was that irony? She wasn’t sure.
No matter how hard she tried to escape the thought, Nia knew she was getting tired. Tired of the day to day nervousness. Tired of being afraid. Tired of knowing that any random person she talked to could, at the hint of trouble or profit, report her to the authorities. Everywhere she walked she was surrounded by selfish bastards. They didn’t care if she was scared or in trouble. As long as it didn’t affect them.
She wanted so desperately to hate the world around her, but instead she just felt exhausted. Hate took too much energy. Apathy was so much easier.
A bright red ribbon fluttered past her head and, without thinking, she snatched it out of the air before it could drift into the Cloud Sea. She pulled it back in and inspected it out of curiosity. A tiny threadbare ribbon, obviously well used, probably meant to to tie back hair. Not too dissimilar to the yellow ribbons she used in hers or the ones her sister had…
“Hey! Thanks lady!” Nia’s ears twitched in the hood as she heard the sound of feet on metal rapidly approaching her. From the voice it was a kid. Great, kids.
Nia glanced down and to the right as a young brown haired boy came to a stop just behind her. Just the barest of looks. No need to draw attention to herself after all. “This yours kid? Try not to lose it, okay?”
She held out the ribbon, which the boy gratefully accepted. “It’s not mine, but there’s a little girl who lost it to a stiff breeze, so I had to get it back for her.”
Had to huh? Didn’t sound like it was the kid’s sister or anything. Another quick glance out of the side of her hood wouldn’t hurt. What was this kid? The child of one of the sailors? “Well, whatever. You’ve got it back now.”
The kid was wearing what looked like most of a rough third-hand salvager suit, but without the helmet. Must have come aboard at Argentum with the other salvagers. From the size of him he couldn’t be more than ten or so. An apprentice salvager maybe? Was that a thing?
“Thanks! You’re real nice lady!” He grinned at her, beaming brightly, his golden eyes shimmering happily.
“Me? It’s just a ribbon. It wasn’t like I grabbed it to be nice. I did it without thinking.” It felt odd to have someone call her nice. Snide. Rude. Abrasive. Snarky. Sure, all of those. But nice? Really?
“Doing it without thinking just makes it nicer. Gramps always says good deeds are their own reward. Anyway, I gotta go! The little girl who lost this was real sad. The older salvagers have a saying. Make a girl cry, that’s not gonna fly. Make a girl...make a girl…” He trailed off for several seconds before stamping his foot in frustration. “Titan’s foot...I can’t remember the rest. Still, thanks lady!”
With a quick wave the boy turned and ran back the other way, red ribbon clutched tightly in his hand. Nia sighed and turned back to the Cloud Sea. “Kids really do say the damndest things.”
What had she been thinking about before that kid had interrupted her? Well, whatever. Couldn’t have been that important.
Tugging the hood a little tighter Nia marched away from the edge of the deck to go find Dromarch. There was a spring in her step that hadn’t been there that morning. For the life or her she couldn’t figure out what might have been making her feel so dreary earlier.