NOVEL NEXT 181. [BOLERO] Good Moonrise
181. [BOLERO] Good Moonrise
Of the many things Zacarias missed about the carefree days of his youth, a good night's sleep was pretty close to the top of the list.
It was a familiar refrain among the current generation of Manesferans in their 20s and 30s. I've forgotten what it means to be well-rested. Because once you were set on a vocational pathway, that was that. You either grinded with the best of them, or fell off the track altogether.
Even as a NINEFOLD disciple of the Aracnido Sect, Zacarias hadn't been exempt from Manesfera's hustle culture. Which was why he slept whenever he could, in a futile effort to get back all the hours he'd lost to late night study, work, cultivation (and partying… there was that too). If he were to register a Tidereign [Oath], it'd have to be something like: I'll never miss a chance to take a nap.
Good thing he wasn't a Tidereigner, nor a Rakshasa with her chameleon Realm Boon. There was no chance in hell he was getting a wink of sleep toNight. Because Zacarias had never felt better rested than he did now, as he 'woke up' to his second Night in Tidereign.
Zacarias reconstituted upon the mooring shores, right next to the Waystation installed by one Serac Edin. Beside him, Renate Sandvik had also just come to. Judging by the way her wide-set amphibian eyes twitched with unbound energy, she too must be feeling the effects of the best sleep this side of the Sanzu River.
"What the hell just happened?"
Zacarias was startled by the sound of his own voice, as if he hadn't heard it in a long time. In fact… he hadn't heard his own voice in a long time! At least not since last Night, and last Night must've been—well, actually he had no idea. A long time ago. Let's just leave it at that.
"It appears we've cycled over," Bubblegum rasped in her somewhat scholarly diction, swiveling her hooded head this way and that. "It also appears we've skipped right through Day and landed back in the world of Night."
Zacarias took no time to make the same observation. The scenery was near-identical to his first impression of Tidereign: dense forests, ocher moonlight, and gossamer curtains hanging from the night sky.
"Is this what the cat-people here wake up to every d—er, every night?" He mused aloud, not expecting an answer. "Well, I hope for their sake that the night life here is on point."
"Let's move." Bubblegum sprang to her bare, webbed feet. She seemed antsier than usual and didn't bother to hide it. "Judging by how brief our previous Night was, we won't have much time in this one to make progress. Besides, I've simply got more energy than I know what to do with."
Seeing his usually mellow friend all hopped up on adrenaline, Zacarias couldn't help but smile. But the smile quickly faded as he came to an unsurprising yet no less disturbing realization.
"No Serac." He looked this way and that to make sure. "I hope this means she somehow made it across to the Day-side and not… some other shittier thing."
"That Oriole ere'Quinlan character seemed to think this might happen." Bubblegum recalled, voice uneven as she hopped and skipped on the spot. "Perhaps he could tell us how we might try to reunite with Serac. Or maybe that sort of thing is common knowledge here. Either way, we won't know until we explore more of this Realm, so let's hurry!"
No argument there. The Upheavers—minus their leader—set off without delay, hoping to learn as much as they could before the next sunrise (or would it be moonrise?). To that end, they retraced their steps from last Night, cutting across the dense forest and toward the Sanzu River. Despite what should have been a familiar route, Renna seemed a tad hesitant, stopping occasionally to gather fresh clues from the ripples.
"Apologies," she explained, though Zacarias hadn't asked. "It's just… last Night feels so long ago. Some of the memories are already hazy."
Zacarias knew exactly what she meant. He waited in patient silence every time his friend had to stop and reassess. All told, the pair only managed to shave a few minutes from the same trip they'd taken however long ago.
Eventually, they made it to the riverbank. The Sanzu here was just as wide as Zacarias remembered, its water just as 'rusty' and choppy. It was déjà vu of the helpful, grounding kind: a compass for a pair of rudderless outrealmers. Except the hits kept coming. Not long into their climb upstream, they were greeted by yet another familiar sight, coupled with a familiar greeting.
"Hurry, outrealmers!" Oriole the tabbycat waved with both hands from the deck of his run-down boat. "We're running out of time!"
Zacarias and Renna exchanged a look: his with one eyebrow raised and hers hardening in caution. The former took it upon himself to approach the boat, even as he very deliberately cracked his neck and popped his knuckles.
"Look, Brain Cell." Zacarias recalled the nickname he'd used a 'long time ago' (pretty easy when there were so many clues to help him remember!). "The last time you said those exact words was right before we got separated from our friend. So, unless you can pull Serac out of your pocket right now, be very careful what you say next."
"I understand." The tabbycat kept his hands up, relatively fur-free palms out in a placatory gesture. "No, I really do. You're absolutely right to be mistrustful of me, but I'm also right about us running out of time. I'll tell you everything you want to know, but before I do, can you please get in my boat so we can all start heading to Duskpool? The Night really isn't long enough for us to loiter like this."
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The outrealmers exchanged another look. This time, Zacarias kept his eyebrows flat, while Bubblegum gave a sort of tentative shrug.
Oriole was as bad as ever at getting his point across, but that was frankly beside the point. What struck Zacarias as far more pertinent was the Tiryaga's offer of transportation—highly relevant now that Serac wasn't around to summon her living castle.
