WSP 028

The Itch

Vapor flew through the skies with Jeh, Envila, Margaret, and Jeremiah on her back. They had traveled through the sky for several days at this point and Envila was nowhere close to running out of stories to keep Vapor satisfied. And, to boot, telling all these stories had improved Envila’s Karli considerably.

“…There is an ocean to the East. Jeh tells me that you just call the ocean to the West ‘the Ocean’ but go far enough East and there’s one there as well. Crossing this ocean is rather difficult—not because of the waters themselves, but because there aren’t any nations on either side of the divide. I only found minor city-states on your Eastern coast, and as for “my” side of the other ocean… much of that land is blackened and lifeless, covered in volcanoes. While I did not travel all the way through this unnamed land of death, I did go to see it, and I witnessed snow falling onto molten rock, filling the land with great clouds of steam. There are only a handful of races that can live there, but it was one of the few places in the world where I found elementals common. The whirling torrents of fire elementals were everywhere, roaming the fiery lands in packs. They are, unfortunately, hostile, at least to fae, so I had to get out of there quickly. The other part of the world over there is a massive desert, which…” Envila suddenly stopped talking and turned her gaze upward. “Incoming!”

Jeh looked up and saw about a dozen specks flying high in the sky, much higher than Vapor was. They started shooting. Holes quickly ripped in Vapor’s wings and blood went flying. Jeh pulled out her Green and started healing Vapor. “You should be good!”

“How dare they!?” Vapor shouted. “Hold on!” She twisted herself around, threatening to throw her passengers off, but all of them held tight. The dragon opened her great maw and released her breath attribute—a beam of pure, white light that seared through at least two of the dots flying above them.

Immediately, the remaining dots scrambled, flying in multiple different directions to keep from being targeted all at once. Holes appeared all over Vapor, puncturing right through her scales, but Jeh would heal the wounds almost immediately. Since Jeh was actively on healing duty, even injuries to Vapor’s head did not remain long enough to make her fall out of the sky, though such wounds did make her stall and roar.

Vapor continued to climb in height, pushing her attribute to its limits. Dragons were heavy, and she was one of the older ones who could still fly, so her maximum height wasn’t the greatest. It was unfortunately quite a bit lower than whatever the things attacking them were at.

However, the attackers decided that long-range attacks weren’t working. Half of them continued to attack from a distance, but the rest suddenly charged. As they approached, their shape became clear—spherical metal orbs that looked vaguely like eyes adorned with four propellors. The rounds they shot came out of what appeared to be their pupil.

“Chopters!” Envila shouted. “Those aren’t spirited!”

“Then how are they coordinating?” Vapor asked in between her beam breaths.

“Funny story, that…” Jeh muttered. She continued healing, but with her free hand took out some Red and began to heat up an incoming chopter. She realized with some alarm that it wasn’t slowing down. Her attempt to dodge came too late, and doing so on while on the back of a moving dragon in combat wasn’t easy to begin with. The chopter slammed into her, partially-molten metal splattering against and scalding her skin. Naturally, this didn’t do much to her. However, the momentum of the rigid slamming into her pulled her off of Vapor and into the open air. The dragon, being under attack, wasn’t going to be able to catch her.

Which was fine for Jeh. Not for Vapor. She lost her best healer. Envila picked up the slack, but the moment she started the chopters went for her as well. While significantly more agile and experienced than Jeh, she only managed to dodge the first one, the second one rammed into her, propellers cutting into her flesh and tearing her from the dragon.

Jeh could no longer hear any words spoken, but she could see Envila falling. Jeh could survive an impact with the ground, Envila could not. Fortunately, Jeh still had her Colored crystals. She took out some Orange and focused. She needed to apply the force diffusively on an uneven body… she winced as she sent Envila into a roll. What was she trying to do? She wasn’t an Orange wizard, she wasn’t precise enough to pull this off.

Except… it actually didn’t matter if Envila was spinning madly like a top, she just needed to be falling slowly enough not to crush every bone in her body upon landing. Better yet, Jeh could remain stable while acting on her, unlike what would happen if Jeh tried to levitate herself. Just… slow her down. Jeh let out a breath and focused, pushing up on Envila. This sent the fae into a backflip but it did slow her fall—which meant that Jeh was now falling faster than her and was getting further away, making it harder to use magic, which meant Envila would be increasing her speed once again…

Then Jeh remembered that first day back in the forest, when Vaughan had landed.

Green could bring people back from the brink. Envila could land and break all her bones, and Jeh could bring her back. However, as she’d seen with Jeremiah and read about in books, Green struggled with brains. So to minimize the risk, she just needed to make sure Envila’s brain was still intact.

What would be the best way to do that…?

She didn’t have much time to think, the ground would reach her in a few seconds. So she acted quickly. Rather than trying to slow Envila, she used focused force to orient Envila in a specific way—flat, with her stomach directed at the ground. One might think this would just make things worse since Envila would become a pancake upon landing, but if Jeh was seeing things right, Envila would fall on a medium-sized pine tree. It would skewer her rather than flatten her, head completely fine.

Just as Jeh was congratulating herself on a brilliant idea, she hit the ground, feet-first. She crumpled like an accordion, legs shooting into her lungs. She quickly bounced back up but the regeneration of everything from her feet to her ribcage took a bit, and in that time Envila hit the top of the tree. It did not skewer her—she missed the very tip—and she instead slammed into the various tree branches, breaking them one at a time until she was deposited on the ground. A broken, tangled mess, to be sure, bleeding out all over the place, but she was still breathing, which was even better than what Jeh had been going for.

Jeh ran over and applied as much Green as she could, restoring her—but, of course, it took time. However, since Jeh wasn’t currently falling, she used this time to look up. Margaret and Jeremiah did not have proper healing, and dragon blood was starting to rain from the sky. Vapor looked haggard. Jeh could see bursts of darkness, likely from Kirkkok, that were hitting a few of the specks but still leaving several to attack. They were losing.

Something hit Vapor in the neck, and her wings stopped flapping. It was somehow elegant to see such a massive creature simply stop in the air, slowly moving upward at first, but with gradual increments remembering that the natural direction for all things to move was down. The change was sluggish, imperceptible at first, but soon the fall was alarmingly fast, limp wings flipping back and forth in the rush of air.

Jeh looked down—Envila was mostly healed, and that was good enough for Jeh, the fae could heal herself later. She ran off to where she thought Vapor was going to fall.

But it never came. A Blue aura surrounded Vapor, and she was suddenly moving much, much slower.

What could slow something that large all at once…?

In answer to her question, an accelerated balloon whale with very familiar markings rushed into the fray. Jeh may have only seen it once, but that day was ingrained in her mind forever. This was C-R’s balloon whale. Jeh could see pocks of blood coming off of the levitating behemoth, but it was nothing more than bug bites to the animal. It let out a roar. A clear pulse of Blue released from the balloon whale, and the moment it reached any of the rigids, they exploded in a shower of flame.

The battle was over… but Vapor was still falling.

Jeh was pretty sure Blue magic couldn’t protect from fall damage. With newfound determination, she ran for where she thought Vapor would fall, which she had a lot more time to do as the falling was considerably slowed.

A single speck jumped out of the balloon whale and flew right at her. Jeh thought it was a cat at first, but the presence of wings confused things somewhat.

“You need to heal her as she’s falling!” he shouted at her. “We can’t cushion the fall of something that large!”

“Working on it!” Jeh said. “She’s too far away right now!”

“Okay, okay… wait… are you Jeh?”

“Oh, were you on the whale when I was there? Sorry, don’t remember you!”

“I’m a new addition, it’s fine, and—hey wait that’s beside the point!” He flapped his wings aggressively. “Focus on keeping the dragon alive!”

“Still not close enough, what else am I going to do but talk to you?”

“I… Er…” He frowned and flicked one of his ears. “Look, just…”

“Now she’s close enough to try.” Jeh held up her Green crystal—she sure was burning through it rather quickly, she could tell it was smaller than when they’d started this fight—and pointed it at Vapor’s head and neck first. At this distance, it was an extreme strain on her efforts, but Vapor was falling at a snail’s pace, so time was on her side. After she worked on the head and neck, she moved to the wings, patching up the holes… she noted that Margaret and Jeremiah were still there, holding on for dear life, and Kirkkok had his beak open in seeming panic.

