The dim sky helped Tensha rest in her tent for a full 15 hours before waking up refreshed and ready to take the road back to the castle.
She finds that a giant blue ball of wool made its way to their campsite. An adorable variation of a sheep’s head is sticking out of the wool and licking Alistair’s smooth cheek while glowing insects fly around him and sit on his draped cloth.
He turns to her with a smile, startling but a few insects that fly back into the blue wool.
“Had a good night?” she asks, stretching.
He answers with a delightful nod before saying “and you?”
Tensha was taken by surprise for a moment before answering.
“Very much so, but I’ll still need to rest more to recover fully."
She takes a look at the sky that’s now bright and full of colourful hues of grey clouds that reflect beautifully to her.
“Oh, when did the aurora dissipate?”
“Just a few minutes ago," he says as he turns back to pet the sheep.
Tensha can’t help but smile at seeing him interact with something else.
The old lady can guess what’s going to happen next. She opens a chest by the campfire and pulls out a cooking stand and a pan. In a bowl, she mixes various ingredients; flour, salt, sugar, some eggs and milk, without forgetting the baking powder and butter, and bananas to add in some flavour.
Doesn’t take her long before she finishes making a large stack of delicious looking pancakes.
A bit further away from the tents, there’s a foldable table and chairs that’s still somewhat fancy and nice to look at. She puts three plates of banana pancakes with sausages at the side, a plate full of dates, a tea pot for herself, a cup of milk for Alistair, and orange juice for the reckless girl that’s about to land on time.
Alistair’s silky cyan hair flows in the air as he sits patiently with a smile on his face as he watches Tensha putting things in place. He doesn’t quite know why she’s putting up 3 plates but he doesn't question it either.
And wouldn’t you know it, just as she finishes, his head snaps to look at the beautiful sky and his smile widens as he gets up from his seat and opens his arms.
Tensha raises an eyebrow at his initiative but doesn’t pay it too much mind.
A slender frame of a girl, to match the slender frame of the boy, lands on Alistair spinning around him with her hands wrapping him into a hug.
“BUBBLES!!” Asire screams as she pulls Alistair closer.
It’s been a few months since she last saw him. She has the ability to fly back to the castle and hang around with him any time she’d like but has yet to realise that her powers can be used on everyday activities.
Alistair hasn’t learnt what hugs are supposed to feel like since yesterday… as you would expect… but he’s very delighted to see her again.
“I’ve missed you so much!” she doesn’t want to let go of him.
Tensha coughs to grab her attention.
“Oh, sorry…” she says, still holding him close to her.
“Come now, breakfast while still fresh," Tensha says pointing to the chair in front of the orange juice.
Tensha’s also glad to see her with only minor wounds.
They all take their seats before digging in.
Neither Alistair or Asire are bothering with manners. It’s been so long since they had a ‘Ten’s Special Breakfast’ as they call it.
She taught them how to cook many times but hers are always the best, even though she doesn’t use her special potions while cooking.
Tensha, of course, eats delicately with her knife and fork.
“So, tell me, how was your fight?” Tensha asks in between bites.
“Oh, it wash good, I sink?”
“Empty your mouth first…” the old lady shakes her head slightly with a giggle. “What do you mean you think?”
“Well…” she sneaks in another bite before talking. “I got knocked out before beating it and I’m not sure how long I’ve been out for." She doesn’t mention the potentially serious health issues she faced.
Alistair’s head turns in between the two ladies, as they speak, with a blank expression… only chewing.
“I only just woke up 2 hours ago…” Asire adds.
“Sounds like you’ve been out for half a day, but what knocked you out in the first place?”
“Oh… um…” it’s embarrassing for her to say it. “I… I wash the one…” she filled her mouth and started to whisper.
“What was that?”
“I was… the one…”
“You were the one?”
“I knocked myself out okay!” she shouts out of shame as she holds her head down.
“How did you manage that?” Tensha couldn’t help but giggle at how bashful she is.
“It was reflecting my hits back at me…”
The old lady raises an eyebrow.
“I’m gonna do a full body check once we’re back home."
“Awwww, come on… I’m completely fine! I flew here in less than an hour…”
“That doesn’t mean your insides are fine… it’s been a year anyways…” She teases Asire’s discomfort with medical checks.
“You too Bubbles."
Alistair’s head snaps and his eyes open wide. He turns to look at Asire who gives him a knowing nod.
