(51)
Nestra was excited. Not only was Camille a great adversary, but they were also cool as a person and now they were going to get adventures together! Not now, though, because it would be a bad time to get caught sneaking out. With the stew consumed and the leftovers properly packed (and labeled), Nestra slipped out of the world while Camille simply walked through the entrance portal. The aperture was in full view of the cabin, but Camille had a great disguise: they were simply not wearing their mask.
It was kind of crazy how the mask became an identity and the lack thereof, anonymity. Actually, Crescent was much more famous than Nestra, even, so that was the same thing. With a last smile, Nestra walked through the tarp into her allocated bedroom to find that nothing had changed. It just smelled a bit like rank plastic but she’d live with it. With her stomach full and a bit of blood loss, she easily fell asleep.
The next morning, neither Weiwei nor Derek showed any sign that they’d noticed her leaving. That almost annoyed her. Weren’t people supposed to check on someone with a cranial trauma? To see if there was anything bad happening? Well, they weren’t doctors so whatever. Maybe they’d preferred to let her sleep.
“My fortune for fresh coffee,” Nestra announced.
Derek looked up from their breakfast table. Those looked like military rations. Some Threshold-issued rations were pretty tasty.
“You look much better. Unfortunately, I would recommend against caffeine with a healing wound.”
“It’s almost fully healed!” Nestra protested.
And indeed, the small mirror showed only an angry puffy red line where she once had a hole in her skull.
“Operative word: almost.”