Chapter 106: Flourish Revival

Subject: Caim Location: Riventread - Outlying Area

By the time Gire's glowing body touched down, Caim and the commander were already waiting below. The commander caught Gire, though with how slowly he was falling, the fall didn't seem particularly dangerous.

It worked! Caim silently cheered.

It was a muted celebration. Fatigue clung heavily to his body and mind alike.

With a slight flutter, the Tracer opened his eyes. They flitted between the commander's worry and Caim's beleaguered relief. Realizing he was being carried, his eyes widened and his cheeks reddened slightly. He didn't care about how Caim saw him, not after the pitiful struggle they'd both been a party to, but he probably didn't want such a respected figure to see him like this.

That and... his armor, lightweight and mobile, was more than a little damaged. As was Caim's, but a little embarrassment was nothing to his tired mind.

It was hard to hold a candle to the experience of having his entire physical form subjected to the world transfer. Those around could see a little more skin than he'd have liked, but Vera's kind had scried his very being. That's what it felt like.

"C-Commander?! What are you doing here?" Gire exclaimed, entirely uncharacteristically, as far as Caim had experienced.

"Welcome back, darlin'," the commander chuckled.

He briefly glanced at Caim, seemingly wondering whether it would be alright to let Gire down onto his own two feet. Caim shrugged and extended his palms in a "may as well try" gesture.

"How do you feel?" he asked, letting Gire down.

The Tracer held out his hands, examining the whole of his body. He took a deep breath, astounded that the wheezing was gone. But that reminded Caim of something.

Flourish Catalyst [ Beacon B Assigned ] [ Beacon C Assigned ]

He assigned a Flourish Catalyst Beacon to the commander, for good measure. The giant man stared down at his hands, watching the translucent vines curl around him, flowing with green and yellow blossoms light.

Flourish Catalyst [ Beacon A Recalibrated ]

Caim recalibrated his own Beacon to the default configuration to match the newly applied beacons.

"I feel fine, sir. What's the status of the festerfont?" he asked, looking around. "Where's the breachworm?"

The commander briefly filled the Tracer in on what he'd missed, and everything he'd told Caim. Gire listened quietly through it all, only nodding.

Based on what he knew of Gire's personality, Caim expected disbelief and maybe a snarky comment or two. The respect the Tracer had for Commander Row made him take everything at face value. He didn't debate a thing. It was true if the commander said it.

"So the Security Division has it's heroes too..." Caim accidentally mumbled aloud.

Everett Row looked at him with wide eyes. Then he cracked a delightful grin, shaking his head.

"If you mean me, I'm just a man. Nothing like our very own, solo fixer here," he gestured to Gire.

Caim laughed, and Gire grunted in exasperation.

There was a lull in the conversation. So much had happened, it was hard to know where to venture next. Finally, Caim took a risk.

"What do you remember?" Caim and Commander Row both asked simultaneously.

"What do I remember?" Gire repeated, squinting. "I don't know. I guess I remember taking a lethal dose of Tracer's Pox, for all the good that did. I could barely breathe, so I planted my dagger."

"You saved me before falling down that crevice," Caim mumbled sullenly, pointing.

Gire thought for a moment.

"Did I fall? Then how did I end up back here? I don't see an excavation team."

Caim rushed to answer before conclusions could be drawn.

"Flourish Revival. It's a spell I used for the first time today, and it brought you back.

His efforts were wasted.

"He brought you back from the dead, comrade."

"Death? Why didn't you tell me you could do that?!"

"I told you, I only learned how to do it during the battle, and only because of those seeds you gave me. Besides, I don't think you were dead. Only nearly dead."

"Forgive me commander, but I don't believe him. This Initiate is the only reason I'm alive, but he--"

"I wouldn't either, no offense Caim. Except... I saw it firsthand. You were dead, as far as I'm concerned. Lost to the abyss. Just looking around at this festerfont, I can't imagine any living thing still draws breath here. But you died, and then you rose again from the dead. Literally, as in you rose into the air, like the Remnant herself forced you back to breathe among the living, tugging you by the soul tethers."

"Please don't--"

"We won't," the commander promised, already knowing what Caim was going to ask.

"We can't. If we told anyone about this there'd be chaos. True or false, it might be enough to trigger a purge. I don't want a squad of Knightmares trashing our Guild Hall next."

Gwen told Caim that Hexaline Knights were a rarity. There were, after all, only thirty-six of them in all the Theocracy.

"Thank you."

"Now, could you tell me more about your battle? The scouts reported that you two were fighting when we got there. How did you keep the fight going this long?"

Gire glanced at Caim, who shrunk away from his harsh stare.

The conversation went on like this.

Subject: Caim Location: Riventread - Outlying Area

They gathered at the border of the festerfont. Commander Row had spoken to his subordinates and ordered all but a handful of them to return ahead of them.

Caim had overheard him ordering an underling to say nothing of what they had witnessed, especially nothing about "living gods". Whatever that meant.