Asire grabs the plates of pancakes and leaps away into the sky while Alistair swiftly follows away with the milk and orange cups floating by his side.
They didn’t get even 20 metres away before Asire fell on her ass after she hit an invisible forcefield.
“Haha!” a sarcastic laugh comes from the old lady. “Is entering the bath the same as leaving it?”
The defeated couple go back to the table and continue to have a casual breakfast.
While helping Tensha pack up things into the tent. Asire remembers to ask her something.
“By the way, do we know someone that goes by ‘Eyes.’”
“Umm…” she thinks to herself for a minute. “I don’t recall anyone with that title."
“I see… maybe it’s that leaking they keep telling me about…”
“Hmm?” Tensha didn’t hear that last part.
“Ah, nothing."
With that, they leave the tent and stand back to watch as the ground quite literally swallows it with its content leaving no sign of past inhabitance behind.
Tensha blows into an ornamented whistle and two valiant horses answer her call.
“Oh! I didn't know you brought Timothy with you!” Asire runs to the grey horse and gives him a hug.
“I can’t have you jumping around for hours, can I?”
Alistair floats next to the two horses as they ride out.
They could reach the castle within a day and a half if they ride nonstop, but they’re not in a hurry. No point in rushing everywhere if you can’t enjoy the journey to where you’re going.
On the road Asire and Tensha would sing songs as Alistair smiles and listens with joy. Sometimes the younger two play around with small races of getting to the top of the hill or who would catch the other.
Come the afternoon and food is no problem as Tensha always carries with her a portable campfire setup in her large bag. They enjoy many foods they forage from the planes of the bluish tall grass.
The planes are called the Elemental Purity. Life seems to have sparked back into the land since yesterday. Other than the big balls of blue wool and energy insects, no other creatures roamed around. Now there’s various rodents under the tall grass, from squirrels to mice. And even bigger animals are suddenly appearing back in their natural habitat, like foxes and felines, and even a pack of elephants. Not only is the fauna recovering, but there even seems to be signs of small flowers starting to take root.
Food is covered easily for the trio. For tonight’s meal: a lone gazelle. An extremely thin blade of air cuts through a small gazelle’s neck mercifully ending it’s life; Alistair makes sure to cut cleanly before it can realise pain. Before it drops to the floor, the body’s already recovered by two quick jumps by the unarmoured Asire; with her small stature, rushing through tall grass is just like a cheetah claiming its kill. And with Tensha’s gastronomy level, cooking a perfect meal is the natural next step while preserving some snacks for the kids on the road.
At night, they don't need any tents. Tensha places her unorthodox shield on the ground and a forcefield forms itself. Warmth is kept in without sacrifice of the beautiful starry night view. From the outside, you could only see a dome of distorted light, almost like you don’t want to look in that direction.
The kids snuggle into their sleeping bags and the old lady tells them a story of the ancient past; the story of the dragon that once kept the land warm through deadly winters, leaving the people of old safe in their closed city. It’s a heartwarming story that she herself is fond of since she was much much younger than their age.
It’s not that they are young in the first place, they’re far older than what you can consider children, but their innocence is a star that glimmers in Tensha’s eyes.
They’ve fallen asleep and she sits next to her sleeping horse looking at the majesty of the stars beyond.
She drinks a vial of flaming liquid and her eyes shine brightly like the fire she consumed. The stars become even clearer. There isn’t much light pollution out here on these hills to begin with, but now she can see in great detail the fiery details of every star and how it moves and spins and some of them die. As beautiful as that is, it’s not the main star of the show she enjoys every now and then.
There’s some odd beauty in the ‘overlapping moon’ as she calls it. Whenever she drinks her vial that’s supposed to only let her see slight energy transference, the moon starts to glow in different hues at the same time. A red above a blue above the original moon grey. Its confusing structure gives it some sort of attractiveness to Tensha.
She hopes that the kids can be happy in these dark times, they’ve had a tougher life than most, and with what happened 4 decades ago… she thought they’ll have a hard time to be happy again. But it seems they’re stronger than she gives them credit for.
It may have taken them time to readjust but it seems that the new lifestyle won’t be too much of a burden on them… for now anyway.
The next day, they continue their journey and end it by the doorstep of the tundra. A zone of snow where nothing lives, dubbed, The Dead White. It is also the unofficial territory of the Black Castle where they live. It’s unofficial simply because quite literally nothing can live there past the 15 seconds mark. They camp the night outside before taking back their journey in the morning after checking their red gem necklace is around their and the horse’s necks.
