Chapter 23: Chapter TWENTY THREE

The two young women practiced shooting until mid-afternoon, each in turn since there was only one target. Irina was much faster than Mia and it didn't even take a second of analysis between when she was aiming and when she was shooting. It was nothing surprising since she had many years of practice compared to the blonde. When she tried to copy Irina, she lost a lot of precision and sometimes even missed her target, but she also knew that would come with practice.

After putting away all the equipment, they finally joined their soul mate in the living room. The two men were talking about people she didn't know, but who she guessed was other Vilas, common acquaintances. Adam must surely have asked about the families he had known in the past. When the two women arrived in the living room, their conversation dried up and their attention focused on their beloved.

"See, I'm alive and in one piece," Mia joked, sitting on one of Ethan's thighs, who was comfortably seated in an armchair.

It was barely noticeable, but every time their bodies touched, Ethan's muscles relaxed. He slipped an arm around her waist to embrace her, almost as if to reassure himself that she was really there with him.

"She'll need it one day," Adam said. "She won't always be able to count on you at all times, she must know how to defend herself."

"She shouldn't need to know how to."

His big brother sighed in front of the stubbornness of the young Vila and preferred to let it go. Deep down, she understood Ethan. He didn't want her near anything that had to do with war, fighting, or violence. It made their plight all too real, and it was further proof that they wouldn't escape it permanently. Yet it was precisely because it was inevitable that she needed to know how to fend for herself.

We are never better served than by ourselves.

"It's not quite time to go visit Shaun and his family yet, but we have to stop at the florist on the way. A little walk won't hurt you," recommended Irina, looking at the two Vilas who hadn't moved from their chairs in the afternoon.

A few minutes later, the two couples were shuffling on the paved path to the Pupil and were about to cross one of the wooden bridges over the river. The neighborhood was lively at the end of the afternoon as many residents strolled around the various shops selling all kinds of items before returning home for dinner.

Crossing the river, the cacophony of the crowd faded away in favor of more hurried individuals who had not yet finished their day's work. It was almost amazing how a few tens of meters of water could sociologically separate the two neighborhoods at such a level that Mia felt like she was changing towns by crossing the wooden bridge. Yet again, it was in the Fovea that she felt most comfortable since it was the neighborhood that most resembled what she was used to seeing on Earth. It was basically the district of the middle classes, of households that were neither rich nor poor and which had a certain comfort which, even if it did not equal that of the inhabitants of the Pupil, was frankly superior to that of the inhabitants of the Macula.

"Do they know what happened with the convoy? Do you inform civilians about what is happening regarding the war?" Mia suddenly inquired seeing that the general mood hadn't changed and was still so light.

Or maybe they don't give a damn about being at war. Not much has happened so far, especially for the average citizen.

"There is a reunion once a week to keep residents informed of progress, then journalists take care of relaying the news throughout the city. The next one is in three days, though I suspect they'll do it on a more regular basis if things start to pick up more."

"Ellana would like you to be with her for the next gathering," Adam blurted like a bombshell, ignoring his wife's nudge to shut up. "What? We'll have to tell them sooner or later anyway."

"In front of everybody?" Mia asked, confused.

"What next? She wants us to give a speech too?" Ethan objected with sarcasm and contempt.

"You don't have to go," Irina said, trying to defuse the situation.

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"I hope so," Ethan retorted dryly.

"There's no need to talk to her like that, she had nothing to do with it," Adam roared bitterly.

"It's okay Adam, everyone is on edge today," reassured his wife.

The rest of the walk didn't help calm the tensions after Adam's announcement, especially on Ethan's side who once again felt trapped and forced to participate in an event he didn't want to know about. To stand alongside the leaders of the Resistance was tantamount to accepting and publicly proclaiming that they would get involved in the war and fight alongside them.

Irina again tried to lighten the mood by diverting the attention of the other three to make them focus on choosing the bouquet. In the end, it was only she who had the sensitivity and the knowledge necessary to achieve a floral arrangement that was pleasing to the eye and made a minimum of sense. The final bouquet was therefore composed of a mixture of chrysanthemums and carnations with pastel tones ranging from pink to yellow to break up the more neutral white color of the composition. Mia, Ethan, and Adam had been of no help in choosing the flowers or the colors.

Adam carried the bouquet to their destination a few yards from Shaun and his family's home. The neighborhood was significantly poorer than that of their hosts, but the houses were still brick. What betrayed the standard of living of the inhabitants of the Macula was above all the lack of space and how all the dwellings and the streets were congested. The houses were small and several families were crammed into them for lack of space. The main streets were clogged with wild markets with small canvas stalls or carpets on the floor, a sight similar to the one she had seen during her visit to the city. The little alleys were overflowing with linens and clothes hanging out to dry in the open air.

Ethan had relaxed his guard slightly and was watching the surroundings with attention and curiosity. It was obvious that the panorama offered to them by the Macula was something surprising to his eyes accustomed to the fact that the greatest concentration of population he had seen in his life was the Arena. And the organization of a school was in no way comparable to that of a city and entire families.

"How do they manage to live so much in such small spaces? Just looking at them makes me feel like I'm suffocating."

Adam giggled for the first time all day. Ethan's ignorant and unintentionally haughty remark had managed to lighten the mood despite himself. After all, he didn't have the same standards as ordinary mortals.

"It shows that you were raised in wealth," laughed Mia in a slightly mocking tone.

"Because it's like that in your world too?" Ethan asked, almost annoyed that everyone was laughing at his expense.

"Yes, even worse than that in some places. For me, Callis is a medium-sized town, even a small town or a large village depending on the country. Some metropolises are twenty times larger, and the inequalities are even more marked there."

"There must be a lot of humans then," Irina commented.

"Oh yes, we are almost eight billion."

The blonde's statement was met with shocked gasps. Judging by their reaction, the population of Istarea was not so high. If they were already surprised by a city of this size, it surely meant that they were not so numerous. After all, most people here lived scattered. Besides, Mia didn't know the exact size of this world. There was a moon like on Earth, time flowed the same way, and physical laws seemed similar except for magic, which suggested that Istarea was a planet like hers, but that didn't mean however that it was of the same circumference.

"How many are you on Istarea if this number shocks you?"

"It's impossible to say, there is no global census. Maybe there were a billion of us of all races before the genocide and the war. That's clearly not the case now, and I'm obviously counting the people of Callis," explained Adam's soul mate, stopping in front of a modestly sized dwelling. "We're here."

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