Young Writers Society

Solaris held Ryder's gaze for a good minute before she finally offered a response - in that time, Ryder felt like the world had stilled. She took a long, deep breath and let out a quiet sigh. Not too loud, but also not too soft.

"My brother and I aren't human," she said, confirming the guess all of them had been thinking. "My real name is Lust, and his real name is Gluttony. Our names embody certain...attributes. Gluttony has to eat."

"A lot," Gluttony clarified.

"A lot," Lust repeated, a small smile gracing her lips at her brother's addition. "He can theoretically eat anything, but it's food that fills him the most - anything that a normal person would eat. It's...dangerous for him to go hungry for too long."

"Get hole in stomach," Gluttony said. "Don't feel good."

"One time," she continued, giving him a little pat on the head, "the two of us fell into an old tomb. The conditions were just right to preserve the bodies, even though they were nothing like they would have been while they were alive. We couldn't find our way out, and Gluttony was getting hungry. So he ate the only thing that he could find."

Mal muttered a swear, while Lasan started to sway (and his scales were beginning to change color, if Nubes wasn't mistaken).

Nubes stepped out onto the snow. He was entirely too underdressed for this, but at least his fur made it a little more tolerable. "I haven't heard of anything quite like that," he said, looking Gareth up and down, then turning to Lust. "Are you in a similar situation, or?"

Briar thought over Lust's words carefully. Gluttony -if what she was saying was true- would need more food than the bunkers would provide for long, possibly more than they could get if they left as well.

She put that matter on pause. She would need more information to make even a close estimate of how long they could stay here before the food ran out, and she didn't believe now was the best time to ask for exact figures.

Instead, she considered their names. Lust and Gluttony. Two of the seven deadly sins, according to some mythologies.

"Are there more like you?" she asked.

It was getting colder, or she was losing her tolerance. Either way, she shivered and rubbed her hands up and down her arms, hoping to warm herself with the friction.

"Lots of us!" Gluttony enthusiastically confirmed. It was taking Ryder a few minutes to warm up to the idea of the seven deadly sins apparently existing, but he could handle it.

...He hoped.

"There's only six of us in total," Lust was quick to reassure Briar. "It's a bigger family than most these days, but there's only a few of us. And I'm not in a similar situation to my brother. He was created differently than most of us."

She nodded. She thought about asking how he was created, or how any of them were created, really, but then decided it wasn't relevant information at the moment.

"Do you have any abnormal abilities?" she asked Lust.

It was only after she asked that Briar realized that the answer might create problems, namely fear, and therefore violence. She looked down. What was said could not be unsaid. She could only hope that the others wouldn't be afraid given the answer.

Briar had learned, painfully and over a very long time, that the only thing there really was to be afraid of in this world was those who were afraid.

"Created?" said Nubes. "And define differently."

Lust nodded.

Ryder found himself enamored by the conversation. Though the thought of Gluttony eating the flesh of corpses made his stomach twist a little, he was more than a little intrigued by what was going on. People embodying the sins? That was something he had never heard of before, and the resistance leader in him wondered if there was any way to make an alliance.

"Our father had - has - many souls in his body," she said. "We're not entirely sure why. What we do know is that he gave away chunks of those souls to each of his children when he created them in the form of philosopher's stones. Five of us are just collections of those souls, with a power unique to each of us."

She held up a hand, and her fingernails suddenly elongated.

Ryder stared.

"That's my ability," Lust said. "We called it the Ultimate Spear. Gluttony has an ability, too, but it's different than the rest of ours. We think he was a failed portal of some kind, and that his hunger stems from the failed portal."

"I cannot say I am familiar with souls or portals," Nubes said, admiring Lust's fingernails, "But I like the sound of an ultimate spear."

Briar did not like the sound of an Ultimate Spear. But then, she was currently carrying several pieces of specialized weaponry, and the skills to use them very lethally.

With that in mind, she kept any judgment at bay.

"How does it work?" she asked, hardly keeping her teeth from chattering as she shivered. It was definitely getting colder.

Come on, you're just weak, her sister's voice drawled in her head, A little chill never killed anyone, you have.

