A Peacekeeper's Oath pt. 1

A new tale in a new city...

This is a sequel to The Southern Calt serial. You don’t need to read that serial to read this one, but you may find it enjoyable! For more stories in Astra - including SC - check out the directory here.

All that being said, let’s get into part 1 of this new serial…

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Imagine the perfect city. The rail is always on time. There’s always somewhere for the weak and weary. The sky's always blue. Everyone is welcome and everyone is safe. All gods are worshiped and welcomed. Crime is low. Literacy is high. That was the promise of Paradia. Paradia was a young city surrounded by a continent of ancient cities at war. But Paradia promised peace and safety. Paradia promised respite from the chaos of Astra. Outside its great walls, a forest struggled to grow, and small homes dotted the outskirts. There was always a line to get inside at the few entrances permitted and trade caravans came and went frequently from all across Astra.

At the center of the city is the grand city’s capital building: The Medullary. A bone-white twisting tower that dots the skyline. It is the tallest of the countless skyscrapers that dot the neon-lit sky. Vehicles travel across the land and the skyline. There are no traffic jams in the perfect city; the city-state of Paradia. But there are Peacekeepers. And there are those who aim to disrupt the peace that those Keepers are sworn to protect. It was never about the ‘why’. It was always about ‘how do we stop them?’ And our heroes always knew how to stop them.

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Paradia lazily blew by beneath a blue and gold Peacekeeper hovercraft. It rocketed along the length of the city in hot pursuit of a reckless flying vehicle - the make and model were unclear to the two Peacekeepers in pursuit. Sirens wailed on the sleek, quick craft as it buzzed towards the suspect’s loud thunderous vehicle. 

“This is a Paradia Peacekeeper directive!” A woman shouted from the hovercraft’s loudspeaker, “Land immediately and surrender!” There was no response, but it did look like the vehicle sped up a little. She shook her head, “They’re not stopping.” She said, turning away from the speaker. Both vehicles curved around the Medullary. The suspect’s vehicle narrowly missed a floor of the building. “These guys are reckless.” She shouted. The vehicle let off a plume of blue fire as its speed kicked up and it took a sudden nosedive downward, careening towards the city floor.

“Oh, here we go!” The woman’s partner shouted. He grabbed ahold of the yoke of their hovercraft and threw it forward, sending them into a downward spiraling dive, like a bird of prey closing in on its target.

“Akashi!” The woman screamed over the shaking of the craft as it sliced through the turbulent air. Her voice shook as the structure all around them let out a squeal of anticipation as the vehicle threatened to come apart under the pressure of the maneuver. Akashi let out a whooping laugh as his partner grabbed ahold of the safety grip over her head. She forced herself to breathe, and she felt the fear dissipating as the craft leveled out and bolted forward. She wouldn’t die today, she was sure. “Monroe is gonna kill us for this.” She shouted over the thrum of their movement.

“Not if we get them, Celie!” Akashi shouted back.

The suspects leveled out 60 meters above the city street. The vehicle began dodging skyscrapers and traffic, trying to lose Akashi and Celie as it took mind bending turns and nausea-inducing swerves to lose their pursuers. 

“Alright, Celie, I’ve got a plan!” Akashi yelled over the sound of the city flying by them. The air whipped through their hovercraft’s open windows and made Akashi’s curly hair spike backwards. Celie had forced her hair into a messy bun that was barely holding up to the force of their maneuvers. Akashi reached across her and grabbed the loudspeaker receiver. “Alright, assholes, last warning!” He shouted. Celie shot him a look, then pulled the receiver out of his hand.

“Focus on driving!” She shouted. Akashi smiled as he gunned the throttle and the hovercraft rocketed forward, careening through traffic and weaving between buildings. Celie groaned as she felt breakfast starting to threaten to come back up her throat. Akashi was too busy blowing past Peacekeeper regulation speeds to notice. “Akashi, ease up.” She warned.

“Hold on. Almost there.”

“Akashi -”

“Almost -”

“You’re going to hit them!” The crunch of the two vehicles colliding in midair made Celie’s spine hurt immediately. Her teeth rang in her mouth, and she felt the beginning of a headache forming. If not for the adrenaline, she would’ve been too shocked to do anything else.

“Here, take over!” Akashi shouted.