"So, Initiate. What do you think of your supporter?" The commander asked him.

He meant Mille.

"I'm very grateful to her. I was lucky enough to find a friend in Alice, but Mille has also been great to me."

The commander was studying him with an unflinching gaze. Caim didn't know what he was looking for. All the while, Gire followed at a disciplined gait, neither tight on their heels nor too far behind.

"I don't know this Alice, but you really enjoy Mille's company?"

Caim felt like he was being jovially escorted to an interrogation booth. It wasn't that he felt unsafe, he just knew the pair didn't quite trust him.

"I mean, she can be a pain, but she's only doing it because she doesn't want me to die. She's doing it for me, and for her friend, of course. Alice is her seeker friend. I like Mille, and I think she is coming around to me too. I still haven't done much for her, but I haven't really found anything I can do yet that she can't already do better. Or, something that she can't have Alice do. Alice is much stronger than me."

Caim smiled up at Commander Row, but the commander didn't smile back. Instead, he didn't seem to believe something in his words.

"I didn't think we had anyone like that in our Branch. Mille picks her company carefully, and I wouldn't question her, but perhaps you misunderstood her title?"

"Maybe, what do you mean? Let's see... She mentioned she was a Seeker Ardent, soon to be Seeker Adept. She's really been pushing to cross the gap or something. She took on Shimmerden's varcers like they were nothing. Only the mutated one gave her trouble," Caim rambled.

The commander squinted at him.

"Yes... I see. I misunderstood. It's just... Nevermind. We all weigh by our own scales."

Alice really was stronger than Caim.

The commander didn't know the truth. He didn't know that Caim wasn't actually a mage, that his abilities were limited, and that he knew little about this world. Everything he did know came from the merchant Gwen, the flourishflora specialist Novette, Seeker Ardent Alice, Guild Clerk Mille, or his contacts at the Guild.

"I can't tell if you're being serious, Caim, but I can tell you what you can do for her if you feel a debt is owed."

"Really?" Caim asked, curious.

"Our nation places an ever-increasing burden on its citizens. High expectations lead to stress, and religious shaming leads to resentment. We can't very well argue against national policy, but we can offload some of that stress, and redirect some of that resentment, onto our nonhuman citizens. If you want to do something for Mille, be an ally to her. Not a stupid one. She doesn't need you dead and she doesn't need you to boisterously defend her and make more enemies, but anyone could use a shoulder to lean on once in a while, especially when it can feel like your home nation is against you. When your existence is judged unholy."

Caim's smile vanished, and he slowed his pace. When the commander matched this new pace, he leaned in close.

"I'll keep that in mind, but you should know about a certain Hexknight in Shroud. He raised some red flags when he spoke to me after the attack on the Guild."

"Red flags?"

Maybe the expression didn't translate.

"I don't know. He said he was on our side, but Mille was there. You can ask her. She told me to drop it, and my magic isn't strong enough to stop him right now. I had no concept of how powerful he was. I won't be strong enough for some time now."

Caim felt heavy hands on his shoulders. He looked into the commander's serious eyes.

"She's right. Don't ever try to go against a Hexknight. When you feel yourself thinking those thoughts, think of the people who care about you. People who'd miss you, or join you in the gallows. But it's no wonder Mille likes you."

He shook his head.

"I don't think she does. It's more like she tolerates me, and appreciates that I'm nice to Alice. But I don't do it for her."

Commander Row shrugged.

"Sure, but it's hard to see Mille taking enough time off work to get close to anyone. It makes me happy just hearing she has this Alice person. I should probably end this conversation here and hasten the march back."

"Oh yeah... How did you kill the breachworm, by the way?"

The commander grunted.

"That's just it. I don't know how I'm going to explain it, but we have witnesses from every direction where we stationed troops, and I even saw it myself. A floating... giant person... or something sort of like it, appeared. There were two of them, actually, and they were far away. No one knows what they did, but before we could launch our full assault, the breachworm was chopped to pieces."

Caim's chest pounded. He forced himself to steady his breathing, and tried to balance his steps.

"Did this person have blue hair? Violet skin?!" he demanded, unable to hold the question back.

"I don't know. They were too far away to see through our smoke signals and make out the color or anything specific. We just knew they looked like a person. I know it sounds insane. I don't believe it, and I saw it with my own two eyes."

It was Vera. I know it was her. Great, now I owe her even more. Caim reframed the thought. There's another way to look at it. I'm a tool to her, and she only saved me for herself. I owe her nothing.

He felt a presence above, and snapped his gaze to see if he could spot Vera up there. Instead, it was like the light went out and it was night. Everything around vanished, and the sky was full of bright lights.

This was a familiar sight. Again, he was walking through shallow waters. He continued in the direction he'd been travelling.

They looked like stars, but he knew they were not. It still felt like he was being watched, but when he blinked hard and opened his eyes again, everything was back to normal, and the commander was walking away.

He needed to somehow speak to Vera right away.