Christie found Agatha in their room, staring at the horizon as she sat on the balcony still wearing her uniform. The redhead walked behind her and she wrapped her long arms around her ladylove’s small frame. The lack of any feedback partially worried her.

  “Is everything alright?” She asked softly as she nudged her head against the blonde’s.

  “Yeah…” Agatha nudged it back, supporting her big head against Christie’s and enjoying the feeling for a moment. “I was just pensive.”

  “And what made my mock sapphire pensive?” Christie asked mockingly, only to gasp dramatically. “Is it a boy?”

  “What?” Her ladylove’s head whipped to look at her in utter bewilderment. “No!”

  Christie took the chance to peck her on the nose and then rub their noses together as she giggled. “You are so cute when you are confused.” Her mock sapphire mumbled incoherently at that with a hint of playful anger. “So, what you were actually pensive about?”

  “It is just that during Agatecrafting classes we became aware that… agates might want to actively want to murder their summoners,” Agatha revealed with much weight and hesitation alike.

  The redhead blinked several times, only to realize that statement didn’t faze her in the slightest. Regardless whether it was true or not, she had always felt her sea of stone was against her. Feelings be damned, my sea of stone was actively hurting me until recently! And it has yet to be fully obey me! Her inward indignation turned into outward amusement. She let out a chuckle.

  “I am being serious, Christie!” Agatha exclaimed in a denigrated manner.

  “I am aware, Agatha,” she smiled at her ladylove. “But it truly is not something I have not already experienced. I have told you that I was a sickly child and that my agates hurt me once upon a time, and they are not disconnected. Such notion is not a revelation of any kind.”

  So interiorized was that pain that a part of her still didn’t believe that people weren’t supposed to be in pain their whole life. If anything, that made her cramps even more absurd in retrospective.

  “But has your sea of stone actively wanted to hurt you? Or was it more related to its colossal size?” The blonde accused.

  “Most likely the latter,” the redhead affirmed. “But it is the idea that does not surprise me. Perhaps because it makes sense? At least it does to me. I mean, we are not born with agates, we consume them to acquire Agatecraft and…” Sandra’s lesson echoed on her mind. It was fresh on her mind still. “...it might not only be summoned agates that are sapient. Perhaps every agate – or outright every rock and gemstone – is with its capability of thought, no matter how limited they might be.”

  “That is… a terrifying thought,” Agatha collapsed on her the balcony’s lithic chair, no longer looked at the redhead but back at the horizon.

  “Oh, come on. Do not be such a downer,” Christie sat on the other seat. “What is this even going to change? Stones can think, so what?”

  “I mean, you cannot deny it is creepy…”

  “It might be… unsettling, yes,” the nouveau riche nodded and caressed her ladylove’s hand. “But it does not affect you in any way beyond the thoughts you are currently giving to them. It is all in your mind.”

  “But how can you say that? If stones can think then… are we not enslaving them?”

  Agatha’s worried expression looked so pathetic that Christie was tempted to flick a finger at her forehead or kiss her in equal manners. Perhaps it was because such was the way their relationship worked, but seeing Agatha so anxious made Christie’s mentality rock solid. If one wavered, the other had to stand tall. It made complete sense to her, they weren’t opposites, but they needed to be both sides of the same coin.

  One back against the other.

  A notion so romantic that excited her and decanted the balance on the side of the kiss, but she held herself and did neither. The perfect girlfriend, the perfect girlfriend, Christie repeated to herself, lest she become the worst girlfriend. It scared her how easily she imagined herself becoming that worst outcome. How easy it would be to become her dearest father. Or rather, the version of her dearest father that hurt her without having no idea he was even doing so. That was the worst kind of love.

  “Well,” Christie gave some thought to Agatha’s words. “Sentience is not sapience, and a small degree of cognition does not even equal sentience either. Maybe it would be possible to say that stones are alive, yes, but in the same way an ant is alive.”

  “An ant?” Her ladylove squinted, apparently not having understood her words.

  “Ants are capable of creating complex hierarchal structures and societies, almost to a primitive human degree. But would you call an ant sapient?”

  “Well, I have never talked with one…”

  “Do you think they are capable of speech?”

  Agatha looked back at the horizon. The winter had already come a while ago and already threatened to go away, but the colors of the twilight still painted the noon afternoon sky quiet early.

