After a day of forced rest, Laura and Zenesha and the four Condor's were once again in the boardroom. Much to Zenesha's satisfaction her top commanders seem less averse to Laura's presence. Laura didn't care that much and was more upset she was forced to sit this time around.
"What if you're attacked again?" Laura complained.
"You can teleport." Zenesha pointed out.
"Or I can already be standing behind you and can react much faster."
"You'll be delayed by like two seconds max."
The Condor's watched the two of them argue in silence, unsure of what to say. They've had over a day to process and come to terms to the fact Laura may not be the threat they thought, but it was still hard to accept. It was even weirder seeing their Queen having such a domestic argument with her.
"Ma'am you're sitting directly next to her, I think you're fine." Danial said, speaking up.
Laura leveled a glare in his direction looking absolutely pissed. Zenesha on the hand lifted her chin up slightly in a, "I told you so," type of way.
"Anyway, let's direct our focus to why we are here in the first place." The fox said before Laura can start arguing with Danial. "I hope you all understand now that Laura isn't a threat to us."
She got a cacophony of mumbled agreements, but no one argued against her words. However, Rachel did raise her hand, and Zenesha motioned for her to speak.
"Laura isn't a threat, but what if another void creature comes looking for her." She asked. "They called her a rogue, did they not? Was the arm in her lab taken from one of them?"
"You were in my lab?" Laura asked, raising an eyebrow.
"The arm is her if you must know. Stop trying to accuse her of things." Zenesha answered exasperated.
"Also, the fact you know about the arm means you unwrapped it. Meaning the only reason, they were here was because they tracked the energy leaking from it." Laura added.
Rachel and Danial looked away hearing this. Laura did notice and made a mental note to get some petty revenge on them eventually. Zenesha wouldn't appreciate her killing them, so that was about as far as she could go.
"Doesn't matter now, so long as we don't alert any more of the void demons of our location, we should be fine." Zenesha explained. "However, me and Laura have been talking, and we decided to allow you Ather weapons."
"Just us? What about our soldiers?"
"First off, it's already too much giving it to you guys. If I make too many there's a chance someone, we don't want to have the weapons can get their hands on it and hurt Laura."
"Also, the likelihood of someone from the Void attacking a random soldier is low. If they were, that means something has gone horribly wrong already." Laura continued. "Also, Ather is hard to get."
Laura really didn't care about the safety of the others and would rather not give them a means to kill her. However, she also couldn't deny the fact Zenesha could be in trouble once again. If these fools had Ather weapons they could better protect Zenesha.
"Zenesha had prepared for this in advance just in case so there's already weapons for you in production."
The Condor nodded in understanding, causing Zenesha to give a small smile of satisfaction. They were giving far less pushback now much to her pleasure. They clearly still harbored some doubts to a certain degree, but they seem to be unwilling to voice them now.
"Perfect, now if you excuse us, Laura still has to rest so I'll be ending our meeting here for today."
"I'm fine I-"
"You promised to rest, so come on let's go."
Laura sighed, grabbed Zenesha's shoulder and teleported away before the Condor's could react. She will admit, not having to hide what she can do was a breath of fresh air. She still had to do it with most of the people here, but at least in front of the Condor's she didn't have to keep track of what powers she's shown.
"Come on, into bed." Zenesha demanded.
"I'll be fully healed tomorrow, hells my wound is practically nonexistent at this point."
"Doesn't matter, until you're completely fine you're on sabbatical."
"Can you at least snuggle into bed with me?
Zenesha hesitated. She did want to crawl into bed and just hug the shorter woman, but she still had a lot of work to do. She looked at the wolf, who's tail wagged in anticipation, clearly excited by the idea of just snuggling. Her will power was weak.
"Fine." She said, "Only for a little while, then I have to work."
"Understood! Let's go!" Laura answered, suddenly no longer reluctant to head to bed.
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"There we go, now I just have to head back home." The wolf muttered as she strapped the wrapped sword onto her bag.
The next day Zenesha allowed Laura to leave the capital after checking she was fully healed. Since she made sure to remember checkpoints last time, Laura was able to make the trip in half the time. She was glad because that meant she could be home within the day.
Making sure the weapon was properly secured, Laura teleported out of the small chamber and outside of the forest proper. However, Laura was a little tempted to unwrap the sword for the journey back. The Celestial Energy coming off of it dampened the Void's presence.
"Soon. Soon I won't have to worry about it." She muttered to herself.
Halfway through the trip Laura ran into a team of soldiers from the White Ash. There were four of them and they seem to be on patrol. There must be a base or a camp of some kind nearby. There was a town just down the road from their current location after all.
She planned to ignore them, but she could tear her eyes away from them. The pressure in the back of her head grew and a thought came to mind. What if she used them to help anchor herself here?
"It'll save on essence…." She reasoned. "No, that's just what it wants."
She teleported away and for a few seconds she was gone. Then she teleported behind them and entrapped their legs with the asphalt below them. Before they could yell, she created a barrier around them blocking any and all sound.
"What, who!?" They yelled and panicked.
One of them twisted around, blasting fire in her direction, she simply teleported from behind them to in front of them and pressed a foot into their chest. Before the other three could react, she held them completely still with telekinesis.
"Gaahh!" The pyrokinesis user yelled as Laura slowly applied more pressure with a smile.
Bones creaked with every second, and the air grew hotter as the enemy soldier tried summoning their power to fight back. However, no matter how hard she tried he could seem to create more fire. Eventually their ribs cracked, and Laura's foot went through their chest.
Blood and viscera now covered her paw, but that seemed to only make the wolf smile more. Especially since despite there now being a hole in the person's chest, they seem incapable of dying. Laura breathed in, enjoying the taste and smell of suffering.
"We're all going to have so much fun."
======
Dragged away from the town turned military base, deep in a forest four former White Ash Syndicate soldiers were strung up and skinned on trees. Reaching her hand into the chest of the last soldier the void wolf pulled out their soul.
One of the best ways to eat a living soul safely without harming herself was to put them through emotional duress. Any high emotion would do but doing this was easier. However, it was still dangerous to consume too many at once. It didn't stop Laura from eating the fourth soul in under ten minutes.
"Uhhg." She ground as a headache overcame her. However, that was much more preferable over the Void's presence.
While her mind was flooded with the combined memories of four individuals at once, the pressure in the back of her mind has dissipated. With a clear head, she was able to properly look at her actions and cringe. It wasn't that she disapproved of her actions.
No, what she hated was the fact it wasn't completely her. It was the Void's influence.
"Fucking hell!" She yelled, punching a hole through one of the still living bodies.
Her frustration was amplified by the fact she had a headache thanks to the souls consumed. To make things worse the same souls she was influenced in taking had also dissipated the Void's presence that influenced her in the first place. Laura wanted to kill someone.
"But will that be me or just the void again!" She cried frustrated, punching a tree next, completely toppling it over.
She wished she didn't have to worry about this all the time. She just wanted to know if torturing people and enjoying it was her choice or not. She knew loving Zenesha was her choice. Love isn't something the Void considers.
Zenesha was her choice. The only choice she can say was hers completely.