Michellin

Wanderers

Gavin felt the warmth from Envy's hands as he listened. When the elf said he was rambling from worry, he grinned. "I'll keep my eyes open. And I'll be careful." He said nothing about Envy's comment about vengeance. He had a point, but that didn't get rid of his need to get back at these blood mages for unleashing Ikegai upon him, Ziad, and Cordon. Just as the prospect of great danger didn't get rid of his curiosity over Amria. "I'll go find him, then. And when I get back, more lessons!" He called from over his shoulder as he headed out.

Climbing up to Ruli's house, he briefly spotted Ysaryn and Kire in the distance. He made a mental note to bring his Amrian knife along for the trip before hurrying up, admittedly excited despite his fears. He knocked on Ruli's door as he caught his breath. "Envy says you'll need to make a charm for me. One of his conditions," he said.

--

Kire walked arm in arm with Ysaryn, listening to her as she watched her step. "That's true. It's happened so often, and yet, I still ask myself how I could have known better, done better. The burden of leadership, eh?" She sighed, watching the water as it advanced and receded on the beach.

"Yes. You're not just allowed, you're invited." Kire smiled. "My officers can't exactly object to me," she added with a smirk. "You and Ruli--perhaps Gavin too, should he come with us. Word of warning though, there may be a lot of talk." She looked back out at the water again. "One of these days, hopefully after we retake the Capital, I should go for a swim around here." She bent, unlaced her boots, and pulled them off. Upright again, she carried her boots with her left hand while walking along the edge of the water, letting the incoming waves wet her feet.

Wanderers

Gavin looked at Envy as he listened. He took a deep breath when his mentor reminded him of what Narda had done, and of what others will do if he showed himself in Amria.
"I'm good with those terms. And I won't let them force or pressure me into anything. I won't be forced again." His pursed his lips for a moment before he continued. "I would have crossed over to her world at some point," he said after a pause, his tone careful of upsetting Envy further. "Though yeah, in the middle of a war isn't great." He looked at Envy, whom he had come to love like a father now these past nine months. He'd never known what it was like, having someone care for you the way a parent would, and he wished he could ignore the restless curiosity for Amria that had lain dormant in his heart for months.

He paused, thinking over his next words, not sure if he should bring this up. "Honestly--part of me also kinda wants to see these people pay. If getting her home back from them means stopping them from getting more power, for making more gates and sending more people like Ik-- like him to other places, other worlds, I'd want to help." He looked down at Envy's hand on his knee and reached out, laying his own hand softly on it. "But, no matter what, this is the place I call home," he said, sincere. "Even if it's named after the most irritating princess alive," he added with a grin, hoping to lighten the mood, if only a little.

--

"Alright. For what you've done with the city, and the ridiculous name, I'll say Well done--." Kire grinned at Ysaryn looking over the changes as she pointed them out. "This place has really come alive. It's lovely."

But she went serious again as Ysaryn asked her questions. "We'll need to hunt one down," she said. "Though I'm as open to that as much as asking Gavin again in Amria. Which is to say, not overwhelmingly." She sighed.

"I'm afraid Envy's going to like me less after this. Feels a bit like disappointing your own father, almost," Kire said, frowning. "I should have thought this whole thing with Gavin through better. Or at least not bring it up in front of him like this, gods. I think I'm just--I see the end of this war so close, just over the horizon, and I'm at the point where I'd do anything to reach it now. He may be Gemini, but he's also just a boy." Kire frowned again, then sighed and gave a small smile. "Sorry for being a wet blanket."

Wanderers

Kire grinned with a blush when Ysaryn circled her and replied, not daring to comment on that in front of the upset Kartaian and add to his irritation. Which, from the look of things, wasn’t going away anytime soon, both to her dismay and to Gavin’s. They watched the exchange between him and Ruli, and it was clear he wouldn’t budge on the matter. Gavin sighed, while Kire spoke. “Understood. Another source, then.” Gavin said nothing; while he didn’t look upset, he definitely didn’t look like he was leaving the matter be.

“Tomorrow,” Kire affirmed. “In any case, our main job at the war council is to plan everything. There will be time to make further preparations after that, though it would be best if most of it will be available by then.” She was already thinking over the alternatives. The captured armies and their lords would have valuable information, and that might include the whereabouts of the Gemini and their kin. Or perhaps her blood would be powerful enough for it.

“Can I talk to Envy for a bit?” Gavin asked the others. “Just us?”
Kire looked from Gavin to Envy. “Well—alright. You’ll be preparing as well, I suppose,” she said to Ysaryn. “Ruli told me you’re responsible for naming your city,” she said as they stepped out. “I don’t know whether to tell you ‘well done’ or not,” she said with a chuckle. Then, to Ruli, "Do you need help with gathering your supplies?"

