Chapter 24: A Lone Rioter

I have always struggled with creating everlasting peace. In my best efforts, I could only make it last a month or so before a scandal arose with my fellow rulers. Years, decades, all in the pursuit of calm. Those same years and decades swallowing in the ocean of doom, swirling and conquering all. Forever.

Ultimately, is peace really achievable or is it merely a status we temporarily have? Perhaps it was my measurement, via the volume of speech and conflict from my subjects. Then, I realized when it was all too late.

The only way for true peace and quiet is if we’re all dead.

Of course Vega and Skaldi wouldn’t know this, as they were sliding down into the water treatment system of Fort Jao, very loudly.

“Yay! I’m committing sewerslide!” Vega was having fun.

“Fuck! Fuck! Fu-” Skaldi was… not. Crashing down into a pool of blackened water, the two of them jumped and stumbled out.

“Damn it! Where is it?”

“Where is what?”

“The Snake Skin!” Skaldi spat out, soaked in slimy runoff foam. The helmet that he wore had a great slash across it.

“Shit! We gotta get away from it quickly, I don’t have any armor.” He stuttered and stumbled in place, looking out for the undead killer.

Vega couldn’t tell what he was talking about, as all she could see and hear was the rushing waters around them. They were alone in that sewer, she believed. Trapped and covered in garbage.

“Nothing’s here Skaldi. Let’s go-go back up.” Vega held a hand to the elf. He struggled out of the foam and held on tight to her. Climbing onto a platform, Skaldi heaved in the kind smelling air available, repulsed by the place he was surrounded in. He took his time, still hearing the distant sounds of combat above.

“Alright. How do we get out?” Skaldi said, looking at the twelve different passageways into or out of the sewer. The aqueduct wasn’t an option, since water quickly flowed from it. No light came from the passageways, which didn’t reassure Vega.

“Don’t know, maybe there is a control room or something? I saw one back in Jinmai, maybe this-this place has one of those.” Vega spoke, keeping firm eye contact with him. Skaldi didn’t like this, for Vega tended to stand there. For like… way too long. Often not blinking, just gazing at him. As soon as she took a single blink, Skaldi felt safe enough to consider his tools.

“I might have an idea.” Skaldi moved Vega out of the way for a moment, as his eyes glowed like gem stones in moonlight.

Elfs, specifically Flictions, have natural abilities to enhance one senses for up to a minute. By tuning out details like color in vision, texture in touch, and so on an elf can enhance a single sense. Skaldi upon hearing Vega ask what his idea was, choose to tune out of his hearing and manifest dark vision.

“Hey Skaldi, do ya see that?”

He focused on the tenth passage.

“Skaldi? There’s a dude rising out of the water.”

He saw a set of stairs going upward.

“He has a big ax. He look-looks like he wants to hurt ya.”

Skaldi didn’t want to hear her.

“I’m picking ya up now.” Vega quickly carried the tuned out elf and raced toward the third passage. As his vision blurred by her movements, Skaldi immediately wrestled with the scarecrow.

“What the hell are you doing?” Skaldi screamed.

“Saving ya-ya.” The Snake Skin rose out of the water just on cue, catching Skaldi’s fragmented senses off guard.

“Wait! Go to the right! The tenth passage!”

“Can’t.”

“What? Why not?” Skaldi questioned exasperatedly. A sweeping flood of water crashed out of the tenth passage.

“That place had a weird song to it. I didn’t like it.” Vega looked through the fingers of Skaldi, as she ran into the shadowy halls of the sewer. The Snake Skin took a step onto the platform, but refused to walk on it. Its eyes turned back to the foamy sewage, how his lower body couldn’t be seen.

It sunk back into the sewage, ordered to chop down the enemies of the Tripolians.

Encountering smaller and smaller hallways, Skaldi motioned Vega to lower him down. They took moments to find light, anything from above. No water or rubbish poured in one section, only droplets falling into deeper pipes and systems unknown.

“God this place smells terrible.” Skaldi proclaimed, tying several scarves to his nose. He still gagged in its oppressive atmosphere.

“Ooo! What does it smell like?”

“Like all things unpleasant and vulgar. Now be quiet, that thing might still be following us.” Skaldi hushed, now prone to soapy stone floor. Just below a wall was a flat crawl space for workers. Big enough for him and Vega, so long as she attempted to be silent.

“In here, air is flowing through. Must be a way out.” Skaldi waved her to the ground. She followed close behind Skaldi, now stuffed close between pipes and bars of the area.

“What was happening outside?” Vega whispered.

“The same thing that will happen to you if you don’t shut up.” Skaldi spoke, kicking the face of Vega.

