Have you ever wondered what it's like to be the bad guy?
A man stood behind a black-haired woman, glaring at her despite his restraints. There was no way, absolutely no way, that he'd work for her.
Ever wondered what it's like to be the one to slaughter hundreds of innocent people, to be the one who tore families apart?
Unmistakably, void magic took hold of the battlefield. Only one person could be responsible - they all knew that - but instead of working against the wizards...
...a deadly mist rolled towards the fey.
To be the one who ruined the lives of children?
A ginger tail lashed as feet pounded against the ground, curse words emitting nearby. A trio of siblings, a blind archer, a small group of fey, and a few teen wizards ran for their lives, stumbling through the underbrush. Eventually, the one at the front stopped, a saturated green streak of hair falling over their eyes.
A desperate, out-of-breath whisper, "Did we...lose them?"
To be the one who tortured orphans?
"No! I won't! Don't make-"
"Don't you dare touch them-"
"GET AWAY FROM THEM YOU B**CH-"
...
A man sunk to his knees at seeing the corpse of a boy - no older than three - strewn in front of a sobbing girl.
He couldn't do this anymore.
You don't want that life.
Trust me.
A red-haired boy plopped on the ground, breathing heavily, yet as quietly as he could. "I wish this nightmare would just end..." he whispered.
A ginger-furred kitten curled up against him, seeming to be in agreement.
The boy's sister had a vacant expression on her face as she sat a distance away from the group. It had been weeks since she had snapped at the little Luma-hybrid, telling the dragon to leave, that she wouldn't be safe around them.
Scarlet had been her best friend — no, sister — for as long as she could remember.
And she just shoved her away.
She turned her eyes towards her youngest brother and his best friend, both remaining huddled together. At least Jax and Aurora still had each other. Through everything, they still had managed to stick together, and as far as they could help it, it would stay that way.
Though not everyone was as lucky.
Their little group was short two members—Raiden and Aria. It was hard to believe it's already been a month since the borgs had been captured...
...though it wasn't worth dwelling on. They all knew they could do nothing about it, the same way they could do nothing about their parents or...
Aurora couldn't hold back the sob that had been building up in her throat for too long.
"We n-need them- we need them all back..."
A hand was placed comfortingly on her shoulder, but it was no use, and they all knew it.
How could this all go so wrong?
Glace leaned against a nearby tree, arms crossed, "I hate to break it to you, but we need to get moving again. You can cry later."
Aurora nodded, quickly wiping away the tears with her sleeve. "I'm sorry, you're right."
We need to get them back.
They were back on the move.
A while later, a meow drawled through the forest, catching the attention of the trudging children.
A hopeful perk, “Did Glace find-”
“No,” the words were emphasized by a solemn headshake, a singular ear perked to hear the meows, “She’s says there’s some wizards ahead–we have to turn around again.”
The group collectively sighed, tired and hungry gazes falling to the ground. It’s been a while since they had any sense of security, the group always being on the move. There have been many days where they’ve gone without meals, or didn’t get a wink of sleep due running from a bounty hunter.
Most of them couldn’t remember the last time they stayed in one place.
But Rai did.
The Astral Fey was constantly alert, sometimes trailing at the back of the group and covering their tracks. He and Glace often took shifts scouting ahead, always paranoid that someone, somehow, would know where they are. Whenever they found a new place to rest, he would always glance around as if looking for someone, someone important.
They all knew who that someone was.
The young borg sighed, running her hand through her hair and tapping her hair clip. She was a good distance out in the forest, setting off her hairclip's tracker for the dozenth time.
She wanted to believe that Storm didn't do anything. That he would come and help them.
Yet…
She's been doing this for days, and he hasn't responded once.
Sighing, she disabled the tracker, picking out her path to return to the camp, when—Nathan dashed past her, gripping Jax's wrist to ensure he wouldn't be left behind. Many, nearly all the others followed in suit, all running from an unknown pursuer except…
"Aria!"
If the wizards got their hands on Aria—
She dashed in the direction of their pursuers, Rai noticing and running after her.
"Raiden! Wait—"
When Rai had met up with the group, he never spoke a word about what had happened to the two, aside from a confirmation that they didn't die.
At least, that was true a month ago.
They could only hope it could stay true.
Far away from the children, beneath the streets on Lamplight, their parents were confined within the Coliseum's labyrinth of a dungeon. Their row of cells were pitch dark, with the exception of Luce's glow from the fey cell and whatever knockoff of flame finger Chase pulled off in his cell.
Elsewhere, old wounds reopen as metal oxidizes, self-preservation protocols the only guardians against the ensuing diseases. Blood sparks and fizzles on the ground as severed metal hangs suspended in midair. Exposed muscle is torn and ridden with red, a sanguine insult to her pride..
Wings clipped once again, just like the day she came to this world.
And even without the burning and the bubbling of contacted magma, even without the agonizing stinging of ash in the wounds, somehow...
Somehow Aria feels that this hurts even more.
Bravo. Oscar. Uniform. November. Delta.
Lucas leaned back against the wall, glancing at his tired, starving friends sharing the cell with him. He made a half-hearted attempt at a hopeful smile, but Dylan just shook his head.
The astral warden just sighed and slumped down, lead restraints clinking softly as he moved.
What good would a smile do for them anyways?
Soft chatter rose from a different, crowded cell nearby.
It really just started as whispers, really. But the topic eventualled raised to yells and beyond, and quickly.
"IT WAS F**KING VOID MAGIC, WHAT DO YOU MEAN 'IT MIGHT NOT BE HIS FAULT?'"
The wardens, plus Dylan, sat up straight, Lane abruptly snorting awake from a short nap.
Pain and anger flashed through their eyes as they realized who the fey were talking about. Lucas slumped even further against the wall as the voices kept arguing.
He didn't know the previous Storm Trainee as well as they did, but still...
There has to be a reason.
"Aly, he isn't the type to—"
"Luce, you've known him for how long? A decade? I've known him since he was eight. He timelooped the goddamn island once you blasted fool, what's to stop him from doing worse?"
Meanwhile a certain Ivory winced at hearing his argument being used against the Shadow Warden, and he began to twist his tail out of habit.
Deciding to intervene before they drew too much attention to themselves, Lucas called out into the dark.
"Aly, please... arguing over it won't help us now. It'll only hurt more."
The Ice Warden practically snarled, "He already brought it up, Lucas, I rather get it out of the way now."
Dylan released a tired sigh, annoyedly scratching at the stubble that had formed on his chin.
"Really, all you're doing is reminding us of our sh**ty situation-" Lucas shot him a panicked look, mouthing, "Stop escalating it!", which he pointedly ignored.
"-and we've already been reminded of it every second we spent in these Harmony-forsaken cells, so unless you know how to trigger some miracle by screaming about him, I'd rather we all just kept quiet."
"Well unlike some people, I prefer to face the goddamned reality. And the reality is that some of us need to stop f**king pretending that the only reason we're in these cells ISN'T BECAUSE OF STORM! BECAUSE IT IS, AND IT ALWAYS WILL BE."
"I dunno, I guess that's arguable," Chase butted in unhelpfully, forcing himself to laugh at his own joke.
"..."
"..."
"Chase, your puns have progressively—"
"...I know."
The Fire Warden let himself slide down the wall and sink into a corner of the cell. "Harmony, this world really sucks..." he muttered.
"Well, at least you got them to stop arguing," Lucas mumbled, mostly to himself.
"Honestly Lucas, you could've let them argue..." A tired British accented voice came from a few cells down, catching the Astral Warden's attention.
"It was only making things—"
"Frankly, no, it wasn't. The guards completely ignore our row and have never cared when we yelled in the past, evident as we're starving to death, everyone here has some built up anger that they need to let out, and on top of that, at least it provided a distraction from the silent moping we've been indulging ourselves in."
Silence.
Abner sighed from his and Samantha's cell, "...Gale: 10; Lucas: 0. The amount of times he's had a point is saying something."
Lucas visibly wilted, slumping even further against the wall. “I just didn’t want us to fight over this…” He mumbled quietly to himself.
Abner simply sighed again, not having any words to comfort him. Instead he simply slouched against the wall, which, unbeknownst to him, Lucas had already done.
Samantha cast a glance in his direction before leaning against the bar's and attempting to peek down the hall, "Well, since Gale has a point—we do need to do something—how about a change of subject? Please tell me I'm not the only one wondering what the kids are doing."
"You're not," Chase answered plainly.
"Well, you two are alone on that," Aly half-mumbled from her cell.
That earned an intriguing expression from her husband, "What do you mean by that?"
"Glace can handle herself...so can Rai."
Meanwhile, quite contrary to the Ice Warden's opinion, the two siblings were having trouble doing exactly that. More specifically, they were trying not to give into their abundance of anger issues as a whisper-arguement broke out between the gathered, regarding a very specific pet trainer.
Well, it would sound like a whisper-argument if the two siblings weren't fey, because in their case, pointed ears worked against them in this aspect.
Said pet trainer has his head down, looking very uncomfortable. He was fiddling with one of his daggers, as Cloud Neek fell asleep on his shoulder.
Not too far behind the group, a silver-haired girl was on the back of a giant wolf with grey fur and yellow underfur, trying to sleep, but failing to do so.
Aurora bit her lip, glancing at Kobe's saddened face as they kept walking forwards. She was brought back to the argument by a quiet, but not quiet enough, response.
"All I'm saying is that he's the reason we... our parents... if he just wasn't such a hothead, we'd still have them!" A certain red haired wizard hissed, hands clenched into fists tightly.
An orange gemstone began to glow as Rai abruptly stopped, glancing back at a cetain Fire Warden's offspring and glaring.
In a steely whisper, he hissed at the younger teen, "I've had just enough of this."
Glace, who was currently down, plopped down and began to lick her paws, keeping her yellow gaze fixed on her younger brother to watch the show.
"All you people been doing is complain about the past and drawing attention to yourselves—do you want to be caught? Do you want to find out what happened to Ra—Aria?"
The whisper was quieter than anything the group had managed to muster, only being just loud enough for the wizard to hear.
"Do you want our parents to die? Or have you never considered what would happen if anyone else was caught? Half of us are Trainees—do you really think they won't just think of 'replacing' our parents?" Rai's Vision shone even brighter, the stone almost pulsing.
The Astral Fey's tail lashes once, twice, as if daring the wizard to say something. As if daring someone to notice the glowing crystal.
Yet only silence followed the fey's words, and he wordless clamped a hand over the god's eye to snuff out the light.
They children continued their trek.
It was nearly sunset when Rai stopped again, the weary group nearly bumping right into him and a certain cat.
When an assortment of questions arose the fey simply pointed up, causing them to realize that looming above the treetops was none other than the skull that earned Dyno Dig Oasis its name.
"I thought...we were avoiding people," Hope managed between gasps for breath. Rai's stamina was not only terrifying, but it apparently keeping up with him took a toll on everyone other than Glace.
"We are," the Earth Warden answered simply, before leading them a short distance further. At the edge of the forest, just barely within the desert were ruins, abandoned archeology equipment scattered about. Judging by the unnaturally arrangement of sand dunes surround the said ruins, this was most likely an old dig site, deserted long ago.
As they made their way down to the sand, there was little to no shade beside the odd palm tree here and there.
A certain hobbyist chewed one of her last sticks of gum as she hummed in indifference, "One of the old fey ruins, delightful." She blew a bubble, crossing her arms, "You know, Rai, hiding in plain sight only works if there is a plain sight?"
He simply huffed, "The Oasis is a good few miles from here, Opal. If you have any better ideas, please enlighten me." As much sarcasm as he received dripped in his own words, his sapphire gaze oddly dull.
She rolled her eyes, "Since we're trying to get ourselves killed, how about the Whispers of the—"
The teen went ignored, the Warden peeking into a nearby well to ensure there was enough water left for the group. As he did this and Opal ranted, the others were left to their own devices.
Kobe was busy staring off into space, when suddenly his stomach started growling.
"Anyone else want food? I'm not going fishing, I promise."
Robin shifted his foot to ascertain that he was indeed in fact standing on desert sand before retorting, "I don't think you have to promise not to go fishing when we're in a literal desert. You can see, can't you? Do you see any body of water remotely near here?"
"No..."
At the word 'food', a certain luminex perked up.
"No, he just said food. We don't have food... hopefully soon we will.." the girl said on the back of the luminex
Glace shape shifted back into a fey, letting out a yawn and stretching in a rather cat-like manner before standing up, "Robin, back the f**k off, at least he bothered to ofter to do something useful." When the archer flinched the comment, the Ice Trainee simply rolled her eyes, and turning to Kobe, "I'm coming with you—in all offense, after you mixed Golden Dewdrop with Fish Berries, I don't trust you not to collect something poisonous."
"Can i come as well? If there's a lot of the- the stuff we're going to eat at least let's take more then we should", the girl said, her voice cracking due to the lack of water.
Not an ounce of pity filled the fey's gaze, "Are you people just stupid? Overeating worsens starvation, not improves it." She huffed in irritation, "Besides, you'll probably pass out on the walk back to the forest."
"Probably will pass out, and he's too tired for that long of a walk", the girl added, looking at the beast below her
"Did you just...repeat what I just said? How are you already delusional?"
"Sorry... it's just....", the girl trailed off, distracted with nothing of some sort, and refocused. "It's just so hot, and this headache... it's just... nevermind"
Glace ignored her, huffing in frustration and instead looking at the Flamemasters, "Well, are any of you coming?"
"Yeah, sure," Nathan responded.
Jax nodded, which was quickly followed by Aurora also opting to come with them.
Nathan nudged Hope, who snapped back to attention. "Hm-what? O-okay."
Glace arched a brow at the Fire Trainee's reaction, but whatever snarky remark evidentially went unheard, seeing it wasn't long before the sibling trio, Kobe, Aurora, and Glace herself were picking their way through the forest.
Jax and Aurora picked berries off of a variety of bushes, most of which ended up being tossed back into their respective bushes.
The rest of the group had similar luck, excluding Hope, who had seemed to have found something edible.
"Wait, didn't we check that one a few minutes ago?" Aurora whispered to Jax.
Jax paused, turned around, and stared at the bush. "...wait...hold on-Hope no!"
The trainee didn't seem to hear him, unaware of her actions as her hand placed the berry in her mouth.
"That's not good." said Kobe.
"YOU IDIOT, SPIT IT OUT!"
A certain fey's yelling startled the Fire Trainee into swallowing the berry.
Chaos ensured.
Thankfully, Glace was apparently quick on her feet, as within seconds she had already used a rib-crushing movement to force the girl to upchuck the death fruit.
Fortunately for Hope as well, the Ice Fey had ensured not to use too much force despite her panic, yet she was still doubled over from being slammed in the abdomen.
"Are you okay?" asked the trainer.
All the girl could muster in response was a squeak of pain.
"She'll live," Glace deadpanned before returning to what she was doing—cutting a clump of oyster mushrooms off a nearby tree with her claws—and acting as if absolutely nothing happened.
Nathan walked over to his sister's side and helped her stand up straight. "...don't do that again...please..."
The Fire Trainee just let out a tired sigh.
"...well until you snap out of it, you're with me," Nathan said, leading his sister back to his earlier location.
Glace's ear twitched, expression unidentifiable as she shoved the last of the mushrooms into her stachel along with a variety of other things she found, "Well, I think we'll be fine on our own. You and Hope can go back over to others...I think that would be for the best."
Aurora popped out from a nearby bush, some attempt at a sunny grin showing up on her face. "I found edible ones!" she quietly cheered to the group. A collective sigh of relief was given in response. Jax followed her back to the bush to help with collecting them.
When they finished, they ensured to return to the others as quickly as possible, to avoid anymore death berry mishaps. Once they regrouped, Nathan started a small fire within one of the ruins—to avoid it being spotted—and kept a close eye on his older sister as Glace picked out ingredients from what she gathered, putting any fruits off to the side for the others to eat as they waited.
Cele grabbed a handful of berries and sat down near the fire. As she watched the fire and chewed on the berries, her luminex looked at the berries and then her.
"Go ahead, look around", Cele whispered to the giant wolf.
As he started his path away from the group, Cele switched her gaze from her only pet back to the fire, hoping she wouldn't lose him as well.
Within a short while, the children had gathered in the ruin, collecting their makeshift mushroom stew with some wooden bowls and each grabbing a spoon (Opal had kitchenware in her bag for some unbeknownst reason). They had quite haphazardly tossed the few blankets and sleeping bags they had on the floor, being seated around the fire and already set for bed. Eating Glace's in theory rodent-meat-less (she...couldn't have had enough to time to catch a mouse....right?) cooking and assorted berries, the setting seemed appealing for them to share stories before bed, a welcomed distraction from the past few day's events.
Aurora, curled up next to Jax against a log, decided to take charge of this precious tradition their whole group had created in the past month.
Their one break from the constant danger and fear.
“Mind if I tell the story tonight?” She asked quietly. The fire crackled loudly as the group nodded.
“Okay um, Grandma used to tell me a little fairy tale whenever we stayed at her barn so…”
“Go on.” Jax encouraged.
Taking in a deep breath, Aurora started speaking.
“There was once a boy, who came home from the Academy, upset.
"She said she would train me, if I only brought her a slate floret!” sighed the young student. “But in all my garden there is none!”
From the lake outside, the Merling heard him and wondered.
“No slate floret in all my garden!” he cried, and his desperate eyes filled with tears. “On what little things does happiness depend on! I have read what all the past Earth Wardens have written, all the secrets of the plants are mine, yet for want of a slate floret my life is made ruined.”