Gavin waited “I don’t need to give my blood,” Gavin began, “I don’t need to be near any blood. But I can help them.” He paused again, gauging his mentor’s reaction. “I know the Gemini runes, I have an idea how they think. From—from him.” Even just thinking about Ikegai’s name made him shudder. “My mind is just as valuable here as my blood. Even if just for planning.”

Wanderers

Kire could see the objection in Envy’s expression and that he was about to put it into words, had known it was coming. She hadn’t been completely sold on the idea of using Gavin’s blood, herself, and had she been in Envy’s position, she would have said the same thing.
Gavin frowned when both of them went quiet, then huffed, crossing his arms when neither explained. “What’s going on? What’re you lookin’ at me like that for?”
He stopped when Ruli and Ysaryn arrived, and he made his way inside to sit, his annoyance not enough to trump his curiosity.

Kire gave a small smile to Ysaryn, spotting the gesture Ruli made. “Chieftess,” she greeted back. The expression on her face told Kire the elf was practically ready to jump into battle now if she had to. But her smile disappeared as Envy snapped. Though her own spoken Elvish was still rough and clumsy, she could follow the conversation decently. She cringed a bit when Ruli pointed out she could understand, suddenly quite relieved she hadn’t told Envy about the circumstances behind her accidental summoning of him. She looked at Ysaryn, nodding. “I follow,” she said, hoping she got the pronunciation right.
“Well I don’t,” Gavin put in, annoyed. “Can I add Elvish to my lessons, then?” Kire reached over to pat his back, which only made him grumble.
Kire listened to Envy berate Ruli, not daring to interrupt, while Gavin rested his chin on his hands, narrowing his eyes at them, knowing full well they were keeping him out of the loop about something that likely involved him.

Kire was at least glad for Ysaryn’s distraction. “Two swords. And a battle,” she promised, then grinned a bit wider. “You’ll see Myka and the girls again. And Ed misses you. He tries to be sly about it, but I can tell.”
“So what happened?” Gavin put in, a little impatient. “After that one went ‘poof’?” he asked, thumb pointed at Ruli.
Kire glanced at him, a little amused. “Alright. From the top, then.” She told him and Ysaryn what she had told Envy about the portal accident and elaborated on the plan to stealthily set up a ward around the Palace grounds, leaving out the detail about blood. But as she talked about the ward gambit, she could see the look in Gavin’s eyes, like the wheels in his mind were turning, thinking over the implications of it even without her bringing it up. She knew he had cast wards and learned runes as Ikegai’s mage-slave; there was no way he didn’t know what that entailed.

“That’s—a really big ward, you know,” the lad said cautiously.
“I know,” Kire said, then turned to the others. “Two days to prepare. My cousins are helping with the materials. The war council convenes after that.”
Gavin, expression guarded, watched Envy, waiting to see if the Kartaian would say anything about the matter.

Wanderers

Kire was surprised to find that Envy was the first to meet them. “Wait—uh, alright.” She stood awkwardly for a moment in front of the Kartaian, gauging his mood, before she stepped closer. “Where can we talk?”
Following him, Kire thought through what needed explaining first. “We were in the middle of a battle,” she began, and then she went on to explain the rest: how the Gemini had tried a last-ditch effort to turn the tide of battle and buy time for their allied lords to attempt a retreat, how she had stretched herself to her limit to get Narda and her soldiers to safety, resulting in the injury to her right hand and her sudden, unintended jump to his world and back with Ruli in tow. She left out the explanation behind why her portal had directed her to Ruli, hoping the elf would accept that it was merely an accident with the portal.
“We’re gathering for a war council in two days’ time, and last night my cousins and Ruli had talked about a strategy to retake the Capital.” Kire paused, looking around. “Might be best to explain the whole thing when Ruli, Ysaryn, and Gavin are here, but it involves laying down a whole ward around the Palace grounds to negate the Gemini magic within. Ruli had suggested both my blood and Gavin’s would be needed, but we figured it would be prudent to ask you about it first.”

Kire looked up at the Kartaian. “I know that’s a lot. I’m sorry for suddenly laying all this on all of you after six months of absence. It’s been a rather rough time.”
“Oy!” Gavin called, rushing towards them. “I felt the wards and—Kire?”
Kire nodded in greeting. “In the flesh.”
“Ah. Guess that explains the ‘who’ part of the mystery,” he said, scratching his head. “I guess this means Ruli’s here somewhere, eh?”
“Mmhmm.” She glanced at Envy again. “Can he join us when we discuss the details?”
Gavin cocked his head, curious.

