RE:WRITE

40.0 Grayscale_Chapter 15: Fossil

Surprisingly, the mood lightened quite a bit after that incident. Kai did a few more of his terrible pirate routines. Amy laughed and clapped at them like a crazed fan. I made fun of Runir while sitting on the prow of the ship. He said he wasn't afraid of heights, but it was pretty hard to believe that when he refused to step anywhere near the edge.

But the most surprising development was between Zoe and Gale. At first, they avoided each other. Zoe still gave him a cold stare whenever they met and Gale flinched and ran away when he saw her walking towards him alone.

Yet, there was something different. Zoe could stand his presence now and as long as other people were around, Gale could stay in the same room with her without trembling. They weren't exactly friends but it was a step in the right direction.

But I doubted whether it would stay that way for long. Zoe may be willing to let him go but would she be so forgiving for the other people responsible for her suffering? She wanted revenge, I could feel it. She was bottling it up for now, enduring as long as she could but she would erupt and she would go for the heads of her tormentors.

Unfortunately, most of those tormentors were Gale's friends and family. He wouldn't just stand by and watch them be killed.

Then again, we weren't planning on killing anyone. Or at least I wasn't. Couldn't be sure about the rest.

Runir didn't seem to care and since he came from Earth too, he probably didn't share the weird morality of this world either. Amy was kind and caring so she probably wouldn't do anything drastic. Kai was unpredictable but I didn't think he would kill people. After all, he didn't even let us kill monsters.

Even though I knew that none of them were the type who would kill people, perhaps Zoe could get through to them? But in that case, the person most likely to be affected would be me.

I could sympathize with Zoe, I could understand her anger, her desire for revenge, for justice. I'd felt it too. I had people I wanted to settle scores with too. If I saw an image of myself in her, would I be able to stop myself from helping her get her revenge? Was it fair of me to want to rip out my hometown mayor's heart but stop Zoe from venting her anger on her tormentors?

"Lily, did you hear what I said?" asked Runir, jolting me from my thoughts.

"No, sorry. I zoned out," I replied, apologetically.

Runir sighed. "There's no point in having a strategy meeting if you guys aren't listening. You don't even contribute at all. Hell, Zoe's been a bigger help than you in finalizing the plan! Can't you at least stay focused?"

I shrugged. "Well what can I do, I'm a thief. I could help us sneak in but Kai's disguises make most of my skills useless. I could help steal keys but I'm sure we can break down any doors we come across. More importantly, your Ability is only good for planning stuff so why should I take away your only chance to shine? You're worthless otherwise."

"How many times have you been rescued again? I've lost count," Runir retorted.

"Screw you."

"Focus please," said Amy. "We can't afford to mess this up."

"Fine, let's go over this again," said Runir, grabbing a marker and a piece of paper. "The capital is just like any other city in the Air Kingdom, only bigger. Kai will help us get past the checkpoints like he always does but we don't want to draw any attention to ourselves so we need to avoid all the groveling. Can you do that Kai?"

"Sure, we don't have to impersonate royalty every time," answered Kai.

"Wait, you made them think we were-"