Page 164 of Remnants: Disruption
She lets out a very adorable giggle before standing.
“Europe,” she nods, switching off the showers at a control pad I hadn’t seen and pushing open the glass door.
“Like the place that got bombed into the stratosphere during the war?” I ask, following her into a surprisingly warm bathroom.
Her ass sways as she bends for a towel on a rack and I lose my train of thought.
Like holy shit?
“It was not destroyed as DAEMON would have you believe,” she says, turning to me. I’m not nearly as strong as she is and my eyes find her immaculate chest. “My eyes, Arya.”
My cheeks flush as I take the towel from her. She gives me a quirked smile, though, before wrapping herself in another.
“Can you explain or do I need to—” I stumble to a muted silence as I see the scene from what has to be her bedroom.
For some reason I guess I expected it to be a wasteland. Maybe because until four seconds ago, I’d thought most of Europe was underwater.
Because that’s what everyone in New America believes.
“What the fuck?” I whisper, staring out the floor to ceiling windows that cover the entire wall opposite of her bed.
The bedroom itself is a mixture of old-world rock and stone with the art deco you’d see in the New Republic.
And outside is a forested village with heavy tree canopy and stone buildings that look to be straight out of a fantasy book.
I walk forward, as if in a trance, before pausing at the window itself. No one appears to be in the small village, but it looks well-kept and maintained. Like it could be ready for inhabitants at any moment.
“My village,” Cass says, reverence in her voice.
There’s almost too much to take in. The way each wood and stone home sits with a regality you’d never find in Nye Verden. Or the way the central square has this small well with room for a market.
Or the way Cass’ presence beside me seems to radiate with warmth.
“How is this here?” I ask, trying to figure out how to word all the questions spinning in my mind.
“My powers are dangerous,” she says, turning her own hands over as if to find the lie. “Except one outcome to reality warping is construction, it seems.”
“So, you just,” I wave my hand with a flourish, “magic’d your village?”
She gives me a side-eye that I’d love to see for the rest of my life.
“What I can do does not happen like this,” she mocks my hand gesture.
“Well far be it from me to boil down your powers,” I press my lips to hers. “This is amazing.”
She leans in and for a long moment, I can just taste her spice. Her scent. Her presence.
“DAEMON wants everyone to believe Europe is dead,” she says when she pulls back. “Parts of it are certainly underwater. But Romania is not. Britain, last I checked, is not either. Though they are the only other resource for technology on this half of the world.”
“Romania,” I say, sounding the word out. “Is that your accent?”
She nods, eyes returning to the village. “It has gotten watered down over the years but…”
“I love it,” I say, leaning against her. I feel her intake a sharp breath, but then the rest of her words register.
“Wait there’s more people?”
She shoots me a grin before moving away from the window and to the closet on the other side of the room.
