Chapter 37

Lauren laid in bed, clutching her enchanted dagger and stroking the gorgeous flower patterned handle. The teenage girl's muscles ached. Her father insisted she enroll in a self defense class while Frank was away fighting the goblins. It had already been the better part of a day and she was worried sick about him. She had fun keeping herself distracted at class, and her motivation to fight was through the roof whenever she thought of each strike landing on an invading monster. She had even made friends with the girls in the class and got to train with a cute boy from her school.

The problem was that whenever she wasn't focused on something else, her thoughts were of her brother and how he had left to go fight a war against alien monsters they realistically knew next to nothing about. She imagined him stalking goblins and orcs like a ninja with a gun, taking them out one by one like it was some sort of action movie scene. The thought brought her some comfort, but then the tears welled up in her eyes when her worries of the worst case scenario happened. Things like Frank getting overwhelmed by too many goblins, his gun jamming at the wrong moment, or a drake smashing through the trees and slicing him apart like those goblins in Lincoln's mega viral livestream. She even broke down in the locker room after her first practice had finished, her worries getting to her.

---

A couple of her new classmates came over and tried to comfort the sobbing new girl, but one in particular tried to get her to talk it out. A pretty, toned girl with curly, dark hair barely a year older than Lauren named Alana Valdez. The two had bonded quite quickly in class. Lauren appreciated Alana correcting her sloppy form when the instructor was otherwise occupied, while Alana liked the determined air Lauren kept around herself. There was a spark there that quickly developed into a fast friendship.

So it was only natural after sweating together out on the mat for a while that when Lauren suddenly burst into tears after class, Alana came forward like a mother bear to ward off the nosey crowd of other girls.

"Hey, hey. It's okay, girl. Cry it out, don't hold it in. Don't cover it up for their sake, or even for mine." She quickly shooed away the others who weren't busy changing but had come over to see what was happening, while also patting Lauren's back.

"I'm sorry, I-I'm sorry!" Lauren kept repeating through her tears, ashamed that she had suddenly become a wreck in public.

"I said don't worry about it. Whatever it is, you've probably been carrying it around and dropped it when you least expected. That's okay, it happens to everyone. Even to me. Girl, you know when the last time I had a cry like this was?" Alana squeezed Lauren's shoulder like they were old friends, the older sister in her coming out in full force.

"Last year, my little sister and dad got into a bad car accident. They were both okay after some time recovering, but for a week I couldn't have a moment in my head without worrying about them and I just broke down in the middle of class one day. I was sitting there just like you, a crying mess with everyone crowding me." She sucked on her lip, digging at painful feelings that had long since scarred over. "I couldn't do anything but apologize to everyone for inconveniencing them until my teacher pulled me aside and said I didn't have to. He sent me to the nurse's office after so I could have some privacy and came to check on me later after class to make sure I'd pulled it back together. I could hardly look him in the eye!"

Lauren looked over at Alana and put her head on her new friend's shoulder. Her tearful sobs and hiccups slowing down as she took in the older girl's story.

"Why are you telling me all this? I barely know you." Lauren whispered while her eyes were still a stinging blur. Alana sucked air in through her teeth as if thinking, then let it out before her response came.

"I guess... back then, I could have used a shoulder to cry on, someone to tell me I wasn't being a weak bitch. Though they'd have to have some fucking nerve to tell that to my face!" she patted her toned stomach and let go of Lauren long enough to get up and throw some fast, well practiced punches. Lauren laughed and wiped her tears, Alana's antics having shaken her from her thoughts. "So, I told you my story. I saw you out there, you have fire in your movements. Something big must be weighing on you if it hit you like this. It's like I'm looking at two different people. The focused, quick badass bitch I saw testing her new moves, and then the sobbing mess of a girl I'm looking at now. Like I said, ain't nothing wrong with that! But I can't fit the pieces together, sweetie."

Lauren sighed and took Saving Grace from her locker, comforting herself with the familiar feel of her handle. "It's my brother. He... went away. I guess you could say he got deployed, but he doesn't work for the military or anything. I've been worried sick about him and it's barely been a day. All day at school I was having trouble keeping my head in class because I was worried sick about what was going to happen over there. I even got out early to say goodbye but feel like I should have said more."