  “I guess they are not,” the blonde finally said. “And not because they do not have mouths.”

  Christie squinted at her. “Mock sapphire, what in the depths are you talking about? Ants have mouths.”

  “What?” For some reason, that shocked the petite lithorist far more than any speech on cognition and thought. “They do?”

  The redhead pinched her nose. “Yes, that is what the mandibles are.”

  “Huh, I thought those were just for picking up things or attacking.”

  “Then how did you think that they ate?”

  “I… did not? Sorry for not spending my time thinking about how everything works. And how do you even know this much about ants in the first place. Mandibles, societies, hierarchies, and whatnot.”

  “Because my dearest father has several books on botany and ecology back on the estate, but that does not have anything to do with all of this,” she sighed. “Going back to the root of all of this, you would not call an ant sapient. Right?” Agatha nodded. “Then what about sentient? Do you think ants can feel things?”

  “Uhm, I guess? At least pain.”

  “So we have established that ants are intelligent enough to be self-aware yet not capable of elaborate thought. Having said so, do you believe that agates might even have a fraction of an ants mental capabilities?”

  If Christie herself had to answer the question, she would be inclined to say yes for a handful of factors and reasons. But her ladylove hadn’t heard the cacophony of the world and she didn’t seem to have it in her mind at the moment, so the redhead didn’t mention anything. It looked like it would be better if the blonde let this whole matter aside as it was needlessly afflicting her. Better for her to think that stones could remain stones.

  “No, I do not think so,” Agatha finally concluded.

  Perhaps this answer wasn’t one her ladylove hadn’t come with on her own as Christie tone infected her decision-making, but out all of the reasons as to why use a bit of manipulation, a philosophical debate was quite the small infraction. After all, that was what all of this was. Philosophy at its finest. They were working with the vaguest of assumptions because the questions itself were ridden with holes, let alone the answers.

  “Then all is fine and dandy!” Christie clapped and smiled. “You really should stop worrying about this. How about we go out on a date?”

  “Whuh?” Agatha’s eyes opened like plates and she almost jumped out of her seat as she started blushing. “Where has this come from?”

  “This weekend there is a festival on the city, and we have been studying for a couple of months – if not more – without any real break. We deserve it.” And you are looking far too morose, she left the last part unspoken.

  “Er, sure. This weekend.” Her ladylove answered with a hint of doubt, but the redhead could see it in her eyes. They were shining as if commanded by Light in expectation. Cute and lovable mock sapphire~

  ***

  Legado couldn’t say he enjoyed patrolling. Some fellas back at the barracks said that it was the best position for a soldier, away from the battlefield yet in movement unlike sentries, but he preferred standing upright all day before having to walk the same streets for months without end. And because they had to patrol in duos, that meant he couldn’t skip job to flirt with a baker girl. They all were heads over for soldiers. Perks of the job.

  “Have you heard about that one leviathan that showed up in Intak Solfan?” His partner, Cristian, said.

  “Where is that coming from?” Legado chuckled.

  “It’s better some conversation than none at all,” the man scratched his nape.

  They both wore the navy-blue uniforms of the Crochetan military. They weren’t high-ranking in the slightest, though Cristian was a military engineer – only in name due to the fact that he was a lapiloquist, but the fucker was even dumber than a rock – so an argument could be made of them not being the average soldier. Though at the same time, the average soldier was probably dying at the frontlines. Not that there was one.

  Yet.

  “Eh, I guess,” Legado sighed. “And yeah, I heard about it. Two leviathans near the island that hosts the Shining Knight’s estate, wasn’t it.”

  “The same one,” his partner nodded. “This world’s going to shit. Behemoths appearances here, leviathans at Intak Solfan, and apparently zaratans have become more common in Secto. Nasty sand buggers. Who says worst things won’t happen?”

  Legado snickered at that. “Man, are you drunk? What has all of that to do with each other? Monster attacks, even colossal ones, have always happened. Especially leviathans and zaratans considering they ain’t exclusive to the depths.”

  “No, no. Monster megafauna are ALL exclusive to the depths. My uncle told me about it. There’s entrances to the depths on the sea and the sands, and those ones cannot be overwatched so massive monsters always make it through undetected.”

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  “Alright, you might not be drunk, but that uncle of yours certainly is,” he laughed.

