CORRUPTED FILE [Lumina Chronicles Past Drafts]

Level Six: Carlyle Plays Therapist

*Maggie's POV*

"Maggie, are you sure this is a good idea?" Carlyle fretted.

"No," I responded, not even bothering to look back at him as I made my way toward the more heavily damaged section of the Ruins.

"And you're doing it anyway?"

"Yes."

Behind me, Carlyle sighed heavily.

Today was my fourth day in Kindle's childhood home, and it was also the first day that I was actually going to do anything interesting. Mostly the days consisted of Kindle, Nikko, Inari, and a few people I had yet to learn the names of discussing battle tactics and plans on how to get ahold of weapons and other supplies.

At first I spent my time sitting in on the strategy meetings, but as most of them consisted of Kindle and the others huddled around a map I couldn't read muttering lots of "hmm I wonder if..." and "maybe we could..." and so I quickly gave up on that. I also attempted once to help Serpina prepare dinner and, well, I couldn't say I blame her for not inviting me back.

The one thing I was sure I could do was spend time with Faye, but ever since we arrived at the Ruins something about her seemed... off. She was much less cheerful, and no longer hummed as she worked. Once when I went to visit her, I'd caught her crying. Just the thought of Faye crying was strange enough, and so I left without saying a word.

Inari, at least, had thankfully settled into a decent mood, and on my third day in the Ruins I was able to have a conversation with her. It wasn't a long one, or a particularly interesting one, but she had apologized-- sort of-- and that was a start.

"Just so you know, I don't hate you. And I'm sorry for being rude to you," She had said to me as we sat by the fire. "I'm just not fond of your human tendencies."

"Human tendencies?" I'd repeated. "What do you mean?"

"Well..." She waved her hand in my general direction.

I nodded slowly, unsure how else to respond. "Oh."

That had been the extent of our conversation, and since then we haven't spoken. Inari mainly spent her time scouting with Emrys and today the two of them, after seeking Kindle's approval, had led the others to a possible supply source.

I wasn't sure if anyone had consciously noticed it happen, or if Kindle even realized it himself, but in the short amount of time we'd been here Kindle had become the leader of our New Order. It made sense, of course, as we were in the ruins of his homeland, and he was the one to initiate the split from the Abandoned Order in the first place. Regardless of if he realized it or not, Kindle handled the role modestly, and it filled me with an odd sense of pride. Thankfully, Kindle seemed to be nothing like Seraphim.

"Watch it!" Carlyle shouted, snapping me from my thoughts just in time to save me from tumbling over a fallen stone pillar.

I stepped around the pillar and stopped, allowing the ghost time to catch up to me. "This place is huge," I noted.

"Before the war, Ignus was the third largest kingdom in the Shadow Realm," Carlyle explained. "All of its land is part of Lumina now, apart from this area, the capital. After bombing it, Jareth decided this section was too damaged to be of any use to him." He shook his head in disgust.

"All of those dragons, people, dead," I frowned, "And then he just moved on as if he'd done nothing more than trample on an ant mound? That's horrible."

"Jareth did much more than trample an ant mound and he knew it. He knew what he was doing when he attacked Ignus before any other kingdom. He knew Ignus wouldn't stand by and allow the non-humans to be made into second-class citizens, and if he faced the dragons fairly his army would have been wiped out," Carlyle said.