Reflections on the Warpath - [An Isekai Progression Fantasy]

2 days later

Jay ran his fingers through the golden sands, scooping a fistful into the air and watching it slowly fall out of the cracks between his fingers. A calm ocean lapped against the shoreline before him, its shifting murmurs accompanied by the singing and laughter that permeated though through the core of Reveller's Octant and stretched all the way to the coast.

A salty breeze swept the sun's heat off Jay's skin. He closed his eyes and leaned back, basking in the sunlight until a shadow snatched the pleasure away from him.

Jay cracked an eye open. Akira stood over him holding a fruity cocktail in each hand.

"They don't even have Piña Coladas here!" he said, handing a glass to Jay as he sat beside him. "What kind of beach doesn't serve Piña Coladas?"

Jay smiled at his friend's outrage, unsure how serious he was. He took a sip of his drink, the icy sweetness stung his teeth and jolted his brain for a split-second.

"These work just fine," said Jay, placing the glass on the sand beside him. "Besides, does this planet even have pineapples? How are they supposed to make a Piña Colada with no pineapples?"

Akira raised his pink, peeling shoulders up to his ears, shrugging off Jay's rebuttal.

Pineapples may have been outside the realm of possibility, but Jay doubted sunscreen was. Nevertheless, Akira had rejected all of Jay's suggestions to search for some. According to him 'a real man didn't need to fear a little zap of ultraviolet'.

Jay had given up after that comment. Knowing Akira, he was probably trying to use the essence of magnetism to deflect the sunlight away from his skin.

Trying.

"Chilling on a beach sure beats trawling through the Emergent Bloom looking for your final relic, eh?" said Jay, lifting his drink towards Akira.

He opened the coliseum system beside them, flicking onto a livestream of the final E grade gladiator still competing in the advancement tournament. The young man's team had died within the opening two hours. He'd spent most of the last forty-six running away from anything that moved and had only just begun to think about how he'd get out.

Akira raised his glass, tapping its rim against Jay's before taking a sip.

"Poor guy's gotta be thirsty as fuck right now," said Jay. He laughed into his drink as the ice cubes clinked into each other and he poured the mystery fruit punch into his mouth. Whatever it was, it was better than a Piña Colada so Jay had no idea why Akira had complained.

"I spoke to Lyra again last night," said Akira.

Jay clenched his jaw.

"And?"

"I don't understand why she's mad at you. You saved both our lives, surely that's more important than killing Amaya and Ezekiel?"

Jay took a long sip on his drink, mulling over his words and carefully selecting the right ones. He stared at the rolling waves, their swishing susurrations calming his mind.

"She's still not over Vega. Losing a sibling is tough. Losing a twin must be even worse."

"Bu-"

"I don't think that's all though. It's not just the outcome, it's more the events that led to it. By refusing to kill Amaya, I replaced her plan with my own. We spent four weeks talking about killing those two, no matter what. The thought of their corpses was probably the only thing dragging her out of bed at times. But when the time came to execute the plan I tore it to pieces and came up with a new one. How's she supposed to feel about that?

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"For the past four weeks, Lyra wanted to mould the world into an image without Amaya or Ezekiel in. I came in and carved it the way I wanted instead. Ripped her whole raison d'être apart and replaced it with my own. I don't think it's about saving her life, but rather taking away her agency."

Jay had spent most of yesterday piecing his thoughts on the situation together. A part of him wished he could simply hate Lyra. He couldn't. Grief didn't work that simply and neither did he.

He hoped a reference to Akira's first lesson on Harmony would help the young man understand his perspective. Although, to be honest, Jay wasn't sure if he needed it. For a man who'd barely escaped death under a close friend's command, he was shockingly friendly with Lyra. Jay couldn't understand why.

"Makes sense," said Akira. "Still sucks though."

You're telling me…

"Quite frankly, I'm surprised you still want to speak to her, Akira. She left you for dead against four gladiators."

"She didn't leave me. I said she could go."

What?

