Chapter 243 - Normalcy

Cold sweat drenched his shirt, and his heart thumped furiously. Kai crouched on a hard wooden surface, ready to jolt into action. One hand was wrapped in warm sheets, the other tightly gripped his sword.

Where is the threat?

The whispers were silent, he wasn’t in danger.

Panic receded, slow like the tides. No wounds on his ankle either, just two sets of thin symmetrical scars that had long since healed. Squinting in the dark, he could faintly make out the outline of the guest room in his family house—in Sylspring.

He was safe.

Just another nightmare. Dammit.

Kai put away the sword and took out an enchanted light to ascertain the state of the bedroom. He had pushed the bed sideways and dented the headboard. Getting the furniture back into place was easy, but he couldn’t shape dead wood. Nature’s domain was about living things, or nurturing life from death in a cycle.

I’ll ask the carpenters in the market. Someone must have a way to fix it.

He scrubbed a hand through his hair. The last thing he needed was his family fussing over him with worry. They had just managed to rebuild a veil of normalcy with Kien’s birthday, and he wanted to keep it that way.

Why do you have to complicate things, foolish brain?

More by habit than foresight, he had already installed dampening talismans. The enchanted scraps of mana trees blocked sounds from leaving his room, while allowing him to hear what happened outside. No one else would be made aware of the racket tonight.

Kai took off his shirt and cast a Water spell to rinse off the sweat. After surviving the Sanctuary, his mind insisted on complicating his life with such nonsense. He had dared to hope it was over when he slept through the previous night. No such luck.

I just need a few more weeks…

“Mrooow.” Hobbes perched on his wardrobe, watching him with deep blue eyes. With a graceful leap, the cat landed on his bed and stretched his limbs.

“How long have you been watching, huh?” Kai scratched the furry troublemaker behind the ears. His restlessness must have flown through their bond and alerted him.

“Meew.” The lovable pest rubbed against his outstretched arm, sounding almost worried.

“I just had a bad dream. Next time I’ll close the connection before slee— ahi!” Kai jolted back, his arm now sported three thin red lines.

Hobbes watched him with a disgruntled look. “Mrooow.”

“Okay.” Kai raised his hands in exasperation. “The bond stays open.”

With a curt meow and a swish of his fluffy tail, the cat overlord disappeared in a silver blink.

I can’t tell if he loves me or wants me dead…

It was pitch-black outside as the moons were hidden behind a layer of clouds. Kai slumped on his bed to get a few more hours of sleep. But slow, regular breaths couldn’t rid him of the bloody fangs he saw when he closed his eyes. Looking for a distraction, his thoughts moved to his family, Kien’s future, his sister's coming baby…

Spirits, I’m going to be an uncle…

Kai turned under the sheets, unable to sleep till the warm rays of dawn filtered through his window. On the floor above, a bed lightly creaked as someone got up.

Good enough.

He slipped out of his room and into the bathroom. The icy water erased his sleepiness, though it couldn’t erase the dark bags under his eyes.

I mean, they’re barely noticeable.

The problem with having a family gifted with superhuman Perception was that they tended to notice these details. Kai fought down an unruly curl with Water Magic to look less disheveled and headed into the kitchen.

I promised Mom we’d go out together today…

Moui was already at the stove, cooking some kind of reddish pancakes that smelled of fruits and burnt sugar. “Morning! Had trouble sleeping?” The hunter commented after taking a single glance over his shoulder.

Dammit.

“Hmm… I stayed up reading my old journals.”

When did I become such a shitty liar?

Moui’s tone remained jovial. “Really?”

“No.” He admitted. “I woke up in the middle of the night and couldn’t get back to sleep.”

“I see. Why don’t you take a seat?” Moui flipped the pancakes in the pan. “These are Kien’s favorites, I thought you might like them too.”

A dozen reddish pancakes with honey and berries were quickly served on a plate. Seeing the hunter’s hopeful gaze, Kai helped himself to breakfast and added an extra dose of enthusiasm. “Mhmm… These are great!”

“Thank you,” Moui smiled and took a seat across from him. “Though you’ve said that for everything you’ve eaten since you came back.”

Kai covered his chewing mouth to speak. “It’s not my fault if you’ve all become such great cooks.”

“I’ll take the compliment, even if I don't know how deserved it is.” His demeanor turned more serious, lacing his finger above the table. “I know you went through a traumatic experience. It’s normal if you’re having trouble adapting to living in a safe place.”

“I’m—”

“You don’t need to tell me any details unless you want to.” Moui halted him. “Just be patient with yourself. It’ll take time to recover from two years in that place.”