The air became shallow here, just as the water did. Indigo colored stone paved the underground complex. Climbing out from the crawl space, they saw coiling pipes and valves galore, hissing and pounding despite there being no workers here. Bouts of superheated water rocketed out every minute, raining hot liquid on them both. Skaldi winced and pulled his cloak over himself.

Vega stuck out her non-existent tongue.

“Was that warm? What does warm feel like?” Vega poked her scribbled mouth.

“No. That was burning.”

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“Aw. What does burning feel like?” Vega hopped to Skaldi’s side. He ignored this and began to consider the disrepair the room was in.

“Seems like the sewage system isn’t being taken care of. Ain’t that great?” Skaldi sarcastically asked himself.

“That…that isn’t.” Vega answered.

“I was being sarcastic.” See?

A pool of boiling water blocked their path and all they could reach was the various systems controlling the sewage. Skaldi tapped a pipe with his dagger, hearing the reverberation of the hollow inside.

“Guess we have to find a way to pump this stuff out.” Skaldi swiveled to see an office beside it. Skaldi walked into it, not noticing Vega’s curiosity manifesting… in turning random valves.

A desk nearby crates full of replacement parts was the least interesting part of the office. But there was a leather bound book on the ground with the symbol of a droplet. Skaldi picked it up and flipped through random sections. Although he could be classified as a learning reader, he was surprised by how fast he picked up the Iozian language.

Definitely not as good as Bolato, he thought, but impressive nonetheless. Descriptions and operations of the system proved readable to him. Maybe in some ten minutes, he could get back into the fight. And much better, he wouldn’t need the help of the scarecrow.

Skaldi upon exiting the room stepped in boiling hot water. Vega’s rampage on the delicate system of the pipes managed to fill the entire room with water. Good on her!

“Hot! What the hell did you do?!”

“Tried to make more water.” Only Vega’s head could be seen above the pool.

“Why!?” Skaldi jumped onto the doorframe, his body just an inch above the burning hot water.

“Because I thought ya-ya can swim.”

“Not like this! Fix this now!”

“Okay-okay, fine-fine.” Vega swam under, giving Skaldi little respite as he continued to be an inch away from boiling away.

“Damn it.” Skaldi cursed to himself. “I leave her for just a few seconds and she destroys everything. If she didn’t take care of Valiato when I’m drunk, I would have kicked her out by now.” Skaldi was also surprised by how honest he was.

He forgot about the burning sea below him. He realized he had a lot of things he had to change about himself, in order to be the man he needed to be. For Valiato.

As he contemplated his goals, the room’s water began to lower and eventually disappear.

“Water’s done. Let’s go!” Vega waved over, with her hay hair blocking her vision. She was waving at a wall.

“...How am I losing to her?”

Crouching again, but not illuminated by sparkling candles, Vega felt comfortable to talk again. The stark black hallway they were in echoed a bit, so it was perfect for a close conversation.

“So… what spirits do ya know?”

“What?” Skaldi looked behind.

“Back when we started the trip, at dinner. Ya said you know spirits and ya names mean striker heart.” Vega listed.

“I don’t understand.”

“...Before the dead guy?”

“Oh yes. Spirits and names. Quite the history you know. Actually, Skaldi isn’t really my name, same with the term spirit.” Skaldi halted Vega, hearing bubbling of liquid beside them. He believed that it was only coming from the pipes, so he gestured to her to continue.

“What do ya mean?”

“Spirits is the word Iozians made. In my people’s language, the Galtians, the equivalent to the word is ~heaven’s joints~.” Skaldi said as his accent changed.

“Gesundheit.”

“No. The same thing with the name Skaldi. ~Striker heart.~”

“Oh. So Iozians took all the meaning out of the original and just reduced it to a bastardized pronunciation?”

“Pretty much…yeah.” Again, he was surprised by Vega’s bursts of intellect.

“Cool!” Vega’s wonder with the world didn’t cease, even when encountering less than pleasant histories and stories. Her enthusiasm disturbed Skaldi. How could she have an unrelenting desire to learn? Especially when it comes to such nasty subjects like the destruction of cultures?

For an instant, not a moment longer, Skaldi thought he saw a shadow of Potenti. Then the shadow was eradicated in the light.

“But what about ya spirits? Are they shapeshifters too?”

“Kind of sort of. Recorian spirits take the form that comforts, right?” Skaldi questioned, trying to make sure he was being sensitive.

“Yep. Whether that be-be a soft fat lady or a tall soldier, it depends on the viewer.”

“Yeah. Galtian spirits take the form of pets or natural things mixed with sentient beings. Like a bull and an elf, or a fungus and an eagle.”

“Mixed race couples?” Vega asked.

“No, mixed species couples.” Skaldi corrected. He hushed her again, seeing the waves of water moving beside them suddenly. A carcass of a dead seagull popped out of the sewage, reassuring him.

