Shouri and his merry band of tailed maidens made their way down to the food hall of Sarayul Temple. The blues of the day had slowly faded to the oranges of evening, despite the lack of a real sun overhead.

“Huh.” Shouri looked out to the dimming light as they walked.

“What’s up?” Rebecca asked.

“Me and Taika noticed earlier that there isn’t a sun in the sky we see in here, but it still turning orange like it’s dusk,” he pointed out.

“Oh, that is weird,” Taika noted.

“Wait, no sun?” Pacifica asked, walking backward to face the group.

“Yeah, it’s like some kind of artificial skybox thing, not entirely sure,” Shouri told the uninformed otter.

It was perplexing to the quartet how such a space was possible. Those thoughts were dismissed to the backs of their minds as they came upon the dining hall.

They were greeted with a long table where their dishes were set out. There was already one person sitting at the table. One that caused Shouri to draw pause.

A woman with dark red hair tied into a bun. She wore a magenta top over a long-sleeved blue shirt, black leggings, and blue boots to complete the look. Clipped to her collar was a clear-bodied tuner.

The three Resonators studied this stranger as they approached the table. There were no obvious Resonator features on the girl’s person – no weird ears, nor a tail or wings. The lack of a distinct elemental feel from the woman led to one conclusion:

“A Maestro,” Taika noted.

“Clear tuner, she’s got a Null-element,” Rebecca pointed out.

“But where are they?” Pacifica looked around wondering where this girl’s Resonator could possibly be.

The trio of gossipy girls filed onto one side of the table, with Taika pulling Shouri to sit between them.

Deep yellow eyes studied the three resonators before closing to focus on her food.

“Vienna.” Shouri nodded to her.

“Shouri.” She paused to nod back.

“Hey!” Pacifica pulled Shouri close, cupping a hand around his ear. “You know her?” she asked in a whisper.

“I do, she helped me out before,” he replied simply. “Now focus on dinner, it’s rude to gossip,” he gently scolded her.

“Hrmph.” Pacifica heeded her Maestro’s reprimand, but his itchy curiosity flowed through her (and her fellow Resonators for that matter).

Who was this mystery girl?

When did she help Shouri?

How did she help Shouri?

All questions that would have to wait.

At the very least, dinner was fantastic. Nina and Talys eventually joined them and partook in the meal, however Sarayul never made an appearance.

This evening’s meal was fairly simple consisting of a stir-fried meat and vegetable combo over noodles. In addition, there were some meat-filled buns that Taika took a particular shine to and devoured a good majority of.

They were offered some traditional beer of “the old country”, but the quartet being the good little scouts they were, politely declined.

By the time the quartet pardoned themselves from the dining hall, the lighting had shifted to night. The illumination of the temple grounds being handled by lanterns scattered about the premises, with a faint dark blue glow from the skybox. Even the air took on a bit of a chill, putting the group in the right atmosphere to pine for sleep.

Within the privacy of their bedroom, they changed into their pajamas for the night. While Shouri freshened up before bed, the trio of girls sat on the bed, resuming the gossip from dinner.

“I really wonder who that girl is,” Pacifica wondered.

“I don’t sense another Resonator around here, but she has an active tuner on her.” Rebecca stroked her chin in thought.

“How can you tell?” Taika asked.

“Tuners from uh… disconnected Resonators just display static on the screen,” Rebecca said.

“Static?” Taika furrowed her brow trying to imagine it.

“Like those old TVs when they don’t have a signal, that like grey snowy stuff,” the fiery vixen tried to describe to her lunar counterpart.

“Oh yeah!” Taika exclaimed, familiar with the concept.

Pacifica hummed in thought. “So she has a null element Resonator that isn’t here.”

“Seems like it,” Rebecca said with a shrug.

“But why is she here?” Taika asked.

“Good freaking question. Doesn’t exactly seem like the best place for Maestros to train. Rebecca leaned back, stretching as she did so. “What bugs me is how does she know Sho?”