“Here at last is a true student,” said the Merling. “Night after night have I swam after him, though I knew him not; night after night have I told his story to the waves, and now I see him. His hair is blue as the ice of Shiverchill, and his eyes are dark as the night sky above; but passion has given him tears like glittering stars and sorrow has set her seal upon his brow.”
“The Wardens select their students to-morrow night,” murmured the young student, “and the one of Earth will be of the company. If I bring her a slate floret, she will teach me the ways of her magic. If I bring her a slate floret, I shall grow a streak in my hair and she will pass down her power to me, and I will take care of the island from her place. But there is no slate floret in my garden, so I shall sit lonely, and she will pass me by. She will have no heed of me, and my determination will shatter.”
“Here indeed is the true student,” said the Merling. “What I swim through he suffers; what is joy to me, to him is pain. Surely elements are a wonderful thing. It is more precious than–”
Aurora blinked, stopping her story as the first sounds of snoring hit her ears. She gave a soft laugh as she saw her friends around her already knocked out. Jax’s head had lolled onto her shoulder, and even Rai and Glace had curled up like cats and fallen into sleep.
Guess I really was telling a bedtime story.
Aurora adjusted her position, careful not to disturb the sleeping trainee next to her. She paused in her movements to take a good look at all those surrounding her.
Her friends… for the first time in the past month, they looked so… peaceful.
It’d be rude to wake up Rai so he can keep watch so... I guess I’ll watch over us for tonight then.
I’ll keep us safe.
And for a while, Aurora did exactly that.
Yet soon she was watching more than the camp.
"Raiden! Wait, you can't—"
"I'm going Rai, Aria, she—do you really want to hand another time traveler over to the wizards?"
"Do you want to hand over yourself?"
A pair of blue eyes identical to one's own, "I'm helping her." She didn't give one a chance to retort before dashing off, forcing one to do the same.
It wasn't long until one arrived in the previous camp, and…
Blood…
So much blood…
It was hard to tell who it belonged to, both the present bounty hunters and more importantly, Aria, were covered in blood. Metallic feathers had "molted," coating the floor and leaving a deadly mess. Being responsible for the said molting was a wing that was torn nearly entirely from a certain time traveler's winport, the aforementioned teen loosely gripping a saber that was unsurprisingly missing from Raiden's pocket, sizzling away at the bodily fluid.
Aurora blinked, and the vivid, horrifying image was gone. Was that…
"Aurora? What are you…" Wide awake was Rai, his tail flicking as he met the wizard's gaze, "Why didn't you wake me up?"
"You always stand guard so I thought—"
"I—and you decided to jeopardize everyone? None of you can see as well in the dark as me and Glace and if something happened—" Panic edged his voice, but it didn't seem to be panic about being found rather…
If that's what happened to Aria, what happened to…
"Rai…have you slept at all the past few days?"
"Why do you ask?"
She swallowed, trying to figure out how to mention the dream, "It's just…Glace could always stay up instead of you; it's almost as if you don't want to sleep."
"..."
"Rai?"
"Look, Aurora, just…go to sleep please. I get the feeling it'll be a long day tomorrow."
She looked as if she was going to say something, but she instead obliged, one thought on her mind as she tucked herself in.
How did I even see his dream?
The following morning, the group awoke to see Rai reheating the leftovers from the previous night, notably having watered down the stew a bit to make enough for everyone.
After a brief period of yawning and stretching, it didn't take long for the kids to quietly shuffle into a line in front of the stew with their wooden bowls in hand.
When it was Opal's turn to fill her bowl, she couldn't help but grumble. Glace, who was behind her, evidently heard what she said as the two began arguing. Rai tiredly glanced in their direction before ladling out portions for Jax and Aurora, the latter receiving an odd look from the fey.
After (most) of the kids thanked Rai, they sat down around the former fire and quietly ate, excluding Glace and Opal, who somehow had the energy to keep arguing.
"—I still don't understand why he has to be in charge—"
"Maybe that's because he's a warden."
"Yeah because some insane b**ch decided to give into his pity show."
"One, Jade is your mother—"
"How dare you associate that woman with—"
"Two, Rai never put on a pity show. You have no idea how hard he worked to become a trainee—"
"Worked? He failed. Three hundred and sixty five times, to be exact—you think she never told me?"
"He worked harder than you, Opal. Or do I have to remind you that you used to be the smug little b**ch who picked on him every single Nor-damned day because he couldn't cast a spell? That you would always get extra credit because you had Jade to personally train you and he would never had a chance against you? That he was nearly kicked out of the f**king Academy because he was magically disabled? And yet he kept trying, unlike you, who got a z**ing freepass and decided to be the sick little prick who berated everyone who didn't?"
Opal open her mouth, closed it, then opened it again, "And why do you suddenly care about him?"
"HE'S MY LITTLE BROTHER."
At this point, they had caught the attention of most of the group, the topic of their conversation striding up behind them.
Rai looked surprisingly...ashamed, gaze flicking to the ground when he interrupted, "...can you two...drop this conversation?"
Not once taking her gaze off Opal, the fey replied "Sure thing," before storming off, knocking the wizard off her feet with her tail.
When the warden moved to help her, Opal simply slapped his hand away, getting up on her own and limping over to Robin.
Rai simply sighed, his shoulders sagging as he wearily returned to what he was doing.
He could never catch a break, could he?
Meanwhile, in a dark prison, a loud sneeze followed by a sharp shriek echoed from somewhere far down the hall.
The imprisoned group grimaced in unison.
"They say that when you sneeze, someone's talking about you behind your back." Chase sighed. For once, Lane decided against pointing out how his joke didn't work... like all the other times it didn't work.
"If she's ranting about how we're all broken again, I'm going to..." Aly trailed off, the men sharing the cell with her taking a step back when she actually managed to pry the bars further apart. Unfortunately for them, the gap wasn't wide enough to escape. Fortunately for Jade, this meant the Ice Warden couldn't strangle her.
Dylan, having given up on trying to sleep after the scream occurred raised his eyebrows at the bent metal.
"Good thing they never check up on us, or else they'd have your hide for doing that."
"They'd have all of our hides for too many things," Cyro grumbled, reminding everyone of his presence.
Lucas absently traced circles into the wall, trying to suppress the urge to bite his bottom lip.
"She could also just be scared, y'know." He murmured quietly.
Of course, Aly heard him, "Scared? The devil's spawn hasn't been scared since Hunter died."
Sighing, Lucas turned away, forehead pressed against the cool surface of the wall.
"I just mean that it's dark here. She still hates darkness."
Dylan glanced at Lucas tiredly.
How can you still have motivation to defend them, after all that's happened?
Chase reignited the flame finger, albeit, it was slightly smaller than the previous day.
Not like it would have been enough to reach Jade's cell either way.
At noticing the source of light, Aly simply rolled her eyes, clearly not interested in anything improving Jade's well-being.
Especially since it was barely existent.
"Just shedding some light on the situation," Chase piped after a moment of silence.
"You know, the pun would land better if you that sentence wasn't so literal," Abner drawled, sighing after finishing his statement.
He received a soft grunt in response.
"To change the subject," Gale began slowly, his tail flicking just beneath the gap of cell's bars, "I want to go back to yesterday's conversation."
Lucas stood up in alarm, "I think we already argue enough as is and—"
"...about the children."
"Oh."
"Although I'm sure they can handle themselves... it's been quite a long time. Has no one...ever considered that it's possible that they were caught, and that the Lady didn't care enough to brag?"
Excluding the scuffling sounds from Jade's cell, silence blanketed the imprisoned group.
"... apologies, I should've kept my pessimism to myself."
After a moment of silence, Lane spoke up. "If she did have them, she would remember us solely to show off...like the a**hole she is. The kids are fine...well, to an extent, anyway."
"I suppose you have a point..."
Silence befell the cluster of cells once more, with each person either unsure what to say, or wishing that the silence would continue.
Yet on the contrary, the dungeon was never silent.
You would think it would be, as people sat in it, waiting for death, but oddly, it was…active. Not quite lively, but active. The murmurs of a conversation, the hysteric laughs and screams, the cries of pain of being tortured, the yells of an argument, and even the clink of chains managed to reach one's ears.
Even deeper in the dungeon, a brown-haired girl leaned against the bars of her cell, comfortingly running a hand through the blonde hair of another, the younger girl. It was a habit she picked up from her Baba—ruffling other's hair, that is. She did the same thing when comforting Faith and Connor, when on the occasion she was with them.
Even with the older girl's presence, the blonde still flinched at every noise, gripping the shirt of her companion fearfully. The brunette didn't blame her, especially seeing…
…it took a while for the wizards to finally decide to prevent Aria from simply bleeding out, but by doing that, they had completely removed her wings, albeit, they were reasonable enough to leave the wing port intact. Yet along with it, they left phantom pain and limbs, whispers and nightmares of hellish origin.
And it was her fault.
She had promised herself to take care of Aria, knowing how her Baba always treated the girl as part of their little family, how she had grown up knowing her as a little sister.
She had promised herself to take care of her.
And she had failed to keep her safe.
But at the very least, she wasn't the only one to blame.
Aria's "dads"—Raid and Cloud—never once lifted a finger, even though she was well aware they could. They never intervened, never opened a half-a**ed rift to at least bring their goddamned daughter to safety, nothing.
Her Baba had been right, the girl did need a family that cared about her.
If only she wasn't the only one left.
Aggressive slamming abruptly resounded through the air, snapping everyone out of their thoughts as the Fire Warden pointlessly started slamming the lead bands on his wrists against the cell walls.
He just needed to see them break.
To crack.
To bend.
To show any sign of weakness.
They refused to falter.
A hand on his shoulder stopped Chase’s futile act mid-swing.
“You’ll only tire yourself out,” Lucas muttered softly. “We’ll figure something else out.”
At least, I hope we will.
The warden slumped down, cuffed hands falling into his lap.
"Guess I'll lead it be," Chase whispered to himself, accompanied by a quiet, single, forced laugh.
"That's...not even a proper sen—"
"I know."
Audible sighing came from down the hall.
Back at the makeshift campsite, the children had begun cleaning up, excluding Jax, who had spent the last five minutes trying to scrape out as much stew remaining in the bowl as he could...even though there was practically nothing left in there at this point.
Kobe was stretching, for no particular reason.
"So, where to next?" he asked.
Aurora stretched her arms, before dropping them to cover a yawn.
"...Do we really need to leave right away? It just feels... safer here than it's been anywhere else lately."
"Well, if we're lucky, we might not have to. There hasn't been any expeditions to the ruins for decades, right Rai?" Glace glanced at her younger brother, only for the Earth Warden to sigh.
"We use the resources in the area too quickly. Although it should be safe to stay here, leaving to forage everyday would draw attention...especially since ecologists work here...they'll be the first to notice."
"Well that's just lovely," Nathan groaned sarcastically.
Several of the children shared Nathan's complaints, quietly muttering among themselves as they began to pack up their blankets, bowls, and other utensils to move once more.
Nathan walked over to Jax and nudged him. "Jax, there's nothing left in that bowl. You can stop now."
Jax eyed the bowl before hesitantly adding it to the stack of other bowls and starting to pack up.
"Then where do you think we should go next?"
Rai adjusted his satchel so it'll fit snugly between his wings, then cast a glance at the others, "I'm honestly not sure. It really depends on if you all are willing skip meals today."
"I'm down." said Kobe, tightening his bandana.
"Sure, I guess", Cele shrugged, despite her stomach still wanting more.
Whether the rest actually were willing to skip meals or were just following the first two, everyone else spoke in agreement.
Well, aside from Hope, who just stared longingly at the sky.
"So...any ideas for where we're going next?" Nathan asked.
Rai arched a brow in response to Hope's muttering, "...I was actually thinking Shiverchill. It's nearby, and there's quite a few places that are mostly impenetrable to humans."
"Humans? If this is your way of ditching me, Rai—"
Before Opal could go on her tangent, Glace interrupted, "He said mostly."
"Alright!" said Kobe, excitedly. "Let's go!"
And this, the group was now standing at the Dyno Dig entrance to Mountain Gate, the wizards of the group frantically searching their bags for anything remotely warm...
...well except Aurora, who was wrapped in Rai's cloak, getting the innocent bean freepass from having to find her own jacket.
After covering themselves with an assortment of blankets, coats, and in Jax's case, a cape, the group was somewhat ready to set foot in the boundaries of Shiverchill Mountain.
Hope, similar to Aurora, had also gotten a freepass, but it involved Glace awkwardly holding out her coat to Nathan and informing the redhead that she doubted Hope was in the right mind to find a jacket.
It was then that the group started their trek, Glace standing at the back of the group to wipe their tracks with her tail, while Rai stood in the front, walking on the snow while the others sunk in it.
For a while, the quiet crunching of snow and the swish of a tail on the ground were the only sounds indicating the childrens' presence.
Then a sneeze.
"Bless you."
"Thank you."
The crunching and swishing resumed.
The rest of the children's trek through the snow was silent, going virtually unnoticed.
At least, so they thought.
A distance away, a certain yeti petted his bird, leaning against the walls of a lot cabin and observing the children's steady journey. From this distance, they could easily be mistaken for beggers, but the eyes of the hawk were sharp, the warble of his bird telling him exactly who it was.
Like all the other settlements, the yetis had been notified of the bounty over the children's head.
But like the others of his tribe, he ducked back inside his cabin, pretending that he never saw them.
Later on, the children entered the permafrost, winding tunnels of ice and stone going on for miles. As they walked through the paths, walking in the footsteps worn into the ice, a cold yet comforting wind swept their clothes tighter around them, as if it wanted to ensure they were warm on this cold treck. And where the wind blew…
…cyan glowed within the ice, leading them further into Shiverchill.
Rai smiled slightly at seeing the phenomenon, daring to whisper the words, "Nali eyen, Nor."
And so they followed the wind.
Blinding light hit their eyes as they reached a cave with an open ceiling, a variety of snow covered paths leading into an even greater variety of directions. They continued following their breeze down a path, freezing at hearing voices.
"...this is…territory…"
"...you savages..."
"MARA GESHKI HOULKA!"
The sound of a fight breaking out hit their ears, echoing through the maze of tunnels. Their first instinct was to run, but Rai stopped them, frantically shaking his head.
If they run, they'll be heard.
They stepped in time with the sounds of the commotion, moving forward with each sickening crack, each yell, each scream, until…
Until…
An unarmed fey stood in the center of a cave, fists bloodied as he braced himself for his opponent's next move, his earring swinging as he ducked beneath a bounty hunter's legs and landed a blow from behind. A crack and a pop caused all the present to fix their gaze on the fight, the fey's bone breaking while the wizard's arm simply dislocated.
The fey didn't show any pain, his pastel green gaze dull as he dodged a blow from another bounty hunter, ignoring the screams of agony from the first.
Pop, crack, repeat. Crack, scream, repeat.
Every blow landed, every offense dodged, the fey moving in a beautiful, deadly dance as he fought.
And the children observed, being forced to do nothing but wait out the commotion behind some nearby crates.
They began to wonder why the fey didn't use magic, but their question was quickly answered by the broken iron chains hanging from his wrists, serving as bronze knuckles in the brutal combat.
As for the wizards, they did use the occasional spell, but that wind picked up, cyan surging through it as it knocked every spell of course.
A pastel blue, cat-like tail whipped as the fey, most likely subconsciously, did a changement de pied to stay up right, his lieutenant's badge catching the light just before he dodged a spear.
It became increasingly evident why he was being hunted, but that didn't explain the rhythmic movements of his combat.
The other present fey didn't get involved, a mixture of fear and uncertainty glimmering in their gaze. They seemed to know better than to get involved after the war, but that didn't stop them from cheering the fey on, the name "Edan" arising in the crowd.
It was painfully clear whose side they were on.
An expression of inquiry and vague recognition crossed Aurora's face.
The name sounded vaguely familiar, but why?
The girl didn't have much time to ponder it before the last wizard fell to the floor, gripping their stomach with a moan.
Edan let his arms fall to his sides, nimbly making his way through the groaning hunters before stopping, planting his feet on the sides of who the children could only assume was the leader. The fey bent down an plucked a key from their pocket, letting out a small hiss at the iron burning his fingers as he quickly uncuffed himself, the broken shackles clattering to the ground and revealing pastel blue and green scales decorating his wrists. He let out a sigh of relief, rubbing his burns as made his way out of the mess, often having to step on a hand or two to prevent last ditched attempts at grabbing him.
Then, in the most nonchalant manner, he strode up to the crates the children were hiding behind, crossing his arms, "Did you really think the fight was enough to keep people from noticing you?"
And thus arose the question of how the actual hell did the fey see them.
"...note to self, get an invisibility cloak," Nathan muttered under his breath.
"...wait, how did you see us?" Jax asked.
"I didn't."
"Oh, that makes sense—wait what?"
Glace sighed, slouching against the ice, "He heard us, idiots. ...Impressively."
"...huh, I thought we were pretty quiet..." Nathan thought aloud.
"I mean, Gale and Aly can apparently hear leaves fall or something..." Jax replied. "And Glace and Rai have really good hearing."
Edan simply chuckled, before casting a glance at a certain Astral Trainee, "You're Aurora, right?"
Aurora jumped as the fey mentioned her. "...Yes? How do you... know my name?"
"I'm...friends with Abner," he replied, frowning slightly at finding a word to describe their relationship, "And even then, you do realize all of your names are on the bounty hunters' wanted list, correct?"
"Damn." said Kobe.
Hearing that news, even though Cele knew it. It hit harder this time. That she would never have a normal life.
