The man stumbled forward, collapsing into a seat across the aisle from Kya. He was wearing a travel worn brown cloak, with dark gray clothes underneath that looked both much too warm and much too woolen for the temperate climate in which they found themselves. He had shaggy black hair, and a patchy beard. His deep maroon eyes smoldered as they peered out at the crumpled form of Taln from under bushy eyebrows. Literally. They seemed to emit heatwaves, and the iris’ moved and flowed like pools of molten magma. Kya had seen several different variations of the signature bright eyes that one receives from classes, but this was the first one that truly seemed magical, like his very gaze held a heat and intensity that went unmatched in others.
She was immediately wary of the man, given the last user she’d seen had dissolved into shadows, and whose equipment she now carried around with her. However, despite the tension in her limbs and the wary glances she threw his way, he didn’t seem to notice any of it. He was breathing deeply, his nose working like a great bellows at a forge, and eventually said in a gruff, haggard oddly accented voice:
“Not the most typical of thing be draggin’ along to the city.”
Still not relaxing in the presence of the unknown man, she mentally chided herself before quickly using identify. She had to get better at this.
- - - - -
Vulair Saaio
Class: {Fire}- 1-Star
- - - - -
At least he was a 1-star she thought, then amended it to At least it actually identified him. Still annoyed about her skill not working on the four-eyed man.
As for the observation the man had made, it was a true enough statement, and Kya felt no need to respond to it. She rather just moved slightly further back in her seat, still ready to act at a moment's notice.
The man, Vulair, his head was bobbing up and down like a cork on water until it finally came to a halt hanging low against his chest. Kya wasn’t sure what was happening until he let out a slow heavy snore, that was immediately joined to another, and several more following on.
Kya waited a good minute before she started to slowly unknot her muscles and sit back down into her seat.
She was suspicious it was all an act simply put forth to lull her into a-
Kya almost left her skin behind as she jumped. The train had started moving. Good god she thought, clutching to her heart, while at the same moment, Vulair snapped his head back with a sharp “What's this again?” and her suddenly tensed muscles and the shot of pure adrenaline were both redoubled when he looked around and once more locked his eyes upon hers.
She had felt pressure like this before, back in the guild hall facing that man who’d wanted to take her away, or before that when she’d still been normal and facing the Tigers gaze, this man was supposed to be at her level, so why was he so much more… intimidating than her?
He squirted his eyes of liquid flame and said “Nor the most typical of eyes to be viewin’ the world with.”
Again, not a question and again, Kya did not want to respond, but this one rather more put her on edge than the question about the unconscious dwarf.
“What do you know of my eyes?”
He chuckled softly, and looked away, turning to face out his own side of the transparent vehicle as the vistas sailed by.
“Nothin’, o’ course, I meant nothin’ at all, an’ I know nothin’ at all. But you’d best watch yourself. People aer quick to forget, but quicker to remember. Lots of people have the nasty habit of rememberin’ things you’d sooner they forget.”
Kya frowned, relaxing slightly at the casual way he spoke and almost comical lack of danger coming from him once he turned his gaze away.
“Care to explain what you mean by that?”
“No” He said with a large yawn, before settling in and pulling his old cloak around himself like a blanket, “No, I don’t.”
After that, the man didn’t speak another word the rest of the ride back into the city. Kya made a couple attempts at restarting the conversation and asking for more detail and information on other topics, but the man was either genuinely asleep, or flatout ignoring her.
Reaching down once or twice to renew the venom flowing through Taln, Kya otherwise looked out at the large river over which they currently passed, and at the looming walls of Lyra in the distance.
The man didn’t move a muscle as the train pulled to a stop. Kya thought about trying to wake him, then thought that would be a really dumb thing to do, and left the man to his rest. Pulling talk behind her like a homemade wagon, Kya dismounted and once more found herself in the bustling morning streets of the city. It was almost incomprehensible that the day prior she’d been here on her way out of the town. So much had happened all in one night. So much… and too much.
She reexamined the church with the waterfall windows, the one she’d been unceremoniously thrown from, and remembering this time, used identify.
- - - - -
- Domain: Temple of Waters - Medium
- Status: Claimed
- Description: Holy grounds for the god of water. You have been warned never to set foot on their holy ground again. Probably best to steer clear.
For now.
- - - - -
NEW QUEST!
- Pirating from Preachers
You have discovered a domain claimed by someone else. Domains are extremely interesting and magical places that do all sorts of neat and helpful things! However, you are not able to partake of these benefits while the holder of this domain has you labeled as unwelcome.
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
- Objective: Gain access to the benefits of this domain.
- Time Remaining: 21w:5d:15h:06m:42s
- Rewards: Rewards contingent on manner of quest completion.
- - - - -
She stopped dead in the middle of the small-town circle connecting several small restaurants, the train station, and the church, along with several roads in different directions.
Another quest? She was just piling these things on here. And what was with that time limit, twenty-one weeks? That would be what… five months from now? That was a crazy long time, implying immediately for Kya that it would be likely the most difficult or most unlikely to succeed quest she’d gotten so far.
