After another week both Laura and Zenesha were standing on a stage overlooking several soldiers and cameras. Today was the day of Julia's, Samual's and two other import prisoners of interest. There were a few other traitors, but they figured only executing the masterminds would be enough.
The others will be imprisoned for the rest of their natural lives. For these four however they will be executed for their crimes as a public display, their final moments being nothing more than entertainment for the masses. Since they were traitors to the Queen and country, they will be executed by the Queen's personal bodyguard.
As Zenesha read out their crimes Laura looked over the crowd. Today counted as her first official public appearance, and she was trying to get a read on what everyone seemed to think of her. The only problem was that she was in a military base, everyone had very stoic expressions during such important events.
'Stupid military dogs.' She complained.
"Now Miss Underwood, if you please." Zenesha said, turning in her direction, snapping the wolf out of her thoughts.
With a single nod she grabbed the executioner's ax next to her and walked up to the first person that was kneeling beside them. Their head was locked inside a wooden board, with a basket underneath them. It was Samual, and his body was still an empty shell. It could do basic functions like eat and breath, but any higher thought process was out of the question.
Lifting the heavy executioner's axe with one hand, the sun reflecting off its polish surface, she gave Samual on last sneer before bringing it down. The woosh of the ax slicing through the air was clear as it cut cleanly through the fox man's neck. Blood splattered onto Laura's all black executioner's outfit, the stains hidden by the dark color.
"Next." Laura said calmly to the assistant on stage with them.
They grabbed the next person, a nobody who Laura couldn't bother remembering the name too. Once they locked their head into the board, Laura severed it, the still fresh blood from Samual catching the sunlight. Laura did the same thing with the next person and quickly got to Julia.
Just like Samual she was also gone mentally. Not that anyone could notice since even the two people whose souls weren't eaten didn't flinch or make a sound. Just like the last three times she raised her ax and brought it down. Her blood splattering onto Laura's face. With the death of the last traitor a small smile graced the wolfs face as she reveled in their deaths.
"Let this be a reminder that traitors are not to be sympathized with!" Zenesha started when Laura finished. "They endangered not just my life, but the lives of our people!"
She continued to speak to her people as Laura once again lined up behind her, disappearing from view.
=======
Later that night, after a nice long shower, Laura and Zenesha were cuddling on the couch watching one of the fox's anime. Much to Laura's amusement they were called anime in this world too, despite the fact the country wasn't called Japan.
"There's something I've been wondering for a while now." Laura suddenly said after the episode ended.
"What's that?"
"You seem weirdly okay with a lot of the more… dark things I do."
"Yeah?" Zenesha said with confusion. "Why wouldn't I be?"
"You said it yourself once. Back when I was covered in gore." Explained the wolf. "Normal people would be disturbed, but even then, you weren't. You also never even questioned the soul eating I do."
"What brought this on?" Asked the fox looking down at the wolf in her arms.
"I don't know. Probably the execution I guess."
"Mmm." She hummed. "Does it bother you?"
"No, just a thought." Laura said. "Nothing you do could bother me."
"I see. Well, I don't really have an answer for you." Answered the fox. "I've always been like this."
Laura looked up at the fox holding her and smiled. "Well, I'm not complaining, since it lets me get close to you without any difficulty."
The fox rolled her eyes at the wolf, but Laura has gotten much better at reading the micro movements on her face. She could tell her princess was smiling. She was just the cutest person in the world as far as Laura was concerned.
"How are things in the lab by the way?" Zenesha asked.
"Sigh, slow." Laura answered. "I'm working with Ather and I'm trying to recreate what my parents did to me and my siblings from memory."
"Do you think it'll work?"
"I honestly don't know. But if it does, I'll be able to break away from the void permanently."
What Laura was trying to do was insane in both reality and the void. If anyone were to see what she was trying to do, they would call her delusional because it wasn't possible. Combining creation and the void together to create something new. Except it was possible, because her parents managed to do it. For only a few very precious minutes Laura was separated from the void.
"We Forsaken have a good memory and I'm only in my thirties, so it wasn't that long ago. With a little more trial and error, I think I could figure it out."
"You're how old?" Zenesha asked with wide eyes.
"Thirty-three?" Laura answered. "I told you I'm closer to your age."
"I still thought you were much older than that!" She exclaimed.
"Yeah, like I said I'm young. It's only been twenty years, so my memories of that time aren't blurry yet. Feels like yesterday."
"Wish I could do that." Zenesha lamented. "Though you do seem to hold a lot more knowledge than someone used as the experiment should have right?"
"There's a reason for that. All of it doesn't come from my family" Laura said with a smirk. "I'll tell you about it one day."
"Is there anything I can do to help with your experiments though?" The fox asked with a curious tilt of her head.
"It would make things easier if you could help handle the Ather for me." Laura said. "I'll also need some other rare materials that can hold both Ather and Void Sludge."
"Void what?"
Void Sludge, it's the void equivalent to Ather." She explained. "Since it's hard to find such substances here, I used my severed limb. Not the wolf one, but the part split from my real body."
Zenesha's arms tighten around the wolf as she explained. She didn't have the full picture, but the thought that Laura was so desperate she was using her own body as an ingredient made her feel uncomfortable. She wished she could do more.
"This experiment you're about to do. Will I be able to partake in it?"
"What do you mean?"
"Can you do to me what you're about to do to yourself?"
Hearing her words Laura sat up and looked into Zenesha's eyes. What she was doing could kill her, and that was with a very durable and hard to kill body. This experiment would definitely kill Zenesha, and she couldn't allow that.
"No." Laura said with a serious tone. "Zenesha, this experiment is specifically tailored for my kind. Even if it wasn't, your body just isn't built to handle such things."
"... Oh." Zenesha said, her ears flattening against her head.
Reaching out Laura held her fox's face with both hands as she gave her a tender smile. "You don't have to worry. My purpose is to help you, so as long as you're safe I'm happy."
"... I'll figure out a way to be of use to you someday."
Laura leaned in and placed her forehead against Zenesha's. The warm breath of the fox brushing up against her as she held her face in place. She hasn't lived long but she's never been happier in her life, and it was all thanks to Zenesha.
"If this truly bothers you, I can find a way to increase your power sometime in the future."
"Mmm."
=======
Later that night, while the two of them held each other in bed, Laura alone was wide awake. Her thoughts raced from the potential problems the future now had in store for them. To be specific: just her. If things became too much to handle, she could just leave, they weren't after Zenesha, after all.
'If only I had access to my true power, or even the Abyssal power I held.' She thought.
There was only so much she could do while limited. She needed to succeed in this experiment, sooner rather than later. Laura's hold around Zenesha tightened, as if she was scared the fox in her arms would disappear.
If Zenesha were to be hurt because of her somehow, she didn't know how she would react. Or worse what if she was….
'It'll be fine.' She thought to herself, stopping her line of thinking.
She can handle a few Voidlings or Forsaken. She just hoped an increased presence of void activity wouldn't attract any of the Divine. She might be a Forsaken, but she wasn't nearly powerful enough to deal with that. She would need to be one of the Recheds.
'Sounds a lot like wretched, but they would swear their name is different somehow.' She thought rolling her eyes.
For now, the only thing Laura can do is take things one day at a time. At the very least she can do that while spending time with the one person she loves most in all of existence. Snuggling up closer to Zenesha and burying her face into her chest she whispered one last thing to her beloved before falling asleep.
"I love you."
"...."