Vapor opened her eyes. From her perspective, it was likely immediate, but from Jeh’s the moving of the eyelid took a few seconds. Instinct took over for the dragon—she was falling, so she righted herself and flapped her wings. Jeh got to see the amazing complexity of the maneuver in all its slowed-down glory. Vapor’s head pointed at the ground and as she turned the rest of her body, her head remained almost entirely still as she balanced. The rotation was accomplished by carefully moving her legs in and out of her body, controlling her spin expertly with a slight bank of one of her wings mid-flap. The forces from the rapid rotation were enough to throw Margaret and Jeremiah off—but in an upward direction relative to Vapor, which allowed her to catch them rather than let them fall to the ground below.

Even with all this effort, Vapor would not be able to fully stop before she hit the ground. From her perspective, she was still falling at normal speed, and the impact with the ground would be quite painful. However, it would not be catastrophic. She landed with her legs extended, allowing them to not only bend as she touched the ground, but also enable her to roll onto her side to convert some of her momentum sideways. However, she was a big lumbering dragon and she didn’t want to crush her passengers, so she only permitted herself a half turn, which forced her to slide across the ground and gash open a fair chunk of her side.

But she was alive.

The Blue field dropped and Jeh ran up to Vapor, starting to heal her. Given how large she was, this would take a long time.

“That… was quite the adventure,” Vapor said, breathing heavily. “Is… everyone all right?”

“Jeh saw to me,” Envila said, doing what she could to restore Vapor as well, though it was slow work.

Margaret jumped up. “I’m fine.”

Jeremiah groaned. “Kirkkok, why couldn’t you have fixed my back?”

“I can if you want.”

“Hmm…”

“Dad!” Margaret called. “You said you never wanted to make yourself something you weren’t.”

“Well… I had to fix my head…”

“That was a necessity.” Margaret crossed her arms.

“Maybe his mind has just been opened to the possibilities?”

The flying cat landed in the midst of the group. “Ahem. Greetings, I am Yano, I speak for C-R. I see you all staring at my wings, I’m what is known as a sphinx, nothing unusual, just a cat with wings.” He coughed. “C-R has saved you, but expects very little in return, merely a meeting and an explanation as to what you’re doing out here.” He pointed a wing at Jeh. “Especially you, Jeh.”

Envila raised an eyebrow, turning to Jeh. “You know this sphinx?”

Jeh shook her head. “But I know C-R. She was there when I first went up in the Skyseed. She’s… a very odd creature, but helpful. I think?”

“What I want to know is why those rigids attacked us and how they were in formation,” Vapor grunted, lifting her head. “Those weren’t spirited, but they were far too organized…” She glared intently at Envila. “I get the impression you know something.”

“Maybe we can wait until everyone’s here?” Yano asked. “Please?”

“…Very well,” Vapor said.

C-R’s balloon whale descended until it was just above the forest floor, at which point the platform was lowered from the gondola. Jeh recognized Itlea immediately, the arrogant greater unicorn still sporting her Purple wizard outfit like a badge.

“Hi, Itlea,” Jeh deadpanned.

“Greetings to you as well, Jeh,” Itlea responded with an equal lack of emotion. “C-R cannot leave the confines of the ship. Normally we invite you aboard, but we do not have space for a full-size dragon, so I shall project her for you. Watch a master at work.” She lit her horn, holding up several Purple crystals at once—far more than was actually needed to make even a large image, she was obviously doing it just for show—and created an image of the highly unusual C-R. Faceless, made of something like porcelain, segmented body, and three arms that were currently all pointing at her smooth head.

“So, Jeh, we meet again.”

“Hi!” Jeh waved.

“It is good to see you faring well after that disaster in the skies. I am sure your colleagues are eagerly awaiting your return.”

Jeh nodded. “Yeah… oh! Envila, this is C-R.”

“…Greetings,” Envila said.

“A fae in this part of the world, in this kind of danger? You may consider me surprised.” She twisted her head upside-down and put two of her hands on her shoulders. “And two servants of Eyda and a dragon.”

“So you know who they are and never heard of the Brightwings?” Vapor asked.

“There was simply no indication that you were one of the great dragon herders, but that information makes the group even more unusual. Now, I wish to make it clear, I am not your enemy, and I am only here by chance. Our current mission is entirely unrelated to you.”

“What is it?” jeh asked.

“That is not your concern.”

“Then why is our mission of your concern?” Envila asked.

“Consider it repayment for the good deed we have delivered unto you, as well as an opportunity to clear the air. I believe Vapor has questions, and I too sense a deeper meaning and threat behind the organized rigids that should not be organized.”

Jeh sighed. “Okay, look, C-R? People we tell about it get in danger…”

“That, in and of itself, explains much. I believe you are telling the truth and really do consider the knowledge a hazard. However, this balloon whale’s purpose could be described as seeking out dangerous knowledge so the average person does not have to deal with such things. The risk of information is something we run into perhaps daily. You will not add to our burden in a way that would matter.”

Jeh glanced at Vapor. “But…”

Vapor scowled. “You knew we were likely to get attacked.”

Envila nodded. “This much is true. If we tell you much more, you will be a target. You might be a target now. We cannot say.”

“I would not have agreed to this had I known the danger.”

“While it is regrettable that it was necessary, we did not mention why we were leaving and told you no lies. We simply said it was urgent, which it is.”

Vapor bristled. “You have a way with words, fae.”

“As I believe I mentioned many times in the sky, mastery of words is a powerful skill, capable of much, both practical and for the joy of the soul.” She folded her arms. “We did what was necessary considering the circumstances. By flying us here, you have saved our lives. We would not have lasted this long without you, and for that I am eternally grateful.”

Vapor growled. “…I might as well hear the full story, then.”

Jeh sighed. “Fine.” She pulled out the book—which was crumbled somewhat from the fall—and threw it on the ground. “So, to put it simply, there’s a rigid disease curse thing going around…”

And so Jeh explained, in brief, their mission and what was going on.

As soon as she was finished, C-R spoke. “You have two of these books, you mentioned?”

“Yes?” Jeh asked, confused.

“Yano, take one and fly it to Kroan as fast as you possibly can, spare nothing.”

“Got it!” Yano said, landing on one of the books and sinking his claws into it. It took some effort, but he managed to lift off with it in his paws. “Here I go!” Some Blue flickered from somewhere under his fur—a cord with crystals in it, perhaps?—and he zipped into the air at extreme speeds, just short of that which would set him on fire.

“W-wow…” Jeh said. “Thanks!”

“He will move faster than almost any rigid, and if my projections are correct there won’t be one close enough to catch him anyway. At his speed he will reach the mountains in less than a day.”

Jeh blinked. “Wait, we’re that close?”

“Your journey back to Kroan is almost at an end. However, I do not think it would be wise to send you ahead. You will not be as fast as Yano, and there’s no telling what this rigid curse might do. I suggest you all stay here under my protection.”

“No complaints here…” Margaret said.

Vapor growled. “It… does seem like a good idea.” She glanced at Jeh, eyes narrow. “I am still displeased by being kept in the dark, but I suppose I can understand the decision, considering what is at stake.”

C-R continued. “Since you are going to be staying with us for a while, perhaps it would be best to brief you on what we are currently doing, as it is tangentially related to you, Jeh.”

“Oh?” Jeh asked.