The fey loosened his posture, beginning to fiddle with a piece of silk despite flinching at the pain, "Well, point is, when they," his tail flicked to gesture at the wizards, "wake up, they'll be keen to follow you. It's not as if they won't follow me it's just—" He sighed, looking for a way to phrarse this, "Look...I owe Abner a favor, and since you all are here...I can help you out. The only reason they saw me was because I had to make a stop."
"Help how?" asked the trainer.
"...I know a place." He replied simply, tail curling about his leg.
"Cool!"
He cast an odd like at Kobe, arching a brow, "Does this one know how to string constructive sentences?"
"Nope," Glace responded, bemused, "But he got that out of you." With that, she cast a glance at Rai and the others, urging them to say what they thought of the offer.
Aurora studied the fey, before relenting. "If grandfather trusts you, then I'm not opposed. As long as we're all safe in this... place."
"Safe . . . . I haven't heard that word in so long . . . ." Cele said.
"..."
None of the children responded to that. Just a few glances of mild concern.
His gaze softened, ear flicking, "Don't worry, you will be."
And, thus, the children wound up following the fey deeper into the caves, Aurora peppily at the front of line aside Rai, who was watching the fellow fey with an odd expression. He hadn't been outright against them trusting Edan, just...observant.
The fey was clearly injured from that fight, but he didn't allow it to catch up to him until they were far from the tribal cave, in which he began to limp and propped himself with the tunnel walls.
Aurora, being Aurora, offered to help him, but he quickly brushed off her concern, insisting that he'll be fine.
Although it was logical for him to be an Ice Fey, he seemed to be at least partially Earth Fey, as he had scales lining his wrists and rounder lower wings. His feet was also flat like human's, a rarity amongst Ice Fey.
He held his hand, which was bleeding quite badly, to his chest, not answering a single question regarding it.
Finally, after following him through a series of tunnels, the arrived in a completely closed off valley, family homes peppering the snow in the distance, a thick forest on either side.
Having spent the last month with only danger and fear looming over them, Aurora's standards had reduced drastically. She beamed at the sight, barely keeping herself from charging forwards.
"This place is beautiful!" She cheered. The group behind her sagged in relief.
It felt like forever since the group had seen an interwoven community not completely wrecked by the war, and it had been even longer since they hadn't needed to hide from a community.
Being here felt...nice.
Edan smiled at their reactions, clearly appreciating the change in demeanor from their fear and uncertainty from before.
It wasn't long before he led them to a house off to the side, fetching an—oddly enough—iron key to unlock the door, opening as quickly as possible as to not burn his hand further.
He gestured for the children to follow him inside, and the house...
...was rather dusty.
It was clear that he hasn't been here for a long time, sheets covering the furniture and a variety of relic stones piled in a velvet lined box, supposedly to keep them from being active in his absence.
Pictures faced down against the odd table and cleaning materials were set out in a corner, awaiting for the fey to return and clean up the inevitable mess.
"Nice house, dude." said Kobe.
"Yeah", Cele said, her voice cracking due to the lack of water.
Aurora mistakenly rested her hand on a nearby table, finding a thick layer of dust covering her skin after she lifted it.
Grimacing, she shook some of it off, before deciding to march towards the unused cleaning supplies and start giving them a purpose, while a certain fey watched on sheepishly.
Edan laughed nervously as the trainee marched on, "Well um, apologies for the mess. I haven't been here in a while. There was never really times where I was posted in Shiverchill long enough to actually live here." He moved to limp down the nearby hallway before pausing, "I'm going to get a bandage. You're all free to look around in the meantime....and melt a glass of snow for your friend over there." And with that, he ducked out of sight.
Nathan walked around the house, quickly finding the kitchen and entering it. Cabinet after cabinet was opened and closed as the boy searched for the glassware. It didn't take too long to locate the glass cups, but his gloves and fingertips were now covered in dust, much the the boy's unamusement. He grabbed a dust-clothed cup and turned to the sink. After taking off his gloves and shoving them into his backpack, Nathan began washing the dust off of the cup and his hands.
A few moments later, Nathan exited the kitchen and walked outside with the now dustless glass cup, leaving everyone else to help Aurora clean up the dusty house.
It was around then Edan returned, his hand bandaged tightly and unsurprisingly, he had splinted his leg, still forcing himself to walk despite everything.
Notably, he had changed into some clean clothes, and balanced a stack of towels on his unbandaged hand, quickly dusting off the table with his tail before dropping them on the table.
Without waiting for a question, he simply stated, "This is Shiverchill. If you want a bath, you have to take at noon, morning or night is a nightmare, even with the heater." He shook the dust off his tail before using it to gesture to the unassuming space heater in the corner, "If you need any spare clothes, I can see what I can find."
“Don’t worry about it Mr. Edan— you’re hurt and should be resting anyways.” Aurora replied, trying to shoo him onto the newly cleaned couch.
”…I’m not the one who’s been on the run for a whole month—“
"I don't think that matters if Aurora's the one telling you to rest," Rai responded, helping the trainee by feather dusting a cobweb. The aforementioned teen cast him a glance at that, but neither seemed willing to elaborate the reasoning for the odd looks.
Inevitably, Edan was bullied onto the couch, and the living room was mostly clean.
A couple members of the group stood there awkwardly as they watched Aurora figuratively transform into a vacuum cleaner, dust and cobwebs and everything remotely related to dirtiness disappearing the second she passed them. It was kind of disturbing.
Soon enough, Nathan returned, glass of snow in hand, already starting to melt it. Cele perked up at the sight.
Meanwhile, Glace grabbed the uppermost towel on the stack, promptly disappearing down the hall.
Clearly, she intended on taking up Edan's advice. Especially since shape shifting and licking your fur....
Actually, one's best off not thinking about it.
As this occured, Rai was glancing in the direction of the kitchen window, brows furrowing as he tried to figure out why the sight of the little village felt... familiar.
Only for very loud barking to catch the gathered's attention.
Jax, who had been slouching against a wall, shot up straight, looking around widly, "What was that‽"
"A dog," Robin deadpanned, "Specifically a husky judging by the vocals."
"Mishka!"
The two stared at Rai—well, Robin turned to face his voice—in a blank manner, 'What?"
Edan, on the other hand, seemed to have some idea about what the Earth Warden was talking about, "Do you mind letting her in?"
"Letting who—" Opal's question was promptly answered by an overgrown dog charging through the door, barking, yipping, sniffing, and generally being a hyperactive mess insisting on observing everything.
"Whoa!" exclaimed Kobe. "Can we pet her?"
Aurora gasped at the sight of the animal, dropping all her cleaning supplies. Not even bothering to ask for permission, she ran over and tackled the massive canine, giving it a massive hug and laughing as it started licking her face in excitement.
"It's so adorable!"
Dog slobber joined the mess of dust, cobwebs and who-knows-what all over Aurora's clothing and hair.
Rai made a mental note to immediately shove the Astral Trainee into the bath after Glace was done.
"You may," Edan said with a light laugh, addressing Kobe's question.
He cast a glance in Rai's direction, "I know she's not my dog, but I've—"
"Taking care of her because of Cyro?"
"...yes."
Kobe also ran over to pet the dog.
Eventually, Jax slowly walked over and gave the dog a few tentative strokes before backing away awkwardly.
It seems Jax made the right decision, because it was around then Glace exited the bath, causing Mishka to perk at seeing the fey...
...and immediately charge out Aurora's grasp, knock down Kobe, the pounce on the Ice Trainee, coating her face in dog slobber from the sheer amount of happy licking.
"What—"
She was promptly licked in the mouth.
Opting to ignore to ignore his sister's repulsion, the next few minutes were filled with Rai picking up a protesting Aurora before promptly dropping the Astral Trainee into the bathroom, promptly tossing in a towel and change of clothes before closing the door and returning to the living room...
...in which Mishka suddenly realized his presence and tackled him instead, leaving Glace to run to the sink and desperately wash the dog slobber out out her mouth.
It was in the Astral Trainee's absence that Edan dared stand up again, helping the children finish up the cleaning and digging through the pantry to find and preserved goods that could be used to make an edible supper, resulting in many jars being upturned, all of which were nearly frozen solid, causing dust to heavily stick to the jars.
In short, they spent a good mount of time melting the ice off and generally cleaning the jars and cans before determining if they could still eat it.
As Opal started ranting about the potential things she could cook (while a tired, nervous Jax was forced to listen), Nathan and Edan started reinstalling fire relic stones in the oven, stove, and heaters in the house, keeping things from being too frozen amongst the chill that began to settle as the day trudged on. Soon the scent of backed goods and produce preserves wafted through the house, Edan ensuring to sit back down just Aurora exited the bathroom, once again wrapped up in Rai's cloak for just a bit of warmth. By then, Mishka had long since settled down, jumping to her feet at seeing the trainee had returned, bounding over and nuzzling the girl's legs.
Aurora giggled, just as excited to see the canine, but also equally calmed down. Reaching down to pat Mishka on the head, she glanced at Edan, who was sitting on the couch as if he’d always been there.
”So, um, can you… tell me how you met my grandfather? I’m sure there’s a story there.”
Edan's tail flicked, and the man rested his chin on his uninjured hand, "It's not really a story per se, nor that interesting. Before all this I used to run the gambling tavern down in Lamplight. It was a part time job, mostly, just so I had an excuse to visit my family down in Firefly. Obviously Abner often frequented and I got to know him, especially since everyone there owed him money. And in case you're wondering, no, I didn't gble against him. I owe him a favor for different reasons...and those reasons are honestly a tad private."
"Oh," the Astral Trainee was slightly disappointed at the lack of the story, but she couldn't say she didn't expect something like it.
"I finished the custards!"
The children's attention was brought to Opal, who had finished dishing out custards into small bowls, which was all too quickly distributed to the all gathered...well almost all of them. Opal had deliberately avoided Rai and Glace, the latter who simply scoffed and said a comment regarding not being hungry, making it seem like the wizard's intentions weren't malicious, and but a response to the Ice Fey's words.
Yet Edan's eyes narrowed, the lieutenant all too used to the many discriminations he received as a fey and recognizing the girl's true intent in an instant.
Rai's sapphire gaze briefly met the hybrid fey's green, but the Earth Warden quickly broke eye contact and moved to grab a towel off the table, muttering the words "I think I'll take a bath" as he passed.
Kobe threw one of his capsules into the air, as Cloud Neek appeared, wearing sunglasses. Then, the trainer gave his bowl to Cloud Neek.
Aurora picked at her custard, secretly glancing at the glowering Ice fey while she hesitated on taking a bite.
After a minute or so, she tentatively held out her bowl.
"Are you sure you're not hungry? We haven't... you need food just as much as we do, Glace."
"No, I'm—"
Edan interrupted, the tone of his voice indiscernible as his gaze rested on a certain hobbyist, his dull, dead stare fixed upon her very being, "Opal...that is your name right? You know, you and your sibling over there are the only people I didn't hear mentioned in a remotely hostile manner during this mess." His fingers drummed against the couch's armrest, his tail flicking, "Would you like to know why?"
"You don't interact with bounty hunters?" She deadpanned.
"No...there is no bounty. Your father—his name is Korathius, correct?—has already "cleared" you and your brother's name. There is absolutely no reason for you to be here, so here comes the question, why are you here?"
The sheer amount of hostility and suspicion that radiated from the fey was unlike anything the children had been exposed to, as even with their short presence in the war they had yet to be exposed to this much...hatred.
Perhaps Edan was more warhardened than he seemed.
Opal did not once break her gaze from the fey's, her jade green meeting the steely pastel, "He never bothered telling me."
"Once again, no...I know your father. A drunkard, used to frequent my tavern and gamble his money away. When he was particularly drunk he'll ramble about his family, a girl with rainbow streaked hair, a blind boy, and...a woman who would always scream in the dark, laughing in hysteria."
The girl tightened her grip on the empty tray, gaze unreadable.
"On the rare occasion I would encounter him during the war, drunk as ever, he would mutter how the girl—Opal—tried so hard to be like her aunt, 'motherly' as her mother never had. How kind she was to her brother and the orphans and so many other people. How ambitious and determined she was to help others." His tail was now lashing, his last few monotonous words escaping his lips, "Now, why would such a caring, loving girl intentionally deny the Earth Warden—of all people—and his sister something to eat?"
A tension had filled the room, a heavy weight one ever individual person's shoulders.
He waited for an answer. For an explanation or comment from anyone in the room.
He waited.
A quiet cough escaped from an unknown origin.
It failed to act as a satisfactory answer.
“Opal’s just… stressed? And unfairly taking it out on someone else?” Aurora answered meekly. Opal narrowed her eyes at the Astral Trainee.
At noticing Opal's reaction, Jax gave her an indignant look of his own. Though, his expression immediately shifted into one of neutrality the second Opal's head began to turn in his direction.
It was quite some time before Aurora slowly started to speak, "Opal...you wouldn't intentionally do that, would you? Glace is your friend...and she..." The trainee stared at her peer, wide eyed, "you said you weren't hungry and Rai...left."
"I said I wasn't hungry because I...didn't want anyone to be dragged into this." The blunt honesty in Glace's voice was unnatural, her usual anger or spite being lacking. Her apathy, nihility, and everything similar was gone and the only thing left in her voice was...normality.
For once, the fey sounded and acted like a normal person, an emptiness in her gaze as she stood there.
"What do you mean 'dragged into this?'" Nathan inquired, "You two been arguing for a while... what's going on?"
Opal opened her mouth to say something, one last retort, one last word to defend herself, but Edan's withering gaze caused her to close it, the wizard remaining in silence as her "friend" spoke.
"Rai's wardenship. Opal, the picture perfect golden child over there—just like all the other wizards who've been chasing us relentlessly for the past month—has a problem with the Earth Warden being a fairy. Except she has a problem with this, specific fey." The way she spoke of her brother made it sound as if he was an unrelated person, as if he had nothing to do with her and was just a historical figure. "You all most likely don't remember it, perhaps never noticed anything was wrong but Rai...Rai can't use magic."
"But I've seen him—"
She interrupted, "That's as Earth Trainee, Jax. Think for a moment, have you—any of you—seen him use magic before becoming trainee?"
Silence, complete and utter silence.
"His...obsession with Earth Magic didn't just come from uncle Greenheart, it...came from the fact he couldn't use Ice or Astral magic, which knowing us fey, he should've been able to use naturally. He wanted to somehow prove to himself that something was preventing him from using those two elements in specific and that he could somehow manage Earth Magic. He admired Greenheart so badly because of how he had managed to do so much in his life even though he seemed like he could only do so little. And Rai could only do so little and desperately wanted to believe he could do more because in this world, this world based upon magic, he wouldn't survive a hell damned minute without having to burying himself in a desolate corner where no magical being would dare come near. And this obsession, this little obsession that kept him grounded like the sorting of his silly rocks and the order of his room, was something Opal hated." Glace's yellow gaze landed on the aforementioned teen as she continued, "She hated it because Jade pitied Rai. And Jade, as all bad mothers do, cared more about the child of her rival than her pathetic, big shot daughter. She spoiled him, comforted him, made a big show of being his new Greenheart. She didn't bother trying to teach him Earth Magic though...she'd seen his attempts, known how many times he failed, because my goddamned determined little brother was hellbent of counting, counting and promising himself that next, whether it be the 200th or 300th attempt at magic, the next would be successful. Instead, Opal would be personally trained by Jade, being in the top of her class and almost certainly going to be selected to be trainee. She was lifted onto the pedestal while my brother drowned in failing grades and threats of expulsion, yet she was the one jealous of Rai...and Rai, being his innocent little self was never once jealous of her."
The Ice Fey didn't even realize how much she had already managed to rant until Edan sent Kobe to fetch her a glass of water, which she accepted graciously.
And so, she continued, "One day, as Rai was in the traininghall, failing for only Nor knows how many times, Jade entered, and offered him a position as trainee. She had reasoned, that if he purely got his magic from the keystones instead of trying to produce it himself he might actually have a chance at being...normal. He was in a state of disbelief, of course, asking her many times why she would chose a worthless failure—and yes, those were the exact words he used—like him to be her trainee. He asked her if she was sure, and told her, in a matter of fact way, that Opal deserved and worked harder for the position than he had. That he never wanted any position and the he was just...trying to fit in." The fey's tail flicked slowly through the air as she continued to rave, "She simply told him that that's exactly why he deserved to be trainee, and that he had worked harder than Opal ever could. Jade was right, you know. Access to the keystones did allow Rai to gain some magical ability, enough for his grades to improve and for him to manage to fit in. And...truth is, he did work harder than Opal, but she always had a higher letter, number, or badge to show for her accomplishments, while he became known as the most untalented trainee in the Academy's history and the prime example of nepotism. Yet that wasn't enough for Opal, it never was. Even before Rai became trainee she had made his life miserable, and after it, even more so. She had told Hei and all the other b**ches she hanged out with about Rai, the little fairy with no magic of his own. And I, being known as Opal's friend and being expected to support her, had to watch as she destroyed the little self esteem he had over and over and over. Even when she acted nice to him, the slightest bit of hatred towards him shone through, making him feel progressively worse about himself and the living hell we've had to go through the past year." She paused, before deciding the add, "Do you all remember the fits he would throw because I ruined his rock collection? At first it started as dares from Opal but eventually, I started doing it intentionally on Rai's worser days. Seems cruel, I know, but sorting things...had always cheered him up, and as his older sister I had to be there for him...somehow."
