I groaned into the pile of comforters as she stalked off. Wonderful. Now Lakshmi is more of an adult than I am! Much good living two lives did me! I thought angrily.
I made a quick breakfast for the others, and by the time Cameron came down to see how we were doing, we were just finishing up the last of the meal.
Cameron nodded agreeably and puffed on his pipe in apparent satisfaction. “Aye, that’s a well ordered crew you’ve got there, Captain Lakshmi. My little skiff will get you to Hecate as soon as you’re ready.”
“Thank you, Cameron!” Lakshmi said.
I wasn’t entirely sure I liked how well she took to the captain role, but on the other hand… well she was pretty good at it!
And as an added benefit, I don’t have to do the talking! I thought with a satisfied nod.
With our supplies packed up, and the comforters and pillows returned to Elspeth, we were finally ready to set out. I was a little nervous about leaving most of our gear and equipment behind in the Sparrowhawk, but it wasn’t like we didn’t carry most of our gear and weapons with us at all times. The magic storage of this world was pretty useful, I had to concede. Even if it did mean I was wearing a healer mage’s robes all the time.
I had half expected Cameron’s little skiff to be some vast sailing ship or ultra high-tech device… but it was exactly as he described it. A small boat just barely big enough for all seven of us, and a few bundles of packages.
Eshaan toed them curiously. “What’s all this?” He asked.
Cameron winked at him. “Ah, ask me no questions, and I’ll tell you no lies, lad.”
Eshaan opened his mouth to do just that, and I pinched his arm. “He means don’t ask, Eshaan!”
Eshaan looked at me with an expression of wounded pride. “I know that! I’m not stupid Lilyanna!”
“So why were you going to ask?!” I folded my arms and glared at him.
“I wasn’t!”
I slowly raised an eyebrow at him.
Eshaan shook his head, and I saw a spark of genuine anger in his eyes. “I swear, Lilyanna! I’m not stupid! But he’s taking these packages someplace, and that means people are going to be waiting for them!”
I blinked a few times, my mouth opening and closing, before glancing over at Lakshmi.
Lakshmi nodded, apparently unconcerned. “That would be the logical outcome, yes.” She agreed.
Camron puffed at his pipe and puttered about the skiff setting the little stubby fins and wings to new angles. As he worked he commented “Not ta worry your head, lad. Of course I’ve got a business run, I said as much. And being as it’s business, and none of you are asking what’s going where or to who, that’s just business as well.”
He took his pipe out of his mouth, and faced us. “Which is to say, don’t go lighting any fuses, and there won’t be any fireworks. Am I clear?” He said seriously.
“As crystal.” Lakshmi seemed positively gleeful. I desperately wished I could ask her if she’d ever done anything like this before. She seemed entirely too excited about this for this to be a normal occurrence. And if I recalled…
We met her in a cell after she’d been rounded up with other sky pirates. The bad kind. I wonder… just what happened there?
The sky was bright and clear and blue, and there were puffy white clouds floating around the peaks below us as Cameron cast off, and the skiff bobbed into the open air, the crystals of the main engine making soft contended puttering noises as the skiff’s sail fins caught and channeled the air.
I took a deep breath, and let it out slowly. Perhaps this will be a safe trip, and boring? I thought hopefully.
“Lily, why don’t you trust me?” Eshaan asked pointedly.
My heart sank into my boots as I glanced over into his slightly angry and definitely hurt eyes.
Or… we could have a fight. Wonderful. I thought with a wince.
What made it worse was… I really couldn’t blame him. I had rather stomped all over him, and he had been asking a sensible question and… and he just wasn’t quite as dumb as I’d thought.
Or maybe he’s growing? Like anyone who’s been taken out of their pot and put in fertile soil? Is a System groove a pot? No that can’t be, we’re in one of those. Maybe the System grows you to… oh that’s super creepy. I thought nervously. The idea that the System grooves might be tweaking our personality and core traits!? I could feel the nudges and pushes of the story, but the idea that the System might be making me smarter… or conversely, stupider, sent a chill right down my spine.
But in the meantime, I have to have this fight.
I sighed and scooted around so I was facing him directly.
