{-Kaius-}
Upon their return to Sanctuary, he dramatically flung himself onto one of the seats for the Messengers. Spreading out on it, he almost found himself reminiscing—it was at this very spot a certain ferret Fos would curl up on his chest and nap with him. But alas, those days were long gone, and certainly nothing more than a distant memory…
“You didn’t even do that much,” Hayze scoffed. “Yet here you are, acting like you’ve just completed the most taxing mission possible.”
“Shouldn’t we all take ample time to rest?” he responded with a smirk. “I believe you’ll do quite well to take a break, as well. Perhaps you won’t be so snappy.”
“We’ve more important things to do for the moment. The others should be back soon, too, and we still need to talk about the outcomes of the mission.”
“But there’s no harm in relaxing while we can, is there? Go on, sit down. The world won’t end, I promise.”
As she sat down, she muttered, “Now you’re just mocking me.”
“Isn’t that what old friends are for?” Kaius glanced to the other side of him, where Tevie was still standing. “That goes to you, too. There’s definitely enough seats here for all of us. No point in standing.”
“Yeah.” Tevie wandered over to another one of the seats. “Do you think Kiri’s going to tell us what happened? They didn’t mention anything about it, and that’s one good reason to want to know.”
“Well, if they weren’t with the three of you, then they weren’t able to help any of us.” That was Neville; he, Jacqueline, and Verity walked up to where the others were as he talked. They clearly just got here. “I’m afraid we’re just as in the dark about it as the rest of you are.”
“Which just has its own mess of problems…” Jacqueline mumbled.
Kaius would have shrugged, if his position had allowed for it. “We can try asking, at least, even if I’m sure we all acknowledge they’re not going to say anything if they haven’t already. Let’s all sit, relax, and wait for them—and possibly Micah, depending on how busy he is. Then we can all share stories of our adventures.”
“Can we keep it short?” Verity prompted. “I’ve got a feeling it’s going to take a while to get this smell of ashes off of me. For some reason, we apparently had to go digging around in it.”
“All a part of making sure a mission is done as thoroughly as possible,” Neville responded calmly.
A flurry of wingbeats announced the arrival of their next visitor before he even spoke a word. “And what a successful mission it was! Orestis was rather pleased with the results, you know. So pleased, in fact, He muttered something that could have, very loosely, been considered praise. Very loosely. But you all should take that as a win nonetheless!”
Micah landed right next to them, carefully setting Kiri—who quietly thanked him for the ride—down.
Kiri nodded as part of an address to all of them. “That was all great work! Even though we lost connection, you were all still able to assess your situations, decide on the appropriate course of action, and sufficiently complete the mission.”
Kaius decided there was no point in holding back, so he questioned, “So you really did lose connection with both teams? Care to shed some light on all of that?”
“It’s not really that important, is it?” Kiri tried, even though they all knew that it wasn’t going to work. “What matters is that you were all able to do what you were sent out to do. What happened here isn’t related to your mission, so it’s not anything you’ve got to worry about.”
“But it has to do with you, doesn’t it?” Jacqueline cautiously asked. “That seems like something that, as your friends, we should be worried about.”
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
Micah distracted them all—just for a moment—by clapping his hands together. “Well! If you’re all done needing me, I think the results were the only thing I came to tell you. You know how it is, always got to keep moving! You’re all probably going to have some time to rest before the next mission. So, until then, I’m off!” Then he spread his wings and left, in perhaps one of the best displays of ‘I know what this is about, but I’m not going to get involved’ that Kaius had ever seen.
“Let’s talk about your missions first,” Kiri decided quickly. “I know you were able to handle everything on your own, but how was it?”
“Well, it seems like neither of the groups had a completely boring mission,” Hayze remarked. “It turns out that Eldrianna figured out what we were there for and sent Talia to try to stop us. We were able to avoid a worse situation, of course—beat her to the last enchanted object, so there was no reason for her to be there anymore.”
Tevie nodded. “There was a lot there—stuff about something that Eldrianna and Achadus had done together. A… quest that someone else could take on, I think was how he kind of put it. Even if we didn’t destroy it all, though, there wasn’t really a lot left for others to find…”
“I believe the place we went to was where Achadus used to live,” Neville said. “It’s interesting that you mentioned that Eldrianna was where your team was sent—we were quite certain she’d been to that ruin as well.”
Jacqueline thoughtfully added, “And we don’t think that she was alone when she went, either. We think… she might’ve had someone else with her. Someone else from Sanctuary.”
“You might as well just outright say it,” Verity remarked, “since we already all know who you’re talking about. Danai had gone with Eldrianna to that place.”
That was curious enough to get Kaius to sit up, so that he could properly look at each of them. They certainly weren’t lying, at least. “Oh, really? I was under the impression that the fair Goddess of Light never left Sanctuary. I mean, as I understand it, Orestis quite adamantly opposed any gods going down there unless they absolutely needed to. Danai never struck me as someone who would do anything that even remotely broke the rules.”
“You’re right.” Kiri let out a thoughtful hmm. “I’ve known Day for a long time. I never would’ve thought she’d done something like that, and she certainly never mentioned anything related to it…”
Neville shrugged. “It was, undoubtedly, before the Fall of Eldrianna. None of us have seen those days—not a single Fos or Messenger, or even the later gods. Things could have been quite different in those times.”
“I… can’t say that doesn’t make me curious,” Kiri remarked. They started to trail off as they continued, “Maybe I’ll ask her about it later. Just… not right now, since I don’t want to worry her more…”
And of course they all picked up on the little hint, but Hayze beat the rest of them to acknowledge it. “Oh, so what you were doing had to involve worrying Danai? Are you sure it’s not something you’d like to talk to us about?”
Kiri let out a sheepish chuckle. “I walked myself right into that one, didn’t I? But, uh, can we save that for later? It’s not that important to know right away. It can wait.”
Carefully, Jacqueline pointed out, “If you were with Danai, then something serious happened. I think that’s something we should know about.”
Alas, however, their group effort of getting Kiri to talk about it was interrupted. A mourning dove flew over and transformed back into a Fos right behind them.
“Kiri! I was wondering where you were.” Mazel seemed to acknowledge the rest of them then, though—she tilted her head and acquired a more nervous grin. “Wait, was I interrupting something? I can come back later if you’re busy.”
“No, you came at the perfect time, actually!” Kiri gave one last, possibly apologetic, look at the others before stepping closer to Mazel. “What is it that you need help with? Something that’ll take a little while, right? I’m sure these guys would all like some rest, too, so it’s fine to leave them alone for a little bit.”
“Are you sure..?”
“Never been more certain!” They were practically the one ushering her away from the Messengers, giving a couple of follow-up questions of, “Is it one of the younger Fos? Did someone just come back from a hard mission? I’ll do what I can to help.”
Kaius couldn’t help but let out a chuckle, once the two Fos had moved on. “I’m quite certain there went all of our hopes of getting a clear answer soon.”
“It’s not really surprising,” Tevie mumbled, “but it’s definitely concerning, too. I guess we’re not going to learn anything either way, though.”
“Let’s think of it this way: it gives us time to talk, just as Messengers,” Neville offered. “I get the impression that we’ve both come across some insights while we were out. There’s likely a fair bit we can learn from discussion. Who wants to share their team’s story first?”