Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

We were asked to help a man, claiming that someone was injured and needed assistance. Naturally, the five of us knew we needed to help. So, we ventured out towards the location, stopping only to fill up our water bottles by a nearby river. It was there that I noticed a strange building not that far from where we were. I called out to everyone, and made my way over to it, not bothering to wait for everyone to catch up. When we made it there, I immediately took notice of the faded symbols that paint the side of the building. Upon further inspection, I was unable to make out what the symbols made. I touched the side of the building, running my hand along it. I get the feeling of metal and plastic, along with something grainy coming off on my hands. Learning from the others, we found out that this place wasn't here for long, despite how old the building seemed to look. It also had zero doors or windows. I also noticed footprints leading away from the building. As we were distracted with the flat building in front of us, we heard voices coming our way. My eyes flicked to everyone, tilting my head upward to look at Gawain and Ginevaa, who are on top of the building. They immediately shifted towards the middle of the roof, and laid down. I grabbed Aiden's wrist, noticing him starting to shake. Of course this had to happen now. Out of the corner of my eye, I watched Korbin follow us to the foothill nearby in a poor attempt to hide from the five robed figures that made their way to us. They stopped in front of the building, and that's when one of them looked up. My breath hitches as they called out to our friends on the roof. I wait with baited breath as Ginevaa comes down, my fingers not holding onto Aiden twitched despite trying to keep calm. "Leave, now. You can't be here." One of them said bluntly. She nodded, and hurriedly made her way in the opposite direction. It's then that Aiden, next to me, starts to scream. My eyes widen as they turn around, turn their gaze to Ginevaa, and the one in the middle pulls out a crossbow. My instincts took over, and letting go of Aiden, I jumped out into view. "Wait, don't shoot! She was just leaving. We can leave." I kept my voice calm, despite the tremors that wrack my hands. "Sir, we're going to have to ask you to leave Grab whoever else is with you, and leave immediately. You can't be in this area while we do the ritual. You can watch from afar, but leave here." I nodded, and grabbed a still screaming Aiden, shooting Korbin a quick glance, hoping she was still hidden from them. "Is that everyone?" The man asked me.
"Yes, this is everyone I came with." I said as convincingly as possible. The man squinted at me, unconvinced. "Search the place." I saw Ginevaa go to try and stop them, but she didn't seem to form words. "Wait! Why would I lie? I literally jumped out in front of your crossbow to save my friend. Why would I put anymore of my friends in danger?" I tried not to sound annoyed, but it dripped from my voice like venom. They stopped and looked at the man who told them to search. He clicked his tongue, and called off the search. "Just leave. And take that automaton with you." I flinch at the name, knowing I'll have to deal with a pissed off Aiden once he can move again without accidently setting himself off, but now's not the time to deal with that. With Aiden's wrist in my hand, I dragged him along, Ginevaa trailing in front of me. Once we were a reasonable distance away, we stopped. I turned around and saw that the men turned around too, and started chanting. I'm enthralled in what's going on, when I heard the small *ding* next to me, and I know exactly what's about to happen. I turned just in time to see Aiden grab the bomb that emerged from his stomach, and go to throw it. I throw my hand out, grab his wrist, and hold it in place so he can't throw it. I watched his head snap to mine, his eyes dilated angrily. Ginevaa also comes over to grab the bomb, but immediately let it go when Aiden throws his arm around, bringing me with it. I land sitting up, yet hard enough to knock the wind out of me temporarily. He glared at me. "You heard what they called me." He growled.
"I know they called you an automaton, but are you really going to put our friends in danger because of it?" I spat out, immediately regretting my decision when his eyes seemed to dilate more, one of his arm saws out, and pointed at me. "What did you just call me?" He said, a scary tone to his voice. That arm saw isn't just for show, and the thought that he'd point it at me terrifies me. The hand not currently death gripping his wrist is held up, clicking the blades out in a futile attempt to seem like I'm not scared. The fact that it's shaking slightly doesn't do much to convince anyone. "I didn't call you that. They did. You know what you are to me. I know you're angry at them, but we still have two members down there. You want to put them in danger?" Despite my shaking hand, my voice remains steady. His eyes shift, and he sheathed his saw, and shakes his wrist in a way that I know he won't act irrationally. I let go, clenched my fingers, and sheathed my blades too. He then looks Ginevaa's way and tosses her the bomb. "You wanted this right? Here." She let out a scream, but caught it with ease. I stopped watching, and turned to the ritual going on. My eyes focused on the small metal tube they were holding up. It was a small tube, with six pushable buttons on the one side, and two metal prongs on one end. I made a mental note of it, as they plugged it into the building, making one wall open up into a doorway. Great! Now we can go inside and see what's there. My thoughts were cut short when I watched Gawain jump off the top of the building, cleaving the man in the middles head completely in half. The ax traveled down the man’s body till it reached his neck, where the ax was logued in the man's collarbone. theThere's a piercing scream as one falls, their hood falling with them, showing a female no older than mid twenties. Everyone else seemed just as stunned, except they acted instead of fled. Ginevaa sprinted to get to them, but fell slightly short when an unfortunate fish jumped out of the river, clocking her right in the face. It would have been funny, if the situation was any different. I also sprinted to get to them, but also fell short when I stepped into the river, and was submerged in water. I pulled myself up and out of the water and attempted to catch my breath. Doing so I watched the one man, or well the boy shoot a beam of something at Gawain. It seemed to throw him off, and disorient him. The two swordsmen swing at him. One of them missed, but it seemed like he wanted Gawain to move because the other striked where he moved. The girl stood up, and started running away. Korbin immediately made her way over to her, hopefully stopping her. I ran to the doorway, and as much as I wanted to go in, I turned around to face everyone, unsheathing my blades for safety. "Please, no more fighting. Put down your weapons, and we will leave." The man closest to me looked at me.
"Like we'd believe that. Look at everything you've caused." I tried to wrack my brain for something else to say, but only managed to come up with, "Who are you?"
"We are the order of the Vortex." He then lunged at me, swinging his sword and catching my side with a hard hit. I flinched, hard, despite myself. I needed to get a hold of myself! I heard Korbin shout, "Be careful of the old men! Her father is there!" I flick my eyes to the man that just hit me. I brought my hand to my side, flinching as I felt the sensitive skin from the blow. "I heard that the girl's father is here. We don't want to hurt you, or her." His eyes narrowed. "I'm her father. And I'd gladly protect her." My eyes flicked to Ginevaa, who stood in front of Gawain. "No one attack. Just give me one minute." She said very convincingly. I took this time to hold my hands out, sheathe my blades once again, place my hand back on my side, and move in-between Gawain and the man so he knew that I wouldn't let Gawain hurt him. It was at this moment that the structure just disappeared. I looked at where the building was in absolute awe. How did that happen? I heard a small beep sound, along with mild ticking coming from the dead man. "What is that?" I kept my voice even.
"That's how we knew when to come back here. How we knew before it left." The man said, a grim look on his face. I tried to listen for more, but my mind was starting to go fuzzy due to the stress and shock of the situation. When I came to, I watched Aiden walk towards one of the men. Despite myself, I flung my hand out to catch his wrist. "Be very careful with what you're about to do." I tried desperately to keep my voice even. I can't have another fight, he looked so determined. If we fight again, more people will get hurt. We can't fight again, we can't. Aiden's cold hand on my wrist breaks me from my spiraling panic. "Don't worry. I know what I'm doing. I'm not going to hurt them." He placed my hand back on my side (when did I remove it?) and continued on his way to the younger man. "Give me the notebook." The man gave in immediately, and pointed to the bag on the ground. Aiden opened the book, and I could see him taking multiple pictures of the pages. He closed it abruptly and looked at the people. "I want to take this." He said as Korbin came back with the girl. "You can't have this. This is our only way of finding where we will go next." The man said, anger in his voice at the mere thought of the notebook being taken from them. No no no, this is escalating again. My panic is short lived again, when Aiden complies, and puts it back. Ginevaa took Gawain with her in the air, and the rest of us walked away on foot. With the aid of Aiden, my wound is patched up, and we set up a camp while Ginevaa and Gawain go hunt for food. I was peacefully writing this down, when we heard a scream come from the den our friends went into. Here we go again.

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Immediately after the first scream there was a second, louder, and angrier scream that seemed to have come from the same creature. My eyes scan over Korbin and Aiden to make sure they're okay before I sprinted to the entrance of the cave. Peering inside I see Gawain up against a very large bear of some sort, with Ginevaa standing slightly in front of him. The bear completely passed by Ginevaa, going to attack Gawain. Ginevaa was in front of Gawain, so why did it attack Gawain? Aiden came up next to me, his eyes focusing on the fight inside. "What is that thing?" I shrugged, not taking my eyes off of the fight. Gawain attacked again, and the bear seemed to take significant damage from the blow. That's when we heard small roars from behind the large bear. Two small bears like the large one attacking Gawain pounced and attacked Ginevaa. One latched onto her ankle, and the other bit down on the tip of her wing. She let out a pain filled yelp when the one got her wing. My fingers twitched, and I ran inside. I balled my hand into a fist, and batted the one hanging onto her wing on the head. The small bear let go, falling onto the one that was on her ankle, also knocking it off. They sat there in a daze, trying to focus. That's when Gawain turned to me, and shouted, "These creatures are Ravage Bears. They are blind, partially deaf, and hunt using scent!" I assumed he shouted so the people outside could hear him. I nod, and prepare for the worst. Ginevaa began to float, pulling Gawain along with her. My eyes widened at the sight, still not used to that happening. They both floated out of the cave, leaving me with the savage bear, and the small cubs. Shit. My eyes shot down to the small bears, who seemed to have gotten their focus back, and they definitely did not seem to be happy with me. They both ran to attack me. However, they were really easy to dodge when you could see them coming. I sidestepped them, giving their butts a little bat with my foot, sending them tumbling outside of the cave. If we were in any less of a dire situation, I might have thought it was cute. However, I was still stuck in the cave with this very aggressive bear, though it seems I was backed up enough to be near the mouth of the cave. I glanced behind me to see if anyone else was still around the outside of the cave. Once I realized everyone wasn't around anymore, I also ran back to the camp we made. It seemed I made it just in time, because another larger bear made its way towards us. The other one also seemed to run towards us, attacking Aiden for… some reason. However, Aiden showed just how much of a badass he could be by grabbing its tusks and throwing it back into the river. The poor thing lay limp for a while, as Ginevaa creates a bubble around us, and makes us float up into the sky. I noticed Korbin curled up into herself, the poor thing must have been terrified. I crouched down next to her, and placed a gentle hand on her shoulder. "Hey, are you okay?" I asked in a gentle and vulnerable voice, hoping to put her at ease. She glances up at me. "Umm, yeah I'm okay. I just, I can't do situations like that anymore." She responded in a small voice. "Yeah, I understand that. Believe me, I know." I lowered my voice even more when I said the latter. "Is there anything I can do to help?" She shook her head. "No, I just have to get through it." I gave her a nod, and gave her shoulder a small squeeze. "Okay, just know you can always come to me if you need help." She gave me a nod, and I let go of her shoulder to go to the other side of the bubble and sit down. That's when the severity of the situation hit, as the large bear that was barrelling towards us lept in the air, and landed on the bubble, putting a crack in it. I jumped, and stared at the creature. I know that hitting it would do nothing but put the rest of us in danger. So, I am not afraid to admit I am useless in this situation. Ginevaa fired a bolt of electricity at the bear, and it let out a pained scream before it slid off. It pounced again, just barely missing the bubble as Ginevaa made it float higher. It pounced once more, but was way off, pouncing in the wrong direction. We took a moment to calm down before we gradually started doing our own thing as we traveled to the village we were told to go to by the messenger man back at the village. Aiden, who was busy doing… something suddenly just shut down, dropping what he was doing onto the ground of the bubble. I glanced his way and said to everyone, "just give him a bit. He should come to." I stole glances at Ginevaa and Gawain, neither seemed to be doing well. Gawain was covered in bruises and small cuts, while Ginevaa seemed to be winded despite not moving. I helped Gawain with his injuries, and helped Ginevaa catch her breath. I then made my way back to the spot I was sitting at, and to stop the tremor in my hands, I pulled my notebook out, and started to mindlessly write. It kept me busy enough that when I looked up again, we seemed to have made it to the village. She sets us down, and I immediately make my way to the middle of the town. There was a large crowd gathered there, and what seemed to be a very decorative building, which I assumed was important. Casting a glance behind me, I saw Korbin following me. I made a mental note to make sure I didn't lose her. I come across a very nice looking woman laughing at something a man near her must have said. "I'm sorry to interrupt, but we're sort of new to the area, and I was wondering if there was anything we need to know, or rules we need to follow?" I asked, not wanting to interrupt, but needing to know what's going on. It took the poor woman a bit of time to stop laughing at what the man told her before she turned to me. "Sorry sorry. There aren't any rules necessarily, we are a very laid back village here. Just, don't go out there towards the lake. There's been a lot of disappearances out there."
"That's actually why we're here. We're looking for Trummel. Do you know where we can find him?"
"He's in there." She pointed to the building behind her. I nodded and thanked her, before I gently took Korbin's wrist and walked to the building. Upon going inside, I saw a young man in nice looking armor falling asleep at the desk he's sitting at. I gave him a sympathetic smile, and tapped my finger on the desk, trying to wake him up without sounding angry with him. "Sorry to wake you sir." I said as he shuffled awake. His eyes then shot open, and he stood up. "Sorry about that, long day." He said sheepishly. I couldn't help but laugh. "You don't have to tell me. I was wondering if we could speak to Trummel." His hand shot out for me to shake. "It's very nice to meet you ma'am." I smiled and shook his hand. "We caught word from a messenger that you needed help." His eyes lit up.
"Oh good. Jeremiah will be so glad to hear he helped." As we're talking, I can hear the rest of the team come in. "Do you want to talk about the details of the situation?" I asked him. "Well, we could. Are you the leader?" I glanced around at the others, making sure no one else wanted to step up to be the leader. When no one did, I spoke again. "Yeah, I am." We didn't get far, because that's when Aiden, who seemed to be awake, came over to me and placed his arm on my shoulder. "Hey." He said, sounding drunk, and his eyes didn't seem to focus as he looked at Trummel. "Trummel, this is Aiden." Aiden throws his hand out for him to shake, and when Trummel grabs his hand, his look of confusion only increases. "Trummel, let me introduce you to everyone. I'm Saga, this is Aiden, Korbin, Gawain, and Ginevaa." I said, gesturing to everyone individually when I said their names. "It's very nice to meet everyone. Would we like to discuss things today, or would you like to get some sleep and we can discuss things tomorrow." I glanced around at everyone, and noticed everyone was basically sleeping where they stood. "If you wouldn't mind, it might be preferred if we start tomorrow." He wrote a note and handed it to me. "There's an inn two doors down to your left. Give this to the man working. He'll let you stay there."
"Thank you. Are we meeting here tomorrow?" He nodded. "Yeah, just let Gralle know you're looking for me when you get here. He's the mayor." I nodded, and we bid each other farewell. We traveled to the inn, and we walked up to the man behind the counter. "Why hello there. What can I get you today?" I smiled and greeted him back. "Hello. Actually, we're here to help with everything that's going on around here. We were given this by Trummel." I handed the note to the man.
"Guess your food is covered for the night. What can I get you lot?"
"Whatever you recommend sir." I said to him, leaning over as Aiden asked if I wanted to see the photos from today. A flap opened on his wrist, projecting a small screen that showed the photos. He skipped some of the more brutal pictures, because of obvious reasons. However, we landed on one photo that looked a little peculiar. Wedged between the pictures of the cultists is a brown swirling picture. I tilted my head, getting a look at it. I heard Korbin speak up, "I recognize this. I saw this in a dream. It's sort of why I'm here." I look at her. "You've seen this before?" She nods.
"When it appeared in my dream, someone said something about it. They said 'The invitation is open. If you come to where I am, any wish can be answered.'" I tilted my head, thinking about what that could mean when the man came back with bowls of food, and mugs of liquid. Aiden is given water, and I know that he wouldn't be able to drink that. The man offered to give him oil, and I tense up. His head shoots up, his eyes focusing on the man. "Why would I need oil?" He asked with venom in his voice, his hand gripping the cup he was given so hard that it started splintering. my hand shoots out to grab his other arm, keeping him firmly in place. Gawain goes up to the man, and starts talking to him. I don't really listen to their conversation, only letting his arm go when his grip on his mug let up. Ginevaa offers up her drink, and he happily accepts it and takes a drink. I offered her my drink, simply because I didn't want her to be without anything to drink. "Are you old enough to drink?" I asked her. She thinks about it for a bit before she shrugged. I slid her my mug. "Take a small drink, just in case." I said at the same time Gawain said, "chug it." I brought my hand to my head, and watched as she took a sip of my mead I was given. Her face scrunched up, and she handed the mug back to me. Aiden gave her mug back to her, and I offered my mug to Aiden. He took it, and took quite a large swig of it before giving it back. I laughed at him, and started eating the soup that was set in front of us. The taste is immaculate. The meat was slightly grainy, but it didn't really matter. After a long day of fighting, any food is good food. "How many rooms would your party need?" I looked around at everyone.
"Is three okay?" Everyone nodded, and we're given three keys. One by one, after we finished eating we made our way up to our rooms. Laying in bed, Korbin taking the other bed in the room, I twisted the ring on my finger, thinking about home before my eyes became too heavy and I fell asleep.

