NOVEL NEXT 2.80: Guest
With a heavy splash, Henry fell into the pool. As the refreshingly cold water surrounded him, he closed his eyes and pushed away the noise still echoing in his head. Even though he was far from the arena, and most likely the people had already gone on and back to their daily business, the ringing was still in his ears.
He was glad he hadn't taken things too far, and honestly, it could have been a lot worse. Though now that he cooled down a bit, maybe he should have exercised some more restraint near the end. It was just that the misplaced pride and stubbornness pissed him off nearly as much as the initial offense had. Even at the end, the man did not seem to regret his actions.
Henry stretched his arms and sighed. That was not his problem anymore. He would figure something out with Zerathstra when he came to visit, but the ape had promised that the lord would be watched and would not be able–nor allowed–to cause any issues and for Henry, that was good enough for now.
The kraken's musings were interrupted a few moments later, when two successive splashes broke the silence. The first was somewhat light, as if someone had thrown a small boulder in, while the second was significantly heavier. Now that they were both here, he dispelled his clone.
"[Henry! Are you okay?]"
Henry exhaled and cracked one eye open to see the crab beating his pincers to get closer. "[Yes. I'm fine. J—]"
"[Good! Can we have some tuna? Stormsong hasn't had any.]"
Henry stared back for a moment, then shook his head and summoned one of the tunas before placing it at the edge of the pool. Frankly, now that he was handling the fish, and now that this whole mess was in the process of being dealt with, he felt a bit hungry himself.
"[Here,]" Henry said before summoning a smaller specimen right into his beak and chomping on it. "[No one bothered you two?]"
"[Nope. We just watched.]"
Over the next few minutes, the three ate while Stormsong told them about her daily routine in Thalis. Surprisingly, she was still having a lot of fun teaching kids and learning in turn about other kinds of magic and skills. Henry listened as he ate in silence, but with his Octominds, he tried to tune back to his Aspect and channel that presence he'd used in the fight once more. He was sure he could use that ability if he got better at it. To his surprise, he found it somewhat easy to project the weight of his Aspect. Much easier than he'd expected. Unfortunately, he quickly had to stop as it was making both Maurice and Stormsong slightly uncomfortable, which told him he'd need somewhere more isolated to practice.
But now that he was getting better at using this new sense, he perceived it when another presence approached, even though it didn't seem like the newcomer wanted to be obvious. To Henry, it felt like someone invisible was sneaking closer, but they couldn't hide their shadow as well as their body.
As if to confirm Henry's suspicion, Maurice suddenly stopped eating and looked up before he waved a claw. "[Hi Zerathstra!]"
Henry looked up to see the ape dropping from a higher branch before landing on the other side of the pool. The ape peered over the water at the half-eaten tuna with an odd expression on his face, and Henry glanced back at the mess Maurice was making. The crab pulled a handful of guts out and started munching before he spoke to the ape. "[Do you want some?]"
The ape's face scrunched up and he shook his head, but unlike the other time, he wasn't making himself at ease. He stayed up, arms behind his back. "No, thanks. I'm not big on fish. And nice aura," he said, turning to Henry. "Scary. Arisia's already on her way, and you better be ready because she's going to put you through hell for the next couple of weeks. But that's not what I'm here for."
The ape took a deep breath, and met Henry's gaze. "I'm here to talk about what happens next. With Tevarius."
Maurice and Stormsong went quiet, slowly turning to look at Henry.
The kraken chewed, then using his illusory voice, he answered. "Sure. What do you have in mind?"
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"Simple enough. He's being exiled. He wants to be back in old lands so bad, he could help repopulate them. That's my punishment and solution to prevent any further escalations."
Henry began fashioning himself a body as he approached the edge of the pool. "What if he tells the world where Thalis is? What if he still causes trouble? Also, can he even survive the trip? Not that I care what happens to him, but I thought things were about to get dangerous soon, and I don't see him lasting long against even a high B-rank, much less A-ranks."
