Ballistic Coefficient

"Urgh…" Kayla managed to gasp out. "I definitely ate too much…"

"You have a knack for that," Pale observed.

"Maybe so. Not my fault I was so hungry, though – mana exhaustion tends to do that."

"I'll take your word for it, Kayla. But in the future, you should probably remain cognizant of the fact that we might be up and moving before you overeat again."

"Oh, come on, do we really have to go so soon?" Kayla complained.

"Yes, we do," Pale confirmed. "We still need one more tome, plus we've still got to get to our destination. We've only got a few more days, and by my estimate, it's going to take us the better part of a day simply to get there."

"That far, huh?" Cal asked, getting her attention. She turned towards him, and he added, "How can you be so sure that you know where you're going?"

Pale simply raised a finger and pointed it at her head. "Eidetic memory." He raised an eyebrow at that, and she let out a small sigh. "I remember things extremely well. Don't ask how; that's not important. All you need to know is that I know exactly where we need to go."

Across from her, Cynthia bit her lip. "...It's not like we have a better idea, Cal. We might as well follow her."

"Actually, you two will be on your own from here on out."

"What?" the two of them asked, as did Kayla. That earned a raised eyebrow from Pale, but she made a note to ask Kayla about it later rather than confront her now.

"Simply put, we have your missing tomes," Pale specified. "You do not have ours, however. The odds of you two trying to steal them from us are not zero. There is no benefit to us taking you with us, but there is certainly risk to it. The smart thing for us to do is to split off from you."

"Pale-" Kayla began, only for Pale to silence her by holding up a hand.

"Of course, I'm not completely heartless." She pointed up to the ceiling. "When it hits midday, and the sun is at its highest, simply follow it in that direction for a few miles. It will take a while to get through the brush and the jungle, but it's mostly a straight shot to where we need to end up. By my estimations, you should be able to get there in about a day if you hustle. Otherwise, perhaps a day and a half."

Cal and Cynthia exchanged a glance with each other. "...You're serious about this," Cal confirmed. "You're really going to just split off from us, aren't you?"

Pale nodded. "Like I said, it makes no sense for us to take the risk of bringing you both along. Especially when you factor in how few candidates are actually left – the Amalgamation has to have killed at least around a sixth of us, and those are just the ones we found. That dramatically narrows the chances of us finding what we need. Knowing that, we cannot afford to travel with you, at least not until you have all your tomes… but at that point, the shoe is on the other foot, so to speak."

Both Cal and Cynthia's eyes widened. They turned to each other for a moment, apparently taking a few seconds to come to an unspoken agreement before they both looked back over at Pale and nodded.

"I suppose there's sense enough in that," Cynthia conceded. "Admittedly, I'm still not a fan of this… but I can't deny that it's probably for the best."

"Good," Pale nodded. She pointed to the mouth of the cave. "I suggest you two get a head start. We'll give you fifteen minutes. Not that we're planning to hunt you down – you have nothing we need, after all – but rather because it's probably best that we keep our distance from each other for now. Agreed?"

Both initiates nodded, and then Cal helped Cynthia to her feet. They both grabbed their respective gear, then marched out of the cave and into the jungle. The faint rustling of underbrush heralded their disappearance into the dense field of crimson, and as soon as she was sure they were gone, Pale let out a small sigh.

Kayla, meanwhile, crossed her arms and pouted at her. Pale blinked, surprised.

"Yes, Kayla?" she asked.

"Why do you always do this?" Kayla asked.

"Do what?"

"You know… this."

"I don't follow," Pale confessed. "Use your words, Kayla. You seem upset, so tell me why."

"Well, if you're going to make me be direct about it…" Kayla let out a frustrated sigh. "Why do you always try so hard to drive people away, Pale?"

Again, Pale blinked. "I'm not sure I understand-"

"Of course you do, you just don't want to admit it." Kayla's eyes narrowed. "You've done it for as long as I can remember, too. The only reason why we're even friends is because we've traveled together so much over the past few months, not to mention fought, bled, and killed alongside each other. But for some reason, you seem to think that I'm all you need."

"That's not true," Pale protested. "I have Evie, too."

"Yeah, well, Evie isn't here, and it's likely we won't see her again for a long time, if ever. In case you've forgotten, she's far north; if she were to come down and see us, it would take her several months, at best. And that's assuming she decides to make the trip – elves are long-lived; they don't experience time the same way we do. I'll bet a decade could pass without her even realizing it."

"What are you trying to say, Kayla?"