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I was awakened by a roar coming from outside of the inn. I immediately shot up, taking a glance over to Korbin to see she's also awake and standing up. As we tried to make our way out of the room, the building started to shake. I shot a confused look at Korbin, but as soon as the room stopped shaking, we headed to the hallway. The five of us met up in the hall, as the building started to shake again. That's when we saw the ravaged bear we encountered earlier in the day through the window. Gawain and Ginevaa made their way to the window, while Aiden stumbled down the stairs, clear signs that he was quite intoxicated. I'm tempted to go help Aiden downstairs, but stopped dead in my tracks when the bear stuck its head into the building. It started sniffing intently around the immediate inside of the building. Its nose passed by both Ginevaa and Gawain without making any move to attack them. I relaxed a bit upon realizing that, and made a move to go downstairs. Ginevaa started to try and attack the bear that was sticking its nose through the window. However, she was stopped by a canister of purple fog tossed up towards the window. It hit the bear straight in the face, also catching Ginevaa with the aftershock. The bear let out sounds of obvious distress pulling away from the building, leaving Ginevaa to deal with the after effects. Her hands flew to her throat, and she started coughing harshly. I act almost immediately, pulling her out of the purple smoke, and make sure she is okay, at least to a certain degree. As I pull Ginevaa out of the smoke, Gawain jumps out of the window, like the actual badass he is. In a fit of rage, he jumped onto the bear, taking a giant slice out of the bear’s side. Upon seeing that, I quickly made my way down the stairs. I passed Aiden, who was busy harassing the barkeep for some water in a slurred voice. I want to worry about him, but he'll be fine for now. I make it out the door, keeping a relative distance as I try and assess the situation. However, that assessment was broken by a very angry shout from behind me. "Why are you here again?! Can't you see we don't want you here!" I heard the familiar voice of Trummel rush up behind me. He hastily handed me one of those purple smoke filled containers. "Here, take this. We need to get this thing out of here!" He then took out what looked to be a Trident, and bracing himself, he aimed and threw it right into the already damaged side of the bear, pinning it down where it stands. It lets out another scream in pain and rage, though it is a lot weaker of a roar than the last two. He glared at the bear as he yelled, “How dare you attack us again!” I stand there in absolute awe over the amount of damage Trummel managed to do to the creature. I feel Aiden throw an arm around my shoulders, and I flinch at the sudden touch. “What’s going on?” He asked, any trace of drunkenness is gone, presumably because of the water he tormented the barkeep for. “It's the ravaged bear from earlier today. It seemed to have come into town.” He removed his arm from my back, and made his way over in sort of a rushed manner. However, as he went to attack the bear, he seemed to have fallen over. I know what happened to him, however I am pretty sure no one else does. As he shut off though, his arm landed onto the trident that stuck out of the bear’s side. As it struck its target, the elbow hinge snapped and fell off. However, with him hitting the trident, it must have made it hit a vital organ, or something because it let out one more weak cry before it lay still. I let out a small sigh of relief, and turned to Trummel. “Can I keep this?” He looked at me, sort of out of breath before he answered, “I mean, you can. But, they’re sort of hard to come by.” I cut him off, and handed him the bottle back. “Don’t worry about it, I was just curious.”
“Thank you for your help.” I give him a nod. I look around, seeing people start coming out of their houses, and look out their windows. “Do you want me to calm them down, or do you?” He looks at me and gives me a small smile. “I’ve got it, thank you though.” He then went to the center of the town and started calling everyone towards him. I took this time to go over to Aiden and pick him up off the ground. I grabbed his arm, and fixed it back on, then promptly threw his arm across my shoulders and brought him back to the rest of the team. “Oh, is he okay?” Korbin asked as I brought him over. I nodded. “Yeah, he’s alright. He, uhh, fell asleep? I am going to bring him up to his room so he can sleep.” She nodded, and I took Aiden back upstairs. Climbing the stairs with a six foot robot proved to be a bit difficult, even for my six foot stature when I hit the front of my shoe against the ledge of one of the stairs, causing me to stumble a bit. I immediately righted myself, keeping Aiden up, and took him to bed. I then made my way back downstairs to see Gawain trying to salvage the Ravaged Bear for meat. I don’t see why he was doing that, but I knew that if I helped him, he would be able to go to bed sooner and get the sleep he needed for the night. So, I got down next to him and helped him skin it, along with gathering as much of the meat that wasn’t poisoned (Gawain had to tell me that part), and obtaining some of the bones. Then, after that, he picked Ginevaa up, who promptly fell asleep curled up by us. I couldn’t help but gush at the sight as he shot daggers at me as he left to go up the stairs. I did a final scan to make sure the rest of the team was inside before I also headed inside. Upon heading up the stairs again, a thought dawned on me. What have I done during any of these fights? Sure, I might of helped Ginevaa in the bears den, but she probably could of done that herself given enough time. And I might have helped her not get shot with a crossbow, but she’s nimble enough she could have dodged it. I’ve seen her fight. I may be the leader of this team, but what am I actually doing for this team? That thought plagued my mind as I slipped into a restless sleep for the night.
I woke up to the sun rising, and stood up almost immediately. I shot a quick glance over to Korbin, who seemed to still be asleep. Her breathing seemed to be a little heavy, and I knew from experience that she was having a nightmare. I made a mental note to wake her after checking on everyone. I made my rounds, first opening Gawain and Ginevaa's door, then Aiden's to make sure everyone was still okay. As I'm doing that, it dawned on me that I've taken a lot of my leadership qualities from Greshim. As I walked back into mine and Korbin's room, she seemed to have woken up. She was sitting up, breathing heavily. I'm by her side immediately, getting down on my knees so I'm not leaning over her, and gently place my hand on the bed by her leg. "Hey, are you okay?" I ask in a gentle voice. She turned to me, and her breathing started to slow a little. "Yeah, I'm okay. Sorry, I don't sleep well anymore." She answered, her voice small compared to what it usually is. "I understand that completely. More than you'd think" I said the latter quietly. "Can I help? What's your nightmares about?" She hesitated, before she started talking. "I came from a school for 'magic users','' she emphasized the words magic users, so I knew whatever this place was, it wasn't a good place to be. "If you need to talk about what happened there, or whatever you would need to in order to help, I'm always available." I reminded her gently, but not in a prying sort of way. "Thank you, but it's actually better if I don't talk about it. It resurfaces the memories, and makes it worse." I smiled and immediately backed off, ending that conversation. "Don't worry about it then. I don't want to hurt you. Just know I'm always here if you need it." I tilted my head, and gave her a small smile. She returned it, though it seemed slightly forced. "Thank you." I gave the bed a small pat before standing up and getting my things together. Once I finished, and got dressed for the day, I made my way downstairs. Seeing everyone sitting together made me smile, but also made me feel slightly far away from everyone. I shook that thought away, knowing that thinking like that would dull my mood, and we can't have that. I made my way to the seat next to Korbin, and graciously accepted the breakfast the barkeep offered. I kept quiet, listening to the conversation around me. Hearing Aiden talking about his take down of the Ravaged Bear was kinda great. It was broken by Korbin telling him that he seemed to have fallen asleep during the fight. Aiden's spirits fell almost immediately, as he processed the information. "So, was it really Gawain who made the last hit? That's what everyone is saying." He sounded so hurt, I couldn't just leave it like that. "But you were the one that made the last blow. Sure, Gawain did a lot of damage, but it was you who did it." He shrugged, and excused himself from the bar, taking his small bowl of bread with him as he left. Korbin and I exchanged glances before going back to eating our food. Once we've finished and saw Aiden didn't come back down, we both wordlessly walked up the stairs and to his room. On the way up, she asked me what color was Aiden's favorite. I think back to what he told me, and tell her a rusty orange is his favorite (ironically enough). I knocked on his door, opening it slowly. He looked up from where he sat on his bed. "Aiden, I'd like to apologize. You were so happy, and what I said ruined it." He shook his head. "Don't apologize for telling the truth. I couldn't even keep it together enough to stay awake during the fight."
"You might not have been awake for it, but it was still by your hand that the creature was killed. It was you who did the final blow." I say, hoping to keep my tone friendly yet supportive. I watch Korbin walk over to him, and open her hand. Emerging from her hand blooms magical flowers the color of rusty orange. I stared in awe, as I watched Aiden's eyes dilate, knowing he was taking photos. She kept them up for a little while, before they went away. He looked at the both of us. "Thank you for making me feel better. I'll be down in a minute." Korbin nods, and I tell her to go without me. Once she left, I turned my attention to Aiden. "Are you really okay? You know you can tell me anything." I pry without prying in the hopes he would tell me what's wrong. He nodded. "Yeah, I just need to think about some things." I sigh internally, but don't pry. "Okay." I said in a gentle voice as I left, closing his door behind me. True to his word, he did come down after a bit. Gawain and Ginevaa also return (I didn't even know they left), and say they met with Trummel. They said something about wanting to meet with the mayor ASAP. So, once everyone's ready, we all made our way back to the building from yesterday. We met up again with Trummel, who immediately took us to the Mayor. Graille, an elderly woman, sat behind a desk like Trummel was. "Hello travelers." She greeted in a friendly voice. Aiden piped up immediately with a, "hello" and an extended hand. She took it without hesitation. "You all must be here to help." I nod.
"We are." I saw her sort of close up a bit.
"Sorry we had to ask for assistance. We could normally do something in this situation, but we've lost enough people already." I step in immediately upon her finishing her sentence. "Don't worry about it. There's no shame in asking for help. I'm just glad we were able to come help. So, what exactly is going on?" I asked, trying to get a full grasp of the situation. "Well, there's been disappearances by the lake we use as a vital source of food." I stiffened slightly, but almost immediately forced myself to relax. I hesitated to ask a question, finally letting my curiosity win. "Do you have any sort of enemies that might do this?" She shook her head.
No, we're a peaceful place. There are thieves, but they wouldn't pull something like this."
People were saying things about there being ghosts. Is that true?" Aiden asked. She nodded. "Yes, people have said it's a ghost of some sort, those who came back that is. They also mentioned it could have been a crab-like beast." She paused, and hesitated. "Two men went out there, the Dreavish brothers. They're two of the people that went missing."
"Would you like us to bring them back, whether we find them alive or not?" I asked, keeping any sort of harshness out of my voice. "If you find them alive, please bring them back. If not, make sure they didn't die in vain." I heard a fire in her voice, and I gave her a nod. "Don't worry, we can do that for you." She smiled and thanked us. "Trummel is going to aid you all, if that's okay with you." I scanned the room and saw a common consensus. "I see no reason to stop him from coming with us." I tell Graille. She gave a curt nod, and we were led out by Trummel into the armory. "Don't worry about paying us for anything. We can provide weapons, rooms and food." The team goes in and scans for weapons they can take. I look around for anything, but considering I don't contribute to the fighting, what's the point of wasting a weapon on me? The team picked out what they wanted, and Trummel took us to the lake. The lake is shallow, which surprised me, seeing they fish in it. Gawain and Ginevaa activated hover and floated out into the middle of the lake to look around. Trummel and Aiden started walking around the lake, going towards the right. I started off towards the left stiffly, calming down as I saw Korbin follow. I scanned the area, stopping abruptly when I saw a patch of thick reed's in the lake. "Hey guys, you might want to come check this out." I call out, making sure to project my voice without being obnoxiously loud. As everyone started coming to me, I noticed the reed's were moving… moving towards us. And voices, so many voices speaking nonsense. We started looking around in an attempt to find out where the voices were coming from. That's when the reeds fully emerged, showing six faces, and one bird head. As I'm trying to figure out who these people are, I heard Trummel collapse to his knees. I heard him talking, something about those people being the Dreavish brothers, along with some other people he knew. But, I'm not listening. I stand in front of Trummel, so if the creature kept its pace it would hit me instead of him. If one of us is going down, it will be me. It seemed to have shifted its direction, instead coming slowly towards me. "Hey guys." I say to get everyone's attention. "That thing is coming towards me now." I do my best to keep any sort of fear out of my voice. I can always count on the team, because they jump right into action. Aiden threw one of his bombs he must of been cooking up towards the heads. It exploded, the area erupting in flame. Ginevaa, who's still hovering, shot the bird's head with her bow. It stopped squawking abruptly. That's when I noticed something happened to her. She went all rigid, becoming disoriented, and seemed to be in extreme discomfort. I went to shout out to her, to see if I could break her out of what was happening, when I felt pain. What? My eyes shot to the area in front of me. The reed's emerged fully, showing a crab creature underneath them. And this creature didn't seem very friendly. One of its pinsirs grabbed me in a way that pinned my arms to my side. The other, went straight for my throat. It tore a large gash across my throat, making like it tried to decapitate me. It let me go, and I stumbled to keep my balance. I could hardly think with the amount of noise going through my head. I numbly brought my hand to my throat in a feeble attempt to stop the blood flow. Breathing hurts. Imagine that, the mere thing needed to survive being the most painful thing to do. I hardly registered with the team reacting to the situation. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Aiden go rigid. He sprinted up to the monster in a fit of fury. No, everyone needs to get away from it. Gawain shot at it from where he hovered, Korbin also quickly making her way over. The crab tried to attack Korbin, but fortunately she was too quick for it. Trummel also seemed to have come to, climbed to his feet, and threw what we now knew was called a verred at the crab. My eyes frantically scanned the team, making sure they were all okay. Ginevaa was still disoriented, but she wasn't hurt. That was good enough for now. My eyes made their way back to the creature, and I seemed to have remembered what this creature was. "Guys, it's a Mesomeme. Don't attack its shell." I said as loudly as I could, pain causing my voice to come out scratchy and hollow. I then back up away from the creature. Useless, once again. I had to go and get hurt. Of course I did. This is just going to make me seem even more useless to the team. Why do they even keep me around, if all I'm good at is getting hurt. I saw Aiden's body come into view, standing between me and the Mesomeme. He shot me a look with his eyes that basically told me, "you better run away." I can't leave my team. What kind of a leader would I be if I did that? But, I know he wouldn't just let me stay. So, I communicated back that I would stay away. He seemed to have comprehended that, because he turned back around, and caught the attention of the Mesomeme. My gaze shot upward towards Ginevaa, to see her out of whatever caused her distress, and attacked one of the heads. Good, she's okay. My eyes shot back down to hear the creature let out a yell of pain, and grab Aiden in the same way it grabbed me. No! I want to yell. I want to divert its attention to me, to keep it from hurting him, but I can't. I'm in too much pain to even talk, let alone yell. I used as much of my voice as I could just to yell out what it was. It went for his throat too, pinning him under the water for a second, before pulling back. I think, because the exposed wiring from his throat touched the water in the lake, it sent a shock through the Mesomeme, causing it to become dazed and disoriented. Good, at least it won't attack again right away. Trummel makes his way towards the Mesomeme in order to retrieve his verred, which wedged itself into its shell. However, he's cut short when he slid in the water, causing him to fall into the water. They're both practically sitting ducks at this rate. I can't let the crab take another swing at Aiden, or let it hurt Trummel. So, I quickly pulled Aiden out of the water, afraid of what the water would do to his circuits, then went over to Trummel and pulled him to his feet. Korbin hits it with magic I assumed, and it lets out a smaller cry. Trummel gave me a pat on the shoulder, before running and jumping up to pull himself on the Mesomeme's shell. He pushed the verred further into the crack in its shell. It let out a loud scream, swiping at Korbin again. Once again, she managed to sidestep it's attack thankfully. I shot a look towards Aiden to see that he patched himself up. Good, I don't need to do patchwork on him. Just to be on the safe side, I back up again, once again scanning the team. Ginevaa and Trummel are currently on top of the crab, unharmed. Gawain is close by, also unharmed. Korbin is on the ground by us, also unharmed. And Aiden is by me, patched up. The Mesomeme locked on to Aiden again, and at first it seemed like he wasn't going to be able to stop the attack. No, not again. I refused to let him get hurt again. Gauging how much it hurt me on the first swing, I made a judgment that it wouldn't kill me if I were to get hit again. Since I still couldn't speak, I made to jump in front of the attack. However, I watched his hands shoot up, catch the crabs pinsirs, and hold them in place. It lets out another scream, I'm assuming Korbin and Ginevaa attacked it as well. I internally let out a sigh of relief, watching as Gawain swoops in, cleaving off both claws with one swing of his ax, before flipping it around so the hilt is facing outward and slamming it into the back of the verred. It wedged itself further into the Mesomeme. It let out one final scream, before going completely limp. I forced myself to relax, just so I can patch myself up. I watched as Ginevaa flew off, in what appeared to be a mixture of shock, fear, and pain. Something must have really gotten to her. I want to go help her, but I am unable to move. My entire body was shaking. My fingers twitched. My team was in danger, and I did nothing. I did nothing to help. All I did was get hurt. I couldn't even fight it, and because of that I had to make the others do it for me. Aiden even got hurt trying to protect me. He shouldn't have done that. I'm not worth protecting. I felt someone's hand on me. It's a gentle hand, but that doesn't stop me from flinching away, taking a few steps back, before looking up at who touched me. Korbin, bless the poor girl, looked confused and concerned. "Are you okay?" I forced my body to stop shaking, and tightened the muscles in my hands to stop them from twitching. "Yeah, yeah I'm alright." I say in an uneven voice. I watched her pull out a thermos, and handed it to me. I took it gratefully, taking a few sips of the water that resided inside. I gave it back to her and smiled. "Thank you." She returned the smile. "Are you sure you're okay?" My smile faltered a little, it not quite reaching my eyes. "I have to be. I'm the leader after all." I laid a hand on her shoulder as I walked past her. I stopped in front of the entrance of the forest, staring out. Ginevaa went out there. Something terrible must be going through her head right now. She's out there all alone. No one deserves to be alone as they're suffering. I felt a hug envelope me, breaking my thoughts. I turn to see Aiden hugging me. I hug back, knowing exactly what he's doing. He's attempting to feel for my pulse. It helps him calm himself down. I know he was doing it for his own sake, but I still let out a small "thank you." He refrained from speaking, but I knew he wouldn't. After he let me go, I set off to go find Ginevaa. I knew she set off in the direction I was going, whatever direction that may be. "Ginevaa? Are you out here?" I said in a raised voice, trying not to shout just yet. I strained my ears, listening for her. Very faintly I could hear sniffling. She was crying. I located around where she was and started speaking. "Hey Ginevaa. Are you okay? You sort of flew off in a hurry. You don't have to tell me anything if you don't want to, just know that I'm here and I won't leave you alone." I didn't hear her answer, but it didn't phase me. I find a nearby tree, and sit leaning against it. "That's fine. Take your time, there's no rush at all. I'll be here when you come out so we can walk back to the group together." I went silent after that, waiting patiently for her to come out. After what felt like a while, the rest of the team came out to meet me. "Hey guys. Ginevaa needs a bit. If you'd want to sit with me until she's ready to come out you can." Gawain, however, ignored me and went to go find her. From the sounds of his muffled speaking, I assumed he found her. Good. I hope now she knows none of us are going to leave her behind.

