When Lana arrived on the ship, she immediately went to the infirmary and was told Peter and Layla were not there. She was given no additional details, just that Quinn had gone to meet with the leaders. Lana decided to wait just inside the entrance for him. She noticed the area was filling up with people. A girl with pink hair approached her. If she had watched the fights, she would have known who this was.
"Such little babies!" the young lady exclaimed, "please tell me you're here to see someone off and you aren't planning to go on the demon-tier hunt?"
"Demon-tier hunt?" Lana chuckled, "no, I just needed to talk to Quinn before he takes his team out. Are you going with him?"
The girl nodded, "I'm Helen." She extended a hand for a shake.
Lana took her hand, "Lana Plantwell. Nice to meet you."
"Do you like being in the Cursed Faction? Or is your husband" she glanced at Shalt "in the Cursed?"
"My husband is in the Cursed but he has not arrived yet. He'll be here soon, I'm sure. He will be on the hunt for sure. I'm the leader of my Family which I placed under Quinn to support him. What about you? Are you happy with Quinn's leadership?"
"I wouldn't know. I lost to him today, so I have already told all of my factions what's going on."
"Oh! Are you from Daisy or Pure?"
Helen chuckled, "Did you not watch the duel?"
Lana shrugged, "Quinn was going to win so I didn't see the point."
Helen looked at the young girl in front of her. She looked like she should still be in school but she had infants strapped to her chest and was a leader. Helen didn't know what to think. "I and my sisters were the leaders of Daisy Faction."
A light bulb went on. "Oh! You were at that duel on the side of that monster! The leader of the Parasites! No offense, but why would you have any relationship with such a person?"
Helen laughed, "monster?"
Lana nodded with a serious expression on her face.
"I owed him a favor. Plus, I had the Crow faction on my list to take over so I wanted to check them out."
Lana's eyebrow shot up.
"I was also curious about how a faction could fend off against the Sunshields."
Lana nodded, "now you know."
"Actually, I don't really. I can see that Quinn is strong. But one man against the others? I'm actually excited to see where this goes."
Lana nodded again, "Quinn is really special. He is like a family treasure."
Just then Quinn walked in and by the expression on his face, he heard her. Lana smiled at him. she turned to Helen, "excuse me, please."
Lana then walked over to Quinn. "Layla and Peter, are they going to be okay? Where are they?"
Quinn looked at her and only said "Kaz took them home."
Dawning spread across her face. "Got it. Good. Any instructions for me or help needed while you guys are on your hunt?"
"Linda is staying here so everything should be okay."
Lana nodded, "I'll keep my schedule as normal than. Should I report to Linda while you're gone or will you be out more than a week?"
"I don't know how long I'll be out for but checking in with Linda could be a good thing."
"Okay, happy hunting!" and Lana turned to walk toward the teleporter room.
"Lana," she turned around at the sound of her name, "Thank you. For everything."
She smiled at Quinn and nodded. She passed a bewildered Helen who noticed she talked to him as a friend rather than a subordinate.
Lana grazed Sil's hand with hers as she passed him. The fact that Sil had his head down when she saw him struck her heart. She wouldn't mind getting in a few strikes at the man who did that to him, herself.
She could hear Quinn start announcing the names of the 30 people who would accompany him.
At the teleporter, Lana crossed paths with Winnifred who was bringing food to the Blade kids. She updated Winnifred on what was happening on the ship and to keep her eyes open since Quinn and the others would be gone for a bit. She nodded and continued on her way.
Lana went through the teleporter and took the babies home to feed them. Tonight was just a rest night, she decided. Her meeting with Mona didn't yield what she expected. What should I do now?
She allowed her mind to wander as she bathed the babies. She decided to list the things she knew about her mother.
She arrived on this planet and was here for 5 years; we were infants when she arrived. She always had her sword on her Her locket was sent with the twins so it won't help with anything she did on this planet. The planet loved her. Her lab was in the caverns below somewhere. This meant there were more caverns or there was a secret passage in the caverns she knew about.
"What are you thinking about?" Shalt approached her as she was drying and dressing the children for bed.
Lana sighed, "the meager clues I have about my mother."
"Do you want to talk about it?"
Lana sighed as she finished dressing Owen. "I'm trying to figure out where to go from here. I really want to go on a hunt, honestly. I was told to get stronger. I would need to bring a second team to keep the kids safe, I think." She looked down at them, "maybe," as she remembered her last time out with Sil. They had shown no signs since them of an ability so she wondered if something within them triggered due to an emergency situation.
"I don't know how long it will take the Bree representative to get back with me, if they even do. At the same time, part of getting stronger is figuring out my soul weapon. I have not even worked on that one."
"I think you already have your answer. Go hunting. Bring the babies with you so you can take care of them but not go out so far. When Sil was with us, it was singular beasts. Our team should be able to handle that."
Lana bit her bottom lip in thought. "Okay, let's go on short hunts then. We leave in the morning and return at light. Still bring the dome shelter for resting."
Shalt nodded and smiled, "we have your back. It will be okay."
Lana smiled and put the kids to bed. She spent the next 4 hours copying one of her notebooks. The twins woke up and were fed and changed before she went to bed herself.
The next morning, in the traveler's Center, she asked for volunteers to go hunting king-tier beasts.
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