“So…What have you all been up to?” Augen asked as the group of four sat around the table near one of his favorite breakfast spots by the waterfront before the young waitress sent forth plates of local pancakes with jars of nut butter and berry jam through a Cast written on the tables.
“Well…where should we even start with…” Lera glanced towards Wu who had become completely mesmerized by the process of food landing magically onto their tables one plate after another, “Talonia? We met up with Alina the Valkyrie general and…Ita again. There was some crazy conspiracy going on where the entire capital city was nearly turned into an entire army of demons.”
“Damn.” Augen asked, turning his head to Ver, “What about you?”
“I was just being bored at home.” Ver said, “Until they came over, and the entire Ethereal realm almost got flattened to bits.”
“Almost.” Wu emphasized, “Only a fancy mansion was actually destroyed. Well, nearly alongside the entirety of the realm's leadership.”
“No big deal, really.” Lera shrugged, “No big deal.”
“Yeah…right…” Augen smiled and laughed, “Let's just hope that the Western continent wouldn't sink by the time you guys leave here.”
Wu and Lera shared an uneasy glance before Wu finally broke his hesitation and opened his mouth.
“Never say never, but...it ain't easy for a continent to sink...I think.” Wu said, picking up a pancake at last before copying what Augen did with the nut butter and the syrup, and the first meal that wasn’t fish food was certainly far more delicious.
“About that…” Augen turned his head towards where he last heard Wu’s voice, “I may need your help. Well…someone I encountered may need your help in Necrovia. But…I haven’t even asked why you guys are here yet…”
“General PORA business…” Lera explained quickly, "We have dealt with most of them in the East, but the majority of their focus lied in the West."
“That isn't too surprising...” Augen tilted his head slightly, “But I am willing to bet that whatever their business is, it’s going to be happening in the Yarka Kingdom.”
“Then we will go there,” Wu said.
“That’s not the easiest thing to do either.” Augen said, “Traveling on the Western continent is far more difficult than you might expect, with each of the kingdoms more segregated by years of ongoing battles and histories of conflicts…apart from the few tiny countries along the coast that nobody really care about.”
“Like…Eternal Xia?” Ver asked.
“And Kingdom of the Eastern Sun.” Augen added, “Remember Shin and Braka? That’s where they were from.”
“Right…” Wu said, “So…if anything, we could make sure that Necrovia is free of PORA business, right? That’s something. Plus, help out your friend here.”
“That’s why you are the savior.” Augen snapped his fingers, “Damn…I missed your pragmatism and decisiveness!”
“Right…” Lera looked briefly at Wu as Augen hurried to stuff the pancake down his stomach. Then, she looked at Ver who shared a look of concern.
“Augen.” Lera spoke at last, “You haven’t…told us what’s been happening with you…”
“Nothing exciting apart from that thing.” Augen said quickly before he nearly choked on the pancake as Ver reached out with her tentacle and offered him a cup of water by his side, “Cough cough cough…”
“We are worried about you, Augen…” Wu said with a slow tone, “And…we can’t read your past, so we won’t know what’s been happening with you unless you tell us. I’d imagine you being with Fatera last, right? Do you know where she is now?”
Augen ignored him, and he continued chomping away at the pancake in front of him. Then, when he finished, he took another one from the plate in the middle before smearing the last of the nut butter all over it. With a fork raised up high, Augen stabbed it into the cake and rolled it over. However, his appetite vanished all of a sudden.
The three watched him in silence, and he felt their Wave slowly shifting in their bodies. With a deep breath in and out, Augen put the fork down.
“You know Yan the Lostless?” He asked.
“The strongest human?” Ver asked.
“He’s real?” Lera added.
“Yes. He came for her.” Augen said, “And…I couldn’t stop her.”
“Wait…he attacked her?” Wu said quickly when Augen shook his head and elaborated quickly.
“He…came for her, because she’s his daughter." Augen said when the three fell into complete and utter silence.
"I knew it’s coming. I have known ever since we trained on the island, and from then on, I knew he’s bad news for her." Augen continued, scratching his head in a slow-building frenzy, "I…I thought I could prevent that future from happening, but I can’t stop her, nor him, and so I didn't. I couldn't convince either of them either. And now, they are just gone. Poof! Gone into the wind! No way for me to see where they are anymore, not even in my past, nor the future! Not even with the Casts that took away my eyes!”
“What are you talking about?” Ver put her hand on the table and leaned forward.
“I lied to her! Ok? I lied to her!” Augen threw his hands up, “I…I told her what she wanted to hear, and…what I wanted to tell her…I thought it’s for the best that she won't be haunted by the ghosts of her father anymore!”
“Was that truly for her best, or was it most convenient for you…I suppose we will never know, right?” Wu asked though he kept his tone light as Augen turned towards him. Even without seeing his eyes, Wu knew what Augen was thinking in his mind.
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“I suppose we will never know.” Augen lowered his head, “I…don’t even want to think about it. If he wanted, we would never see her again.”
“You are the one who told me that the Ten Hellish Phantoms are what I needed to fulfill my task as the savior.” Wu reminded, “And she was supposed to be one of them.”