Chapter Text

We sat like this for what seemed like ages. Gawain was sitting with Ginevaa, comforting her to the best of his abilities as she cried. Once it had been a little bit, I stood up and started walking towards them very deliberately, making my steps a little louder than normal so I didn’t scare either of them. Gawain must have heard me coming, because he spoke up almost immediately. “We might need a minute here, if you don’t mind.” I immediately halted, and took a few steps back. “Of course, that’s not a problem at all. Aiden, Korbin and I are all sitting out here when you two are comfortable coming out.” I then walked back to the tree I was originally residing by, and sat back down. It took Ginevaa a little bit to start talking, small sobs still audible from her location. Finally, what felt like forever, she started talking. “Sing for me my little songbird. Sing or scream.” Her voice is gentle, but it houses so much emotion. She paused, and I heard what sounded like drawing in the dirt. It sounded like she grabbed a stick to draw with. More than likely she was using this as a grounding method. It is a method I know very well, as I would also do this when I had too much going on. “Entertain the guests or you’ll be punished again. ‘Songbird, I’m bored, sing for me.’ ‘Oh, look at it sing, it’s so well trained.’ ‘What an exotic pet they have.’ ‘Look at it, they taught it to do tricks!’” I heard a stick snap, and I assumed it was the stick she was using to draw with. I was hit with a wave of anger and sadness when she finished talking. She was a slave, at least I could pick that up from what she said. I clenched my hands so hard that my palms began to bleed where my fingernails dug into them. I glanced over to Korbin and Aiden, seeing the two of them using each other as a support system, like Ginevaa was using Gawain. I flinched as I knew I was the one that had to be strong for the group. I knew Gawain was helping Ginevaa, which was perfect, but the other two deserve someone to lean on, and not worry about. My thoughts were interrupted by Ginevaa talking. “Some days, it’s hard. It’s hard and it’s overwhelming and I feel like I’m trapped in that pile of rubble again, with all the weight on my chest. But it's all so good too. I don’t get punished anymore. No one’s ripping out my feathers anymore.” I flinched at the mention. I know all too well how painful that is. “No more punishments when I mess up. And I can talk whenever I want to, I don’t go to bed hungry, and, and I can eat all the sweets I want whenever I want to. And the world, the world is so much bigger and more beautiful than I ever imagined from within those walls. I want to see it all. I want to feel the wind on my wings, I want to touch the grass and the trees everyday, I want all the sweets, I wanna see everything I never had. But, it's hard. It’s hard when your world is so different and no one understands and it feels like you’re on your own. But I never want to go back. I don’t want to be trapped in that cage again. I wanna stay with you…” She trails off, and I assumed she was talking to Gawain when she said the last part. I shifted my location on the tree, so my back is facing the original position I was in. I don’t want anyone to see me right now. I know that I can’t ask for comfort from Aiden or Korbin because I know they need it from each other right now. If I came in to interrupt then that would only ruin things. As I shifted, I took notice of something in the surrounding areas. But, I don’t need to think of that right now. I heard Ginevaa continue. “I didn’t think I was so bad then. It’s all I’d ever know. I grew up serving them, how could I know what all there was outside that house. But, they abandoned me, they left me for dead trapped in that pile of rubble. And, and I was so lost without them and it’s not fair!” Her voice was raising with every sentence she was saying, reaching a harsh yell. She paused, what I could assume was her calming herself down, before I heard her continue. “Nothing made sense. ‘I wasn’t supposed to do anything because I was still healing’, the people who found me told me. I didn’t understand. I thought I was going to be punished for being useless. But, but they took care of me. And they helped me see that I didn’t need to serve anyone anymore. But I… I didn’t know what to do with myself anymore, it was all I’d ever known. So, they taught me about their work, showed me how to salvage numenera, and showed me where to look to find more. They gave me a life again. And I, I would have to work hard to make it happen. So, I did… I still do.” I heard her finish up, and I assumed they were either quiet, or they were talking amongst themselves. Being useless, huh. If anyone deserves that title, it would be me. You’re far from useless Ginevaa, and I would go to lengths to make sure you know that. No one in this group is. We sat in silence for a bit longer, my eyes darting around to make sure no one came and interrupted what very obviously needed to be said, before Korbin leaped up from her position, and pointed towards the fields. “Guys, there’s no one out here. Isn’t it supposed to be really busy right now?” I also shot up, and made my way over to her. That is what I noticed earlier. This town is quite a busy town, and normally there should be a lot of people out, tending to the farms and animals. But, there is not a single soul in sight. “You noticed that too?” I asked. She nodded, and I saw Aiden also raise his hand. “You did too?” He nodded too. I turned hesitantly towards Gawain and Ginevaa. “Hey you two, I hate to bring this to a close, but there seems to be some stuff going on that we might have to go take care of.” They’re quiet for a bit, before I saw the two of them come out. I looked at Ginevaa with a small, gentle smile. “Hey. Are you doing okay?” She thought about it, but then returned my question with a small nod. “Good, I’m glad to hear that.” Aiden then pointed at her, and said in a very monotone voice, “Raven.” I stared at him, baffled as to where that came from. However, it seemed to have been the right thing to say, because that made her light up immediately. The sight of her smile instantly made my mood better. After our small talk, I deliberately looked at each one of my team members. “Are we all okay enough to go figure out what’s wrong?” If even one of them says no, we wait until we all are ready. “I’m okay.” Korbin responds.
“Same here.” Aiden also says. I nodded, and looked at Gawain and Ginevaa.
“Gawain, GInevaa?”
“I’m okay.” Ginevaa said quietly. I looked right at Gawain.
“I’m good.” He said. Good, that’s what mattered. That everyone else is okay. I then gave a nod, and turned around. “Alright, then let’s go see what’s going on.” I lead the way, glancing back ever so often to make sure everyone is following. As we made it back to town, the first thing we all noticed was that there was a large crowd around the main town building. As we got to the building, we heard a lot of angry voices. I couldn't hear the full sentences. Just small tidbits, like “Death” “Thieves” “Ax” “They helped us.” I was immediately on guard, as I knew they were talking about us. We got slightly closer, and saw Trummel and Graille trying to calm down the masses. “They have done nothing but help us when we needed it.” Graille said to the angry crowd.
“They killed a man. Someone that didn’t deserve to die.” Someone from within that mass shouted. Glancing around, I caught a glimpse of the yellow hooded figures, all around their fifth member, Gregor, who they had laying underneath a sheet. “It was in self defense!” Gawain shouted, loud enough for the crowd to hear. Oh shit, this will not be good. All eyes were on us then. I sort of block out everything that is going on, that is, until I saw some of them try to advance on Gawain. Aiden and I immediately go to block any advancements. “Hey how, let’s not fight. We can figure this all out.” Aiden said in an attempt to calm everyone down.
“We don’t have to listen to what a robot has to say.” Someone says from the back of the crowd. Gawain and I both shot our gaze to said person. “You will not call him that, or anything of the sorts.” I raised my voice, poison all but dripping out of my voice. “You will call him a human, because that is what he is. You will do this, or you will have to answer to him.” I gestured with my head over to Gawain, who had his ax out and ready to swing. I shot my hand out to catch Aiden before he made any advancements on the person. “You’re a hero Aiden!” I heard someone from within the crowd shout. Aw, that was very nice of that person. He is a hero. He has done so much for this team, and so much more for me during our travels. He deserves the recognition for it. However, when I turned to him, he did not seem happy about the compliment. The arm that has the arm blade extended was shaking, and his eyes seemed to dilated. Shit, something caused him to freak out. Completely disregarding the arm blade that is very much out, I pulled him close to me into a sort of impromptu hug. Holding him this close helped me hear his rattling and heavy breathing as he struggled to take a proper breath. There is so much talking going on around me, but none of that means anything to me right now. What does matter is making sure my family is okay. And right now I have Ginevaa who just recovered from reliving her traumatic past, and Aiden who seems to be having some sort of panic attack. My thoughts were interrupted by an angry shout from the back of the crowd, and an object being thrown at our group. I watched as the rock made contact with poor Korbin’s face, causing her to stumble back and crouch, cradling her face with her hand. I let go of Aiden and rush over to her, at the same time Gawain does. “Korbin. Hey, are you okay? That rock came out of nowhere.” I said to her in a gentle voice, which is also thick with worry. She did not respond to me, instead her breathing also started to quicken, and I started to feel an energy of sorts coming from her. Gawain acted fast, picking her up and hovering away. I whipped around to lock eyes with a woman who I assume was the one that threw the rock at Korbin. I go to walk towards her, when Graille shouts in a very demanding and commanding voice, stunning everyone into silence. “That is enough of this. This has gotten out of hand. We will get to the bottom of everything, but I need everyone who isn’t a part of this to leave.” I can’t help but jokingly say
“That’s hot” quietly when she finished. The crowd seems to get the gist and slowly the group begins to disperse. I begin to then frantically look for my family. I found Aiden walking towards the woman that threw the rock at Korbin. I hastily made my way to them, and grabbed onto Aiden before he made it to the woman. I glared daggers at her. “You better think about what you did. Not only did you injure one of my friends, but you could have caused a lot worse to happen if Gawain was not fast enough to help.” She sheepishly looked down at her feet.
“It wasn’t my intention.” Wasn’t my intention my ass. She must have known Korbin would react in some way. “It doesn’t matter. You almost caused a big problem.” I took Aiden’s arm and led him away in a search to find Gawain and Korbin. Trummel joined us, and began searching as well. I saw the two of them out of the corner of my eye, and watched them hover back down. Trummel locked eyes with Gawain, and said, “I am going to have to have you come with me. We need to discuss some things.” Gawain stops and looks around. “I have to find Ginevaa first, and make sure she is okay.” I hold my hand up to stop him.
“You go with Trummel. I’ve got everyone here.” I know where Ginevaa is, I watched her leave during the big tobagle. He nodded at me, and left to go with Trummel. I reached over to grab Aiden’s hand, and turned to Korbin who was on the ground. “Are you okay enough to walk?” I asked her, with a hand outstretched. She stands up, with sort of a feel to her that says she can walk on her own. I smiled and retracted my hand. “Let’s go then.” I walked with Aiden, Korbin following behind. I made my way into the inn, which seemed very empty. I searched for her in the lobby to no avail. I look at the two of them and gesture to the stairs. The two of them head up, and I follow up a bit after they do. The two of them go into Ginevaa’s room, and I hang out by the doorway. They’re safe, everyone is okay. Well, okay is a broad term. Ginevaa just had to relive trauma, something happened to Aiden that made him start freaking out, and Korbin had a rock thrown at her that caused a meltdown. I clenched my hands, my fingers starting to tremble. We already had over half the team have bad experiences today, I can’t bring my baggage in too. I’ll suck it up, it's not like I haven’t done that already. It’s not like I truly mean anything to this group. Why would they care about what happened in my past? What trauma, and hardships I had to go through? Why would they care about that, when very obviously they have gone through so much worse. Aiden’s voice breaks me out of my downward spiral. “Saga, you should come in here.” Oh Aiden, that’s a very nice offer, but there is no way I can go in there. “I don’t want to interrupt what you guys have going on there.” I said with a small sad smile. I went to walk away when I felt a hand grab onto my arm. I looked to see Ginevaa’s hand, as she pulled me into the room. She went back into the nest she had made for herself out of pillows and blankets, pulling Korbin in with her, and sitting me and Aiden outside of the nest. I have a nest like this back at the house. Me and Ushal sleep together in it. I looked at Ginevaa and Korbin, when Ginevaa caught my attention. She gestured to me and Aiden, and shot a questioning look. She wants to know about Gawain. “He’s currently doing some things. He should be back here soon.” Aiden answered. She tilted her head, almost like she didn’t understand. “Where is Gawain.” She said, an adult like mannerism to her I have never heard from her before. Aiden and I exchange glances. “Gawain had to go with Trummel to talk about the things that had happened today. He should be back when he is done.” With that, she stood up, and very quickly made her way out of the room. Aiden and I frantically had to come up with what to do. “Saga, you go with her. You’re the better option with that.” I nodded and told him to get in the nest with Korbin. He does so, and I give them a quick hug before running off. It’s selfish really, wanting a hug. Even though I was the one that was doing the hugging, I still wanted to hug them for my own selfish reasons. I would probably not get another hug aside from the one Aiden gave me, and I knew that one wasn’t for comfort. That one was for his own benefit, which he should continue to do. But I knew that it wasn’t for me. I caught up with Ginevaa, and we walked past the yellow robed figures. The four of them stood there with Gregor. Ginevaa stops, and so do I. “I would like to apologize for everything that happened. If you need anything from me, I am more than happy to help.” She said to them. None of them even acknowledged us, all except the girl. “At least not all of you are bad people.” I hesitate to make an offer to them, but after a shared glance to Ginevaa, it seems we are on the same page. “If you need any assistance with the burial ritual, I would be more than happy to.” One of the older men, the girl's father I presume, answers. “It is nice of you, but we need to take him back to our home before we can do anything.”
“Would you like assistance from us bringing Gregor to your home? I know that the trip is going to be a long one, so having a few extra hands might be beneficial.” He shook his head. “As much as we would like to accept your offer, we can’t be traveling together with the man who killed Gregor.” I gave them an understanding nod. “Well, again, if you need us we are here for you.” They nodded back at us, and Ginevaa and I decided to leave. We made it to the town building, and Ginevaa wasted no time walking into the room. Gawain, Trummel, and Graille were busy talking, but they stopped upon our entry. Ginevaa made her way over to Gawain, grabbing his sleeve, and Gawain pulled her into a side hug. “Saga?” I heard Graille ask. I turned to her.
“Yes?”
“We got Gawain's side of the story, and we heard you saw what happened too. So, we would just like to solidify things.” I nodded.
“Okay, what would you like me to tell you.”
“Well, would you say that any of you were in any sort of danger?”
“Well, not only did they call Aiden an automaton, which is something that he does not like being called, they aimed a crossbow at Ginevaa when she was leaving peacefully, not fighting back in any sort of way, and heard Aiden screaming, which was not because of them. But, hearing him scream, the name calling, and the crossbow, it seemed that Gawain acted in self-defense in a way. He was looking out for his team, and that is something I can get behind.” I made sure to say my words with extra meaning, and it seemed to have convinced the two of them. Graille continues to write, even after I finished talking. “Is that all you needed from us?” I asked, and Graille nodded.
“Thank you for your time. You may stay in the inn for the time being.” I gave her a nod of thanks, and Gawain and Ginevaa walked out together. I trail behind the two of them, not wanting to get in between them. We walked past the cultists, Trummel walking with us to make sure a fight didn't break out amongst us. It didn't, thankfully, and we made it out of the building safely. The three of us walked back to the inn in comforting silence. When we returned, I tried to break away from them and stay downstairs to keep watch, but Ginevaa grabbed onto my sleeve. "Upstairs." She said simply. "I need to make sure no one comes in and tries to hurt any of you." I tried to convince her, but she was having none of it. She pulled on my sleeve, pulling me upstairs. I can't say no to my family, so with very little resistance from me, I let her pull me upstairs. I went back into her room, and saw Korbin and Aiden sleeping with each other. It almost made me cry with how adorable it was. I sat down next to the nest, and looked down at Aiden and Korbin. On Aiden's wrist was his photo collection, and up currently was a picture of me slipping in some mud that Aiden had captured perfectly. Along the edges are those pretty rusty flowers that Korbin had made to comfort Aiden this morning. That's when it dawned on me. That happened this morning. It really has only been one single day. So much happened in one day. Ginevaa re-lived trauma, Korbin had something traumatic happen, though I don't know what, and Aiden had something trigger bad memories. Hell, even poor Trummel had to witness seeing his comrades dead heads on a Mesomeme just hours ago. I brought my hand up to the bandages that still covered my neck. The gouge still hurts, breathing still hurts, talking still hurts. But, it didn't matter. None of that mattered. I flinched and my hand twitched to cover an old injury that hurt from time to time, but I am unable to reach it without causing attention. Going through that must have triggered a pain response in the prior injury. It doesn't matter. None of it mattered. Watching over my team, my family, that's what mattered. I felt something soft hit my face, and my hand flung up to feel a blanket. I looked to see that Ginevaa threw a blanket at me, then curled up with Gawain as the two of them also attempted to fall asleep. I wrapped the blanket around myself, my head included, and continued to watch the door. Despite how tired the day made me, and the pain making me feel so much more drained than I probably should be, I need to protect them. Someone has to do it, and if Gawain has our backs during a fight, then I have our backs during anything else. They have a fighter in their corner, and they have proven to me that they're in mine (even though I don't deserve it.) Even though I am alone right now, it's sort of what I expected. Korbin and Aiden have been getting closer to each other, and Gawain and Ginevaa have always been close. Of course that would leave one person out. But it didn't matter. I was the leader. I don't need them caring for me, despite how much I truly want it. They need me, and no matter how much I need them, they come first. I will do anything for them.