Jay's confusion must have shown on his face because Akira didn't wait for a response.

"Just because I'm young, doesn't mean I'm a child, Jay. I'm my own man, I make my own decisions. Lyra, or anyone else for that matter, doesn't control me. Vega's the only reason I didn't die after losing my debut. Remember the crowd waiting for you after yours? I had nobody except her. You felt differently, and unlike Lyra I don't begrudge you for that, but I entered the tournament prepared to die for Vega, for the woman who saved my life."

Dying for Vega and dying to avenge her are two very different things.

Jay kept his emotions contained this time, not letting Akira peer into his thoughts and see his disapproval. Jay thought back to the weeks after Julian's death. If he could've died for revenge, would he have taken that choice?

Then again, a grieving twelve year old wasn't exactly the barometer for intelligent decisions.

But there was a fundamental difference between his situation and Lyra's. Jay had the chance to reunite with Julian, while Vega was gone forever. Jay could never toy with life and death like Lyra had, not before he finally met his older brother again.

Jay couldn't let Lyra and Akira throw their lives away. Eterna had a way of forcing you to find purpose. What if Lyra had a revelation, like he had, that gave her a reason to live for again. If Jay hadn't forced her to live, then she'd never discover it.

Still, Akira's measured outlook showed Jay that, although he and Lyra clearly had opposing philosophies, there was a chance for reconciliation. Jay would never change his mind, so he hoped Lyra would come around eventually.

Jay sipped his drink in silence, lingering with his thoughts while he gazed at the clouds lingering over the horizon. They were growing. Moving towards him. Casting their shadow on the ocean below.

"So what are you gonna do now?" asked Akira, "You're surely a lock for the Luminary tournament. Got any plans for the next few months 'til it starts?"

"I need to see the storm sage first, hopefully he'll give me some advice on where to go next. After that I'm not sure. The offer from Limitless Ascent still stands, I might join them if I can't find anywhere better to train."

Julian's name lingered at the tip of Jay's tongue. He wanted to tell Akira about his brother but felt almost afraid to acknowledge Jules in front of his friend.

"What about you?" he asked instead.

"I'm heading off-island for a few weeks too," Akira's earnest green eyes turned to look at Jay. "I wish I could tell you more about it, but these guys at the alliance are serious about their privacy."

Jay stared back at his friend, both of them gagged in silence. One out of compulsion, the other from fear.

Fuck it.

No more secrets.

"Have I ever told you how my older brother died?"

Akira's face hardened. He gently shook his head.

"We were walking back from training, it was dark, and we were in a rough part of town. We passed through an alleyway when three guys jumped out with knives; I almost pissed my pants. Julian told me to run away.

"For some stupid reason I listened to him."

Jay clenched his fist in the sand, pressing the fine grains into his palm as if his fists could somehow help him now.

"I listened. I ran. We never found his body after that."

"It wasn't your faul-"

"Stop it. I've heard it all before. Doesn't make it any better and I'm not finished yet.

"That was twelve years ago. The wound's healed over," Jay lied.

"When I last trained with the storm sage, I had a vision of my brother. Turns out he came to the coliseum after dying too, it must have a thing for unrealised potential. I watched his old fights and when I went to visit Limitless Ascent, their leader Samira said she'd help me locate him. I like fighting but I don't want to stay here forever. I want to leave the coliseum and find him.

"I want to find him and apologise."

"You're gonna," replied Akira, "and when you find him I'm sure he'll be too busy crying tears of happiness to care about an apology.

"I'll help you find him. We're D graders now, after the tournament we'll have tons of time to search for Julian, I'm sure we'll find something. You've got another tournament to prepare for first, if I'm lucky I do too. Once we're done with that we're gonna start properly looking.

"I promise you we'll get him."

Akira smiled and held up his fist. Jay couldn't help but smile back. He tapped his knuckles against Akira's before returning to his drink and staring at the ocean once more. The weight off his shoulders eased Jay far more than the rippling sunlight and cascading waves ever could.

"Thanks. It's nice to finally tell someone."