KASSIE 

Living here was something else.

I liked it; having to live in a peaceful village was always lovely to experience occasionally.

I was a stay-at-home mother most of the time, caring for Maro. Don't get me wrong; I loved doing it, but every mother needs a break.

I was thankful that Rachel could look after her daughter and Maro today. Maro didn't look too pleased about having someone else babysit him, but I needed that break.

I stepped outside the house and saw the small changes in the village.

A while back, it seemed that this village was dead, but now it seemed to have a purpose, and it was clear to me that Rickston had done all the work to achieve that purpose.

"A little bit more to the left!" Rickston shouted at the workers, "No! Not your left, my left!" He grumbled, rubbing his temple. "I did not think it would be this hard."

"Watchu doing there?"

"Holy shit!" It almost looked like Rickston was about to jump out of his skin. "How long have you been standing there?"

"Just came here."

He sighed in relief, "You know, you're one scary girl."

I scoffed playfully, "Do people still think that about me?"

Rickston nodded rapidly, "No offence, but everyone at the Kingdom of Juvo was terrified of you."

He wasn't wrong with that; people tended to be afraid of me for the right reasons.

I may or may not have mercilessly bullied people, Rickston being one of them. It was funny; could you blame me?

"If I remember, you used to bully Lenin the most."' He chuckled.

"Let's not talk about that," I grumbled, looking down at the ground.

Funnily enough, that was the only way I could ever get Lenin's attention when we were younger. 

I was too nervous to talk to him properly, so what was the best way to do so?

It was to bully him, and did it work? Sort of. . .

We ended up having Maro after all because I bullied him.

But that is not the point!

"How does this grand architectural planning that I've heard about from Lenin?"

He chuckled, shaking his head, "Not good at all. It would be much better if we had way more workers here."

I nodded, understanding where he was coming from. "Well, knowing you, you could make this village something else when you're done with it."

He placed his hands on his hips, "I hope so. I don't want to disappoint the big boss." Rickston paused momentarily; it was apparent that he wanted to ask something else. "You know how freakishly you're the smartest person I know besides Lenin, right?"

I shrugged, "Where are you trying to get with this?"

Rickston took a deep breath, "The way he's doing this, laying low and all of that. How accurate are the prophecies that we all have?"

He was asking a good question.

"You didn't pay attention to the Prophecy Classes we all had during school, huh?"

He chuckled, "Never found it interesting."

"Most prophecies, if not all prophecies, are set in stone. But there is always a way for people to change their prophecy. Some did with their prophecy never being fulfilled, you know."

"But then again. . ." I paused, "Those who had their prophecy changed weren't that important to begin with."

"I see. . ." Rickston muttered, "We both know that you and Lenin certainly don't fit that category."

I nodded, "Our prophecies are set in stone."

The question was when it would happen; I was unsure.

We could only predict, and that was all we could do.

"Do you believe that the Deuses gave our prophecies?"

I nodded again, "As funny as it sounds, they are more than real."

"I guess I haven't had the chance to meet with one yet."

"Seeing one, let alone talking to one, is extremely rare. The only person I've known who has spoken to one was Lenin, but that was when he was younger."

It was said that the Deus were the ones who created everything in Vestigo.

From what I heard from others, I knew there was a great war among the Deus, and in doing so, they decided never to intervene with this world again.

But, of course, only through prophecies and all sorts of weird stuff.

"What made you decide to think that?"

Rickston shrugged, "Just curious. . . What was your prophecy?"

"To lead him to the path." I declared in earnest.

"That sounds a bit ominous, don't you think?" He let out a nervous chuckle.

"It does," I nodded. "But I hope that by letting him make our decisions together, we can unanimously make whatever this prophecy says." I joked.

"I get it." He answered, "So that was why you moved out of The Kingdom of Juvo."

"Yeah. . . We thought if we were further away from the place, we could dwindle the chances of the prophecy happening." I paused momentarily, "But we all know we're simply delaying the inevitable."

"Hell, to think that there are things like our Plantea. I can't even connect with it, let alone be in tune with the Solum in me."

"Hey, probably because your Plantea isn't that strong, to begin with?"

While Rickston felt down about being unable to connect with his Solum and Plantea, he had almost forgotten that they were scarce, even to have.

Sure, compared to me or Lenin, he wouldn't stand a chance, but to the average person, he could destroy them if he wanted to.

The power scaling between those who had Solum and those who didn't was astronomical.

It was rare for even the most experienced individuals without Solum to defeat someone inexperienced with Solum.

"I think that's enough talking about prophecies for a day; how about you check out the blueprints?"

I smiled, accepting his offer.

It was amazing to see the amount of dedication and hard work he had put into his blueprints. They were great to see and were a testament to his skills as an artist.

I was excited to see these projects come to fruition.

The chance of seeing children gain an education would be an ideal sight to see.

It was like watching a dream come true.

When I finished, I let Rickston deal with his department, and I went to the lab to visit my old friend Felix.

It had been a while since I had spoken to him one-on-one.

As I entered the lab, I saw Felix already at work with the Solum, and he was dealing with his issue.

He groaned, sitting himself down on his chair, as he took off his lab glasses.

"Is everything alright?" I asked as he turned over to me.

Felix slumped even more in the chair. "Things could be going better, " he muttered. "I heard that Rachel is babysitting."

"Yeah." I smiled, "She's doing me a great favour."

I looked around the mess Felix had made in the lab, curious, and asked, "What are you working on?"

"I'm working on making this Solum into Purpura Solum, but it seems to me I can only get to it Ater barely Rubrum on a good day."

If anything, I was more than impressed that I could change the Solum in the first place.

The Kingdom of Juvo was, last I remembered, only at the level of Viridis.

Our technology had yet to reach the level where it could turn plain Solum into full, pure Purpura.

What took the Kingdom of Juvo years to do was done in a couple of months by Felix himself. Now, that was a testament to his ingenuity.

"Hey, by the time Lenin returns with the good news, we'll be able to keep this village up and running."

A small smile flickered on his face as he pointed at me, "That's if they come back in time; they've been gone for quite a while now."

It was true; I thought they would've been here much earlier, but that meant one thing.

"There's probably a conflict."

He chuckled, "There's a conflict." He softly smiled as he looked at the Solum, "I never told you and Lenin this. . . But I appreciate you helping us with all of this, you know?"

I waved my hand politely in dismissal, "We would've wanted to be here anyway."

"As hard as it was living here, it was better than whatever that trash The Kingdom of Juvo had to offer people like me." He sighed, smiling, but his face betrayed him.

He looked at me, "You know how they treated people like me, who didn't have Solum in them genetically. They treated us like shit; we've been taught to be inferiors." Felix clenched his fist, looking down at the ground.

"But not anymore. . . Not anymore." He muttered as he looked at me, a fiery glint of determination surging through his eyes; a blaze had been ignited in him.

"I'm done feeling like this; I think it's about time we do something about it." He declared, "I'm thankful that you and Lenin will be there to support me."

"Always." I did my best to return his smile.

Always. I knew this was a sore topic for him to discuss, and I was impressed by his vulnerability and willingness to discuss something like this.

It was more than enough to know that he was growing as an individual who might one day reach his full potential.

But for now, I would watch from afar and do my best to support everyone and anyone.