Chapter Text

I don't know how long exactly I was awake for. The sun, which was higher in the sky, was now setting, so I assumed it had been a few hours at least. I heard a gentle knock on the door. I perked up, on the alert as the door opened to reveal the innkeeper's wife. I immediately relaxed, and smiled at her. She smiled back. "Can I come in?" She asked. I stood up and walked over to her. "Sure, but make sure you keep it down. They're all asleep, and I don't really want to wake them unless it's important." She nodded, and placed the tray of food down on one of the tables (I didn't even notice she was carrying it.) "Make sure you eat up honey, okay?" Honey? I'm not used to anyone but Ushal calling me honey. I threw an awkward smile her way. "Thank you. I really do appreciate it, and I'm sure they will too" I said, and gestured towards my four family members. "Of course. You saved our town, it's the least I can do."
"Not a lot of people would be willing to help us, given our situation. Most of the townsfolk are on our side, but a surprising amount of people aren't. Sure, we helped your town out, but we did fracture a group."
"The townsfolk here aren't very educated. We are a small town, so education isn't our strong suit. But, most of us saw what you and your group did for us, and are grateful." I gave her a lopsided smile, and turned to the group. "Thank you again for the food. I'll try and wake them up. After today, a good meal is what they need." She waved and walked out of the room as I went and attempted to wake the group. Korbin and Aiden did not budge, no matter what I did. Gawain and Ginevaa woke up after a small bit of pestering. Gawain looked over at the tray and asked, "Is there mead on that tray?" I glanced over and noticed that it was just water. I shook my head. "Just water." He clicked his tongue.
"Guess we gotta get some." Him and Ginevaa get up to go downstairs and get alcohol. I then attempted to wake Aiden and Korbin again. As much as I know they need sleep, food after the day we had is also important. Aiden didn't budge no matter how hard I tried. I attempted again with Korbin. She also didn't wake up, but her breathing started to pick up, and she started speaking. She started out mumbling incoherently, but it very quickly evolved to screaming. She started saying words like, "help" "no" "please" "fault" but they quickly became full sentences. The first being, "Mommy? Daddy? Why are you sleeping?" The second being, "Wake up!" Followed by, "No, not my fault!" "I couldn't help it!" and "Please!" Came out of her mouth before she woke up with a start and a scream. She then wiped her tears away, almost nonchalantly. Like she was used to waking up this way. Her eyes then locked onto mine, and she looked almost sheepishly away, like she was embarrassed that I had to see that. I originally was standing above her to wake her up, but once I noticed she woke up, I got down on my knees in front of her. I made sure I wasn't crowding her, but made sure I was close enough that I could help if needed. "Hey, are… are you okay?" She laughed humorlessly, and looked to the ground. "Do you want to talk about it? That one seemed… worse than before." Her eyes shifted, and I could see in her eyes the internal turmoil of wanting to talk about it or not. Finally she looked back up at me, and said, "I'm positive I wouldn't be able to make it through the story without breaking down again, and I couldn't live with myself if that led to another one of you getting hurt because of me. It may be better if I just show you." I nodded, and sat back on my knees to get a bit more comfortable. He held her hand out, and what looked to be oil painting pictures appeared. It looked similar to Aiden's picture projection, but magical. Portrayed in this picture is a kitchen that is set inside of a small, yet cozy home. It may not have been something big, and extravagant but it seemed like a kind and friendly home. Standing in front of the kitchen table appears to be a man and a woman around their early thirties. The woman is absolutely stunning, with long red hair that flowed down her back. The man, her husband I can guess, is also very good looking, with short fluffy blue hair, with a matching beard. They look very happy, smiles prominent on their face as they talk to someone sitting at the table. Korbin spun her hand, and the picture changed. Pulling the picture better into view, it showed a small girl, maybe 5 years old, and with rainbow sprinkles coating her face. Her long purple hair is pulled back into pigtails. She's laughing as she's speaking. "Korbin honey. You've got your mother's homemade buttercream icing all over your face. How did you manage that one?" The girl laughed, then ran to the man and buried her face into his stomach. They started laughing, enjoying life. They don't seem to live in luxury, but they don't seem to let it get to them. I haven't been watching for long, but there's so much happiness radiating from this picture that I can’t help but smile. The tone shifted, though I'm unsure as to why. The little girl noticed something outside of the large windows. Korbin made the picture move again, and it shows people. Lots of people outside, surrounding a family of what appeared to be a wealthy stature. They appeared well dressed, and one would assume they're a part of nobility. The final person walking appeared to be a child. A small boy, holding a very fancy bunny with very intricate designs. The little girl's eyes widened, and she pointed out the window to the small boy. “Mommy! Daddy! Can I get one? Please? I have been very good this year.” She said in a very excited voice. The looks on her parents' faces seemed to drop when she asked that. “Honey… As much as we want to get that for you, you know we only have enough to get what we need.” The girl's mother attempted to explain. The girl, being 5, didn’t understand the concept of money. Because of this, her eyes started to fill with tears. “B-but he has one! How come he can have one and I can’t?” She whined. Her father kneeled down and placed a hand on her shoulder. “Korbin, some people have more to spend than we do. Not everyone is able to have fancy things like that. It doesn’t mean you’re worth any less.” His attempt to calm her down was in vain as tears continued to stream down her face, sobs wracking through her body. “That’s not f-fair! I’ve been really, really good this y-year! It’s not FAIR!” As the last word left her mouth, a blast of purple energy burst forth from her. The blast struck both adults and were flung against the walls. Watching this from the distance I am, I am able to clearly tell that their necks have broken upon impact. I watched the young girl gasp before running to her parents. She showed no signs of understanding the situation, not knowing what happened, or where that burst came from. She shook her mothers arm, and when she didn’t get anything out of her, she did the same to her father. “Mommy? Daddy? Wake up! Why are you sleeping? WAKE UP!” She screamed, tears flowing freely down her face. The door burst open, and what seemed to be other villagers rushed in. They have clearly seen what happened through the windows, and came to investigate. They all rushed to the adults that were on the floor. “They’re… dead…” one of the women said. She then turned towards the crying girl. “Child, what have you done? Why would you murder your parents?” The girl jumped at that.
“No! I… I didn’t kill them! It’s not my fault!” She cried out. One of the larger men of the group came over and grabbed her from behind. “She belongs in Lezabel! Obviously, she’s a danger to us all like the rest of those delinquent wannabe nanos are” he exclaimed. The rest of the villagers nodded in agreement. The man then began to walk out the door. The girl was doing everything in her power to escape the man’s grasp, but to no avail. Screams of “No! Please! It wasn’t my fault! MOMMY! DADDY! HELP ME PLEASE!” Can be heard as the figures retreat out of the door and out of the image.
Korbin wiped her hand through the image, tears now falling down her own face. She turned to me, a look of fear present on her face. “U-uuh, that… that is the nightmare that I have e…e…every night. It’s more of a memory than something my mind made up though. My powers coming in was the worst thing to ever happen to me. It… it cost me my parents. I killed them… and I completely understand if you want to get far away from me after that… Especially when it still kind of happens.” She rambles, wiping tears from her eyes with her sleeve. She looked so much younger at this moment than she has ever looked before. “Can… I give you a hug? It really seems like you need one right about now.” I said gently, almost hesitantly. She nodded, and I leaned over the nest so I didn't ruin it to pull her into a gentle, yet protective hug. “You’re safe here. It wasn’t your fault. You couldn’t have known that was going to happen.” I felt her stiffen up. “You believe me?”
“No one has believed you in the past?” I asked in almost a whisper. She shook her head.
“Why would they? I’m just the monster that killed her parents.” I stiffened at that. Monster. A name I knew well. I thought I was over that, being called that my whole life, you’d think I’d have gotten used to it. I did, for a while. I guess not being called it in a while reopens old wounds. I forced myself to relax, not wanting to worry poor Korbin. This isn’t about me, it’s about her. I tightened the hug slightly. “I believe you.” I stopped talking for a moment, before I started again. “I promise you, that while you are with us, nothing will happen to you. No one will hurt you like that again. You are all my family, and I will do everything in my power to keep you all safe.” After finishing my statement, I felt a wet spot on my shirt. “I haven’t felt what it was like to have a family for so long.” At this statement, I heard Aiden stir from next to Korbin.
“Even if you don’t know what family is, you will by the end of this journey.” Korbin doesn’t move from the hug, and I don’t push her away. Heaven knows this poor girl needed one. She has been through way too much for a girl her age to have ever gone through. Hell, so has Ginevaa. Aiden too. I don’t know much about Gawain, but I can’t count him out just yet. We all have our stuff we’ve been trying to hide from each other. I just feel bad that their stuff had to have been pulled out of them like it was. I remained like this despite how uncomfortable it made me feel, until I heard her breath slow and it seemed like she was sleeping peacefully. Once I made sure she was sleeping, I gently laid her back on a sleeping Aiden. These two needed each other, and I had no right separating these two like that. I got up, ignoring the pins and needles in my feet, and the pain in my legs from sitting like I was for as long as I was to grab a bowl from the tray, and a cup that I filled with water. I reclaimed my spot back on the floor to eat my stew. It tasted similarly to the one we had the night before, but somehow different. It’s good regardless. Again, after the day we all had, I would eat just about anything that was put in front of me. Once I finished, I put my bowl back and kept watch like I am supposed to. A little bit after, Gawain and Ginevaa came back into the room. “Hey, we heard news about a mausoleum, and are going to check it out. Are you in?” I want to say yes, because I want to make sure that they are both safe. However, I don’t think I can leave Aiden and Korbin by themselves while they are sleeping. “I would love to come, but Aiden and Korbin are finally sleeping well. I don’t want to wake them up.” Gawain went over to Aiden and shook him in an attempt to wake him up. His arm blade came out and he took a swing at Gawain. However, in his sleep state, it wasn’t a very targeted swipe and he ended up taking out his own knee, completely detaching his leg. He glanced down before sighing. “Ah, crap.” was all he said before he crashed again. I flinched at the encounter. “But, be careful you two.” I trusted Gawain to protect Ginevaa. He wouldn’t let her get hurt. He backed away, and he and Ginevaa left.
They were gone for quite some time. Giving me ample time to think. Which, given the mindset I have been in, was not a good thing. I’m just invalidating myself here. I know my stuff isn’t something to brush off, but in comparison to what everyone else has gone through, my stuff is like a walk in the park. So far three of us have openly shared their experiences with me. Two have shared it with the group. Which is good. We can’t be a group without trusting each other with our previous experiences and traumas. I just, it’s too soon to share my stuff. If I even share at all. It has been a very eventful day, and a lot of people have suffered. I went on thinking like this for a while, before Aiden broke me out of it. Well, not intentionally. But, in his sleep he started to speak. I tilted my head. Normally he didn't speak while he was asleep. I shifted, a few of my joints cracking from sitting in the same position for multiple hours catching up to me. I got closer to him, to hear him speaking in a very monotonous voice. He said the word, “terrorist” a few times, followed by, “bomb” once. After he said those, he started speaking in beeps. I tilted my head, noticing right away that he had started speaking in morse code. I grabbed my journal, turning to a blank page, and wrote the words terrorist and bomb on it, as well as translating the morse code. I figured out that he spelt out the word D.R.E.A.M. I continued listening to him, but it seemed like he was repeating that one word. I wonder what that means. The beeps changed, and I knew he was spelling another word. Translating that word gave me the word P.U.R.P.O.S.E. Continuing to listen, it seemed like he was circulating between those two words in morse code. Ginnevaa and Gawain came back at that moment, and questioned what was happening. “I honestly don’t know. I’ve never seen him act this way before.” I heard a small click sound, and I looked down to see that his picture flap was open on his wrist. I opened it fully to see a very blurry picture. So blurry that it made my eyes water just trying to focus on it. It showed a metallic catwalk, like something found in an industrial building. Odd, why would that be shown. It switched to a very blurry spherical shape, then to a lab setting, but it seemed like I was looking at the lab through a tube, and a figure with dark blue eyes. It’s then that the hand on Korbin's wrist started to tighten. Enough that I saw her wince. I tried to pull it off of her, but it did nothing. His hand tightened, and it's then that Korbin used her mind magic to help him. The display on his wrist showed different pictures this time. It’s actually a video, or something close. It played like light was being shown through some old film. It showed a little boy, messing with what looked like a keypad. After he finished with the keypad, the structure around him made a very loud sound. One that wasn’t a good one, given the frightened look on the boy's face. “What have I done?” He shouted. The panel that he was previously messing with opened to show a port, where the boy shoved his hand into. The scene shifted to show a boy putting on a backpack, looking out towards something. That something is unknown to us, because the film seemed to have been burned there, not giving us a clear picture. All we get is the boy saying, “I can’t go back there.” That is where the video ends, and Aiden wakes with a start. He looked around at all of us, and asked. “What happened?” He asked, though it also seemed to be in the monotone voice he was previously talking in. “It seemed like you were having a nightmare.” Korbin said to him. He laughed, though in the monotone voice, it sounded fake. “Those don’t happen to me.” He then turned to me. “What is she talking about?” The way his neck moved… It isn't normal. Something is up. “She’s right. It seemed like you were having a nightmare of some sort. You were saying some words… words that I will not repeat to you in fear that it might trigger something.” I must have said something wrong, because that made him react. He leaned closer to me, eyes focusing on me. “What were the words?” He said to me, not in a questioning voice, but in a commanding voice. Something was wrong. This isn’t like him. I tried to keep my voice level. “I am not going to tell you the words.” He got closer to me, his arm blade coming out. “What were the words?” He said again, his voice somehow more forceful than it was previously. “Don’t get in the way of my dream. Of my purpose” My eyes widened at the mention of the words dream and purpose. “No one got in the way of your dream. You were woken up.” Ginevaa said. Shit, I don’t want him to attack Korbin, because about now it seemed like he was about to attack me. She doesn’t need that on top of everything else that happened to her today. “Who woke me up?” He commanded. I go to shout, to stop Ginevaa from throwing Korbin’s name out there, when she throws me off guard. “You did silly. You woke up from your dream all by yourself.” This seemed to have thrown Aiden off completely. Hell, it threw me off as well. He looked back at me one more time with that scary look in him, before his eyes widened, and his movement seemed to have gone back to normal. “Hey guys, what happened? Why is everyone surrounding me? I just woke up.” I let out a small laugh, albeit a fake one, and leaned back against the wall. I put a hand on my head, too tired and in pain to feel relieved. “Yeah, yeah you did.” I can’t keep this facade up anymore. I don’t focus on what came after. I assumed there was talking, but I wasn’t listening. I flinched as I saw a small creature come into the room, immediately on guard in case this creature was going to hurt anyone. As my vision focused on the creature, it appeared to be a small Ravaged bear cub, though it seemed to be made of red smoke. Gawain goes up to Aiden. “Aiden, what is your favorite animal?” I could see him processing the question, before he answered with a, “I think my answer is you guys.” I tilted my head, confused by his statement. “What do you mean by that?” I asked.
“Well, you guys are my favorite people. You are my friends.” If I wasn’t so tired, along with so many other things right now, I would have gushed at that. Instead, I could only offer a smile. Gawain held up a finger, and pulled out a pack of cigarettes. He lit one, and blew out red smoke. The red smoke congealed, making a picture. The picture was of a figure standing heroically, an ax very prominent in his one hand. Next to that figure, was a small figure with big wings, holding onto the sleeve on the taller figure. Two more figures appeared, of the same size and stature. One seemed to be taking pictures, and the other seemed to be talking to the one taking the pictures. Finally, a smaller figure is made, energy seeming to come off of it in pulses, as it floats in the air. Gawain took another puff of one, and made three ravens. One to fly and place itself in Ginevaa’s lap, the other two flying around the room. The five figures stood there heroically, like a team. I laughed humorlessly and looked away from the figures, casting my eyes towards the floor. That wasn’t me. I’m no hero. I didn’t even do anything during any of the fights we have encountered. I have no right standing there with the others. Hell, I don’t even think I belong to this team. I felt someone sit down next to me, and put their arm around me. “Hey, are you okay?” I heard Korbin ask. Shit, I can’t let them ask questions. I looked up from the floor, and flashed her as convincing of a smile as I could muster in my state. “Yeah, I’m fine. Why wouldn’t I be?” Why has lying become so easy for me? Why can I just do it without thinking anymore? “You’re lying.” Aiden piped up. I turned to him.
“How would you know I’m lying?” I asked, immediately on the defense.
“I’ve been traveling with you for a very long time now. I know when you’re lying. Why aren’t you happy with the pictures Gawain made?” He asked, sounding like he was mere seconds away from crying. I can't make him cry because of me. "No no. I loved what he did. Thank you Gawain. What you did really cheered him up." As I turned to Gawain, I noticed his face deep into a cup of mead, he gave me some incoherent answer, before promptly passing out on the spot. Again, if I didn't have so much going on, I would have found that funny. I turned to Aiden and Korbin. "... Why don't you all go back to sleep. It seems like we have a lot going on tomorrow and you all need to be well rested." Staying awake will be hard, especially with how utterly drained I am. But, it must be done. "But you haven't slept yet." Aiden pointed out.
"And don't think I didn't notice you wide awake when you came to check on me." Korbin also said. "Well yeah, someone has to watch the team. There are people out there that more than likely want to hurt us. I want to make sure that doesn't happen."
"We can take shifts. I am probably the most rested, so I can watch." Ginevaa offered. Korbin also piped up, saying she could take watch too. I shook my head, and stopped them. "I'm the leader. That responsibility should fall on me." The group looked at me, flabbergasted. "We're a team though. We can help. Not everything has to fall on you." Ginevaa pointed out. She had a point, but I couldn't ask that of them. I can't do anything else, so I have to do this. Before I could say anything else, Ginevaa spoke again. "Get in the nest." I glanced to see that Korbin and Aiden had already made camp in it. "I couldn't take their spots, and it's only big enough for two. I wouldn't want to ruin your well made nest. I know how hard it is to make, I have one at home with my partner." Ginevaa shushed me, and went to gather more pillows. Once she made the nest bigger, she ushered me inside it. Aiden patted his lap, and I laid my head on it, Korbin laying on top of me. Aiden kept a hand around my wrist, no doubt to keep track of my pulse. I don't deserve this. I don't deserve the hug Korbin is giving me. I don't deserve the hospitality. It should be me keeping watch, not Ginevaa. My thoughts are very short lived, because the day caught up with me, and I fell asleep rather quickly.

A blade, a nice and sharp one glinted in the light. I heard my shaking breath, it seemed like it echoed through a seemingly empty room. The blade dripped blood. I frantically looked around to see that it was my blood. Or, well, I could assume it is. The bodies of my teammates started appearing one after another, all bleeding on the ground. "You can't protect them. You're a failure. A pathetic excuse of a human. If I could even call you that. Though, you aren't truly what you used to be, aren't you." A disembodied voice said. My gaze flicked to the body holding the blade, and I could only assume that the voice came from them. The person's face is obscured by a shadow, so I couldn't make out any features no matter how hard I tried. They swung the blade down, hitting my metal wing on what would have been the Humerus bone, if it was still there. Despite it being metal, it hurt and bled like it hit my actual wing. "You're just a monster, thinking they've found somewhere they belong. Well guess what, you haven't. You’ll never belong, no matter how much you want to.” The blade found its way under my chin, holding my head up. “You can't do anything to help them, and soon the same thing that happened before will happen again. And you won't be able to stop it." They swung their blade at my throat this time, and I felt the blade slice my skin open. "You can't even save yourself. You really are pathetic. Just lay there and die like you were supposed to all those years ago. You’ll be doing everyone a favor." The figure walked away, leaving me to bleed out from both wounds. I felt the life drain from my body, and to be honest, it felt right. Like it was supposed to happen. Maybe the figure was right. Maybe I did need to die all those years ago. I closed my eyes, and let the darkness and numbness take over.