During the entire explanation she had maintained an odd monotone, not dissimilar to her father whenever he spoke of unpleasant memories, "I guess all this has taken a toll on all of us, and the way it took it's toll on Opal is that she started to snap at Rai more. It escalated, and here I am, spilling my guts about my idiot little brother's disabilities." She shook her head, a dry laugh as she resumed her stare at Opal, her usual eerie mix of emotions returning to her gaze, "I hate you."
Silence.
Silence.
Still more silence.
None of the children knew how to respond.
None of them knew if they even should respond.
...
...
No awkward cough to break the silence this time.
Aurora pushed her custard away, clearly upset, when all of a sudden, the faint sound of the shower running in the background stopped. The whole group stiffened as they realized what that entailed.
The entire group practically held their breath as Rai entered the living room, his gaze completely empty as he observed the panic, anxiety, and tension in the room. If he had heard the conversation in the room above the shower, he made no indication of it, nor did he comment on how every gaze was trained on him.
The only thing he did was shapeshift into a cat, curling up next to Mishka and attempting to nap, an entire month of self-sleep deprivation finally seeming to catch up to him.
No one dared say a word until his breathing evened out, and it was clear that he was sound asleep.
Waiting another minute to ensure Rai wouldn't wake up, Edan's gaze drifted to Opal, "Do you have anything to say for yourself?"
You would expect, after all that, she would simply accept that she had been an a**hole and make some excuse to make things look...less bad on her part. Yet, instead...
"Glace is lying. You all know I can tell when people are lying and honestly, I have no idea what she's talking about. Rai told me he wasn't hungry when I—"
"If you excell in deducing if someone is lying, then answer me this: My full name is Edan Forestfrost. I am part silk fey, and work full time for the Ice Tribe's militia. I am three hundred and fourth seven years old."
"...truth."
"Lie. I'm exactly two hundred years old. If you can't tell if I am lying, then how am I expected to believe you?"
Opal looked flustered at this, stammering, "W-well you didn't have any of the usual reactions to lying. You eyes didn't dilate, you weren't nervous—"
"I was quite confident, no?" Edan scoffed, sitting up straight, "Another person who detects 'lies' based on their level of fear...I'm beginning to be disgusted by the practice. Anyhow, with your logic in mind, Glace didn't show a single one of those behaviors, nor any of the others you might've listed. And by that logic, she was telling the truth. And despite the fact that logic is flawed..." His gaze rested on the Ice Fey, "Your tone gave the truth away." At this, he moved to stand—to Aurora's protests—and moved to the front door, opening it. "My proposal is simple, you and your brother leave to Lamplight, and I'm sure Glace would let the matter be."
Everyone in the neutral party were shocked into silence. Even Hope was wide-eyed.
How long had this altercation taken place?
20 minutes? 15?
It hadn't even been five.
Less than five minutes and two members of their group were being kicked out.
Less than five minutes.
.
.
.
Well, that escalated quickly.
The wizard took a double take, her wide jade eyes falling on Edan, then on Robin, then everyone else. Edan had been ever so careful to explain how she was safe to go home, and make it clear that she was not welcomed here by any means.
She... didn't know how she felt about that.
"Rasomuno."
She didn't realize she spat the Norlian swear in Edan's direction until his eyes narrowed, ears laid back and tail twitching.
"I beg your pardon."
"Would you prefer Rasahhi?" The wizard trembled with anger, anger at being kicked out and more importantly, being betrayed by her 'friend.' "You are both, after all.'
"I am not a Rasomuno," he deadpanned, "And you are treading in dangerous territory, ralshti."
At first, everyone except Glace has been confused by the Norlian, but at hearing the familiar word—"ralshti"—it became increasingly obvious that they were insulting eachother based on their hybridism.
Edan enunciated every following sentence, "I am only going to say this one last time. You do not need to be here. And I want you out of my house." A growl threatened to escape him as he finished, "I do not intend to be accused of kidnapping because a spoiled, waste of existence decided to be cocky."
After a moment of silence, Robin approached Opal, reaching for her hand. He faintly muttered, "We should go." And, in what felt like eternity, the two grabbed their things and walked out the door, Edan allowing it to creak shut behind them.
He allowed the silence to continue before limping back to the couch, plopping down—wings folded against the backrest in an uncomfortable position—and slowly beginning to speak, "I'll have you all know, I tolerate no discrimination or harassment in this household...I've experienced and witnessed enough of that for a lifetime."
Aurora stared between the Wizard, who she could see through the window, and the fey, who was right next to her, nervously trying to think of something to say, something she could do, that would calm them down, that would bring Opal back before she was too far away…
Dad can do it, and so can I…
Confidently, she opened her mouth…
But no words came.
Upset with herself and the situation, she left the table to go flop down next Rai and Mishka, almost visibly shaking.
It wasn't long before a shapeshifted Glace joined the girl, the blue feline climbing into her lap and sitting theer, allowing the trainee to hug her catself, even as the pair of wizards were long out of sight.
Elsewhere, a group of adults were sitting in silence, at least, until Chase made another half-hearted attempt at a joke, to which he received the same response as to all his jokes.
Annoyed and tired, he slumped to floor, slightly perking up again when an idea hit.
”What if we played a game?”
”A game? Are you serious?” Lane asked incredulously.
”I mean, he has a point. Not really anything else to do here.”
”I'm down for a game!” A voice called from another cell, slightly further away from their cluster.
"How about Charades?" asked Ben.
"Ben, you goober, that only works if we're all in the same cell." replied Ansat.
"Anything that requires us to see or hear each other is out of the question." Dylan sighed. "Which happens to be most of the games we can play without any extra props."
"...Mafia?"
"Hell no."
"There's always Ghost," Abner stated from within his and Samantha's cell.
"That works." Dylan mused.
"You guys aren't actually serious about this-"
They were serious about it.
Lucas decided to start off the game. "S?"
"H," Gale chimed, deliberately dragging out the letter.
"O." Lane muttered.
Aly sighed, I guess this is better than nothing, "N."
"E." Chase added on confidently.
Dylan facepalmed. "Chase, you just made a word."
The Fire Warden blinked. "I did?"
"Yes, you did. Shone, past tense of the word shine."
"Oh."
Samantha couldn't help but snicker at her husband's idiocy.
It... was the happiest sound the whole group had heard in a while, actually.
"Alright, Chase is at one letter, we go again." Lucas sighed. "P."
"E," Luce added, shifting close to the fey's cell's bars and casting a weak glow on the halls.
An "R!" was called from Ansat and Ben's cell. The group wasn't entirely sure who said it, but moved on nonetheless.
"I," Abner stated, before hearing a cough from the fairies' cell, "What?"
"You spelled out Peri."
"And?"
"Peri is a word used by an earlier civilization to address their demonized idea of...Faen."
"...of course it is."
Gale sighed, "Abner, you got your first letter...let's continue with 'D'."
"O," Dylan followed up.
"L," Samantha added.
"T!" Chase piped.
"Yeah, like you," Lane fired without hesitation, a joking edge present in his voice. A strange phenomenon for the typically serious Storm Warden. "F," he started.
"L." said Ansat.
"A," Lucas added, smiling at how his cell mates had begun to cheer up.
"C." Lane continued, and Dylan chimed in with another "C."
"I," Samantha replied.
There was an awkward silence down the hall before Luce slowly said, "D. Flaccid. That's one for me, I guess."
Out of nowhere, Cyro spoke up. "A."
He raised an eyebrow as the group once again jumped at the reminder of his existence.
"L," Aly added, smirking at the other's jumpiness toward's the general's presence. "I," Chase continued after.
Gale arched an eyebrow in the Icetalons' direction, clearly wondering what words the two had been thinking of, "A."
"Guess I'll take this one," Dylan sighed. "S. There's my first letter."
"Let's start with O!" Chase chimed.
"N," someone added.
...
Wait, no, actually. Who said that?
"Wait...who said that?"
"Wasn't us," Dylan responded.
"Well...Om is technically a word, so Lucas got a letter," Gale reasoned, "G."
"E," added Cyro.
Aly raised a brow again, "S."
"H," finished Luce, the four fey having reacted to each other so quickly that none of the wizards had a chance to change the course of the word.
"K," Abner blinked, "Wait, wouldn't Norlian words confuse everyone else...?"
"...W?" Chase tentatively added, proving Abner's point.
"I," Gale corrected, sighing, "spells out Geshki, which isn't...the most polite of words—" a snicker from the fey's cell, "—Can we start again?"
"R." said Ansat.
"U." Samantha added. Abner cast her a look, "P."
"T," Lane continued.
"R" said Ben.
Silence.
"Uh...anyone have a letter?" Dylan asked.
"Yeah, I don't think there's a word that starts with 'Ruptr'," Lane answered.
"Ben, you goober." said Ansat.
“I guess Ben gets the letter then.” Lucas laughed. “I’ll start it off. I.”
"No," Gale intervened, "Because Rupt is a word. Lane gets it." His tail flicked, "Anyhow, 'L'."
"E," Chase added.
"Ile is a word, Chase," Gale droned again.
Abner cleared his throat, "Well, I don't know about you, but I don't really feel like Ghost is going to go anywhere this session."
Lucas sighed. "You're probably right."
There was still a small smile on his face though.
We're not entirely gone, it seems.
Elsewhere, an argument picked up.
“You can’t keep me in here forever!”
"Not forever, dear, just until—"
“Until I’m too far gone to even want to go out?” the jet-haired teen snapped. “I’m not riding into battle, I just want to see the town.”
"No, until you are old enough to understand your reality, which you clearly aren't, young lady. It does not matter that we are no longer at war, you are Lady Ariana's daughter and Harmony knows what a fey would do to you if they see you. Just because we won the war does not mean they're gone!"
“Which is why I should at least know the town I’m living in! What if I have to fight? Or what if you die and there isn’t anyone else left to take care of me?”
"That paranoia won't do you any good. You do not live among the peasantry nor anywhere near that town. You know as well as I do how far one has to travel from the estate to get to—"
"Mother would have let me.” The teen deployed her best weapon, ice-blue eyes glaring into the Lady’s through a pair of rectangular half-framed glasses.
"Leslie…"
“Don’t.”
"Very well, I will consider it. But only if someone accompanies you."
“You really will?”
“Yes. A lady has to keep her word, doesn’t she?”
“That’s what you’ve always told me.”
“Yes, I suppose I have…”
It was a good few days later—today—that the teen found herself striding down the street in awe, a young maid struggling to keep up, letting out a lighthearted laugh at her excitement.
"M'lady, slow down!"
"But I want to see everything!"
"We can do that all in time," she replied, placing a hand on her bonnet.
“I’m not allowed out most of the time. Let me have this.”
"Doesn't change the fact I have to keep an eye on you, Miss. Leslie."
“Fine.”
Now that the teen had slowed down, the maid smoothed out her skirts, and clasped her hands together, "So, since this is your first day out of the mansion, are there any places you've been curious about?"
Leslie shrugged. “I don’t know, I just want to see the world.”
"Hmm…well in my humble opinion, the most eye-catching place in Lamplight would have to be the Coliseum. As for the rest of the world, I'm afraid that'll have to wait for another time, M'lady."
“If there is another time.”
That caused her to break out of demeanor, "Aw, don't say that. I'm sure you'll be able to convince her again."
Leslie sighed, nudging up her glasses. “Only if this goes perfectly.”
"Then we'll have to make sure it does," she replied, taking the teen's hand. "Come on, if we're lucky we might be able to watch a battle."
“A battle? Really?” Leslie asked excitedly.
"Yep, that's what the Coliseum's known for. It used to be voluntary combat between Academy students but…nowadays it's mostly combat between convicts."
“And you’re sure it’s safe.”
"Leslie, I battled there before. Of course it's safe."
"You—"
"I wasn't always a maid, you know, I had a life before all…this." She gestured to the surrounding, as if it would explain something.
“I’ve never really thought about what it was like before.”
"Mmm, well, I don't blame you." As they strode through town square, the wizard continued, "Well, for one, a fey used to run that tavern over there. He was—believe or not—honestly a decent person. Albeit a little too law abiding at times, you could never get away with underaged drinking or gambling there. Most of the flats here used to be student dorms, but we all know what happened to the ol' Academy. Nowadays people go to the smaller, public schools…or just homeschool. Like you."
"Wish I didn't."
This earned the teen a laugh as the maid continued, "The bounty hunters were a much more mixed bunch. If you walked into Boardy's tavern the mercs would range from gnomes to high elves. It's mostly wizards as of the new 'safety acts' but it's still rowdy as ever. Trust me, you wouldn't catch me dead getting drunk over there, and neither should you." Her deep green gaze glistened as she lead Leslie up the steps the Coliseum, "Here we are!~"
A pair of statues guarded the entrance, shaped like kneeling wizards holding out what appeared to be ancient wizard staffs. Gold adorned the granite, along with the trophy case visible just above the gold painted door frame. Waxed oak met the maid's hand as she reached for the handle, brilliant red tapestries fluttering in the wind as the two quickly ducked inside. To the left was a towering, dark oak case filled with a variety of trophies and metals—judging by the dates, they were won by students back when the arenas were still open to them. It was aligned with a tapestry bearing pillar, flowering bushes at the base and a deactivated runic stone in the corner before it. To the right was a board with a schedule of the day's battles posted, being planted on a post before an identical pillar to the left. Standing next to the board was a wizard in knight's armor, seeming perpetually exhausted as they instructed a group of bounty hunters that had dropped by for a visit.
“This place is amazing.”
"It used to be better than this," the maid muttered, mostly to herself. She then waved to the knight, "Hey Clankboot, has Spell been approved to come back yet?"
The knight shook their head before signing something at her.
The maid simply sighed, "Well, seems like you won't get to meet an elf today. Or hear all his stories about Harmony, he knows a lot of them."
"Elf?"
"Prince E. Spell. Yea high, pointy ears, looked and dressed like someone who knew Harmony since the world popped into existence. He used to run the arena until your stepmother made some…adjustments and brought Clanky out of retirement. But, even if we can't chat with Spell, there's always battles…" She has approached the schedule board, before sagging her shoulders, "...or not. There isn't another battle until after I'm due to bring you back."
At this, Leslie let out a small sigh of relief, clearly still being uncertain regarding the safety of arena battles, "So, what else is there to do then?"
She did not feel remotely comfortable after seeing the maid's grin.
The last thing Leslie expected to do was to be standing at the entrance of the Coliseum dungeon, holding onto an iron lamp so tightly that her fingers turned white.
"It's time for a little game of dungeon run." The maid couldn't resist adding an eerie tone to the name of the game, notably lacking any form of lighting.
"This…this can't possibly be anywhere near remotely safe and stepmo—"
"One, that's why you got that lamp. If any of the 'big scary fey' jump at you, just send 'em packing. Two, it can't hurt her if she doesn't know about it."
Leslie swallowed, twisting her hands about the iron handle, "And what if—I don't know—a convict who isn't a fey tries to jump at me?"
"That's the fun part," she replied with an eye roll.
"WHAT?"
"Sheesh, isn't there mumbo jumbo about how ladies aren't supposed to yell? Anyhow, the literal objective of dungeon run is to get to the other end of the dungeon without being caught by the dungeon. Whoever gets there first wins. And if you don't get there, I'll be sure to play knight and save you, princess." The last part was said mockingly, the wizard curling her hands into fists and propping them on her hips.
Leslie’s crystal-blue gaze was steely, raised to match the other’s from behind her glasses.
“Challenge accepted.”
The former arena battler sprinted down the hall without warning, quickly vanishing after taking a right. The teen, meanwhile, was left to grip her iron lamp, gazing at the darkness, the lack of light waiting for her first move.
She stepped forward hesitantly, the click of her shoes on the floor seeming suddenly much louder than it had been before. Yet regardless, she kept taking steps, eventually finding the noise grounding amongst the dark, the murmurs, and—was that a cry of pain? She tried not to think about it.
She heard footsteps behind her.
If she were thinking rationally, she would've reasoned it was a guard. But she felt her heart in her throat, knowing this is the place where criminals and monsters and fey were imprisoned, that they committed atrocious crimes to get into this wretched place and if one had happened to escape or saw her lamp and just reached a little bit further past the bars…
She ran.
Heels clicked to an extent they sounded like a snap, and she was suddenly thankful she chose a pair with wider heels, darting into corridor after corridor, breath short and her gaze darting, trying to find rows that were least likely to contain anyone. She just needed to get as far away from other beings, to have a slight bit of silence to figure out how to get out of here.
The teen took a right, immediately smelling rust and blood and running past cells without casting a glance at whatever horrors they contained, taking a left and continuing to run, run until—
She heard someone—someones—saying letters? For the briefest moment, she paused. They were speaking letters until one of them made a word, a snarky remark being made, then…laughter. Somewhere, somehow, there were people making the best of their situation, playing games and sharing smiles, despite knowing they were doomed to a horrible end.
It had caused her to pause just long enough to catch her breath, to realize that standing at the bend, she was far enough from the rows of cells that no one could get near her. And she wasn't being followed…
Here was her silence.
Exertion hit her like a slap, eyes watering as her lungs strained to take in enough of the stale air. Her feet felt rubbed raw, punished by her unsuitable shoes.
“F*ck…” the teen gasped, resisting the urge to sit down on the floor. Doing that would have been very unwise, though the idea of running once more seemed almost equally unbearable.
That's when she heard a female voice.
"Who's there?" It was hostile, suspicious, almost as if they were afraid of her.
"Wait, I thought there wasn't anyone else around here?" A male, almost childish voice questioned.
A third joined the conversation, a slight accent twining with a monotone, "It's not a guard or prisoner…" She could practically hear the smirk, "It's probably some kid—illegally—playing dungeon run. Remember when you used to do that, Abner?"
