Chapter 61—The Price of Growth |
Elezad sat across the table from his two girls. Two of the most important people to him, literally half his world. And currently, two of the angriest people in the Cradle of Tomorrow.
Milly, with her hands calmly on the table in front of her, was slightly more terrifying than Nat and her crossed arms. It might’ve had something to do with the pitch-black, snakeskin armor Seeyela had given her. Or, more likely, the younger girl’s uncharacteristic knack for that look.
Learned it from her mother… but like everything Milly does, she then improved it.
“Dad,” Milly said, voice like the frigid water running at the very bottom of a frozen stream.
“Yes, Milly?” he replied, eyes darting to Nat’s glower.
“It has… come to my attention,” she said, words chosen dangerously carefully, “that a member of the Trust”—she paused, letting the emphasis of her words sink in—“denied our raid group’s request to challenge a certain C-Rank trial. One, I might add, known to give two achievement rewards and a magic cloak.”
“Care to explain?” Nat said, the older girl’s voice like lava running down the side of an active volcano. Just the three words were almost enough to singe his eyebrows.
“If this were true…” Elezad said. “Hypothetically, of course… and if I had to guess regarding the reasoning of why the wisdom of the Trust should be heeded… it would likely have something to do with the D-Rank members still present in your raid group.”
“They’re trying to get their advanced classes,” Nat said, jumping to the defense of her friends.
“Almost,” Elezad said, swooping down on the word and digging his claws into it. “The trial—Hunt for the Ascending Tyrant—finishes with a Raid Boss fight. A dangerous one. The Demon Tiger can even control weaker opponents. It’s one of the most dangerous trials—raid or otherwise—we’ve encountered in the Cradle… and the one where we’ve lost the most people.” Elezad’s eyes softened as he looked at Milly. “Are you ready for that risk? Again?” The last word was so gentle the girls could barely hear it, yet the impact of it was immediate.
Losing a party member could be one of the toughest things anybody went through. And at their age, with Milly being the healer, she’d taken it especially hard when it had happened in their group. As much as Elezad believed the two girls in front of him could handle the actual challenge of the trial, he didn’t have the same faith in some members of their raid party.
For them, the real danger of Hunt for the Ascending Tyrant was the emotional wounds that could come from it. Something Elezad, being their father, was very keen to protect them from.
“I have a buff that prevents mental control and influence,” Nat said. As a buffer-slash-debuffer for the party, she had specialized in controlling the battle by enhancing her friends or debilitating her enemies. The latter, usually, through making them dance. Poorly. “I can protect them from the Boss’s aura.”
Elezad turned his full attention to her, his left eyebrow slowly climbing as he stared. In the long second it took that eyebrow to reach its maximum height—for maximum effect—Nat stopped breathing, then licked her lips nervously. She knew she’d made a mistake too, but she didn’t know what it was.
One second of silence turned to two, three, four, as her eyes locked on that eyebrow.
“What?” she finally said, unable to stand the pregnant pause in conversation.
“Calmness does not prevent mental influence,” Sera said from beside Nat. “It merely reduces the chance for it to take hold.”
“Exactly what your mother said,” Elezad said, giving his wife a small nod of appreciation for taking his side.
Wait… wha…?
“You shouldn’t lie to your father,” Hiral said from Milly’s side, “and definitely not to a member of the Trust when it comes to the safety of your raid party.”
“What… what your brother said…” Elezad said, his hands slowly lifting to point at the two people sitting on the bench beside his daughters. The two people who hadn’t been there a second ago. Who… who weren’t even in the Cradle.
Was that it? Had he finally lost it? Were the girls sitting in front of him also figments of his overactive imagination?
“MOM!?” Nat screamed at the same time Milly shouted, “HIRAL!?”
Then, with the simultaneous words, the two girls’ heads whipped around to look in the opposite direction.
“HIRAL!” Nat said, while “MOM!” echoed out of Milly’s mouth.
