The ascent from the depths of the underground was slow but steady. The few times Shouri snuck a peek at the earth fox he noted the curiosity brimming from the small Natural - ears up at alert, tail swishing behind him, gaze unable to focus in one direction. For one who lived their entire life in one city, this was scary and exciting.

At least that’s what Shouri thought of the situation.

It didn’t take too long for the duo to reach the surface.

“Woah…” Miro gasped, eyes widening.

The world of the surface was entirely alien to the fox. He had spent his whole life underground but thought he had a good grasp of what the world above him was like. Even at night, everything seemed brighter, the wind blew from the mountains above, gently ruffling his fur. The air smelled wonderful, a distinct smell… fresh would be how he described it.

The landscape around them seemed rough, but beautiful in its own way – an arid, sandy landscape with rocky protrusions jutting out of the ground surrounding a paved road stretching into the distance.

“Come on, we don’t want to be stuck out here when the sun gets up,” Shouri advised, pointing them down the road.

“It is that bad? I have heard stories about the surface being hot,” Miro questioned as they began walking.

“I’m not sure how you would fare, but I’d fucking die if we had to walk this road during the day – it gets stupid hot up here.” Shouri shuddered thinking about having to brave the heat of the Subterris Desert.

Miro took in the surroundings again. Lots of rocks and sand, no shade, and no abundant water. His head craned skyward - No fancy rubato studded ceiling to protect them from the wrath of the sun either.

The surface had its fair share of perils Miro realized.

However, Miro was about to learn of another problem the surface dwellers faced that he had only heard stories of.

“Miro.” Shouri glared down the road. “How good are you at fighting?”

“What is it are you asking?” Miro barely remembered to speak in Maelish.

Stopping the pair in their tracks was a Scherzando, specifically a scorpion that cackled with electricity.

“Spellcasting, you think you can take that Scherzando?” Shouri inquired his gaze entirely focused on the rhythm beast before them.

“That is a Scherzando?” Miro too remained locked on their new adversary. He had never encountered one before. There were stories, sure – but any Scherzando that had the unfortunate pleasure of entering Subterris was quickly handled by the constabulary. Regular citizens never heard a peep about this work – nor did they ever witness this aspect of law enforcement.

“Yes. It looks fairly weak, and you have the element advantage,” Shouri noted.

“Fulmine elemento…” Miro nodded slowly. “I will try and hit it.”

“I’ll watch your back.” Shouri stepped backwards slowly, while Miro advanced towards the beast.

The cackle of electricity grew louder as Miro drew closer. The fox flexed the digits of his paws, the rhythm coursing through him as he drew on his internal magic. His eyes darted back and forth, noting the sand around him. Thankfully they were in his element.

This beast stood no chance.

It began in an instant – the Scherzando launched a bolt of lightning at the Natural, who responded by raising a wall of sand to intercept the attack. The Scherzando charged at Miro while his visibility was obscured by his sand, though that was a mistake on the beast’s part, as when the veil of sand fell, several projectiles blasted out. Gemstones Shouri recognized as Sciame di Gioielli, an Advanced Earth element spell; one stronger than the stock rock-based attack most Earth Resonators used.

Miro, however, was not a practiced fighter like Shouri’s trio; his aim was not true and he missed the Scherzando, only managing to clip one of its legs. The fox’s eyes widened as he didn’t expect the scorpion to be so nimble.

“MIRO MOVE!” Shouri roared.

The fox dove out of the way at that shout, barely dodging the shadowy beast’s maw. “Don’t let up!” Shouri commanded.

The Natural heeded the order and fired off several more gems, all missing their targets. The scorpion saw the threat and focused its attack efforts on the combatant, causing Miro to scramble to his feet and run.

“Che schifo! Che schifo! Che schifo!” Miro screamed as he fled in terror from the over-sized scorpion.

“Focus! Stop its mobility, use your sand to hold it down, and hit it with your gems!” Shouri shouted at the fleeing fox. “You have the advantage! USE IT!”

Miro continued to be chased by the lightning beast for a bit longer before he finally decided to get his head in the game and listen to the Maestro. The Natural stopped and spun around in one motion. He made a grab with the sand around them and missed, but he didn’t let up and managed to grab the beast’s tail. Killing the momentum of the creature, Miro used more sand to wrap it up and arrest its electricity. The earth Natural sighed in relief that the matter had been settled.

Though even if Miro felt the battle was over, the beast disagreed. Even with its electricity stripped from it, there was one part of its anatomy unaccounted for.

“GET BACK!” Shouri barked, grabbing the fox boy and yanking him backward.

Where Miro had once stood, the scorpion’s massive stinger was embedded in the road. In response, Miro shot off another few rounds of Sciame di Gioielli, piercing the beast. Its form remained firm momentarily before finally giving way to the accumulated damage and vanishing into the rhythm that formed it.

