Ivy and Ruby made their way through the dark streets, walking as quickly and as quietly as they could. Ruby had gotten much better at softening her footsteps recently. Hopefully, no one had heard Ruby's outburst. All the anger on Ruby's face had vanished completely. Now Ruby just looked slightly sad and extremely guilty.
What was the longest that Ruby had stayed angry for? She didn't seem like the type to hold grudges. That was good. Grudges were useless wastes of energy. But Ruby needed to learn how useless guilt was as well. The best thing that Ivy could do was make it clear that this didn't matter. Ruby could move on. They had both made a mistake and now it was time to forgive and forget.
"Almost there," Ivy whispered, gently steering Ruby down the correct street. Now Ivy could see the little building. "Are you ready for some hard work, Ruby?" asked Ivy, grinning at her.
"I hope so. The games have probably been good preparation for this. But I must confess that my strength isn't all that," whispered Ruby.
"It rarely is for most dolls. Even the tougher dolls are still made of glass at the end of the day. But I'm guessing that Lu and the others will need every little bit of help that they can get."
"Yes! I'm ready to do my part, even if it's a very small part. I just want to find some way to support them," said Ruby.
"I'm sure they'll be thankful for your efforts."
The two girls reached the door. Ivy knocked gently. There was no answer.
"Hello?" Ivy called out softly. "It's us, Ivy and Ruby." After a moment, the door swung open, and Lu greeted them with a smile. This smile was brighter and less fearful. Maybe Lu felt calmer now that she had a better sense of who they were. But there was still that underlying look of unease on her face.
What had she been through? Blossom had suffered enough at the hands of the overseers to make her give up on the idea of fighting altogether. Clearly, Lu hadn't given up. But it was clear that it had impacted her.
"We should have plenty of time to work on the tunnels during the next several days," said Lu brightly. "We'll also be able to focus most of our time and energy on the tunnels now that there are no games to distract us."
"Yes! Now we can focus all of our time and energy on the tunnels!" said Ruby. She had brightened up a little bit. It was funny to see just how happy the idea of digging in dark underground tunnels made Ruby. But Ivy could kind of understand it. She felt strangely excited herself. The long staircase looked less eerie now. Perhaps that was just because Ivy had seen it before. A little bit of that uneasy feeling fluttered up in Ivy, but it faded quickly.
"Be very careful climbing down," Lu said. "We've had so many injuries when dolls have slipped, climbing down into the tunnels."
"Don't worry about us. If I get hurt, I can just get Ruby to fix me," Ivy laughed.
"Oh? Are you a healer, Ruby?" Lu asked.
"Kind of. I can fix little injuries here and there," said Ruby. A smile, a real smile crossed over Lu's face.
"You should have told me that. We could really use someone like you in the tunnels. Most of us get chipped or cracked while digging. You'll be plenty of help!" Pride and joy seemed to radiate off of Ruby as she climbed down into darkness.
"You'll be our medic then, Ruby," Ivy added. A pale light could be seen, far, far below them. Now Ivy could make out the figures of dolls moving around in the darkness below. They all looked up and greeted Lu with smiles and nods. There it was again, that respectful, trustful way that they looked at Lu. Ivy wished that the dolls from her apartment looked at her like that. The overseers had allowed her to keep some of her memories in order to keep the younger girls in her own apartment organized and to prevent panic. Hopefully she did a decent job guiding them and keeping panic to a minimum. But there was nothing but trust in the way that these dolls looked at Lu.
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It was time for Ivy to start taking mental notes on how Lu carried herself and organized things around here. There were around twelvish dolls down here, digging at the dirt with large slabs of glass. Ivy squinted at the slabs. Were they from the floor above? So, the rebels had chipped their way through the glass, reached the dirt and saved those chips to dig. Noted. In the very center of the room sat a young doll. From her hands a pale orange light emanated. It was this light that filled the room around her. Lux. That was the same power that Blossom had, wasn't it? It was an especially useful power to have during the monthly midnight games. Ivy had never met another doll who had the Lux spell before.
"This is Ruby and Ivy. They are brand new here, so please do everything that you can to make them feel as welcome as possible. Ivy will help you dig, and Ruby will help heal any injuries that you might have," Lu was saying. She grabbed a nearby slab of glass and handed it to Ivy. The dirt felt strange under Ivy's feet. It was soft and squishy and slightly hard to walk on. The soft brown dirt was so unlike the cool smoothed glass that Ivy was used to. Working in the tunnels was definitely going to take some getting used to.
But it was clear that Lu was making good use of everyone's powers and abilities. Each doll had their own job to focus on. At some point Ivy should probably tell Lu about her Forti-spell and how it worked. It would probably come in handy at some point, but not here. The digging was tough work. After only a few minutes, Ivy felt out of breath and her hands were shaking. It took a ridiculous amount of strength to lift even the smallest amount of dirt. How strange this all was. Her stamina began to plumet as she worked.
"You can take breaks if you need to. Don't push yourself too hard," Lu called to her. Was it that obvious that she was struggling? But then again, Lu looked really worn out too. Pain throbbed through Ivy as she set her shard of glass down and took a short break. Some of the dolls around her really made this look easy. They must be incredibly strong. One of the dolls closest to Ivy had been working steadily and quickly since Ivy had first arrived. That girl was dressed in black and showed no signs of slowing down or being tired. What did her stats look like? Ivy had considered herself fairly strong compared to the other dolls. But maybe she had been wrong.
Ruby kept herself busy, running this way and that way, healing various dolls as she did so. She also struck up a conversation with the Lux doll. Clearly it didn't take long for Ruby to make friends. The silence faded away as the dolls began to chat quietly. A smile crossed over Ivy's face. Whether she realized it or not, Ruby was very good at making others feel at ease. That was a useful thing indeed. There was nothing threatening about Ruby. She was always full of cheer and warmth. Ivy needed to learn to be more like that.
Perhaps Blossom was right about Ruby. Perhaps the old Ruby had been a monster. But this Ruby was just a wholesome little girl who was determined to help the dolls around her. This was the Ruby that Ivy had gotten to know. It didn't matter who she had once been. This Ruby wasn't a threat to her.
"Are you okay?" Ruby asked, making her way over to Ivy.
"Yeah, I'm just getting tired," muttered Ivy. She had already wasted enough time. With some effort, Ivy pulled herself to her feet and lifted her glass slab once again.
"Fair enough, that looks like hard work."
"It is. This takes more out of me than using my powers," Ivy admitted.
"How draining are your powers?" asked Ruby.
"Using them typically takes away about half of my stamina."
"Wow, that's a lot!"
"Yeah, I only use them when I have to."
"Ruby, I chipped my hand again!" called one of the dolls.
"Coming!" Ruby left and Ivy focused all of her attention on her work. This would probably be ridiculously easy work for the average human. This was just another painful reminder to Ivy of how weak she really was. No matter how strong she was compared to other dolls, she was still small and fragile. But that wasn't the thing she should be focusing on. Why was she doing this? She was fighting. She was helping her friends. She was doing this for Mia. It didn't matter how hard the work was. It would be worth it. But that didn't change the fact that it was going to be a long night for her.
Level
7
XP
56
Strength
30/100
Health
250/250
Stamina
100/250
Spells/Powers
Forti