"He's far away, but always there in your heart, yeah?"

"Farther away than either of us could imagine..."

"Ay what? What does that mean? Bro get deployed to space or some shit?"

"If only it were so fucking simple! Have you heard about the disaster in Cedar City? Or that banned video of the guy who killed a bunch of monsters on camera?"

Alana took a long, hard look at Lauren. "I thought that video was like... CGI or some kind of AI generated shit. I've never seen it though."

"Come on, you've seen movies and tv shows before. They get away with worse stuff there and people pay to see it. Why ban a livestream recording if it's just a guy flexing his editing skills?"

Alana hadn't considered that line of thinking before. She liked action movies and regularly went out with her sister and uncle to see the newest ones. Some of them could get pretty bloody, and those weren't causing a media firestorm in the same way the infamous "Goblin Raid" footage had. Again, Alana felt a piece of the puzzle was missing. She almost wasn't sure she wanted to find it, but curiosity beckoned her.

"Okay, you have a point. But what's that got to do with your brother? And where can I find this video?"

---

The conversation continued between the two of them until both of them had finished changing and then spilled onto social media when they got home. Lauren opened Alana's eyes to what was weighing on her heart and the quickly materializing doom to their world. Finally, the both of them had put their phones aside for the night and went to bed, their quick bond having deepened. 

Lauren still couldn't help but think of Frank as she ran her finger along the handle of her enchanted knife. Sometimes, when she was asleep, she heard a voice in her dreams. Some part of her knew it was the voice of her knife, or whatever magic caused it to transform into the deadly work of art it had become under Frank's mysterious powers. The voice told her everything was going to be alright, that she had to become stronger if she wanted to be sure her brother would complete his mission. 

Lauren didn't have the faintest clue how she was supposed to get as strong as Frank, he went from being an out of shape slob and lazy good-for-nothing to freak of nature super athlete with super powers within a month. Hell, most of that transformation seemed to happen overnight. There was just no way she could achieve that without a similar type of heavenly intervention, and lightning was far more likely to strike her twice than her chances of winning the superpower lottery.

That didn't stop the girl from dreaming about it though. She wondered what she would do if she was given the chance to unlock superpowers. The thoughts of all the places she would explore and fly around to and all the amazing people she could meet slowly lulled her to sleep.

---

Before she realized it, Lauren was in the middle of a beautiful ball room, dancing with a young freshly minted knight, the comforting weight of a blade by her side as was humming with the bards' music. She didn't think anything of it, she was having so much fun! Then a voice called her name, a familiar voice. Distinctly feminine, but sharp and serious.

"Lauren. You're dreaming. Come find me." The voice rang out and felt distant, but was clear as if it were spoken directly into her ear. Lauren missed a step and stopped dancing. Her companion didn't seem to notice until she turned around to find the voice.

"Is something amiss, milady?" The smiling knight questioned.

Lauren looked back at him and realized he wasn't real, that none of this was real.

"I uh... have to go use the bathroom. See ya." She started off toward the entrance of the ball room, noticing her dress was a much more modern looking one than the crazy, over-the-top dresses that some of the noblewomen in the ballroom wore. Some had ugly geometric shapes, some had massive amounts of flowers sewn all over their backs and legs, and one lady in particular had a belt of animal skulls and an intimidating, tall spikey collar that stood taller than her head.

'Where the hell am I?' Lauren thought before she finally made it to the massive double doors and walked out to the hallway. The hallway was a comfy, if crowded, set of wooden walls adorned with all sorts of pictures, trophies, and plants. Whoever ran this castle must pay top dollar to the housekeeping staff alone to keep all this stuff in good shape. Lauren didn't care enough to look at every piece of wall dressing, she opted to make for the nearest unlocked door and try to find the voice that snapped her back to lucidity.

She knew the voice, it was so familiar but she couldn't place it. She tried three different doors, finding them all locked, until she heard a rush of wind rattle the windows. From the windows to her right she saw curtains billow with the wind on a balcony down the hall, the same sort that adorned a balcony back in the ball room. Some weird dream logic told her that was the room she was looking for. 

