The Show Must Go On

"If we can't go home, then what do we do?"

Concerned, Oliver got closer to me and held my hand in worry.

"For now, it's probably best to continue our journey to Fluvius. Hopefully, once we finished this journey, the police would have finished their investigations."

We all walked towards the table, where I opened a window showing the map Linda gave us beside the map Margret gave us.

"Sazzy said that the estimated travel to Fluvius should be slightly shorter than our trip to Media Luna. So it should be about two days. If we stay here for one more day to gather our resources before leaving we should have enough to make it to Fluvius. After leaving Fluvius, if it is still not over, perhaps we can stay at that AT center until we get the message."

Outlining the basic plan I had in mind to tide us over this emergency situation, Sazzy and Ava nodded in approval.

[We should also tell this to several of your close friends to seek a little help. I was thinking, if the investigation takes too long, we could also stay at Margret's house. After all, staying too long at the AT center doesn't seem like a long-term solution.]

Giving suggestions of her own, Sazzy added to our plan and we discussed all the necessary details. Occasionally, Ava or Oliver would add on, but it was mostly Sazzy and I doing the talking.

Once satisfied with our plan, I felt slightly better and more in control. And judging by everyone's less tense expression, we all were grappling with the situation a bit better.

[Well at least we didn't leave any preservatives behind at the house.]

Sighing with relief, Sazzy leaned back on the chair.

Before we left the house, we were considering what to do with the preservative that Margret and Jack had handed back to us. At that time, we had two options. Hide it or destroy it.

Sazzy had laid out the pros and cons of each option. By hiding the preservative, we could possibly leave it as a clue for future owners of the house in their fight against the Colonizers. Together with the jar would be a note of course, explaining all the context behind the jar.

[However that would put both us and the future owner in danger. That would be the major disadvantage.]

[But on the other end, if we destroy the jar, we might have to consider another way to reveal the truth to whoever stumbles upon it. After all, you wanted to leave behind some clues for anyone who would want to find out the truth.]

Sazzy had made a hesitant look back then, obviously in a dilemma.

[The problem with the second one is that doing all that without physical proof would be difficult at best. However, physical proof might attract bad attention.]

The two of us had faced each other that day, deeply weighing the two options. However, Sazzy finally gave a sigh and chose the latter option.

[No matter which I think about it, putting such dangerous material in our house would pose a large amount of threat to all of us. And now, we also have your brother to account for. And if they do find it, they may decide to research how you would have gotten your hands onto the preservative. The chances of them finding out Liz was involved is pretty high.]

I nodded my head. I was also thinking along those lines. So that night, the night before we left, we had destroyed the preservative in the jar with the neutralizer we had requested from Liz.

Even though I had texted her so late, she had immediately replied and Kyle had dropped by Mors not more than 2 hours later to deliver the neutralizer to us. He had even offered to dispose of the destroyed preservative for us.

So this means that even if the intruder was a Pro-Colonizer, there was nothing incriminating to be found.

Giving my own sigh of relief, I soon felt a tug on my hand.

[We also need to visit Helen before we leave.]

Oliver's face was slightly nervous. After all, we all knew that the 'favor' asked by Patricia was a cover up. However, a promise was a promise and it wouldn't hurt to visit them.

"Ok. We'll visit them."

Combing my fingers through his hair, I said that sentence gently to him before we all split up to pack our things. We were planning to leave in the morning, to make the most out of the day, so if we were to visit Helen before we left it would have to be now.

Efficiently folding our clothes and throwing them onto the bed, Sazzy was arranging the clothes I was dumping into the luggage bag. With this teamwork, we quickly cleared the entire house save for one set that I planned to use tonight.

When we exited the room, we saw Oliver and Ava also exit Oliver's room.

[I see all of us make for very fast and efficient teams!]

Smiling, Sazzy paired up with Ava while Oliver came over to slide his hands into mine. Then, we left our guest house and headed towards Helen's house.

Reaching the outside of the house, we could hear very familiar laughing sounds from within.

I knocked on the door.

"Coming!"

Opening the door, Patricia's face appeared in front of us. When she saw it was us, her face seemed to freeze for a while before she gave a tired sigh and invited us in.

Walking to the living room, we saw Helen sitting on the living room chair, watching the three children play on the floor a little ways away.

