Seras collapsed into the hot water and let out the weariest sigh of her life. “Dead gods that fucken suuuuucked!”
The water splashed a bit as Athena settled in front of her, “it wouldn’t have been that bad if you didn’t curse out the Matron and a Goddess.”
“Bah, I have no regrets there.”
The gold rankers had grilled them on their story until the sun had set, and then made them do it again. They had dug in on every little detail, like which Star-glider she had killed first and where its scars were. They had seemed especially interested in the outpost and the golems.
Worse yet they had made Seras give up the strange components she had looted off the golems, and had compensated her with a handful of silver spirit coins and a pat on the back, along with a command to tell no one else about the camp or the astral space.
When they were done the Emerald haired Celestine had shown Seras and Athena to a small tent they would share until someone from Cupric came to get them and then told them where the woman’s bath tent was.
Even this late at night there were a few Akemi women present, mostly young warrior types who had just returned from their duties watching the herd. Seras was somewhat confused as the multiple species represented in the Akemi people.
Smoulder’s whose presence in the bath rose the temperature by several degrees, lanky svelte Leonid woman, Celestines of every hair color Seras could think of, slender Elves that still looked malnourished to her, the obligatory humans who seemed to be everywhere on Pallimustus, and a few rare runic woman with blue skin and the rune like tattoos around their bodies. The only races not represented here were the Draconians, who apparently mainly came from a very southern continent, with a few exclaves around the world from previous colonial holding. And the Merfolk Seras had only ever heard of and never seen.
For some reason when Seras imagined the Akemi from Rohan’s stories she expecting mostly humans, with a few other races mixed in. But the Akemi were as diverse as any metropolitan population.
“Fine, but the next time you mouth off to gold rankers and god make sure I’m not in the same room, or building, or city,” Athena grumbled.
“It wasn’t-,”
“-Or continent,” she interrupted.
Seras didn’t respond verbally, and instead just splashed some water at Athena.
She spluttered as the water hit her face and went up the wrong hole.
Seras just leaned back even further.
“Hey there, outsiders!” someone called out to them from the other side of the bath.
“Unless you’re bugging me to offer us some beers then I don’t want to hear it.” Seras muttered with her eyes closed.
There was a pause, and then something splashed in the water next to her. Seras cracked one eye and noted the brown glass bottle now floating next to her. “Alright, let’s hear it.”
A Leonid Woman with light tan fur laughed, “you really don’t give a damn about what you say or to whom you say it.”
“Whom?” Seras questioned.
“See, that right there, I like that. Mouthing off to the great elders and a Goddess, you might be only iron rank, but you’ve got diamond ranked balls on yeah.”
Despite her exhaustion Seras cracked a smile, she sat up in the water and picked up the floating bottle. She raised it up, and the Leonid summoned another bottle to hand and they mined their bottles clinking across the pool. “Seras, and this is Athena.”
“Linda, short for Lindascarn, that’s Liz, and Leyley,” Linda said while pointing to two other woman. One Elf with pale, pale, blonde hair. The other a dark skinned Celestine with glittery diamond like hair and eyes, “and we’re team Dune-strider, adventures.”
“Not Akemi,” Seras questioned?
“I am, but these are outsiders. Liz is from the Elf Kingdon on the west coast and Leyley is from Rimaros. We work around Cupric and got tapped by the clan for poacher hunting.”
Seras nodded, “I get it. So, what do you want from us?”
Linda laughed, “hah, direct I like that.”
The elf sniffed, “you would,” she sniped.
Linda rolled her eyes, “quiet you.” She looked to Seras, “I heard this rumor a week back, a big raid on some Omeda bastards I missed, and a missing adventure who was buried under a mountain. Now I hear about you two popping out of the ground and mouthing off to the great elders, so I’m curious if the two stories might be related.”
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
Seras glanced to Athena, “no, that’s us.”
Linda grinned, “told you Leyley.”
The Celestine sighed, “I didn’t doubt you, I just said we shouldn’t bug them.” She moved her arms, and Seras’ eyes were immediately drawn to what they were covering.
Athena noticed and kicked her.
Seras glanced back at her companion… friend, and frowned in confusion.
Athena also seemed to realize what she had done unthinkingly and blushed.
Seras shook her head and turned back to the adventuring team of Dune-strider. “Yeah, that was us, I can’t really say much since your elders don’t want us talking about it.”
The Celestine woman frowned, “didn’t you mouth off to a goddess and a gold ranker, why do you care.”
“Because knowing my luck Knowledge might decide to tattle and then I’ll be in real trouble.”
She frowned, and then nodded, “likely.”
Linda shifted and leaned forwards, “there’s gotta be something you can say, any cool monster, any interesting loot, tell us.”
Well, the elders did just say the astral space and the golems were off limits, so it should be fine to… “okay, so you know floatstone?”
Linda frowned, “maybe, its what makes sky ships work.”
“Right, so we were following this tunnel until we came to an enormous vertical shaft, I mean massive. Bigger than the main tent, by a lot. And it had these floating mineral clusters in the center.”
“Like sea urchins,” Athena added.
Linda leaned in, “Like fist sized clusters or-,”
“-Truck sized,” Seras corrected.
“Whats a truck?”
Seras grunted, “ugh, imagine a wagon, Heidel, hitch, and the actual wagon.”
“Wow, and they were just floating there.”
“Yup, they created this warped field of gravi… uh, fuck how do I explain this to people how don’t know about gravity?”
“They warped your sense of direction; they could make up down and spin you around to match.” Athena cut in.
Seras snapped her hand, “thank you. So it was a dead end, and we decided to camp there before we tried to back track, that next morning, or whatever the time was when we woke up, we were just talking when these two massive creatures come soaring out of the shaft’s depths.”