“We are hunting the Purple Cube that shot you down.”

~~~

Mary actually did really well flying on Alexandrite’s back. There was no sense of absolute panic or even all that much fear, after the initial scare she was looking around with the wind in her hair grinning wildly. Her favorite part about it was not the exhilaration, however, but the fact that she could look down and see so much. Trees and mountains and roads and even, eventually, little towns that dotted the land below. It was all so amazing, seeing how small everything was from up here, putting everything into perspective. She found it oddly comforting.

But then they arrived at Axiom. Axiom, a city so large even from Alexandrite’s altitude it wasn’t really possible to take it all in at once. Truly massive buildings and towers, the palace, not to mention the giant tree far larger than any tree she’d seen on her way here. For the longest time, she couldn’t even get a good reference for just how large everything was, since the masses of people blurred together.

Alexandrite took them down not to any special designated landing place, but rather to the warehouse where Blue worked. This, however, was decidedly close to the palace. Enough so that Mary could understand the full size of it, how it made even the dragon she was riding seem tiny. Insignificant.

While Alexandrite and Vaughan started talking about next steps, she drowned them out and just looked… up. Since she was essentially at the palace she had to crane her neck a fair ways to see the top, and even then the curve of the dome kept the palace spires out of her view.

“Mary?” Seksii asked.

“Too big…” Mary said.

“…Let’s get you inside, Mary.” Seskii gingerly grabbed her by the shoulder and led her into the warehouse.

Mary went willingly but did not take her eyes off the palace. “Too big…”

The sensation did dissipate upon entering the warehouse, though Mary was still shaken by how much it was. How could anyone ever learn the character of this city they lived in if just the palace was too much to see? How could anyone grasp where they were in life, living here?

The interior of the warehouse was much more manageable. While it was a wide open space, the size could easily be understood from the walls and the ceiling. The Skyseed II was on full display in the center, with incomplete Skyseeds of other shapes littered around it. The Skyseed II was strikingly similar to the first one, save for the lack of wooden fins.

Vaughan whistled. “There she is, everyone.”

Seskii jumped in front of it. “Behold the brand new currently one-of-a-kind ship to the stars, guaranteed to get you up and down in one piece so long as you’ve been properly trained and don’t get shot at! Examine its graceful curves, the shimmering brass, and the energy of the core…”

“Who the heck are you?”

An extremely fat orange gari floated over to them. This sent Mary’s brain into great confusion. How much food did a gari have to be eating to get this large? How was she levitating herself? Wasn’t that extremely difficult? And oh goodness she had fancy Orange wizard robes on that meant she was important and on no she was looking at Mary…

“Rigelia,” Vaughan said, adjusting his hat. “It’s been a while.”

“…Who are you? I haven’t seen you around here.”

Vaughan looked like someone had physically stabbed him. “Vaughan. Wizard Vaughan.”

Rigelia stared at him blankly.

“Blue’s mentor?”

“Oh yeah, she had one…”

“Good, finally so you d—”

“Don’t remember that guy’s name.”

Vaughan put his hand to the bridge of his nose. “…I was the student who got stuck inside Glimp in your office.”

“Oh! Gideon!”

Vaughan groaned audibly.

“That’s right, you’re the funny one. Do the dance again!”

“No, Rigelia, I am not a student anymore, I am a Red Wizard and I am Blue’s mentor.” He coughed. “I am here to deliver the first set of orders for the construction of the Moonshot.”

Rigelia was suddenly very disappointed. “Then what are you doing here? This is a warehouse! We assemble things here, we don’t construct anything!”

Seskii coughed. “Maaaaaybe we’re not here just for thaaat but also to find our good friend: Blue!”

Rigelia raised an eyebrow. “And who are you?”

“Seskii Potions, at your service!” She produced a card from seemingly nowhere and handed it to Rigelia.

Rigelia looked up from the card. “This is blank.”

“You bet it is! It can be anything you want it to be!” She quickly took the card back and folded it into a bird-like shape* and threw it into the air where it did a loop-de-loop before crashing on top of Rigelia’s head. “All you need is a little imagination!” Seskii spread her hands wide and grinned.

*They wouldn’t call it a paper airplane. What even is an airplane?

Rigelia blinked. “Where did you find this freak?”

“Ack! An insult!” Seskii acted as though she had been stabbed through the heart. “Oh woe is me! I am… done for…” She crumpled to the ground and stuck out her tongue. “Bleh…”

“Be nice to Seskii!” Mary huffed. Shocked or not by Rigelia’s appearance, nobody got a pass to just act like that.

“You are obviously a country bumpkin who has no right to even be in here. Gideon, you should take more care of the company you keep. …And the apprentices you take on, come to think of it. That Blue can’t even cast the most basic of spells…”

“And yet she was instrumental in building this,” Vaughan said, gesturing at the Skyseed.

“Luck.”

“I could not have done the calculations she did.”

“Then you are not cut out for this work.”

“Would you like to do it?”

“No. But that does not mean I couldn’t.”

Seskii suddenly jumped up from the floor and put her hands between Vaughan and Rigelia. “Heeeey let’s not get all bitey fightey here, okay? All we want to do is find Blue. Do you know whare she is, Wizard Rigelia?”

“…She’s probably with Pepper at her lab outside the city walls.”

“I know where it is,” Alexandrite said.

“Then let’s go!” Seskii said, clapping her hands. “It sure was interesting talking to you, Rigelia! Maybe we’ll see each other around!” She waved as they all got out of the warehouse quickly.

Rigelia let out a sigh of relief. She had been this close to shoving them out of the warehouse herself. She barely remembered this Vaughan, but he was clearly a disgrace to wizardly just as Blue was.

~~~

Blue stared at the kancathi.

The kancathi stared back.

“Y’know…” Pepper said, startling Blue enough to make her shoot to her hooves. “Woah, woah, easy there, twitchy!”

“I am no—” Blue stopped herself. “Okay, fine, I’m twitchy.”

“Anyway, I was coming over here to say, ahem… Y’know, it’s probably not good for you to come here all the time and stare at her? Maybe?”

“I’m still getting work done, what’s it matter to you?”

“Oooh, that’s somehow both defensive and aggressive at the same time.” Pepper folded her arms. “Something’s up with you, Blue.”

“Obviously,” Blue said. “That’s why I’m here. I’m here to figure out what’s the deal with this… itch.”

“Itch?”

“This gnawing in the back of my skull.” Blue frowned. “Whenever I don’t know where she is or what she’s doing, it’s there.”

“Blue, she’s tied up and trapped, she hasn’t escaped and she won’t.”

“How am I supposed to know that if she’s not right in front of my face!?”

“Well…” Pepper looked to the side awkwardly. “You could just trust me…”

Blue didn’t have a response to this. She awkwardly sat back on the ground… and looked back at the kancathi.

Pepper sighed. “Okay, so, yes, I’ve figured out a few things. She’s very ‘tight-lipped’ but it’s possible to trick her into automatic responses to shocking enough questions out of the blue about emotionally charged topics. Playing even a portion of the song makes her react without fail and often puts her into a vulnerable state that’s more open to suggestion.”

“You have the song?”

Pepper nodded. “With the few notes from you and knowledge of where you heard it, it wasn’t hard to track down. Were finding that… a good chunk of the lower-class population is infected by it. It seems to spread the quickest through children. Most of the people we have investigating it are already infected, so there’s no further harm to be done, and they’ve found that the song really does need to be hummed, clearly, in full for actual infection to occur.” She tapped her finger. “Those infected get a subtle need to hum it, though the effect is more pronounced in children. This appears to be some kind of need, as our agents now actively try not to sing it and it causes them significant distress, so they’ve taken to singing it while they’re alone in their rooms.”

“Geez…”

“Anyway, this has allowed us to extract some information from the kancathi here. First of all, yes she has a name, no I have no idea what it is, and it’s probably a pattern of colors rather than an audible word. Learned quite a bit about the kancathi code—I have no idea why they follow the code or what its purpose is, but it is extremely harsh. Failure means death, and no inexperienced kancathi are permitted to ever go on the hunts. It appears to have almost a religious significance to them, but the idea of worship is laughable to this individual kancathi, at least. We’re just animals to them, more or less, but more fun to hunt. But a failed hunter is a dead hunter, as we already knew. What we didn’t know is that it’s not just failed hunts that result in a death sentence, but any breaking of the code, and if there were ever a kancathi found that existed outside of the code, such as one who was raised by another race, they would be killed outright as an abomination without explanation. If there are other groups of kancathi in the world, they are marked for death by the ones that exist around here.”

“So she’s marked for death.”

“Quite. I spent quite a lot of time trying to figure out how, exactly, she’s managed to keep the other kancathi off her trail. Getting finer details like this is hard since I kind of have to guess what it is correctly and prompt multiple responses from her by driving it home, but I think she faked her own death to go do this. Can’t be sure. I do know she is absolutely obsessed with killing royals. Royals specifically. Of Kroan. It appears to be what she was instructed to do by the song.”

“A very elaborate assassination plot…”

“I actually don’t think it’s that elaborate, I think she was just infected with the song and told to do it in the most effective way she knew how to. As an expert hunter, she added all the complexities and nuance herself.”

Blue’s frown deepened, but she kept staring at the kancathi.

“Okay, giving you that information doesn’t seem to have helped…” Pepper looked at the kancathi. “…As long as she’s alive, it’s just going to be like this, isn’t it…?”

Blue said nothing.