She advanced down to the end of the hall, which was about to make a corner to the left when she found a door on her right. She paused before she went to open it. It was strangely ornate with a delicately painted mural embossed over the surface. It depicted some sort of figure holding a purple blade against a horde of yellow eyed figures obscured in darkness, with people fleeing to safety into a castle behind her. Her? It could easily have been a male knight with long hair... so why did Lauren feel so uneasy when she looked at the mural?

Lauren shook her head and pushed down on the door handle, the door opened easily into a cozy looking bedroom. wine colored wallpaper adorned the inside of the place, matching a beautiful if not somewhat gaudy bed ensemble complete with a thick felt veil fastened against the bed posts. Her eyes went to the bookshelf, and her legs followed. some of the books were taken out and placed in a pile against their shelf mates. Lauren didn't pause to read the titles, but she recognized the figures depicted on the cover art in stunning detail. Kelpies, water nymphs, dryads, pixies and... goblins. All figures she had recently read about in her research.

Footsteps clacked suddenly behind her against stone, then wood. Lauren spun to see who was coming, whose room she had intruded upon. Then her breath stopped in her throat when she caught sight of them.

A beautiful, bored looking woman with soft, raven black hair accented by streaks of violet along the sides and front emerged from the balcony. She was dressed more like a warrior than a noblewoman, with a sword by her side, a chalice of wine in her hand, and dark metal armor painted with flowers in a lavender color. The flowers were familiar to Lauren. Irises, the same flower painted on her knife.

"It's good to finally meet you, Lauren. I was wondering when you would heed my call." The woman spoke, a half smile forming on her lips which displayed a striking dark purple, strangely the same color as her eyes.

"Grace! It's really you! I knew I heard your voice!" Lauren began to tear up and ran to hug the beautiful woman. The enchanting knight received the hug with one hand, careful not to spill her wine. She quickly drank down what was left and threw the chalice aside to add her other arm to the embrace.

"I never thought for a second you'd fail to hear me, it was just a matter of time before you could finally meet me. We spend all day together, after all!" The lady knight finally let the girl go, and Lauren was beyond ecstatic! She was finally meeting the spirit giving her knife its power, the spirit who gave Lauren the courage to carry on despite the looming calamity. 

"I can't believe it, is this what you really are? What you really look like?" Lauren wiped her tears and took a long look at Saving Grace, not as a knife but as a woman.

"Yes and no. It's a sort of give and take between what you think I look like, and the parts of my being that make me what I am."

Lauren was further confused by that vague answer, but was just happy to spend time with a friend she wasn't entirely sure could talk back until now. Grace took Lauren by the arm and guided her out onto the balcony she had been standing on.

"Listen, we can chat the night away if you'd like. But first I have a message to pass on. Your brother wishes to contact you. He wants you to form a core. You and your parents, your friends, anyone who will listen and wants to survive. Do it yourself first, then we can post about it on the forum and spread the word."

"W-what? Grace, I haven't been contacted by the System the way Frank has, I couldn't possibly-"

"You can, and you will. I'll help you. Do you really think the System is the only way to find your inner power? It helped plant the seeds, gave people a head start and a leg up, but they're just the beginning." Lauren tensed up, hearing that she could get powers and the "core" Frank spoke of before he left was a sudden potential reality for her. It was almost too much. She felt like she had to run, despite silently wishing for this very thing for a long time.

"Lauren, are you predator or prey?" Grace asked pointedly, her piercing purple eyes met Lauren's.

"I-I've got no idea! I don't know about any of this!"

"Prey, then. Figures. That's fine, we'll make a warrior of you yet. Your brother is adjusting, slowly but surely. I can feel it, a part of his energy was used to make me what I am, but the seed of my being comes from you. I promise, I'll make a warrior of you. You're going to need to become one sooner than you think."

Lauren didn't like the sound of that, but she trusted Saving Grace with her life. If the magic knife was coming to her in a dream and promising help, she would be stupid not to take it.

"Okay. How do we start?"

The knightly woman gave a toothy smile as her eyes lit up like purple orbs of flame. She placed her hand on Lauren's stomach.

"With breathing, and then with feeling. You'll see."