“What?” Celie screamed over the roar of whining metal. Before she could react, Akashi had unbuckled himself from his seat and began climbing out of the driver side window of the hovercraft. Celie reached across and grabbed the yoke. She steadied the craft as it spiraled in the air, locked in place with the suspect’s vehicle. She carefully brought herself across the center console while keeping the yoke as stable as she could. 

Akashi steadied himself on the hood of the hovercraft, then crouched down, and jumped to the roof of the suspect’s vehicle. An energy pistol appeared from the passenger window and fired a shot just wide of Akashi. His arms wavered as he steadied himself. The two vehicles were beginning to lose elevation - regardless of Celie’s attempt at keeping it steady - and spiral down to the ground. When they were about 30 meters from the ground, a pedestrian vehicle shuddered into Celie’s line of sight and smashed into the two interlocked vehicles. The wreck careened into a nearby skyscraper, the glass shattering and metal wrenching all around them. In the distance, Celie heard the scrape of the pedestrian vehicle grinding its way down the side of the skyscraper before slamming into the floor with a metal wrenching crash. The interlocked vehicles skidded through office spaces and walls before coming to a stop in a now destroyed floor of a skyscraper. Akashi was thrown off the vehicle and landed on a collapsed office desk.

Celie struggled to catch her breath. Her body would’ve been thrown around the cockpit, but the built-in potential energy field redirected the force of the crash away from her and into the structure of the hovercraft. The door broke away with a mechanical hiss, giving her a safe exit. Celie stumbled out of the destroyed Peacekeeper hovercraft and looked at the wreckage. They were going to be lucky if they kept their jobs after this one.

“You good?” She called out to Akashi. He let out a groan,

“Great. Ribs hurt pretty bad, but I’m good.” She ran over and helped him off the crumpled desk. Other than a few cuts and scratches that tore his blue and gold Peacekeeper uniform up, he didn’t look to beat up. Celie’s uniform only had a couple scrapes on it, but it held up fine to the crash. Akashi went over to the suspect’s vehicle, “Empty. They must’ve run off. I’ll call in a crew from Clean-Up to deal with this while we hunt them down.”

“That was insane.” Celie said as she tried to catch her breath. She put her hands on her knees and heaved out. “Gods, Akashi, you just broke so many laws and regulations. We’re going to be in a world of hurt when Monroe finds out.”

“We can talk about that later. Let’s just get these guys. They’re still in the building somewhere.” Celie resigned herself to accepting he was right and activated the ring on her finger. The slit in the ring projected the floor plan of the building in front of them.

“It’s a mix of housing and office space.” She interacted with the hologram, and an alarm started blaring in the building. “And now it’s in lockdown.”

“Good. Let’s get to it.”

The two began to move methodically through the building. When Peacekeepers were in pairs, only one was permitted a ranged weapon while the other was in charge of mediating and communication. Akashi may have been the better shot, but for this shift, Celie had her energy pistol at the ready. She pulled it from her hip holster and took point as they made their way through the building.

The hallways were entirely empty as they worked their way down towards the ground floor. A klaxon flashed as a robotic voice warned civilians to stay indoors overhead. 

“Check the building’s cameras, see if there’s any movement.” Celie whispered as she walked forward.

“Got it…” Akashi followed close behind as he tweaked his own ring’s hologram to get more information. “Looks like we have unaccounted for movement in the stairwell.” His ring switched to displaying the camera’s live feed. “Ah, yep that’s them. They’re headed for the first floor.”

“Good. Seal the stairwell doors as soon as we get in.” Celie replied.

“Heard.” 

Celie pulled open the door to the dimly lit stairwell at the end of the hallway and began making her way down the stairs. Behind them, the door’s lock engaged. Beneath them, they could hear more locks engaging. Then, they heard the panicked arguing of men at their wits’ end. As Akashi and Celie made their way around the final corner of the stairs, they saw three people standing at the door.

“Don’t move!” Celie shouted and raised her energy pistol to them.

“Paradia Peacekeepers. You’re all under arrest.” Akashi announced. He walked past Celie and pulled out electric restraints to cuff the three figures. Strange, they didn’t look like common criminals to Celie. Instead, they wore flowing purple and red robes, and had bags stuffed with supplies that she could feel otherworldly energy pulsing out of. Celie kept the pistol raised and focused in on the three. Akashi carefully restrained each of them in expanding energy-based cuffs, but just as he approached the third and final man, the man pulled a pistol and tried to aim it at Akashi.

