Tearha: Titan War

Chapter Twenty: Girls Night Out

Every time a neon light flashed, Adelle blinked hard. The blazes of auroras were sights to dwell upon but her brain struggled to process the lighting. They looked akin to sabres produced with light magic, flashing and branding themselves onto the back of her eyelids.

"But they're not magic?" Adelle clarified with Luce again.

"Nope. Just gasses in tubes with electrical charges."

"And what's that?" she pointed to a long rectangular box with moving pictures."

"That's a television," Luce explained.

"You say that word like I know what it means."

Luce proceeded to explain the television. And when she was done with that, Adelle pointed to an electric lamp.

"Convenient."

Then, a toaster.

"What's wrong with fire?"

An air conditioning vent.

"Cool."

An acoustic levitation vase.

"Wouldn't the vase break?"

As they continued walking down the streets, Adelle took the chance to absorb in as much information as possible. She understood why Luce brought her here. All these things were not just new to her, but practically mystical. It's hard to imagine how many of the things they saw were not made with magic, but mental ingenuity and physical labour. Science. Had she stepped into a fight here she would have been blindsided even by the toaster.

A group of five people stood at a street junction handing out pamphlets. She was glad to know even in the science-fiction world, some technology stayed the same. One of the five distributor saw them walking over and stepped up to them. Adelle tensed, ready to fight, but Luce grabbed hold of her wrist to tell her the situation was not dangerous.

"Hello, missuses," he greeted with a smile.

"Oh, no," Luce quickly waved the greeting away. "We're not married."

The man laughed. "My apologies. I just wanted to ask if you've heard of our church?"

Adelle looked to Luce for guidance. She had never heard of that word before. But her companion looked equally confused.

"No," Luce replied. "I haven't."

"Oh, you will love it. It's a place where we gather as a community and have fun, almost like a close knit family. We do arts, games, and study the teachings of Moira."

"Moira?"

The man continued smiling. "Moira's a philosophical book. It only got popular in the last three years, so I'm not surprised you've not heard of it. We are Moirians, students of the teaching."

Luce continued asking, "And what does Moira teach?"

His smile grew wider, and for the first time, Adelle shivered. Something felt off about his demeanour all of a sudden. Confident, but manic. Excited, happy, superior. Restraining. Although beneath the lied no violent intentions, the air the man exuded was hostile.

"Oh, Moira's Teaching gives us safety in these dangerous times. It teaches us what we must do to cleanse ourselves of our failures, of the steps needed to move society forward and end this horrid war." He again pushed a copy of the pamphlets to them. "Please, if you're interested, do come to our church and experience the teachings yourself."

Luce awkwardly tried rejecting the paper. "And uh... what is this... teachings?"

"That we've fallen. That we've attempted to create life in the form of Titans and have sent the lifestream into disarray." He further pushed the pamphlets to her. "We can change it. We can instill back a respect for life and death. Please, won't you join us? I'm sure you will find out message most fitting, as many have."