Chapter 8: To the other side

Shaking and tremors are all that Lucious and Samira can feel as they travel through the storm. A constant roar of wind, rain, and waves clashing everywhere numb their senses to the extreme. Neither speak not that they would be able to hear much of anything, they can barely hear their own thoughts let alone another person.

Samira holds their baby tight, her legs press against the bench in the center letting her back rest steady onto the side of the boat. The only movements she has is her arms moving constantly against the rocking of the ship so the baby pod rocks to a minimum. Even with this their is still plenty of movement, luckily the shock absorbers are putting in plenty of work letting the inside of the pod experience little to no sensations of movements.

On the other side of the boat Lucious strapped himself down so he can completely focus on steering and keeping the runes working properly. He constantly supplies varying amounts of energy to each individual script of runes so as to maximize his efficiency with his source and not be drained before making it to the other side. 

It's a constant mental battle keeping notice of nearly a hundred things non stop with the lives of everyone who matters to him in hands. But just as Samira said he does just that, never faltering once for the short but brutal battle through the storm. Although exhausted and weary they do eventually make it to the other side, now they're done half the problems and just need to finish everything smoothly.

Looking out at the rapidly calming waters Lucious and Samira both let out a sigh of relief before relaxing themselves for a moment. After a minute of silence Samira chuckles "See I told you that you could do it easy peasy" 

Lucious just stared at her in bafflement for her definition of 'easy peasy' before giving a weary smile "Yeah 'nice and easy'... but at least we're on the other side now. It shouldn't take much longer until we get to the land then we'll have to rely on you" 

Samira was silent for a moment, her expression filled with sadness and a sense of defeat before it slowly morphed into tranquility and eventually a big silly grin, she looked back at Lucious raised her arm... before flexing her bicep and giving it a good slap "hehe those bastards wont know what hit em'. The least I can do for our daughter giving me a big ole power boost is getting a punch on whoever's chasing us" 

Luscious seeing this also visibly relaxed from the tension and anxiety that has been building up a lot more than he realized. He stared at his wife and her big toothy grin and became lost in thinking about how they met. He just ran a book store targeting ancient knowledge and writing some rune scripts on the side. But she.. she was one of the up and coming fighters of the empire. Strong, brave, and full of an infectious energy. 

She went to his store because they were going to a ruin and she wanted to find some potential information about it. As she was one of our fighters and explorers I tried to help the best I could, she must have found it troublesome to remember or just pure gut instinct but she instead just took me on the exploration. She didn't even ask if I wanted to go or what I could do just looked at me, gave that same smile then said that I was going to come with her. 

As always whatever it was that compelled her to take that rash action was right. It was a strange ruin meant to trap those who weren't qualified to enter and self destruct if someone tries to brute force their way out. I don't know what coincidences led to it but I happened to have just the corrected knowledge to get us through the ruins. I don't even remember what we got from the place but what I could never forget was the two of us walking to my store, her abruptly stopping me once again, giving me that big beautiful smile and told me we were going on a date the next day. She just gave me a pat on the shoulder and walked off like she wasn't the other person going on the date. 

However I'm glad she did, I was too nervous and influenced by our social standing to dare to ask her on a date. But oh am I glad she did, I never realized until then how much I was barely truly living. If it wasn't for her I would've never seen she how beautiful and vibrant the world can be. So I don't care who is going to come or what their plans are but I'll never let them take that from my daughter.

As he finished reminiscing about the past and steeling himself for what's to come in the future he gave his own version of her smile that he developed over the years, although much more subtle than Samira's there was belligerence and arrogance in it "hmm... I don't know what they're thinking, if I had to guess they're either rushing straight towards us or tried to look around for any potential evidence for a while before coming. Not that it really matters since we're going for plan B, but the least we can do is give them a good show. Plus we can finally give our baby girl her name"

"I bet she's getting tired of never being called by a real name for her whole life" Samira just chuckled at her own joke and continued "But are you sure about this, those things are from the first era and barely anyone can created them nowadays, hell as far as I know outside of Calypso I've only ever heard about the Demon of Asura maybe being able too"

To her worries, he just happily responded "Don't worry about that I've already checked them a few times over. You can't be the only one who gets to do something cool, I might not be able to fight well at all but I'll be able to brag about writing out and fulfilling a world contract, how many people in our era can say the same. Plus it's for our daughter and the least I can do is something like this with you carrying the biggest part of the burden"

She just smiled at him because he was genuinely excited about doing this, like a kid who can finally play with their new toy. 

They continued to lightly talk enjoying this stretch of peace before things became hectic one again. They laughed and reminisced, they talked about what their daughter would be like in the future, they just enjoyed each others company.

Hours passed by and the first of their stars began to rise, it was a big blue star, like a jewel shining on the world. The distant sky was being lightly hued with a light blue and violet through the dense clouds still hanging in the sky. The coast was now in the distance and they would be their shortly. As they were getting closer Samira took their baby out of the pod she was in and put her back in the wrap so they could move easier.

They moved to the underside of the large cliffed coast and found a cove that Lucious scouted out months ago. When they arrived finally sheltered from the constant rain they started moving quickly. Samira jumped off with their daughter snuggly wrapped to her chest. Luscious tossed her the last bag they would still need. After doing that he drove the boat to the entrance of the cove set a timer to some pre prepared explosives before setting the boat into motion and jumping off into the water and swimming to shore. 

As he arrived he quickly grabbed the bag and hooking it to his back, after he took their daughter and attached the wrap to his chest so Samira would be able to fight to the best of her abilities if the need arises. Just after finishing everything he looked into the distance as he heard a light explosion and a barely noticeable flash of light before the pitter patter of the rain was once again all he could hear.

"Ready to go?" he asked Samira. She just responded with a nod keeping a serious expression once more as it was now her turn too take care of them. They quickly scaled the tunnel in the cove that leads to the surface, luckily it was wide and they could just follow the flow of water upwards. After a couple of minutes they surfaced and what appeared before them was rolling hills of large grass for as far as the eye could see. They gathered themselves and found the direction they needed to move.