“Hey!” Celie shouted. She tried to aim at the man, but Akashi’s body blocked her shot.

Before he could fire, Akashi grabbed the man’s arm, placed a hand on top of the pistol, twisted the man’s wrist, and wrenched the pistol away. He flipped the gun around and aimed it at the man. Akashi took a step back, keeping the gun trained on him. 

“Nice try, guy.” Akashi said with a smirk. A faint beep sounded on his uniform and Akashi winced. Celie lowered her own gun and shook her head,

“Akashi, drop the gun.” She said, “That was an illegal disarm.”

“Yeah… my bad” Akashi disengaged the battery of the pistol and dropped it on the ground. He kicked it back to Celie who placed a foot on the deactivated weapon. “My bad.” He repeated with a guilty smile.

As he approached the man and tried to restrain him again, he saw a smile cross his face. His hands sparked with an all-consuming darkness that devoured what little light was left in the stairwell. Akashi sidestepped the man,

“Celie?” 

“Yep, got it.” Celie stepped forward as quickly as she could and snatched the man’s hands up. Suddenly, deep inside their bodies, their powers smashed into each other, their raw otherworldly energy coalescing into their auras as their inherent magic clashed together, one tries to overcome the other. What he didn’t know was that Celie didn’t need to overpower the man, she just needed to catch him off guard.

The man stared in disbelief at Celie as his attempt at casting his way out of the situation dissipated in front of his eyes. She nodded to him with a steely gaze as she reached into her utility belt with one hand and pulled out restraints. As they clasped on him, the otherworldly power emanating from him faded. “State of the art magic dampeners. Tough break.” Celie told him. The man lowered his head in shame.

“Great, another sorcerer.” Akashi groaned. “Monroe is going to have a field day with this.”

“As if it wasn’t bad enough already.” Celie agreed. She herself was a sorcerer - a magical human who was connected to another plain of existence - with power imbued from the realm of the ancients, but this sorcerer was different. As she used a hand to feel where his power was tethered to, she found a dark hole. An endless void that she couldn’t make sense of. She wasn’t familiar with this realm of existence. They’d need to do some more research, but carefully. Sorcerers weren’t well liked. Especially in Paradia. Celie thought for a moment, then shook her head, “Go ahead and call this in. Time to wrap it up.” 

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“Man, you just can’t beat the vat grown stuff, I’m tellin’ you, Celie.” Akashi announced through a mouth full of pie. Once they passed off the crime scene to the Clean-Up crew and their underlings in the Investigation department, Akashi decided it was time for them to go get an early dinner at their favorite diner.

“Uh-huh.” Celie replied.

“Come on! Lighten up.”

“Akashi…” Celie began then gave up. Nothing she had to say would change the joy smeared across his face. They broke untold protocols and laws. Destruction of property, illegal use of a city vehicle, disturbing the peace - a Peacekeeper’s greatest offense - improper handling of illegal weaponry, and probably more she couldn’t think of.

Regardless of all of that, Akashi sat there with that same joyous smile that he had every time they stopped at the diner. In front of Akashi sat a pie of genetically modified fruit so far removed from their wild ancestors that it was entirely man-made. Celie picked at a starchy vegetable pancake she had strewn hot sauce across and grumbled to herself.

“Celie, we caught the bad guys. They’re behind bars, and we have nothing to worry about. Ask me? Monroe is gonna give us a medal.”

“A medal for…?”

“Keeping the peace!” Akashi said through a mouthful of pie.

“Peace.” Celie replied. She shook her head. “We have more sorcerers causing - an illegal magic artifact ring it looks like - and we broke so many laws that Monroe might just lock us up herself. We can’t keep holding the ban off if sorcerers are going to show up and get into trouble. We need to figure out what these guys were doing. That should be our priority. Why are they coming and what do they want with Paradia? These aren’t normal sorcerers, they’re fanatics if you ask me.”

“Maybe. We’ll put someone on it. Hey, you know what your problem is?” Akashi asked, leaning back. His white tucked in button up puffed out around his stomach and his red tie flopped to the side as he leaned back in their booth. He had since taken off his Peacekeeper uniform, but Celie kept hers on. Even after ten years of city living, Akashi was still a slim athletic man who seemed to be able to eat almost anything and not lose his ability or his shape. In many ways, he hadn’t changed one bit except for some creases around his eyes and mouth. Celie was sure he would age much more gracefully than her. Still, they were in their 30’s and didn’t have to worry about that yet. 