I woke with a start, my hand going straight for my throat, the other flinching towards my back. I forced my hand to stop and clenched it towards my side. It's then I noticed the situation I was in. Aiden was gripping my hand that's now at my side, and Korbin grilled me tightly so I didn't fling her off me as I sat up. Shit, this will be hard to talk my way out of. "Why do you wake up at sunrise? That's supposed to be my thing." I knew Aiden was trying to joke around, but I couldn't right now. I just looked down. "Sorry."
"Are you okay?" Korbin asked. Poor girl. She always asked if I was okay, and I kept lying to her. Eventually I'll say something. Now isn't that time. "Yeah, I'm fine." There isn't much power behind my words. "Saga. If you need to talk, we're all here for you. You aren't alone in this." Why are they trying? Why are they doing this? "Thank you. Maybe eventually I will." I say, it being the first truthful thing I've said in a while. Gawain and Aiden go through a thing where Gawain feeds Aiden cake, and since he can't eat cake he reacts badly to it. I couldn't focus, and so I left the room. As I left, I noticed the door to Korbin and my room was knocked off its hinges. It didn't seem like anything inside was taken. Whoever did that was looking for one of us. I took note of that, and went downstairs and was served food that I picked at. Aiden came down, in a very chopper mood, so I decided to match it in an attempt to push away what happened earlier. We all headed out, acting like a family. The family I knew best. I had to ruin the moment though, because I had to tell everyone about the door. “Hey guys, there is something I should tell you guys. When I walked out of the room, I saw that the door to the room Korbin and I were staying in was broken off its hinges.”
“Oh. Maybe it isn’t a bad idea to have someone on watch from now on. Korbin, Saga, you guys can stay in our room for the time being. We will take turns taking watch.” Ginevaa said. I nodded, and we continued on our way.
We stumbled upon the mausoleum, the entire atmosphere changing. First off, the grass was purple. Second off, when we passed onto the purple grass, it felt like all fatigue was gone. I felt good. The pain from my throat seemed to dwindle. We went into the room, and there we saw two buttons. A red one and a blue one, along with a screen that displayed an ancient text. I scanned the room, noticing that there was strangely nothing in the room. It was empty, but it seemed like it was empty for some purpose. Aiden and Ginevaa were fighting over who wanted to press what button. Gawain pointed out that the red button and the blue button do something different, but I didn’t catch what they did. Aiden and Ginevaa do not come to a consensus and that causes Aiden to storm away towards the entrance hatch we came from. Though, he stopped short when he seemed to have shut down… for some reason. Ginevaa just shrugged and pushed the red button. That caused the hatch to close suddenly, and the room to start shaking. The screen started to display something else, which kept changing as the seconds went by. I quickly took note that this was a timer, and it was counting down. Shit, that can’t be good. I frantically looked around at the walls, in an attempt to find a way out. However, it comes up short when all I see is metal. The blue button was pressed, and it seemed to reset the timer. I am terrified of what is going to happen. I will not lose my family. “Guys, come here.” I said to them, knowing there is no way out. But, if I can protect them, even a little bit, then I will. One by one, everyone came over. I pulled them all close to me, and wrapped my wings around them all in a futile attempt of protection. It seemed Ginevaa also did the same thing, completing the circle. The timer ran out, and the room stopped shaking. My head shot up, noticing that nothing bad happened. Actually, it seemed like it made whatever field was surrounding us stronger. Gawain called out to me. “Hey Saga. Do you want this?” He holds out a mouth piece. “It has to do with speech. I figured that since you are the speaker of the group, it would make sense for you to have it.” I smiled a thanks, and he threw it at me. However, Aiden caught it, and kept it away from me. “You can have this when you are happy.” I let out a sigh.
“I am happy. I am the happiest I have ever been traveling with you guys.” He looked at me for a second, before he also sighed, and threw it to me. I caught it, taking a look at my hands as I do. I put the mouthpiece away, held my hands up to get a better look at them. My fingertips were purple. This could either be really good… or really bad…

Chapter Text

Once we finished messing with the buttons, we left. I was still very concerned about our purple fingertips, specifically because it's not something I've ever seen in my travels before. However, it was hard to be concerned when the pain I felt was gone… wait. My hand reached up to my throat, where previously there was a mangled gash across it. Of course it's still wrapped in bandages, mostly to hide it. But, when my fingers brushed against it, it didn't hurt. I looked back down at my fingers. This purple stuff must be the cause of that. I decided to not tell anyone, not like they cared. As we're walking out, we caught sight of Trummel. If I remember correctly, we weren't supposed to leave town. And this… this is out of town. My first instinct was to hide, but Aiden had other thoughts. He started calling out to him, waving, and running towards him, Gawain following close behind. I rolled my eyes, but decided against hiding. "Ah, there you guys are. What were you up to?" Trummel asked, sounding curious more than angry. "We were in the mausoleum. We got something cool. Saga, show him." He then came over to me with a skip in his step, and pulled me to Trummel. I hesitantly pulled out the mouth piece I got and handed it to him. He twisted it in his hand. "I've never seen this before." He said curiously and handed it back.
"There were buttons. And a screen in the mausoleum." Aiden continued.
"Yeah, it was a language I didn't understand."
"I assume from what I'm hearing that you are responsible for this?" He held his hands up to show his fingertips were also purple. Aiden nodded vigorously. "Yeah, you have the same purple fingers as Saga! And everyone else! Not me though, but the rest of the team has it." I still don't trust this purple stuff. Sure, we feel better, but at what cost? "Well, it's time for the verdict. So, Gawain, we need you to come with us. Your friends can come too, if you want them to of course." He shrugged, but walked with Ginevaa, and didn't speak up when we followed him. As we walked through the town, I noticed that there were a lot more people out than there were before. A lot of the elderly were out and about, everyone spouting the purple fingertips. "More people seem to be out." Korbin says what I was thinking. "Maybe it makes it easier for them to be out?" Aiden questioned.
"With the elderly, their joints might hurt, making it hard for them to walk normally. With this purple stuff, maybe it makes it easier for them to function, and they're in less pain." I speak from experience, the pain I was in before now a mere memory. "That makes sense." Aiden answered, and we reverted back to silence. As we walked into the town hall building, we walked past the cultists. Three of the four to be exact. I hang back, and look at the three of them. "Where's your last member?" I asked. They looked at me, the elderly man quietly answering. "In there." He nodded his head to the room we were going into. "Why?" I tried to press for answers, but that was all they seemed to want to tell me. I left it at that, and caught back up with my team. We were let into the room the cultists talked about, and saw Graille and said cultist. Aiden went and sat down next to Graille, and Gawain was gestured over there as well. Korbin and I remained by the door, I know I didn't feel quite comfortable stepping in fully. "After careful consideration, we have found Gawain not guilty. Talking to both parties, hearing that he acted in defense of his team, he is not guilty." I let out an unintentional sigh of relief. "I guess whatever he told them was convincing. Not that he was lying. He did truly act to protect his team. "Is that all you need from us?" I asked, making sure we could leave. "That is all, however, there are people here who do not agree with our verdict. They might come to hurt Gawain, or you guys. I suggest you leave the town, for your own safety." Trummel finished, and Aiden made a swift run for the door, Korbin shortly after. I trusted Gawain with Ginevaa, and went to chase after Aiden, when Trummel placed a hand on my shoulder. "We don't have much to offer for all the help you have given us, but we do have these. We would be delighted if you'd accept these." He handed over a letter bound journal, and crystal armor. My eyes widened. "Oh.. um.. we couldn't possibly accept these. I don't want to take from the town." He shook his head.
"Nonsense. They're collecting dust where they lay. It would be better if you took them." I gave him a smile, and put the items away. "Thank you. I really appreciate it." He nodded.
"I hope our paths cross again someday."
"I hope so too. Take care. Thanks again." I placed a hand on his, and then made my way out to chase after Aiden. We walked for hours… literally. I didn't question him, because I trusted him. But, when we didn't stop, I grabbed his wrist. "Hey, do you know where you're going?" I watched him process what I said, before looking at me, shrugging, and attempting to start walking again. I keep a good grasp on his wrist. "How are you so confident we're going in the right direction if you don't know where we're going?"
"All I know is we need to go this way. And we need to hurry." I caught a glimpse at his wrist that holds his photos, and I saw the picture of the map he took from the notebook the cultist had. Ah, that's where we're going. I let his wrist go, and he started walking again. We continue following him for who knows how long, until he just stopped dead in his tracks. I went to investigate, and found out that he just fell asleep. "Now's a good time to sleep anyway. Maybe we can set up camp here?" Gawain offers. I shrugged, it couldn't be a bad idea. We all set up camp, and I took the first watch. Ginevaa asked that she be woken up in about two hours. I accept, and everyone goes to sleep. I'm up thinking. I don't want to go back to sleep. I don't want to have that dream again. I am human. I've always been human. I also don't need to die, right? I know the figure said it would be better if I did, and that when I was dying, it felt like the right thing to do. But, is it? I have a lot of people back home that would miss me… right? Plus my team… they'd be sad too… right? Would they? I know they acted when I was hurt, but that's just instincts kicking in. If I actually were to die, there'd be no instincts. I don't know, maybe it would be best. I spend the rest of my time thinking very heavily about everything that's happened, and when I wake Ginevaa up, she goes right into watch mode. I laid down in my bed roll, and against what I wanted, I ended up falling asleep.
Waking up the next morning, I didn't have the same dream as I had the previous night. Instead, it was blackness. Like I wasn't dreaming, but I was stuck somewhere. "I had that dream again. Not the nightmare, but the other one. That structure was in it. It said something about an invitation, and that our wishes will be granted." I tilted my head. That's exactly what a cult sounds like. "Hey, you stole my dream." Aiden said in an accusatory voice. So Aiden and Korbin had the same dream. It's not completely strange honestly. The day went by very easily, and we stopped only when absolutely necessary. We set up camp once again, and took turns taking watch.
Day three is where things start going poorly. Once again, we walked until we had to stop, only this time Gawain got curious, and went to take a look at the map on Aiden's arm. I was the only one who knew exactly where we were going, and it was by accident. When Gawain went to look at his arm though, he flinched away and closed his wrist. Gawain did not seem very happy by this, but we kept moving. We came to a cross path, one leading downward, and one continuing straight. Gawain stepped towards the downward path. "There's a town this way. I think we should investigate it. See what there is." That's… not necessarily a bad idea. I actually considered going with them, when Aiden started walking down the straight path, Korbin following. "If you two want to investigate, we can meet up here in a few days. But, we really need to go this way." I nodded my head down the path, and started walking. I saw the look in his eyes. He didn't seem very happy. I don't pay attention to how much longer we walk for. However, when we go to set up camp, Gawain doesn't stop walking. Shit. Ginevaa followed him, of course she did. Those two are practically inseparable. I'm glad he at least had her if we were to get separated. I ran after them, leaving Korbin and Aiden back at camp. Gawain and Ginevaa resorted to hovering to get away faster. I continued to run after them, making it over a hill before I had to stop myself from running farther. Across this hill, there seemed to be a pack of wolves, Broken Wolves to be more specific. There appeared to be eight of them, and Gawain and Ginevaa seemed hellbent on fighting them for some reason. I mean, they did catch sight of them, so I guess it is to make sure they don’t follow them. With there being eight of them, it makes me think they aren’t going to be able to take them all on. I ran back a bit towards camp and called out to Aiden and Korbin. “Hey, we might need your help!” They sprung into action almost immediately, and ran over. I turned just in time to watch Gawain get attacked by the pack. Shit, I have to get them off of him. He won’t be able to do anything with them on top of him like that. I peel away from Korbin and Aiden so they don’t get caught in the crossfire, and call out to the wolves. “Hey, how about you get off of my friend and come attack someone your own size!” I goad them to come attack me instead. I saw Gawain glance my way before saying,
“You shouldn’t say things you don’t mean.” There was so much sadness in his voice when he said that. What? Why would I not mean what I said? I took a breath, and said in a more convincing voice, “My friend is down there. My family. Attack me, not him.” I would do anything to make sure my family is not harmed, or at the very least minimally harmed. They turned my way, tunnel vision taking them over as they ran towards me, steering clear from everyone else. As they made their way to me, I sidestepped them to dodge out of the way. Gawain and Ginevaa took out two more of them, Aiden and Korbin also doing work. If what I need to do is be a distraction for them, then so be it. I moved a bit more, and attempted to keep their attention on me. However, they seemed really scared, since they were down from eight to only four. So, because of that, they made a hasty retreat. I let out a sigh of relief, thankful that no one got really injured during that. However, that was short lived as Gawain and Ginevaa started hovering away again. We started hastily running after them, until a thought came to my mind. He reacted really badly to me calling him his friend. Maybe he’s running from me. This all started because I was trying to catch him. I slowed my pace down, and Korbin and Aiden seemed to have noticed right away. “You guys go ahead without me. He might be mad at me or something, so it might be easier to catch him if I am not there.” I slowed to a halt.
“Saga, we aren’t just going to leave you here.” Korbin says, coming back to where I am. Why not? What good am I? Leaving me would be the best option. “What would you do all by yourself?” Aiden asked, also coming back to where I am. I let out a breathless laugh.
“I’d be fine. Gawain is the main focus right now. If you guys go, it’d be four to one. I’d lag behind and wait for you here.” It would be better if I stayed here. They would be better off with someone else as their leader. Someone who could actually do things. I felt someone grab my hand. “If you aren’t going, then neither am I.” Korbin says. I looked down at our hands, and I melted on the spot. I don’t know if she knows just how much I wanted physical touch right now. I wanted someone to ground me. I haven’t had that yet, so even the small amount of physical touch she is giving me right now is more than enough. It has to be. Aiden also came over and grabbed my other hand. “Fine, fine. We need to catch up to Gawain.” I said with a smile on my face, one of the first genuine ones I have given since going with this group. We followed what we assumed was the tracks of Gawain and Ginevaa, though it was getting harder and harder to track them. Korbin pointed out as we were running that there was a small cottage-like house coming up. Hope blossomed in me, hoping they stopped for a rest. I ran towards the house, and went around in a hope to see if they were on the other side. I watched as Ginevaa and Gawain hovered out of the window. Through my ragged breathing I managed to shout, “Gawain, whatever is wrong, we can talk it out. We’re a team! That’s what we're here for.” It didn’t seem to phase him, as he hovered off. Shit. I wanted to follow him, I really did. Something obviously was bothering him, and I wanted to help him. But, my legs didn’t want to move any more. Plus, I was so out of breath that I’m surprised I even managed to shout at him at all. I glanced back to see neither Aiden or Korbin. They must be in the house. I walked back to the house, barely even able to keep myself up, and walked up to the two of them. “Why don’t we stay here for the night. Maybe they’ll come back to us tomorrow.” The two of them nodded, and we set up here for the night. I went to take first watch, when Aiden pushed me gently to the ground. “I’ve got it.” I tilted my head.
“Are you sure?” I asked him. He nodded and went to sit down. Damnit. I sat awake for a while, not wanting to go back into my dreams. But, my body had other plans, and I was sucked into sleep.”

I’m back in that echoey room, once again I am not alone. Though, with everyone being dead, it sure felt like I was. Once again my team was there, but this time my friends from back home are also here. Greshim, Freya, Yucel, and Ushal. All lying motionless on the ground, blood seeping from unseen wounds, along with Gawain, Ginevaa, Korbin, and Aiden. That figure walked up to me, their bony fingers stroking my throat as their nails found their way to my skin. “You have so many people here, all people that you seem to care dearly for. And yet you managed to get both parties killed.” They removed their hand from my throat, and walked in front of me, the black cloak they wore brushing my skin. Where it touched, my skin burned. It turned, and I caught a glimpse of something under the cloak. I couldn’t make it out though, before they grabbed my face, forcefully bringing it up to the shadow that should have been their face. “You’d even let your precious spouse die, just like that? Tsk, tsk.” The figure clicked its tongue, and I heard coughing. I glanced around in a panic, seeing that Ushal was shifting, blood coming from xer mouth. I tore out of the figure's grasp, and ran to xer side. “Ushal.” I breathed as I dipped down to lift xem into my lap. Ushal looked up at me, pain and horror present in xer eyes. I heard another of my friends stir to life, and I frantically looked to see who. Gawain sat himself up, looking in some sort of daze. The figure snapped and I was back with it. "You have a choice. I kill one, and let one live. You get to choose who." My eyes widened.
"I can't make that decision." I said, my eyes darting from Gawain to Ushal. "And why not." I could hear from the figure's voice that it was smiling. "Because I care about all of them. You can't make me choose between family members. I- I can't." I stumbled, words mixing together, hindering me from talking. "How about this? They both get to live." My eyes darted to the figure. "But…" I continued for it. "But, you die in their place." That wasn't even a hard choice. "Okay." The figure perked up, as if happy with the choice I made. "You're such a coward." It snickered, but twirled a dagger around in its hand. "Dying for them instead of choosing to live." I cut it off before it could get any farther. "Yes, I'm choosing to die! Because if given the choice between my family, or me? Of course I'm choosing me. They don't deserve to die for something that isn't their fault."
"And you do?" The figure asked, pointing the knife at me. I shrugged. "More than they do." The figure lowered its head, and their posture became unreadable. However, that's short lived when its head shot back up, and it threw the dagger at me. It's clear they threw it so I could dodge it if I wanted to. But why would I? I let the dagger hit me in the shoulder. The same side as my metal wing. It came up close to me in what felt like a blink of an eye, and pulled the dagger out of my shoulder and held it to my neck. "Last chance." It seemed to want me to change my mind. To choose one of them. I locked eyes with where I thought it's eyes would be, and leaned in closer. "Do it." It visibly flinched at my words, but dug the dagger into my throat and sliced. That was the last thing I remembered.