"Keep that up and you'll probably scare them off." 'Abner' responded, "So, who are you?"
“Leslie. Leslie Lightmaster.”
The teen stood there in silence as they all failed to respond.
Eventually, cautiously, that accented voice spoke again, "Did the Lady send you to mock us?"
"No, actually. She doesn't know I'm here."
"Hm...let me paint you a picture—a mental picture of course, but—"
"Gale." The name was said in a warning tone by yet another accented voice, but it went ignored.
"A girl wanders into the dungeons without her caretaker's knowledge, deciding for herself that she was going to explore the depths. She ignores all the stories of kidnappers and 'dangerous' fey, and happens to come across a group of people in the deepest, darkest, corridors of the the labyrinth, and introduces herself by name...little does she know that these people happen to be her caretaker's worst enemies and now she stands just in their reach...she was never seen again."
When he heard the teen take a few steps back, he laughed, "Of course this is just a story...Your last name is a swearword on these parts, I don't recommend saying it again."
"Step-Mother is going to kill me." Leslie huffed. "I think I'm going to stay over here."
"Oh don't worry, I already have your full name—you're already dead."
"GALE."
"I'm joking, I can't do anything like that, Luce. Unless...no, that's not worth it, I'm not wasting my time and mana on scaring the wits out of some pompous teen. As if I could, that is."
"This is my first time being allowed out since...well, since Mother died."
Silence.
"Lucas, you deal with her, intimidation isn't functional around people this daft."
The Astral Warden sighed, shifting so he faced the general direction of the teen's voice.
"Leslie, um, I think you're not really realizing the situation you're in. My friends are currently very stressed out today, and it's not quite safe to be around here right now. Don't you think it would benefit everyone if you went back to where you're not in danger, and leave us so we can calm down, without any disturbances? I'm sure there's many others who would be much better company to you."
"I know, but I don't know how to get out of here."
"Just...walk back the way you came," Dylan spoke.
Silence.
"You don't remember the way, do you?"
"I remember it! I just..." Leslie fumbled for an excuse, too stubborn to admit defeat.
Several skeptical looks bored into the girl's skin.
"Okay, fine. I don't know. I just want to get out of here."
"Have you tried going by instinct?" asked Ansat.
"I don't really trust my instincts."
"Well then maybe that's why you're lost."
An audible sigh.
"Harmony damnit, come over here, I can probably take a gamble about where you need to go." Just across the fey's cell, someone reached out past the bars and waved, indicating who was talking to the girl.
The teen uncertainly made her way over towards where the prisoner had stuck their hand out, being sure to keep a safe distance.
Yellow, cat-like eyes reflected her lamp, illuminating a blonde, young-looking man and his companion, a bluenette woman.
The man's gaze changed slightly at assessing Leslie, but he gave no indication of why, "Alright, where do you need to go? Back to the entrance? The guard post? The back entrance?"
"I don't know. I just want to be out of here."
"Well no offense, cupcake, but I would like to avoid another crime being added under my belt if I send you along the wrong way."
At hearing the endearing name, the woman's eyes widened, and she feverishly glanced from the man to the the girl, expression unreadable.
"Don't call me that. Just...please help me get out."
"My point still stands," he fiddled with his fingers, avoiding staring at her in a direct, intentional manner, "Seriously though, princess, you need to pick a direction."
"I'd rather not die, thanks."
"Funny how you say that while simultaneously standing a foot away from me," a british voice monotoned behind her, and she felt something furry brush against her leg.
"What the hell?!" Leslie yelped, leaping about a foot in the air in her attempt to get away.
A low chuckle, "Honestly I thought you'll stand closer to a wizard than the fey."
The woman next to Abner cleared her throat. "Well, you just came from that direction," Samantha started, pointing in the direction of the girl's right, "so I'd suggest going that way and trying to retrace your steps."
"Thanks. And...thanks for not killing me."
"Bah, most of us couldn't if we actually wanted to," a voice teased from a cell over, followed by a single laugh. Lead cuffed clanked together to make their point.
"...I think Chase is losing it," a slightly deeper voice added from the same cell.
"We...sort of knew that already," a third voice added from the same cell again.
The girl moved to retrace her steps when she stopped, realizing that she had no idea how she got to this point, as after the first few turns, she had run blindly.
With a swallow, she found herself trudging back to infront of the pairs cell, "I... ran all the way here and I..."
"Can't retrace your steps, dear?" Abner scoffed in a lighthearted manner, once again using a nickname in an unpinpointable tone.
"I dunno what you want us to do here." said Ben.
"Listen, I kinda don't know either. I just don't want to die. Please."
"Get lost, creampuff." said Ansat.
"You won't 'die' down here unless you stay here until you starve or walk stupidly close to the wrong cell," a notably annoyed voice sighed. After speaking, the yellow-haired wizard pulled his hood over his head and sunk into the corner, attempting to doze off.
"It's not my fault I'm lost, for the record. Stepmother never lets me out of the house, and now that I finally convinced her, I can't find my way out of here. She'll never let me out if she finds out about this."
"Oh whoopie. While we're rotting in jail, you're upset because your stepmom might not let you out of the house?" asked Ansat.
"I don't have time for this. I just need to get out and not die."
"Okay then, you wanna hang a left. Then, there's a pier. You wanna take a nice long walk off of that pier. Be careful, it's really short." said Ben.
"Ansat, whoopies are for cushions."
Someone snorted awake. "Shut up, Chase."
"Lane, don't be rude."
"Hmph."
"For the record, we haven't been out of here in...how long?"
"I think it's almost been a month, Dylan."
"...Ancient Harmony...," Dylan muttered under his breath. "Anyway, we don't know the way wherever you're going-"
"Go back down the hall, take a right, continue past two halls, take a left, take another left at the first corridor you see, continue walking, eventually there should be some stairs."
"...Chase, why-how do you remember that?"
"Dunno. But I don't remember there being piers in here..."
Leslie arched an eyebrow "Are those actually the directions?"
"At least they sound like actual directions." said Ansat. "Now unless you're gonna bring us some chili dogs, I don't wanna see you back here."
"The first turn might be a left...no wait it's right, definitely right. Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's right... But if it isn't, backtrack and go left instead," the redhead responded, only semi-aware of the pun he made.
"Alright. Thank you."
"It's left." Abner interrupted, "If you were playing dungeon run you need to take a left. Right leads directly out of the Arena." He rolled his eyes, "This is why I asked where you're going. Now you made Chase waste his breath."
"Thanks."
Chase stuck his hand out between the bars of one of the cells and gave the girl a thumbs up.
She mock-saluted before heading on her way.
"And if you come back, bring some chili dogs!" said Ansat.
"She's not gonna bring them." said Ben.
"I know..."
Follow the instructions, the teen found herself at the back exit of the Arena. Absolutely no one was in sight, pitch darkness enclosing in on her from ever direction. It was almost suffocating, and when she heard rustling, her eyes widened, looking around like a frightened animal. When she felt the weight on her shoulders, she couldn't help it - she screamed.
...only to realize from the laughing it was just her maid.
"Very funny." Leslie said bitterly.
She simply, "Well you're alive, so no harm done." She then put up her more formal tone, "It's time to head back, m'lady."
"Stepmother isn't hearing about this, okay? Going into the dungeon, I mean."
"Of course not, I rather keep my job," she replied before pushing the door open, revealing crisp, fresh air.
"What should we tell her, then?"
The two quickly headed off, the teen often complaining that she wanted to spend a little more time in the town, while the maid simply sighed and led her forward, leading her back home.
Passing by the two, entirely unnoticed was a scruffy pair of siblings, a hobbyist and a archer. A Bounty Hunter was speaking to them, asking the usual questions of if they were okay, their names, where they had been, who their relatives are, how they got back to Lamplight and all things similar. The older of the two only half-paid attention, distracted by the dread of seeing her drunkard father.
Meanwhile, in Shiverchill, a fey finished cleaning up the guest rooms, and despite his injuries, helped his guests move in their things to their room of choice, and fixed them supper with the leftover ingredients.
Soon night fell.
A Earth Warden failed to sleep.
A hobbyist fingered a knife, listen to her father's drunken sobs.
A group of adults tried to sleep on their cots, only to be plagued by nightmares, startling awake with every sound.
And a noble girl slept peacefully, a fate she did not earn.
The sun rose again.
In Shiverchill, Rai was disposing of unusable ingredients, intensely cleaning the resulting empty jars and sterilizing them just in case. His eyes baggy and bloodshot from lacking proper rest, but he simply rubbed his eyes, hand glowing with Earth Magic as he erased his symptoms of intense fatigue, not wanting to question him when he awoke, so that he may continue distracting himself...
...overworking himself...
...but forgetting.
"Uh, are you good?" asked Kobe, who was spinning one of his daggers in his hand.
The fey stiffened, tail fur fluffing and ears laying back before realizing who had spoke, and frankly, spooked him, "Oh...good morning Kobe. I'm...I'm doing fine, just trying to get this all cleaned so no one uses all that by mistake." He emphasized this by gesturing to the visibly expired preserves on the counter, a spray bottle of air freshener sitting next to them, ready for battle.
"Cool. You need any help?"
"Umm..." The Warden away from Kobe, a strained expression across his face, "...I think I'll be fine."
"Alright."
And with that, Kobe stopped spinning his dagger, put it in his belt, and walked into another room.
After a little bit of time, a familiar blonde haired girl strolled into the room, looking somewhat well-rested. Her face was still twisted into a frown, but it quickly cleared up as she saw the fey cleaning jars.
"Good morning, Rai!" She smiled. "Mind if I help you out?"
Before the Earth Warden could respond, a disturbing crash came from another room, along with a startled shout. They both grimaced as they realized it originated from the room Hope and Nathan were in.
"Whoa, what was that?" yelled Kobe from the room he'd walked into.
"We're good!" Nathan shouted from behind the closed door.
A tired Glace open the door to the room she was in, glancing down the hall to the closed door Nathan's voice originated from, "What the hell was that?"
The door slowly creaked open. "...sorry," Hope squeaked nervously from behind the door.
"Someone managed to trip on their way out of bed and crash into just about anything within five feet as they tried to regain their balance," Nathan answered. "Hope, help me lift this bookshelf up," he added in a quieter tone.
"Y-yeah, okay..." The door quietly closed again.
Meanwhile, in the kitchen, Aurora and Rai exchanged a look, clearly wondering how things like this managed to happen first thing in the morning. Meanwhile, Glace sighed, ducking back into her room to sleep in for once.
A few minutes later, Hope exited the room, noticeably limping.
"Eesh." said the trainer. "Are you good?"
"Mmhm." Holding a towel and a clean change of clothes, Hope continued to limp over to the bathroom and closed the door behind her. The sound of running water soon became audible.
Aurora picked up several of the still dirty jars and started to clean them with Rai, as the other children began to wake up and leave their rooms.
Jax stumbled into the kitchen, rubbing his eyes.
"What's for breakfast?" He mumbled.
"Edan went to borrow some fish berry flour from the Icetalons so...I guess bread and jam," Rai answered, gesturing to an edible jar of cranberry jam as emphasis.
"Ah, I don't mind skipping breakfast. Cloud Neek will though, so..."
And with that, Kobe whistled, in which Cloud Neek flew over.
"Mmmm..." Jax hummed at the thought of jam sandwiches. Once the boy's short daydream concluded itself, he walked over to the other side of the kitchen, intending to help Aurora and Rai clean. Only...there were no available cloths or sponges to clean with...or space at the sink for that matter.
He would have just levitated some jars and cleaned them out with water magic and soap, but the others had disallowed it, unsure of what the water carried with it when summoned.
So he just stood awkwardly off to the side, unsure of what to do.
Thankfully, he didn't have to stand off to the side for long, as Edan soon returned, accompanied by a barking Mishka. The husky was jumping around excitedly—the hybrid fey having to hold a bag out of her reach—before noticing Jax and immediately charging at him, covering him with excited licks.
"Oomph—"
An unprepared Jax crashed to the ground under the force of the tackle, immediately giggling as the dog coated him with slobbery licks. "H-hey—haha—stop, that—haha—tickles!"
Aurora lifted her gaze from the jars to check out the commotion, slowly raising an eyebrow as she saw Edan walking around.
“Thank you for getting the food Mr. Edan.” She said sweetly before tilting her head towards the couch as a gesture to sit down.
"It's not really food yet," he replied before limping over to them, placing the bag on the counter, notably having a new bruise spreading across his arm, "Don't burn down the house making nalém," he informed them, using the Norlian word for bread before moving to sit down on the couch.
"You guys mind if I go on a walk? I need some fresh air." said Kobe.
"I...wouldn't recommend it," Edan informed, "the Icetalons aren't particularly happy about you all being here—they gave me a bit of trouble when I asked to trade some silk sheets for that flour." He closed his eyes, letting out a dragged out sigh, "they really don't fancy the idea of being remotely near humans."
"Drag."
Just then, Hope exited the bathroom and walked back into her and Nathan's room. Moments later, Nathan and Hope exited the room with the former heading over to the bathroom while the latter shuffled over to the kitchen, mumbled a good morning in nobody's general direction and slowly began staring into space.
Hope received a glance of pity from those standing in the kitchen, before the resumed what they were doing. Rai had moven away from the sink—allowing Jax to help Aurora—and started turning the flour into dough, turning on Edan's oven.
A few moments later, Nathan entered the kitchen. "Good mor-whoa, you okay?" Nathan asked, turning to face Edan.
The fey seemed genuinely disinterested in the boy's concern, "I got into a bit of a fight with Owlen—one of Cyro's brothers. It's nothing, really. Frankly, he went easy on me."
Aurora narrowed her eyes at the fey, but didn't comment on it. As Jax cleaned the last jar, she leaned over to Rai, curiously watching him prepare the dough.
Unfortunately, she didn't notice the large canine that had followed Jax into the kitchen, and stumbled as Mishka nudged her leg, with just a little too much force. She was sent stumbling backwards, crashing into Jax, who in turn dropped the jar.
The two trainees fell to the floor, and the sound of glass breaking filled the room.
Rai whipped around, eyes wide. "Careful, there's-"
Aurora grimaced as she held up her palm, bleeding from a cut.
"-glass."
Hope tilted her head, watching as blood trickled down the girl's forearm.
. . .
. . .
. . .
"Ohhhh no."
"Well that...stings a little."
"OhhhmygoshIamsosorry-"
"It's not your fault, Jax, I-"
"But I dropped the-"
"Ancient Harmony, Aurora, are you okay?"
"Yeah it's just a c-"
"She's bleeding, Hope, what part of that looks 'okay'?"
"..."
"Nathan, I'm fine, really, you don't have t-"
"Found the bandages!"
"Jax, don't forget to sanitize the cut."
"Oh, right, thanks Rai."
"Guys, really, I'm okay, you don't have to be so conc-"
"Hold on, this probably will sting a little."
"Jax, careful."
"Huh-wh-eesh, that does sting."
"Sorry, here, hold your hand out."
"...I'll go look for a broom."
"Done!"
"I made an ice pack, here."
"Don't overwork yourself."
"Yeah, go sit next to Edan."
"Kobe, wait, hold on-"
"Ah right, Cloud Neek and I should probably carry you over there."
"Now wait a minute-"
It was too late.
She was already on the couch, makeshift ice pack in hand.
"...I only cut my hand..."
"Rest!" Nathan shouted from the kitchen. "And don't bother objecting!"
Aurora blinked. She turned to face Edan. "Um...ice pack?" she offered, holding out the cold shopping bag.
Back in the kitchen, Hope had returned with the broom and began sweeping up the glass, albeit the sweeping became noticeably aimless after a while.
"Careful, Hope," Jax stated, having resumed the task of washing the dishes with Nathan taking Aurora's place.
The Fire Trainee looked up and blinked, snapping back to attention before going back to properly sweeping up the shards of glass.
The atmosphere was rather tense throughout the chores and cooking, but the three boys managed to get things done regardless, and soon a tray with freshly baked and sliced bread sat alongside a jar of jam, placed on the living room coffee table.
At this point Rai had sulked off to wake up Glace, leaving the present to at first excite at the prospect of having breakfast, before remembering what happened the previous day and collectively glancing at Edan.
"Hm?" He blinked, before realizing why they were staring, "Oh, you can go ahead. Just remember to leave some for Rai and Glace." The fey heard a whimper glancing down to see a begging Mishka, staring up at him with round, pleaful eyes.
"...and give my portion to Mishka."
Jax set aside two plates with bread and jam for Rai and Glace and prepared another pair, handing one to Aurora and placing the other in front of Mishka. Nathan and Hope prepared themselves a slice, before looking up at the fairy inquisitively. "Are you sure you don't want any?" Hope asked.
The lieutenant shook his head in response, "Fey don't really need to eat as much as humans, plus I don't like eating this earlier in the morning... especially since I'm used to having to fly down to the lower caves." His tail flicked aside him, "I'll eat later."
"Oh...okay."
Aurora took a bite out of her breakfast, and then turned to beam at Rai, who had just returned with a sleepy Glace behind him.
"This is amazing, Rai!"
He glanced at the Astral Trainee, confused. "Thank you? It's not really anything special-"
"You made it for us, so it's special."
The fey still looked confused, All I did was add water... it's tasteless without the jam, but was too tired to say anything else, simply grabbing his portion and sitting down on the floor next to Glace, stiffling a yawn as he tentatively nibbled at his slice of bread.
He honestly wished Earth Magic could do more than heal the symptoms, and he found himself wishing for noon, wanting to take a nap...
