Three weeks. Three weeks of running across every continent, through every city, asking the same question to anyone who would listen. The card had burned in her pocket like a live coal, its weight somehow heavier than physics should have allowed.
L'Equilibra.
The name meant nothing to street vendors, to professors, to mystics who claimed to know the true names of gods. She had asked shamans and scientists, warriors and priests, children who saw too much and elders who remembered too little. The answer was always the same: blank stares, shaken heads, apologetic shrugs.
Matta sat on the hilltop overlooking what had once been a massive city, her paws tucked beneath her as the sun began its descent toward the horizon. The city below sparkled with the lights of reconstruction, but her eyes were drawn upward, to where the sun itself seemed different than it had been months ago. Faint wings of light spread from its corona - barely visible, like afterimages burned into reality itself.
MTA: You know, Icarus, I think I'm losing my mind.
Her ears drooped as she spoke to the winged star above, knowing he couldn't hear her but needing to say the words anyway. The sacrifice had been his choice.
MTA: Everyone thinks peace means the end of searching. But you can't just stop, can you? There's always something else to find, someone else to save. Another mystery that needs solving at speeds the rest of the world can't match.
The evening breeze ruffled her fur, carrying scents of blooming flowers and distant cooking fires. Normal things. Peaceful things. Things that should have brought comfort but only reminded her how separate she was from the slow, beautiful rhythm of everyday life.
MTA: This card... it's like you were, before. A puzzle wrapped in power, a choice disguised as inevitability. The woman said things move faster than time itself. What does that even mean? How do you catch something that exists outside reality?
She pulled the card from her pocket, its surface unmarked except for that single name written in script that seemed to shift slightly when she wasn't looking directly at it. The material wasn't paper or plastic - it felt organic, warm to the touch, like living tissue that had learned to hold its shape.
MTA: Maybe that's the point. Maybe some things aren't meant to be found through searching. Maybe they find you when you're ready to stop running long enough to be found.
The sun's wings spread wider as it touched the horizon, and for just a moment, Matta thought she could hear something in the wind - not Icarus's voice, but an echo of his freedom.
Footsteps approached from behind her, too steady and measured to belong to anyone moving at normal human speed. Matta's ears swiveled backward, tracking the sound, but she didn't turn around. Her nose caught an unfamiliar scent - earth and metal, with undertones of something that made her fur stand slightly on end.
SIE: You know, most people would have given up after the first week.
The voice was warm, slightly amused, carrying the weight of someone who had worked with her hands for years. Matta finally turned to see a woman in her late twenties approaching across the grass. Dark hair pulled back in a practical bun, work clothes that had seen actual use rather than fashion. But it was her hands that drew attention - thick work gloves that seemed permanently attached, as if removing them would be unthinkable. And her eyes. Green like bottle glass, beautiful in a way that seemed almost accidental.
SIE: Demolitions' Expert, Sienna.
She offered one gloved hand to help Matta to her feet, the gesture casual but somehow significant.
SIE: And you're Matta. The rabbit who can outrun light itself, from what I've heard.
MTA: You know me?
SIE: I know everyone Aki sends running in circles.
MTA: (Aki?)
Under her breath, barely audible even to Matta's enhanced hearing, she muttered something that sounded distinctly annoyed.
SIE: Honestly. Making things harder than they need to be. Cryptic messages and mysterious meetings when a simple instruction would suffice.
She turned back to Matta with a slight smile.
SIE: The card. May I see it?
MTA: You're... L'Equilibra?
SIE: L'e.. what? Pfffffffffffff!
Sienna burst out laughing, amused sort of.
SIE: That's the name Aki is using these days?! Here I thought Aquila is hard enough to pronounce, now she goes and uses a mouthful for her name!
Matta hesitated for a moment, then handed over the strange object. Sienna took it with careful fingers, then did something unexpected - she began removing her gloves. The leather peeled away to reveal hands that seemed to shimmer slightly in the fading light, as if they weren't entirely solid or were made of something more than flesh and bone.
The moment her bare fingers touched the card, it began to dissolve. Not burning or cracking, but simply ceasing to exist, its essence flowing into her skin like water absorbed by sand. She watched the process with satisfaction, flexing her fingers as the last traces vanished.
SIE: There. Much better than carrying messages around like some medieval courier system.
MTA: What just happened?
SIE: Waste removal, no need for useless cards.
She pulled her gloves back on with practiced efficiency.
SIE: The woman you met at the taco stand - has a flair for the dramatic. Mysterious cards, cryptic conversations, leaving people to wander the world asking questions. I prefer the direct approach.
MTA: Which is?
SIE: Telling you that I can get you to your destination in seconds.
The sun had nearly disappeared now, its wings creating aurora-like patterns across the darkening sky. Matta felt something shift in her chest - not fear, but recognition. This was the moment. The choice she had been avoiding for three weeks of fruitless searching.
MTA: What kind of destination?
SIE: Right to L'equ... L'uqeli... Whatever her new name is.
Sienna's bottle-green eyes reflected the last light of day as she waited for an answer.
SIE: So. Are you ready to find out what moves faster than time?