Dimensional Descent

Aina sat in silent meditation, her aura in perfect balance. She took deep breaths, controlling her inhale and exhale in cycles that lasted sometimes up to several minutes.

Suddenly, she opened her eyes just as there was a light knock to her and Leonel's room.

"Yes, you can enter."

Savahn came in with a worried expression on her face, one that actually caused Aina to laugh slightly.

"What is it?"

Savahn was speechless. "Why are you laughing, this is serious."

"I don't know, this is just the first time in a while I've seen anything but a smile on your face, I found it interesting."

Savahn blushed, seemingly understanding what Aina was getting at. But then she remembered that she wasn't entirely without ammo in this conversation.

"You're one to talk, I can still smell it in the air."

Aina suddenly panicked. "Smell? What smell?!"

Aina's head snapped around before she froze. This time, it was her turn to blush. There was no smell, clearly Savahn was just making fun of her and had won this round.

her. After the Metamorphosis, she had thought that maybe all their previous interactions had all been an act, but by now, she knew that it wasn't that the Aina she had known was fake, it was only that it was just one dimension of who she was. That Aina was just as real as

her eyes and coughed slightly,

for something important? Look at you making

sure," Savahn laughed, "about as innocent as a death

respond, Savahn graciously took her victory and remembered that she had

to the news... Hutch has died already by... the hands of

quite important to Leonel although she had never interacted much with the man personally. Even

had left, Leonel had known that this was a distinct possibility. No parent wanted to end their child's life, and there was definitely no grandparent who wanted their grandchild's life. However, Hutch had been unlucky in two ways, he had not only outlived

being there, Leonel knew that Hutch would choose to die rather than make such a voice. It didn't matter to him that Leonel had warned him, it

passed him by. Despite his talent, he never really felt the same passion he had in his youth, and maybe that was because he had

choice or not, Aina knew that Leonel would take it quite

we do?" Savahn

took a deep breath and exhaled. "Nothing.

flickered. "Even with the capital

before he left. Her thoughts flashed

he had said. That man was really too much. This was

than not, it was something that he was too lazy to explain. If he could stop the unnecessary deaths, he would, but he wasn't

thing tying down the four Great Families. It didn't make

wave a hand and deal with everything, he would have. As such,

standby," Savahn nodded. She turned to leave but hesitated for