He felt his eyelids droop and quickly snapped to attention.
No, it was too early to nap. If he slept now he'd sleep too long and—it was now he noticed the look Aurora was giving him and grimaced.
He was really starting to hate pity.
Jax paused mid-bite and started doing a mental head count. "Is Cele still asleep?" he asked.
As if on cue, a door down the hall opened and closed, followed by the bathroom door doing the same.
Aurora started to stand up so she could prepare a plate, but she quickly sat back down as the others sent piercing glares in her direction.
Rai went to go make a plate instead.
Cele emerged from the hall, yawning. "Morning."
"Morning." said Kobe, who was waiting by the kitchen.
"Morning," everyone else said in greeting.
Once Celestina obtained her share from Rai, everyone sat down and quietly bit into their jam sandwiches, surrounded by an atmosphere of peacefulness. It wasn't perfect and still felt unfamiliar, but it was good enough.
And peaceful it was, for the next few days. They managed to establish a daily routine daily—Edan would go out to obtain some ingredients, the children would wash the dishes, and when Edan returned (albeit with bruises) they would cook and work on other activities. With the lieutenant, they would play with Mishka (when she wasn't out for a walk), learn about the tribe from Edan, were taught a few words ind Norlian, and even received knitting lessons from the fey. When Edan was too tired to interact, they would instead read some of the many books he owned, or if they found that too boring, they would tell each other their own stories, just as they used to.
Things were...rather well. And for a short while they were able to ignore the downsides of their situation.
That's when Rai fell ill.
It had started out with him seeming even more tired than normal, something everyone had ignored out of habit. But then he started coughing, struggling with dizzy spells and at some point even fainting.
At first that it assumed it wasn't too much of a concern, as supposedly, the Earth Warden wasn't old enough for immunity yet, plus he'd been overworking himself for a while.
He had been sent straight to bed and they all assumed he'd be better in a few days.
He was not.
It didn't help that the fey refused to go to sleep, being absolutely terrified of doing so. The delusions fever brought only worsened this, leaving the boy's condition to even worsen.
It became increasingly evident that Rai's "mild" fever was actually the result of lack of sleep, for nearly a month, based of Edan's guesses.
They couldn't ask for help, doing so would mean potentially getting caught. Yet Edan's limited knowledge of herbalism only went so far.
Soon, an Astral Trainee begins to wonder...
Should have I asked him whether he was sleeping, that night?
The girl had never before felt so guilty.
And she couldn't help but feel...that this was all her fault.
Another day flew by.
As has been done the past few days, Glace was in the kitchen, heating up some leftover soup for Rai. Meanwhile, Edan, having recovered enough to walk without a limp, was standing next to her, cooking breakfast for everyone else.
The others—with the exception of a certain Earth Warden—sat in the living room, helping sort the herbs Edan had brought in that morning. They wouldn't cure their friend, but they would help him...and at this point, they needed some hope to grasp on.
At least, until they came up with a better idea.
Aurora absentmindedly slid the plants into their respective piles, face scrunched up in thought. Next to her, Nathan was closely watching Hope’s movements, quickly intervening each time she placed the wrong herb in the wrong pile.
Kobe was studying an oddly shaped leaf, instantly getting whacked on the back of his head by Celestina the second he attempted to take a taste.
It seemed to be a relatively peaceful moment, but all of them could feel the underlying tension formed from their worries over a certain fey.
Eventually, Edan approached them, gently picking up a pile of herbs, "There's pancakes in the kitchen for you all; I'll finish this up."
"Cool!" said Kobe, as he and Cloud Neek went to the kitchen.
Although Kobe seemed excited at the prospect of something to eat, the others trudged into the kitchen more reluctantly. When they returned, sitting on the floor with their plates of pancakes and cranberries, Edan was busy stringing the herbs with one of his thinner strands of silk, already setting herbs aside for later.
Aurora nibbled on her breakfast, unable to stop herself from glancing back at the door to Rai's room. Jax placed a comforting hand on her shoulder, but she barely felt it.
It wasn't long before Glace dipped into the room, an argument soon arising from within it.
"Did you sleep?"
"...Glace—"
"ARE YOU AN IDIOT?"
This quickly escalated, becoming the background noise to the children's breakfast, periodically punctuated with coughing.
None of them thought much at it as it had also become routine, yet they all looked relatively tense, none of them being remotely comfortable with the yeling.
It was a bit before, Edan got up, supposedly to get them to calm down, and in Rai's case, get some sleep.
"Should we call a doctor?" asked Kobe, as he watched Cloud Neek eat his pancake. "I don't think he'll be okay if he keeps not sleeping."
"We can't just 'call' a doctor Kobe," Nathan then replied before immediately stopping Hope from accidentally stabbing herself with a fork.
As this occurred, Glace returned, casting them all a glance but saying nothing so far.
"Well then how do we get him to sleep?"
Aurora tilted her head in thought. “We could… no, that’s too dangerous, never mind.” She seemed to have an idea, but was reluctant to share.
"What?"
Aurora glanced at Kobe and sighed.
“I just… what if we tried to um, find a doctor? I’m sure there’s other fey who would help or— or maybe a Wizard who’s sympathetic towards us?” She fidgeted with her fingers, looking at the floor. “I just feel like there’s something we can do for Rai, and finding someone might help him the most but… I don’t want us to… I don’t want to lose anyone else either.”
"Well I'm down for finding one." said the trainer, tightening his bandana. "I don't even mind if I'm the only one looking."
"But who would we even talk to?" Nathan asked. "All the wizards we know that are 'sympathetic to us' are imprisoned or...not in the timeline. And we can't exactly walk around Lamplight asking people to help us. Also, almost every time Edan stepped out for more than ten minutes, he came back with a new bruise."
"Dia...what was her name again?" Jax muttered to himself.
Nathan turned around. "What was that?"
"Huh-oh. Diane...um...oh! Diane Waterprism! She was one of Professor Greenheart's old friends that he used to tell us stories about. Like the one where she accidentally burst the pipes during a sparring class and flooded the room. She's also one of two friends that Greenheart hadn't mentioned to have...died yet. Well, before he also...y'know..."
"And what about the other one?"
"He devoted his life to theatrics, so he's definitely not a doctor and probably knows nothing about healing."
Glace raised her eyebrows. "How would we even find her? And do we even know if she's a doctor?"
She wasn't planning on taking any chances on her brother.
Aurora, however, didn't seem to share the Ice Trainee's skepticism.
"She seems pretty powerful, so she must know some healing... and if she was Professor Greenheart's friend, then she should absolutely be on our side!"
"That doesn't answer the question of where she lives, though." said Kobe.
As the children continued in their planning, Edan returned, grabbing a pile of herbs from the table and going to the kitchen, supposedly to make a herbal tea for Rai.
Glace's gaze was fixed on Aurora, "Okay, let's say this person could help Rai. As Kobe had the braincells to bring up, how the hell do we find her?"
In the kitchen, the lieutenant placed a kettle on his stove, dropping the herbs in the water, before calling out to the children, "Does this Diane happen to be affiliated with a Sun Fey?"
Jax scrunched his face. “Ummm… he mentioned a fey? That she went to find? I don’t remember what type but it could be a Sun Fey?”
He hummed to himself stepping into the living room, "I ask because there's a Diane who lives with a fey named Faith. I only really heard a few mentions of them whenever I'm in Firefly—people tend to gossip whenever a Celestial Fey's in vicinity, especially seeing Faith is female. Female Sun Fey are actually quite rare."
Jax perked up after that. “He did mention a Faith, so that must be it!”
Aurora sat up, staring at Edan with wide eyes. “So does that mean they’re in Firefly Forest?”
"Most likely," he replied carefully, "the only problem is that Firefly is right next to Lamplight."
“Right…”
The group stared at the floor for a second, unsure of how to navigate forwards.
”We could um, be very, very careful?”
The hybrid sighed, "We could always enter through the mountain pass, it's just that we have no idea who we might encounter within the forest."
"Bounty hunters?" asked Kobe.
"Exactly," the fey replied, before returning to the kitchen to take the kettle off the stove.
"Can't we just battle 'em and make them run away?"
"Lane used to be a bounty hunter for Boardy," Nathan commented. "He...didn't ever run away. I doubt those guys will just give up and roll over easily."
"Well, easy or not, we have to try."
"A polite reminder that the last time any of us had an encounter with Bounty Hunter's, I had to beat them all into unconsciousness in order to escape, and that was after being physically restrained." Edan's voice rang out of the kitchen, before exiting with a mug of tea, supposedly for Rai. "The fact they managed to restrain me at all goes to show their dedication to their job. I wouldn't dare imagine what they'll do to one of you."
Kobe opened his mouth, trying to think of a response, but he just decided to shut up and tighten his bandanna.
A silence loomed over the group, all of them quickly gaining a gruesome mental image of what could possibly happen to them.
The didn't need to know what happened to Raiden, or to Aria, they all saw the war, how the wizard side treated the fey and their allies.
How they gladly killed children.
The Bounty Hunters were always known as heros—people who protected the population by taking down dangers. Yet there was the undeniable fact they were all mercerenaries Boardy lent out for requests.
And a mercenary didn't care who was the target of their commission...or what happened to them.
Just like in the war.
After the lengthy silence, Glace spoke, her tail curling around her leg, almost as if she was comforting herself.
"What if we disguise ourselves?"
Nathan stared at her, "In case you haven't noticed, nine of us aren't particularly easy to disguise."
"Actually..." Edan had spoke up, causing them all to glance in their direction, "You all know fey can trim down their wings if needed, as Glace and Rai have already done so to look less... obvious—I can do the same. And Nathan, you Kobe, and Cele can easily dye your hair to look recognizable."
"But what about the rest of us? And Mr. Edan...you're...tall. Really tall. People are going to ask questions—"
"We can always try Shadow Magic."
At that comment, Glace received a wide range of expressions, the room quickly descending into chaos.
"Shadow Magic is a corruptive—"
"No one here knows how to—"
"How's that supposed to work? Hei's not—"
"Mom always said—"
The Ice Trainee stood there, ears laid back as she waited for the entirety of the group to settle down.
"Well, I'm saying, if we used Shadow Magic we can always cast, let's say, an illusion to look less suspicious."
"Like a hologram?" asked Kobe.
"...no."
"Oh."
"Wait, can we backtrack a moment? Like, to the fact that none of us here know how to use Shadow Magic?"
Aurora immediately looked down and shuffled her feet.
Nathan noticed the movement and turned to face the fidgeting Astral Trainee. "I'm wrong, aren't I?"
Aurora glanced up at Nathan and immediately looked away. "Um, well, my dad once told me a story about something I did when I was two...but it doesn't matter."
"How so?"
"...it was completely unintentional and the most I've been able to do ever since was this." The girl held out both hands and a single spark of purple leapt off the girl's right palm. "And besides, even if I could, I wouldn't want t-" To everyone's alarm, purple and black magic began to rapidly swirl around the girl's right hand before taking on a flame-like appearance. A terrified scream escaped the girl as she staggered backwards, holding her hand as far away from herself as she could.
And then she tripped.
Aurora quickly turned around as she fell and instinctively held her hands out towards the ground.
The second her right hand hit the ground, purple and black energy burned a tiny hole in the floor which allowed small wisps of Shadow magic to drift out. Aurora promptly scrambled away from the hole and started shaking her hand rapidly until the magic around her hand dissipated.
Jax was immediately at Aurora's side and pulled his friend to her feet. "Oh my gosh, are you okay?"
"Y-yeah, I just...didn't expect tha-"
Suddenly, a burst of magic ripped through the hole and tore through the room, sweeping nearly everyone off their feet. The hole had now taken the form of a big gaping scar in the ground and shadow magic violently rushed out of the opening. Air rushed around the room, incessantly howling, as a few sparks of purple and black particles hitched a ride in it. The gash in the floor continued to expand, releasing more Shadow magic with it. Dark magic began to dance along the walls and floor and despite the multiple sources of light, the room became darker and darker.
Panic quickly ensued as the children quickly started blasting the erupting gash with a variety of spells, all of which did nothing on impact or dissolved before they had the chance to get near.
“Aurora, Aurora what the heck did you just do?!” Jax exclaimed, voice barely audible over the howling wind.
“I knew you didn't put enough antiseptic on her wound, Jax!” Nathan shouted.
“That is not the issue here right now,” Jax responded, “but also Aurora I am so sorry for doing such a bad job at cleaning your wound now how do we stop this-”
Aurora fidgeted nervously. “Ummm...uhh…”
Suddenly, a door swung open and slammed close down the hall. “Screw being sick, WHAT IS THAT AND WHY IS IT HERE AND HOW DO WE STOP IT?” Rai yelled, sagging as he leaned on the wall.
“GET BACK TO BED, RAI,” Nathan yelled, blasting the violent fountain of magic with several Falling Star Smashes, all of which did nothing.
“Boy it's really inconvenient that dad isn't here right now...” Aurora mumbled.
Edan pinched the bridge of his nose. “This is NOT what I signed up for-”
Kobe tightened his bandana and turned to the door. “Cloud Neek, I don't care if they're our friends we're getting the hell outta here.”
“Kobe, get back here,” Celestina demanded.
Glace, meanwhile, had no indication of alarm as she walked up to the gash, crouched down next to it, and poked it.
“Glace what are you doing-”
Glace paused and looked up at her frail brother mid-poke. “You f**king idiot, get the f**k back to bed NOW,” she demanded, standing up and stomping over to him.
Rai opened to mouth to protest, but before the two could begin to argue, an ashamed whimpering noise arose from the fifth dimensional hole in the ground before it slid across the wooden floor and slipped under the door to Glace and Rai's bedroom.
"Did it just..."
"...go to bed?"
Aurora stared at the spot the hole used to be and then the room it went into, her face morphed into utter confusion.
”How did… huh. Okay then.”
Deciding that he clearly did not have enough sanity for the situation, Edan tiredly ran a hand down his face before moving to the kitchen to readjust the kitchenware that had been laid askew from the winds Aurora’s spell had generated.
Now they really weren’t sure where to go on from there.
Asides from Glace, of course, who's first priority was to haul off Rai to bed.
And that ever so happened to be the moment when the group collectively regained a braincell.
"Wait, if it listened to Glace, doesn't that mean she could use Shadow Magic?"
And with that realization in mind, the second Glace stepped out of Rai's room and turned to look down the hall, the children graced her with the sight of all them staring straight at her.
She blinked, "...what?"
Aurora stared at Glace, mouth wide open in shock.
”Glace you’re um, you’re…” She trailed off, unsure of what to say.
Nathan, having recovered right after, jabbed his hand towards the bathroom, which the fey reluctantly entered.
From outside, the group knew the exact moment Glace looked into the mirror, as it was punctuated by a shrill, “WHAT THE F**K?”
"So..."
"Um..."
"Yeah, she can probably use Shadow Magic—"
Meanwhile, in the kitchen, Edan was viciously scrubbing a pan, "Ididn'tsignupforthisIdidn'tsignupforthisIdidn't—"
"So...uh, how exactly is Glace going to learn how to use Shadow magic?" Nathan asked.
"I mean, wouldn't be just like manipulating any other form of magic?"
They then all stared at Aurora, expecting an answer.
“Well… I mean…” Her face turned pink with embarrassment. “I kind of used Shadow magic before I learned Astral?”
Silence.
The Astral Trainee grimaced.
“…It’s not that different compared to Astral magic. Just darker. And what happened now made me feel a little more sick than usual, but I imagine that I’d feel the same if I tried to do it with Astral magic.”
At hearing this, a certain Ice Trainee peaked out of the bathroom, "So, based on how you always feel sick, I'm assuming all of this," she gestured to the purple markings, "will only get worse?"
"Uh, Glace...?" Jax started.
"...what?"
"Did you happen to hit your forehead on anything while you were in there?"
"...no?" The ice fey pressed her fingers to her forehead and pulled them away, immediately seeing a red liquid coating her fingertips.
Jax summoned his backpack and pulled a roll of bandages and alcohol wipes out of it. "Yeah...I think we should go check on that..."
Glace dashed back into the bathroom and slammed the door behind her.
"...or not."
Aurora sighed, and made her way to the bathroom, timidly opening the door.
"Glace, I'm very sorry I did this to you. I should have known not to try using the, um, Shadow magic, and instead I did and now you're..." She shook her head and stepped further into the room. "I'm sorry, Glace. It's my fault that you..." Her eyes widened upon looking up and she trailed off.
"...Have horns?"
Not even seconds later, the entirety of the group whipped around to look down the hall as a crashing sound arose from the bathroom, followed by a bloodthirsty screech.
"WHY IS IT SHEDDING? I'M NOT EVEN FOUR HUNDRED YET. AURORA, WHAT THE F**K DID YOU DO?"
In the kitchen, Edan began to choke on the supposedly calming tea he fixed for himself at hearing the words "four hundred."
Aurora chuckled nervously, backing away from the door. “…I’m very sorry?”
Her apology didn’t seem to placate the enraged Ice Trainee at all, and she soon scurried back to the living room to let the fey seethe in relative peace.
"...shedding?" Nathan thought aloud.
Next to him, Hope perked up at the word, before her gaze shifted to an empty one as she lost herself in an old memory.
Jax, meanwhile, was staring at the alcohol wipes and bandages in his hands, unsure what to do with them at this point.
Celestina, surprisingly, was to one to get the group back on track. "Doesn't this mean that we can get going now?"
Aurora grimaced. "You're um, you're correct, but also we need Glace to... calm down before we do anything."