I woke up in some sort of daze, glancing around to see the inside of the small cottage Korbin, Aiden and I spent the night in. Glancing around quickly, it became quite apparent that Aiden was nowhere to be seen. I got to my feet, and ran to the door, glancing around to see if I could figure out where he went. From the footprints on the ground, it was obvious he was behind the house. I walked around, to see him propped up against the wall of the house, a dazed look in his eyes. I made my way over and sat down next to him. "You didn't wake us up to do watch. Why not?" I asked in a gentler voice. I wasn't mad at him, more confused than anything. He shrugged. "I was awake anyway." From the looks of him, he didn't seem very awake. "Do you think Gawain is okay?" He asked in a far away voice.
"I hope so. I hope he comes back, so we can talk about it."
"If he comes back." Aiden corrects me. Right, if he comes back. As if hearing our words, we saw him and Ginevaa hovering in the distance, coming towards us. "I guess he will come back." Aiden said as he stood up. "I'll go get Korbin." He lazily made his way inside, and I hastily stood up. Gawain and Ginevaa touched down, and looked at me. "Hey." I said in an open voice. He said nothing, simply looked at me. "Are you okay?" I asked, hoping to press a little. That seemed to have done it. "Am I okay? No, I'm not. I do so much for this team. I care about you so much, and I get nothing in return. I get ignored, I'm not trusted, it seems like none of you actually care about my feelings when all I've done is care for yours." Oh shit. Gawain is talking about his feelings. "Wait, do you think we don't trust you?" I'm shocked. I trust this man with my life. I could be on my deathbed and I'd put my life in his hands. He shrugged. "It doesn't seem like any of you do."
"Gawain, the reason I let you go with Ginevaa is because I do trust you." I made sure to emphasize the word do. "I've trusted you from the very beginning."
"Then why doesn't it feel like it? All I do is get ignored by everyone." He's keeping his voice level, which is impressing me. "I wanted to go see the village that was on our way here, but all you did was follow Aiden. No explanation." Okay, he does have a point. We did that.
"The only reason I did was because what Aiden was following was time restricted."
"But I didn't know that. Aiden didn't let me see where we were going." Oh yeah, I was the only one to steal a glimpse of where we were going. "He must have had a reason. I only saw it because I grabbed onto him."
"The only reason is that he didn't trust me. Why else wouldn't he show me? I've been nothing but nice to this whole group, and I get nothing in return for it. I feel like the only one who does trust me fully is Ginevaa."
"Well, you two have been traveling the longest. It's like me and Aiden. We've been traveling together for a while, so we know we can rely on each other. That's something this team has to build up."
"I just don't see why I'm not trusted. I've gone out of my way to protect everyone."
"Well, you and Aiden have had rough patches. You did try and give him something he couldn't have, and you woke him up pretty forcefully the other day. I don't think he must have liked that."
"Did he tell you that?" He… he didn't actually. Those were just my assumptions. "He didn't. But, he and Korbin are just in the house there. We can talk to them about it too. Because that's what we do. We talk things out that bother us because we're a team." I go silent again before speaking up. "It was very brave of you to come back and talk about your feelings like this. It couldn't have been easy."
"I almost didn't. Ginevaa convinced me. I'm glad she did." I gave him a smile, and I nodded my head to the house. "Let's go talk with the others." I walked into the house, where Korbin and Aiden were sitting together, leaning against the wall. Gawain and Ginevaa stood facing them, and I took my place between the four of them as a moderator or sorts. "Gawain, you have things you'd like to say?"
"I feel like you guys don't trust me. I've done so much for you guys, and I get ignored for it. Korbin, I've helped you out of your breakdown, and I've been nothing but nice to you Aiden. I don't see why you don't trust me."
"I'm sorry Gawain, I didn't mean to do that to you. I was just so caught up in my emotions that I shut down. I didn't mean to make you feel ignored or not trusted." Korbin said, her voice small. Aiden murmured, "sorry" in a very spacey voice, and showed him his photo of the notebook. "I don't care now. I'm just upset you didn't show me earlier."
"We'll fix this. Thank you for bringing this to our attention." Korbin said. "I'm sorry for acting that way."
"Yeah, I never said it, but I'm sorry too. As leader it's my job to make sure the team is doing well, and it seems I'm not doing a very good job with that. I'll make sure to do better." Gawain nodded. "So, what's the plan?" I took a step back. "You guys decide. I want a consensus between everyone where we're going before we go anywhere." The group all decided on continuing for the structure that is coming. It took us a few extra days to get there, but we finally arrived. We took note of the area around where it will be arriving, and made camp a bit away, towards the front of a nearby forest. We kept close watch, and when it finally arrived, so did the cultists. We watched them pull out the item they used the last time, and listened to them chant. They opened the door, and we watched them go in, and let the door close. Once it did, we all ran up to the door, making sure it's closed completely. So… what do we do now? Apparently Gawain had a plan, because he hooked up a contraption to the wall, and started speaking commands. The door opened after he spoke, and we all climbed in. As we did, the door seemed to close and the floor started to go down. The floor started falling at a rapid rate, and once it stopped, it seemed to go back up… really quickly. Shit. I looked around to see if there's a way out of this situation, but the only thing that seems like the way out is back through the door we came in. Once it came into view, we all jumped out of the door before the floor came to a halt. In the doorway, stood a small girl. The girl did not seem to be in the yellow robes that the other cultists were wearing, and appeared dirty and visibly scared. What is a girl like her doing in a place like this? I gave her a questioning look, and the crew went over to her in a hurry. “What are you doing here?” Gawain asked.
“Can you… help me?” She asked in a small, frail voice. “They have my brother in there. They’re holding him hostage. We were taken from our village, and coerced into joining them. I joined only so I can move around freely, but they still have my brother, Shome still. He wouldn’t give into their coercion. Can you help me get him back?” We nodded.
“Of course we will.” We climbed into the elevator with her, and Gawain used the ability to move the floor. She looked visibly scared at that too, but seemed to calm upon realizing Gawain was doing it. “What’s your name?” Korbin asked the girl.
“Evanna.” She said in a timid, quiet voice. Evanna. I promise you, we will get you and your brother out of here.

Chapter Text

We arrived in a room that seemed void of just about anything. It's very dark, and glancing around yielded me nothing. Gawain thought of the idea of dropping some purple liquid into Aiden's eyes? I don't know exactly what he was going for there, but it didn't yield the outcome he wanted. It did… something. Which caused Aiden to scream. They're just being them again, I should be used to this by now. Ginevaa and the girl, Evanna started walking in a direction that I assume Evanna is helping guide Ginevaa towards. I noticed them walking, and followed them. The path we are taking is the only lit up pathway in the entire area, and that doesn’t go unnoticed. “It seems this is the only area that is lit.” Aiden points out. “I don’t like it.” I shrugged. “It might just mean this pathway is the most traveled one.” I bring up, earning a slight nod from Aiden. As we walked this path, it seemed like it was lined with candles, beads, incense, and religious icons. One that sticks out is the spiral shape we all have come to know. Korbin recognized it from her dreams, as we would assume she would. We continued down this path for what seemed like forever, before Aiden grabbed Ginevaa’s arm, stopping her. “Do you know where we are going?” She just tilted her head.
“Following her.” She gestured to Evanna.
“Great, so you don’t know where we are going.” Aiden responded begrudgingly. I couldn’t help but let out a huff of laughter. “Just like when you were dragging us here.” I couldn’t help but point out as he let go of her wrist. We kept walking for, again, what seemed like hours before we came across a wall. “We came all this way for a wall?” Aiden remarked snarkily. As we walked closer, a door appeared to the side of the wall. It appeared to be an elevator, like the one from earlier. “Opening this door will make it very loud. Through here will be The Dwelling. My brother is through The Dwelling, down another elevator and in an office. The man we are looking for is Abrassal” We all nodded, and she opened the door using that contraption she had in her hand. The door opened loudly, as she said it would, before we continued on deeper into the structure. This path is also lit up. Well, it’s lit until we come across a Y in the path. The way to the left is pitch dark, while the one going straight is lit up. “Which way do we go?” Korbin asked.
“Stick to the path. This place is an endless maze. The path lit up is the way we need to go.” Gawain started walking towards the path that’s blacked out. Aiden went and grabbed his arm before he could go anywhere. “Gawain, I know how cool it would be to explore this place, but we can’t afford to get lost here. Not while we are here for something.”
“Let's stick to the path for now. We can explore more once we do what we came here for.” I added my input, not that it really mattered. Gawain reluctantly nodded, and we continued on the lit path. She was quite stealthy, checking every corner to make sure we weren’t going to get caught by anyone. As we approached another impasse, the way to our left was blacked out again, but I managed to catch a mechanical sound coming from it. As much as I want to see what that is, we have to stick to the lit path. We continued on the path, up until Evanna tripped up and fell. She let out a small scream, and fell into Gawain's arms as he caught her. “Sorry everyone, I didn’t mean to scream like that.” My head shot around, looking to see if her scream caught anyone's attention. Thankfully, it seemed like it didn’t, though I did catch the sounds of footsteps up ahead. They were extremely faint, and I couldn’t tell which direction they were coming towards. “Why’d you scream, what happened?” Aiden asked from his position in the back of our single file line. “I just slipped up, sorry guys.” I looked back from my spot in front of Aiden to take a glance at him. His eyes seemed to have narrowed. “Are we sure we can trust you?”
“What? I’m asking you guys for help. Why wouldn’t you be able to trust me?” She asked, almost hurt by the question. Aiden didn't respond, and we continued on our way. I slowed my steps, and leaned over to ask, “Why did you ask that?”
“If she jumped, she must be hiding something.’ He then shrugged. “We’re in a new area that I don’t quite trust.” I gave a knowing shrug, and made my way back up to my spot in the line. We stopped towards what Evanna said was the beginning of The Dwelling. There, we formulate a plan. Ginevaa seemed to not want to be a part of the plan, because she hovered up to the ceiling, wrapped her wings around herself, and started making her way to the entrance. I don’t keep watch of her though, because the four of us formulate a plan. Korbin uses her magic to change the colors of her outfit, and to change Gawain's look slightly, making the color of his hair different. Gawain then drops the purple liquid into his eyes, and it changes the pupils to a very vibrant purple. Like Korbin's. Aiden begs him to do it to his eyes, and he complies. “We can play as siblings.” Gawain said, which is actually a very good idea. I hang back.
“I don’t think I can join you, because of… well, the obvious.” I gestured back to my wings. They suggested I stay back with Evanna, and I agreed. They then went up ahead in a sort of stealthy manner.
It didn’t take them very long to get caught though. I don’t quite catch what happened exactly, but all I do know is they were caught. They tried to play it off really nicely, that they were new recruits to the Vortex, which I thought was a very good idea. I guess it worked? I couldn’t really tell. All I know is I heard them start walking away. I waited until I couldn’t hear their footsteps before I took Evanna’s hand and started walking towards the entrance. We hid behind the entrance, and I used my real wing to hide Evanna. Just in case I get caught, at least it would just be me. Once I was convinced no one was around, the sound of confusion and anger coming from the crew and the cultists confirming this, I walked into the big circular room… to see the three members on the bottom floor of this area, Gawain, currently unconscious. That must have been the commotion I heard. There was another man down there that was also unconscious, who looked… concerningly close to what Gawain looked like when he wasn't in disguise. That’s probably not good. Everyone is currently surrounding the two, Aiden getting visibly upset with the cultists about whatever just happened. Good on Aiden, protecting the team. I glanced back up to see Ginevaa over on the other side of the room. She dropped down at the elevator and is currently trying to get it open. I felt Evanna nudge me and pointed. “That’s the elevator that will take us to Shome.” I nodded and we both made our way over to the elevator as quietly as we could, not that it mattered all too much. As to not scare Ginevaa, I gave her a gentle tap on the shoulder. “Evanna here can open the door for us.” She gave a nod, and moved out of the way. Evanna then looked to me, as if for confirmation. I decided to ask her a question instead. “Do you want us to help you get your brother back?” She nodded. “Then go ahead and put that device in there.” I said with a smile.
“It will be loud.” I nodded so she knew I heard her before she put the device in the notch and pressed a button. I kept my back turned to make sure no one from downstairs would come up, and also hoping that the crew that was downstairs was making out okay. After what felt like forever, but in reality was only maybe a few minutes, the elevator came. We climbed in, immediately noticing that there was another notch. We moved out of the way for Evanna. She once again looked to me for confirmation. I gave a firm nod, and she put the device in. The door closed and we started going down. Ginevaa took her place at the entrance of the elevator, and I kept Evanna close, almost wrapping my wing around her protectively. It takes another excruciatingly long time before the elevator stopped, and the door opened. We saw a room off to the left, and double doors down the hall. Ginevaa started to move, but Evanna grabbed her wrist to stop her. “The room to the left is the one he’s in.” Ginevaa gave a curt nod and held up a finger before she walked over to the door. She came back mere seconds later, and we cracked open the door. The room was dimly lit, extremely disgusting, but filled with things one would see from a wealthy person. However, something that is quite strange is that there is not a hint of metal around in the room. A very tall, buff man stood across the room from us, messing with something. Ginevaa held up another finger, and made her way into the room. I took her place in the doorway, and I could see a boy, late teens, strapped to a chair off to the left of the room. That seemed to be where she went. She got him out of the restraints, but had to hide behind his chair as the man, who I assumed was Abrassal, came back over. He bent down, a smirk present on his face as he said, “If only you complied. You would have saved yourself so much suffering.” He let out a small laugh, before he turned and gave a swift punch to the boy's chest. Immediately upon him doing that, he stiffened and let out a frustrated yell. Ginevaa must have zapped him. I ran in once I knew it was safe, and grabbed Shome. As I made my way to the door, I heard Abrassal compose himself. “Go!” Ginevaa yelled as I left the room with Shome. Evanna let out a cry of relief as I brought him out. I guided them both to the elevator shouting, “Are you coming!?” I heard a brief yelp before she responded with a
“I’ll be right behind you.” Alright, I will believe her. I helped bring them to the elevator before I almost literally smacked myself. I would never leave her in there all by herself against a man like that. As soon as I thought that, I heard a snap and a scream of pain. A scream that came from Ginevaa. Shit. I handed Shome off to Evanna. “I have to help. Get into the elevator. You are not going to want to be out here when he comes out.” I then ran to the door, beating on it. “Hey, asshole. Your fight is with me!” I made as much noise as physically possible so he would come out to me. I heard a crash from inside the room, and he opened the door. He smirked at me. “Oh, it’s you. Have you finally learned that there is such a thing as trying too hard? All you’re good at is getting your friends killed. Have you learned that you can’t save everyone? You aren’t capable of that.” My eyes widened.
“How…” I’m cut off by a force pushing me backwards. I crash into the wall behind me, my hands being held back by a force I can’t see. He then grabbed me by the throat, and squeezed. The ability to breathe stopped almost immediately. I couldn’t even bring my hands up to my throat to attempt to pull them off of me. My vision started to become fuzzy, black rimming what I could still see. Once I could feel my consciousness starting to slip, he threw me aside like a ragdoll. All at once I could breathe again. That… was too much like my dreams. How did he know about those? I attempted to pull myself up, and after a little I was able to fully stand back up, albeit not well. I leaned against the wall behind me to keep myself upright. “Is that all you’ve got hotshot?” I taunted. His eyes flickered towards Shome and Evanna, and his smirk widened. “Oh, so this is what this is about.” He sauntered over to them, and I stiffened. “What is this about Evanna? You’re supposed to be a follower. Not go against your leader.” He veered around and went to punch her. I couldn’t let that happen. I ran and jumped to attack him. However, I fell slightly short. My claws did make contact with his leg, cutting through his pant leg and some skin. He let out another frustrated yell, and his eyes locked onto mine. “Your fight is with me, not them.” His smirk never left his face as he said, “Oh you’re dead.” Keeping the fire in my eyes I respond with, “I’d like to see you try.” It’s then that Ginevaa came out of the room, loudly saying, “Hey, your golden goose is over here.” Good, get him away from these two. I hope she can handle him. He turned and made his way over to her, and I attempted to make my way over to attack him. However, that same force pushed me away from him, and I realized I couldn’t get close to him, at least not right now. I glanced over to see Evanna frantically trying to help Shome. She was tearing strips off of her shirt to wrap his wounds that didn’t seem to stop bleeding. I went over and also tore some stips from my shirt to wrap his wounds with. With my help, his bleeding stopped almost completely, and he seemed to come to a little more. “Get out of here the second you can” I said before standing up and turning back around to face Abrassal. I knew I couldn’t do anything from this distance, so I made my way closer to him as Ginevaa backed up slightly. The elevator door opened, and I almost cried when I saw Korbin and Gawain. Gawain looked pissed off, adjusting the grip on his trident before giving it a solid throw at his head. However, the momentum slowed and it was tossed slightly to the side. The staff hit my feet, and I tilted my head at it. Ginevaa seemed to have zapped him again, because electrical current traveled through his body. While he is stunned, I might as well ask questions. I got really close to him, hoping to not let anyone else know what I am going to talk to him about. “How the hell do you know what goes on in my dreams?” I asked with a hiss.
“Oh you mean the dreams about all of your friends dying? Oh, I see everything. You had quite a choice you could have made. Shame you didn’t choose. It would have been entertaining to see the outcome ” He doesn’t do anything to hide what he’s saying. “It’s your fault that happened to them, you know.”
“I know it’s my fault. You don’t have to keep reminding me.” I growled, trying very hard to keep my composure. “Obviously I do. Look at this, you’ve found yourself some more friends.”
“Why do you think I keep trying to goad your attacks! So you hurt me, not them.” I yelled, desperate to relay to my team that I don’t mean them any harm. “One member down, and one on its way. And you can do nothing to stop it.” I can’t do anything. He’s right. When have I ever done anything? I stuttered, trying to form words. But, no matter how much I tried, I was unable to make anything coherent. He then stood up fully, and turned to face Gawain and Ginevaa, a new energy in the room that I haven’t felt this entire fight suddenly making itself present. “Careful with that magic of yours, you might get someone else killed.” That must have been the switch she needed. Her eyes started to glow, and she let loose a burst of energy similar to the one back at the town. Only she didn’t look scared when she released it. She looked angry. The wave of energy passed through us without doing us any harm. But when it hit Abrassal, it sent him flying into the wall, an audible snap could be heard upon impact. She walked up to him, her eyes still glowing, and said, “Funny how you talked about my powers killing, when it was you who they killed.” He attempted to breathe, even for a second, but it was in vain as he took his last breath looking up at Korbin. It was over. I ran over to Ginevaa, administering her first aid for her injuries. I didn’t care about mine right now, my team means more to me. “Is everyone okay?” I asked. I didn’t get a response from anyone. Suddenly, an energy seemed to have left the room. One that was not Abrassal. Strange. The energy came back, and it seemed to have gone into Korbin. She twitched for a few seconds, before the trance she seemed to have been in earlier broke. However, she still moved slightly like she was in one. She walked briskly towards the double door at the end of the hall, Ginevaa who was still on the ground moving swiftly out of her way. I followed her, knowing Gawain would want to be with Ginevaa after everything that went down. And, selfishly, I did not want to be alone after what just happened. Inside the room is a vortex. Just a very large vortex. Korbin seemed infatuated with it. “This is what I was trying to find.” She became quiet for a second, before she continued. “The saying I heard was only half of it. There’s more. ‘The wall is gone. But you must dress for the party’” she seems to repeat as if those words were fed right into her head. “So, what does that mean?” I asked quietly, not trusting my own voice right now to not betray me. “I don’t know. But, I guess we will find out won’t we?” Yes, yes we will.

