To put it simply, Altair didn't make it to the bathroom.
It wasn't that she couldn't stop herself in the hallway on the way. It was more that Dave set her by the bathroom. He didn't feel it was proper for himself to handle the situation. So he decided to summon Altair's personal maids instead at that time.
But a person's biological functions can only be delayed so long and Altair's body was still young, despite her actual age. She couldn't hold it.
She had never felt so humiliated before. Even when she was manhandled back on the Starship to take care of her business it still wasn't as bad as this. At least there she didn't ruin her clothes and have to sit in it before her maids came.
To make matters worse, Stacey gave her a smile that she immediately associated with a young mother that was trying to soothe their child after an accident. Such a look only served to make Altair feel worse. She felt completely degraded.
She also blamed Dave and Renald for this. It was clearly their fault.
'I will make them pay for this!'
After Altair was cleaned up she still couldn't move well. Her arms and legs were movable but not quite enough to actually move on her own. It was actually worse than when she first arrived at the mansion. However, she knew it was currently wearing off so she didn't worry about it too much.
She did refuse to let Dave carry her though. She had told Noel to do it but Noel refused for some reason. As a result, she begrudgingly let Stacey carry her.
Now that she thought about it, Noel was being strangely quiet ever since she was assigned as her personal maid.
Altair looked at Noel with deep suspicion in her eyes but Noel didn't seem to notice. She excused herself to clean up the mess that Altair had left behind as Stacey carried Altair to return to Renald's office with Dave.
Back in his office, Renald was just receiving a report on the android when Altair was returned to the room. Altair had been changed into a light dress, the type that she preferred, and was carried to a chair while Renald finished the report.
Altair did find something strange though. Even though Renald was sitting, at most, four meters away she couldn't hear a word he was saying. Even though the Holodisplay showed someone speaking back to him, Altair couldn't hear any of it.
Then she realized it was probably the thing he did before when he said it was safe to speak then.
After Altair was set down, Stacey and Dave left the room.
After a few more moments of silence while she sat there, Renald turned off the communicator and looked at Altair. At the same moment, a strange force passed over Altair that she assumed was the reason for the silence.
Renald immediately asked, "The android turning into cubes was you, wasn't it?"
Altair would have nodded if she didn't think she would fall over from it. So, instead she replied, "Yes." It should have been obvious to everyone that it was her. There was a giant checkered screen over two meters tall that appeared on the stairway. Sure, it only lasts for a quarter of a second, but it was too big to be ignored.
Renald took a deep breath before he said, "Don't do that again unless it is an emergency."
Altair's expression turned confused. She couldn't give him the look but she could look it. She asked, "Wasn't that an emergency?"
Renald shook his head, "You weren't in any danger. Unless your life is at risk in the moment, don't do whatever you did again."
Altair's brow rose slightly. 'He didn't see it?' Altair carefully phrased her question as she asked, "Didn't you see it?"
Renald frowned at her, "Of course I saw it. That's why I'm telling you right now: don't turn people into cubes so suddenly. If that gets out there is no chance that you won't be taken away by the government. That power is so valuable that there will be no way to stop them. They will want to try and replicate it and I can guarantee that your life will be short lived once they start their experiments."
Altair's eyes narrowed as she thought, 'Interesting.' She had recovered a small portion of Mana since then. Since she thought that he couldn't see her threads, she decided to test it.
She burned some of her Mana as she exhaled and created an obvious thread out of the table in front of the sofa she was on. She then asked, "So, only use it in emergencies?"
Renald nodded his head, "Yes, only then and no other times."
Altair smirked in her head as her last bit of Mana was burned away. 'This will be useful. I can do so much more with these if these Humans are incapable of seeing them.'
Renald then said, "I wish you would have waited to attack the android though."
Altair immediately asked in a confused tone, "Why?" Did he want the android to run away with her? Was there a point to that?
Renald said flatly, "Because we knew it was an android. We were waiting for it to make its move so that we could hopefully track it back and rescue Liam." He sighed heavily as he crossed his arms over his chest and leaned back in his chair. "Too late for that now though. Liam is probably doomed now."
Altair felt like she had a rock in her through as she frowned as she asked, "Why couldn't you have told me that sooner? I wouldn't have resisted then." That information changed everything. If she knew then she obviously wouldn't have resisted and played dumb. Now she basically had no chance of her poison getting cured in time. She had effectively sealed her own fate.
"Because we didn't know you were the target," Renald replied. They only knew that Liam had been replaced with an android a couple weeks ago. They then tracked its activities back and found when it first arrived. Afterwards, they carefully analyzed all of its actions but couldn't come up with any concrete reason as to why it was in the mansion.