“Birdie no.” Vega hummed to herself.

“But yeah, similar but different. By the way, why are you so interested in spirits? Don’t be mad, but someone as simple as you shouldn’t be so concerned.” Skaldi insulted.

“Well, I think about that voice I’ve been hearing. And I think it's one of those spirits, like being commanded by holy purpose or something? Do spirits do that? For ya people I mean.” Vega poked the butt of Skaldi, who slapped her hand to stop it. He took some time to consider it.

Commands from the gods didn’t really exist. More casual orders. Pray to them, give them sacrifice, and protect their lands. Divine quests or acts weren’t a possibility, as the Galtian Gods were content ones. Any divine request would be similar to a grocery list. Like… pick up milk.

“No, not at all. I guess that's more of a Recor thing.”

“Aw shame. I wish somebody would tell me what to do. Well aside then ya voice, I trust ya!” Vega comforted the distant voice, wherever it was.

Darker yet darker the rooms grew, almost unnatural. Skaldi took Vega’s hand, just in case he needed to throw her at something. He swapped his taste for gray vision. Not as accurate as dark vision, but it was serviceable.

Vega however, slowly became fearful in this numbing dark, and she took to talking to calm herself.

“How does love feel like?”

God fucking damn it…

“Haha! What?” Skaldi luckily had no clue what she was talking about.

“It’s the thing ya do with people ya care about.” Vega said, a tad more calm than before. “Like that blue haired elf lady ya hang around with?”

“Oh! Well, she’s just… ?” Skaldi rubbed his chin, considering the odd idea. If he was truely honest with himself, he didn’t know what his relationship with Ponteni was. Skaldi tried to imagine it as love, but he soon realized it was something more personal than love. More like an inspiration. To himself and her.

He didn’t know how to quite care for others and love friends.

Not that I’m bragging, I have never done such an act before. Even though I’m an adult, I was beautiful and super smart, and had wealth beyond measure. I mean, why didn’t anyone offer to marry me god damn it?! I was an eleven out of ten. A yes out of maybe!

What was I talking about?

Ah yes, people smooching one another.

“Oh. But you’re gay.” Vega said, like that meant something.

“So?” Skaldi laughed at the implication. “Yeah, we take baths together. What, do you think we do the weird stuff guys and girls do? It’s mostly just kisses and hugs between us.” Skaldi happily reminisced on his marriage two months ago.

“What do ya-ya mean weird stuff?” Vega asked.

“I don’t know. And… I don’t know how to explain love.”

“Aww. I don’t know love-love either.” Vega said, half convinced she was right.

Yeah… turns out scarecrows also don’t know how to have the physical feeling of love.

“Imagine that! Haha! That’s so stupid!” Skaldi chuckled out. “Look, ask Florato or something.”

Don’t blame Skaldi or Vega for their lack of knowledge. They’re just people trying to survive. Sort of…

I have to stop doing this…

“I’ll be sure to ask her when we get out. By the way-way, are we lost? Or am I closing my eyes?” Vega stopped blinking five minutes ago.

“No, we’re not. It’s just there’s no candles here. But don’t worry, a lot of water and air coming from above. Also a staircase.” Skaldi spoke out, just as Vega tripped on the steps.

“Cool… anything to get out-out of this place.” More sad streams poured in the rooms that followed, almost crying at the upper city’s conflict. Vega squeezed Skaldi’s hand briefly, just as a sad realization came to her.

“Do… Do you ever miss them?” Vega softly asked, just as a child would when broaching a sensitive subject. Skaldi shivered, knowing what she was trying to talk about.

“No.”

“Are ya sure?”

“Yeah. They don’t matter to me and they don’t care about me.” Skaldi brushed his hair using his thumb, soothing himself.

“It’s just… I never really had a family. Or a dad or a mom. How-how is it like?” Vega asked, attempting not to cause any insecurity in Skaldi.

“...I can’t lie and say that I didn’t love them. Love is an incredible thing to be had. To have affection from another, to have them say that they care about you deeply. My family… did love me.” Skaldi’s hand went to his ear, tugging on it gently. “Family is a lot. Responsibility, taking care of what needs to be done. Being protected and encouraged by them. And giving them back the love they gave to you. But… my personal ambition versus the expectation that I must follow their every order is where I drew the line.” Skaldi stopped before he took another drink from his flask. He tried to resist it but he ended up taking a sip.

“I guess that's the same with me. Ya know, I didn’t always help people.” Vega tried to connect and relate to Skaldi. “But I realized I have people that I care about and people that-that care about me. I have stuff I take care of.” Skaldi chuckled at that, the idea that a scarecrow would have longtime goals.

“Haha! And what would that be?”

“You.” Vega coldly insulted Skaldi's being.