"Look who is visiting us."

Waving her hand in our direction, Patricia sat stiffly on a chair and pointed to the other chairs.

"Good to see you again. Chief has probably told you everything, so I'll introduce myself once more. I'm Patricia, the vice chief cum secretary of this village. Sorry for disturbing the two of you yesterday."

Giving a little helpless smile, I sat down on the chairs as I remembered the chief's cackles when she was mentioning about 'watching a good show'. Patricia probably had a lot of work cut out for her.

[Poor Patricia! Having that chief as a boss must really stress her out a lot.]

Seeing my eyes of pity, Patricia gave a small smile as she tried to reassure me that this was a common occurrence with the chief and that she was mostly used to it.

[The fact that this is a common occurrence is worrying.]

I diverted my attention for a second as I glanced at Oliver heading over to Kayla, Brian and Theodore. I then redirected my attention back to the adults.

"By the way, what brings you over here?"

Helen asked as she glanced at Patricia. I had a deep feeling that Helen knew that the chief had forced Patricia to do something, but wanted to hear it from Patricia herself. However, from the pleading look in her eyes, I guessed she wasn't comfortable enough to say it.

"We promised Patricia to visit before we left the village. When she came to our house yesterday, she bought over some delicious Moon cake. And we promised to come over before we left as thanks for the food."

Covering for Patricia, I saw Helen give me a slightly confused look. But after a while, she gave a small sigh and gave up on extracting an answer from Patricia.

"I'm guessing our chief has made Patricia do something silly again. By the way, you said 'before you leave'. So when are you two leaving?"

Giving my own sigh, I explained briefly the intrusion into our house and our plans while we waited for the investigation to be over. While I was speaking, Patricia straightened her back and her eyebrows deepened into a frown.

"There is quite a big chance that the intruder was a Pro-Colonizer. You are quite well known for visiting Alliance planets after all."

Mummering, Patricia then lowered her voice so low I couldn't make out her words. On the other hand, hearing my situation, Helen gave me a pat on the shoulder and a look of sympathy.

"To have such an intimate place be violated like that. That must have been horrible."

While speaking, I felt like I could hear a bit of empathy in that sentence. As if she had gone through something similar before.

While Helen was comforting me, Patricia excused herself and went somewhere in the house where I could not see.

"She's probably pulling some strings to help you. Despite how she looks, Patricia really likes helping others. You know what, stressful times like these call for some good food. The children can probably look after themselves for a while, although we can't take too long."

Holding my hand, she dragged me to the kitchen. There, she took out several pots and pans, as well as ingredients.

"What I used to do when I was stressed was to cook. Cooking helps to calm me down, and I think it will help you too. Since we don't have much time, I think I'll teach you how to make Moon cakes."

"It's a Media Luna classic, and usually takes less than half an hour to make. It's quite sweet, as you already know, but is made up of quite healthy ingredients. We usually make it for all occasions, whether they be special or not. This is due to the dish being a symbolism of peace and prosperity, as well as the dish that represents our thanks to the gods for protecting us. The history is long, but that's all you have to know before making it. Now for the steps."

"First, we take some green berries, red nuts, the nectar from the Queen of Night flower and a little bit of clam powder. We can crush the first two ingredients together, making a paste, before we boil some Red wood in water to steam the cake on. While the Red wood water is boiling, shape the mixture of green berries and red nuts into a ball and use your thumb to indent a hole in the middle. In this hole, add the nectar."

Showing me how to make the Moon cakes, I followed Helen step by step and poured nectar into the middle of the mixture. We then pinched the top close and trapped the nectar inside. Finally, when the Red wood water boiled, she placed a plate on top of the water and put the ball inside the plate.

"The fumes of the Red wood water will soak into the balls and half-cook them. Now we just need to leave it here and come back in 15 minutes."

Exiting the kitchen, the two of us went back to observing the children. And just in time, as Patricia appeared once more, coming out from one of the doors, and headed over to us.

"You mentioned that you plan to go to Fluvius. Fluvius is much more closed off than Media Luna, due to the resident's circumstances. I told them that you will be arriving in the next few days, so they will be expecting you. If you run into any trouble, you can contact me. I have a few contacts there and will probably be able to help you."

Smiling, Patricia handed me her personal ID with a sincere smile.

"As thanks for the favor."