Van broke the awkward silence that enveloped the four of them by shooting straight at the tall, swarthy mercenary.
"So do you have a name? And what exactly are you anyway?"
Chandra cast a disapproving look at her pilot, but her angel seemed unphased by Van's rough tone. He answered plainly, "I don't have a name, and I don't have a people." He formed his next words with care. "They call me Traveler. I was taken into captivity when I was very young and did odd jobs across the stars. I never met someone from my tribe, if they still exist, and I can't identify the backwoods principality that subjected me." His finger tip drew a jagged sign across his chest. "Simply to say I don't have much of an answer beyond what I already told you. I'm just a mercenary. The past doesn't matter much."
Van nodded sentimentally. "Forgot your home? You'd think home would stay around forever. Maybe it's gone like ours," he mused. "But why were you on a shard of our world?"
A bit of energy animated his gentle charisma Traveler for a moment. "That was a piece of a planet?"
Chandra nodded. "Yeah...we're trying to collect the shards and reform our home."
Traveler jabbed the center of his chest emphatically. "Beyond believability. Who commissioned you?"
Chandra and Van exchanged a knowing look. "The Lord," Van replied for her. "Our God."
"You had called me by that name," he said. "So we are working for a god who shatters planets and makes them new?"
"Quite an apt description," Van said.
"Yes," Chandra answered quietly.
Traveler gazed over the sleeping girl, brushing his fingers over her searing forehead.
"And he shatters girls like this, too?"
Chandra's breath caught in her throat. "Not her, just her flesh." She could feel the doubt and blame rolling off Van. "He will restore her. He promised."
Traveler imitated Van's nod. "I've worked for gods in the past. They are unpredictable, cruel, self-serving. They may restore you and gift you wealth, power, knowledge, and access to the full world and the world beyond. But they charge a heavy price, if their gifts aren't illusory to begin with."
"I trust Him."
Traveler smiled at her answer. "Simple enough. Your trust in me is not misplaced. If you trust the Lord the same, I'll withhold my words."
"Whatever you are, human nature is not beneath to you, I'm sure. No one is clean. But the Lord will never betray me."
Traveler was visibly amused and inspired by her sweet conviction. He had encountered others like her. He turned his attention to the girl next to him, leaving her to her faith.
"Tell me about her. You risked your life for her. Is she a princess or noble daughter?"
Chandra paused, feeling she was like royalty in a way. "I don't know anything about her. But I saw her, in a dream, whole and standing in the new earth after all the division." She looked at the girl. "And, I love her."
"You what?" Van sighed.
"She's so vulnerable and so connected to our mission. What you said is true. God can raise another to help her, even send ministering angels, but my heart wants to see her through."
"You see visions?" Traveler interrupted them.
"Yes," Chandra answered simply.
Van shook his head. "Just her. God doesn't speak to me."
Chandra giggled. "Maybe if you circumcised your ears, you could hear better."
"What are you talking about, girlie? I had them lopped off with the rest of me in that gross swamp water off-planet."
Traveler remained silent as they playfought, keeping his discomfort and judgments to himself. Yet he was still drawn by the sparkle about Chandra.
Most girls in this kind of work had a crudeness to them. They were older, griseled, cynical, and carried heavy baggage, so the natural fitness and stamina just didn't make a mercenary girl worth it. Chandra had a gentle way about her, even as she shared her convictions, and it manifested in her fair and smooth, youthful features.
The settlements he visited treated him as an alien, and employers were forever taking unfair advantage of him. Their motives were too often questionable, and they were quick to weasel out of contracts.
These two were strange, but they seemed like a good sort. The girl in front of him glowed with light. She seemed so free and unburdened, wearing feminine white robes and her wavy blonde hair down. She was lovely, strange devotions aside.
He was lucky to be accepted so easily.