Another exchange of thoughtful hums circled the trio. “Maybe it's like a Mila or Lina situation?” guessed Pacifica. “That’s why I don’t want to just outright ask…” she admitted remembering the baggage attached to their Maestro’s childhood friends.

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

“Yeah… he did know a lot of people before he met us.” Taika frowned.

“Usually he made a mess of his friendships with those people too,” Rebecca added.

“It’s not his fault, he just has bad willpower!” Pacifica spoke in defense of their Maestro.

“I know, just stating facts,” said Rebecca.

The conversation fell to a lull as the three racked their brains trying to think of any other pertinent information about the mysterious Vienna.

It was at this point that Shouri returned to the room. Before he could even greet them, he cursed the room with the first yawn. “We should probably hit the hay,” he told the group.

Taika was the next to fall prey to the savage yawns. “Si… Sleepy,” she said, rubbing her eyes.

Pacifica and Rebecca also joined in the yawn storm. “Probably a good idea,” Pacifica agreed.

“Yeah, who knows what they’re gonna make us do tomorrow,” Rebecca spoke wearily.

With that, the group made their way back to their room, taking turns freshening up for the night before cuddling up in bed as usual.

“Goodnight Sho!” the three girls spoke in unison, earning a smile from the Maestro.

“Goodnight.”

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

Despite what they had feared, they weren’t woken up at the crack of dawn, or even at all.

Shouri opened his eyes, which didn’t fight him for once. A full night’s rest was a rarity in the young man’s life, and he was appreciative to have one under his belt before presumably an intense training regimen.

That being said, he wanted to let the rest of his team return to the waking world of their own accord rather than force them awake before they were ready. For that, he remained where he was, just enjoying the ambient warmth and rhythm of his precious Resonators.

Pacifica was the first of the trio of girls that stirred that morning. “Morning Sho,” she said wearing a sleepy smile.

“Morning Paci,” he greeted. “How’d you sleep?”

“Good.”

“Good.”

Taika slept between the two but wasn’t disturbed by the quiet conversation between them.

Rebecca however, was disturbed. She nuzzled her face into Shouri’s back, wrapping her tail around him possessively, as she did.

It didn’t take too long to get the whole crew up and ready to go for the day. They made their way out of the room and out onto the main walkway by around eleven or so in the morning. The perfect light of the sky box ensured that the glow of the artificial day matched the genuine article.

“It’s nice,” Shouri noted.

“Cold,” Rebecca complained.

“Mrrgph,” Pacifica shivered, trying to curl up next to their Maestro as they walked.

Shouri wrapped an arm around the trembling otter. “It'll get warmer, probably,” he muttered the last part as an aside.

Upon reaching the dining hall, the group was met with breakfast. It was a fairly typical affair of eggs, meats, breads, and cheeses. Nothing overly fancy but still quite the spread, regardless. Taking their seats, they waited for a moment before Taika just decided to start eating.

“Should we uh, wait for someone?” Rebecca asked, eyeing her fellow fox.

“Hrmph,” Shouri grunted. He looked around but didn’t find a sign of anyone outside of their little group of four. “Fuck it, better to ask for forgiveness than permission,” he said with a shrug.

With that brazen declaration, Pacifica and Rebecca grabbed their own choices in food and got to work partaking in breakfast. Shouri followed suit, taking his modest selections.

They got through their entire meal with not another soul showing up.

“That was good,” Taika cooed, reclining in her seat.

“Yeah…” Pacifica agreed with a content sigh.

“I wonder how long this stuff has been out. Tasted pretty fresh to me,” Rebecca commented.

“Who knows?” Shouri scoffed.

Once more, Shouri looked around but didn’t find any signs of the other inhabitants of the temple. Not even Vienna seemed to be around. “Let’s go find out what the hell we should be doing,” he said, tapping the table twice and rising to his feet.

None of the others argued and followed suit. They wandered around the temple, eventually finding their way to Sarayul’s chamber. As they had found him yesterday, the Ethereal was lying on the central stage watching television while eating some kind of crunchy snack.

“There you are, was wondering when you’d show up,” commented the nine-tailed fox as the young group approached him. “Now, shall we get started?”