“She was.” Augen rested his head in between his arms on the table and sighed, “I haven’t looked that far in the future for a long time…who knows if it had changed. And if a future is truly malleable, Yan would be one of those beings to mold it.”
“Remember what we talked about before?” Wu said, rubbing Augen’s green hair with his fingers, “About focusing on the factors that we can control, and doing what’s we believe is right at this moment?”
Wu felt Augen’s back rise and fall with a slower and calmer breath, and he straightened up once again.
“So…what do you have in mind?” Wu asked, “What happened in Necrovia?”
As Augen traveled alone down South past the borders of the Kingdom of Basha into the domains of Necrovia all those months ago, he immediately noticed the vastly different field of Wave around him. As many foreigners would come to realize, the rumors about Necrovia’s drought in the Wave were certainly true.
What’s even more curious was that he was forced to do the complete opposite of what people needed to do within the bounds of the Academy. Up there, the Wave was abundant and overflowing, and Augen had to maintain his own Wave and shield it against external influence, or he would end up feeling like Lera in her first few days, always appearing drunk and running into different things.
Down here, if he didn’t guard his own Wave against the lack of Wave in the desserts, his very own reserve would have slowly drained out from his body, all the way until he's fully exhausted and completely useless. Even with his every step, Augen had watched some strands of blue leak into the sand from under his feet.
“I suppose if you want to run away to the end of this Earth…this is where you would go.”
Augen wondered how anyone could have survived in this environment as he continued journeying forward.
The endless dune seas extended way past the horizon, and there was no sense of direction beyond the sun and moons overhead. He carried on with no particular destination in mind, pausing occasionally when he came across one of the dessert cacti and sliced it open for some fluids before continuing on.
This is suicide. Augen knew two cacti in, perhaps…this was a fitting end for him after all. His friends are going to be fine without him, if they are still alive.
As he slept on the rapidly cooling sands with the night greeting him with the stars as his blanket and earth as his cushion, the hold on his Wave finally started to loosen slightly.
Ever since he departed from Fatera, he had been tempted to use his Forbidden Winter: Window of Burning Future more and more. He needed to know whether their stories ended back in the forest, or could they have gotten back together in the distant future. He needed to know whether the visions of the Ten Hellish Phantoms fighting side by side were real still. However, he knew that this won't be any different from before, as Yan the Lossless' mastery of the Wave was well beyond his comprehension.
As he dreamed away and his Wave leaked through his guard into the Earth, the forbidden Cast became activated subtly, and yet another fragment of vision entered his mind.
Or so he thought. As the flames of the dried cacti skin slowly extinguished in front of his eyes as the charcoal glowed red hot, he felt a weak Wave signature moving through the desert. He yawned and scratched the sand grains off his face as the sounds of ruffling sands became too noticeable for him to ignore. Expanding his Wave-sensing abilities outward, he realized that the one moving through the dessert alone actually had considerable Wave reserve.
However, he cannot afford to keep utilizing his Wave at the current rate, or he won’t be lasting for much longer in this dessert.
“It’s…probably just an animal…” Augen rolled over to the other side when he heard the sound of a plop followed by a pained groan. He tried to ignore it and keep sleeping, when the sense of unease kept him up, “Shit…what am I even doing…”
Pressing himself up, he then ran towards the location of the rapidly dwindling Wave signature not too far away. He could still hear weak breathing, and by hovering his hand right over the body, he could feel its warmth.
“Are you okay?” Augen asked, placing a hand on the shoulders of the person before being surprised by how soft it felt. Long strands of hair brushed against his fingers, and he stepped back slightly.
He now felt annoyed that he could never tell one’s gender apart through the Wave.
“I…need…water…” A rascally feminine voice came through, “I…”
“Here.” Augen immediately offered much to his own surprise, and the pouch filled with the day-old cactus juice was immediately placed in the girl's hand. She took a sip, and a wave of disturbance spread through her entire Wavefield. However, she still swallowed it all, “I know. It’s rank.”
“No good…” She dropped her head in the sand, “I’d rather die than drink another sip.”
“You would soon…” Augen sat down as the girl pressed herself up slowly, however, her arms were also cramping up and preventing her from actually rolling around, “You are losing Wave too quickly. You need to hold onto it and try to sieve it from the environments.”
“How…do you even do that?” She asked as she glanced towards the dark outlines of Augen as a cloud covered the star lights from above.
“Visualize a container around the outlines of your skin. And when you feel anything passing through it, seal up the gap.” Augen explained quickly, “It’s a little exhausting at first, but you will learn to be efficient with it. Wait...if you are from Necrovia, shouldn't you know?”
"I never said I was!"
"Oh...sorry..."
The girl nodded, and Augen observed her Wave as the Wave signature started out from a rough blob-like shape before being refined into a more smooth-looking column. There were still a few gaps and leaks, but at least she was holding onto the majority of that impressive reserve.
“Good.” Augen reached forward with a branch and poked against one of the gaps in her Wavefield, only to feel a squishy resistance, “There’s a leak here!”
“HEY?! DON’T POKE MY BOOBS, YOU PERVERT!”
“SORRY!”