  “Nah, he’s a smart man. He even teaches at the Skyscraper Academy. The only reason because I managed to become a lapiloquist is because he trained me so I was worth something.”

  “Depths, I wish I had those sorts of contacts,” Legado groaned. “Look at me, barely making it to the end of the month, and with only seven agates at the Fourth Stratum to my name without chance of lapiloquia.”

  “To be fair, you’re only struggling financially because of the alcohol. Man, you sure relax a lot, your beer belly’s starting to show.”

  “You’re just envious.”

  “Envious of your belly beer?” Cristian squinted at him.

  “Sure, man. But I guess it beats struggling to get the next drop of booze than struggling on the battlefield. Thank the earth that I dodged both wars that happened last decade. I think I’ll be lucky enough to dodge this next one too as I’m getting retired soon.”

  “I wish that was me,” his partner sighed exaggeratedly but he kept his back upright as they were still on patrol. “The one problem of being a military engineer is that they keep you around forever. Like, it will be two decades more before they kick me.”

  “Eh, a lot of people wish to keep a job for two decades. Especially a good paying one.” Not Legado though. He was too free-spirited for that.

  “I just wish I’m not in any battlefront. Things are getting too agitated, they say Grwcia’s already recovered from the last war and they are going to make another push. Rumors of the Shining Knight being on his last legs and all.”

  “If the Shining Knight kicks the bucket, then we are royally fucked. He ended both of the last wars alone. I’m going to be very angry if they raise the retirement age because of it.” And probably dead, he didn’t mention the last part. Cristian was young enough to piss himself at the concept of the battlefield. Or so he liked to believe. In reality, there was only a handful of years separating them.

  But what was really true was that Crocheta only existed due to the Shining Knight. Originally a small kingdom at the edge of the continent, it had now expanded to a military hegemony in less than a century. That made them a lot of enemies, though. If the Shining Knight died, he had no doubt Grwcia, Secto, and Sanaar would try to attack them at the same time. Perhaps even their alliance with Intak Solfan would falter.

  “Maaaate,” Cristian exclaimed out of nowhere. “What if all of the rising monster appearances are because they can detect that the Shining Knight’s dying?”

  Legado scoffed. “Are you telling me that monsters worldwide can somehow feel the Shining Knight’s health?”

  “Okay, it sounds weird when you put it like that-“

  “Like depths it sounds weird,” he cut his partner off. “It sounds demented!”

  Cristin scowled at him. “BUT if you think about it, there were way less monster apparitions during the Shining Knight’s prime.”

  “Because you were clearly alive back then. Not even my mother was alive back then, so imagine.”

  “Yeah, yeah. But my uncle says that it was like that.”

  “Mate, I think you should stop listening to your-“ Cristian extended an arm before him and stop both at their tracks. “If this is about interrupting you before…”

  “Shut the fuck up, man. Someone’s using lapiloquia.”

  “It must just be some worker. You know how there’s always a lapiloquist contracted to do some landscaping or change plumbing.”

  “Yeah, yeah. But I don’t recall getting any notice that there should be any acts of lapiloquia in our patrol.”

  “You’re overthinking it, man.”

  “And what’s if it’s an enemy attack, huh? Are you going to be responsible of that?”

  Legado sighed and summoned his agates. A simple merged platform for flight yet it took all of his command slots. “Get in and let’s check.”

  The platform was spacious enough so Cristian didn’t need to grab onto him. And if he tried, Legado would’ve slapped him. The man had at least one agate in the Third Stratum to his name, so if he wanted to fly with security he should do it himself.

  “Fractures, I can’t sense the location now that we aren’t on the ground,” Cristian cursed at his side.

  “Gimme a direction and I’ll land on a random ceiling to hide ourselves. That should still give you connection to the ground, won’t it?”

  “Yeah, unless you chose the only wooden ceiling the whole city.”

  “Noted,” Legado directed his platform toward his partner pointed and landed after going across several neighborhoods. His platform wasn’t particularly fast, but intra-urban travel was quite fast when you could just ignore buildings. “How about here?”

  Instead of answering, Cristian stepped on the limestone ceiling and covered his ears. Legado wasn’t sure if all lapiloquists needed to do that, but as soldier without a background beyond being somewhat competent at lithorica, he hadn’t met with many lapiloquists.

  “Hmm, it’s just some prospecting, but we should check just to be sure. It’s coming from two more streets in that direction, in the middle of the street.”