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

He pursed his lips. “But I’m ready to move on.”

“It’s not that simple.” Moui's eyes lit with sympathy. “If you’re having nightmares, it could be your mind telling you’re not ready.”

Kai sank in his seat. He had successfully escaped the island, why couldn’t he forget about it and go on with his life?

A deep sigh escaped his lips. “It’s just strange being back in town. And people in the streets keep staring at me for some reason.”

They know I don’t belong here…

Moui burst out in a hearty laughter. “Sorry.” Despite his attempts to suppress it, his lips kept curving upwards. “Have you tried not looking at passersby as if they’re tonight’s dinner?”

“I’m not! My aura is perfectly contained.” Kai remembered a similar conversation with switched places. Maybe that was why his uncle found it that hilarious.

“It’s not about your presence,” the hunter looked for the right words. “It’s your demeanor.”

“What about it? Is there something wrong with my face?” His hand rose to his nose and cheekbones.

“You look at people as if you're determining whether they’re predator or prey. It can be a bit intense and unsettling, especially for strangers.”

“I—” Kai silenced his instinct to deny it. He had spent two years hunting and being hunted by beasts, perhaps it wasn’t the wildest theory. “How do I fix it?”

“I’m not exactly the most approachable,” Moui muttered with a frown. “Everyone else in this house might be better to ask. Maybe try to look more relaxed?”

And how do I do that? Hmm… this is going to take a while.

*

“You sure you don’t want to come?” Ele leaned on the prow of the boat. A month after the announcement, the belly bump still wasn’t visible, though her hand often wandered there.

Sabe carried a waxed canvas bag on one shoulder and a coiled rope on the other. “We know the area quite well. It’s perfectly safe. I’ve got a skill to check if there are beasts nearby.”

Kai wished the man knew about Hallowed Intuition to see how funny he sounded. “I’m good. I promised Kien we'd build a magic shelter together.” While they hadn’t exactly set a date, today worked as well as any other.

“It’ll have to be another time then.” Sabe loaded the ship with a disappointed slouch. “You still owe me a rematch.”

“Next low tide. And don’t blame me if I still find more pearls.” Their last hunt had been good training for Treasure Sense. “I told you I’m pretty lucky.” To say Kai liked the guy would be a stretch, but he could now look at his face without feeling the need to punch it.

“We’ll see. I won’t underestimate you again, mage boy.” Sabe's grin burned with fiery competitiveness.

I’m still in time to strangle you.

“Don’t spoil Kiki too much.” Ele stepped between them. “And don’t grow another tree in the courtyard. You gave old Nem a fright. Next time she might actually kick you out.”

That granny made so much fuss about a little sapling. It barely reached over the house.

“Don’t worry. You won’t find a leaf out of place.” Kai gave his word. One of the essential characteristics of a good shelter was that it had to be concealed. He could compress the Earth below the garden to create a secret chamber or two.

Kien will like that.

Ele arched an eyebrow as if she saw right through him. “Kai…”

“Be safe. I’ll see you at dinner.” He waved goodbye to the couple. They had started to go pearling without a low tide to keep ahead of the growing competition in Sylspring. The boat rowed with synchronized movements away from the moor.

Kai strolled down the pier. He wasn’t scared of the sea, but it unsettled him when he couldn’t see the shore, or he had to dive into a dark underwater cave too deep to sweep with his skills.

One step at a time.

He had improved his demeanor with Ele and Flynn’s help, his gaze casually wandered without stopping on any one person. No heads turned to stare. Well, almost nobody. A skinny girl about his age eyed him from across the pier. When he reciprocated the look, she scampered away.

What’s that about? She’s the weird one.

In the end, he did only need time to adapt. Longer than he had envisioned, but he was still making progress. While the nightmares hadn’t disappeared, he could usually tell when he was in a dream and stopped breaking the furniture.

Baby steps.

When he had tried to solve all his fears and paranoias at once, it only made them worse. Palaces were built one brick at a—

“Hey!” A pair of hands grabbed his shoulders.

Kai jolted back and narrowly managed to avoid falling into the sea. He glared at the smiling jerk that had sneaked up on him. “Was that necessary?”

“Yup.” Flynn cheerfully nodded, wisps of Shadow dispersing around him. “I can finally get behind your back without you noticing.”

“And that would be a good thing?”

“Of course it is.” Flynn watched him like a proud, weird uncle. “It means you feel safe-ish.”