"I'm saying that you can't go through life with me as your only friend," Kayla insisted. "You need to try and branch out some more, Pale. I'm trying to help you with that, but you're resisting me at every turn."

"Because I truly don't need anyone but you," Pale said. Kayla stared at her, but she refused to back down. "You don't seem to understand, Kayla – I don't experience emotions, or feelings, or even life itself the same way all of you do. Some of the things that you all need to survive, I can do without. I drifted through the endless expanse of space for decades before I ended up here on this planet; a normal person would have gone mad from that kind of isolation, but I didn't, instead I merely put myself into forced hibernation and only woke up again when my few remaining sensors detected this planet nearby. Believe me, I don't require human contact the same way all of you do."

"Then how do you explain continuing to travel with me?" Kayla demanded.

Pale was taken aback. "...You're my guide," she pointed out.

Kayla shook her head. "You don't need me as your guide anymore. In fact, that's a role I haven't really served since we defeated the vampire, and that's me being generous to myself. No, you continue to travel with me because, much as you might not want to admit it, you enjoy my company."

"Well, that much is true, at least," Pale offered.

"See? So why not try to find someone else whose company you enjoy just as much as mine? Evie, for example – you like her, too."

"What brought this on, exactly?"

Again, Kayla crossed her arms. "I'm just sick of seeing you push people away for no reason. Cal and Cynthia want to be your friends. Nasir wanted to be your friend. And yet, somehow, you continue to brush them off. Did it ever occur to you that maybe, just maybe, they might know something that could help you on your quest to get back home?"

Pale paused. Truthfully, she hadn't considered that option. It wasn't entirely impossible, she had to admit, but at the same time, it also wasn't particularly likely. Still, Kayla did have a small point there.

"...Admittedly, the thought hadn't crossed my mind," Pale offered.

"See?" Kayla uncrossed her arms and stared at her once more. "Be honest, Pale – is there really a reason why you're keeping people away, aside from me and Evie?"

Pale thought for a moment, then shook her head. "I suppose there's one," she said. "When it comes time for me to leave, I don't want anything here that could keep me attached."

"What do you mean by that?"

"I mean that I can't afford to have my loyalties torn between this world and my own," Pale specified. "Like I've told you before, I still have a war to fight, and I can't fight it if my head is still stuck on people here. One day, I'm going to have to leave this planet, and I'd prefer to make that as painless and easy as I possibly can."

Kayla stared at her for a moment before her expression softened. "You're worried about getting attached," she surmised. "Is that it?"

Slowly, Pale nodded. "I suppose so."

For a moment, Kayla said nothing. But then, to Pale's surprise, a thin smile crossed her face, and she began to chuckle. Pale wasn't sure how to react at first, but finally managed to think of something that seemed appropriate after a few seconds.

"What's so funny?"

"Oh, it's just… for all your talk of being a machine… being worried about getting attached is certainly a very human emotion, isn't it?"

Pale froze, staring at Kayla once more. It only lasted for a moment, and she was quick to bury the feeling not long after. Shaking the thought from her mind, Pale hefted her assault rifle, then motioned for Kayla to follow her.

"Come on," she said. "Let's get moving already."

"Oh, come on!" Kayla protested, following after her as the two of them stepped out of the cave. "I didn't mean to set you off-"

"You didn't. It's just… this is part of getting attached."

Kayla reached out to gently take her by the shoulder. Pale turned when she felt Kayla make contact, fully expecting that same mirthful expression to be etched across Kayla's face, only it wasn't.

Instead, it had been replaced by a look of genuine concern.

"Hey," Kayla said. "You're pushing yourself too hard."

Pale grimaced. "What would you know about it?"

"Nothing, admittedly, but I can recognize when someone is bothered by something. For all your talk of not being able to emote properly, it's pretty easy to tell when you're wearing your heart on your sleeve once you know what to look for. You're not as subtle as you think."

"Were you planning to make a point sometime soon?" Pale snapped.

"Is it really so bad to allow yourself to feel?" Kayla asked. "I know what your creators told you, but what if they were wrong, Pale? They wanted a killing machine… but maybe, just maybe, what they need is someone who can balance that kind of cold rationality with heart that's actually capable of feeling something. Did you ever think of that?"

Pale didn't say anything, instead staring at Kayla for a bit longer as she gritted her teeth. Finally, she shook her friend's hand off her shoulder, then motioned for her to follow.

"We're burning daylight," she emphasized. "Keep moving."

With that, she continued walking, with Kayla following close behind her the whole time, neither girl saying anything further as they moved on.