Dinner had finally arrived, with everyone still safe. However, their little crew had now grown suddenly to a much larger population, leaving a lot of work to handle the sudden shift.
The smith tested out his new workshop, his hammer ringing off of the workbench resoundingly. It appears he would be needing to take care of some repairs already, thanks to some of the activity earlier, so it was good to know that his smelting tools were also ready. He had been hoping to start instead on researching some of the other marvels scattered across the shelves, but it seems that would have to wait for now.
Mhyl wasn't as interested in eating as many of the others were. Her friends had all suffered a lot in that last fight. Lwyn's condition was probably the worse of all of them, but thankfully she wasn't in a serious state. Lwyn rested there, blinking faintly, in a state of drowsiness as if she had been taking in too much Amber-leaf smoke. Qheria and Thanrie were also nearby, both exhausted but at least looking more alert. They would both need to get some rest in order for their own recovery.
Chyurae showed up carrying food. He'd already seen how determined Mhyl could get tending to her friends, so he knew food would have to come to her instead. He was also smart enough to know she wouldn't just eat before her friends, so he brought four helpings of food, struggling to carry all of it. "Oh! Chyurae, careful. You're carrying too much!" Mhyl helped Chyurae with his burden, setting things down. Being relieved of the food, he took an opportunity to hand out the food to everyone. Mhyl noticed the proceedings, suddenly aware that the dish she was holding was actually to be her own.
The next person to enter the room was actually Aelyiq, who had been following Chyurae in an effort to locate Mhyl. He had lost her in all the commotion that had occurred in aftermath of the conflict. "Ah, finally! Mhyl, you can be so difficult to find, in case you didn't know." Aelyiq' comment was in reflection of both the short term and long term struggle to find her. "Oh! That traveler from the library! What are you doing here?" "Like I said, searching for you. Your mother has been incredibly worried, you should know." Mhyl knew her mother had sent a party to find her, but didn't know the traveler she had met was part of the search team.
"I'm really sorry. I guess bringing tales of adventure just inspired you to set off on your own adventure. From what I've heard, you've really found it." Aelyiq was thankful he finally got the chance to apologize after all this time, while Mhyl pulled out the Atlas she had been carrying. "Don't be sorry, you won't believe how thankful I've been to have been given this book. It's helped us a lot in our journeys." Mhyl gave Aelyiq a hug, to demonstrate her thanks.
Chyurae showed up at this point, almost pouting softly. "Are you here to take Mhyl away?" "Actually, that's a good point, there is a lot more to worry about right now. Trying to take care of your friends all on your own is a pretty big burden, we should start on that. I'll be right back." Chyurae was still confused how that answered his question at all, as he watched Aelyiq leave. However, he noticed that Mhyl had also gone back to tending to her friends, so he decided to back off for now.
Ihzyhur and Xyithy showed up together, having grown impatient waiting after finishing dinner. "Qheriyaehyzeiri, what have you gotten yourself into." Xyithy sighed, then resumed again. "Are you at least feeling okay, you aren't terribly injured, right?" She then came over to take care of her own daughter herself, not even waiting for Qheria to answer. "Sis, you're doing well, right? Not going to let yourself be shown up by some Qiciri, I assume. Well, keep it up, we will have a lot to go over, later." Ihzyhur it seems still had some casual competitions going on with Xyithy, and while his words said otherwise, his eyes were actually gauging if she actually needed any help and to figure out what he could do to help.
Zyuixqs showed up at one point. "Sir, I would ask you not to be a bother of lady Thanrie while she is busy recovering. Being put under pressure will not help her to recover faster, and as is, she had already suffered terrible wounds recently, so she will need all the help she could get." Zyuixqs stood up to Ihzyhur, a stern expression gracing his face. Xyithy smiled faintly, watching her rival getting what he deserved, as she continued to look after her daughter. Ihzyhur turned to this newcomer, a dark expression settling onto his face. "By what right do you feel you can ask anything of me. She is my sister, I will do what I must to look after her."
"Would you two just 'F~~~ing' be quiet!! By the divine, you two can be SO annoying at times. 'F~~k', I never imagined how bad it would be to put the two of you in the same room at the same 'F~~~ing' time!!" Thanrie's sudden outburst was very Thanrie, still filling in the blanks of her vocabulary with the occasional English. Zyuixqs shied away in fear once again, while Ihzyhur turned to her in complete surprise. Ihzyhur had never seen this side of his sister before, even though the reports he got did mention it. So the report wasn't wrong after all.
"So honey, are your legs okay. After all that jumping around, you're bound to have hurt something." "No, I.." "It's okay, I'm here and I'll..." "Mother, stop! I know that you are worried, but please understand that I have the fullest of confidence in Mhyl's ability to make sure I will be fine. If you just want to talk about stuff, please be kind enough to wait until I'm actually well enough to keep up. If you are in that much of a hurry to be useful, please go see Rhyde and work on the overnight schedule. We're expecting some overnight guests here, and the four of us won't be able to help out tonight. Thank you." Now it was Xyithy's turn to be shocked. This wasn't like the Qheria she knew at all.