Kai threw him a dirty look. One month outside and his instincts were already slipping. “So when I die in an ambush, at least I’ll have been in a relaxed mood.”

“Oh, don’t be a silly crab. I still had to use my skills. And if I had bad intentions, Hallowed Intuition would have warned you. That’s why you picked the skill.”

“You’re just pleased you managed to sneak up on me,” Kai grumbled, failing to find any reasonable objection.

“Well… I can’t deny it. But that doesn’t mean I’m not right,” Flynn said with a cheeky grin. “Learning to relax when there aren’t any threats around is a good thing. Otherwise, you’ll just go crazy.”

Despite his desire to rob him of his smugness, Kai could see his point. “I guess you aren’t totally wrong. Anyway, I thought you weren’t due for another day. When did you get back?”

“Oh, about ten minutes ago, give or take. An old friend gave me a ride.”

Old friend…?

Kai stopped in his tracks. “Reishi is back in the archipelago?”

“And people say you can’t be smart and pretty.” Flynn ruffled his hair, but Kai was too zoned out to care. He had broken their contract by disappearing and likely cost the merfolk no small amount of mesars.

“Does he want to see me?”

“Of course. I told him you were alive. I hope you don’t mind. I couldn’t resist making him spill his fancy tea. You should have seen how his crest shot up. I’ve never…” Flynn described the merman’s shock with gusto.

“Is he waiting for me right now?” Kai scanned the ships moored at the dock. “I told Kien I’d play with him.”

“I can do that for you. I need to remind Kiki who his favorite person is. We can’t all grow a colossal oak to buy his favor.”

“It wasn’t that big.” Not compared to the ones in the Sanctuary.

“Kai, you planned to build a treehouse on it. It was pretty damn huge.” Flynn followed his gaze. “If you're looking for Reishi’s boat, it’s over there. The one that oozes wealth and opulence.” He pointed to a three-mast vessel with shimmering silver sails and a dark hull, floating a hundred meters offshore.

“I just walk over there?”

“Just tell the guys on the boat over there I sent you, they’ll bring you on board. I can accompany you if you want.”

“No, I— it’s fine.”

“Okay, then I’ll see you at home. I’ll tell your mother you might be late, don’t let that greedy fish rope you into some deal.”

“Huh, yeah.” Standing on the pier alone, Kai realized he hadn’t been paying attention to who would ferry him onto the ship.

I’m pretty sure Flynn said the guy’s over there.

The issue was he only had a vague notion of where ‘there’ was. Two dozen boats crowded the area, and he wasn’t in the mood to talk to strangers.

Hmm… It won’t be any weirder than coming back from the dead.

Weaving a veil of Shadow, Kai walked off the wooden pier and into the sea. Forcing a moving surface to be solid without freezing it first would have been tricky before he learned Split Mind. Now he easily skipped over the waves, dropping his cloak when the vessel loomed over him like a marine behemoth.

He could leap on board, but hopping on uninvited wouldn’t be polite.

Guess I should knock.

Kai tapped the black hull with his knuckles. “Ehm, excuse me?”

Maybe I should speak louder…

He had never liked shouting. Luckily, a young sailor leaned over the railing to check for the disturbance.

Putting a month of effort to good use, Kai wore his most approachable smile and friendly waved. “Down here. Hello, I’m—”

The man darted back with a yelp and a pale face.

Rude.

There was some arguing, but the arrays of the ship scrambled the sounds into an unintelligible noise.

“Uh, I should have known it was you.” A familiar scaled face stuck his head out with a bright orange and green crest, looking down amused. “Flynn told me you were back, but I couldn’t believe it.” Reishi turned to yell over his shoulder. “What are you waiting for? Get him on board.”

Feet shuffled above to let a rope ladder fall beside his head. Kai quickly climbed the rungs, stepping onto a deck humming with enchantments. Half a dozen sailors stared at him as if he were a ghost coming to haunt them, the other half with wary suspicion.

“Hi.” His sunny disposition only made the young crewmen shrink back.

“Stop being such babies, he’s a boring old human. I don’t pay you to gawk at my guests. Get back to work!” Reishi ordered the sailors away. The merman’s pale blue eyes scanned him from head to toe with an approving nod. “Look at you, all grown up. You sure do know how to make an entrance.”

Kai looked at his feet, embarrassed. “I didn’t mean to scare your crew.”

“Don’t mind them. Sailors are a superstitious bunch.” Reishi dismissed his worries with a wave, causing the embroidery of his silk robe to shine. “Come, we have much to discuss. A lot has changed since you disappeared.”