Thief of Time

“Gaga.” Little Beth made happy noises as she tottered around the room, and Dia smiled. The little child was happy to be in this place, although she did cry sometimes at night. It would last for a few seconds, before she woke up from her nightmare, and then run towards Dia’s bedroom for a hug. After a day or two, Dia had decided to have the little kid sleep on her bed too, so that Beth would have someone by her side if she had a nightmare.

Which she had.

Every day.

“Come now,” Dia picked her up. “It’s still early morning. You can’t run around too much, okay?”

She paused. “I’ll bring you to the garden, so just let me wash your face and all first.”

The child stared at her, and then nodded.

Dia smiled. Schwarz and the others had volunteered to take care of her too, but the little kid liked her the most for some reason. Such a discovery, however, simply spurred the others on to improve their…parenting abilities, so Dia now felt some pressure from the possibility that her little Beth was going to like the others more.

However, some things needed to be done.

After washing Beth’s bouncy cheeks, she brought her down to the garden, where Dia began her usual training.

“Mhm?” Dia brought down her sword for the ninety-second time, and then glanced at the kid. “What, you interested in this?”

Beth nodded rapidly, and Dia rolled her eyes. “Oh, well. I might as well entertain you a bit, then. Sword Waltz.”

Her body began to move around at preternatural speeds, boosted by her immense mana reserves. Blue afterimages followed her every move as she glid around the garden, twirling and flourishing her sword at imaginary enemies. Faceless, white monsters with too many eyes and maggots had been haunting her dreams for a while, and Dia didn’t like that portent at all. Even though she had supposedly lived up to her brother’s…goal, a faint sense of crisis still ate away at her psyche.

She didn’t like it. She didn’t like any of her feelings right now. It was as if her brother’s sacrifice was for nothing, and while she could and should rationalise this unease away, Dia didn’t dare to do that.

It was odd. No one else seemed to sense it. The only probable reason was because she was the Salvation Star, which would account for why the sense of doom she was feeling was growing by the day. However, this doom seemed…

Distant.

“As if it was in another sovereignty, or a different continent altogether,” Dia uttered out loud.

“Dada?” Beth looked at her. “Didia?”

“I’m not your father…” Dia replied.

Beth sniffed, and then hugged her leg. “Dada!”

Dia felt her eyebrows rise. What, she wasn’t maternal enough? How in the name of the Moons did she because this kid’s father? At the very least, she should be a surrogate mum, right?

“Dada…” Beth sniffed again, and Dia saw the beginnings of a little baby tantrum.

“Oh, you have got to be kidding me.” Dia squatted. “Dada is here, dada is here. Happy? Sheesh. There, there…I’m not sweaty, am I?”

“Didia! No!”

The kid sometimes could speak legibly, but she rarely spoke full sentences. Most of her attempts at speaking full sentences were baby babbles, rather than actual words, and the kid herself knew it. Most of her long sentences carried no meaning, while the shorter ones actually conveyed some message. Dia had gotten used to this after a few days, but she still found herself wondering if this was how kids learned to speak.

After assuring Beth that she was indeed her “dada”, Dia got up and prepared to resume her practice, only to notice a small weight on the end of her sword. The training blade had turned into a bolster for Beth for some reason, and Dia rubbed her head.

“What’s wrong, little one?”

“Sward! Prac…practis!”

“You want to play with this?” Dia asked. “I mean, it’s a training sword. This thing is heavy. You’ll cry if it smacks your head…actually, it’s rather dangerous.”

“No! Practise!”

Dia blinked twice, smacked her own ear once, and then said, “You want to practice with this?”

“Yes!”

“…I’ll get you a lighter sword. This thing is heavy,” Dia replied. “What, you don’t believe me? Here, hold it…”

Beth’s face as she puffed up her cheeks to hold the training sword was so amusing that Dia had to turn away for a few seconds. After straightening her face, she gently took the sword back. “Wait here for a moment. I’ll get you something. A small sword, but as you grow, I’ll give you bigger ones. Okay?”