“Monsters?”
“No, they were magical creatures, and they were pissed.”
Seras cracked open the bottle and took a deep gulp, it was more like ale than beer, but it helped settle her nerves. Despite telling this tale ad-nauseum to the elders talking to the adventurers was more relaxing than tedious.
For a minute it was like Seras was back in Sin and Misery, telling the crew about her latest solo job.
They swapped tales, the Star Gliders, the Voracious Kudzu, and the fight with the Omeda. In turn Seras and Athena learned about how Dune-strider got their name, a poor nickname from their first outing as a group that had them getting lost and walking over the same dunes six times in one day. And some pranks they played while on a job.
Linda laughed as she described Kent’s, their fourth teammate, indignation as he woke up with something called a scorpion in his bed roll. “Poor guy when to bed in just his trunks, and they weren’t the thickest material around, the damn bug went right for his weak spot.”
“Serves him right for replace my coffee beans with decaf,” the elf said haughtily.
Linda laughed and leaned back, “your fun Cross, and you too miss no last name.”
Athena rolled her eyes.
Linda glanced their way and gave them a shrewder look than Seras would have thought possible, “hey, we’ve got a contract tomorrow, hunting sand raptors who have been attacking the herd. A few separate groups from the sound of things, you interested in tagging along. That rifle thing of yours sounds like it might be very handy out there. We’re all close range fighters. And Athena, your healing powers would really nice for if we get into a scrap.”
Athena shied away, “they’re, they’re not exactly healing powers. I, I don’t think I could just… do it.”
Linda shrugged, “that’s fine, and you Cross?”
“Would I get a share of the loot?”
Leyley huffed, “you’re the only one here with looting powers, the better question is if we’d get any.”
“I wont shortchange you.” Seras reassured, she leaned back and really thought about it. She had just gotten out of a deadly situation of being trapped in the Labyrinth, constantly on guard for any monsters that popped up. Did she want to put herself back out into danger like that?
Absolutely. Hells yeah. 110%.
At her core Seras was a thrill junky who got off by shooting her guns. It was how she felt in control.
Plus she wouldn’t mind seeing proper full time adventurers on the job.
She glanced towards Athena, though she didn’t need to. She didn’t answer to Athena, except she kind of did.
“Sounds fine, first light?”
Linda snorted, “are you kidding, its nearly morning already. Don’t you want to rest?”
Seras looked around and noticed how empty the bath tent, “shit has it been that long?”
“Time flies with good ale.”
Seras raised her fourth bottle to that and then finished it off before standing up. She idly noted which eyes followed her up, and who turned away in embarrassment. She stepped out and summoned a towel, giving the last observer a wink.
Leyley smiled back as Seras wrapped herself up.
“Just shout outside my tent when you’re ready to go.” Seras said, noting that Athena had also stood up and was toweling off. They quickly dressed in the new clean clothing offered by the Akemi and wandered off to their tent.
~~~*~~~
Athena wasn’t sure how she felt. The hide used in Akemi clothing was certainly soft, but she wasn’t sure if she liked the style. Then again it was nice not to be wearing blood stained clothing, or Seras’ too small extras. Those she felt like she’d tear by breathing too hard.
But these tan hides just looked awkward on her. She glanced to Seras and felt a spike of jealousy. It was unfair how she made anything she wore look natural. She knew that Seras had intentionally tweaked her features with her augmentations, but an Iron ranker shouldn’t look that good.
What would happen when she ranked up, would she get prettier, or had she reached peak perfection?
“Are you really alright to go back out after everything we went through?” She asked, her voice disturbing the tranquility of the night.
Seras glanced back and up, and her heart did a little flip in her chest. “Yeah, its not a problem to me.”
“Really?”
“Mm-hm,” She hummed.
She was awash with jealousy a whole second time over, though this one came from a different place. “But how?”
Seras glanced back to watch where she was walking, “it’s like, you don’t fear the office right? You wake up, clock in, sit at your desk and lose your whole day to pointless drudgery, and then go home to drink yourself into oblivion and do it all again in the mourning.”
Athena tried to pull this apart in her head. Seras constantly said things that made clear sense to her and absolutely no sense to Athena. You could either ask “what? What? What?” all the time, or learn how to pick apart Seras-ism’s. “You’re saying that this is just another day to you?”
“Basically. Its my version of a day at the office. Danger, cursing, shooting, its all another day to me.”
Athena flashed back to their time in the Labyrinth and recalled how calm Seras was. She had used that stability to keep herself sane down there. “I wish I could think like that,” she murmured.
“Its all about exposer, you just got to get used to it. Theres still time for you to tag along,” Seras offered.
Athena smiled, she appreciated the offer, but she still shook her head. “I, I can’t. down in the tunnels I could because I knew I had no choice. But this is different.”
“It’s only different if you let it be.” Seras said with a shrug. She glanced back and frowned, “you’re being a lot more passive than when we were in the tunnel’s?”
Athena wilted, “yeah, I, I don’t know. I think the stress was starting to drive me mad down there, making me more… forceful.”
Seras sniffed, “shame, you were at your best when you didn’t give a shit.”
“Like you?”
“Yeah, like me!” she said enthusiastically.
Athena shook her head, “I don’t ever think I could curse out a Goddess Seras.”
“Give it time,” She joked.
Athena laughed and continued to follow behind Seras. She wasn’t sure what would happen next in her life, her parents were dead, she had run away from her family and responsibilities and had wound up with a mad Outworlder. But she felt like if stuck near Seras everything might turn out alright.
It certainly won’t be boring.