The sun slowly rises through the sky of Buldigst, leaving small marks of its existence shine past the fast Skyliners of the capital city. The usual thick morning mist makes the sun appear like a weak, temporary, apparition. Though many may rest this early in the morning, after such an eventful week of celebration, the house of our protagonists shines brightly in a neigbourhood where none have yet decided to wake.
"A lunar citizen of Bolive.." Aurelia says hesitatingly, while sitting at the dinner table wearing her church garbs, consisting of a black dress reaching all the way to her ankles and a white veil covering her head. Her eyes spark a certain curiosity: She wants to know everything about him. 'How did you survive such a bloody massacre??' or, she thought, 'What have you been doing for all these years?!'. All kinds of thoughts seem to be rushing through her head, yet not one seem to be able to depart from her lips.
"Let's keep it at that, it's not appropriate for this time of day." Zer says while smearing some toast with a layer of butter.
The table is seated by all the house's inhabitants: The hero, the monster, the solemn princess, and Luna. The church garbs of Aurelia and Anna greatly pair with the lousy morning clothing of Max and Zer. Though it was originally supposed to be a quick morning breakfast and introduction between Aurelia and Max, the conversation spiralled once Aurelia brought up the CBP and its subsequent future destruction. Anna, in all her ignorance about basic human etiquette, brought up Max's deepest wound somewhere in Aurelia's exciting rant about the CBP, which furthered the tension for the simple breakfast goers. After scolding Anna and diverting all of Aurelia's inappropriate thoughts, Zer successfully changed the conversation towards something more light-hearted.
The breakfast goes on like normal for a while, usual exchanges about Aurelia's annoyances at school, weird interactions at work, and grievances about the house. Throughout the simple conversation, Anna's gaze seems to consistently divert towards Aurelia. Though, Aurelia notices the piercing gaze from the nun sitting next to her, she keeps quiet. Zer, once again, tries to bring up some light-hearted conversations, but a tiny a moment of silence gives Anna the moment she has been waiting for. "Let's talk about what happened yesterday night." She says with a smile and her eyes sharply focussed at Aurelia.
"Zer don't tell her anything."
Aurelia's anger doesn't escape Zer as he holds up his arms in surrender. "I won't, I won't, I promise. Anna you'll just have to settle for whatever theories you have in your head."
"So the ruckus last night had something to do with the new guest?" Max says curiously.
A soft blush colours Aurelia's face. "You heard that..?"
"Well I was just out having a smoke and I heard quite a lot noise, almost like someone was-" Aurelia quickly covers the mouth of the boy sitting next to her.
"DON'T TALK ABOUT IT!" Her loud scream echoes through the dining room.
Zer takes the final bite of his toast and only once he confirmed Aurelia seemed to have calmed down a little does he start to speak. "Aurelia how about letting him go." He points the butter knife at Max. "You'll keep silent about anything you heard last night, right?" Max nods his head.
Though it's not quite what she wanted, Anna looks at this little event with a happy expression. The sereneness of it all makes the raging flame of war in her heart calm down, even if it's only for a short while.
Aurelia removes Max from her chokehold and gracefully and silently goes back to eating, shoving a spoonful of yoghurt into her mouth. Her preferred choice of breakfast is a bowl of yoghurt with some fruit. For little Aurelia the health of her body is one of her great priorities. After all, the health of the princess' body is of great importance to the future of the church.
The whole group continues to eat, and just like Aurelia, are enjoying their preferred choice of breakfast. It's an abundance that the people of this planet too easily take for granted. But that should be of no importance to those we spectate right now, it is, after all, just a simple breakfast.
Aurelia finishes her bowl of yoghurt and takes a sip of juice. "I've been wondering. Why does Max trust you two so much?" Both Anna and Zer look at Aurelia with a confused expression. Aurelia sighs and points her finger at their faces. "Have you walked around with those faces for so long you've forgotten what you actually look like? I got a pro to completely overhaul them, there's no facial recognition software or identification spell in this galaxy that could discern these faces as 'the hero' or 'his brother'. So how come he believes you two so readily?"