Ehryinae walked into the room at this point, taking account of the situation. "So it seems like we've already proven the accuracy of the reports. That makes things easier. Also, I've looked into your little pest problem. According to the commander, this place is scheduled to get some nocturnal visitors tonight. It also seems that just incinerating the lot of them won't be the most suitable solution either, as the vermin are also a source of food." Ehryinae went up to Lwyn, and decided against raising a commotion like the others had. Lwyn really did look like she was in serious need of rest and recovery.
Aelyiq returned at this point with six wardens, opening in Elaethyx. "Mhyl, I know that you've probably got things taken care of, but we really can't have you bear the entire brunt of this burden, especially when your patients have people so impatient for them to get better. Rather than having you overwork yourself on their behalf, we'll speed up the process." Aelyiq then shifted to Izhaethyx. "Okay everyone, medical team here. If you are all going to work on making sure this place is secure, we'll make sure that these girls are in top condition by morning. Thank you very much for your cooperation." Aelyiq' statement got all the other humans out of the room, realizing that he had a point after all.
"I thank you for your help, but really, I've got everything under control. I've already administered some Amber-leaf, the stuff is remarkable. If they take it easy tomorrow, everyone should be fine by the next day, even Lwyn if we're lucky enough." Mhyl couldn't see any practical use for having so many idle hands around. Eight people taking care of three girls that mostly only needed rest at this point. "Unfortunately, their guests don't appear interested in wanting to wait that long, and even having you busy for a whole extra day isn't going to make the Wardens happy either." Aelyiq shared his same argument with Mhyl, who was still lost as to why the Wardens had been included in the first place.
Two wardens approached each of the recovering girls. It was initially difficult for Aelyiq to convince them to step in for the others, but Aelyiq had mentioned how Mhyl's fate was tied to her three companions. To ensure she stayed safe, her friends needed to be at her side. The wardens had not missed this part of the assembly, it was concidered acceptable in the end. Each of them drew wooden scepters with one hand, and held their other hand forward. Light sparked within the room, as the three girls began to faintly glow. Mhyl watched in surprise as this continued for a while, until all of the Wardens started to get tired.
Stolen novel; please report.
"There, that should dramatically speed up the process. Technically, the three of them should be pretty healthy by nightfall, but they will still need rest. We'll go help the others to make sure that everyone stays safe tonight, you should get some rest with your friends. Tomorrow will be another busy day." Aelyiq and the wardens left Mhyl there with her friends. She was still completely lost as what she had just witnessed. Maybe getting a good night's rest would be a smart idea after all.
All four girls woke up completely refreshed by morning. They hadn't even noticed the defense work that had gone on overnight. Even Lwyn was up and ready, though she had slept later than all of them. Mhyl had been the first one awake as a rarity, but she had no interest in leaving until she was sure everyone was fine. Qheria and Thanrie had also complied with her perspective, they knew they had to be ready before exposing themselves to their families again, after all.
Mhyl's predictions panned off perfectly. Soon after being discovered all well, a meeting was suddenly to be held. The four girls entered the meeting room to discover eight others. Rhyde was presiding over the meeting, with Yuxzn at his side. Chyurae and Zyuixqs were there mostly in respect for how the two of them had been working with the others all this time. The last four were Ihzyhur, Xyithy, Aelyiq, and Ehryinae. Mhyl scanned over the room, considering she was going to be part of a meeting, but that most likely the meeting would be held in Izhaethyx. Ten of the twelve people present could speak that language, it only made sense. This was the worst case of language exclusion she had felt yet.
Lwyn saw Mhyl's depression setting in, as Mhyl silenced whatever she was about to say. "So, I'm guessing Mhyl is going to need a translator here if she's going to be included at all. It's going to make it harder for us, but.." Lwyn spoke up in Mhyl's defense, but Yuxzn shook his head. "No, from what I've gathered, you will need to do a lot of speaking for yourself. I'll handle translations for Mhyl, so that you can just carry your own side of the conversation." Yuxzn was logical in his idea, helping Lwyn out with this only made sense.
Yuxzn moved to sit near where Mhyl was, at the end of their group, in order to provide translations, with Lwyn seated at Mhyl's other side, just in case. Chuyrae wasn't far away, so that he could maybe support Mhyl too somehow. Zyuixqs was on the other side of their four person lineup, sitting down beside Thanrie, which garnered him glares from Ihzyhur. Rhyde was otherwise seated beside Zyuixqs, which extended into the side of the table leading to their four guests. Ehryinae herself took the seat next to Rhyde, while Aelyiq sat down on the elven side of the table, feeling it would be the most comfortable there. This unfortunately left the two rivals sitting together, though Aelyiq really hoped that Xyithy sitting beside him wouldn't be too much of a problem.