“…I could make a recommendation to the Crown, maybe…”

“Unfortunately any executions, no matter how warranted they are, will have to wait,” Tenrayce said as she marched in—face not in a book for once. “We just received word that the Purple Cube is moving underground, tunneling somewhere to the south of Shimvale. We need something that can see underground.” She slammed her hand into the side of the kancathi’s cage. “We know kancathi can use their tremors to see beneath the earth.”

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

The kancathi grinned.

“Let me spell this out for you, hunter,” Tenrayce spat. “You hate us. You don’t want to help us. You want to kill us. Well, in order to let you sense underground, we are going to have to partially release you. You will have some freedom of movement. The chances of your being able to escape go up. Now, it will still be very low, but it will be something. With a higher chance of being able to escape you have a higher chance of being able to kill us royals. And you can’t refuse a clearly higher chance to kill us, can you?”

The kancathi glared at her.

“So let’s do a simple test here. We need you to come with us to sense things underground. To do so, we will allow you use to your attribute, but you will be under constant guard. And, in fact, I will be present for all tests performed with you. Me. One of your targets, Princess Tenrayce. Isn’t this lucrative? Now, according to kancathi custom, you would rather die than help us. But I don’t think you can refuse. So. Simply nod your head if you’re willing to help us.”

The kancathi stared at her in fury.

“Then I shall order your death and you will never be able to complete your mission.”

The kancathi let out a roar of deep, undulating rage. But she nodded her head—nodded it with so much force she bashed it into the bars of her cage.

Tenrayce glared at the kancathi. “Thought so. Glad we’ve come to an understanding.”

“T-tenrayce, you can be quite terrifying when you need to be…” Blue stammered.

“It’s a necessary skill at times.” She turned to Pepper. “Find a way to limit as much of her motion as you can while still allowing her to use her termor attribute.”

“I actually already know how to do that,” Pepper said. “Was going to use it as a way to extract more information, but… well this works too.” She folded her arms. “I still wish to express my discomfort with this whole thing.”

“Noted, but your orders are still your orders.”

“Understood, Princess.”

“So, what exactly is the plan?” Blue asked.

Tenrayce folded her arms. “The ‘plan’ is to use the kancathi to sense for tunnels deep beneath the ground that are large enough for the Purple Cube to move through. If she went in a straight line, which is doubtful, she would end up in the Wild Kingdoms. However, if she changed course, she could easily end here or somewhere nearby, no telling how fast she’s going. We’ll check nearby first, but I think we’ll be packing the kancathi into a balloon whale and going out into the wilds to continue the search.”

“Question,” Pepper asked. “What are we going to do when we find the Purple Cube?”

“Make it very clear that she can’t hide anymore. Demand answers. We will bring Crystalline Ones of our own.”

“Do you really think they’ll be able to do anything to one that large…?”

Tenrayce paused. “…Admittedly, no. We are playing a dangerous game here. Possibly the most powerful entity on Ikyu wants to remain hidden and seems to be willing to go to great lengths to secure that. We will need to set up a rapid communication line so anything we find can be quickly relaid back…” She put her hand to her forehead. “This is going to be a logistical nightmare…”

“I’m more worried about what happens once we actually do find the Purple Cube,” Pepper said. “Cornered animals often lash out in desperation.”

“Leaving her alone is not an option. The threat is too high.” She paused. “…Pepper, we do have the Office of Crystalline Investigations. There are… ways to deal with Crystalline Ones. They just need to be fractured into enough pieces.” She turned to the kancathi. “And if one is underground… perhaps an excellent hunter with enhanced tremors will do the trick.”

“We’ll need more than one kancathi.”

“I’ll recruit some Orange Crystalline Ones. There are a few in Axiom.”

“Sounds like a plan!” Blue asked. “When do we expect to leave?”

“Tomorrow, if I have any say about it,” Tenrayce said.

At this point, there was a very very loud knock on the door; loud enough to easily be heard over the din of trapped beasts, which was surprising to say the least. “Heloooooo? Anybody home?”

Blue recognized that chipper, happy-go-lucky voice. “Wait… Seskii?” She ran across the warehouse to the door and threw it open. Standing on the other side was one of the most beautiful sights she had ever seen: Vaughan, Seskii, Alexandrite, and Mary, standing and smiling brightly.

“Blue!” Seskii shouted, running up and lifting the unicorn into a tight hug.

“Seskii… I… Geh…”

Seskii whispered into Blue’s ear. “Shhh… You need this.”

Blue suddenly stopped complaining. Slowly, but surely, Blue returned the hug with a force of her own, closing her eyes tight in a vain attempt not to start crying. She hadn’t had any real positive physical contact with anyone since she’d arrived in Axiom, and until this moment hadn’t even considered the fact that she might be missing it.

“Oh, you poor thing…” Mary said, coming to Blue from the other side. It was certainly awkward, a gari, a unicorn, and a human all trying to lump together, but at this moment none of them cared about the awkwardness.

Vaughan rubbed the back of his head. “Well. Uh…”

Tenrayce shrugged. “Some people are just like this. You and I will never understand them.”

“It truly is odd,” Alexandrite agreed.

“You don’t know what you’re missing out on,” Pepper said, looking on the group with a smile. “They are experiencing a very pure joy, one I wish I could be a part of right now. But it’s not my place.” She turned to Vaughan and winked. “By the way, long time no see, Vaughan!”

“Wizard Pepper,” Vaughan said, bowing in respect. “I thank you for taking Blue under your wing, you have no idea what it means to me.”

“I think I have some, but maaaaan I can tell you need to loosen up. I’m just Pepper!”

“And this entire lab is full of strange creatures that want to kill you.”

“Not all of them! I’m pretty sure Big Rocky doesn’t even have wants!”

“Big Rocky?” Mary wondered as she left the triple hug. Then she saw the massive boulder creature that dominated the space. “Too big, nope nope nope nope…” she quickly put her hands over her head and left the lab.

“I’ll keep an eye on her,” Alexandrite said, following her out.

“Axiom must be a real trip for her,” Pepper said.

“It’s been quite fun!” Seskii said. “Also, Tenrayce, I see you trying to hide in that book.”

Tenrayce did not look up from her book. “I do not know what you me—”

Seskii pulled her into a hug as well. “You’re a friend too, I’m not just going to let you avoid the customary greeting!”

Tenrayce sighed. “Sure, fine.”

“You try to take all the fun out of it. Good thing I produce my own fun!” She released Tenrayce from her grip… and was suddenly next to the kancathi’s cage. “So, now that pleasantries are over with, maybe now you can realize that we aren’t supposed to be in here and definitely aren’t supposed to see this?”

Tenrayce’s eyes widened. She let out a particularly nasty swear*.

*The word in question does not translate at all, but curiously has its origins as a racial slur specifically targeted against promiscuous garilend.

“Language!” Pepper chided.

Tenrayce ignored her. “Yes you really aren’t supposed to see that…”

“They’re members of the Wizard Space Program,” Blue said. “Surely…?”

“Oh yes, I can get them clearance now that they’ve seen the thing, I don’t have to lock them up, but they never should have seen it in the first place…”

“A plast dragon…” Vaughan said, scratching his beard. “I’m sure there’s a story there…”

“Yeah, there is,” Blue said, tapping her hoof nervously. “So… uh…”

“She doesn’t want to talk about it, but you need to be brought up to speed,” Tenrayce said. “So…”

“Wait!” Seskii shouted. “Maybe we should do this outside so Mary and Alexandrite can hear?”

“…While I would think they do not know what they saw, Blue has informed me of the plast dragon attack… they might be able to spread the word and we need them to know they can’t.” Tenrayce sighed. “Fine, outside.”

Outside, Alexandrite was watching Mary, who had finally managed to stop hyperventilating. “Okay… everything’s fine… it’s nice out here…” Mary let out a soft breath. “All this is so incredible but so big… so many mixed feelings…”

“You’ll get used to it, in time,” Alexandrite offered.

“Yeah, that… would make sense, wouldn’t it?” Mary laughed breathlessly. “I… kind of want to actually enjoy the city… there’s so much here.”

“You can do that after the story,” Tenrayce said. “So… listen up. I—”

“Tenrayce?” Blue said, holding up a hoof. “I… I think I want to tell it.”

Tenrayce paused. “You sure?”