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This time, they rode at the top speed of their exceptional horses. There’s no point in taking it slow here. Only one view repeats for as far as the eye can see.
Glistening white snow that doesn’t go dark even under the clouds. Steps taken over a layer of thick snow that doesn’t sink beyond a certain depth or stop you in your path. No sign of animals or any kind of movement for that matter. It’s smooth snow to the horizon with only their past steps as evidence of change. But if a black castle stands in the middle of a white plain, why is it that they can’t see it?
Only after a certain point do the black walls of the castle become visible with the shard of silver coiling around its centre and piercing the sky.
In all honesty they don’t know how it works either, and they didn’t exactly have the resources to conduct research at the time. And now is even worse resource wise given that there’s only 6 inhabitants excluding the animals.
There are trees spread around the outside of the castle, in the land of the dead, giant trees live. But something catches Tensha and Asire’s eyes. There are a few birds flying over into the tundra from outside. Since normal birds can’t fly in… is she waking up?
As they’re riding towards the castle, a ripple forms in the air around them. Something passed through their soft barrier. Asire turns with surprise to see Tensha holding a jet-black arrow that aimed to pass by them.
A gentle smile forms on Tensha while Asire gets overwhelmed with joy; for a second there, she just looks at the arrow with a wide smile. Immediately after gaining her senses back, she jumps off her horse only to leap, passing them at a much faster rate.
Tensha shakes her head with a gentle smile to herself.
Alistair tilts his head slightly. He’s not quite sure what just happened.
As they got closer to the black wall, they could see just outside, two figures on the ground.
Asire is on the ground, held in a rear mount by a handsome man in full black leather.
The man was relentless in his hold. Even though she has a frail frame, he’s not letting his guard down.
“I give, I give!” she says, tapping the snow.
He lets her off as they stand up and brush off the snow.
Tensha gets off her horse and walks up to the man in black. She looks down slightly as she puts her hand on his cheek.
“You look… okay…” she says, making sure she’s talking to who she thinks she’s talking to.
He puts his hand on hers while locking eyes with her.
“I am," he says.
There’s a calm atmosphere around… but that didn’t last long. A fist rams into black leather making the man recoil back a few steps.
“And where the hell have you been?!” Tensha raises her voice as she berates the man in black. Asire’s flinches with a slight grin, like that you would see on a sibling seeing her brother get scolded.
“The ruins I went to scout we-” before he could finish, he let out a grunt from the second punch he received.
“That…” she punches, “was…” she punches, “decades ago!” The last punch missed his face and landed on the black wall behind him leaving a fist sized dent on the metal-like surface.
A look of surprise mixed with horror forms on the man’s face as he looks up at an angry Tensha… actually… that’s not anger…; she’s… relieved?
Her arms pull him up towards her for a hug.
Over Tensha’s shoulder, he can see tears flowing on Asire’s face. Even Alistair has a smile on his face… a very odd smile… a smile of relief. Can Alistair even feel worried to be relieved?
What did he miss, and how has he been gone for decades?
The large black doors slide open to two figures in black attire. A maid and a butler stand behind with a welcoming bow for the returned masters.
Tensha thanks Avian and Rosaliya for taking care of the place while they were gone before moving inside.
They make their way to a large living room where they settle to talk.
“How long has it been for you?” Asire asked.
“About 9 days…" he doesn’t have much to add to that.
“It’s been a few decades since you left, and in said decade… nearly a decade after you disappeared, everything changed." Tensha isn’t happy about what she has to say next.
“What happened?” he asked after a moment of silence.
“The emperor threw everything he had on us on a single night in an attempt to stop Sviel’s plans… and it worked…." Another moment of silence before Tensha continued. “Overnight, basically only us four remained remained in the castle… then Inva… became one with the land. I was able to set up a defence field while… an experimental system of mine… took care… of the attacking forces." She speaks with a heavy heart, especially with the kids in the room; she doesn’t want to remind them of what had happened.
“Who else survived?” he asks reluctantly.
“We’re not quite sure, we know Anamous betrayed us. As for bodies… we recovered Tania’s body being held by a larger charred corpse… she was already dead when Sviel protected her from the Fallen Star. At least her body was preserved; we buried them next to each other. I’m fairly certain that Inva’s still keeping the bodies of the fallen from decay."
“Well, I guess I can bring some sort of good news. Soren is still alive somewhere, not sure where though."