"So rather than have this make a mess much farther, I've felt bringing everything into a meeting could do a lot to clear away some of our misconceptions. Having met with both groups of four, it's rather obvious that there would be some need to sit down and work out all of the unknowns." Rhyde was doing remarkable at presiding over the meeting, and bringing the whole thing to order. "So, the last time the four groups had arrived, one thing that came to light was that each of you were looking for these four young women. They were not present at the time, but the report you gave to describe them did not completely match our own. At the time, we didn't have much more information. However, since then, we had taken the opportunity to reach out to learn more." Rhyde passed the conversation off to the same four esteemed young women.
Qheria took leadership over the situation with a sigh, and resumed from there. "We still don't understand why, but at the night we all stayed in the Citadel Inn, that night of the storm, something caused us to awaken to additional memories, memories of a life in another world. We still haven't figured out if we've always had these memories dormant and they just woke up then, or if the storm somehow gave us these new memories, but with it came more than just vague thoughts. All of our minds are working as if they hold two different people, and we're just the result of the mixture. We have however noticed that the Fortress out here has been using things that look.. familiar to out other memories. We suspect their discoveries come from the same world as our memories."
Ehryinae nodded in understanding. The Arch-Magus was, as usual, totally correct. "While this news is something none of our side has been aware of, it is honestly not surprising. It's exceptional, don't misunderstand me, but.. it makes sense. The Arch-Magus did estimate that there was a direct correlation with the Fortress and you four. That storm you both were visited by, it was what is called a Celestial Storm. The world was seeking you out to connect you to the actions tearing the veil asunder. Oh, right, I should mention that too. Khaexyn's actions aren't just threatening war, his own discoveries are tearing a hole in the world veil. If he keeps it up, the veil will tear apart and the whole world would tear with it. We're facing the destruction of all Celese here."
Rhyde folded his palms in consideration. "I knew Khaexyn had to be stopped, but I didn't know the situation was this bad. About 20 years ago, he had discovered something, and everyone had ignored it. Two years later, he got everything working, and we still ignored it. Not even a year after that, he started making sure it wasn't something we could just ignore. It's been a long 17 years since then."
Xyithy read the room, and scanned over everyone present, feeling visibly the eldest in the room. "You made it sound like you personally presided over the efforts, when I can't see anyone else in this room would be many years over 20. Maybe Ehryinae, though I still believe I've got a bit on you here." Xyithy wasn't sure about Aelyiq, but it was at least accurate for everyone else. "No, but my whole life has been then invested in this. It just means I've never known rest." Rhyde admitted to being much younger than he's always sounded.
Lwyn interjected at this point. "So, numbers are funny things. Usually, numbers don't just sit in neat rows and make absolutely total sense. Doing that usually.. doesn't make absolute total sense. Anyway, I can't help but notice how neatly your timeline adds up. The four of us were already finding it remarkable that we are the exact same age, to the day. It was also remarkable that the storm happened on the exact night half way between our 17th and 18th birthday. It's also an amazing fact that our memories seem to belong to someone exactly between their 17th and 18th birthday. But now I hear that the guy who is getting all this other-world stuff got it on what is actually adding up to the same day we were born? I mean.. how do numbers just fit this perfectly?" Lwyn brought up a thought that had been bugging her for a while now.
"If something fits perfectly like that, it was because the world had found need to make it fit so perfectly. The world had long ago chosen you four as individuals who would be destined to stand in for it. Your own memories were probably an added gift, giving you an exclusive understanding of our enemy while also binding you to this as fate. Nothing here was just coincidence. You may have noticed fate had been guiding your hand through this whole process, pushing you forwards like this." As Ehryinae explained, Thanrie considered all the times they had been left with getting through regardless of the odds, simply because they were... lucky. Even her own survival was a miracle of luck. Maybe though, this was something made more than just... idle luck.
"I'm not sure how being told this is helping with the idea of convincing us to go back home. I was fully expecting to get a lot of arguments about why we should be giving up on everything here and accept the idea that we wouldn't be able to stay here any longer. The way you're making it sound, our stay here is .. fated." "Exactly. The four nations back home has held an assembly, presided under by the Arch-Magus. We had came to the decision that, rather than bringing you home, we would need to ensure you had support out here on the front lines. It seems even the world ordained the moment of our arrival." Qheria rose question about the single matter she had been most preparing for since she got up this morning, but Ehryinae shot down any related concerns. They would be staying here with their family's support.
"So, there is another matter of discussion. During that same conflict, we had noticed that your four groups had been more than just efficient at dealing with our enemy. As you arrived, you also yet again wielded that same efficiency against our foes and came across victory without even a sweat. None of the four girls have said they know anything about that cause, and so I believe that there is some explanations that would be due of them, if you truly intend to support them out here." Rhyde shifted the perspective of the whole conversation with this topic, turning the need for explanations to the other four.
Ehryinae sighed deeply, it seems there would be no more delaying this inevitability. Her other three companions came to terms with the same, it was time to share some family secrets.