She pulled up her quest tap to take inventory of the ones currently active that she needed to do.
- - - - -
- Quests
- Guild Contract: Hellhounds on the Farm - 1-Star - Rare
Objective: Inform the Farmers the hellhounds have been eliminated, and report back to the guild hall.
- Closeted Cultists
Objective: Report the rituals, events, and circumstances to the authorities.
Optional Objective: Talk to the house staff, see if they’ll talk now that their master is dead.
- Pirating from Preachers
Objective: Gain access to the benefits of this domain.
- - - - -
She found she could mentally click on each of them individually to pull up the in-depth descriptions, with the timers and the progress and all of that. However, she rather preferred the minimal design of this to a massive wall of words she’d have to read. This seemed more organized to her.
Beginning to walk again, and leaving behind the large waterfall church, she contemplated whether or not the way her screens and quests and whatnot were set up specifically for her, or if they were how they were independent of her. She wondered if anyone else had access to the quests and updates like she did. She knew others had identify skills, but she wasn’t sure about the quests. Shrugging, and then readjusting her grip, she continued to pull Taln the unconscious dwarf along through the streets of Lyra, attracting no small amount of attention in the process.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Wade was properly tired. Shed cleaned and oiled her weapon, her armor, her practice armor, her backup weapon, her pocketknife, and her boots… twice.
She hadn’t slept at all since the previous evening when Alder had come to get her from her cell. They’d left immediately, sailed through the night, and would likely reach their destination in the next couple hours. They’d been fortunate to find a ship also carrying one of the weird little wind users, and the strange man had played his instrument through the entire night, for hours and hours continuously. She hadn’t slept for excitement on the journey and path to come. She hadn’t slept for the relief and anger both that she felt towards the Loterran army for how they were treating her and Alder. But mostly she hadn’t slept because she’d been simply listening to the man play.
Wade could feel he was a 1-Star, same as her. Like her, he was close to getting his next star as well. Which made it all the more incredible that he had somehow managed to funnel the wind for their sails for the whole night. The concentration, the power, the control, this man was a savant of the highest order. Wade couldn’t tear her eyes, shut her ears, force herself to miss a moment of his performance.
The wind in their sails was a true gift to the whole ship, not just the music he graced them with. A journey that should have easily taken a full day, and maybe a little more besides if they met an unfriendly sea beast along the way, would hardly take them more than thirteen or fourteen hours with this man’s help.
It made Wade wonder why wind users weren’t more ubiquitous, if they could so readily and easily aid in the sailing of ships. She knew there had to be some drawback, as all things had their balance, but from where she says listening to the performance, all she could do was marvel at the unrivaled skill.
Alder trudged up the stairs a few minutes later, and sat down next to her, back to the railing as they watched the suns rise over the distant watery horizon.
He handed her a ship's biscuit, the dried but hearty travel rations ships often carried to get them through longer voyages. He didn’t say a word, also listening and getting caught up in the music and melodies of sea and wind. They ate together, enjoying the warmth of the sun and the salty spray of the sea.
He eventually took out a small notebook and began to write with a charcoal pencil he kept in a sleeve pocket designed for the purpose.
“Interesting news from the others” he wrote.
Beckoning for the pencil, she replied simply “What”
“The others still keep me informed about what’s going on. Do you want Sayr-”
He stopped writing abruptly as Wade tore the notebook from his hands and held it for a moment, before shaking her head and handing it back.
“World news then. Lots of big players are moving around.”
“Who?”
“Not sure on specifics, they don’t know much yet either, but the rumors ar-”
He stopped writing again when she scoffed and stood, stretching out her considerable height. He stood too then, joining her at the railing. The wind, whipped into a frenzy by the melodies streaming down from the rear of the ship, clawed at their hair and clothes like it wished to take them along for a ride.
Leaning down over the side, Wade looked down at the waves crashing by, at the bottomless depths below, and then up at the sky around, lit a flame with greens, blues, purples, and oranges from the twin suns rising.
Alder was at the railing next to her, not saying anything, not really looking at anything either. The pencil and notebook clutched loosely in his hands. At a gesture from Wade, he handed them over, and she wrote:
“I don’t care about rumors. Let me know when one of them actually has something to say.”
Alder chuckled, then put then pencil and paper away, before placing his fingers and leaning against the railing.
Wade was tired, yes, but also anxious.
She would deal with the supposed ‘big players’ if and when the time came. She wasn't anxious for that in the slightest. For now, she was simply anxious to get off this blasted boat and get to working on her stars. She had been so close for so long and would start slaughtering the fish beneath their feet any second now if she had to wait any longer. She would be a 2-Star by the end of the week. Hell, by the end of the day if she could manage it.
Wade began to pace back and forth back and forth, Alder not turning to look at her. He had watched and laughed the first couple times she paced the length of the ship, but after seeing the same things for hours last night and again today, it had lost its ability to amuse. Looking up at the man with the violin, she again wondered at the stamina and concentration it took for him to perform like this.
Keep playing, stranger she thought with equal parts awe and greed, play as much as possible, and take me to my hunting grounds.