“I do trust you, Eshaan.” I said earnestly, taking one of his hands in mine.
He pulled his hand free to gesture angrily with it. I winced mentally. And even the earnest handhold trick won’t help me? Oh I’ve definitely screwed this one up. I thought sadly.
“No you don’t! I know I’m not bright, but you could at least trust me to pick up on something like that!”
I chewed my lower lip for a moment before nodding. “Alright, that’s fair. I did think you were going to ask him after he asked you not to. But it’s not because I think you’re stupid, Eshaan! You’re… stubborn! Determined to push ahead despite what anyone says!” I scrunched up my face in frustration. “Look what’s happening, we’re having a personal fight in front of everyone!”
Eshaan looked around the skiff in surprise as though seeing everyone else for the first time, then back to me. “This is important!” he said in frustration. “You deal with important things when they happen!”
I sighed. The infuriating determination of the hero when confronted with resistance!
I’m not going to win this fight. I suddenly realized. Not even fatal wounds stop a hero when they’re determined like this.
I chewed my lower lip some more and then nodded. “Alright. So you think I don’t trust you not to open your mouth? Fine. How do we fix this?” I said bluntly. “Because I do trust you. I trust you to be stupidly honorable, brave, loyal and determined at all times. But I also trust you to open your mouth at the worst possible time, to follow a goal past the point of sanity-”
I stopped, suddenly. And where does that leave me? He’ll follow me past the point of sanity. I’m one of his goals! Don’t I want that?! But-!
The two halves of me struggled against each other. I’d not felt this divided since…
Since I first arrived here.
On one hand… of course I wanted to get married! And have children! I was a young woman, and I would be a mother someday! On the other… I was very much none of those things!
My heart leapt into my throat at that, and I had trouble swallowing it down. I want to be his girlfriend, don’t I? Don’t I? Didn’t I kiss him after he rescued me?! That doesn’t mean… but I’m… but do I want to be…!? Do I have to be…!?
Eshaan squirmed and his face reddened. “How do you do that?!” he burst out in frustration. “How do you insult me while complimenting me?! Do you like me or not, Lilyanna?!”
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“Of course I like you!” I spluttered, still struggling with the whirling maelstrom in my head.
Cameron’s burring chuckle at the rear of the skiff was like sandpaper on my nerves, and I could feel a blush sweep over my cheeks. It was abominably embarrassing to be seen having this argument!
“Eshaan, please, can we not-”
“No! This is important!” He repeated. “Do you like me or not?!”
“Yes, I like you, you stupid pig headed man! I just don’t know if I want to marry you!” I burst out.
I instantly wished I could call the words back. I slapped both my hands over my mouth, my eyes going wide in horror as if I could call the words back.
Failing that I thought miserably it would be nice if the skiff would open up and drop me into the sky to spare me! Oh spirits, what did I just say!? Why did I say that!?
There was dead silence in the skiff for a moment, and then Lakshmi and Soriya both burst into laughter.
My blush could have heated a room. I curled into a little ball of embarrassed misery.
“You… you’re… thinking about marriage?!” Eshaan said, looking poleaxed.
“Oh, now you’ve done it for sure.” Soriya said through her gales of laughter. “If you want to test a man’s dedication, see how far he runs when you mention the ‘m’ word!”
“But I don’t understand!” Eshaan wailed plaintively. “Why… but you… but we were just dating, and now…!?” He turned to look at Cameron helplessly.
Cameron took his pipe out of his mouth and waved it at Eshaan. “Don’t ask me, lad. A woman’s heart is a mystery deeper than the sky and sea together. I love my Elspeth with all my heart, but I couldn’t tell you the first reason why she’s still with a fool like me.”
He puffed contemplatively. “But if you were to ask me… I’d say the lady is thinking she likes you an awful lot, and she’s just starting to realize what happens next. Not that an old skiff runner knows much of anything.” He turned back to adjust some of the skiff’s wing vanes in silence.
The rest of the ride to Hecate was both mercifully subdued and painfully quiet, with only my thoughts spinning around inside my head.
I was drawn out of my misery by Eshaan’s gasp, and the exclamation “Is the city on fire!?”
