by Lucia Winchester 25th December 2020, 11:22 pm
-Hargeon Town, the docks-
Arriving in Hargeon Town in the early afternoon, Lucia felt the sun on her skin as she approached the bustling docks. Wearing a casual outfit of gray long-sleeved shirt and long white skirt with white dress shoes and a black shoulder bag, Lucia walked to the very back of a long line snaking from the docks. Arranged around the area were signs on stands pointing towards the building where passports were being issued to anyone who wanted to travel beyond Fiore's borders. Lucia would need one if she wanted to travel beyond the borders of Fiore and return to Bellum one day, so getting one was her first priority. Getting a passport was also the first priority of dozens of people ahead of her... she counted over fifty people in line ahead of her.
Lucia felt the wind blow her hair around as she stood in line as Person Number 57. Being alive again was a strange experience for her. She had been dead for over four years and all she could remember about being dead was alternating between feeling disembodied and not being there at all. When she woke up in the Winchester family crypt she woke up in pitch blackness with the lid of her sarcophagus having been removed and set aside on the floor. The next thing she knew a golden light lit up the crypt and she could see that the rest of her family remained dead, everyone but Diana.
Diana was not in the crypt, so chances were very high that she was still alive and out there somewhere in Earthland. After that she was guided to the exit and a mysterious power opened the solid granite crypt door to allow Lucia to leave the Winchester crypt. Once Lucia was outside in the back yard of the Winchester estate the rest of the day was a blur. She vaguely remembered the doors of Winchester Manor opening and her being guided to her old room so that she could grab a black shoulder bag and a few sets of clothing in her room so that she would have something to wear for her trip to Fiore.
After gathering some clothes and a shoulder bag Lucia was told by a voice that she would not be returning to Bellum for some time. The next thing she knew the doors of her house all closed at once and she disappeared in a golden blur. Once she reappeared she was in Fiore outside a place called Talonia, a town which was where the Guildless tended to congregate. Lucia had been guided there by an unknown power, but she did not know why she had been guided there.
Lucia came back to reality and saw that people had moved up while she was recollecting how she had gotten this far, so she moved up a few places and was now fifty-first in line. Ahead of her were a collection of elderly people, young adults surfing on electronic devices called iLacs, and middle-aged people with children who were starting to grow uncomfortable due to the heat and the wait in the long line. The wait was going to take some time, but if it was one thing Lucia had a lot of, it was time.
The blonde folded her arms across her chest and waited in line as the heat took its toll on people. When combined with the sluggish movement of the crowd, the heat was just too much to bear for some, who got out of line and made way for those with greater patience than them. The people with young children tended to get out of line a lot quicker than did the young adults or the elderly, all of whom wanted the passport badly enough to stay right where they were. With the first wave of desertions Lucia got to move up to forty-third in line, but she still had a long wait before it would be her turn to enter the passport office.
-One hour and forty-five minutes later-
Lucia was now second in line and was hanging onto her patience, but just barely. When the person ahead of her stepped into the passport office it was a relief. Now all she had to do was hang on just a little bit longer. About three minutes later it was the blonde's turn to go in; when she was motioned to go in she did so with a spring in her step because her ordeal was over. Lucia disappeared into the office and was well on her way to getting her passport.
-Fifteen minutes later-
Having filled out all the necessary paperwork and having her picture taken, Lucia strode out of the building the proud owner of a shiny new passport. Now that she had that document she could move freely across national borders to take jobs or to return to Bellum. But before she returned to Bellum there was a lot of work to do. She would need more clothes, she would need at least one weapon, and she would need a lot of money. Most importantly she would need to get stronger because she was pretty sure that the divine entity who had transported her to Fiore was not going to give her a return trip to Bellum, so Lucia would have to make the trip herself and face numerous hazards along the way.
But before she even thought about going back to Bellum she had to get one of those iLacs she had seen people using to pass the time in line. From what she had heard iLacs were a combination of a cell phone with multimedia capabilities that included "social media" and browsing the "Lacrimanet". If she made any friends she could get their numbers and then be able to talk to them or message them at any time. She could also do the same with Diana... assuming Diana had an iLac.
Now she needed to get back to Talonia and rest before working on getting an iLac for herself. Lucia walked away from the steadily growing line at the docks and made her way for the town limits to begin the trip back to Talonia.
[Post Word Count: 1,037]
[Total Word Count: 1,037/500]