The frustrated wailing emanating from the bathroom suggested that they would be waiting for Glace for a good while.
So they waited.
And waited.
And waited.
A door swung open as for the second time of the day, Rai screwed being sick and charged off to deal with his sister.
"It can't be that bad—GESHKI NOR???"
"RAI, GO TO F**KING BED—"
The Earth Warden didn't oblige, leading to Glace shoving him out the door and practically tossing him into the bedroom.
"GO. TO. BED—"
And this is when she realized she was in the group's peripheral vision.
As for what they saw....
Well, aside from the abundance of purple markings, the fey now also had horns, and the growth of her tail fur somehow accelerated on the bottom half, whilst complete shedding had occured on the top half to reveal glossy black and gray scales. This resulted in a rather qilin-like appearance, but due to the children's lack of experience with mythological beasts outside of dragons, the first thing that popped into their head was a succubus...
...which leads to the question of who let whom into the adult section of the Academy Archive.
Trying to ignore the... disturbing imagery that popped up in their heads, Jax decided to comment on her appearance first.
"Wow, you really weren't kidding about that shedding-"
"Shut up."
Nathan piped up, "Well...at least you know it won't get worse than thi—"
"Shut. Up."
Edan, from the kitchen, had paled drastically at the sight of the fey, before stalking deeper within the space to make yet another pot of calming tea.
"Your parents are going to skin me alive—"
Cele, who had zoned out of the conversation, snapped back to reality. "Wait, what's happening now?"
While Edan was calmly having a crisis, and Celestina inquired on the situation, a Fire Trainee slowly approached the distressed fey.
Glace let out an involuntary twitch and hiss as she felt someone poke the shedded part of her tail out of nowhere.
"What do you think you're doing, Hope?!" Nathan and Glace snapped at the same time, although the former's question was more concerned with his sister's rather quickly diminishing lifespan considering that the latter was expelling a murderous intent so powerful it almost seemed physical.
Kobe, having one of his uncommon, intelligent moments, quickly grabbed Hope's arm and dragged her out of the murderous Ice Trainee's line of sight. The room went quiet, Cele's question left both answered and unanswered.
Suddenly, the sound of coughing echoed from a separate room, and that finally reminded everyone of the real problem at hand.
"Glace, I know you're upset, and we are too, but... we're running out of time." Aurora murmured carefully.
The seething teen slowly turned to look at the Astral Trainee, her yellow gaze narrowed into slits. In a tone of voice disturbingly similar to that of a certain Academy Keeper whenever they were mad, the fey slowly asked, "What was that, Aurora?"
"I...I know you're upset but—"
To put it simple, it turned out the group was quickly more concerned with Aurora's longevity than Hope's as Glace literally strangled her peer, leading to Edan panickedly running out of the kitchen and yanking the younger fey away.
In all honesty, none of them should've been so surprised seeing her habits, but that didn't stop everyone from collectively gaping at—and Edan continuing to restrain a downright murderous—Glace.
With no hesitation whatsoever, Jax had thrown himself in between the restrained Ice Trainee and the gasping Astral Trainee, briefly taking up a defensive position before turning to check on Aurora.
Cloud Neek immediately hid behind Kobe's head.
Kobe couldn't really blame him. He was pretty freaked out, too.
Edan glanced from Jax, to Aurora, then to the newly demonized fey he was restraining, the latter still brooding, ears laid back and a steady growl being emitted.
"...can we please all take a moment and calm down?" Before anyone could protest, he continued, "Aurora, you knew there was a good chance of something going wrong with Shadow Magic, but there's no way you could've known what it does to Glace. I understand that aspect of your part of this, regardless this doesn't mean you didn't make a mistake—you did. You could've explained your interactions with Shadow Magic without a presentation. Glace, I know you're angry about what it did to you, but murder isn't going to fix it, nor will it make things better in any other way. Any closure or pleasure you think it might've been able to bring you will not last in the long run, trust me. And Jax—"
The trainee looked up at him, clearly confused about what he had done wrong.
"—you can't throw yourself into situations like this. If I hadn't grabbed Glace, you would've been choked as well. You know you can't overpower Glace and combat but you took the chance anyways, and if you displayed this sort of reckless bravery in Firefly, that's the easiest way to get yourself killed. If you're all hell-bent on lacking self-respect, at least maintain a bit of self-preservation, as I'm the one who's going to have to explain it to your parents."
Aurora put her head down. "I know, I'm sorry Mr. Edan, and Glace. It was really stupid of me, and I shouldn't have done it, and if there's anything I can do to fix this, I won't hesitate to do so." She then looked up, eyes filled with watery determination.
Jax lowered his head too. "Sorry for worrying you..."
"I appreciate the apology, but I prefer you acting on those sentiments." He then looked down at a glaring Glace, "Especially you."
Silence.
"...Fine."
"I will, Mr. Edan."
"Okay."
He stared at the three intently, before he released Glace—the trainee toppling to the ground, no thanks to inertia—and moving to the other side of the room, "I'll go pack up some supplies, the rest of you gather your things...only take what's necessary, please."
"Wait, so we're going?"
He grabbed his satchel, "We're going to the Mountain Pass, and if one of you manage to get us through Firefly without being spotted...then yes."
With that, the children headed off to their rooms—some more reluctant than others—to pack and change into suitable clothing.
Edan was the first to return, clipping a harness onto Mishka—as he obviously couldn't leave her in the alone in the house for long, which was made to resonate with an Earth relic stone. It was quite a useful little thing, allowing him to ascend past the hassle of using a leash and minimizing what he had to carry.
When the children starting filing back in, the first thing that was of note is that the fey had also opted to trim down his wings, and due to not being able to see it, it seems that he also took the opportunity to shove his tail down his pants.
Aside from his height, the Lieutenant looked rather...human, another reminder of how pointless the war had been.
But these thoughts wouldn't get them anywhere.
The fey pulled on a pair of gloves to guise his wrist scales before acknowledging Nathan and Hope, who had trudged back into the living room, "I set out the rest of the bread and the jam on the counter—if you're not hungry, save it for the walk, I just want you to have something to eat—I'm sure you know there's no guarantee of eating well while out there." When he caught sight of Jax, he added, "Same goes for you," and promptly headed down the hall to get Rai, Mishka darting between his legs, not dissimilar to a cat.
Hope walked over to the bread and began spreading jam over each slice, cutting them into triangles—clearly the best shape for a sandwich—and stacking each of the paired triangle slices—with the jam on the inside, of course. In the meantime, Jax and Nathan searched for suitable containers for the jam sandwiches.
Soon enough the others trudged into the living room—with Rai being carried in by Edan and dropped onto the couch—some helping themself to a jam sandwich while Aurora went into the kitchen to assist Nathan in his search for a container for the extras. However, it wasn't long before Edan joined them, plucking a container out of one of the top cabinets and handing it to the pair before grabbing the herbs that were previously sorted and placing them into a container of their own, soon joining the supplies in his stachel.
Eventually, they seemed to be all packed up.
"Are you all ready to go?"
An assortment of yeses, mhms, and thumbs up were his response from most of the children.
This was enough of an answer for him, as he promptly had them exit the house, carrying Rai out—slung over his shoulder like a protesting sack of potatoes.
"Alright!" said Kobe, excitedly. "I can't wait to get back on the road."
"Well that makes one of us," Edan grumbled under his breath, "And Kobe...please quiet down, I don't need you attracting unwanted attention."
"Uh, alright."
However, it appeared it was a bit too late for Kobe to shut up, as they barely got out of the house before a snarky voice greeted them, "Hello, Edan."
Ahh... Sh*t. Thought the trainer. Me and my big mouth.
Edan cast a glare in Kobe's direction before slowly turning to face the voice, casting a sh*t-eating grin as he strained out the words, "Nice to see you, Owlen."
"...Owlen?" Nathan stared blankly, vividly remembering the bruises the hybrid had obtained during the week.
Glace, on the other hand, looked disappointed, "That's Owlen?"
'Owlen' in question was a light-blue haired fey, having shockingly white eyes that observed them all carefully. Their tail—which was blue, thick and fluffy, reminding them of a certain Ice Warden—flicked back and forth. A scowl was written across their face and their stared down the entire group, "Don't even bother with your bullsh*t, Edan. Un yeshti un hëre-nä yöl sapanen jë."
"Ley prën teren. And I would appreciate it if you left them alone."
"Left who alone?" Kobe piped unhelpfully.
"...you...sapans." Owlen supplied, an air of disgust in the latter word, their thick accent drowning the 'you.'
At this point, everyone was on edge.
Could this be resolved peacefully?
Well, judging by Edan's past...injuries, this was, to say the least...
Unlikely.
The aforementioned fey met his peer's gaze, the steady pastel stare competing against that empty, unnerving white, "We don't want any trouble, and we'll be getting out of your fur soon enough."
"You know that's not true."
"It is, and frankly, I don't have time for this, Icetalon."
"I don't have time for this, Forestfrost."
The two glared at each other, as a pair of siblings took a minute to process the name 'Icetalon.'
And Rai soon discovered there was one advantage to being hauled around like a sack of potatoes—it was exceptionally easy to catch Edan's attention. And in this case, it required tapping the fey on the head repetitively.
"I—what?"
"Isn't Cyro an Icetalon?"
". . ."
Owlen looked at Rai in sheer and utter revolt, "Cyro? What does that nalakrishnë ralshti have anything to do with this?"
"Congrats idiot, you made him madder," Glaced hissed under her breath.
Nathan looked at the long, long, long haired fey, then at Glace, "That's a he?"
"I BEG YOUR PARDON—"
"Well he has that earring, so that means he's a he.'
"I thought earrings were a girl thing though?"
"ARE YOU THAT UNCULTURED—"
"No, the Glacier Tribe has all their men wear one...has something to do with identifying if they're single.or not. Our dad has one, remember?"
"SOMETHING TO DO? IT HAS EVERYTHING TO—"
Jax chimed in, "Oh yeah, I remember. It has Mrs. Alyss' name carved into it."
"OF COURSE IT—" Owlen did a double take, his expression changing drastically, "Wait, Alyss? The Warden one?"
"Yes, the Warden one." Edan monotoned in response, before dropping Rai next to Glace.
"Ow! What was that—"
His question was soon answered when Edan caught Owlen's fist, and the two quickly delved into a loud argument in Norlian, with the blue-haired fey losing his temperament at certain statements and getting rather...physical.
The Icetalons...really had something against Cyro and Alyss, huh.
Aurora stared at the fey, arguing in a language she didn't know.
Her expression was at first one of shock.
Then it turned to annoyance after a few minutes.
Then frustration, as ten minutes passed.
"Will you two stop arguing?" She snapped, recklessly moving forwards and grabbing both Edan and Owlen's arms, much to their surprise.
She sent accusing looks to both of them once she had their attention.
"Our friend is dying, and here you two are, being silly and arguing over people who aren't even here! Do you not care about someone else who's suffering right in front of you? One of your own kind even?" Turning to Owlen, she narrowed her eyes. "One of your own family members? Would you let Rai die because of who his parents were? Because if the answer is yes then–then what were we even fighting for in the first place? What were we even trying to achieve, by running that whole time? Why would we– why...."
Surprisingly, even though Edan and Owlen were the ones being scolded, it was the Astral Trainee that had the strongest reaction, glistening tears falling from her eyes.
In a quiet voice, she continued, "We don't have enough time... and I'm not wasting any more of it on this."
She marched away from the adults, arriving in front of Rai, and proceeded to pick him up–or attempt to, anyways.
Glace, despite their previous argument, nodded approvingly at the girl's actions, and helped her carry the Earth Warden. Then, the group trudged forwards at a sluggish pace, the other children flanking the three in the center.
The two fey adults stared at the scene, almost too stunned to take action.
Owlen recovered from his shock relatively quickly, glaring at him, "Well, I rather see that ralshti dead."
This caused Aurora and Glace and glance back at him wide-eyed, just in time to see Edan furiously land an uppercut, cracking the bluenette's jaw.
"Geshki Houlka," was the last insult the hybrid dared to hiss before joining the children, gently taking over carrying Rai from the two girls.
And with that, they left Owlen there, both stunned and in severe pain.
It wasn't until they were in the cave systems that Edan spoke up again, "I'm sorry Aurora...I know you didn't understand most of that but Owlen...was pretty much saying that he rather kill Rai himself then leave us be. It's...not a shock, the Icetalons have always been...ruthless when it comes to anyone they deem a disappointment, but I'm sorry about my way of handling it—it was childish and I apologize."
"Well, personally, I approve of your methods!" Nathan piped.
Aurora looked upset, even more so, after Nathan's remark.
On a sudden impulse, she turned and hugged the hybrid, making him nearly drop Rai, the fey scowling for a second as he felt himself come dangerously close to slipping off Edan's shoulder.
Then, he had to suppress a smile upon seeing the Astral Trainee's actions.
The meaning behind the gesture was obvious.
I'm sorry you had to deal with that.
And I thank you for taking care of us.
After Aurora pulled away, the group continued walking towards Firefly, determined, in spite of all that occurred.
But determination could only get you so far.
Although the tunnels and caves kept them all hidden long enough to reach the edge of Shiverchill, the had to backtrack a bit to find a safe cave to camp for the night, a small fire keeping them warn as they broke out the jam sandwiches they had packed earlier.
As the children had something to eat, Edan glared at his portion, having some reservation about breaking his eating habits. This aside, he slowly began to speak, "...about what I said about camping for the night." He could feel the gazes that were now trained on him, but regardless, he continued, "It might be better to push through the night." He glanced at a certain Ice Trainee, "I know you've been trying Shadow Magic all the way here, Glace, and that you managed quite a few spells, but without a successful illusion we won't be able to make it through Firefly, and turning back now..." The fey shook his head, "If we head now we might be able to avoid being spotted."
The children all paused, reluctant to give up the opportunity of rest once again.
Then again, Rai wasn't getting better any faster, and they couldn't afford to dawdle.
Oddly enough, Hope was the one to speak up. "...yeah, let's do it. Rai...isn't getting better the more we wait."
Murmurs and glances were exchanged before the group tiredly got to their feet, dousing the fire and helping a reluctant Rai up.
And thus they trudged on to Firefly, slipping into the cover of the night.
Grass quietly folded under the children's feet as they advanced through the forest, remaining hidden in the shadows.
At first, their journey was relatively simple—there were plenty of twisting paths, with openings to hide from monsters and the occasional sleep walker, but soon they caught sight of a grassy clearing, just barely avoiding a pack of Sprikes by diving into the nearby trees.
Then they caught sight of the lake, a narrow path leading to their destination, smack dab in open.
The group halted, looking around and peeking barely beyond the trees. Eventually, Nathan took a step out into the open and immediately streaked over to the Stonefish statue. Crouching behind it, Nathan glanced around cautiously and beckoned the group over.
Edan and Rai went first, and then Aurora and Jax. Glace seemed annoyed at being stuck with Hope, but they went as well. Kobe was dragged forwards by Celestina, and once everyone had reached the statue, they glanced around anxiously.
"Who's going in first–" A hand was clapped over Jax's mouth as Glace heard a distant rustling sound. Edan, having heard it too, quickly dove into the statue's open mouth with Rai, and the others hastily followed, Glace being the last to enter.
Two bounty hunters strolled into the clearing the group had just left, raising their eyebrows at the disturbed foliage. Before they could investigate, however, a trio of Vinequeen's sauntered in, causing them to sigh in exasperation and pull out their wands.
The fluffy end of a tail slipping through a stone opening went unnoticed to their tunnel-visioned eyes.
As the group slid down the tunnel, the bounty hunters' voices slowly faded into silence.
"Wait, is that the Ice Cream Stack? Sherman, I told you to bring a fire wand!"
"But I thought Ice beats Plant. Also, Orchid, it's pronounced 'Ohlm'. With a K."
"...Sherman, in what world does Ice have an advantage over Plant? Not this one, that's for sure."
"But it should."
A short while later, the group popped out of the end of the hidden tunnel, forming a pile of bodies on exit, with an unlucky Nathan squirming at the bottom.
An unimpressed sigh rose from above the lump of bodies, and those who could tried to craned their necks upwards.
There was an elderly, but not unfit, woman with blue hair and tan skin, who was staring down at them with a single eyebrow raised. A Celestial Fey was hovering next to her, head tilted as she studied the other fey arrivals.
The groups quickly scrambled to stand upright, while the woman continued to stare.
Eventually, she decided to speak.
"I thought Jacob would've told you not to come here?"
Rather than answering her question, the children glanced between each other, before Jax nodded, mostly to himself.
"Yep, sounds like we got the right person."
It wasn't... the smartest of things to say.
"What is that even supposed to mean-"
The fairy interrupted the woman before she could get too annoyed, gently touching her arm and turning to the third adult in the underground.
"You're... the hybrid, yes? I've heard the occasional chatter about you. My name is Faith, and my partner is Diane." Her hands fidgeted with a deck of cards, eyeing the opening behind them warily.
The word 'hybrid' earned the Sun Fey a wonderful collection of Norlian swears—mostly addressing other Fey's delightful little tendency to focus on (and often shame) hybridism—which was all muttered rapidly under the Lieutenant's breath before he responded, "...yes. The name's Edan."
Diane raised an eyebrow once again as her ears caught the tail end of the train of vulgarities, and calmly responded, "Nalí nä."
She then jutted her chin at the limp but not yet unconscious fey hanging on off of Edan's shoulder. "Who is he?"
Aurora decided to speak up.
"His name is Rai, he's our friend and he's really sick. He hasn't been sleeping, and we need to heal him!"