Wanderers

“Better. I’ll still be punching with my left for another day maybe, but I can move it better now,” Kire said after a sip of coffee. She spotted Elva writing down a list. “Did you mention that you have a different alphabet from ours, even for the same language? It’s so peculiar.”
“It came up,” Elva replied. “We’ll finish up here while you nurse your mug, then.”
Kire nodded, and was quiet, half-listening to the two talk about their list while her mind drifted to the report Ed had given about the aftermath of the battle. By the time she had finished her cup, she was so deep in her own thoughts that it took Elva two attempts to call her attention. “Huh?”
“We’re done, dear,” Elva replied, an amused grin on her face. “Time for you to go, then? When will you return?”
“Tomorrow, maybe,” Kire replied.
“Ah. Don’t strain yourselves too much then,” Elva commented, and Kire raised a brow, wondering if she meant anything behind that statement. Elva merely smiled and waved them off. “Go get ready to leave.”

“Okay.” Like with Narda, Kire didn’t hold onto Ruli just yet. “Test run first.” She raised her hand, and a moment later a portal opened. The headache wasn’t as bad as it had been in her first try that morning. “All good,” she said, taking his hand with her left.
They emerged in the cave, and Kire immediately looked around, bracing herself for an attack from a very irate elf. “If I made a big deal out of my injury, will she go easy on me?” Kire whispered. “Or do I turn you into a human shield?”

Wanderers

“Will do,” she said, turning to her door, before glancing back at him. She smiled, nodding. “Dinner tomorrow,” she repeated. “Goodnight, Ruli.” She stepped inside, closed the door, and stood there for a moment, looking at her window. “…huh.” She glanced at the leftmost wall, picturing the room, and its occupant, next to hers. A soft smile tugged at her lips. How about that. Kire changed into warmer sleeping clothes and climbed into bed, asleep within minutes.

Elva woke Kire a few hours before dawn to reapply more medicine. Anticipating that she would need to use the Ring to open portals again, the healer wanted to help the recovery process along. “I’ll tell Narda to wake you an hour after sunrise,” she whispered, to which Kire just nodded, already back asleep as soon as Elva headed for the door. Kire fell back into a deep sleep, then woke again when Narda came by just as Elva had said. Kire inspected her arm, which was looking better: less tender than it did yesterday, with some proper color returning to her forearm, and less painful movement from her joints. The scarring had improved somewhat, with the worst of it confined to her right hand.

After a proper bath, where Kire tried to go as fast as she could while being careful with rinsing her injured arm, she rejoined Narda, wearing clean travelling clothes. Elva inspected the arm again, applying a new layer of ointment, and wrapping it in fresh gauze. Kire almost strapped on a sword belt, but the lack of sword at her hip rankled her. “Tell Ruli I’ll be back for him,” Kire said to Elva. “Oh—and if we’re going to push through with Daryll’s idea, maybe you, Daryll, and Ruli could work out the materials we’d need? Just so they don’t have to scrape everything together themselves in two days.”
“Yes, Your Grace,” Elva said, teasing, and Kire pinched her. “Ow! Stop that. I said yes!”
“Now, how well do you feel about using a portal now?” Narda asked, raising a brow.
Kire paused, then gestured for them to step back. “Guess we’ll see, huh?” She flexed both hands, taking a deep breath. Upon her mental command, the Ring flashed blue, and a portal appeared a few paces away from her. Kire grunted, feeling the headache flare up, but closed it again, satisfied. “It works. I won’t be doing heavy lifting today, but it works.” She extended her left hand to Narda.

They reappeared in the Wyvern military camp, north of the battlefield. At the sight of her the soldiers bowed and gave way, with some immediately going back to look for Edward. “Will you be coming back here after returning Ruli?” Narda asked as they were led to the main tent.
Kire shook her head. “I might stay at Uvano for the day—that’s what they named their city,” she said, clarifying. “It’s Elvish. Monster? ‘Something ugly’, roughly. I’ll ask Ed. In any case, I’ll most likely be there until dinner. Don’t want to overtax the portal use anyway.”
“Why dinner—ohhh.” Narda grinned slyly at Kire, who pointedly ignored her. As soon as they saw Ed, Kire grinned, and the two of them embraced.

