We had sent the next week or so, training hard, Sy continuing to put us through our paces in the jungle gym. He pushed me harder than anyone had before but he had got us into a solid routine. The days were long and hard, they would be split into three sections and each section we would be training something different. Cardio, strength, agility, combat skills and every now and again he would set up an obstacle course where he would set traps and throw things at us to put us off.
I could feel my skills and fitness increasing so it was odd to see that my overall stats and level remained the same, despite how hard I had worked. Sy continued to assure me that this was normal and that in the long run, it would only benefit me in combat situations, he had also told me that up until now I had been incredibly lucky in the situations I had been in and that that luck was due to run out. And for those situations, I needed to be prepared.
Swimming was still my favourite part of the day, I was managing this in the mornings and the evenings and found it a great way to unwind and recover, convinced that the water had healing properties, although Sy insisted that as all in my head. It was in the water where eI felt truly free, the aches and poins would stop and I would think about things back home. I wondered if time was passing the same there, had anyone noticed I was missing by now? Outside of work I hadn’t really kept in touch with people, only sending the odd text to my family or friends when they checked in, they were used to me not replying for days on end. Would anyone even care that I wasn’t there anymore. Yeah swimming was where I did my best and my worst thinking, but I treated it like a form of meditation.
After my latest swim I had dried myself off and was just about to get dressed when a static screen opened in my vision, I knew straight away it was going to be Fidget and I wondered what she would want to talk about this time. I looked around me for Raven but I couldn’t see her, looking up at Sy’s house above the lagoon I could see the smoke from the fire and assumed she was up there helping him cook dinner. Something she had got more and more engaged in since we had been here, she seemed to have an affinity for mixing the right ingredients into the pot and Sy loved how good she was becoming with flavours.
I waited for a moment for Fidget to come into vision.
“Silas, hello, Silas.” Fidget’s familiar voice, sounded more like a butt dial, it was muffled and her voice was distant. After a few more seconds she came into view. “There you are.”
“Hi Fidget,” I said with a wave. “It’s been a while?”
“Where are you? Is that Sy’s oasis?” She took a look around, like she was trying to see though me before her wondering eyes looked me up and down. “Why are you not wearing any clothes.” her voice was stern and matter of fact.
“Well I didn’t know you were going to call and I have just been for a swim, don’ worry, I am wearing my boxers.”
“Boxer’s?” She said with a confused expression. “Is that you trying to make fun of my race? I’ll have you know that that is quite offensive.”
I shook my head and laughed, “Whoa, there, no offence meant, it is an item of clothes I am wearing, they are like a pair of shorts you wear under your pants.”
“An under garment,” she said.
“Yeah, just like that.”
“How peculiar.” she said before changing the topic “I assume you are with Sy?”
“I am, he has been putting us through our paces,”
“What do you mean us, is there more of you there.”
“It’s a figure of speech, from back home.” I lied, I was starting to feel guilty about it but figured that Raven would open up about wanting to keep secret when she was ready. Then I would be honest with Fidget about her.
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“The phrases that your kind use are quite strange, why would you refer to yourself as if you were multiple people? It just makes no sense.”
“Are you ok? Where about are you?” I started dressing myself and headed towards the rope ladder to Sy’s house. Initially walking and talking with Fidget was a little disorientating but I soon got used to it.
“I’m actually doing ok?'“ She said, the black eye had gone and her bust lip was nearly fully healed. “I have been able to keep out of the way of those Reavers since our last call, but I know they are still trailing me. Overall I think I am making good progress, I can see some mountains in the distance and if I am where I think I am, you should be southish of those mountains.”
“And if you are not?”
“I’ll figure that out if that happens.”
“Wow you re really free wheeling it.”
Fidget gave me a confused look, “Is that one of your strange figure of speech things?”
I laughed again as I climbed to the top of the rope ladder.
Sy was standing over the cooking pot, stirring whatever was inside. It smelt amazing and my stomach rumbled straight away, there were vegetable notes, mixed with some kind of meat and gravy, a bit gamey that made me want to hang up the call and dive back in.
“Sy, Fidget is here?”
He dropped the large ladle, protruding out of the cooking pot and looked around the oasis as if he was actually looking for her.
“No, she has called me.”
“Oh great,” He rushed around in front of me. “I’m glad you have finally called,” he said, “I should be able to establish a direct link with you, nothing fancy, but I should be able to hear you.” Sy waved at thin air.
“It’s so great to see you, old friend.” Fidget said, but Sy couldn’t hear her yet, he was busy doing whatever it was he was doing.
A high pitched noice pierced my ear, the pitch raising. And lowering, causing me to wince.
“Just a minute, this shouldn’t take me too long.” Sy said.
The itch continued to change as he tuned into the frequency, the magic or whatever it was that we were communicating through.
“That should just about do it, can you hear me?”
Fidget’s face lit up and her, jowls raised to what I assumed were a smile. “I can, can you hear me.”
“I can,” Sy said, “Shit,” He rushed over to the cooking pot and started stirring dinner. “We have so much to catch up on,”
“You are right,” Fidget said, “I don’t have too much longer though, the Reavers are able to locate me if I use my mana for too long, I don’t know how but it is too risky.”
“Silas told me about that, ok well excuse me waffling, I will have you talking for hours.”
“I know,” Fidget said with a soft smile, it was a welcome change to her usual serious expression. “It is so good to hear your voice.” There was a sadness as she spoke, “I needed to hear from a friend, these last few weeks, well they have been hard to say the least. She brought a hand up to her face and wiped a way tear as it rolled down her cheek.
“What happened?” Sy said, “I mean Silas has told me what he could but it would help to know precisely what you need us to do.”
“We lost,” Fidget said, her eyes welling again, “They are all gone Sy, all of them, there was only myself that survived. Something happened though, I cast a spell, I was able to get away but the Chaos Blade, it split into fragments, I think there were five. It’s hard to tell when you are spinning through a vortex, the fragments scattered in every direction that I could see, to destinations I do not know. We have to find them.”
“You’ve mentioned the fragments a few times and this Chaos Blade a few times, but you have never told me what it actually is.” I said, jumping back into the conversation.
“I am afraid I do not have time to explain, not on this call. Sy when we are done here, could you take the time to explain to Silas, the history of the Chaos Blade and what it means?”
“I can do that.”
“Thank you,”
“I think I can help with where one of these fragments might be too,” Sy said.
“Really how?” Fidget said.
“Well when Silas here mentioned them as fragments I decided to do some digging while they were away at the Labyrinth. I’ve been sending Mal back an forth with messages too and from Ruby, I think she might be able to help.”
“Ruby?” Fidget pretty much sighed and rolled her eyes at the mere mention of this Ruby.
“I know you two have clashed in the past but let's face it, she is the best person to help Silas with Chaos Powder and she has mentioned something going on near her camp. I am just waiting on Mal to get back before explaining everything to Silas.”
“Well it seems like you have a lot to catch up on, I don’t necessarily like it, but needs must. Silas, if you do head to Ruby’s camp, it will veer you slightly of course but hopefully it won’t be too much of a detour. The sooner I can get to you the better. I have-”
Fidget’s signal started wavering and flickering as she became difficult to see and hear, “I’ll sp- k wh-n It’ sfe,” Her screen vanished leaving me and Sy by the cooking pot, I took a seat by the large table, running my hand on the surface as I sat down, it somehow grounded me.
Raven appeared from around the corner, all too convenient for it not to be a co-incidence but I had more pressing matter son my mind.
“Well it seems like we have a lot to catch up on over dinner,” I said.