“I don’t know how to have fun.” Celie replied.

“Exactly! We’ve talked about this before, haven’t we?” He winked at Celie. She shook her head,

“This is our job, Akashi. Not a game. People’s lives are on the line. You understand that don’t you? We’re lucky the civilian involved in the crash wasn’t injured when her vehicle split off from the collision and hit the ground.”

“Why can’t it be both? At the end of the day, everyone’s fine. It’s Paradia. Work can be fun, Celie. Just let it be.” He said with a nonchalance brought on by years of being a detective in the most peaceful city on Astra.

“It shouldn’t be both. Look, there’s no point debating this - I’m not going to debate this. Way I see it, we really messed up today. We can fix that by stopping her from enacting the ban and figuring out why these fanatics are coming here and causing trouble.”

“We’ll let Monroe be the judge of that. And don’t worry, I’ve got someone in Investigation working on figuring out what’s going on with these guys.” Akashi replied. Celie nodded. She certainly would be the judge of that. Monroe was not only the founder of the Peacekeepers, but the founder of the entire city of Paradia. He and Celie had been members of the Peacekeepers since the beginning of the department’s creation. They were senior Keepers and the co-heads of the Investigation department. They’d done a lot of good together in the decade since they moved to Paradia, but Akashi was getting reckless. He put ‘fun’ over peace. Celie sighed and continued picking at her food.

“Hey, Celie,” Akashi said as he brought his voice down. She met his gaze. His eyes had softened, and his dark curly hair drooped in front of his face as he leaned forward, “look, I know I didn’t put safety first and all that, but that doesn’t mean I don’t care. You know that, right? I mean, we’re saving lives every day. We’re helping so many people by tracking down people like that.” Celie nodded. She had a million things to say in reply, but instead she took a deep breath in, then out. 

“I know you’re doing your best. Just… be more careful. Please. You’re not just risking yourself.”

“I’ll do my best.” He smiled and leaned back, bringing a bite of pie with him. Celie had her doubts, but she knew he meant well. If there was one person she could trust, she knew it was him. They passed a little more time away at the diner before both of their rings buzzed on their fingers. The slits projected out a flashing red message in front of both of their faces:

Debrief. Now.

“Here we go…” Celie breathed out.

“Took her longer than normal.” Akashi said with a smile. “Let’s go get told off.”

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Providence Monroe had a minimalist office in the middle of the bureaucratic sector of the Peacekeeper HQ. This part of the station was labyrinthian. Celie remembered the early months of living in Paradia and getting lost trying to get through all the office spaces. She had since learned the layout of the HQ and knew her way around almost every crack and crevice. Still, she didn’t often need to go to Monroe’s office since regular meetings were held in a glass room overlooking the city on the very top floor of the HQ. That wasn’t where this meeting was being held.

The walls on this floor were a crisp gunmetal with posters about maintaining peace and order. Interlaced were posters about getting help and being part of the most important community in Paradia and how that required Peacekeepers to take care of their health first. Celie was proud of those posters. The Peacekeeper mental health initiative was one of her big initiatives as a member of the department, and it was the best thing she thought she had ever done. Not only did it benefit others, but it benefitted her too.

She felt herself buzzing with anxiety as they made their way to Monroe’s office. By this point in the day, it was late enough that the HQ was mostly empty other than the night shift that kept the departments operating for those out in the field. Paperwork could wait until tomorrow - something Akashi always liked to remind Celie of. The empty offices in the evening were his favorite proof of that.

When they made it to her office door, her jade eyes glared daggers through the glass, waiting for them to walk through. Monroe was a tall woman with a muscular build and dark skin. She always wore the same gray bodysuit with green fibers interlacing it. Her hair was always in the same perfect prim cornrows that were never out of place. Akashi paused outside the door and put on his best smile. Celie took a deep breath to compose herself. Of course, Monroe could see them, but it was always different being in the room with Providence Monroe. She had an authoritative presence that was hard to push back against even for Peacekeeper veterans. Her presence had a greater impact on some than others, but even still, Celie knew it was best to emotionally prepare before coming face to face with her. Akashi nodded to Celie and pushed the door open. Akashi beamed,

“Prov! How’s it -”

“Don’t.” She raised a single hand. “While you two sat in a diner having the relaxing night of your dreams, I’ve been putting out fires from your little afternoon in the sky. What do you have to say about that?” Celie cleared her throat,

“Lady Monroe, I -”

“Celie. Don’t.” Celie went silent. “Akashi, I want to hear it from you. I noticed your report was lacking and I want to clarify some things about the biofeedback we received from your uniform.”