She grit her teeth and forced her mind to clear.

"I'm not entirely sure," Lust admitted. "I know it draws on the power of my philosopher's stone, but I'm no alchemist. I couldn't explain it further."

As the two talked, Ryder noticed how much Briar was shivering. Neither Lust or Gluttony noticed as he slipped into Lust's bunker, and neither one of them noticed as he emerged with a pile of blankets that he then offered to Briar.

Briar noticed Ryder leave, and was nervous for a minute before he re-emerged.

She accepted the offered blanket with a nod, trying not to show her surprise.

She tried to keep focused. With a new layer of warmth wrapped tightly around her shoulders, one would believe that to be easier. All she could think about, however, was the blanket itself.

She would be yelled at, at the very least, for accepting it, she knew that, but at the moment she was willing to accept the consequences. Having it on would damage her defenses, slow her response time if something happened, and that was unacceptable. But, at the same time, so would all the shivering.

She tried, again, to focus.

The Ultimate Spear.

Briar believed she had gotten as much information as she could about that topic. It was time to move on.

She wanted to be gentle about her next question, but that was a skill she didn't possess.

"Does your presence here put the rest of us in danger?" the way she said it might have implied that she would do something about it if the answer was yes, when in reality, she didn't think she would.

Her mind strayed back to the blankets.

If she were with her usual partner, she would have been left to freeze. It was a really small thing, hardly an inconvenience on Ryder's part, but it was still something Briar Ringly, the perfect killer, the Reaper of Kroy, had never, and would probably never again, receive. A kindness she was taught not to bother with.

She thought about giving her thanks, but she was in enough trouble as it was.

Instead, she pulled the fabric a little tighter around her shoulders, and focused on getting her answer.

"A shame," Nubes said. Having seeing Ryder out of the corner of his eye, running into Nubes's bunker and bringing out some blankets for Briar, the leopard had the realization that there were better places to be talking. Besides, Lasan had gripped onto the hatch, and the pale color of his scales suggested the cold was getting to him. "A danger or otherwise, we had better find someplace warmer. None of us are going to be dangers if we freeze to death out here."

Lust thought long and hard on a response.

"...It might," she said. "Theoretically. We've revealed our identities to you, but I don't think it's a problem unless you tell someone about us. We can also protect you if any of our father's people show up, but I doubt they will."

Gluttony gave a nod in agreement, and then went back to sucking his finger.

"We have two options if we want to get warm," Ryder suddenly joined in, glancing briefly in Briar's direction. "We could either go back to one of the bunkers and warm up before heading out again, or head out right now. I think we should continue away from the bunkers, but if we need to warm up, we should stay for a bit."

"One of us, at the least, might need to stay here for a bit," said Nubes, patting Lasan on the back.

Lasan tried to wave the paw off. "I'm fine," he said, but the slight slur in his voice betrayed him.

"But I can't disagree with leaving," said Nubes. He ignored the lizard's struggling, grabbing him by the arm and beginning to tug him down the stairs to the bunker. "Especially if some members of this group could attract some unwanted attention."

"We also need to collect supplies from the bunkers," Briar pointed out, following behind as she did.

She knew it was illogical to assume her father would be able to find out anything that happened on this world, but enough had already happened to shatter the usual laws of logic. After all, she didn't know anything about most of her fathers dealings. The man could already have access to some form of whatever had brought her here. For all she knew, he was behind it.

That thought brought tension back to her muscles, sharpness back to her eyes. She purged the softness that had previously engulfed her thoughts. If this was a test, as dangerous situations usually were, she was going to follow the rules. She couldn't afford not to pass.

She wondered if the others were in on it, if this even was a test. She looked them over.

Nubes, maybe. He had admitted to being a killer and gotten her to do the same.

Ryder had gotten her to drop her guard, if only for a moment, but then, what he had done was just a simple act of kindness. The kind that was supposed to be normal. She shouldn't categorize him as anything based solely on that.

The others didn't raise any particular red flags, aside from their general existence.

She continued to mull it over in her head, even as the others moved on.