[center][h2][color=9e0b0f]Nym Vance | “Jackal”[/color][/h2][/center]

“All hands, prepare to deploy. I repeat, all hands prepare to deploy."

Nym’s attention snapped. She’d wasted too much time. Crux would’ve crucified her. Luckily, he wasn’t here. She ducked into a well filled quiver and tightened the strap across the protective plate covering her chest. Nym ducked and darted around those heading in other directions as she found her way through. 

“Don’t.” A voice warned. “That’s the wrong direction and you’re already in a hurry,” the voice said. Nym whipped around to face her and determine who exactly she was speaking to. The woman stared back at her plainly.

Nym grinned in amusement and asked, “Oh? What exactly gave me away?” The woman looked her up and down as if to determine her worth and Nym caught a glance of a cybernetic neural node flush against her temple. “A spectre? Is it true you lot can read minds? I’ve never gotten the chance to ask, see-” she began when the woman abruptly cut her off to point her in the correct direction. “Fair. Thanks! You’re a saint!” Nym offered over her shoulder with a wink as she took off towards the shuttle she was intended for.

The knights began to take their spots and Nym fell into formation almost seamlessly. She cast a glance at the man next to her as she recognized the prayer he began to recite. Quickly, her attention shifted back overhead so she could grasp the support and steady herself. 

“Are you religious?” she heard him ask. Nym often theorized that she looked approachable and it was why such normally reserved people felt free to speak so casually to her. Her wide eyed and curious expression shifted to him again but quickly unfocused. 

Nym had been for most of her life. She recalled children begging for spare change and discarded food scraps in a desperate attempt to survive right outside her door. Nym thought of the nights she spent awake, losing her voice, howling for a being in the stars to help her mother pull through. Prayers that went unanswered despite the desperation and urgency behind them. When she refocused on the knight next to her, she shook her head briefly. 

“Not anymore.”

A man she didn’t recognize offered his advice and saved her from her recollections. She watched him speak, thinking on his words. He was right, in his own way. It wasn’t what she chose to do, but it was entirely possible that he knew things she didn’t. Perhaps if she put in enough effort, she could rewire the firings in her brain to allow it. 

[i]‘God-willing,’[/i] she thought bitterly.

“Ay, if you don’t mind, put in a good word for me? Maybe it would mean more coming from you,” she mused, casting her attention back to the knight next to her.