They were literally in the dark as to its mission.
They only found out its target was Altair after Altair disarmed it, literally.
Of course, since that happened, they couldn't just let it go. They had to stop it from escaping in the hopes of recovering data from its core. Unfortunately, Altair managed to dice the core into pieces as well. The information they were able to get out of it from there was basically none.
That was what Renald had found out from the report. They were now in the dark about who was responsible.
"So," Altair said with a hint of finality in her words, "we can't get Liam back."
Renald shook his head, "Probably not."
Altair spoke lightly as her eyes misted slightly, "Then I guess that's it then."
Renald's gaze turned suspicious as he felt there was more to her words than what she meant. He asked, "Is there something wrong that I need to know about that you aren't telling me?"
Altair looked at him from the corner of her eye. Her gaze was watery as he had, essentially, confirmed her suspicion about her end. She suddenly felt a rush of complicated emotions that forced her to blurt out, "I'm going to die."
Immediately after she spoke Renald's eyes widened in surprise.
The same time she said that she started to cry. She also spoke even faster as if it might save her if she said everything sooner. "I have been cursed. I only found out today but if I don't get the poison out of me or get more Mana in time then it will kill me! But Liam is gone and he was working on the cure for the last year and yet I still hadn't heard anything. Now that he's gone there's probably no way to cure it in time. Since it can't be cured in time then I am doomed. There isn't enough rain to increase my Mana here. It's only rained a few times. I just.. I just…" She went silent as she realized what she was doing in front of a Human.
'What's wrong with me? Am I expected help from a Human?'
She had felt a rush of sorrow, fear, anger, and despair all at once. The events that happened in her dream, finding out that Maxwell had betrayed her so deeply, the knowledge of her impending doom, and the hopelessness of her situation all crashed to the surface when she was asked what was wrong. Just that part of the sentence was enough for everything to spill out on her.
Even if Renald didn't really mean to ask her what was wrong it didn't matter.
It had been over seven years since someone asked her a question like that. No one really cared about others feelings in the Coalition so everything was just bottled up for the most part. Even the team she eventually found herself on didn't ask such things because they knew that, at any point in time, they could wind up dead. No one there could afford to a pillar for anyone else. It would destroy the others when they eventually fell.
So, when Renald asked such a normal question while everything inside of her was in turmoil, her feelings couldn't help but erupt before she could keep them under control.
To put it simply, Altair didn't make it to the bathroom.
It wasn't that she couldn't stop herself in the hallway on the way. It was more that Dave set her by the bathroom. He didn't feel it was proper for himself to handle the situation. So he decided to summon Altair's personal maids instead at that time.
But a person's biological functions can only be delayed so long and Altair's body was still young, despite her actual age. She couldn't hold it.
She had never felt so humiliated before. Even when she was manhandled back on the Starship to take care of her business it still wasn't as bad as this. At least there she didn't ruin her clothes and have to sit in it before her maids came.
To make matters worse, Stacey gave her a smile that she immediately associated with a young mother that was trying to soothe their child after an accident. Such a look only served to make Altair feel worse. She felt completely degraded.
She also blamed Dave and Renald for this. It was clearly their fault.
'I will make them pay for this!'
After Altair was cleaned up she still couldn't move well. Her arms and legs were movable but not quite enough to actually move on her own. It was actually worse than when she first arrived at the mansion. However, she knew it was currently wearing off so she didn't worry about it too much.
She did refuse to let Dave carry her though. She had told Noel to do it but Noel refused for some reason. As a result, she begrudgingly let Stacey carry her.
Now that she thought about it, Noel was being strangely quiet ever since she was assigned as her personal maid.
Altair looked at Noel with deep suspicion in her eyes but Noel didn't seem to notice. She excused herself to clean up the mess that Altair had left behind as Stacey carried Altair to return to Renald's office with Dave.
Back in his office, Renald was just receiving a report on the android when Altair was returned to the room. Altair had been changed into a light dress, the type that she preferred, and was carried to a chair while Renald finished the report.
Altair did find something strange though. Even though Renald was sitting, at most, four meters away she couldn't hear a word he was saying. Even though the Holodisplay showed someone speaking back to him, Altair couldn't hear any of it.
Then she realized it was probably the thing he did before when he said it was safe to speak then.
After Altair was set down, Stacey and Dave left the room.
After a few more moments of silence while she sat there, Renald turned off the communicator and looked at Altair. At the same moment, a strange force passed over Altair that she assumed was the reason for the silence.
Renald immediately asked, "The android turning into cubes was you, wasn't it?"
Altair would have nodded if she didn't think she would fall over from it. So, instead she replied, "Yes." It should have been obvious to everyone that it was her. There was a giant checkered screen over two meters tall that appeared on the stairway. Sure, it only lasts for a quarter of a second, but it was too big to be ignored.