“Right…” Akashi hesitated. They both knew it was a trap. Providence Monroe always knew. She just wanted Akashi to admit what she already knew. “Well, boss, we stopped the illegal trafficking of magical artifacts into the city for a sorcerer’s circle. The location of the circle remains unknown at this time, but…” He trailed off as she shook her head.

“You know that isn’t what I just asked you, Akashi.” Akashi chuckled.

“Yeah you - uh - got me there.”

“Akashi, you disarmed that man using an illegal maneuver. What do you have to say about that?”

“The biometrics are off?”

“Try again.”

“Okay, Prov, I’m sorry. I got caught up in the moment.”

“And Celie?”

“What?” Celie asked.

“What about you?” Monroe asked.

“What do you mean, ma’am? I followed protocol to the T. Except when I took over driving for Akashi, but -”

“Following protocol would’ve been stopping your partner from ramming into the enemy, jumping on the vehicle, and crashing it into a skyscraper. Following protocol would’ve been restricting your partner after multiple showings of reckless behavior.”

“Wait, so you’re reprimanding me for not stopping him?”

“You’re a Peacekeeper, Celie.”

“And what’s he?” Celie demanded. Monroe nodded,

“You’re right. You’re both Peacekeepers, and you’re both going to be grounded for the foreseeable future. You can walk or take the rail if you have to. No more flying.”

“Oh, Prov, come on!” Akashi raised his voice for the first time. 

“Akashi, you broke every rule you could have in that chase. Rules that we established together! You’re literally breaking your own rules!”

“Yeah, that’s not lost on me…” Akashi replied.

“You’re lucky you're not both being banished from the city. Or worse. I’m sticking my neck out for you by giving you this small of a punishment. I’ll have to explain this to the council and the Secretary of Peace. If you’ve got a problem with this, think of how much worse it could get for you if I decided to throw you to the wolves.” Celie shook her head,

“Monroe, we talked about it between us. Akashi told me he’d do better.”

“I’ll believe it when I’ve seen it. You two have been getting careless lately. I won’t stand for it. I expect better from both of you. You’re leaders of your own department, damn it. You shouldn’t even be out there. That’s why you have Keepers working under you. You’re department leads, just take your assigned office spaces and get comfortable.”

“What can I say? We don’t like sending others to do jobs we could do ourselves.” Akashi replied. Celie shook her head. Unfortunately, she agreed with Providence Monroe.

“Just don’t pull our vehicle permits yet, Monroe. Give us a chance to make things right.” Celie pleaded.

“Or,” Providence smiled for the first time. It was a cruel smile of someone fed up with her underlings, “you do good enough on the ground and maybe you can have your toys back. Sound good, kids?” Celie’s blood boiled. She felt the world around her alter. Her connection to the realm of the Ancients thickened like a rope, pulling her into the ethereal beyond. Outside her mind, nothing had changed.

“Crystal, Prov.” Akashi said. He put his hand on Celie’s shoulder, pulling her back to the moment, “Come on, we have to be back here in 8 hours and I’m exhausted.” Celie took a deep breath and went to follow Akashi out.

“Miss Green, a moment please?” Akashi winced.

“Oof. Good luck, Celie.” He said.

“I’ll be fine. See you tomorrow?”

“Bright and early, sister.” Akashi saluted and shut the door behind him, leaving Celie and Monroe alone in her office.

“Celie -”

“What’s this about?” Celie demanded. “No dancing around it, just say it.”

“Fine. You and Akashi do good work. You’ve done great things for this city, but you’ve always been the one to keep Akashi in check. What’s going on? You guys not getting along anymore?”

“No, we’re fine, ma’am. He’s family. Always will be. He just - well - he’s got it in his head that this is how you keep the peace.”

“You know that won’t fly with me, Miss Green.”

“I know.”

“The Peacekeepers stand for order in Paradia.” 