The two ladies raise their heads in surprise from said news.
“I’ve only heard him for a split second though…”
“Nevertheless that’s great news!” Asire jumps from her seat with happiness.
“Keep going…” Tensha is still expecting something else.
This entire conversation is going over Alistair’s head, but he has a smile on his face. The matters discussed are of course grim, and he’s aware of that, but it doesn’t phase him. He’s happy because they’re interacting again. Someone long lost from the family is now back, and something else he knew for a few hours now, is that Inva is being released from her bed of roots. To him, this is a happy occasion, even if what brings them together is sad. He looks to the left where he sees Rosaliya smiling at him. Maybe she thinks the same thing? In all fairness, the maid always smiles at him, but this time it feels different to him.
“Inva’s slowly unentangling from her roots," says Caridin, the man in black leather.
“She must have sensed your return then." A small smile forms on Tensha’s face.
“Meaning we can take her to the Provider!” Asire somehow manages to get even more excited.
This does also bring a smile to Caridin. He hasn’t been himself for the past few days, and simply seeing her hyped up like that hit him hard, pulling him back to character.
“Well, it means I can take her to the Provider, You girls have your hands full."
“Hmm?”
“Have you guys been outside lately?”
“Not for two years, why?” Asire’s curiosity peaked.
“I’ve got no clue what’s happening but apparently there’s a rebellion going… I think?”
“What do you MEAN you THINK?!” Asire throws a cup at him. He catches before it hits the ground.
“She does have a point though, how did you come with this?”
“Well, I’ve only heard the word rebellion, but when I was coming back here there was an incident… forced lifeforce extraction… for more homunculi soldiers…."
“A what now?” Asire’s confused, but that was the point of his wording. It’s not exactly something he’d like her to know while Tensha got the point.
“Wait, who has soldiers of homunculi?” Tensha asks with a look of surprise and curiosity.
“I honestly don’t know, but they didn’t seem to wear any official crests."
“Well, either way… it’s not our place to interfere anymore…”
Caridin has a look of disapproval on him.
“I’m serious, we don’t have a foothold anymore, their politics are theirs…”
“Homunculi soldiers…, innocent people are losing their lives over this. I know I can look over it but there’s no way either of you won’t lose sleep over it."
Tensha lets out a big sigh as she puts her head back onto the sofa, she seems to be in deep thought.
“He’s kind of right you know…” Asire adds to Caridin’s comment.
“I really don’t see a point in doing anything…"
“Do you want us to become like Seraph and Musha?”
“That’s not what I mean…”
“We’re already protecting what we can from the background… there’s nothing to stop us from protecting them from other dangers too." Asire is very passionate as she speaks.
“What do you suggest then?” Tensha asks almost like giving up on something she hasn’t even started yet.
The butler in black brings a large tray with various items onto the table. But other than the standard tea and desserts, there’s something extra in there. Black tea specifically for Tensha, rose macarons for Asire, a bowl of cherry tomatoes for Caridin. The butler walks up to Alistair and hands him a dark chocolate bar. Alistair’s smile widens as the butler nods to him with a smile.
All of them are too busy to notice, well… even if they weren’t, they wouldn’t notice such a subtle change. Alistair feels rejuvenated by this change. A rush of happiness and a large weight is taken off his chest.
Barefoot, he starts to walk out the room, but before he leaves, the maid puts her hand in front of the door holding a cup of milk mixed with honey. The cup starts to float as it leaves Rosaliya’s hand and starts to follow the smiling man.
Rosaliya can’t help but let out a giggle as she shares a knowing nod with her partner Avian.
He walks between the long decorated and clean corridors until he makes it to a door with vines entangling its frame and spreading over the wall like a spider’s web. He walks into the large room, infested with trees and plants of all kinds, most of which can’t even live in this environment, let alone co-exist with other plants. The colourful fungi are the first thing that catches anyone’s eye, even brighter than the flowers that rest on what was once a wardrobe.
He puts the glass of milk on the bedside table that’s now just a pile of leaves, yet somehow still keeping the flat surface in shape.
He can hear the rumbling of trunks of wood as they’re moving ever so slowly, unwrapping and letting go of the sleeping beauty on the bed that’s now the assembly of various tree roots.
He stands there and stares at the unconscious tanned lady without a word. Maybe he thinks that he’s communicating? Or maybe he simply doesn’t know what to say. Eitherway, he feels a certain lightness in his heart. The weight is simply letting go.