Empty Footsteps

A cold winter whipped around Radiance, though it wasn’t like she could feel it. It had been many, many years since she’d last had any form of sensation. Lacking a body meant that she really couldn’tfeelanything. She had long forgotten what cold felt like and what hunger did as well. No pain bothered her, at least not of the physical variety. Mental anguish still tugged at her soul, but there wasn’t much she could do about that. She could have accepted Melanthios’ offer to go to the afterlife, but she had unfinished business here. She missed her old lover, King Lugus. But it had been over a century since she’d last seen him. She believed he went by Ozpin now. He was no kingdom in the sense of one run by a king now. Vacuo retained its king, but it was an elected and purely ceremonial position. Times had changed so much since she’d fled the city of Vale while pregnant with her son, Albertine. It was hard for the former knight to believe that there were no ruling monarchies now, though it sounded like Atlas—formerly Mantle—hadn’t changed much in that regard. She really didn’t know how to handle this changed world. A knight like her no longer had a place…not that she was alive to try tofinda place, anyway. The only duties she had now were ones she assigned herself. She started walking again, smiling a bit as she forced her feet to crunch in the snow. The footsteps of her old-fashioned boots made faint imprints. The snow had fresh fallen last night and many places around the chapel hadn’t been cleared yet. She saw several people nearby and they staredhardat the empty footsteps. Usually she didn’t expend energy for something so silly, but sometimes, it was nice to remind others of her presence here. With those footsteps in the snow, she phased through the wall and into the chapel. The archive needed some cleaning, so she might as well do that.