“Glad to see you on your feet,” Ed said, before holding her at arm’s length, frowning with concern at her arm.
“Consequence of using the portal yesterday.”
Kire and Narda explained to Ed what had happened, as well as the discussion they had with Daryll, Elva, and Ruli last night in preparation for the war council. “That—sounds mad enough to actually work. I’m hardly a sorcerer or mage or alchemist, so I would defer to them, but I’d need to hear more about this in depth when they’re around,” Ed admitted.
“Meanwhile, I’ll bring Myka and the Wench crew,” Narda assured. “They’d jump at a chance like this, I know.”
Ed nodded. “You’re off soon, then right?” he asked Kire, waving a soldier over. “We found this yesterday, by the way.” The soldier, Kire vaguely recognized, was one of the twenty she had pulled back from the front, and in her hands, sans scabbard, was her sword.
Kire grinned. “A good omen, I think,” she said, thanking the soldier as she took it.

While Kire and Nard were gone, Elva was smoking her pipe in her library, leaving the door to the infirmary ajar, having given instructions for her attendants to direct Ruli inside once he’d woken. “Morning to you,” she greeted, once he’d joined her. “Kire and Nard will be back soon, no doubt relaying instructions for the convening of the war council to Ed and their officers.” She had parchment and writing implements ready. “She told me to ask you if you would need help gathering materials for the wards and such. Weaponry and armor, as you’ve seen, we’ve already got. Daryll has his alchemy chamber, and contacts for ingredients, and my own stores are, if I may brag a little, considerable.” She grinned. “Can’t promise we could find the exact materials if they’re specific to your world, but we have two days to find out.”

Kire returned not long after, with a mug of coffee and her sword at her hip. “Morning,” she greeted. “Just let me finish this and I’ll be good to go.”

Wanderers

“I see.” Kire recalled what she had seen from the memory he showed her, as well as the visions that had flashed right after that. She crossed her arms. “I’d usually get them after you use the Touch. I got a lot of them after that time with Ikegai, before Gavin revived me. I would get them now and then at random, not too often, and sometimes in my dreams. I’ve gotten used to them by now; it’s not the strangest thing to happen to me.”

She glanced at him. “Usually they involved the two of us somewhere we’ve definitely not been to together. The first ‘flash’ I saw showed me something like you, me, and a blue house. Second one was us with Dara. One of the visions showed you baking something in the Palace kitchens, so I know that definitely didn’t happen.” She shrugged. “I thought it was just a consequence of me coming into contact with your magic and being from another world. Like a weird magical allergy,” she added, wrinkling her nose.

Wanderers

Kire blinked at him, lips parted slightly. She wasn’t expecting that. “Oh.” She looked at him. “I’d like that. I haven’t been to Pokos, we could go there. Though I wouldn’t mind seeing what else you can do in the kitchen” she added with a grin. Then she paused when he asked about the cakes, and she tilted her head up in thought. “Oh, he didn’t tell me that. As far as I remember. I just confused it with a false memory. You know those weird flashes I’ve been getting, whenever you used that Touch on me?” She looked back at him. “So was that real?”

Wanderers

“Gemini blood? Kire, what about Ga—” Narda put in, and Kire put up a hand, frowning, knowing where that was going.
“We would need to ask him first,” she told the giantess firmly. “He’s been through enough.”
“But you will ask, yes? Just a few drops, he said.”
Kire sighed, thinking it over. “I’ll ask Gavin.” She paused, and a wry smile was on her lips. “Wouldn’t that be ironic? The blood of a Wyvern and a Gemini together, casting a ward to negate blood magic.” It looked like they were all open to the idea now, and she nodded, more to herself than to anyone in particular. If Elva the healer and Narda, who wasn’t particularly fond of magic, were considering this plan, then it must be a good one. “Let’s hope Ed and Jan would be similarly open-minded about it. And as for knowing where to go,” Kire said, turning to Ruli, “there’s a way to do that, isn’t there?” She didn’t know if Ruli wanted his Touch brought up here, and didn’t elaborate.

Elva looked at the two of them, remembering how Ruli had calmed Kire down earlier, but said nothing about this, getting up instead. “You all need rest, first. Healer’s orders. Especially if Narda’s returning tomorrow, and you’re bringing back Ruli to his world. Though I suppose he and Ysaryn and whoever else you’re bringing with you should be present at the war council yes? When will you be convening?”
“Two days. To gather our allies, and whatever preparations you need,” Kire said to Ruli as she got up from her seat. She turned to Daryll, grinning. “I can’t believe the scholar’s joining the war council. I don’t know if I should be proud or extremely concerned.”
“Gods, I don’t know either,” Daryll said with a huff, “a big part of me is screaming for me to just hide in the alchemy chamber rather than be anywhere near that. But I can’t sit idly by, not now.”
“I know. Alright. Tomorrow, bright and early, then.”

She walked back up the stairs towards their rooms, silent as she pondered the plan they had just talked about. She was still swinging between it sounding absolutely risky and absolutely genius when she stopped by her door. “Ruli? You were about to ask me something earlier, before dinner,” she said.