Chapter Text

"So, um, that was something wasn't it." Korbin said, seeming to be herself again. I could only nod, and let out a sharp laugh. "Yeah, you're telling me." No one saw my encounter with Abrassal, and if they did it doesn't seem like anyone cares. Good. Let's keep it that way. "I'm sorry about what happened back there. I… I wasn't myself." She said, her head hung low. "You're back though, right?" I keep my sentences short, not trusting longer sentences, or anything that requires me to think too hard. She nodded. “I-I think so, yeah.” I shrugged.
“That’s all that matters then.”
“Yeah, yeah you’re right.” We’re silent for a bit before I spoke up.
“So, an invitation to a party? Do you have any idea what that means?” She shakes her head.
“No, but I do know where to go.” I tilted my head.
“Oh, then that’s good. Why don’t we go and check on the others before we get Aiden and head to that location.” She nodded, but stopped me before we walked out. “Before we go, are you okay?” I let out a harsh laugh.
“Yeah, I’m okay.” I cut myself off quite quickly, not trusting myself to speak much more.
“Are you sure?” She pressed, hoping to get something out of me.
“Yeah, I’m sure.” I gave her a smile, opened the door and gave her a small gesture to go on ahead of me. She obliged and went on ahead. When we walked out, we saw Gawain and Ginevaa on the ground. Before we could see much more, she threw up one of her wings so it covered them both. I took a hesitant step forward, and spoke in a more fragile voice. “Ginevaa, are you okay?” I didn't hear a response from her, so I turned to Gawain. “Gawain, are you and Ginevaa okay?” I didn’t see him, but I heard him say, “Yeah, we’re okay.” I nodded.
“Well, when you get the chance, can you check on the kids?”
“In a minute, yeah.” I nodded once again, and waited for her to put her wing down. Whatever was going on, she didn’t want us to see it. Finally, after a bit, she lowered her wing. I took that moment to rush past them, sneaking a glance at them as I passed. Ginevaa looked a little worse for wear, but Gawain has her now. I made it to the two kids, to see Shome not doing much better since the last time I saw him. My hasty patchwork is doing work right now, but I can very easily tell it is not doing enough. Evanna is trying her best to make sure her brother is okay. “Are you two okay?” I asked despite already knowing the answer.
“I’m fine. But Shome is still not doing well.” Yeah, I figured.
“Once my team is ready to go, we can get out of here okay? Just hold on until then.” They nodded, and I made my way to Ginevaa and Gawain. I stood a little bit away from Gawain, and knelt down. “Ginevaa, are you okay?” She didn’t answer me verbally, but she gave a stiff nod. “If you both are ready, we can head upstairs to gather Aiden before we need to go do what needs to be done.” Gawain stood up almost hastily, and turned to Abrassal's room.
“I want to explore some, if you don’t mind.” I shrugged.
“That’s fine.” I glanced around to where everyone was situating themselves. Korbin made home against the wall near the door to The Vortex, and the kids haven’t moved from their location by the elevator. I made home on a wall away from everyone, clicking my claws against each other. I have never really been in a situation like that one before, so doing this is a new thing. Call it grounding myself if you will.

“How funny, you almost got another team member killed. You really are pathetic.” I flinched at the all too familiar voice from my dreams. I’m not dreaming, how is this happening? I didn’t move my gaze, keeping them on my claws as I continued to kling them together. “You do know that you were the cause of the first encounter, right?” I heard the figure laugh. “Not this group of people, but your first set of friends. That encounter. It was your fault, you know.” I tried to ignore it, it was lying. It had to be. “Have you heard of Jagged Dream? Of course you haven’t.” It mocked. “They are a faction that believes war and death are the only way to move forward. You were supposed to be a casualty that would have sent your country into a rally. An impure human such as yourself would have been perfect bait. Too bad your friends were there to take the fall with you.” I felt the figure get close to my face. “You hear that? You are the cause of the attack against your friends. You were the cause of them almost dying.” I could hear a smile on its lips as it said that. This is a hallucination. It has to be. It can’t actually be here, can it? I noticed that the klinking of my claws has been falling on deaf ears. I noticed I am still doing it, but I didn't hear any sound. Time to move onto plan B. I stopped clinging them together, and placed my index and middle claw against the base of my wrist, right where my jacket meets my wrist, and I dragged them harshly upwards. Instantly, I felt the figure's presence leave me, and I was back in that hallway. I looked down to see those two lines up my wrist, along with some older scratches from the last time I did this, and hastily pulled my sleeve back down overtop of them.
Gawain and Ginevaa returned shortly after that, and I stood up quickly. “Are we ready to head down now?” I asked in a rushed voice.
“We haven’t checked in the room you and Korbin went into yet.” He said as the two of them wandered into the room down the hall. Alright, I guess we'll wait then. Korbin and I made eye contact, and waited. That is, until we heard a loud shout from within the room. “We need some help here!” Gawain shouted, and we could clearly hear commotion from within. I stopped myself from rolling my eyes, and Korbin and I opened the door to see what was going on. The little droid that did not move an inch when we were in there is currently attacking them. Why is it hostile towards them? It wasn’t towards us. Then, something clicks in my broken and beaten mind. “Guys, maybe we should leave. It might be protecting this area, so if we leave the room it should stop attacking us.” I opened the door behind me, and held it open in the hopes to get at least one of them out of the room. It was in vain though, when the thing attacked, hitting Ginevaa. Gawain and Ginevaa continued to attack it, and Ginevaa continued to get hit by this thing. I let out a sigh, let go of the door, and took a few steps into the room. “Hey, why don’t you leave my friends alone.” I shouted, hoping to catch its attention. I don’t think I did anything though, because not much later, Gawain gets a good swing in on it, and destroys its core. Korbin and I exchanged glances as we walked out of the room. “I really hope that didn’t mess anything up.” She says, and I am inclined to agree. The two of them come out, and drop five cyphers on the ground. Cyphers are, lets just call them one time use items that can get pretty powerful. And they had five here. “Pick whichever ones you want.” Gawain says, gesturing to us. I have no idea what anything is, but I picked up a headband. It’s called a Conflict Advisor. I flinched when I put it in my bag, remembering that if I have more than 2 cyphers on me at once, there is a chance of something bad happening. I braced for something, and when nothing happened I let out the breath I was holding. Once we all got our bearings, we made our way to the elevator. “You two ready?” They nodded, Evanna shifted her gaze to the floor.
“Can you get the elevator?” I nodded, and picked up the device. “Stick the thin end in that hole there. The elevator is always the last button.” I nodded, and did as I was told. The elevator opened immediately, and I gestured for everyone to go inside. I pulled the thing out, and inserted it inside, doing the exact same thing I did for the outside. The elevator closed, and started to ascend. I continued to klink my claws together as the elevator went up. Upon our arrival, the door opened to people pointing swords at us. “What were you doing up there?” Niall asked us, sword pointing directly at our group. I quickly made my way in front of the sword tips, putting my hands up in sort of a surrender motion. “We were just speaking to Abrassal.” I’m technically not wrong about that. “How did you get up there?” His gaze turned to Evanna. “You. It was you. We trusted you. How could you go against us?” I unsheathed my claws, holding them in front of me. “You go anywhere near her, I will not hesitate to hurt you.” I growled. They seemed to hesitate before backing up slightly. “Did she take you up there? Why did you want to see Abrassal?”
“She needed our help to get her brother back. Why are the two of them so vital anyway?”
“They’re a part of a greater plan. Abrassal said we needed to keep them close.”
"Well, we might have taken care of him for you." I said almost hesitantly. They looked at me in disbelief. "What do you mean by that?" I scratched my arm.
"Well, we killed him." The whole room went silent, remorse and almost relief showing on their faces. It’s then I heard a woman shout. “Evanna! Shome!” She seemed really stressed, and started running towards them in some sort of hurry. She didn’t seem like she would hurt them, but just to be safe I held her back un-threateningly, and glanced back at the kids. They nodded, and I let her through. She ran to them and started making a fuss over Shome. “Who did this to you?” She cried.
“That would be Abrassal.” I said matter-of-factly. That seemed to have gotten the crowd angry. “He would never do such a thing! Sure he was a little unorthodox, but he was our only connection to The Vortex.”
“Well, I have some news for you then. Korbin here also has a link to The Vortex.” They look at me in disbelief. “No, that’s not possible. There should only be one.”
“There is more! I knew it!” The girl from our first encounter exclaimed. “There isn’t just Abrassal that has access.” They looked from her to me, to Korbin.
“Well, then what exactly did it say to you?” I turned to Korbin.
“Would you like to tell them what you heard?” She started talking, and because of my charm and how much I was talking about Korbin, everyone in the room looked at her in a better light than before. Little by little, the members lowered their weapons, but didn’t lose their fire. I did the same. “Well, where is this party?” One asked.
“Can we gather our friend first? He’s over there.” I pointed to the area I last saw him. They let out a sigh, but slowly started making their way over there. “Come on.” Niall said, and we hurried up to catch up with him. He took us to a room with a wooden plank as a door. Niall started to move the stuff, but Aiden was not budging. “Maybe if friends try to get him out, he’ll cooperate.” I suggested. He grumbled to himself, but let me at the door. “Aiden?” He does not respond. I pushed at the door, noting that it would move if I pushed hard enough. “Aiden, we will wait out here for you to come out whenever you’re ready, but we can’t wait long.” I stepped back, and Gawain stepped forward. “Ay yo Jo, my man.” He said in some sort of accent. Within the speed of sound, Aiden was out of the room and sauntering towards us. “Arthur!” He answered in an accent too, and gave Gawain a hug. Oh, I see. He was keeping up the act. I block out most of what's going on, because I don't have anything to do with it. He then turned to me and said, "You're a new face. What's your name sweetheart?" He's really getting into this. "Aiden, the act is up. You don't have to play it off anymore." He just stared at me. I sighed, but put on a fake smile. "I'm Saga. And what is your name?" He perked up immediately. "I'm Jo. Nice to meet you." He shot his hand out to shake mine. I register all of nothing that happens after that, only Aiden also knows the way. Well let the two of them lead the way, Niall and a woman that apparently Aiden knows come with us. We go down the original pathway we started on, which was all lit up. We then took a turn down the dark hallway from before, the one Gawain almost went down when we first got in here. As we walked down the pitch dark hallway, I heard their footsteps turn one way, and I went to turn that way too, only running into Gawain as I do. I helped guide Gawain down the right way, keeping a hand on his arm since Ginevaa is on his back. Niall yells from behind us, and I turned to see his face smacked up against the wall, the woman laughing at him as he held his nose. Gawain then remembered that he had a torch and handed it to me once we lit it. I held it in front of us, and walked next to him so we could see the path we walked down. We kept on walking, until we came across a door. Unlike the pathway, which was pitch black with the exception of the light coming from the torch, the door was lit up. Aiden and Korbin walked in almost immediately, and the rest of us followed. Immediately upon me walking in, I felt something different. My mind felt like it was working a mile a second, until it all of a sudden just stopped. I blinked, almost too stunned to speak. I looked around to see people in similar situations, but also different. Ginevaa was covered in some orange goop, Gawain was busy petting some black demon goat, Aiden was on the ground, and Korbin landed on the ground. I ran over to her, and asked, "Are you okay? What's going on here?" Or, that's what I wanted to ask. What came out of my mouth was some ancient language that has been dead for millenia. She looked at me, and tilted her head questioningly. "I'm sorry, what did you say?"
"Are you okay?" I asked again in this language. "I can't understand you." She said, a look of concern on her face. I gestured to her, and pointed up and then to her again. She didn't seem to understand, so I just brushed her off and looked around the room. There were crystals to my left and right, and a large ramp leading to a platform in the middle of the room. I walked to the crystal to my right, and touched it. I felt a very large amount of mental energy flowing through me, and for a second I thought it made me speak normally again. I turned to Korbin, and asked, "Can you understand me now?" Her look of confusion said it all. I clicked my tongue, and let go. I then turned my gaze to the ramp. Passing Gawain, who was still with his goat, and Ginevaa, who went out of the room to pull the orange goo off of her, I walked up the ramp. When I made it to the top, two large shapes appeared, taking the appearance of a snowflake of sorts. I tilted my head, gauging if these things are dangerous or not, when I get hit with a wave of curiosity. They slowly started moving towards me, and I started sprinting towards them. Then, something weird happened. My mind told me to hurt my friends. To have no regard for their safety or my own. I mean, it's what my mind is telling me. It has to be the right thing to do. I turned back around, and sauntered up to the nearest team members, that being Gawain, and put a hand on his chest to stop him from walking. "Strange situation we were out into, huh. It seems like you got a good one." I noticed I was speaking common again, so everyone could understand me. Perfect. "Yeah, it is strange isn't it." He responds with, oblivious to my sudden change. I want the snowflakes to attack everyone, so to help trigger the attack I smiled almost sinisterly and unsheathed my claws and dug them into his chest. I saw something in his eyes, but he doesn't have time to attack because the snowflakes do first. They managed to hit everyone but me. I managed to move out of the way, and out of reach of Gawain. They all attempted to hit the snowflakes, but with very little success. They attacked again, and it ended with my team looking worse for wear. Korbin set herself off, the same thing happened back at the town. Aiden picked her up and attempted to bring her away from us. I seemed to have snapped out of whatever trance I was under, and the events of the last few seconds came crashing down. The snowflake, one of them, was above Gawain, Ginevaa, and I. I swung to hit it, but missed. After I glanced around to see the state everyone was in. I did this. I caused this to happen. I freeze, too locked in my head to process much of what's going on. That is, until the snowflake above us struck. Gawain and Ginevaa both dodged the attack. Good, I'm glad they did. I, however, got struck. I deserved to get hit. I didn't even really try to move out of the way. I began to feel the snowflake trying to get back into my mind. Shit, that can't be good. I glanced over to Aiden and Korbin who had Niall and the woman helping them against the snowflake above them. They seemed to do significant damage to that one. Good, they aren't doing well, so they can't afford to get hit more. The snowflake took control of me once again, and I turned quickly to Gawain who was next to me, Ginevaa curled up in him. As I went to attack him once again, a blade fell from his front. So, Ginevaa also tried to attack him. Poor Gawain. I feel really bad, but it's like something wants me to attack him. Maybe subconsciously I'm attacking him because in my dream I saved him? This is all just some sick game. Luckily with the clank of the blade falling, it distracted me enough that I didn't hurt him. Niall came over to us, attempting to attack the snowflake but missing. Ginevaa zapped it, causing some significant damage. A cloud appeared above the snowflake, and the goat came crashing down, crushing what remained of the snowflake. I glanced over to Aiden and Korbin to see their snowflake was also gone. The situation came crashing down on me. They're all beaten and bloodied. That, the reason they're all like this, is my fault. Maybe that figure is right, I am going to be the reason this team dies. I started backing away from my team, not stopping until I hit a wall. I then sank down to the floor, pulled my knees up to my chest, laid my head on them, and placed my hands on the top of my head. They should just leave me here. If I'm not with them, then this sort of thing wouldn't happen. They wouldn't be in danger of their own team members going against them, just like what happened with my other team.

Chapter Text

With the snowflakes gone, the team needs a few minutes to calm ourselves down. Niall beckons the group to gather in the middle of the room. “You all seem a little worse for wear. Come on into the middle of the room. I can help you.” Most of the team complies, except for Aiden and me. I hear Niall call out to me. I slowly lift my head to look at him. “You might want to come in here. It will help you feel better.” Rel says, smiling gently at me. I know I don’t deserve it, but I get up, go over, and sit down. Rel lays a hand on my shoulder, and I can’t help but flinch as she does. Aiden also doesn’t come over. “Aiden, you should come over here too. You’re really injured.” Ginevaa points out. Aiden simply glared, but came over.
“I guess I have to. So the flies stop telling me what to do.” Niall activates the machine, and it’s like a weight was lifted from my shoulders. The attack from the snowflakes took its toll on us all, but with that machine, it healed some of our wounds. Once the machine finished its work, Aiden stood up and walked away immediately. “You all are bugs under my feet. You are all useless to me.” I shifted my gaze to him.
“Is that what you really feel about me?” I asked in a hushed voice. He glares at me, but walks away. It makes sense. I did cause a lot of pain within the group today. Gawain notices that both Korbin and I are not doing so hot, and gives us hugs. It’s really appreciative, but I don’t deserve their comfort. I flinch as he hugs me, but I don’t move away. Aiden is very obviously walking towards the platform that the snowflakes came from. As he walked up to the platform, hands grabbed him. I ran towards him, terrified that if he did that, he would be hurt. Upon me stepping onto the platform, faint screams could be heard within my mind. I flinched as I heard them start, and continue up. He comes out of the weird pool, the arms dunked him in, covered in some white layer that makes him look like he was made out of some plaster. “Aiden.” I go to make sure he’s okay, before he unsheathes his arm blades, a glare prominent on his face. I stopped immediately, and threw my hands up in surrender. “Stay out of my way.” Gawain hears this, and goes to attack him. He made contact with Aidens arm blade, damaging it significantly. As he goes to pull it back to fix it, Gawain shoves a pill of some sort into his mouth, making him drop almost immediately, causing his arm blade to snap off instead. “... Let’s go back and sleep some. No one here looks like they’re doing very well. Maybe if we sleep some of this off, it may be easier for us to continue our travels.” Everyone agreed, not like I expected them not to. We leave, Korbin following a bit behind. She seemed to have stayed behind for a second, before joining our crew with a swift jog. I laid Aiden in one of the beds in the rooms from the meeting area, and took the other. I first activated my Harmony Lamp, which will help everyone recover their energy, and help heal their wounds. I laid in bed and waited for sleep to take me over.