“Hello, my girls,” Sera said, leaning forward with a smile like a sunrise lighting up the room to wrap her arms around both Nat and Milly. The two of them were so shocked by the appearance of their mother and brother that they couldn’t resist the hug’s stiff pull. Finally, when Hiral joined in, they seemed to relax, like they were accepting it was real.
And if they could believe it was real, didn’t that mean it was? That Elezad could too? Unless, of course, his hallucinations were trying to trick him into thinking they were real… Wasn’t that sort of what they did?
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
“Dad,” Hiral said, “get your ass over here.”
Elezad didn’t need to be told twice, hallucination or not. The rest of his world had just come home safely. Tears ran down his cheeks as his chair clattered to the ground, and he ran around the table to grab his family and never let go again.
***
“Either you need to let us go,” Hiral said, “or I’m going to have to Reject you into the ceiling. With how hard you’re squeezing, I think Milly would’ve stopped breathing if she wasn’t C-Rank.”
“No,” Elezad said. “Not letting go.”
“Daaaaaad,” Nat said. “C’mon.”
“Liars don’t have the right to make demands,” Elezad said smoothly.
“Elezad,” Sera said, the one word cutting through the whines of the three children and the denials of the other adult in the room.
Now he’s in for it.
“Yes, dear?” Elezad said, still not letting go.
“There is a lot to tell you, and the rest of the Trust,” Sera said, “and Hiral needs to be going.”
“All the more reason I shouldn’t let go,” Elezad said.
“Elezad,” Sera said, the playfulness leaving her voice, “we didn’t all make it back. We lost Ilrolik, and Loan was gravely injured protecting me and Hiral. He needs to go get Osteo.”
With the words, Hiral felt some of the strength leave his father’s arms.
“Ilrolik?” Elezad asked quietly. “No. That can’t be possible. She’s… she’s… Ilrolik.” His voice cracked as he said the name. “What… happened?”
“I’ll tell you, along with Grandmother and the rest of the Trust, all about it,” Sera said, “after you let us go.”
“How bad is Loan hurt?” Nat said, the happy tears still marring her cheeks, though her expression had changed to one of worry.
“Bad,” Hiral said, choosing not to hide things from his sisters. If they were going to be part of a raid group—something he knew they’d choose, even with the change to the status quo—this was something they’d need to face. “But you know Loan. He’s tough. He’ll pull through. He’s got Laseen… Gran… and Wule looking out for him.”
“What about Yully?” Milly asked. “Wule said she taught him everything he knows.”
“Yully…” Hiral started, then shook his head. “She’s one of the ones who didn’t make it back. Her, Ilrolik, and Dole.”
Elezad groaned and finally leaned back, then turned and went to the wall. Banging the back of his hand against the stone, he then pressed his head against it, too. “Dammit… Dole too?” he finally asked as he turned around.
“I’m afraid so,” Sera said.
“Hiral…?” Nat started. “Did you… did you guys win?”
“We won,” Hiral said, smiling as he looked at his sisters. “It cost us… a lot… but we won. The Raze aren’t going to bother us for a long, long time, and we’ll deal with the rest of the Enemy soon enough. Genesis is safe.”
“A long time?” Elezad mouthed at Sera from behind the girls.
“Later,” Sera mouthed in return.
“Was the rain you?” Milly asked. “It felt familiar.”
“Me, Seena, and Yan,” Hiral said.
“They’re both okay too?” Nat said.
“Yup,” Hiral said. “Maybe better than okay. They both got their third advanced class… though it might be a bit before they come visit.”
“Are they hurt? Like Loan?”
“No, nothing like that,” Hiral said. “The last fight was just a lot. Tiring. They just need some time to recover.”
“What about Seeyela?” Milly said, fingers absently running along the snakeskin protecting her arm.
“Same as the other two,” Hiral said. “Fallen Reach was our first stop. She’s with Favela now.”
Relief washed over Milly’s face. “Oh, that’s wonderful. She missed her daughter so much.”
