Lydia tried asking, many times, if they could go back—after all, the rest of them hadn’t seen Daekai. At first Fauna, with the help of Imre and Domenique, was able to give a viable reason why they shouldn’t go back. After a while, Imre recognized when Lydia was going to ask quick enough to immediately shoot down the idea. Then she stopped on her own, once they got back into Mikkel territory and going back was impractical no matter what she tried to say.
But there was a surprising lack of questions; once, when Fauna had returned, they gave a group effort to try to hear what she’d seen. As soon as she showed no interest in telling them, though, they stopped. A part of her had to wonder if Imre talked with them after that, or if Domenique had convinced the rest of them nothing important had happened.
When they returned to the castle, they split up. Imre and Fauna offered to bring the horses back to the stable, Dimas and Samone left to write to their parents (one much more willingly than the other), and Kiah, Domenique, and Lydia went to find Casper and Minne.
It was while Imre and Fauna were practically alone that he made the first attempt at trying to understand what happened.
“Would you… be more willing to talk about it, since no one else is here?” he prompted with a bit of caution. “You haven’t talked about it, but I could tell it bothered you. Domenique noticed it, too. I wouldn’t be surprised if she tries talking to you later.”
“We… never really had a conversation,” Fauna mumbled. “But, at first… she thought I was someone else. Apparently I look and ‘feel’ a lot like someone she’d known before. She thought I was traveling with three other people I’ve never heard of, or that I was with ‘her,’ whoever that is…”
“And I’m guessing she never told you more about it?”
She shook her head. “Daekai said the person was ‘sleeping in darkness’ and talked about it being better if she didn’t wake up. It was somewhere she couldn’t be hurt, and she couldn’t hurt anyone else. Then… Daekai mentioned that ‘they’ talked about me the same way they had about that person. And those ‘they’ were probably Skiá, so I have no idea what that is supposed to mean…”
“Maybe it has to do with what you were feeling earlier.”
“Huh?”
“You said you felt like you were being watched—you said it wasn’t necessarily by Skiá, but they could still be involved. You said it was like they were waiting for the perfect moment to do something. Perhaps that’s related to what Daekai said.”
“I don’t see how that’s supposed to make me feel any better…”
He was quiet for a minute, as he considered it all himself. She glanced over to see him beat back a certain kind of panic, then turn to her with a fake smile. “Well, no matter what, you’ve got all of us. Nothing’s going to happen as long as we’re together. And nothing’s stopping us from trying to find answers ourselves, either—I’m more than willing to help you understand it.”
“Yeah…” she mumbled with a small nod. Noting how they were both done, she said, “Should we go back? Everyone else is probably finished by now…”
Imre nodded and led the way back into the castle. And, of course, Lydia’s voice could be heard well before they actually got to the dining room.
“…we tried to all see, but poof! It disappeared, right before anyone else could see it!”
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
They walked in to see Lydia, just barely, still seated. Casper and Minne listened with considerate smiles, Domenique, Kiah, and Samone looked utterly unimpressed, and Dimas just seemed confused. The others acknowledged Imre and Fauna as they took their seats, but it didn’t stop the earlier conversation.
“That’s not what happened and you know it,” Domenique remarked.
“At least it answers that question…” Kiah mumbled. “You exaggerate just as much as Andrew.”
“I’m not exaggerating! Not that much!” It seemed the longer Lydia thought about it, though, the more she had to acknowledge they were right. “Okay, maybe a little. Maybe… a lot of a little. But still! Mostly true up until then, right?”
“I don’t recall the daring escape from mystical Skiá illusions,” Samone said casually to prove her wrong.
“Well, I think it was a lovely story,” Minne offered. “It sounds like you all had fun, regardless of whether or not what she said was true.”
Casper nodded. “You all did great! As far as I’m concerned, this was an excellent first trip. And I’m confident things are only going to get better from here.”
“First trip,” Kiah repeated. She let out a sigh. “You want us to do that again, don’t you?”
He shrugged. “It went well, didn’t it? You’re only going to get better—learn more, understand what it means to work together—the more trips you do. We’re all confident enough in your skills.”
“Actually, can we all agree that what Lydia said was true?” Samone asked. “Because then maybe Father would think I’d die and I can stay home.”
“Aw, come on, don’t say it like that!” Lydia, it seemed, was too interested in Casper’s suggestion to be bogged down by the others. “Nothing bad happened this time, right? I can feel it—we’re practically invincible together!”
“If invincibility meant somehow not murdering each other, I might agree with you,” Domenique remarked. “But I think the rest should just be called ‘luck.’ Something that it seems like half the Stones lack.”
Dimas shuffled and, quietly, admitted, “I kind of liked it. When we… weren’t arguing. Or had no idea what we were doing…”
Lydia’s smile grew wider. “Wait, really? Someone agrees with me?”
“I think it achieved what it was supposed to,” Imre said. “We did and saw things we wouldn’t have normally. We know more than what we did when we left.”
“That’s the spirit!” Casper chuckled. “I agree with Lydia—I’ve got a good feeling about all of you together, too. You’re going to do things no one else could dream of. But you all should know that a reputation doesn’t earn itself. Only experience is only going to make you worthy of it.”
“Hey, if you’re going to keep making my job harder, can I get a pay raise?” Kiah asked half-jokingly. “Or a free beer, at least?”
Casper just laughed. “You’ll all have fun. All those stories are kind of like reward enough, I’d say. You might’ve been a mercenary before, but there’s no such thing as too much experience.”
“I can talk with Dad about finding some super interesting ones!” Lydia offered. “I bet there’s a bunch of old ruins and stuff we can explore. Oh! I think he just found a bunch of old artifacts and stuff last year. Maybe one of them could lead us to something!”
“But remember everyone needs to be comfortable,” Imre pointed out. “Nothing too dangerous or stressful. We all have to agree on that part.”
“I got it! You don’t have to remind me.” Something in Lydia’s tone, though, suggested she probably wasn’t going to try too hard to keep that promise. “When do you want to go? I bet I could talk with Dad, we could find something, and we could be ready to go again by the end of the week!”
“I’ve got to go back to Qizar,” Dimas mumbled. “Zofie wants me to be there for the next festival…”
Kiah shrugged. “Besides, if we have to do it, we should do it right. And no sensible person wants to travel that close together. Downtime is something to be grateful for.”
“But… Dimas will probably be back again by the end of the year, right?” Fauna asked, a bit nervous; she didn’t know where she wanted to stand in the situation. “We could go then. It gives everyone else a chance to agree to it, too, and to figure out what we’ll be doing and where we’ll need to go.”
Minne smiled. “That sounds like a wonderful idea.”
Lydia enthusiastically nodded. “No one here can take it back now! First thing when Dimas can come back, we can figure out which one we’re gonna do! This is going to be great!”