Funny. I thought we stood for peace, crossed Celie’s mind but she held her tongue. As though Monroe had read her mind, she added,

“Peace too, you know. Order and peace go hand in hand, and we must act to keep this city in order so it can be peaceful.”

“I understand ma’am.”

“Then you understand that you need to do a better job of keeping Pacè in check.”

“Ma’am, I am not his keeper.”

“Careful, Celie. You don’t want to play the attitude game with me.” Sometimes Monroe spoke to them like petulant children. It made Celie want to rip her hair out. She bit her tongue.

“Ma’am with all due respect, if you can’t keep him in line, what makes you think I can?” At that, Monroe cracked a smile.

“I’ll always respect you, Miss Green. You’re clever. Quick on your feet. Akashi is lucky to have you as a partner.” Monroe’s jade eyes let off a faint glow that caught Celie as strange. “Now, do me a favor, and just make sure he stays out of trouble, would you?” Celie knew there was no getting her to understand.

“I’ll do my best.” What a bunch of bullshit, Celie caught herself thinking as she plastered a placating smile on her face. As Celie turned to leave, Monroe continued,

“Oh, and one more thing?”

“Hm?” Celie asked, her hand on the door handle.

“Your uniform registered a surge in extra dimensional energy. Know about that?”

“They were sorcerers, ma’am. I restrained one with a dampener as he tried to cast something.”

“You don’t say. Thing is, your uniform detected two different sources.” Celie gritted her teeth,

“Weird.”

“I thought so too.”  Silence fell over the room. Celie’s back was still away from Monroe, her hand still on the doorknob. Monroe shuffled some papers on her desk then added, “Well, I’m sure it’s nothing. Have a good night, Peacekeeper.”

Celie opened the door and left, making her way out of the HQ and into the bustling Paradian night.

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Celie walked into her apartment and stripped her uniform down to her lightweight armored undersuit. She threw her uniform in a heap onto the couch then slumped down at her dining room table in the dark. She kept all the lights off, the only source of light was the neon sign outside illuminating her entire one-bedroom apartment in a brilliant pink. She sighed and rested her head on the table. Her ring buzzed on her finger and the ring projected a new message alert.

“I’m sorry about today.” Akashi’s message read.

“Don’t worry about it.” She replied out loud. The text of her words sprawled across the projected chat box. Then she added, “Monroe thinks I keep you in check. Don’t think she knows you do what you want when you want.”

“Ha. Yeah. I need to do better. Should do better. I can’t cover you if you’re always picking up my messes.”

“Don’t worry about it. Get some rest and I’ll see you in the morning.” She closed out the conversation and checked her other messages. She somehow missed a call from Panshin Pacè - Akashi’s aunt and the closest thing Celie had to a mother in her life. Celie opened up a message box,

“Hey, Gee. Bit of a crazy day. I’ll give you a call back when I have a chance. You wouldn’t believe what Akashi did today. Catch you soon.” 

Celie removed her ring and set it on the table with a clink. When she bought the slit-ring in Cain ten years ago, it was state of the art. Now the once white paint job on it had faded away to the utilitarian metal composite that lay beneath the paint. Celie leaned back in the chairs she had bought when she first moved in and felt them creak.

She was tired. Paradia moved too fast for her, and holding the city together weighed on her. It never felt like enough. She had to keep Providence Monroe happy, keep Akashi out of trouble, and keep the populace safe. She wasn’t so sure this was who she was meant to be. If it was just one of those things, she thought she might be able to keep it together, but all three of them at once felt crushing. Celie sighed and laid her head down on the table. She was too tired to make it down the hall to her bed. The table was comfortable enough anyways.

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Here we are, at the start of another new serial! I’m feeling excited for this one. We’re about to get into a big transition after this, and even cooler still? We’re coming up on one year that I’ve been on substack and when that happens, we will actually take a short break from the serial to celebrate. In the meantime, please enjoy this new story in Astra!

In other news, I also recently finished the Trials of Astra novel with the working title Beyond Corrupt Eyes and I’m thinking I’m going to try and shop it around and if that doesn’t work well, then I’ll look into indie publishing and if that doesn’t work then maybe I’ll serialize it on here. That is a while away though, just a fun little update!

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Catch you next week for part 2! Can’t wait to share what’s next in Celie and Akashi’s journey.

Update: Click here for Part 2