The earthen fox stood there for a moment, panting hard from his maw, eyes wide. “Che cazzo è sta roba…?” Miro cursed under his breath, a paw grasping his shirt as he tried to calm his racing heart.

Shouri placed a hand on the fox-boy’s shoulder. “You did good,” the Maestro spoke gently. “Once you got over your nerves,” he added with a chuckle.

“You do this as a job?!” Miro shrieked.

“Scary, isn’t it? My three are professionals.” Shouri smiled warmly; his vision focused north toward their destination.

This only further drove home the desire Miro held – he had to meet these precious Resonators Shouri trusted so deeply.

----------------------------------------

“Your spells are slow by their very nature; you need to use your quicker-moving sand ad-Lib to stop them from moving,” Shouri advised as Miro took another stab at dealing with a feisty Scherzando.

A serpent-shaped Scherzando was the new adversary, a Solar element, glowing with white light like the sun.

Miro nodded slowly, keeping his attention focused on the slithering Scherzando. It jumped to strike at the fox, who responded with the sand around the solar element snapping it out of the air. Lifting a paw into the air, a giant rock formed and promptly was used to crush the Scherzando underneath it.

“Nothing beats a big stupid rock to crush your enemies,” Shouri chuckled.

“Falla semplice, stupido,” Milo laughed back.

“Let’s keep going.”

With that intermission out of the way, the two travelers continued down the path toward Alspo. It was a long, lonely walk with no others trekking down the path they were on. The vistas they crossed weren’t of any interest either. Just sand, rock, and road for the entire stretch of their journey.

“What spells do you know?” Shouri inquired of the fox.

“Not many, just the rock and the gem,” Miro replied. “I can control sand,” he added.

Shouri frowned. That was one basic spell and one advanced spell along with his ad-Lib. Truth be told, the Maestro knew very little about how Naturals felt about their spell craft or even how they did it.

“Is that normal?” The Maestro questioned.

“Si. We Naturals have to make effort to learn how spells work. Classes expensive,” the earth Natural informed the curious Maestro.

“Hmmm…”

His field guide on Lunar Resonators came to mind, specifically the sections that described how a Lunar Resonator with the aid of Rubato crystals could cast spells. Drawing the rhythm out of the crystal and then allowing it to flow into forming the spell in question. Each one had a different image of how to cast it or an associated feeling.

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There was so much solo Resonators and Naturals needed to do to perform magic. On the flip side, a Resonator who relied on a Maestro just needed a command and their Maestro’s rhythm to do whatever was in their elemental wheelhouse.

“In school, we are taught basic spells,” Miro spoke up. “Advanced spells need expensive classes or books. Taught myself the gem spell because it’s pretty and I like looking at it,” he clarified. To demonstrate his point, Miro easily summoned a Sciame di Gioielli and held it over his paw, appreciating it for a moment before turning his torso and firing the rhythmically created crystal at a nearby rock formation.

As the night wore on a couple more brave Scherzando tried their hand at sampling the lovely Maestro – Natural platter presenting itself to them. Unfortunately, this food was a bit too spicy for their taste and the Scherzando ended up scattered in the wind.

Miro prepared himself to fight yet another Scherzando when a beam of fire ripped through the beast from behind.

“Woah! Sorry! Didn’t think there’d be anyone this far out!” came a voice from the distance.

Shouri let out a sigh of relief. “Finally, we ran into some hunters, we can relax,” he told the Natural. The fox nodded and also released his held breath.

A group of three Maestros and their Resonators rushed over.

“A Natural?” one of them questioned.

“They travel this road pretty often, usually merchants lookin’ to trade,” another informed their comrade.

“Wait, there’s a Maestro with them,” the third pointed out.

“Hey, good evening.” Shouri waved. “Can you guide us to Alspo?” he requested.

“Sure, but what the hell happened to you?” The first hunter eyed Miro suspiciously.

Miro jumped as Shouri placed a hand on his shoulder. “He’s a friend, wouldn’t have made it this far without him.” Shouri dispelled the suspicion from his current traveling companion.

“Sure sure, so seriously though-” The hunter looked around and saw no Resonator and no visible tuner on Shouri’s person. “-you gotta tell us what’s going on.”

Shouri nodded. “Let’s walk and talk.”

With the protection of three Maestros and their Resonators, Shouri and Miro easily made it to Alspo. Wishing their saviors well, the pair were now left on their own right in front of the MA Office. It was about one or so in the morning, with several Maestros returning from their nightly hunts.

“Finally, I can fucking call someone and find out what happened.” Shouri was itching to make his way in. Just before he did though he stopped. The automatic door slid open, but the Maestro remained stuck in place. He turned to face Miro. “We should get you a hotel room first.”

