Uriel [https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/pw/AP1GczP5vFaux4ZS2AKt8SaaiOFCYksl6w9TtUtdMoLer85UADyv6hxzirFUeITNRPI-F4cV1V9ajYh4Qvc7bcSQG-QTydP-erQlT0jAr9ddXs3uE_IEzbaA1yMP3hLd1mGA6b2Pgy9ANymscZuqMJ94GV0T=w661-h992-s-no-gm?authuser=0]
Rayna held tight to Mohala, who had only recently reawakened from reaching Sapphire Caste. Instead of getting to celebrate more with her by being less afraid of breaking her, she was forcing herself to say goodbye to her girlfriend.
“Explain to me again why you have to go with them on some random quest halfway across the world instead of staying on the tundra with me?” Mohala asked her again.
“Because they’ll likely fail without my awesomeness,” Rayna cheekily replied and countered, “Explain to me again why you have to stay on the tundra instead of joining me on some random quest halfway across the world?”
Mo sighed, “Because Po will likely spiral into a depression without my awesome self to support her.”
She chuckled and gave her girlfriend another squeeze, “When this quest that I already promised to help with is over, I want to come back and get my own place for you to come visit. Or if Po’s doing better, maybe I can take you to visit Epa Toivo, and I can show you all the awesome landmarks along the dune paths.”
They entwined their fingers as their hug broke, and Rayna added wistfully, “I really want you to see the sunsets there. When the sky itself looks like it’s on fire and the dunes look like sparkling treasure.”
Mohala laughed, “I’m surprised you ever left.”
Rayna gave a slightly pained smile and glanced back towards Saiya, who was chatting with Polissa on the other side of the rooftop terrace, “I had my reasons.”
“A sister who would do better away from the memories of that place?” Mo quietly guessed.
She nodded silently, then grinned and said, “But I’m glad we left because if I hadn’t, then I never would have met you.”
“You said you’re leaving soon, but can we still meet tomorrow?”
Rayna hesitated and said, “Dazien told all of us that we can’t tell anyone exactly when or how we’re leaving, but I don’t think I’ll be available again after today.”
Mohala seemed to wilt slightly, “I see. You’ll at least write once you get there, yes?”
“Of course. And at least once a week if I can. I’m not sure how often we’ll be away from a city but I’ll try to keep you updated on where we’re at whenever I get to one.”
“I’d appreciate that. I know it’s a big world out there, and I don’t like the idea of something happening without me knowing.”
“Which is why you should come with,” Rayna tried again, gently squeezing her hand.
“Which is why you should stay,” Mohala countered, meeting her gaze and silently begging.
She gave a sigh and slowly closed the short distance between them as she gave a gentle kiss. Mohala’s impossibly soft arms wrapped around her neck, returning her tenderness. Mohala had been the first one to show her the pleasure of kisses; most of the voxen in Epa Toivo and elsewhere preferred rubbing noses over touching lips, but both sent ripples of electricity running through her from the intimacy of the action.
“I’ll be back before you forget me,” Rayna promised as their kiss broke, and she went ahead and made the dryad laugh from their noses rubbing together.
“Just don’t do anything crazy like chasing a dragon or punching a leviathan.”
“I’ll leave that to our crazy Wayfarer.”
“Could you try and convince her not to do that either?”
Rayna laughed, “I’m not making promises I can’t actually keep.”
“But you’ll promise to come back to me?”
She smiled, “That I can promise.”
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Phoenix lay in her bed staring up at the starlit sky of her illusioned room. They would be leaving for Serenydi early in the morning tomorrow and she was having trouble making her mind calm down enough to actually sleep.
After Saiya and Rayna had calmed her down earlier, she had talked for hours with Jerem about everything other than that dumb prophecy. While she had chosen to stay at Mother’s Cupboard for that conversation, Rayna and Saiya had gone to meet up with Mohala and Polissa to say goodbye, while Dazien and Uriel had left for the temple of the Parent to give their own farewells.
She had promised that she wouldn’t leave the shop on her own and would only teleport between the Wayland estate here in the city and their residential section of the World Tree. They planned to have her portal them back to the World Tree for a final night there before they’d board their ship around dawn.
Since she didn’t have anything else planned for the afternoon, she spent the time sharing wild stories with Jerem. Before she could start, however, Jerem made sure to transfer ownership of the sacred weapon, Sanctified Hope, into her possession and helped her attune to it by simply smearing a few drops of her blood onto the silvery orb.