“I… want to try, at least.” So Blue took a breath… and described what had happened. She skimmed over the science, and the construction, and all the stuff she had sent in the letter. But when she got to the murder… she went into more detail. She stopped herself several times to correct exaggerations, being forced to admit several times that she really wasn’t sure what to make of it. Then she talked about how the kncathi was involved, and captured, and how they intend to use her to find the Purple Cube.

“…She’s leaving something out and I’m not even sure she realizes she did,” Pepper said.

“Eh? What?” Blue asked.

“You come here regularly and just stare at the kancathi for long periods of time.”

“I mean… I mentioned that I kept her under careful observation. And…” Blue scrunched her face. “…You’re right, I did completely gloss over that…”

“It’s a problem, Blue.”

“Well what else am I going to do? Just… not know where she is? I…” she tapped her hoof. “Look, there’s a legitimate concern here, but we’ve got a Purple Cube to hunt and that’s more important.”

“Agreed,” Tenrayce said. “We need to use the kancathi for larger projects.”

Vaughan folded his arms. “But you don’t need to use Blue.”

Blue blinked. “What?”

“Blue, you’re a wizard in the space program. You aren’t a hunter of monsters or a special agent of the crown.” He crouched and placed a hand on Blue’s shoulder. “It’s not your job to hunt the Cube.”

“B-but… the… the kancathi…”

“Blue… it’s not going to be safe out there. You have work to do here. And… we’re here.”

“I…” Blue tilted her head sideways. “I just… I want to see it through. I…”

“Do you have to?”

“N-no…”

“Then why risk it?”

“I…”

“Let me make this decision easy for you,” Tenrayce said. “I order you to stay behind. Kroan cannot afford to risk you on a mission you offer no key part in. I can’t believe I was just going to let you come along—you are Blue, and your work is not in hunting giant Crystalline Ones.”

Blue took several steps back in alarm. “But…”

“No buts, I’m the Princess. And…” Tenrayce paused. “Beyond that, I shouldn’t put you in danger needlessly. You’ve suffered enough.”

Blue wanted, wanted so badly, to have an argument, a refutation. But what everyone said made perfect sense, there was no reason for her to go. But her heart screamed to go.

She clenched her jaw and thrust those feelings down. I. Am not. An illogical. Person. Shut it! It did not go away, if anything the desire got even stronger, but her mind could see it now and had something to hold onto as to why not to listen to it.

It was enough.

“Agreed,” Blue said, clenching her jaw. “You… are right. I… need to stay.”

“Glad we have an understanding,” Tenrayce said. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to get some Orange Crystalline Ones here as soon as possible.”

“And I have to prepare the kancathi…” Pepper turned to the members of the Wizard Space Program. “Give Blue a good day, okay?”

“We’ll do our best!” Seskii said, giving a thumbs up.

“A… good day.” Blue nodded slowly. I have missed them all… “Yes… yes! I can show you guys around the city! And all the new Skyseed stuff we’re making!”

“We saw some of that already,” Mary said.

“But you didn’t get the tour!” Blue grinned, tapping her hoof a little too energetically. “I know Rigelia would never give you one, so come along, Blue’s got a list of things for you!”

Seskii grinned. “Great! Let’s do it!”

Vaughan frowned. “Blue…”

Seskii nudged him in the side and subtly shook her head.

“…yes, Vaughan?” Blue asked.

“Do you know anywhere good to eat, first?”

“Oh, yes! I do! There’s this great stand that sells hot spicy noodles…”

~~~

The effects of spicy food include: pain. Crying. Running noses. Sensitive tongues. Gastrointestinal distress. And, of course, the flavor. Though if the spice is intense enough then the tongue never gets a chance to detect the flavor and it goes right into agony.

That said, Blue, Vaughan, Mary, and Seskii were no stranger to spicy food. Mary grew many such plants in her garden and regularly whipped them up. So, naturally, when presented with a scale of “spiciness” to choose their noodles from, they chose the hottest or next-to-hottest options since, in their minds, they were clearly used to it at this point.

Perhaps the incredulous eyebrow from the neko running the stand and the stifled chuckles of Blue should have keyed them in. But it did not, and so Vaughan and Mary were blubbering and wailing in the midst of their laughs, downing cup after cup of milk and racking up the bill—clearly to the amusement of their neko server. Blue, in order to keep up the “illusion” of not knowing how bad it would be, opted to take a similar level of pain, so her laughs were also interspersed with pained whines, harsh snorting, and groans.

Seskii was sitting pretty. Tears were rolling down her face but she was smiling and, as she loved to point out to everyone, had no nose.

“Toughen up, buttercups!” Seskii declared, folding her arms. “It’s just pain! Grind your teeth and get through it! Grrrrr! Be the dragon!”

“Dragons can’t taste it…” Blue managed through her sniffles—reminded of why Alexandrite had passed on the feast and went to do research for Gronge. “Wait… Seskii, can you even taste this?”

“Oh, I can,” Seskii said, grinning. “It’s just not as bad for me.”

“Spicy food…” Mary gaged. “Is… restricted… mostly to mammals…”

“And gari are one of the exceptions!” Seskii said with a grin. “We’re kind of our own class of thing, though, plast-reliant animalian spirited. But you knew that.”

“You could just be faking it,” Vaughan pointed out. He shoveled another bunch of noodles into his mouth, let out a pained gasp, and then slammed his fist on the table. “That’s the stuff…”

“She’s not,” Blue said. “Gari do come in here. She’s actually doing much better than most of them do.”

“Pain is pain! Mind over matter!” Seskii held her hands in front of her face to make her more mysterious, but the tears streaming down her face cut down that image significantly. “…Also this isn’t the spiciest things I’ve ever eaten, so…”

“Our guts are going to hate us tonight…” Mary whined.

“You’re welcome,” Blue said with a chuckle—after which she downed another glass of milk. “…You know, Tenrayce paid last time I was here, I should probably check how expensive these glasses are…”

“Oh, very,” the neko said, scribbling something down in a notepad. “But I have a feeling you can cover it with that royal funding of yours.”

Vaughan leaned in. “So, Tenrayce introduced you to this place?”

Blue nodded, deciding not to shovel more noodles into her mouth. “Yeah, she and Via are actually pretty great.”

“It’s good to see you have some friends,” Mary said, glancing at her noodles nervously like they were about to jump out and bite her. “Besides the two of them…?”

Blue sighed. “I mean, there’s Pepper, but she’s kind of… crazy, and that’s a working relationship. Kinda. I don’t really get it.” She leaned back. “But aside from that… yeah, no, there’s basically nothing. I think I was more annoyed about that at first, but when the nobles and high wizards don’t like what you stand for, the minor annoyance of not having many friends seems quite insignificant.” She paused. “…I have really missed you guys, though.”

Vaughan put his hands together. “It must be worse than we thought. Blue, admitting she misses us.”

“I can be soft!”

“Obviously, you’re a blubbering mess right now.”

“We all are!” Blue said with a snort-laugh. “You old softy!”

“Sentimental shut-in!”

Blue gasped in mock shock. “Why, Gideon, how dare! Why you… you…” She slammed her hoof on the table. “Arrogant hypocritical uh… uh…” She held up her hoof while she levitated another drink to her mouth. “…I lost the insult, I’m not Krays.”

“I believe something along the lines of… ‘outlandish, stupid, and reckless’ would be your go-to.”

“Well, yes, but you aren’t exactly stupid.”

“You used to think so.”

Blue tapped her chin. “True… maybe you’re just stupid in selective ways.”

“How can you be selectively stupid?” Mary asked.

“Easy!” Seskii said. “Let me demonstrate!” She stood up and fell forward, smacking her head into the table in such a way that her face landed in the bowl of her remaining noodles, sticking it to her face as she bounced away from the table and fell onto her back. A muffled voice came back. “As you can see, I chose to do the stupid thing, and now my eyes are burning. Aaaaaaaaaa…” She removed the bowl from her face and ran to a bucket of water, dunking her face into it.

The other three burst into laughter.

“Seskii, that’s probably dangerous!” Blue managed through her snorts.

Seskii pulled her head out of the water. “Not to me! …Eyes still burning, please hold.” She rammed her face back into the water.

Blue laughed, and laughed, and laughed.

For the first time since the incident with the kancathi, she wasn’t thinking about it at all. Not even in the furthest reaches of her mind. In this moment, everything was fine, and everything was going to be fine.

Her people were here.

~~~

The feeling did not last.

