{-Neville-}
He was, in all honesty, a little worried when he realized that Askel was no longer where he was supposed to be. No matter how Neville looked at it, there were only bad things that could happen by getting a mortal involved in any part of what they were doing here; he wanted to avoid such an outcome at all costs, and he was sure the others did, too.
Luckily, it seemed that the researcher had not wandered far. And, when he noticed the three of them returning, he immediately stopped what he was doing and gave them a wide smile.
“Oh, I must’ve given you quite the scare!” he said brightly. “I thought I’d wait, like you told me to, but I just couldn’t help myself. Every moment I’m just standing here is a moment I could be perfecting my thesis, you see, so I had to investigate. I tried not to wander too far, as you can likely tell.”
“Don’t do that again,” Neville warned as politely as he could. “You don’t know the sort of things this place may have lurking within it. It’s best if you do not go in unprepared.”
“I’m most certainly prepared. After all, I came knowing that I should expect the unexpected. I’ve got everything I need in this pack of mine.”
“I don’t believe you’re fully understanding the point…”
“Well, even if I don’t, it’s rather unusual for kids to try to tell someone as old as me what they should do. And I don’t believe I ever got a proper explanation of what the three of you—well, four, as it sounds you have another friend in hiding—are doing here.”
Neville weighed all of his options, and decided to go with the most half-truth out of all of his possible answers. “We’re out here to investigate some of the surrounding area. It’s how we know what we do about the dangers of this place. We also intend on leaving as soon as we complete a couple of things, so why don’t we all leave together?”
“If you’ve explored this place, then can you tell me what’s in it? That way, I won’t be missing anything for my thesis. I’m afraid if you fail to present any useful information, however, I’m still going to have to go in for myself.”
“What about any other ruins you might want to see?” Jacqueline prompted. “Could we help you with those, instead? This really isn’t a place that anyone should be lingering in for long…”
Askel thought about it, then nodded. “There are a few other places in the general area, I suppose. They weren’t involved in my main area of study, but they could serve as good supplementary material for my paper.” He smiled. “But I would also like to know more about the three of you. You are quite mysterious, and I’d like to know more about who I’m going to be giving special thanks to in my thesis.”
“Once we start going to one of the other locations,” Neville said. He smiled, too, and Jacqueline followed his lead. Verity, on the other hand, didn’t even seem to try. “Will that suffice?”
Askel nodded once again. “Yes, that sounds fair enough. Shall we get going, then? There aren’t very many spots that are close to this one, but there is one a few hours out. I could even share some of my snacks with you—I made them just before I left on my travels. They’re quite good. Would you like one?”
Before Neville could come up with a better excuse, Verity bluntly said, “We don’t eat. Save it for yourself.”
“Oh, you young kids, always trying to push your limits! I know I did when I was your age—I try my best to do it even now! I believe that challenging your mental and physical abilities is the only way to keep ourselves in tip-top shape, you know.” As he started walking, he dug through one of his bags. Once he located another, smaller bag, he pulled what looked to be oddly-shaped biscuits. “Go on, each of you, try one! Oh, would you like me to hand you one for that other friend of yours, too? Will they be joining us?”
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
“Kiri has to stay in the same place, though I’m sure they appreciate the offer.” Neville passed out each of the biscuits—glaring at Verity to make sure she didn’t just toss hers—before taking a cautious bite out of it. Genuinely, he said, “These are quite a bit better than what I was expecting.”
Askel gave a prideful smirk. “Well, of course, I used my family’s secret recipe! Ah, and that can give us a perfect line of conversation, too. Do any of your families have secret recipes? And while we’re on the topic, where are all of you kids from, anyway? I’m from Casmel—you know, the capital of Xannon territory? What about the rest of you?”
“Neville and I are from the border,” Jacqueline said thoughtfully. “We’re siblings, but he was raised within Seothia and I within Qizar. By the time we reunited, we were our only family left, so we try to make the most of the time we have…”
“So… I suppose that explains the question of your parents’ knowledge of you being out here.”
“Yes. They died quite a long time ago.”
“My apologies, truly. And at what must’ve been such a young age…” Askel shook his head, then glanced over his shoulder at Verity. “What about you? I believe that, before, you mentioned that you’d given up on your house, but that certainly can’t be all, can it..?”
“It seems to be all that I need to tell you,” was Verity’s immediate response. It took Neville’s glance, though, for her to sigh, and give a more satisfactory answer. “My house had fallen a long time ago. I see no reason to stand beside a banner that has long since lost all of its meaning.”
Askel paused, until he was able to think of something else. “Well, could you at least tell me where you’re from? Surely you must still hold some ties to the place you were born, no?”
“Given how long it’s been since I left, I see no reason to, but I will if I must. I was born and raised along the border—the town itself no longer exists. Due to the passage of time, nothing of my old life remains and, frankly, I’m quite alright with that. I am content with the life I now lead, and I see no reason to continue to dwell on a past that no longer exists.”
A longer pause. “I see. I still feel as though you’re being a bit dramatic, though. But I won’t push the matter any further.”
“Good.”
Neville decided to slightly divert the subject and ask, “What makes you so interested in the ruins? Or, rather, why decide to base your thesis on them?”
“I suppose I just found them interesting.” Still, there was a glimmer in Askel’s eyes as he said it. He’d been waiting for someone to ask him this for a long time. “These fragments of the past—they tell of a part of history we have no recollection of. I believe there’s something wonderful about that: the fact there are things left in this world that we still don’t understand.”
“Did you ever stop to wonder… if whatever you’re trying to uncover, should really be found?” Neville never considered himself an academic, not really, not he had enough knowledge to make himself appear like one. He thought himself rather good at such topics of theory, even if Sokratas tended to avoid most debate-like discussions.
That honestly seemed to take Askel aback, before he recomposed himself with a bit of nervous laughter. “Isn’t the purpose of these sorts of things to be uncovered? Shouldn’t we seek every possible way of learning more about our past?”
“I assume that you are not familiar with the workings of the Qizarn gods. I may had been raised in Seothia, but I am a child of Fleyw Bresh nonetheless, and later in life found my role within Orestis’s plans. All of that to say, everything happens for a reason—including why some places seem to be left abandoned for so long. Some information is the kind that mortals are not supposed to know. The reason we do not know for certain is either because others have acknowledged that it is supposed to stay hidden, or they have faced the consequences for trying to find it anyway.”
“And… do you have proof of such a phenomenon?”
“No, but I would advise you to heed my warning. At least consider it, please. We would hate for anything unfortunate to happen due to mortals interfering with the business of the gods.”