  How he could know the exact location of the person using lapiloquia was beyond him. Wait, he said prospecting, didn’t he? So they aren’t even using lapiloquia, just sensing shit around. That’s detectable? Considering it might be something serious, Legado chose to fly his platform again instead of asking. Cristian made him land in another ceiling and pointed at a woman.

  “There. She’s the one prospecting.”

  They were still somewhat far away and his sight wasn’t good as of late, so Legado recalled his agates and summoned one with Control Amplify Watch, the most basic of a scout’s tools.

  “Doesn’t look exactly suspicious,” he said after looking at the woman. A redhead. “I mean, she’s in the middle of the street and she seems to be with her child. I doubt it’s anything serious, probably just showing her kid some tricks. If there’s something serious there, it’s those cantaloups of hers. Nah, scratch that. Melons.” Cristian punched him in the arm. “Hey! What gives?”

  “Still on service, man. And it’s protocol to ask, so get us down.”

  Legado resummoned his platform and they both mounted it to descend onto the street. That garnered some gazes as people weren’t used to seeing people flying around. Using more than one Stratum in public without a permit was penalized with a hefty fine or even more depending on the danger of the series. But it wasn’t like that many people complied with that law, because after all, all those who could use more than one than one Stratum had been soldiers that had enjoyed from immunity of that fine. The unspoken rule was “don’t be too eye-catching and don’t get caught”.

  They landed a few steps before the mother and child duo to not alert anyone in the rare case they were enemies. If they saw them coming at least the civilians on the streets wouldn’t become hostages. That would be a lot of hassle.

  It was then that he stood right before the buxom woman that she realized how tall she was. At least half a head taller than him. Ugh, he groaned mentally. That instantly made her way less attractive.

  “Mate,” Cristian whispered on his ear. “I don’t think that’s a mother-daughter duo. That’s just a tall-ass woman.”

  “Yeah, I noticed,” he whispered back as they continued approaching. “You just do your lapiloquist monologue, I’ll be on guard just in case.”

  The real reason was that he had lost all interest, but if they were dealing with undercover Grwcians or Sectons, then he should at least keep his guard up. He severily doubted they could even be Sanaari as those were straightforward barbarians and wouldn’t bother with spycraft.

  “Greetings,” Cristian announced to the female duo. “Were you, by any chance, prospecting the ground?”

  The fracturedly tall redhead squinted at him. “Yes, that would be the case. I had no idea it is detectable.”

  “It is,” his partner nodded. “And not something we appreciate to see on patrols. Lapiloquia is heavily monitored for obvious reasons, so unless you got a construction or survey meeting, I’ll have to fine you and ask you to stop.”

  “Fine me?” The buxom woman inquired in confusion. The child next to her put herself on her tiptoes and whispered something to her. “I am aware what a fine is, yes.” She replied at the child and laughed it off softly.

  Hmm? Legado grimaced. That interaction seemed weird. Either she doesn’t understand the language well – which would be weird considering she doesn’t have an accent – or… that’s not a child? But no matter how he looked at it, that girl was too short to not be one. It certainly didn’t help that she was standing right next to a behemoth. And the disparity on clothing between the two confirmed that it was a child. The redhead was wearing a long squirt and a blouse with a leather corset that highlighted her outrageous cleavage but the blonde girl was just wearing an overall, like a child would do.

  “But a fine, hmm,” the redhead crossed her arms. “I am more than willing to pay a fine and I understand your distress over sensing lapiloquia, but as a student of the Skyscraper Academy, I am technically a private. So is there any need for this?”

  “That is a claim,” Legado forcefully joined the conversation. “Are you able to verify your identity at this current moment?"

  “Uh, we could go back to the academy if you wanted…” A roundabout way to say no.

  “There is no need for that,” the child suddenly spoke, her voice projected powerfully. “Here,” and she took a piece of parchment out of her clothing.

  Legado raised a brow and unfurled the rolled scroll. It was a special summon from the Skyscraper Academy. He pondered for a moment if it was forged, but as he had been put on duty at the academy walls here and there, he recognized it as legitimate. He then blinked several times when he noticed what that meant.

  “Huh, so she wasn’t a child,” Cristian said as he read the document over his shoulder, and not exactly in a whisper.