Blue woke up in the middle of the night, the kankathi’s roar ringing in her mind.

Go back to sleep, she told herself, ramming her head into the pillow hard enough to rip the covering with her horn. Just stay in bed. Ignore it. Stop thinking about it.

It didn’t go away. None of her mental defenses were able to defuse the incessant thought. All of her mental defenses were based on logic and cold calculation. If a thought was a lie or obviously untrue, she could beat it into submission with focused effort.

But this thought had no logical content. It was just pure, raw emotion, and emotion she couldn’t fully come to terms with. Trying to analyze it led to identifications of fear and panic, yes, but there was also a sense of… longing? Of… lacking something. Something she couldn’t identify.

She tossed. She turned. She shut her eyes as tight as she could. She opened them wide and stared at the ceiling.

The roaring in her mind only got louder.

She tried to force herself to think about the good things of the day. Of the time she spent with Vaughan, with Mary, and with Seskii. How Vaughan was so laid back about everything and didn’t get worked up about anything, even when Blue herself was a little twitchy. How Mary obviously cared deeply and was able to listen to everything with a calm ear. How Seskii could just make her laugh at the dumbest of things…

These were good memories, and they made her happier. But they could not stop the roaring.

The endless, senseless roaring.

The roaring that would be leaving soon. Tenryace was taking the kancathi out to hunt for the Purple Cube. There was no way they left yet, but they wanted to leave as soon as possible. Taking the monster far, far away from Blue.

Her heart started beating much, much faster.

Carefully, she got out of bed, a haunted expression on her face. She stood, completely still, for several minutes.

Then she opened the door and walked out into the cold, night air. She marched forward, methodically, expression completely blank.

Meanwhile part of her mind was currently screaming at her to stop, while the other part was screaming at that part. There was almost no hint of this internal turmoil on her blank exterior.

~~~

Three balloon whales were prepped for the mission, chartered by Tenrayce herself. She had assembled multiple contingents of soldiers and several wizards for the mission, as well as Pepper specifically to make sure the kancathi couldn’t try anything funny. Tenrayce herself probably shouldn’t have gone, but she was there as a sort of insurance. If she was nearby, the kankathi would think she could maybe get free and attack her, which would ensure cooperation. Risky, yes, but they needed to find the Purple Cube.

As for what to do with a Purple Cube the size of a mountain that could probably kill everyone with a thought… well, there were plans for that as well. Kroan was not without loyal Crystalline Ones, and if the Princess was in need of some, they would come. The most important addition was the Orange Crystalline One Untearful, which took the shape of an orange teardrop floating under the power of Orange. She was one of the larger Crystalline Ones, too large to fit inside a balloon whale gondola in her default shape, so she floated on top of one of them, acting as a sort of figurehead for the floating behemoth.

There were also lots of other things rummaging around. Crate upon crate of supplies were loaded onto the balloon whales—they had no idea how long they were going to be gone for or how far away the Purple Cube was, so they prepared for a long journey. If the maps from Shimvale messages were correct, the Purple Cube was deep in the Wild Kingdoms, however, that was assuming the Purple Cube had moved in a straight line, which was decidedly unlikely for something that wanted to be hidden. All they had been able to determine was that she was not below them right now—the kancathi had not sensed any caverns below with her tremors.

They were going to head out and check the place the Purple Cube was projected to be, and then would begin a larger search pattern. The kancathi’s tremors went far and would definitely be able to sense a cavern of such magnitude that the Purple Cube could move through it. But this would still take time, and the Wild Kingdoms were quite extensive… not to mention many of them were hostile.

That was what the military presence was for. It would be utterly useless against the Purple Cube for the most part, but not against attacks from the tribal peoples within the wilds. Hopefully, most of the people would just ignore the trio of flying balloon whales, but chances were some of them just wouldn’t be able to leave well enough alone.

The loading of the balloon whales was a bit of a rush. Tenrayce wanted to leave as soon as physically possible, which meant as soon as the sun rose. People worked through the night and loaded crate after crate after crate in haste, filled with food, weapons, Colored crystals, navigation supplies, and tons of things they didn’t need. The manifests were a bit of a mess and several things got loaded that weren’t strictly necessary.

One of those crates was filled with dried fruit… and a blue unicorn who was doing her best to breathe as quietly as possible. If she had wanted to absolutely minimize her chances of discovery, she would have buried herself in the middle of all the fruit. However, she instead placed herself such that her face was near the edge, allowing her to peer outside through a slit in the crate wall.

She had judged correctly, this crate was being loaded onto the same balloon whale as the kancathi. Good. Very good. Not that she could see the kancathi because the kancathi was kept in view of several people at all times and Blue… was put in storage with the rest of everything, sandwiched between several other crates on all sides.

It occurred to her that, since she was now part of a stack of crates, she was probably stuck in here until someone cleared the crates on top of her away. At least she had food.

She couldn’t see the kancathi anymore… but she knew she was nearby. That was good.

Her stomach did a flop as the balloon whales slowly took off into the sky. The sun had risen already? Or had Tenrayce declared that they were leaving early?

It didn’t matter. She was here. They hadn’t seen her. That kancathi wasn’t getting away now.

This is unbelievably stupid.

Blue, now that things started to calm down in her mind, was able to think a little clearer than she had been. Enough to berate herself for this entire thing, to yell at herself for falling to such a clear emotional weakness, and to complain that she was stuck and couldn’t even do math properly with such a limited range of motion.

She was alone. In the sky. Nobody knew she was here.

“So…. what now?” Seskii’s voice came from above her.

Blue let out a shocked yell. “SESKII!?”

“Yep! The one and only!”

“What? How? Why!?”

“Hmm, let’s see… I’m Seskii, already established that. I’m hiding in the crate above you. I hid myself much like you did. I knew you were going to relapse so I decided to keep you company!”

“…They’re going to hear us!”

“Pfft, there’s so many crates around us it’ll muffle anything.” Seskii paused. “I have beef jerky in this crate. You?”

“Various dried fruits…”

“At least we’ll be well fed. Of course, it’s going to get real awkward when someone needs to go to the bathroom…”

“…Seskii why would you bring that up?”

“It’s something we need to think about, hitchhikers that we are!” Seskii paused. “Or maybe we’re stowaways. Seeing as nobody knows we’re here.”

Blue decided to keep quiet.

“Anyway, might as well talk the time away, we’re gonna be here a whiiiile. So why don’t I catch you up on what’s been happening back at Willow Hollow? We were kind of in too much agony earlier to do intense catch-up. I’ve been managing all the internal paperwork and writing everything up neatly so the tables you get aren’t an awful mess of random scratched notes, terrible handwriting, and a sizable chunk of spontaneous insults from Krays. The multi-core drive design has been finalized and Vaughan put in the final orders for the parts today. Oh! Ripashi has turned a lot of his bear furs into outfits for Jeh when she gets back! They’re adorable. Lila’s been managing things just fine, though there was an incident with the Red Seekers again, as always…”

“Seskii?”

“Hmm?”

“Why aren’t you… prodding me? Asking questions? Why are you just… here?”

Seskii chuckled. “You’re doing that enough to yourself, you wouldn’t listen to me even if I did try to tear your mind apart bit by bit. I’m just here for emotional support and something to keep you grounded. Far as I can tell, it’s the best way I can help you.”

“Help me… with what?”

“Well I’m pretty sure you can figure it out, but you’re in one of those states where if I say what it is you’ll get upset… but even this gets you upset. And being upset in a claustrophobic environment is prooooobably not the best idea.”

Blue had no real response to this, her mood had shifted at least three different times through that comment, confusing her immensely.

“So, anyway, I’m just here to help you work through it. If you want to talk about anything, I’m here. Buuuut if you want to be quiet I’ll just keep telling you about news, anecdotes, and random jokes as I think of them. Oooh, or maybe I could sing!”

“Please don’t, we are trying to keep a low profile…”

“You were much louder earlier when you were shouting half-baked questions at me.”

Blue furrowed her brow. “I… yes… that still wasn’t good.”

“Just pointing it out. Don’t worry, I won’t sing. I might delve into some poetry though… that’s it! I’ll tell you about the news entirely in rhyme!”

Despite her initial groan, Blue actually quite enjoyed the chipper poems that followed. It was an effective distraction from her own internal questions she couldn’t answer, and it took her further away from her fixation. But never completely away.

After all, it was almost impossible to forget the reason why she was here.

The kancathi.

Ever-present. Ever-roaring in the back of her mind.