Renald took a deep breath before he said, "Don't do that again unless it is an emergency."
Altair's expression turned confused. She couldn't give him the look but she could look it. She asked, "Wasn't that an emergency?"
Renald shook his head, "You weren't in any danger. Unless your life is at risk in the moment, don't do whatever you did again."
Altair's brow rose slightly. 'He didn't see it?' Altair carefully phrased her question as she asked, "Didn't you see it?"
Renald frowned at her, "Of course I saw it. That's why I'm telling you right now: don't turn people into cubes so suddenly. If that gets out there is no chance that you won't be taken away by the government. That power is so valuable that there will be no way to stop them. They will want to try and replicate it and I can guarantee that your life will be short lived once they start their experiments."
Altair's eyes narrowed as she thought, 'Interesting.' She had recovered a small portion of Mana since then. Since she thought that he couldn't see her threads, she decided to test it.
She burned some of her Mana as she exhaled and created an obvious thread out of the table in front of the sofa she was on. She then asked, "So, only use it in emergencies?"
Renald nodded his head, "Yes, only then and no other times."
Altair smirked in her head as her last bit of Mana was burned away. 'This will be useful. I can do so much more with these if these Humans are incapable of seeing them.'
Renald then said, "I wish you would have waited to attack the android though."
Altair immediately asked in a confused tone, "Why?" Did he want the android to run away with her? Was there a point to that?
Renald said flatly, "Because we knew it was an android. We were waiting for it to make its move so that we could hopefully track it back and rescue Liam." He sighed heavily as he crossed his arms over his chest and leaned back in his chair. "Too late for that now though. Liam is probably doomed now."
Altair felt like she had a rock in her through as she frowned as she asked, "Why couldn't you have told me that sooner? I wouldn't have resisted then." That information changed everything. If she knew then she obviously wouldn't have resisted and played dumb. Now she basically had no chance of her poison getting cured in time. She had effectively sealed her own fate.
"Because we didn't know you were the target," Renald replied. They only knew that Liam had been replaced with an android a couple weeks ago. They then tracked its activities back and found when it first arrived. Afterwards, they carefully analyzed all of its actions but couldn't come up with any concrete reason as to why it was in the mansion.
They were literally in the dark as to its mission.
They only found out its target was Altair after Altair disarmed it, literally.
Of course, since that happened, they couldn't just let it go. They had to stop it from escaping in the hopes of recovering data from its core. Unfortunately, Altair managed to dice the core into pieces as well. The information they were able to get out of it from there was basically none.
That was what Renald had found out from the report. They were now in the dark about who was responsible.
"So," Altair said with a hint of finality in her words, "we can't get Liam back."
Renald shook his head, "Probably not."
Altair spoke lightly as her eyes misted slightly, "Then I guess that's it then."
Renald's gaze turned suspicious as he felt there was more to her words than what she meant. He asked, "Is there something wrong that I need to know about that you aren't telling me?"
Altair looked at him from the corner of her eye. Her gaze was watery as he had, essentially, confirmed her suspicion about her end. She suddenly felt a rush of complicated emotions that forced her to blurt out, "I'm going to die."
Immediately after she spoke Renald's eyes widened in surprise.
The same time she said that she started to cry. She also spoke even faster as if it might save her if she said everything sooner. "I have been cursed. I only found out today but if I don't get the poison out of me or get more Mana in time then it will kill me! But Liam is gone and he was working on the cure for the last year and yet I still hadn't heard anything. Now that he's gone there's probably no way to cure it in time. Since it can't be cured in time then I am doomed. There isn't enough rain to increase my Mana here. It's only rained a few times. I just.. I just…" She went silent as she realized what she was doing in front of a Human.
'What's wrong with me? Am I expected help from a Human?'
She had felt a rush of sorrow, fear, anger, and despair all at once. The events that happened in her dream, finding out that Maxwell had betrayed her so deeply, the knowledge of her impending doom, and the hopelessness of her situation all crashed to the surface when she was asked what was wrong. Just that part of the sentence was enough for everything to spill out on her.
Even if Renald didn't really mean to ask her what was wrong it didn't matter.
It had been over seven years since someone asked her a question like that. No one really cared about others feelings in the Coalition so everything was just bottled up for the most part. Even the team she eventually found herself on didn't ask such things because they knew that, at any point in time, they could wind up dead. No one there could afford to a pillar for anyone else. It would destroy the others when they eventually fell.
So, when Renald asked such a normal question while everything inside of her was in turmoil, her feelings couldn't help but erupt before she could keep them under control.