Beth’s eyes widened. “My? Sward?”

“Yes, yours,” Dia replied, a grin appearing on her face. “But if you want one, you’ll need to practice with me. Sw…ards are very dangerous. You must train with me if you want to use them.”

Beth blinked a few times, and then nodded. “Train!”

Dia laughed, and then ran off in search of a suitable sword. Since Beth was small, she had to be very exacting with the training weapon…

By the time Schwarz and the others woke up, Beth was swinging her sword — clumsily — with Dia, a sight that made them goggle and feel various shades of inferiority.

“What are you guys doing?” Risti asked.

“Training,” Dia replied. “Beth loves swinging a sword around, see?”

“Sward!”

Dia grinned. The feeling of teaching someone the correct way of fighting was great, although she had to take care to not let a certain idiot teach her the manners of street fighting. She was still chafing about how Lily had taken on the dirty manners that Claud seemed to espouse when fighting.

Sure, they had merit, but…

Urgh.

Shaking her head, Dia patted Beth, who was now tottering over to the others and showing her sword off. It was a quaint little weapon, one that Dia had gotten for free when she ordered a bunch of weapons for the Moon Guards a long time ago. It hadn’t seen any use, right until today, so…

The weapon probably felt happy that it had an adorable little master.

“Anyway, good morning,” Dia said. “Are we having breakfast now? If so, let me bring her to—”

“You wash up,” Risti interrupted. “Me and Farah will take care of Beth.”

“Eh…”

“Don’t ‘eh’ me,” Risti replied. “Hurry up! We have a few things to talk about over breakfast, so the faster we begin, the better.”

“Why are we so formal all of a sudden?” Dia asked, before shaking her head. “Fine. I’ll go. You two don’t get soap into Beth’s eyes, though.”

“Like we’d do that, alright?” Farah sighed. “C’mere, you! We’ll wash you up until everyone wants to hug you!”

Dia clicked her tongue again. Ever since that gigantic Distortion had struck the city, the little Moonlit babies had all vanished. Dia approved of the Moons’ choice, but the absence of Moonlit babies had taken a toll on Schwarz and Farah. Thankfully, Beth was someone who was naturally endearing, so the two of them were more than happy to raise her instead.

It was quite funny to watch, in her opinion, especially when it came to Schwarz, who was being left out half the time. Beth, however, seemed to favour him most after Dia…maybe because she felt bad for him or something?

Chuckling, Dia returned to her room to freshen up, before heading for the dining table once more. The others were already done, and little Beth was having the first pick of the dishes.

“Ah, you’re done.” Schwarz let out a sigh. “Well. I said we had some serious stuff, right?”

Beth took a piece of toasted bread and then settled in her chair obediently.

“…Go ahead,” Dia replied, glancing at the nibbling kid. “What news?”

Schwarz turned to the others. “Well, it seems weird, but…Claud and Lily have left the Grandis Empire.”

“Oh, okay.” Dia paused. “Wait, what? They left the Grandis Empire? For what purpose?”

“To look for the Black God, apparently,” Schwarz replied, his eyebrows furrowed. “Nero informed me of this not too long ago. And his words were a bit ambiguous. Something about a larger disaster, and that perhaps, the Distortion is just a precursor.”

He looked at Risti. “Do you know anything about this? Did your old man tell you anything?”

Risti shook her head. “They’re all engrossed with trying to enter the ranks of septa-folders. Now that the Chromatic Lords have ceased to care about the limits of individual strength, my father and his peers are all busy trying to grow stronger.”

As the others chatted on, Dia found herself reflecting on the ominous feelings she had been experiencing recently. Was it possible that Nero’s very vague words were targeted at that? If so, why? What were they expecting?

And why would Claud and Lily seek out Nero, and then the Black God?

There was a line that connected everything, but she couldn’t quite see it yet.