“Che?” Miro tilted his head.

“MA Offices are for Maestros and their registered Resonators, I don’t think they’re going to let you in,” Shouri explained.

“Right, that is understandable,” Miro nodded.

With a weary sigh, Shouri motioned for Miro to follow. After looking around for a bit, they found a suitable hotel. Being in a human city, Shouri now had access to all of his money, so getting a room for Miro was easy.

“Feel free to get yourself room service, you deserve a nice meal after protecting my ass all night,” Shouri offered to his Natural friend.

“Non! I couldn’t!” Miro shook his head.

“Miro.” Shouri placed a hand on the fox boy’s shoulder. “You paid for me and Vii’s room and food the entire time we were in Subterris, now I can repay that kindness.” He smirked.

Miro chuckled; he knew he wouldn’t be able to convince Shouri otherwise. “Okay, I will get food.”

“Get yourself something filling. I make a good amount of money, I promise,” Shouri chided him.

“I will get good meal!” Miro pushed Shouri away. “Go, call your people, they miss you.”

Shouri nodded. “I will. Have a good night!”

“Buonanotte!” Miro waved.

Walking out of the hotel, Shouri didn’t know what he was going to say. Slowly his pace began to increase until he was sprinting down the streets of Alspo, not stopping until he hit the MA Office. Through the door, he navigated the familiar hallways until he reached the common room.

He sat in front of the computers, deciding who to call. It was late, he wasn’t sure who would pick up.

Before he knew it, he was looking up Emily’s number. Thankfully he could access all of his information stored in his tuners from these computer terminals. He took in a deep breath and pressed call.

The artificial ringer played over the speakers. Thankfully the common room was empty at this late hour, so Shouri was confident he could have this conversation in relative privacy.

“Hello?” Emily’s voice came through the speakers.

Shouri stared at the screen for a moment, his voice lost in his throat.

“Hello? Who’s there?” Emily asked.

“Emily?” Shouri asked.

There was a moment of silence.

“Shou…ri?” her voice cracked.

“Yeah.” Shouri couldn’t help the smile on his face.

“Thank the stars. Thank the fucking stars,” she whimpered.

“Taika and the others… are they okay?” Shouri asked.

“Yeah, I have them. They’re all finally asleep, none of us have been sleeping well since you were kidnapped,” she asked back.

“How the hell did you keep them from tearing apart the continent looking for me? Are you even still in Naiza?” he asked.

“Mhm, we’re still in Naiza. And keeping your girls sane was not easy. You owe me, mister,” Emily chided him playfully.

“Oh god, what did they do?” Shouri dreaded asking, though he wore a smile as he did so.

The Lunar Princess took a breath. “There was a lot of screaming. Rebecca socked Rika, Soot had to pin Pacifica. They finally decided to listen to reason after Taika threw Al through a window,” Emily told the other Maestro. “Though there were a couple of other incidents over the week.”

Shouri nodded, though Emily couldn’t see it. “It sounds like there’s a story there,” he mumbled.

“Just a little bit,” she chuckled. At least she didn’t seem to hold it against him, or his Resonators for that matter.

There was a brief quiet between the pair. “So, where the terra are you?” Emily finally asked.

Shouri took in a breath of his own. “Hope you’re ready to be up for another hour.”

Emily laughed from the other end. “Dude, you think I’m gonna be able to sleep now? C’mon, man.”

He laughed back. This felt so good, the tears flowed naturally from sheer relief. Taika, Pacifica, and Rebecca were okay. After a moment he recomposed himself. “Alright, so I woke up on a plane.”

…

“Holy shit,” Emily gasped after Shouri finished recollecting his journey through Subterris.

“Sahji needs to leave me the hell alone,” Shouri grumbled.

“I’ll say!” she agreed heartily.

The line went quiet for a moment before Emily spoke up again. “I’ll have Mr. Klein fly us up there and if not, I’ll pay for the tickets to get us up there asap,” she said.

“You don’t have to do that,” Shouri frowned at the computer screen, despite his conversational partner being unable to see him.

“Not hearing it mister! You get some goons after you and your girls miss you, I’m getting us on a plane as soon as physically possible,” the other Maestro asserted.

Shouri shook his head but smiled. “Fine fine.”

“Great, see you tomorrow night at the latest,” Emily said.

“You’re really gonna make me wait that long?” Shouri joked, noting the date had rolled over to the 30th.

“Tonight! Whatever! Good night!” He could feel Emily rolling her eyes at the bad joke.

“Thanks again.” Shouri smiled warmly.

“Yeah, of course.”

And with that, the line dropped.

The weary Maestro let out a big dramatic sigh. “After this, I’m going to Lontano Island,” he groaned.