"Well, I'm gd it worked out for you two." Lunae smiled.

  The four girls sat together at the same table on their first night in the Aerie. They were barely even strangers then. Now, they had become something akin to comrades, or fellow survivors.

  "Mmh ya-, ish been goodge," Li mumbled with a mouth full of oatmeal.

  Ivy frowned, hard at work tying Li's braids togethor with a steady hand. Once in her life, she had tried a simir style. But she preffered the perfection of a free-flowing style that just so happened to always look tidy.

  Still, the heiress seemed to be enjoying herself. "I'd like to think something good has come out of all this."

  "Really?" Lunae tilted her head, trying to nudge the ever-silent Sonera into joining the conversation. "I'm just suprised that-."

  "I know I can be...difficult, Lunae. But-."

  "I beleive you," Sonera interjected. "This pce has changed all of us. Well...maybe not Li."

  The Earthling smiled with her stuffed cheeks. She seemed to be the only one actually enjoying the food. Snacking in her home was always one of her pastimes.

  "That means a lot to me." Ivy's gaze softened. "Thank you, Sonera."

  Li's eyes widened. "M-holy shiz, she said thanks,"

  "Means a lot more to me than this food." Ivy chided with sour intention.

  "I will say," Lunae added. "The concept of milk with...oats...is an unfamiliar concept to me. Human food is weird."

  "My goodness golly, you're an alien?" Li nearly spat out her food.

  "Are we really on that?" Ivy. "What colony would she possibly even be from?"

  "Wait, you all knew?"

  Sonera nodded silently.

  Li shrugged sheepishly. "I just thought she was maybe from like some exotic space Hawaii or something..."

  "That's presumptuous." Ivy gred.

  "Says you!"

  Sonera stared into her bowl, pying with her food as her left hand held tightly onto Lunae from beneath the table. "I never did educate myself on the colonies either. But Lunae always seemed... otherworldly."

  The girl in question was blushing. She had never considered how fun it would be to be viewed as some rare flower. It wasn't the first time it had happened to her. But coming from friends, it made her feel warm.

  "So like, where is she from?" Li squinted.

  "That's her business." Ivy shrugged. "She doesn't have to tell us."

  Li threw up her arms in confusion. "And since when were you so accepting? How come you give an alien less racism than a fellow human?"

  "Because I don't know what she is. I do know, however, the extent of human heinousness."

  Lunae stared at the heiress in disbelief. She felt so seen and understood, and frankly, wasn't ready for that. Her own people had never trusted her with that sort of goodwill.

  "That's fair," Sonera added. "I'm sure you saw a lot from where you stood."

  "Oh boy, here we go with the co-op facism again." Li sighed.

  "I thought you wanted to gut me at one point, honestly." Ivy giggled. "What happened to sticking it to the rich brat?"

  Sonera flipped her spoon, her mind drifting to a recent memory. "At first gnce, you were weak. Being rich and privileged didn't change that. But in here, you did. You chose to be loyal to something beyond yourself and your false sense of altruism."

  "I always knew you and Rena were different." Ivy grinned. "Maybe I had Martians all wrong."

  Li tried to keep the conversation more reasonable, while Lunae watched on with curiosity. Human politics had never made sense to her. But they did pique her interest.

  "You didn't." Sonera furrowed her brow. "Violence and family are the way we live."

  "Brutal tribalism." Ivy nodded happily. "So very ape-ish."

  "Uuhmm." Li cringed. "So about the oatmeal."

  "It's good!" Lunae smiled, entertaining Li's effort to change the conversation. "I like it sweet too."

  Ivy interjected. "You know, I used to be a bit jealous of you, Lunae."

  Li gave Ivy a queer look. She had never seen the heiress so comfortable and loose before. It was almost as if she were drunk.

  "Oh?"

  "But then I think...it turned to solidarity."

  "How so?" Lunae giggled.

  "As far as I'm concerned, we're the only two dies around here."

  Lunae and Ivy snickered pyfully, leaving Li and Sonera to stare with a bnk expression. It was a blunt but truthful confession. Some girls were more feminine than others in the Aerie. Or at the very least, that's how the "dies" saw things.

  "Well, there are more girls out there," Li added. "Could be more dies for ya'll to gal pal with."

  Ivy superceded the comment. "And why should we pay them any mind? As far as I can see, we've each picked a side. Rena is on one of them. They pyed along, as a group not dissimir to ours. I'm sure Yrix spurned on that sort of bond, just like she did with us."

  "Eborate." Sonera stood up straight in her seat, cutting off Li's response.

  "There are two teams of four."

  "If you're afraid of inter-student conflict-."

  "We're her favorites," Lunae interjected. "We fought Omizen. The others didn't."

  "All the more reason for that other group to try and edge us out." Ivy huffed. "Please tell me I'm not the only one who sees this coming."

  "What does Yrix want?" Li frowned. "Can we at least focus on that first?"

  "Ask her." Sonera quipped with a bit of vibrancy in her tone. "You get along well."

  "She likes you." Li chuckled.

  "Not in that way. And I...can't speak with her."

  "It could verify my suspicions." Ivy mused. "If she wants a prodigy to rise from the ashes of internal conflict, she'll tell you pinly, I imagine."

  "You really think she'll pit us against each other like that?" Li exhaled.

  "Why not?" Lunae breathed deeply, referring to her own experience. "She wants the strongest to emerge. She wishes for no solidarity amongst us. It would work."

  "You don't know that."

  "Then find out. Please, for us."

  "Just..." Ivy groaned. "Calibrate your absurdity. Just for one conversation."

  "You calibrate." Li huffed. "For now, Imma crash."

  "We have a week." Sonera nearly grinned.

  "Almost feels like a real reward." The heiress mused. "My father would have loved Yrix if he ever met her."

  "I can imagine that." Lunae agreed. "Really, I can."

  "You have a parent like Yrix?" Ivy looked at her with a desperate need for validation.

  Lunae bit her lip. "Yes. You...wouldn't ever want to meet her."

  "And you wouldn't ever want to meet my dad. I mean...they aren't the same but-."

  "Close enough."

  Li turned her gaze to Sonera. The assassin seemed to be nodding in silent agreement, for she too was raised in suppression. It was a common occurrence that Li could not possibly rete to. Her father was gone, and she loved her mother with all her heart. Perhaps that, among all else, was the reason she stood out.

  "I'm going to bed again." Li got up to leave rather abruptly.

  "Something wrong?" Ivy changed her tone to something far more gentle.

  "Nothing, I just...would rather rest than talk trash about my parent."