The first sight of Hecate, wasn’t the city itself, which was hidden in the folds of the mountain peaks. It was the mingled streams of steam and smoking rising into the skyline, so thick that they looked as though one of the mountains was a volcano.
I jerked my head up to see the huge billowing pillar in the distance, lit from below by the flickering orange yellow light and let out a shocked gasp of my own. Before I could make some embarrassing exclamation about needing to hurry, Cameron and Lakshmi’s mingled laughter pulled me up short.
“Nay, lad!” said Cameron, still chuckling. “That’s just how our grand city looks! You’re seeing the steam and smoke from our city, and the light from crystals and forge fires!” He puffed proudly on his pipe. “It’s a grand sight, ain’t it?”
Lakshmi nodded enthusiastically. “I’ve-” she paused and then went on “-only seen it a few times myself, but it’s glorious. The stories don’t do it justice.”
This is the first time she’s seen it in person. I translated mentally. Poor shut in princess. I grimaced. Not that I’m much better! I thought the city was a volcano!
“All my books call it the forge city.” Soriya said quietly. “I thought that was just because…” she trailed off, looking at the vast pillar of vapor.
“Oh, aye, there’s summa that too.” Cameron said agreeably. “Look at the base of most of those smoke trails you’ll find a workshop or smeltery or forge works. But it’s not just because we Monanin are mad artificers. Some of us are poets too.”
I blinked and opened my mouth, by Lakshmi beat me to it.
“Does that include you, Mr. Cameron?”
He smiled quietly around his pipe. “Sometimes, on very cloudy days or very dark nights. Most days, I’m just a lighthouse keeper. Here now, keep your eyes peeled you kids. You’re about to see something special.”
He directed our attention forward, as the skiff rounded a jutting cliff face, and Hecate came into view. A glorious edifice that perched half in and half on top of a mountain peak, hundreds of chimneys belched steam and smoke into the air, while crystals and forge fire lit the streams up. The smell from the city was the tang of hot metal and the smell of smoke and flame.
And resting in the air docks which jutted out into the dizzying drop to the floor of the valley, a fleet of imperial airships, smoking and glittering, their imperial crest flapping lazily from their riggings.
Cameron let out a surprised grunt. “Huh. That’s a part of the view I didn’t expect.” He sucked thoughtfully on his pipe. “Guess it’s a good job we’re not going to be docking there. Officially, anyway.”
A sudden slow creeping dread slithered up my spine.
“Cameron… where… is this… secluded docking?” I asked cautiously.
His eyes twinkled, and he pointed with the stem of his pipe. “Well now, it’s not exactly what you’d call a proper dock…” I followed the stem of his pipe, and groaned.
“Oh no. Please… tell me that’s not a sewer outpipe?” I whimpered.
Cameron’s chuckle followed by Eshaan and Soriya’s groans were my only answer.
“Now now, it’s not that bad, just a smell!” Cameron chuckled. “Me and my business associates use this route all the time. It’s a dry pipe, and while I’d not want to touch the sides of the channel, you won’t need to worry.”
I sighed, placing my head in my hands. “Sewers.” I moaned. “Why did it have to be sewers?”
Soriya reached over and patted my shoulder. “Buck up, they’re dry! Just hold your nose this time!”
I sighed, and nodded. Cameron’s little skiff nosed up to the a small rock pier under a cliff. Several pipes and broken grates made of the strange bronze gold colored metal of the ancients poked out here and there. I noticed idly that they were all neatly trimmed off, or perhaps cut in some way.
Eshaan pointed to the pipes and metalwork and asked “Are you scavenging here?”
Cameron blinked slowly. “Not for decades lad, all the good material’s been found and carted to the surface! If you’re planning on delving, I’d have to caution you against it. The deeper levels are much more dangerous, and you’ll find active machinery and golems deeper down!”
“No, the safest approach is to just take the path my contacts will lead you, and find your way to the city quiet like.”
At that mention, a trio of rough looking Monanin men appeared from the tunnel entrances. They stopped, staring at us, their hands hesitating near their weapons.
Cameron waved to them cheerfully. “Nah, nah, none of that. These are a new business partners.” He stepped out of the skiff and approached the trio. They talked in low tones, and I saw some Zeni bills trade hands, and the trio of men were suddenly all smiles.