  You fractured moron! Legado cursed on his insides. “You are a student of the academy?” He asked the child with the politest tone he could muster, one he didn’t use normally but now the situation beckoned for a lot of politeness.

  “Yeah?” The petite girl replied with unmasked annoyance.

  Eh, they don’t pay me enough for this. “I would’ve preferred a uniform or a medal, but this will do,” he sighed and returned the scroll. “We ask you to not perform any kind of lapiloquia on the city unless you have a real permit. Otherwise… you’re fine.”

  The petite student grabbed the tall one’s hand and guided her on the opposite side from the soldiers.

  “Mate,” Cristian said once they were somewhat far away. “Aren’t most students in that academy nobles?”

  “Yeah,” he grunted. “I certainly didn’t want a papa noble to come at me inquiring about a fine. And knowing my luck, it was the fractured child. Let’s get going.”

  ***

  “I apologize about messing up our date,” Christie said as Agatha pulled her from the hand.

  “What?” Her ladylove undid the clasp and turned to face her. “You did not mess anything, dummy doll! If anything, the date has not started even yet. This festival looks rather dull, but that does not mean we can enjoy ourselves!”

  “Then why are you sulking?” The redhead asked. “Sorry that I did not know that prospecting was detectable. I should have not tried to show you in the middle of the city…”

  She wanted to surprise Agatha by being able to identify the contents of the soil or even tell her what rock type would be the house when they took a corner before they could even see it, but it had backfired.

  “How many times do I need to tell you that it is not your fault, dummy doll!”

  “I must be very dummy, because that is the second time you called me that in a minute.”

  “Stop being dummy and then I will stop calling you like that,” her ladylove smiled radiantly at her. A tautology, for her every smile was radiant. “And I am sulking because that fractured soldier called me a child.”

  “Did he? I must confess that my mind was occupied with being admonished over my acts of lapiloquia and I did not pay much attention.” As someone who had been raised with only kind words and never did anything to angry her teachers, Christie was really weak to being called out. She had to put out a very neutral face, otherwise her emotions would have burst out. Probably a tear too.

  How in the depths I was more scared of a lapiloquist barely older than me than a behemoth? And that was a couple of years ago! I was even younger back then! She cried in outrage toward herself. Though the girl couldn’t deny there was a primeval fright that was induced by the fear of the admonishment of self-considered authorities that no monstrosities could recreate.

  “Yes, he did!” Agatha pouted, which made Christie want to eat her. She just looked extra cute doing so! But something told her that if she said so, it would be Agatha who would start the physical violence instead of her.

  “Oh, dear. That is really bad then. How could he even think that?” Christie expressed with a mixture of annoyance – both faux and real – and amusement.

  The blonde scowled at that. “How not…” She murmured under her breath, though this time the redhead did catch the words. “And that was not even the worst part! The other soldier was ogling at you!”

  “Oh, did he? Sorry, I really was not paying attention,” she stated calmly.

  “Have you heard me, Christie? He was ogling at you! With bad intentions!”

  “Yes, mock sapphire. I know what the word ‘ogling’ entails,” the nouveau riche richly snickered.

  “You should be angry!” The villager stomped on the ground.

  That made Christie give her girlfriend another look. It was still somewhat cold as winter was finishing, but her ladylove had decided to wear her overalls. Yet as her eyes lingered in her radiant beauty, Christie understood why she wasn’t bothered in the slightest.

  “Your concern warms my heart, Agatha,” she grabbed her ladylove’s hand. “But I cannot care of people ogling at me. Only if they ogle at you.”

  That made the petite lithorist light up like a carnelian. A powerful and bright blush that sent shivers all across Christie’s body and took all her might to not squirm around. Not just because her ladylove was the cutest girl in the world, but because the feeling was mutual.

  Agatha quickly turned away to not have to be looking at Christie and started walking. “We have a festival to visit!” She announced energetically, which made the redhead giggle.

  “And how come is that you are carrying around those special summons with you?”

  She heard her ladylove groan and then whisper. “…because I guessed this confusion would happen at some point.”

  Christie didn’t know if to squirm because of Agatha’s cuteness or pity her because she was thinking like that. She decided to do neither and instead making the coming date a great experience for her ladylove. Perhaps that would finally teardown the walls she had unconsciously built around herself. Christie ached for the day to see them down. To finally see that bare cutest girl in the world.

  Patreon to support me and read 20 chapters ahead of time!