~~~

“I don’t think she’s in the city,” Alexandrite said as he landed next to Vaughan and Mary in one of Axiom’s parks.

Mary sighed. “She managed to hitch a ride on the whales, didn’t she?”

“It seems most likely.”

Vaughan folded his arms. “Great. No sign of Seskii either, but that’s less unusual. …But if both of them are gone…”

“Seskii followed Blue,” Mary said, crossing her arms. “I’m sure of it. Seskii just has a way with people and knowing who they really are.”

“Then why wouldn’t she just stop Blue?”

“I’m… not entirely sure. Maybe there was some reason she couldn’t, or she didn’t think it would be best for Blue in some way?”

Alexandrite raised an eyebrow. “How could it be good for a damaged unicorn to pursue the one who harmed her on a dangerous mission into the unknown?”

“I don’t know!” Mary threw her hands wide. “I’m just going off what I know about Blue and Seskii.” Mary suddenly drooped. “And it turns out I didn’t know Blue that well at all…”

“Neither did I, and I was here for much of it,” Alexandrite said, frown deepening. “She is a private individual who stays in her own head. If she would rather not say something… she won’t.”

An awkward silence fell over the three of them.

Without warning, Vaughan suddenly let out an angry grunt and turned around stomping off.

“Vaughan!” Mary called.

“What!?” Vaughan all but shouted whirling around. “What exactly can we do here!? She’s gone, might as well go back to our work and just… pray that Dia can somehow keep her reckless plot safe and get her back to us.”

“…Vaughan, it’s not because of us she left.”

“I know that, I know that.” Vaughan closed his eyes and clenched his wrists. “But we could have… we could have talked to her, could have helped her. All she had to do was just… say something. But she didn’t! She ran off and… and we can’t do anything about it!”

“Who said we can’t do anything?” Mary called back, putting her hands on her hips.

“What do you suggest?”

“Well, you already suggested praying, and need I remind you that that isn’t nothing. But if you’re looking for something practical to do, we could go after her.”

“Chase a royal contingent of balloon whales!?”

Mary gestured at Alexandrite. “We do have a dragon. Dragons are faster than balloon whales.”

Vaughan paused, considering this.

“Alex, would you mind taking us to find Blue?” Mary asked.

Alexandrite nodded. “I need to drop off some things, but we can do that on the way.”

“Bless your soul, Alex,” Mary said with a little bow. “Vaughan?”

“I’m coming, I’m coming…”

“Vaughan, don’t beat yourself up. You got angry. It’s understandable. Recognize it for what it is… and move on, so we can find Blue. …And Seskii.” Mary frowned. “You know, I’m not worried at all about Seskii…”

“Just seems like she can handle herself, huh?” Alexandrite said.

“She’s a woman of much resourcefulness and many talents,” Vaughan added. “If she’s with Blue, she’s probably the best ally on offer.”

“Even if she is a bit annoying.”

“Yes, even if she is a bit annoying.”

~~~

Blue awoke to the sounds of rummaging in the cargo bay. She hadn’t remembered falling asleep, but she did remember that she needed to keep quiet and not be discovered.

“The Princess said somewhere around here,” a gruff voice came to her, closer than she thought was possible considering how many crates were stacked on top of her. Now that she was listening closely, she could hear that a crate two or three levels above her was being moved, most likely with Orange magic since there was a lot of bumping and scratching, but no sliding noises.

She heard them pop open the crate.

“Not this one,” came a second voice.

The next crate lifted up was two crates above her. Directly above her. They popped it open. “Not this one.”

Then they lifted up Seskii’s crate. Blue could now see significantly more light streaming in from above. The top was popped open.

“Heloooooo everyone!” Seskii declared, jumping out of the crate and landing on the others with a thud. “Congratulations, you found me, you win an all expenses paid trip to Tenrayce with me as your prisoner!”

There was a soft thud sound.

“Hey, did you just try to punch me? Aww… that’s rude, I’m being cooperative. And I’m not punching you! See? Hands tied!”

Blue was trying to imagine what was occurring up there but couldn’t quite figure it out. Seskii was always hard to follow.

“The Princess said there were two. Check the crate below.”

Blue’s stomach did a flip as her crate was lifted out. The top was popped… and a human with a cat on his shoulder looked down at her. The cat was a Yellow wizard, but was currently using Orange.

“Uh… hi,” Blue said.

The cat lifted her out and sat her next to Seskii, who was currently sitting on another crate, kicking her legs back and forth. “Welp, looks like we’ve been found out, partner! Time for Tenrayce to shout at us for being stupid.”

“I’m not…” Blue paused.

“Hey, she’s going to call us stupid.”

“You know what, yeah, that’s a safe bet.”

They were led out of the cargo bay, entering the middle of the gondola. It was a royal gondola so there were a lot of furnishings, gold-plated rims, and guards. Most of the guards, though, were watching the kancathi.

Blue stopped in her tracks, staring right at the plast dragon. She was not in a Magenta cage, but there were Magenta wizards nearby continually jamming her. She was tied up with many chains and her mouth was muzzled, but she could move around of her own free will.

She took one step toward Blue, but the guards pulled her back.

“Move along,” the cat wizard told them. Blue snapped out of it and continued walking, but she still kept her eyes on the kancathi for as long as possible, all the way until they vanished into the control cockpit.

Tenrayce sat in the main chair, which was currently swiveled away from the front window and directed at the door they entered through. She was in her wizard robes, but her hat was set to her side, giving them full view of her decidedly displeased face. Her gaze was directly on Blue, and not on any sort of book. She was tapping her foot aggressively on the ground.

“Tenrayce!” Seskii said, grinning. “Long time no see!” One of the guards tried to drop-kick her legs to force her to kneel, but she jumped over the attack effortlessly. “Bet you’re surprised to see me!”

“Yes… I am.”

“Anyway, I hitched a ride on your whale to keep Blue company, I knew you wouldn’t mind.”

Tenrayce frowned. “Somehow, you have managed to judge me correctly, Seskii. One wonders how you can still do that after we only met a short while and have spent much time apart, in which time much has no doubt changed for the both of us, but you clearly take great stock in portraying yourself as an enigma to be puzzled out, which plays perfectly off my curiosity. Yes, you I have no issue with, and even your self-proclaimed motives of being here to keep Blue company are mostly without critique.” Tenrayce leaned in. “You still should have kept her off the ship.”

“Agree to disagree on that front. I think it would have done more harm than good, ultimately, if I forcefully stopped her.”

“Hmm…” Tenrayce turned to Blue. “As for you… I shouldn’t have to tell you that you’re being unimaginably stupid.”

Blue looked at the ground. “I… er…”

“The fact that I do means that something is clearly very, very wrong with you, far more than I could possibly have realized. I suspect more than you have realized.” The tapping in her foot increased. “I’m not sure what to do about it. I want to send you back but that’ll require resources, giving up at least a dragon, which is a huge loss to the expedition. I believe you planned for this to occur, making it difficult for me to send you back so I would ‘have’ to take you.” Tenryace folded her hands together and glared at Blue. “That makes me want to send you back out of spite.”

Blue tucked her tail between her legs. “Look, Tenrayce, can you just le—”

“No,” Tenrayce interrupted. “I cannot just let you be here. A personal favor to a friend is no favor if the end result is self-destructive. I should probably kill the kancathi to remove the pain from your mind, but I cannot do that either for she is instrumental not only in this mission here but also in understanding the kancathi threat itself.” Tenrayce tapped her fingers on the armrest in annoyance. “You have put me in quite a tight spot, Blue.”

“I… I’m… I’m sorry, I didn’t mean…”

“If you truly are sorry, and you acknowledge your actions as wrong, you will seek to return of your own volution.” Tenrayce leaned in. “Will you go back?”

Blue shuffled her hooves awkwardly. Go back. Just go back. Break yourself away from this. She said nothing.

Tenrayce leaned back in her chair. “I thought not. Do not apologize to me without meaning it.”

“But… you… you’re hurt and upset! And…”

“Then express your emotions in a truthful manner, that you understand my pain and you wish it didn’t have to be this way. But that you do not intend to go back on your actions.” Tenrayce frowned. “Part of me wonders if the song is partially in you, driving you to do things you do not understand. Whatever the case… you are a great mind, and Kroan needs you alive and not in danger. So, I—”

“Princess!” a cat called, running in. “There’s a blue dragon approaching us from Axiom!”

“Why on Ik—” Tenrayce’s mind clicked. “Oh! Alex! That solves my problem!” Tenrayce turned to Blue. “Looks like your friends are here to pick you up.”

“No… no, I don’t want to go back! I… I need to stay here!”

“Blue…” Seskii said with a soothing tone. “Shouting won’t get us anywhere…”

“She’s going to send me back, Seskii! And… and then I won’t be here! And I won’t know. I…” She whirled around, staring back at the door from which they’d entered. The kancathi was on the other side. “I have to know. I have to. I…” She ran for the door.

Then she ran for the door.

Then she ran for the door.

Then she was tied up on the ground, confused.

Tenryace stopped casting Green on her mind, pain evident on her face. “Ailments of the mind are… poorly understood. If I made it worse, I will regret acting out of haste.”

“Let me go!” Blue squirmed. “I… I have to…”

Tenrayce shook her head. “Bring me the highest level Yellow wizard we have on board. …And have Untearful check the entire fleet for more stowaways, just in case.” She put her hand to her eyebrows and sighed. “And allow Alexandrite to dock, show his passengers in.”

Seskii leaned down and stroked her hand down Blue’s mane. “It’ll be okay… all right? The others will be here soon…”

“They won’t help me either… You aren’t helping me…”

Seskii shook her head. “That’s a lie. You can reject that one.”

“…You think you’re helping me…”

“What do you think?”

“I… I’m not wrong, I can’t be wrong, this has to be…”

“Why?”

Blue started crying.

Tenrayce’s usually stoic face was in clear emotional turmoil. She didn’t know what to do.

“Alexandrite has arrived,” a guard declared. “Introducing Wizard Vaughan and Lady Mary.”

“Oooh, Lady!” Mary giggled. “I’ve never been introduced like tha—” she saw Blue on the ground and immediately stopped everything. “Blue!” She ran down and kneeled next to her. “What have you done to her!?”

“Kept her from hurting herself,” Tenrayce said. “I… hope.”

“Mary… I need… I need to watch the kancathi,” Blue said. “You… you’ll help me with that, right? You’ll…”

Mary’s eyes watered. “Oh Blue…” She pulled the unicorn into a hug. “You don’t need to see that monster…”

“Yes, I do! Why else would I be here if it wasn’t a need!?” Despite being tied up, she tore herself from Mary’s grasp. “Why would I be driven all the way out here and hide in a crate if it wasn’t a need? What else could it possibly be!?”

Vaughan kneeled down, looking Blue in the eyes. “It could be a delusion.”

Seskii took in a sharp, pained breath.

“A delusion!?” Blue shouted. “Are… are you saying that my mind is doing this? That it has betrayed me?” Blue snorted. “Ridiculous! My mind is the most reliable thing in existence! It has never failed me!”

“That’s a lie and you know it,” Vaughan said.

“Screw you all thinking you know what’s true and what isn’t, I’m smarter than everyone in this room combined! Tell me that’s a lie!”

Everybody was taken aback.

“So maybe, just maybe, I know a bit more about what’s true than you all do! And I need… I need…” she broke down again. “It’s so strong… it… if it’s nothing… then is anything anything?”

“Blue…” Mary buried her head in the unicorn’s mane.

The Yellow wizard arrived at this point—he was an older human with wiry green hair not unlike vines. He didn’t say anything, but just moved to the back of the room and observed Blue closely.

However, whatever he planned to do after observation would be interrupted, at least for the time being. For the cat ran in again. “Princess! A sphinx is incoming at high speed!”

“Hostile?” Tenrayce asked.

“Not so far as we can tell, but he’s making a beeline right for us while accelerated! He really wants to get here fast, and he appears to be carrying a very large book!”

Tenrayce took in a sharp breath and clenched her fist, expending a lot of effort to remove all hints of emotion from her face. “We can’t clean up in here fast enough for a meeting, I’ll go out there. We—”

The sphinx all but slammed into the window in front of them before they could do anything about it. He shouted through the window. “Urgent message for Kroan! There is a rigid plague running through the Shineleands! It is a threat to all and has been pursuing and killing messengers who tried to reach you! This book contains all the information you need, as well as a plea of help from the Western Ch’eni’tho!”

“The Ch’eni’tho…?” Tenrayce blinked. “How in…” She narrowed her eyes. “From who is this message sent!?”

“My ship is C-R, we intercepted the message from one of your people, Jeh of the Wizard Space Program!”

Everyone gasped.

“Jeh!?” Blue called. “She’s… she’s nearby!?”