A brief pause, and then Aurora's eyes widened. "Oh, I'm sorry, I'm Aurora."
"I'm Jax," the Water Trainee piped up next, followed by the others.
"Nathan, that's Hope."
"...I'm Glace."
"And I'm Cele—Kobe!" And with that, the girl proceeded to stopping Kobe from summoning his Tarragon at the worst possible time.
"Okay, fine." said the trainer, putting away his Pet Disk. "Uhh, you heard Cele, I'm Kobe, on my shoulder is my partner, Cloud Neek."
For a second, when she glanced at Kobe, Diane could see the form of a different, long-gone, wizard, tan skinned with a pair of headphones, and some sort of warm feeling she could only call "reluctant fondness" almost rose up in her chest.
Ignoring it, she exchanged a look with Faith, before looking back at the group.
"You have had no confirmation whatsoever that we're healers, and yet you still tried to find me?"
Jax shrugged. "We just got a random feeling out of nowhere that you were a healer, and that was confirmation enough."
Diane pinched the bridge of her nose, and Faith decided to take up the speaking role in her place.
"You mentioned sleep deprivation? For how long? And–actually, let's take this into the house."
The two turned towards a building that was clearly aged, but still sturdy. It seemed to have been repainted a sunny yellow at least a couple years back, with a sneaky-but-visible change in the paint roller movements nearing the bottom, resembling waves.
To its right, were four gravestones. Both fey and wizard glanced towards them, heads tilted down briefly, and then opened the door.
As the group entered, Diane went to find a spare mattress for Rai to lay down on, and the group huddled in the living room.
Faith glanced at them awkwardly, before making a feeble attempt at conversation.
"So... how have you guys been holding out after the... the whole... war?"
"It...could have been better," Jax answered.
"But then Edan found us, and then it did get better!" Aurora followed up.
"Yeah, that's true," Jax responded.
"Speak for yourselves," Glace grumbled, her newly scaled tail flicking.
"...if it means anything, you don't look bad," Hope commented quietly.
The fey initially glared at her, but let out a sigh and glanced away, simply crossing her arms and fixing her gaze on Faith, "...moving on, you asked how long it's been since Rai last sleep? Aside from a nap he took a week ago... it's been a bit over a month."
Faith stared at Glace in disbelief.
"Over a month?"
A loud swore rose from another room, as well as the sound of something thudding to the floor. A furious Diane stormed into the living room, dragging a mattress behind her that squeaked pitifully against the floor with her harsh treatment. Tossing it haphazardly against the middle of the room, she shot a glare at Rai.
"Does he have a death wish? Of all the insanity–"
"Calm down, love." Faith murmured quietly, and turned to Edan, nodding at the mattress. "If you could lay him down, Edan."
The Lieutenant obliged, gently placing the young Warden on the mattress.
Glace, meanwhile, shrugged, intending to answer the earlier question, "How am I supposed to know? Just because he's my brother doesn't mean he tells me why he does things."
Diane didn't comment, kneeling down and brushing Rai's hair away from his face and pressing a cool, damp, cloth to his overheated forehead.
"Would you mind closing your eyes, a little? You don't have to sleep–just, just close them."
Rai still looked panicked, so instead, she slowly lowered the cloth until he had to shut his eyes on reflex.
Then, Diane turned to Faith, who had just returned with a glass full of clean water, along with a large bowl. She placed them both down on the floor, and pulled out a card, murmuring something in Norlian. The lights in the room dimmed to a comfortable level, and the room temperature cooled down. Turning to Edan, she asked in a quiet voice, "I need to know, did you not use a sedative because there weren't any plants available in your area with that ability, or are you just vehemently against sedatives?"
"You're saying that as if the literal Earth Warden can't figure out what herbs I slipped into his tea," he replied, "the answer is, I did try, he just avoided it."
Diane groaned, staring up at the ceiling in annoyance.
”You’re expecting us to heal a kid that doesn’t want to be healed, even by the people closest to him.” Faith said flatly.
”I mean, you got him to close his eyes, that’s more than we could ever do…” Nathan muttered.
Turning to Rai, Diane crouched down next to him.
"Be honest, if I were to inject you with a sedative, would I have to restrain you?"
The fey flicked an ear.
Silence.
The woman frowned for a second wondering if Rai had somehow worn himself out enough to fall asleep. Though that didn't seem likely, not when he managed to—
Her train of thought was interrupted when the Earth Warden kicked Diane away from her, launching the woman a good few feet away and effectively knocking the breath out of her.
Jax and Aurora immediately hurried over to the elderly woman and helped her to her feet.
She nodded to the two children, and then glowered at Rai. "Well, you didn't have to get violent about it."
Faith was glowing furiously bright, only calming down after Diane carefully placed a hand on her shoulder. The woman turned to Edan, eyes narrowed.
"I can't promise you anything if he tries to kick me again, but I will try to help him sleep for now." She muttered. "Since sedatives are... not off the table per se, just more like on the opposite side, let's try something else."
She sat down next to the fey, eyeing his limbs warily.
"Is there... an injury that's stopping you from sleeping?" She asked, her tone clearly implying that "injury" meant both mental and physical.
The fey didn't respond, but he was still clearly awake.
After about a minute, Aurora made a small squeak, eyes widening as the adults turned to her.
"Do you... know something?" Faith asked carefully. Rai's ears flicked once more.
The Astral Trainee stared nervously between her friend and the healers, hands clenched tightly into fists.
Her mind traveled back to that one night she'd stayed up instead, that one night, where... where...
Raiden... Aria...
"He has nightmares about our friends!" She blurted out, hands clapping around her mouth when she realized what she'd said.
Everyone froze.
...
And then came the chaotic clamoring.
"Oh, Rai..."
"Why didn't you tell us sooner?"
"Hey, don't blame-"
"Shut it. She's been hiding this from us."
"Quiet."
"...why did you tell them?"
"It makes sense now..."
"We should have noticed..."
"Why didn't he tell us sooner?"
"Why didn't we notice?"
"He's been dealing with this for months."
"We should have checked up on him..."
"We could have helped...right?"
"I said quiet!"
The clamoring halted and everyone swiveled their heads towards Diane.
She sighed for the umpteenth time that day, and proceeded with what she had to say.
"Clearly this is something all of you know about, and before we go any further, can someone tell me who these friends are, and what happened to them?"
Aurora stayed quiet, leaving the others to speak up.
Jax came in to save the day. "Raiden and Aria are their names. We got separated and they were the only two who... didn't come back. Rai said they were still alive, but that was... a whole month ago."
His voice cracked once he finished, and no one added on or elaborated after.
"And now, do you need closure to finally rest easy, or do you need them back?"
The question was directed at the Earth Warden, who was tensely laying on the mattress.
Diane would bet a million gold that underneath the cloth, he was crying.
Glace sighed from where she was standing, "Knowing him...yes to both."
"So...what's the plan, then?" Nathan asked.
Diane stared at the wall thoughtfully.
"Have you thought about rescuing them?"
The group looked affronted at the mere idea that they wouldn't have thought about rescuing them. The elderly woman raised her hands in a placating manner. "I was only suggesting it."
"I don't think we really can, even if we really, really tried." said Kobe. "Even if we managed to sneak in, they'd probably kill us two seconds after we set foot in there."
"Look at that, Kobe being intelligent for once," Glace commented drily, before adding, "Though they probably won't kill us...they hadn't killed our parents yet so that must mean they want us for something."
Aurora rocked on her feet, deep in thought.
"What if... what if I got captured on purpose? There was no time to plan anything to keep in touch with our parents or Raiden and Aria, but maybe if I'm really careful, I could help get us information while in there-" She cut herself off as seven other wizards glared daggers into her.
"If you think for one second that we're going to let you get captured-"
...That plan ended up scrapped, as well.
"...how many of you all have invisibility cloaks?" Nathan asked.
Only four others raised their hands.
"...nevermind then."
"What if we dressed up like the bounty hunters? Or the guards?" Jax suggested.
"That woman set an age policy for Bounty Hunting," Edan informed him, "That wouldn't work."
"I don't suppose dumb luck is on our side and that there happens to be some secret unguarded entrance or something?"
Everyone stared at Nathan.
"Look, I'm just spitballing here."
Edan, meanwhile, crossed his arms, "Is it possible to backtrack to the capture idea?"
"We are not—"
"Except I'm the one being captured."
Aurora looked like she was going to protest, but stopped herself when Nathan, Jax, and Hope all simultaneously glared at her.
Nathan turned his eyes away from Aurora and focused on Edan. "I think I speak for everyone when I say that idea is not likable."
A few nods scattered across the room accompanied his statement.
"Well do you have any better ideas?"
Kobe was thinking about... something, or maybe nothing, who knows, when he got an idea.
"How about raiding Uncle Ben's lab? He's got all sorts of laser guns and trinkets 'n stuff, and we could use those to clear out the guards!" he said.
"That sounds . . . . very violent." Celestina said.
Aurora frowned at Kobe. "No killing." She said firmly.
"I never said they were for killing." said the trainer. "More like very brutal knocking-outing."
Eyebrows were raised.
"Alright, fine, we'll beat them up and make them run away crying to their mommies." snarked Kobe. "The point is, we should still go there for weapons if we're gonna rescue them."
"Honestly, I like this idea better than Edan's plan," Nathan said, with a hint of surprise in his voice.
"Well, I don't." Jax folded his arms across his chest. "Edan probably knows what he's doing and we won't have to go around hurting people unnecessarily."
"...bro, they work for her."
"And?"
Edan sighed, "I'm taking this as a 'there are no better ideas.'"
Aurora, surprisingly, was the first to relent. "It's... no, we don't have a better idea. Just promise that you'll stay safe, Mr. Edan."
"...I will do my best," the fey responded, albeit a bit reluctantly.
Nathan sighed. "You better."
"So...how exactly do you intend to get 'captured'?" Jax asked. "Will you just...walk into the prison and let them 'capture' you there?"
"That...would be exceedingly suspicious," Edan responded, before turning to Diane, "....do you mind?"
The woman sighed, before nodding. “I can ’turn you in’, I suppose. Although an old hag somehow defeating a fey is… still fairly suspicious, don’t you think?”
"You could claim to have guilttripped me into it. From what they know about me it wouldn't be too suspicious," the fey replied with a shrug.
Diane’s eyebrows raised, clearly curious about what that was supposed to mean, but nodded in acquiescence anyways.
”That’ll work. Shall we get going then or is there anything else you need to do?”
Faith turned to her in alarm. “You’re leaving immediately?”
”It’s not like we have the time to discuss on it.” Diane pointed out.
"Indeed there isn't, and there's nothing I really can do, " Edan replied, before shrugging off his satchel and placing on the ground nearby.
Faith sighed as Diane squeezed her hand, before the aged wizard headed towards the tunnel, with Edan by her side.
She shot a pointed look towards the group of younger wizards and fey that were watching them with skeptical looks. "Listen to whatever Faith tells you, and don't leave this cave. If I'm not back by tomorrow, assume we're dead. That's all I have to say."
Aurora shuffled at the bluntness of the statement, and then stepped up to Edan and gave him a hug. "Please come back safe, Mr. Edan. And you too, Ms. Diane."
"And bring Raiden and Aria too, if they're... if you can." Nathan added.
The man blinked in surprise, having stiffened a bit, before relaxing an offering the trainee a soft smile, "Don't worry, I'll be doing my best."
His pastel gaze then shifted from the girl, settling on Diane as his face fell into a neutral expression, "And Mrs. Diane...if you remember anything about your... incident...I advice against presuming us dead already."
Diane’s eyes narrowed for a second and Faith awkwardly shifted on her feet. Then she shrugged casually. “True, true. I just like to keep my expectations low.”
She then motioned for the hybrid to follow her, before slipping into the exit tunnel.
Meanwhile, above ground, two raised voices clashed in argument.
"You see, Sherman? Now whoever was there is gone, and we could have caught them if you had brought the right wand."
"Hey, there probably was nothing there anyway!"
"Oh? And what could have made that noises?"
"The Vinequeens."
"They came from the opposite direction!"
Diane internally groaned as she caught sight of the two arguing bounty hunters through the parted fish lips.
Quietly, she turned to Edan, who was behind her. "It would have been helpful if you told me you had been followed."
"Even I couldn't hear them through several layers of rock and stone. I thought they'd have left by now." He replied calmly.
Stifling another annoyed reaction, she glanced back at the bounty hunters, who were suddenly staring at the fish statue with an odd expression on their faces.
That was... decidedly not good.
Not even bothering to wait for their response, two heavy torrents of water shot out from the lake, hardly suppressed by the weak fire spell that one of the two hunters cast.
"Huh, seems like I've still got it in me." Diane muttered. Then, both wizard and fey carefully exited the statue and unceremoniously dragged the unconscious bounty hunters onto the shore, leaving them to drown, if they didn't wake up before the tide rose.
Below the ground, Faith and the children sort of stood around awkwardly, unsure of what to do. "Um...you can make yourselves comfortable?" the Sun fey offered, shrugging.
The children took the opportunity to slowly wedge themselves together on the nearest couch.
With little effort, Diane managed to turn Edan with ease, just as the Fey had promised. The elderly wizard couldn't help but bite the inside of her cheek however, having but a feeling this wouldn't end as the hybrid hoped.
And indeed it didn't, as the Wardens and company were awakened by a new individual being shoved inside the fey's cell.
"Well, hi, whoever you are!" Chase chirped. "We were just sleeping! Would you like to join us?"
Lane gave Chase a long, tired look of concern.
Those in the other cells shot equal looks of concern, while meanwhile, the fey were shuffling to make room in their very crammed space. It was with their shuffling that Luce was able to cast some light, to which Cyro blinked.
"Edan? How the nordamned hell did you get caught?"
"Wait, Edan?" From across the cell, the eldest of the two Astral Wizards perked, Abner looking not too dissimilar from an excited cat. Down one cell, Lucas furrowed his brow, trying to remember what context his mother mentioned Edan in. He was sure she was the one who mentioned them, that is.
"...that was in an effort to help your grandchildren." The Fey replied tiredly to Cyro while shooting Abner an eye roll at his pleasure.
Lucas too, perked up after hearing those words–and the similarities between him and his father were almost disturbing at that point.
"You've met... our kids?" He called out. "They're alive? Are they okay? And–and safe?"
"...safe enough," Edan replied after a moment's pause, "the majority are with Diane, if you know her. Rai however is a bit...ill, and a couple of them were supposedly captured about a month ago."
Samantha blinked. "Isn't she... Professor Greenheart's friend? He mentioned her a couple times to me–he said she was an amazing Water Wizard... but went missing not long after graduating the Academy?" She glanced at Edan quizzically. "But you... found her? And she's alive?"
Lane narrowed his eyes. "Forget about this Diane lady, some of them were captured? Do you know who? Or where they could be?"
Before Edan could answer to either of them, the newcoming fey had already been strangled by Aly for interrogation, to which the group vaguely heard something regarding Rai being sleep deprived or whatnot. When Gale finally pried his wife away, the wheezing fey supplied an anwer.
"Diane's been living in Firefly for years. As for the children, Raiden and Aria were the ones that went missing."
Lane let the back of his head hit the wall he was sitting up against. "S**t."
"...I hate to say that my pessimism was well placed, but the Lady didn't come to brag about this," Gale commented with a sigh.
"Or maybe you're still wrong."
"Hm?"
Aly lashed her tail, crossing her arms with immense frustration, "Storm's kids. Or at least, one of them is. Aria's someone he looks after. I won't be surprised if the Lady gave them a free pass and handed them back to him."
Just then, a groan.
"Hey, new guy," said Ansat. "Did you at least see anything that could help us escape, or are we stuck here for another month?"
"...unfortunately no," he replied, before pausing, "If I may ask...who exactly is Storm?"
"He's the Storm Warden," said Ben. "Or at least I think he is. I dunno, I'm confused, I need a beer."
Lucas looked away. "He's... he's a storm trainee, actually. He's... we don't know the full story, but he's um... he's–"
"He's a traitor and a real piece of scum." Lane spat, voice full of venom. Then he paused, muttering, "But Raiden wouldn't take that free pass, even if Storm's her father. I taught her better than that."
"She may know better, but she's also a child, Lane," Gale's voice rung grimly from the fey's cell, "And after seeing all the horrors that have been going on, all a child wants to do is go home...and that's with family. Even if she considers you family as well, Storm was still the only person she would have available, seeing the Lady."
"That... is true." Lane sighed.
Dylan glanced at Lane sympathetically, before looking back at Edan. "So, Rai's sick, Raiden and Aria have been captured and we have no idea what happened to them, and the rest of the kids are with Greenheart's old friend somewhere inside Firefly Forest. Did anything else happen with the kids?"
The fey cleared his throat, "Well, a pair of them—Opal and Robin, I believe—were returned to their father as their names were cleared. Apparently the lady is willing to pardon individuals who are...human enough."
"How humane of her," Chase commented.
"Shut up, pud," hissed Ansat.
"Your puns have progressively worsened—"
"Yep."
Samantha gave the wall to her right a very concerned look before sighing and dropping her head. "So how were the other kids doing? Well, before you left, anyway," the Water Warden asked the new capture.
"Concerned for their friends but doing relatively alright," he replied, voice taught.
"Well, that's some good news, at least."
After a few more questions and exchanging words, the captives were finally able to obtain answers regarding what was going on in the outside world. It provided some reassurance for most, but mainly worry for a certain pair of fey. Days flew by, and soon that comfort quickly lost value, the familiar concern bubbling up again.
It was on one of these days that they heard heels click.