What we need right now is information. And if Brain Cell can't give us that, at least he could shorten our trip to find someone who can. Besides, even if he were to try some funny business, what's the worst that can happen? Bubblegum and I are already safely tethered to the Night world, and it's not like an Anchored soul is gonna give us any trouble…
However, it was this last notion that planted in Zacarias a peculiar seed of doubt. Wait a sec… Brain Cell is Anchored, isn't he? Between now and last Night, I've scanned him a bunch of times with Pathsight, and nothing has come up. He could lie and obfuscate, but there's no way he could hide the fact of his being a Wayfarer, is there?
"We're wasting time." Bubblegum interrupted Zacarias's thoughts, raspy and impatient. "Let's just hear what this tabbycat has to tell us—and go as far as he'll take us."
Zacarias eyed Renna, then nodded after a beat. He took it upon himself to step onto the rickety boat first, with his antsy Yaksha friend following close behind. But as soon as Zacarias hoisted his burly frame onto the boat, the whole thing tipped precariously toward its bow. Oriole hastily ran to the aft to provide 'counter-weight', all while shouting.
"Manusya! It's best if you went into the cabin and stayed there. The Cormorant is getting on in years, and I don't think she can handle all the, erm, extra load!"
Way to call me fat, Brain Cell. It wasn't the most auspicious start to their voyage. Then again, things could only improve from here.
The outrealmers settled into the Cormorant's dingy cabin, which was filled with all kinds of junk. Dusty logs, broken instruments, and burlap sacks giving off funky smells. It was hard to square the time-worn nature of the boat and its contents with Oriole's youthful appearance. The tabbycat looked younger than Zacarias himself, assuming a Manusya could be a reliable judge of a cat-person's age.
Said cat-person fed some fresh coal into the steamboat's gunky innards, coaxing it to chug its way up the river. Despite its run-down appearance, the Cormorant did a credible job of negotiating the Sanzu's choppy waters. At the very least, it was faster than a Manusya-Yaksha pair on foot.
If this were any other vehicle ride, Zacarias would've already started on his nap. He was wide awake, however, and heavily invested in what his local guide had to say. He leaned against one of the more scent-free burlap sacks and listened, for the most part allowing Oriole to speak without interruption.
And speak Oriole did, enthusiastic if a little scatterbrained. To his credit, he seemed to genuinely relish having more than a few minutes to make himself understood. He covered a variety of topics, not always in the most logical manner, but comprehensive enough to drop real nuggets of information.
Oriole spoke of the boat's provenance, which confirmed he wasn't its original owner ("Found it abandoned in the docklands, still mostly in working order. Named it after my Dad—the Gloam keep his soul."). Of the inexorable reason behind his constant rush to get things done ("Our Nights are less than four hours long, and alas, they only seem to get shorter by the cycle.") And of a highly intriguing tidbit about what it meant to be an outrealmer in Tidereign ("You Wayfarers need to earn Karma for ascension, yes? Well, as I understand it, you can't do that unless you become an oathkeeper like us.").
"Whoa, whoa, back up. Are you telling me I'm locked out from Karma unless I register an [Oath] first? What happens if I go out there right now and smite an Aberrant?"
"Well, there are no Aberrants out there for you to smite," Oriole said rather cryptically, "and even if there were, I suppose they just die and you get nothing."
"I suppose there's our answer," Renna chimed in, much calmer now that they were making real progress, "of how we outrealmers figure into the Realm gimmick."
"Yes." Oriole again. "But there's no rush. As it stands, you two are like blank canvases. Kittens before their oathing age. A rare opportunity, one I'm sure many of my fellow oathkeepers would like to have back. Take your time to decide on an oath. Like I said, there aren't any Breachspawns for you to smite at the moment, even if you were oath-ready."
"Yeah, why is that?" Zacarias frowned. "It sounds to me like the Aberrants here are tied closely to your [Oaths] and oaths. Is it just that you Tiryagas are too good at keeping them?"
At this, Oriole averted his gaze for what felt like the first time. Only briefly, however, before he gave another answer that leaned a little cryptic.
"No. The scarcity of Breachspawns here says more about the Day-siders than it does about us."
Zacarias frowned again, but he thought he could put two and two together. More importantly, the topic of 'Day' had just come up, which was his cue to do some more probing.
"Speaking of," he said casually, though not without a slight smirk, "did you end up sending out that letter?"
"Oh yes!" The tabbycat smiled brightly, whiskers aflutter with excitement. "Serac Edin truly is remarkable—exactly the kind of help I needed! Which is why I couldn't rightly ignore her friends, you know. She'd done me a great favor, so I thought the least I could do was…"
Oriole trailed off as he noticed Zacarias's expression. Then his dusky hazel eyes widened as he realized his own mistake.
The Manusya, for his part, couldn't see his own face. But he hoped to convey a quiet sort of menace as he smiled and said, "Yeah? How very chill of you. Say, how'd you manage to get the letter into Serac Edin's hands? Wasn't she saying 'no' until the very last moment before the cycle ended?"
"I—I guess she changed her mind? At the very last moment before—"
"We might've let slip the name 'Serac'," Bubblegum joined in as a raspier version of the Manusya interrogator, "but we never mentioned her surname once. How is it that an Anchored soul like you knew to call her Edin?"
"That—I must've—"
"Time to come clean, Brain Cell." Zacarias stood to his full height, or as much as the Cormorant's dingy cabin would allow. "Or maybe I'm the brain cell for letting you fool me for so long. You're a Wayfarer, aren't you? How is it you don't show up on Pathsight—and what else have you been hiding from us?"