~~~

SCIENCE SEGMENT

Capsaicin is the active component of chili peppers and other spicy foods. It's what lands on your tongue and makes you feel like your mouth is on fire. It's a somewhat long chain of a molecule made mostly out of carbon (as is the case with most molecules created by life) with eighteen carbons, twenty-seven hydrogens, one nitrogen, and three oxygens.

You probably know the general story of why plants want to be spicy: they don't want to be eaten. Mammals like to grind seeds when they eat them, making it impossible for the seeds to germinate, so the plants wish to deter mammals. However, birds are different--they don't grind the seeds and as such the seeds pass right through the digestive tract, so spicy plants want to be eaten by birds. Birds, it turns out, are completely unaffected by capsaicin, so it works out well for them. This was what the whole discussion the WSP was having was about--which races can even taste spicy food? Mammals, mostly, and pseudo-mammals such as the gari. Curiously, capsaicin also affects mushrooms, though in a different way.

Which leads us to the much more interesting question: we have a reason for plants to be spicy, but HOW are they spicy? What is it that causes the irritation and the agony that so many people seek out (much to the plant's displeasure). The chemical itself does not actually cause any burns, like some chemicals can, but rather targets neurons. In fact it targets a very specific part of neurons: a protein known as TRPV1, which we condense because it's full name is the Transient Receptor Potential Cation Channel Subfamily V Member 1. I am convinced biologists like really long names that are impossible to pronounce. TRPV1's purpose is to send signals to the brain based on certain results; high temperatures and acidic conditions, so it's partially responsible for why burning feels like it does (and why acids feel like they burn).

Naturally capsaicin chemically bonds to TRPV1 and turns it "on," essentially, and the pain gets sent through the nervous system to the brain. Effectively, the "pain" felt doesn't really exist, it's just a chemical bonding to what is supposed to be a pain receptor and turning it on. Thus, capsaicin is mostly harmless and just makes people feel like they're on fire. However, note "mostly" harmless. In large quantities and concentrations it can be dangerous, and even in small amounts the body will freak right out. Your brain may know that spicy food is safe, but your body senses burning and is going to try to deal with it. This can result in inflammation, among other things. Not to mention the really nasty stomach ache that arrives when too much capsaicin is consumed, and the resulting diarrhea from the body wanting to get the burning chemical out of its system.

This explains why capsaicin can cause burning sensations anywhere, nerves are basically all over your body. Skin provides enough protection usually, as nerves are largely beneath the surface there, but the spice can still get in with enough concentration. Without skin for protection, the nerves in the eyes, mouth, nose, and the other end tend to feel much worse than capsaicin on the hand.

Notably you do not feel so much of a "burning" sensation while the capscaicin is deep inside of you, such as when moving around your intestines. You definitely feel something, especially if there was a lot of capsaicin, but not as much. This is because, in general, internal organs have fewer pain receptors so they get affected less. Your body cares a lot more about something nasty coming in through the mouth than something that's already in the stomach. (Considering that the stomach is continually digesting itself, it's probably best that you don't have many pain receptors down there anyway…)

Notably, birds have pain receptors like we do, it's just that their proteins for pain are different than mammals and thus do not react with capsaicin. Pepper spray will work wonders on an attacking bear, but it'd just annoy a bird. Or a reptile. Or anything, really, capsaicin only effects mammals in the way we expect it to.

But there is evidence it's an anti-fungal agent, actively hindering the growth of fungus that would otherwise wish to devour a pepper plant. It also appears to clear away quite a few microbes. The question remains, how is it doing this? We feel the pain because it hijacks our pain receptors, ones that mushrooms and microbes definitely don't have. I actually could not find the mechanism for this end of the effect, though it has been well documented (finding articles all the way back to 2008 on it). Perhaps someone more versed in biology will know how to find said answer?