The couple look each other dumbfoundedly and after whispering between each other for a short while they embarrassingly say: "We forgot!". Aurelia mumbles something about the size of their brain and turns her head towards the silent spectator.
Max jumps at the sudden pair of eyes pointed at him, as if the conversation wasn't about him in the first place. He contemplates for a second, but eventually speaks up. "Well, I just know when someone is telling the truth."
"So you're just a gullible idiot?"
"For example, this morning you were talking on the phone, right aurelia?" Aurelia entertains his brabble, as if wanting to see where this is going, and nods her head. "You said you would deliver the message to your father, but you were lying." She looks stunned, she tries to say something, but Max continues talking. "If I would dig a little deeper for the truth. You said it almost as if your father couldn't receive the message." Aurelia's eyes start radiating an unknown colour. A smile starts to form. What must be going through her head right now? If Max reaches any further he might reach a truth most unpleasant to ever one of the house's inhabitants, be it the owners or the guests. Anna gives the ever so confused princess a kick in the leg and gives her a stern look. Max continues to talk. "Well your father is the pope so an injury is out of the question. I have, however, heard tales of the popes traveling beyond this galaxy. Aurelia, is your father currently outside this galaxy?"
She laughs. "No, it's nothing like that. My father simply has no phone with him right now. I can't remember a time where he didn't lose his phone one way or another." Aurelia stands up from the table and rubs the hair of the man many years older than her. "Do keep that one a secret. It's a general rule that we don't want too much personal information from the popes to get out." She puts on her leather jacket hanging from the chair and waves for Anna to go with her. "It's about time for us to go. See ya later Zer."
The two lovebirds kiss each other on the cheek. "You'll keep each other entertained, right? I'll see you guys this evening."
The two nuns exit the house and walk into the dark street. Anna puts her arm around smaller the girl next to her. "Shall we just we walk to the church?"
"It's going to rain later you know?"
"When doesn't it on this planet? We can take the car back."
"Fair enough." Aurelia takes a hop over a puddle of water left by the rain of the day before. "So how have you been liking it here so far?"
"It's fine. The people here are so well off, it's hard to emphasize with their struggles when they come to the church."
"You don't need to emphasize with them. Just bestow them the church's teachings: 'Be human, live well, and the universe shall reward you for your generosity'."
"They've heard enough of that in their life. I want to understand their pain and help them to solve it."
Aurelia snickers a little. "do whatever you want."
Right as the clocktower in the middle of the city starts to sound its bells, the streetlamps turn off, and the dark path only gets darker. The day is about to start for the rest of the population. In a few hours the streets will be filled with cars.
"How has Zer been experiencing the city? As far as he's able to of course."
"About as badly as you had planned. I felt like the solitude would push him over the edge whenever I would leave the house, but max has been keeping him occupied for now. Were he to ever leave the house, I'm afraid not even his current distraction could stop him."
"Sounds exciting. He's pretty serious about helping Max, I haven't seen him this serious since he met you."
"He's quite selfish, you know. He's actually similar to you in that aspect. Just like his brother, or me, Max is nothing but a stepping stone for his own development. He's been weighting two choices in his head and he hopes Max can lead him to the right path."
"Hah! I don't need anyone to show me where to go. My ideals were preordained to me."
Aurelia looks high up into the sky, she seems lost for a second.
"you know, the place where Zer and his brother grew up.. It's not a nice place. There were plenty of people who went through traumatic events that ruined their lives. It's the place that radicalized his brother. Zer himself probably hasn't fully processed the feelings of his past."
Then you need to knock some sense into him, that's your duty as his wife. Or could it be, that you also still don't know what path to walk?" Aurelia boops Anna on the nose. "Still the same indecisive puppet, aren't you?"
"If the time comes I won't hesitate to make the decision that feels most right to me at that moment. for now, however, I still want some time to think."
"Fine to me, just don't ruin my fun." Aurelia walks up to the church door and an entourage of priests welcome her inside along with Anna.