Nebula's Premise

"You know," I said, "I haven't seen Yuèyīng in a while. Where is she?"

"I sent her back with Qīwù," Celistar replied. "In case she met with any misfortune on her journey… you could say I'm hedging my bets."

"Well, that explains things," I replied, looking out down the road.

I never realized just how boring a road could really by until I was doing all the traversal down said road myself. When you're on some form of transport, you generally are moving at a good enough clip that you get new and interesting scenery every so often.

But walking on a wider path yourself in what was more or less a straight line meant that by the time you got to a location, you'd examined it for every bit of interest it might have had at least ten times over. I felt like walking through the woods themselves - as we had done back in the dense jungle biome was much more interesting.

Not only because it was actively trying to throttle the life out of us. That was just a bonus.

I think everything that had happened with me was trying to screw with my head, and not just the parts that were actively trying to screw with my head, like the town István got, er, 'lost' in. What I meant by that was that I was starting to get bored when there wasn't some sort of conflict or excitement going on.

Definitely not a great habit to pick up. With nothing but the road and idle chatter, I'd kind of spiraled until I was sort of straight up hating myself for those thoughts.

"Something up?" István asked, ever the insightful one, picking up on my melancholy quicker than anyone.

"Ehh…" I said, trailing off. "Just going a little stir crazy, maybe? I keep hoping some bad guy jumps out of the woods so I can punch him into next year."

"Ah, yes, 'resting punching brain'," István laughed. "My brother has that problem too."

Viktor made a noise I would characterize as a verbal shrug.

Celistar had stopped walking at some point, and I turned around and looked at her. She was just kind of frozen there, with her face stuck in a sort of state somewhere between shock and awe.

The other three of us just kind of stared back at her until she pulled herself together.

"WHAT!?" The Moon Fairy fairly exploded with the word. I'm not sure she intended it, but she put so much power behind the statement that several birds nearby dropped out of their perches. I reached out and caught them with my Nebula. Upon it touching them, I realized they were alive, if stunned.

I wasn't sure what had prompted the outburst and was a bit concerned, as her mouth was still working a bit, waiting for the brain to catch up. Eventually it did.

"Viktor is your brother?" She exclaimed, her face filled with disbelief.

You know, I'd heard him say the words, and heard Viktor respond to them, but hadn't put two and two together. Or one and one in this case. I now understood why Celistar had hard reset like that.

Viktor roared with laughter, reaching over and grabbing István's shoulder. "He is my big brother, even!"

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"Clearly 'big' isn't referring to your relative dimensions," I said, which caused István to smile.

"No, he passed me when he was five, while I was eight," the elder of the two admitted.

"It's hard to imagine…" I said. Even with the both of them literally right next to each other, there was just no way to put their features together.

"And you had the same parents?" Celistar asked, looking like her whole life had been a lie.

Elder Mountain sniffed, "We did, but we each took after different ones. I took after mother, and István here is the spitting image of our father."

"Did your mom win your father as a prize for winning a head-butting contest with a truck or something?" I asked, unable to turn off the incredulous part of me, a part apparently directly attached to the sass center of my brain. I could pretty much picture whatever tank of a woman managed to birth Viktor just walking off with a whole-ass human tucked under her arm like a stuffed bear.

Thankfully, István just laughed. "I could honestly see her attempting such a thing."

Viktor shrugged. "Just do not let her hear you say that." It might have been just me, but I could have sworn I saw a bit of a shiver go down his back.

Figured that a city-sized lizard wouldn't faze him, but his mom would. I could relate; I had Gran.

Speaking of which, it also explained why Viktor and István had always treated Gran with nothing but the utmost respect. They probably assumed all mothers were both willing and capable of ending you if they so chose to do so, regardless of age.

I mean, Gran had decked the Sect Leader without spilling her cooking from the pan, so they weren't wrong.

"'The Wayside'," I read off the sign, Steeve's translation (Steeveslation?) still working as I could see that the font behind it was little more than an exotic chicken scratch.

"How by the Will were you able to read that?" Celistar asked. I was a little surprised that the mischievous fox hadn't helped her out with it. No sooner had I thought that when, with a pop, the little minx herself dropped out of thin air onto Celistar's shoulder and booped the Ancient One in the ear with her nose.

"Oh… oh!" Celistar said, as I assumed the sign changed to look like what I saw, but in her native language. "But of course. I should have known." A little heart shape popped out of Steeve's head as she nuzzled up to Celistar. Apparently, all the time they spent cohabitating inside my Soul Space had them pretty close.

"I give them points for their nomenclatural accuracy, at least," István commented, using a word in common that I didn't even know the meaning of. Did he carry around a dictionary or something? Probably a dumb question, on second thought. Of course, he did.

Being tired and dusty, we entered the 'establishment', which actually had several people inside, likely there for the same reason we were. Once inside, it was clear it actually went back a long way into the woods, something that wasn't at all obvious from the outside thanks to the tall false front that rose well over the roof and helped hide the true size of the building, exceeding it on all sides.

The four of us found what I can only describe as a 'booth' in the corner, although calling it such was doing a lot of heavy lifting in the comfort department. Not that my feet cared, being more than happy to rest on the blocky bench and my arms on the similarly rough-hewn table, which had been sanded smoother through nothing other than wear from the patrons.

A surprisingly handsome young man showed up to take our order, but he faltered a little when he saw my clothing. Viktor had at some point changed out of his as he ruined the original fancy stuff, but I was still in my blue Azure Sky garb, and with some assistance from István, had been able to make it mostly presentable before entering.

"One must keep up decorum," he'd told me.

"Decorum can keep itself up," I groused, earning me a bit of a smirk from Elder Scholar and nothing more.

What that wound up meaning is that even at this place in the 'Wayside' of nowhere, population us, he could tell I was important and it clearly made him nervous.

"I am afraid we don't have anything of suitable quality for the Lady," he said, looking immensely apologetic.

I reached down deep into my well of 'goofy crap Celistar would say to sound smart' and managed to pull out this gem:

"That which is offered honestly is accepted in the spirit from which it is given." My voice managed to sound richer and less reedy in my head than it usually did, which was the usual side effect from projecting it with power.

Basically, for those in the back: I will eat it if you give it to me.

He seemed visibly relieved by this, which was my intent.

Time to get some food!