“She did,” Hiral said, “and Seeyela was a big, big reason we made it back. We couldn’t have done it without her.”
“Or without you,” Sera said, looking over Nat and Milly’s heads to meet Hiral’s eyes.
“We all played our parts,” Hiral said, likewise looking at Sera.
Nearby, Elezad’s head was on a swivel as it went back and forth between his wife and son, who almost, kind of, maybe appeared to be talking to each other. Wisely, he didn’t say anything.
“Sera’s right, though,” Hiral said. “I should get going. I was planning on staying for a few hours, but I… I need to go get Osteo from Trevallen. Loan and Drahn could use his expertise.”
“I’ll explain things to the Trust,” Sera said.
“Thanks,” Hiral said, giving his sisters one more squeeze before extricating himself from the bench.
“Wait,” Elezad said. “You have to tell me how you appeared in here like that. One second you weren’t here, and then you were. Even then, it was like my mind couldn’t believe what I was seeing.”
“A little bit of Separation, a touch of Dreaming and Rejection,” Hiral said, “and you forgot we were sitting there the whole time even before the information traveled from your eyes to your brain. There shouldn’t be any lasting effects, but if you find yourself forgetting to put on pants before you leave for work more than three days in a row, you should see a healer.”
Elezad looked down like he was making sure he was wearing pants right now, then back up to Hiral. “Why would I…?”
“Experimental runic shenanigans,” Hiral laughed.
“But how come we can’t sense your solar energy?” Milly said. “With the Fool tattoo, I’ve gotten really good at feeling it. There’s not a whiff of it coming off either of you.”
“Getting to S-Rank meant we had to learn how to control our energy,” Hiral said. “When it leaks out, it causes problems.”
“S-Rank!?” Nat said.
“Oh?” Hiral said and scratched his nose. “We didn’t mention that?”
“You didn’t mention that!” Nat said. “What’s it like?”
“Sera will tell you all about it,” Hiral said. “Might even show you some of it, if you’re lucky.”
“After I talk to the Trust,” Sera said, “we will be spending some time together. You can ask any questions you like.”
“I guess it’s a good thing you two didn’t go out for Hunt for the Ascending Tyrant, or you would’ve missed your mother coming back,” Elezad said, mussing the hair of his daughters.
Both of them tried to give him a glare, but Hiral could tell they both agreed. They much preferred having been there when he and Sera returned.
“And at the same time,” Sera said, eyes taking in both the girls and Elezad, “we can all talk about the school your father and I are going to open, and that you two are going to attend.”
“The what we’re going to what now?” Elezad said at the same time Nat and Milly paled. The two girls had been the… “lucky” recipients of Sera’s instruction before. The merciless, grueling, perfectionist instruction.
“You should take us to Trevallen,” Nat said immediately.
“I’m a healer,” Milly said. “I can help Loan. The Fool tattoo—it’s perfect for this.”
“Sorry, girls,” Hiral said. “If you want to run trials like Hunt for the Ascending Tyrant, this school is perfect for you and your raid group. Have fun!”
Then, with a laugh, he ran out the room before he could get caught up in the storm coming with Sera’s plans. His sisters didn’t even bother grumbling at his exit—they full-on shouted after him—but his casual wave told them just how much sympathy or help they’d get from him. From the sound of it, the tutelage Sera had in mind would last several years if she got all her ideas up and running… and it would be transformative, to say the least. For Nat, Milly, and anybody else who was lucky enough to become part of the program.
It'd likely also be a bit traumatic.
Such was the price of growth.
And, really, Hiral would be back soon to see his sisters again. Just making sure they were okay was enough to take a weight off his shoulder, and it let him turn his attention back to more pressing matters. Namely, getting Osteo to Loan and Drahn. Yes, the healers on Fallen Reach would probably be enough, but Osteo had an advanced class that would specifically help with damage to PIMs.
Which meant it was time to go. Hiral sent a quick message to Romin, and judging by the speed of the Bonder’s reply, he was more than eager to take the excuse to leave.