"Carmen," Apollyon called out, his deep and aged voice catching her attention.
"Yes Apollyon?" Lovett answered, standing in the dark meeting room.
"The Demon's made an advance through a weak point, they are only four days away from New London," he told, "I'm assigning you to go and make a counter attack."
She tuned and glared at the back of his head and said, "and what if I say no? I'm already busy helping this kid out." He stood up slowly, his official's garb draped over him in neat folds.
"This is why you'll never be an official, Lovett, you're lack of will to protect the biggest player of humanity against the demons. If you decide to ignore this assignment I'll be forced to demote you to Class C for insubordination," Apollyon stayed, his voice never rising to high up, keeping a leveled middle ground.
"Fine, when do I leave?"
"Tomorrow, you'll receive orders when you reach the camp." She made a deep grimace before exiting.
Standing in the open and flat plains outside The Harbor, Aster was sitting next to various weights strewn across the floor.
"It's been a month since Lovett started training me, and already my mother's blade feels lighter every day," he thought, "and she's been keeping my secret safe, telling people that question her that she's doing this out of pity for me."
"Aster!" Lovett called out, walking towards him. Aster stood up and almost waved, however he stopped himself before his hand raised.
"Miss Lovett," he greeted, looking at her quietly.
"I have to head out to do a mission, I'll be gone for about a week or two," she informed.
His eyes rested down and he mumbled, "oh, okay."
She looked at his blade and inquired, "how's your connection with your blade?"
"Still nonexistent."
"Oh well," Lovett chimed, "it'll come with time, it did for me." Aster turned away and started picking the weights up. "In the mean time, I have an idea of how to establish a connection with your blade, and you can try it while I'm gone."
"And what's that?"
"When Frieda was helping me out, she got me some gemstones from a mission, she said I should try interacting with them, since my weapon is made entirely out of gemstones."
Looking up, Aster asked, "did it work?"
"I couldn't tell, we were trying a lot of other things too to build the connection, so it's hard to remember what worked and what didn't." Lovett pulled out twenty dollars and handed it to Aster. "This might sound crazy, but since Frieda's ability's were based around electricity, maybe you should try buying some batteries and interacting with them."
"Um, Lovett, I don't mean to be rude to you, but this isn't enough for me to live off of for two weeks," Aster begrudgingly informed.
"Yes I know," Lovett stated, "I've always paid you when we train, so I've decided to make you work while I'm gone!" His age old scowl returned but before he could say anything, Lovett said, "luckily, there are only three recruits in class D. However there have been times in the history of The Harbor where there have been more class D than any other class, and most of them never got out, so be grateful that I'm even training you!"
"Right, sorry," Aster apologized.
"Anyways, I should get going, I have to pack," Lovett stated, walking back into The Harbor. As she walked away, she thought, "Its only been a month but he's opening up to me, his wall of scowls and angry remarks have lowered and—he really has promise."