There wasn’t enough open space for her to feel comfortable practicing with it at all, so she resolved to try it out later on her own and refocused on telling Jerem her story.
Eventually, Madam Malik and Rayk also joined them after a while and enjoyed hearing the tales be recounted as well.
They had gone over most of her story since arriving in this world, only omitting the details of her divine quest objective and her ability to resurrect, which made some of the explanations a bit awkward, but Jerem didn’t seem to want to pry.
Rayk was quieter than his mother but Phoenix did enjoy him giving his own perspective of their Adventurer Trials. He also added his account of how he was caught by surprise and captured by the Scarlet Banquet when responding to screams of a monster spawn that didn’t trigger the alarms. Madam Malik was less talkative when he gave that story but she made up for that silence by adding her perspective of the Siege of Tulimeir and all the rumors that had been floating through her shop.
After they had finished catching Jerem up on the event in Tulim, he had filled in a few of the missing pieces of Paul’s story: how they had argued about what to do with Uriel, how the Purifier ordered Paul and another Cleric to completely ‘cleanse’ a village of innocent felions far to the east, in the nation of Felwen, how Paul refused and killed the Cleric instead, and how Jerem condemned him even further for doing so.
This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
Phoenix was shocked by the details Jerem was able to offer her and wished she had been able to go hug Paul after hearing about it… which she actually did do, eventually portaling straight there after saying goodbye to everyone. She was glad that the barrier that kept everyone out still allowed those who were bonded to him to pass through, like Orebela and, apparently, her.
Orebela had been kind enough not to prod her as she cried and hugged her sleeping dad.
She eventually went back to the Wayland estate like she had promised and waited for the rest of her friends to arrive before returning for one last night in her own room. Still staring up at the endless space above her filled with twinkling stars, she idly played with an item that had been in her collection for weeks now, yet she had no idea what to do with it.
Item: Sigil of the Hero
A divine sigil of the divine entity: Hero.
Caste: Divine.
Availability: Legendary.
Type: Currency.
Effects: Unknown.
“What are you going to spend that on?” Presley asked, standing near the edge of her bed.
Phoenix hadn’t jumped that time, having expected the Emanation to come and sleep in her bed again if given the chance. “I’m not sure. I’ve been wondering if there’s something I’m meant to use it for during my journey.”
She returned the sigil to her collection and reached out an arm in silent invitation. Phoenix smiled as the little girl scrambled into the nebula bed.
Presley squirmed under the poofy blanket Phoenix had purchased earlier and snuggled into Phoenix’s side as she asked, “Can I come with?”
Phoenix chuckled, “You’re still mid-Crystal Caste. Even if you’re a bit like me and won’t actually die if something happens to your Emanation, it’s not safe for you to come with. Dazien assured me that we will still be fighting monsters once we arrive, even if we manage to avoid them on the ship.”
Presley stuck out a pouting lip, and Phoenix wondered where she had learned that particular style of begging, “But Uriel is still Crystal and gets to go.”
“He’ll hit Sapphire any day now. I think he just needs to actually focus on meditating properly, and it’ll be enough, but it’s not like we haven’t pointed that out a hundred times already. It’s also not something any of us can do for him, unfortunately.”
She ruffled Presley’s curls and added, “But I need you to stay here and watch over Paul and everyone else for me while I’m gone.”
“You’ll visit soon?”
“It may be a while,” she hedged, “I’ll want to come back over land instead of by boat to be able to portal hop properly, and Dazien said that would take a few months on its own. Maybe we’ll get lucky, though, and Uriel cultivates one of his abilities into some sort of vehicle.”
Presley giggled and the idea, “Will Uriel’s ice fort become like my vessel was?”
“That would be pretty awesome,” she admitted, “Maybe next time we visit, you can join us if you’re high enough Caste by that point. You’ve been growing stupidly fast, so it might coincide just right.”
“I can see the world, too?” Presley asked, perking up with an excited smile.
Phoenix paused at the phrasing, and a grin slowly crept across her face. She had been so focused on why she needed to leave, for divine quests and apparently stupid prophecies that made absolutely no sense, that she had forgotten that this would be the beginning of a new adventure.
She’d get to see more of this vast world than just this little corner of snowy tundra and some treacherous mountains.
“Yes,” she replied, “Even if we’re not ready next time, I promise I’ll show you the world someday. We both have an eternity to look forward to exploring with, right?”