The ape summoned a zucchini-looking fruit with yellow and green striations, and crunched into it. "Well, to start, oaths are effective," Zerathstra said mid-chew. "He knows I'll know if he breaks them, and if he survives the backlash from that, I'll be finishing the job. As for Thalis' existence, well… It's not really a secret. People know we exist. Those in power at least. They don't know where we are, not exactly, and the journey's dangerous enough that no one really wants to take any risk and bother us. This place is… amazing to those in power, but they are very aware they can't make it work if they don't have me. Whether some people want to admit it or not, Thalis doesn't exist without me," he added, voice low as he stared into the vegetable with an almost forlorn gaze. But as soon as the expression came on, it melted away, and the ape grinned once more. "As for his safety and those going with him, well, he's lucky one of our best and brightest is coming in for a visit. She'll be able to drop him off outside of the Pillars."
All three guests looked up at once at that. Someone who could travel safely in the Current? Who would that be?
****
Ash looked into the distance, her smoked fish sandwich gripped too tightly in her hand, then slowly brought it close for a bite as she stared at the horizon. Specifically, at the slowly approaching wall of yellow light. She glanced down at the sandwich, throat tight, and looked around to find Velistraine staring in the same direction with her hands on her hips, a wide grin on her face.
Ash swallowed, then lowered her sandwich. "I thought we were just getting close to the Pillars. Why are we not stopping?"
The captain raised a brow. "Why would we stop?"
Ash stood there, mouth agape.
The captain waved a hand as if she'd tried to push away Ash's worries. Unsuccessfully. "Don't worry. You two have been training, and in any case, I'm here. We'll be fine. This'll be good for you and Fabian. Plus, you two are C-ranks now. It'll be easier for you two to level in there than out here. We just need to be careful for a couple of days and then we'll be safe."
Ash swallowed. Her mouth was suddenly very dry. "Safe… in the Pillars? How? What if there are more things like that crab that destroyed Stormfront? What if there's worse?"
She was hyperventilating. The sandwich in her hand was slowly making her more nauseous. She shouldn't have gone for the smoked fish. That was the only thing she could smell and taste, and it was coming back up.
Ray walked by, a notebook in his hand, and came to stop right in front her. Ash found herself staring at the notebook and somehow, her thoughts held on to it as if it was a piece of driftwood in the middle of the ocean. Right, he'd been doing his daily inspections. Ash liked Ray. He didn't like surprises.
The first mate looked at her face for a second, turned to the grimacing Velistraine, then looked back at the looming Pillar. Then slowly, his head turned to the captain, who was suspiciously averting her eyes as she wiped some dust off her coat.
"You didn't tell her."
"I just did," she mumbled, and when the man continued glaring, she threw her hands up. "I thought it'd be a nice surprise!"
Ray blinked, then rubbed his face with a hand before he pointed at Ash. She had to admit, this bickering was helping the panic.
"Does this look like a nice surprise? Dammit, Velistraine. Did you tell Fabian? Or are you trying to give him a panic attack as well? Nevermind, I'll take care of it. Ash," Ray called out, and a moment later, he waved a hand in front of her face and snapped his fingers. "Look at me."
Ash did as told. Her hands still felt clammy. Her sandwich was probably ruined. Could sweat ruin bread?
"Ash! It'll be fine. There's a whole city in there. Protected by one of the most powerful beings in this world. We'll be safe, okay? And even if something shows up, we can get away. So it'll be fine. It's not as bad as the stories say in there. In a way. It'll be fine, alright? Are you with me?"
Ash nodded, and focused on her breath. They were going into the Pillars. No big deal.
She looked down at her sandwich, and took a tentative bite while Velistraine ran away from her first mate's berating. For a moment, she felt a bit of excitement peek through the sheer terror of the idea.
If she survived, she was going to have an amazing story to tell.