“Now you see what happens when you get close to people.” My head shoots up, looking around for the voice that I know is talking to me. “You got everyone hurt. You almost got your team, your friends, killed.” I felt the figures breath against my neck, as they stroke my hair. “Don’t you think I already know that?!” I rip my hair from its fingers, whipping around to look at the figure. “So, why are you still with them? Why do you still hang around them? All you’re going to do is hurt them again.” I can hear the smirk on their lips as it talks to me.
“I-I know.” I stumble over my words, the fire that was in my voice dissipating. “It… it seems like they want to keep me around. I don’t know why. All I will do is hurt them.” The figure grabs my chin harshly, jerking my head. “No, they don’t. It is just what you want to think.” It says harshly, throwing my head aside. I felt something scratch my face as it threw me aside, and I drew my hands up to my face. Fresh blood trickles down my chin. I turn back to the figure to see claws where there never used to be any. It looks like it also has claws, very similar to the ones I have, if not exact replicas. "You want to feel wanted by this group. You feel bad for the first attack on your first group of friends, and want to make amends with this group. But, that didn't work. You only ended up hurting them too. Everyone would be better off if you weren't with them."
"Then kill me. You always do. Just get it over with." The figure seems to have perked up at that. “I was waiting for you to ask.” Just as soon as it was in front of me, it wasn’t. I felt a crunching from behind me, and I felt my wing bend and break. As I went to shout at it, it appeared in front of me, and stabbed me through the throat.
I woke up with a start, looking around the room. I see Aiden still asleep in the bed I put him in, and to separate myself from everyone I picked up my harmony lamp, stashing it away, and stepping out of the room. I sat away from all the rooms, with my back against the wall, and my head up against my legs. I waited like that, until I heard the doors of the rooms open, and the rest of the team came out. The cult members served us breakfast, and we sat together to eat. “So, just so everyone is aware, we will all have to go back into that room. That pool Aiden went into, yeah we will all have to go into it.” Korbin said as we are eating.
“I… Don’t know if I should stay with the group. All I’ll end up doing is hurting everyone.” I look down as I say that. “At this point, who hasn’t hurt the team. Believe me, we all want you here.” Korbin convinces me. I smiled at her remark, but did not quite believe her. Well, if we need to go to that room again, might as well. I stand up to go to the room, when one of the cult members comes out. They pull Gawain, Ginevaa, and Aiden away. Aiden sternly looks at me, before saying, “Stay here. Don’t go anywhere.” I gave him a smile, and agreed not to go anywhere. The three of them left, leaving Korbin and I back at the table. "Are you okay?" She asked me. I gave her a curt laugh, before responding. "Define okay." She responded with a sad smile. "Then you're not okay. Do you want to talk about it?" I shrugged, before dumping the entirety of my backstory upon her. She listened very intently, not stopping me from talking. Once I finished, she placed a hand on my shoulder. "You didn't get them killed though, right? They're all still okay." She reassured me.
"I mean, yeah. But we all got hurt enough that there are lasting damages. I mean, hell look at my wings." I gestured to my one metal wing.
‘But think about it, you all made it out.” I mean, she isn’t wrong. Out of everyone here, I would have expected her to understand. Before we can finish talking, the rest of the crew come back out from where they were, and we all head out to the pool room. I flinched when we walked in, and I knew I needed to go back on that platform. Gawain went quickly to get himself dunked into the pool. Ginevaa got sidetracked slightly, and seemed to have messed with one of the crystals that surrounded the room. A bright flash of light blinds us, and when it clears up we are met with… Ginevaa. But, different somehow. She’s taller, more plump, has longer hair, her wings are larger and blacker, and she has on a different outfit. Is this the same Ginevaa?” “Umm, Ginevaa?” Korbin asks.
“Who’s Ginevaa?” The girl questions. Okay, answers my question.
“Then, who are you?” I ask.
“I’m Jolene.” She responds. “And, would you be able to explain where I am?” The whole group hesitated before Gawain spoke up, seeming to have come over after he swam in the pool. “We’re in the cultists building. What happened to Ginevaa?” “I don’t know what you mean. One minute I was with my family in my town, and the next, I was here.” Her voice starts to tremble slightly. Another flash of light emitted from the crystal, and Jolene was soon replaced with Ginevaa. Ginevaa had a small black fruit held close to her chest. “Ginevaa? Are you okay?” I asked, hesitating to place a hand on her shoulder. She nodded, clenching her hand around the fruit. “Do you want me to go into the pool first?” She nodded, refusing to talk. I nodded, and turned to face the pool. Aiden and Korbin both grab my hands. “Are you going to be okay up there?” I hesitantly nodded, and walked to the ramp. The quiet screams started again, gradually getting louder as I walked. I ran the rest of the way, stopping at the small platform at the end. A metallic arm grabbed me gently, before dunking me into a pool of some sort of thick liquid. I come out very soon after, and it places me back on the platform. I ran back down the ledge, and almost let out a sign of relief. Ginevaa goes next, choosing to fly over instead of walking. Smart, it avoids some of the screams. As she's doing that, I try to get myself to calm down some. It wasn't bad, what happened there. But, the screams threw me back to my past, and I can't have that. Not yet. Aiden seemed to see my discomfort, and gave me a nudge. He pulled out a picture and showed it to me. Aw, that's nice of him. "This is a picture of the people who used to travel with me."
"Oh, what happened to them?" I asked.
"Maybe if we see them someday we can ask them." Alright, ominous much. I glanced down at the photo, and the air left my lungs. The people in the photo are of my old team. My friends. "How did-" I'm cut off by Aiden frantically putting the photo away, allowing me to catch a glimpse of the other photo in his hand. The other one is of my partner Ushal. How does he have a picture of xem? Did he know xem before xey became part of the team? I don't have the time to ask because Ginevaa flies back down to us, fully coated. We then set out to wherever we're going. Both Aiden and Korbin know the way, so the three of us just simply follow. We weave around the area, going down hallways that aren't lit up, down some that are, until we get to a room I'm pretty sure we haven't seen yet. In the room is a giant black hole looking… thing. My eyes widened as I looked at it. However, Aiden just simply turned to us, shot us two finger guns, and backed into the thing with the biggest grin on his face. "See you on the other side, suckers." Well, I trust him enough not to lead us into death. So, I do the exact same thing and go through the thing. Immediately I'm hit with overwhelming heat. Glancing around, we appear to be in an old looking room, everything inside, including the structure itself is falling apart. That can't be safe. The rest of the crew hops inside, and we start wandering. Sneaking a glance outside, it appears that we are not on Earth anymore. We're actually near the sun? I don't quite understand, but I won't spend too long thinking about it. We continue onward, because we won't go anywhere if we don't start moving. We wander into a room that's significantly hotter than the one we were just in. I honestly didn't even know that was possible. Taking a look around yielded us with a broken control panel within the room. As we all take a look at this panel, it dawns on me that maybe we won't be getting out of this one… but only time will tell I guess.

Chapter Text

This broken control panel seems to be controlling, or was controlling the shields to this room. The outer shields block out the heat coming from what I can only assume is the sun, which is a lot closer than any of us would like it to be. Thanks to Korbin though, we were able to deduce what the problem was, and with the help of Aiden, we got it back up and running. Almost instantly the room became less hot, indicating that the switch was the controls for this room and possibly some later on. Well, now that that's solved, we can move on. And so we do. Traveling further gives us more rooms in what feels like a maze. The next room we thoroughly investigated had a large… support beam? It appeared to be a support beam, but it gave off a lot of energy. So it wasn't a normal support beam. Then again, nothing in this place seems to be normal. Once again, going to Korbin yields us with answers. Apparently this support beam is used to charge up previously used cyphers. Which is great! I have my harmony lamp that I used just yesterday that could use a recharge. With guidance from Korbin, she tells me how to go about the recharge. And, well… let's just say it doesn't really go as planned. I don't know Numenera that well. I know I should, living in a world that's full of it. I just was never really able to wrap my head around it. Neither of my parents were any good at it, and when I traveled with my friends, that was Freya's job. She was the one that knew that stuff. So, when I went to do what Korbin said, apparently I didn't do it right, and it fried it completely. Well, I guess that's fine. Hopefully we don't get into a situation where we're gonna need it. I don't know if anyone else had any cyphers they needed to recharge, because I don't know what everyone has. We said goodbye to the energy beam, and moved on. Going forward gave us a pathway to the right that was just a small empty room. I made a mental note of it, just in case we need to outrun anyone, we can go and hide in there. It's dark, secluded, and not somewhere I'd expect someone to go into since it's so small. We found ourselves in another room, this one having a big glass screen of some sort, and more support pillars. It seemed to be a bigger room than most, seeing as it needs more than a few pillars to keep it up. As we walked in, I was last in our party. Which, I guess was good because I didn't really want this happening to anyone else. The floor crumbled underneath me, and trying to grab for a corner yielded me no results. I was about to accept my fate, when I felt a metallic hand shoot out and grab my wrist. "You'd really go and just let yourself die?" He shouted, as he pulled me back up into the ship. I gave him a sincere thanks, and glanced back down at the hole I was just dangling from. Under me appeared to be some sort of metal structure. Hmm, so if I fell I would have most likely gotten hurt, or possibly worse. I guess it was a good thing Aiden caught me then. After that anxiety inducing event, the five of us ventured to the pillars in this room. Upon closer inspection, these also don't appear to be normal pillars. I swear, is anything in this damn place normal? Korbin inspected them, and came to the conclusion that these are storage cells. For what, I don't really know, and don't really understand. But it seemed important to the rest of the crew, so I made sure to keep that in mind. "It feels alive." Korbin broke the small silence with that one simple sentence. "What do you mean it feels alive?" I asked. It's just energy. It couldn't be alive. "I don't know how exactly to explain it. But this energy feels like living energy. Like somehow it's alive. I don't know how else to say it." Tilting my head to inspect this thing, I didn't pick up on this energy she's talking about. But, again it could be because I'm stupid with that sort of thing. Glancing around the room, I noticed a door in the room. Gawain seems to have also noticed it, and the two of us made our way over to it. I moved out of the way for a brief second for Gawain to kick the door down. And when he does, we become face to face with an automaton. One that's geared up, and ready to fight.
So, you know our group by now, right? And you know that fights are always an interesting time. Well, this time was no different. Gawain, being our heavy hitter, tried to be front line. Which makes sense right? Well, if I wasn't standing in the doorway like a dummy, he could have. But, since it caught me off guard, I was stunned for a second and didn't have the time to react. The thing took a swing at me, cutting through my temporary armor, but not striking me directly. I went to tell the party that it wouldn't hurt us, when the skin beneath the hole started to burn. It burned like a sunburn, but a thousand times worse. And just like that, the hole closed. Well that jump started me. I move out of the way so Gawain can get one solid smack of his ax in. Ginevaa shocks the thing, and Korbin does her magic thing. Aiden takes a swing with his arm blade, and before I get out of range, I also swipe at it with my finger blades. I then hide behind the nearest wall, waiting my turn again. I know, it's cowardly. But, I'd rather not get hit again. Glancing around the wall, I caught Gawain taking another hefty chunk out of the automaton. The rest of us beating on it, along with everyone being dexterous enough to avoid getting hit, one more big swing was enough to destroy it. As it fell, it dropped the weapon it was carrying. Gawain, being the closest to it, picked it up. He clicked a button, and a beam of light emerged from the handle. It was able to be yielded like a sword, but it was light. How interesting. He keeps it, putting it away for now. Glancing around to make sure everyone is okay, we move on. But first, to make sure no one falls into the hole in the room, Ginevaa and Korbin fix it up… somehow. I think they just moved some debris over, and Korbin used her magic to do so. We move on into the very next room. Inside the room is yet another control console. However, this one has two buttons. Activate, and deactivate. From our limited knowledge of the area, we can conclude that these lead to the "living energy" pillars in the previous room. Going back into the previous room breaks yet another hole in the floor. Only this time, it's Gawain that falls through. Ginevaa caught him almost instantly, pulling him back up. That girl has reflexes to be jealous of. The previous room has that glass screen that none of us really looked at before leaving. So, upon further inspection, it appears there is a control panel for this screen too. After someone messes with it, the screen turns on. Or, well we thought it did. "Hello." A robotic voice called out. It sounded like it was coming from everywhere, perhaps a loudspeaker of some sort. Or maybe the intercom. "Um, hello?" Korbin responded. "Are you here to help?"
"Help? With what?" We respond.
"The ship. It's unstable. The shielding is not uniform in most areas, causing the whole ship's stability to break. You don't have long before it goes down."
"What about those things? What are they?" Ginevaa asked.
"Those are the inhabitants of this place. This Citadel is their home. But you can help us. If you go through that room, you'll come across the place where you can solve our problem."
"What is your name?" I asked. If these are all entities of this place, it has to have a name.
"You can call me Aerridomos." It answered immediately. So, we went one room over, to the control room, and right through the final door we came to a room that radiated so much energy that it felt physically charging to be in there. "This is The Wishing Well." Korbin breathed. So this is the place we've been trying to reach this entire time. "So, we use this wish to save the Citadel, right?" Korbin asks. I mean, that is an option. But, we're here. Why not make our own wishes? Glancing around, I found Aiden was not present. I left the room, the feeling of being charged immediately leaving as I do. "Aiden? Are you okay?"
"There's no way I'm letting you all waste your wishes on a station we know nothing about." He practically spits at me. I know where he's coming from. I don't really know how I feel about this either. But, then a thought comes to mind. "Well, we might not get out of this alive if we don't."
"We could just wish to not be on this ship anymore! I could finally get my dreams realized! I could…" he trails off, looking down at his palms. He then clenches them into fists. "I could be me." I know where he's coming from. This wish should be for us, and not for this place. But, if it's one wish, we all need to agree. "Let's go in there and see if we can come to an agreement." I glanced behind me at the door that housed the rest of the crew. "But we all need to agree." I feel a cold hand grasp mine. "No, Saga, you don't get it. You could have your party back. We could make our pasts right. We can't let them waste this." I opened and closed my mouth, trying to form words. "Let's talk to them." He pulls on my arm, trying to pull me towards him. "Saga, please. You know they've already made their decision." I start to get slightly frustrated at the way he's acting, though I understand why he is. "Then what do you suggest we do?"
"There's a mentally unstable witch, a child, and a murderer in there. Of course they're not going to listen." As much as I hate to agree with him, I do. There's no way we're going to change their minds. “I know. You’re right. I know we aren’t going to change their minds. They’re going to waste their wishes on things that don’t really matter to them.” Aiden nods his head.
“I love them, but they don’t know what actually matters.” He squeezed my hand as he continued to talk. As the grip gets stronger, the pain starts to intensify. However, I let him do it, because I know that this will make him feel better in the long run. “Well, they’re making their own wishes. What if we go and see if we can wish too. You could also hear the voice, and were able to lead us here, same as Korbin could. Maybe you also can get a wish.” I say with a bit of hopefulness in my voice. I don’t know everything that happened to him in the past, only that we share a little bit of the same background. Being outcasts in our town, and being ridiculed for being who we are. However, with his previous freak out, it appears that there is more to his story that he isn’t letting on. So, if he can get this wish it would be good for him. “You can fix yourself.” I say a little quieter. His hand that was gripping the life out of mine suddenly dropped to his side. “Yeah.” He said with an emotion I never really heard from him before. Hopelessness. I tilted my head, very confused. “You don’t sound as hopeful as I do. What’s wrong?” He turns towards the door, walking to it as he talks. “I just don’t trust them.” He’s quiet as he reached the door. “I don’t believe them.” I followed him to the door, standing behind him.
“What are you going to say, or do to them?” I asked, scared of what his answer would be. He turned to me, and for the first time this whole conversation, he looked me in the eyes. “Don’t worry about it. It’s been good. But I have a dream I need to fulfill.” He said with a newfound confidence that it almost made me flinch. Is he going to leave me? Leave us? I can’t stand the thought of losing someone. Not now. Not after everything the two of us have been through. “Wait, Aiden.” I grabbed his wrist to keep him from moving. “No, please.” Despite myself, my voice cracks. “I can’t lose you too.” He gently pries his wrist from my hand and takes it. He gently rubs his thumb over it, in an attempt to comfort me. “You don’t have to worry about losing me Saga. I’ll be here.” I get a hold of myself, cursing myself for showing that much emotion. “From how you’re talking, it sounds like you’re going to do something you might regret.” He shakes his head, a small smile present on his face.
“No, not something I would regret. But something the mechanic part of me would want.” I take a deep breath, trying to calm my racing anxieties.
“Just promise me you’ll come back. That you’ll come back to me.” He pulls me into a deep, comforting hug. “I promise you.” I wrap my arms around him, almost afraid that I will crush him. “Thank you.” We let go, and the two of us re-enter the room. "How does this wish thing work? Do we all get wishes, or is it one collective wish?" I ask, more for Aiden than for myself. The voice over the speaker speaks again. "You wishing for the ship to be fixed will not take any of your wishes from you." I turned and smiled at Aiden, knowing that he's going to get the thing he wanted. As a collective we wish for the ship to be fixed. A shimmering light envelopes the room we're in, and almost immediately the room feels colder than it was. I assume the ship's shields are better, blocking the sun out a lot more. “The Citadel is completely fixed. You may now ask for your own wishes.” Aerridomos says to us. A hopeful look appears on everyone’s faces. “Well, who wants to go first?” I ask. Gawain raises his hand, and we allow him to walk up to the radiant light that is the wishing well. None of us hear what it is that he wishes for, but something spectacular happens. After I assume he finished wishing, Ginevaa grows. And I mean in the literal sense. She grows at least a few inches. Her hair also becomes thicker and healthier looking, her wings appear to now have a blackish shine to them instead of being the dull black they used to be, and her face appears to be plumper than it was, giving her a healthy glow. Her eyes widen, and she smiles over at Gawain, tears in her eyes. “You used your wish on me?” She asked through an emotion filled voice. He nodded.
“Of course I did. Who else would I use it on?” She asks if she can go next, and none of us are against it. So, she also walks up to the wishing well, whispering her wish into it. After I assume she finishes, I suddenly feel more protected than I did. Like I have an invisible shield around me, that will protect me from harm. “What did you wish for?” I asked her as she returned to us.
“I wished that you all were protected. I care about all of you, and I don’t want to see any of you harmed.” I smile, unable to actually believe she would use her wish to benefit everyone but herself. Korbin hesitantly asks if she can go next, and we all let her. She goes up, and I assume she makes her wish. It appears that nothing happened that was quite obvious, and because of that I don’t openly ask her what she wished for. I tell Aiden that he can go next, specifically because if his wish isn’t granted, I want to make sure it is. He goes up to it, and when he returns, nothing really changed that much. Which surprised me. He said that he wanted to do something that would make the mechanic side of him happy. But, it doesn’t appear that anything changed. However, that doesn’t stop me from pulling him into a hug. “You really did keep your promise.” He smiles and pats me on the back. And finally, it comes to me. I hesitantly walk up to the well. “What is it that you want?” A very elegant voice asks me. “My friend over there, Aiden. I know he wanted something specific. I’m not sure what exactly it is, but it doesn’t appear that he got anything. I wanted to see if I could use my wish to grant whatever wish he had in mind.” The voice doesn’t speak for a bit of time, before finally breaking the silence. “He got what he asked for, though it might not appear like he did. What is it that you want?” That causes me to hesitate. What is it that I want? I mean, something does come to mind, but it is selfish. And almost none of my team seemed to have made selfish wishes. “You can alter anything that is within the confines of this ship, correct?”
“That is correct.” I take a shaky breath.
“Can I wish for my wing back?”
“Is that what you want?” I nodded. “Then you shall have it.” I felt something strange along my back, and when my vision cleared, my hand quickly shot behind me. Instead of the hard, cold feeling of metal I got the warm feeling of soft feathers. I almost cried right there and then. “Thank you for your help, young travelers. This place has been abandoned for quite some time. It could be yours, if you so choose. You deserve it.” This place could be ours? I mean, I won’t say no. We could have our own place. We could live here with everyone we care about. I can have my friends here. We all discuss things, and come to the conclusion that we want this place. “It is now yours. The Citadel thanks you.” We finally have a place that is our own. And we all promised to build it from the bottom up.