Eshaan frowned deeply. He opened his mouth, looked over to me, then closed his mouth tightly.
I frowned. “What?” I said to him.
“Nothing.” He shook his head.
I frowned even more. “Eshaan, what?”
He wavered, then shook his head. “I’m sure it’s nothing.”
I stepped up to him and put my hand on his shoulder. He jerked fiercely, and looked down at me with surprise. I sighed. “Alright, I know that look. I know those words. ‘It’s nothing.’ That’s code for ‘I’m hurt and feeling it, but I don’t want to talk about it because I don’t know how to express it.’ Which means it has to do with my… my issues. And me running my stupid mouth.”
Eshaan looked away, his cheeks coloring, then nodded in embarrassment.
I gave a long sigh. “How do I always make things worse?” I muttered to myself.
“Let’s… this is… oh spirits, I can’t believe I’m gong to say this. ‘This isn’t about you, it’s about me.’ So… well look. Do you want to be a dad?!” I poked him in the chest. “See, that’s what I’m feeling! I don’t… know!”
Eshaan was quiet for a long moment, then he pulled me into a gentle hug.
“Ok.” He said. “I have faith in you. And… I guess I see this is… this is because of your past too. I don’t… I didn’t…” he took a deep breath. “Miss Soriya was right. It’s… scary to think past… kissing a cute girl.”
I grabbed his hand and looked into his eyes. I opened my mouth to say something, then just gave up, and pulled him down to kiss him. I didn’t know what the future held, and I didn’t… really… think I was ever going to be able to go home again… but I liked this. Half of me liked this for everything it meant, and more than half of me liked Eshaaan as a person.
I pulled back and looked up at him smiling at his poleaxed expression. Even if he is as dumb as a bag of hammers. I thought. Very, very pretty hammers.
Once arrangements had been sorted, and Cameron’s smuggler contacts had been sorted… and paid, again… we headed into the tunnels. The smell really was absent, only a mild unpleasant suggestion. Apparently, the tunnels had been disused for a very long time.
Maybe four thousand years? That doesn’t make sense…
I perked up, catching a snippet of conversation between Eshaan and the smugglers.
Oh! His hobby? Pumping for information? I wondered, then promptly rolled my eyes at myself. Since when has Eshaan ever been guileful enough to ask about information?!
Eshaan and Lakshmi were questioning the smugglers about the ancient sewer system, and the ancient ruins below the city itself. Eshaan was clearly indulging his passion for ancient archeology, and I wasn’t entirely sure that Lakshmi hadn’t been pulled into it for the same reason.
“Excuse me.” Camaxtli suddenly spoke up. “That information is not correct.” He stated firmly.
The smuggler trio turned to look at him in surprise, a wary look slipping across their features.
“Aye, lad? Well different opinions and all, I suppose-” the leader spoke up.
“No, the information is incorrect. This is no longer the primary shaft system of the waste disposal method. This side path we have taken is part of the maintenance system for the geothermal heating.”
Lakshmi perked up immediately. “That’s amazing! They had geothermal heating?! This ruin really dates back to the Goddess’s war?!”
I saw Daniyel and Eshaan stiffen, and felt a thrill of dread as their hands crept towards their weapons.
“Why would you be taking us through the heating vents?” Eshaan asked, his voice still filled with a guileless cheerfulness.
“Tch!” The leader spat.
They really do that?! I found myself thinking in shock, even as my body reacted without my input, pulling my staff from my item bag.
“Well, we were going to lead you a little further along, but here’s as good as any.” The lead smugger said. “That pink haired girl of yours is worth a fair bit more than just a few hundred zeni.” He grinned nastily, showing stained and crooked teeth.
“If you hand her over nicely, we’ll be nice and lead you to the city. Or we can just leave you stranded down here without a map. All the same to us.”
Eshaan barked a quick laugh and jerked his sword out of its scabbard. “Oh thank the goddess, a fight!”
I couldn’t help it; I burst out laughing. I was just as relieved and probably for the same reason, and it was all just so silly. The smile on my face probably wasn’t all that kind looking though.