Amity and Enmity

Chapter 11

Day: 990

Days Left: 4490

Lives Saved: 5

Once the sky eventually cleared, the blood moon returning to its normal milky white and no longer marred by scarlet, the prisoners transformed back, apart from Ivette as she was still hostile and erratic even after a few hours.

Corinna breathed out slowly as she practised controlling her mask's powers one last time before turning back into a human. She gazed down at the blue glowing mask in her arms, no longer so scared to look at it directly, though in the back of her mind was still filled with doubts and fears, telling her that what she had done was dangerous, bringing back images of what had happened with her previous mask, when she was the golden knight and had lost control.

No, this time will be different, Corinna remained determined, vigilant to not let her fears control her. All she had to do was not wear the mask for too frequently.

With the majority of the prisoners now in back in human form, they began to start dinner and repairing any damages caused by the imps and Ivette in their uncontrolbable nature. Ivette was eventually calming down, no longer needing Oscar and Calixte to sedate her.

After storing her mask in her bag, Corinna headed towards Dex and Kai, who were sorting out food, when she caught the sight of Lili by Princess Alfreda's tent, guarding it in her human form. Without Lili, Corinna would have a rather boring and unproductive blood moon, always having to walk around for the whole day, but today she got to stand still, even if it was only for a minute.

Corinna waved at Lili but the royal bodyguard appeared not to see and remained protecting the tent of her ward. So, Corinna walked over to her instead.

"Do you require my assistance with food or repairs, Miss Warren?" asked Lili as she saw the woman approached.

Corinna shook her head and retrieved her whiteboard and wrote with her forearms, 'wanted to thank you for before'.

Lili glanced back at the tent, her brow furrowing for a moment, though Corinna struggled to read her.

"It is no problem, Miss Warren," said Lili. "I do apologise if I was too persistent. You showed some reluctance in using your mask, I hope I did not overstep and pressure you too much to do something you clearly did not want to do."

'I needed that push', Corinna wrote, smiling softly. 'I don't feel as afraid of the mask as before. Still a bit, but maybe one day it will be gone completely'.

"That is good to hear. Though I think being afraid and cautious of these masks is a wise thing. They are designed by people who want to see us suffer, for their own entertainment. Some masks are sabotaged and are more likely to lose control or detransform back. It is best not rely on them too much, but yes, we should not just completely dismiss using them, not when our enemies are using them."

'We don't have enemies'.

"Not that we know about," said Lili. "There are plenty of prisoners out there that cannot turn back from being monsters and will attack us... and then there's that group occupying the drop-off."

Corinna frowned, shaking her head.

"We don't know them yet to discern if they will be hostile."

'Doesn't mean they are automatically our enemy'.

Lili paused. "You are being overly optimistic about negotiating with them. They have all of the power and resources, there is nothing we can give them."

'And you are being overly pessimistic.'

Lili remained silent, staring at the words on the whiteboard.