Presley grinned back, “My tree is Obsidian, so I won’t die unless something happens to it, but I am very difficult to kill.”
Phoenix chuckled and squeezed her in a hug, “I’m pretty easy to kill, but at least I’ll always come back to you. No matter what.”
They lay there for a few sweetly silent moments, just hugging each other and looking up at the starry illusion.
“I’ll miss you,” Presley said in barely more than a whisper, and Phoenix felt her heart clench as she whispered back.
“I’ll miss you too, little sis.”
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Phoenix stood at the bow of the Victor’s Tribute dressed in heavy traveling clothes that helped hide her more distinguishing features. She had never been on a ship before and was excited about the new experience as it slowly rocked in the water. The crew was almost finished loading the giant trading vessel that was used mostly to transport goods rather than people.
She stared out across the water towards the seawall gates. They were slowly opening as their ship was set to cross through in a few minutes.
“Are you happy to be leaving finally?” Uriel’s reassuring voice asked from behind as he came up to lean beside her.
“I think so,” she replied, “I’m happy to get a break from all the attention, at least. I know I said I wanted to do better at being a good Saint for everyone, but I think some baby steps by going to a place where we only plan to tell a very few people will be a good way to slowly work up to those larger crowds all wanting me to speak words of wisdom I simply don’t possess.”
Uriel chuckled, “You seemed to do fine at the memorials,” he pointed out.
“Did I ever mention Dazien telling me what to say through his communication ability?”
He laughed again, and she found herself chuckling as well. She noticed he was wearing his new earrings, and she gestured to them as she asked, “How are those working for you so far?”
“They’re much better,” he replied with a smile, “I can feel everything still, but when I get angry, they modulate the magic to slowly tone it down based on how quickly it rises. I had Jacob help me test them since he knew exactly what buttons to press and could subdue me if things went wrong. He didn’t like that I asked him to, but he understood that I wanted to feel safe enough while trying them.”
“I’m gonna miss talking with him while we’re gone. I hope we can visit often. I know my portal doesn’t reach far enough to come back immediately, but Daze promised we could take the longer route next time to get some portal destinations on the way.”
“That would be nice. I know he was concerned about us leaving Tulim on foot with so many unknowns still surrounding who might have been targeting us earlier. They want to assume it was the Scarlet Banquet, but Daze doesn’t like assumptions in this case.”
She nodded in understanding. Besides, she was excited about traveling by sea after all the foot travel they had already done across the tundra over the past twelve months. Just one more Makeran month, and she’d be nineteen.
Phoenix oddly realized that this was the first birthday she found herself actually looking forward to. Instead of doctors telling her she wouldn’t live to see it, she’d get to celebrate with her friends beside her without worrying about death. She actually had a future to look forward to this time.
As a comfortable silence settled between them, she found herself leaning her head against his arm and quietly admitting, “I’m glad to finally be going on this quest. It feels like I’ve been waiting for ages for it… but you know who’s missing?”
“Paul,” he replied immediately.
“Paul,” she confirmed with a sigh.
He adjusted to wrap an arm around her shoulders in a hug. “You still have your party, and Paul will be awaiting your return.”
Uriel gave her another squeeze as he added, “For now, we can focus on fulfilling his wishes. Completing your quest, getting stronger, and waking him up. While I know you and Daze will miss him, think about the amazing stories you’ll get to tell him when we all get back.”
She chuckled, “Hopefully, it won’t be too many. I want to be able to make more amazing stories with him in them.”
Uriel smiled down at her, “Well, that’s the great thing about being an immortal; you and he will have an eternity to make them. Daze mentioned how you theorized about Paul getting the benefits of your Talent. Even if it takes a while to hit Ruby, you two will get to stay together forever.”
Phoenix liked the sound of that, but something about it bothered her for a moment until she realized what was missing, “And you.”
“What?”
“I want to stay together with you and Dazien forever, too.”
“Princess, we—”
“You can both hit Obsidian, too,” she insisted, “Saiya and Rayna also. We don’t have to ever be apart if we don’t want to be, right?”
His expression softened as he replied, “You’re right. That sounds like a great future.”
Phoenix smiled, then looked back at the open gate toward the sparkling sapphire sea stretching far beyond it as she said, “Next step towards that future is to seek out the lost treasure and have a grand adventure!”
END OF BOOK 5 OF WAYWARD: MISSING
PHOENIX AND FRIENDS WILL RETURN IN BOOK 6 OF WAYWARD: SEEKING