Chapter 38: Out of the Pot

“Argh!”

Sairek felt his left foot slipping and he only just managed to shift his and Varhi’s weight to prevent himself from tumbling over. Though while he did manage to succeed in that, he instead began skidding down about half a foot down the path. He would have thought climbing down would have been easier, but when he was carrying another boy on his back who didn’t have enough strength to hold on himself, it was exceptionally hard. It’s not like any of them were wearing the proper footwear for this, either.

“Easy, Sairek. Just keep it up for a couple more minutes, we’re almost at the base now.” Nayleen reassured him.

Well, it may not have just been the steep incline and Varhi’s weight. Apparently a combination of the evening air as well as their absence for the past couple of days had caused this side of the continent to be covered in a light film of snow. It wasn’t everywhere but it was in patches here and there and it was getting more plentiful and cold the further down the mountain but the more north they went. Sairek would have thought it would have gotten warmer the more they descended, but the night air was getting pretty chilly now and it was getting frigid enough that he could see everyone's breaths.
At least he wasn't cold but that was because his body was absolutely screaming at him. At this point though he had been aching for so long he was almost numb to it in a way. He wondered if this was how Varhi managed it, but Sairek knew he wouldn’t have the willpower to resist for days, let alone another hour. Thankfully, he was spurred on with the knowledge that he knew he could stop carrying Varhi soon; that they would finally be out of this, that they would be able to start resting back up. If they could just hold on for a little bit longer...

“Do you need a break?” Cyial asked him, concern edged in his voice.

“I...I’m okay… I can do it…” Sairek wheezed as he glanced down and looked at his jewel, noting by now that it was a ruby red. It wouldn’t last much longer, but it would probably last longer than Varhi at this rate would. It would last long enough for them to either get to the rendezvous point, or on the ship.

The injured boy had once again fallen silent and slack again and was barely making a sound. His skin color had started to become more pale, though he was still breathing, it was becoming more faint, more shallow. Remembering these facts caused Sairek to grunt in effort as he pushed himself up and forced his legs to just walk and his arms and back to continue to carry the burden of Varhi’s weight. Cyial, when he could afford to, moved behind him to help. It wasn’t much, but the demon was capable of at least alleviating a few pounds of weight from Varhi by lifting him up slightly and giving him more leverage when he could, while Nayleen guided them both.

“Stop, we have a problem.” Nayleen ordered them, which they did. “This is a bit of a drop down. We can climb it, but not like this with Varhi. It’s about a dozen feet of straight vertical drop.”

“Dammit… we’re so close…!” Sairek growled.

“Cyial, I’m going to climb my way down. Do you think you can manage to slowly lift Varhi down with your little trick?”

“I… I can try… but that’s pretty dangerous.” Cyial said.

“I’ll hang on to you, don’t worry.” Sairek said.

“Alright… I guess we don’t have much choice…” Cyial murmured.

“Okay, get Varhi ready, I’m working my way down.” Nayleen said as she sat down on the ledge and turned her body so her knees were against the edge of the cliff, then she began slowly working her way down.

“Shenkalin.” Cyial chanted, a weariness in his voice as he clapped his hands together. Cyial had cast that spell so many times today and done a lot of physical labor on top of that. He was utterly exhausted and thus, when the shields didn’t appear like all of the other times, he could only growl in frustration, but there was no surprise behind it either. “...Fuck.” Cyial swore venomously, catching Sairek off guard. He knew it had to be bad hearing Cyial use such language.

“What, what’s wrong?” Nayleen’s voice asked from below.

“I’m out, I just can’t anymore…” Cyial continued to growl and squeezed his eyes shut in disappointment. “I’m sorry...”

Nayleen began working her way back up. “Can’t you do that meditation thing?”

“...Meditate with what? All that’s out here is rock and snow.” Cyial said, an edge of frustration still in his voice. “Besides, both Varhi and Sairek don’t have the time for that and even more, I’m a demon, so that just doesn’t work for me.”

“We’re going to need another plan...” Sairek said, trying to think desperately as he positioned Varhi and sat down. “It’s not far… there’s got to be another way we can—wait, I think I have an idea.” He paused, setting Varhi on the ground and beginning to dig through the other boy’s satchel. After a moment, he pulled out the remaining length of rope they had. “We can use this. We can tie him to one of us for more leverage and use the remainder to help support our climb down with the added weight.”

“We don’t have enough rope to tie him together and use it to work out way down.” Nayleen reminded him. “We used most of our rope both to get into Karvadean and to scale around that one cliff, remember? What we have there is all we have left from what we could manage to salvage.”

“So just tying him to one of us and scaling down manually will have to do…” Cyial sighed.

“Let me, I’m the climbing expert and both the tallest and lightest, so it’ll be easiest for me.” Nayleen volunteered.

“But—” Sairek began to protest.

“Sairek, I don’t know what your deal is, but this is not the time for your pride or ego to get in the way of rational thinking. For Varhi’s sake, please use common sense.” Nayleen scolded him. “Look, both you and Cyial are absolutely exhausted both physically and mentally. Cyial specifically is literally tapped out.”

Sairek bit his bottom lip. “I’m… I’m sorry… I just feel like it’s my responsibility…”

“Did you not already tell Varhi that we’re a team?” Nayleen asked.

“I did...”

“So let’s act like a team! You and Cyial did your part, now comes mine. Come on, help tie him to me.”

Sairek accepted what she was saying and nodded, pushing himself up from the ground and handing over the rope to Cyial before moving to pick up a limp Varhi off the ground with a grunt and slowly moving to drape him over Nayleen who lay crouched down to give Sairek an easier time. Once Varhi was placed and Sairek was holding him steady, Cyial began tying the rope around both Nayleen and the unconscious boy around their mid sections, finishing off with a very generous and tight knot at both ends at Varhi’s back. “That will have to do.” Cyial breathed out, stepping off to the side.

Nayleen slowly stood up and tested it and smirked. “Hey, it’s almost kind of like a backpack. Yeah, this’ll work.”

“I’m glad you’re confident, because I’m done…” Cyial wheezed. “I’m starting to feel light headed…”

“I guess we’re not going to use the idea I had… I was going to suggest we use the shields and just drag him the rest of the way.” Sairek sighed.

“Sorry, Sairek… Go ahead Nayleen… I’ll take a couple moments to rest…” The demon mumbled, moving to sit himself down and lean against a rocky outcrop.

“Sairek, I’ll need help for the initial bit.” Nayleen said, moving towards the edge. Sairek moved over and grabbed her hands for leverage and leaning himself back some to give her support as she slowly stepped over and knelt down, Sairek moving down with her. Slowly she pulled back one hand and grabbed the ledge and moved a bit lower, then relinquished Sairek’s other hand to grab the ledge again. “Thanks.” She said, and began a very slow, careful descent down.

Sairek pulled himself back away from the edge and moved to sit next to Cyial, letting out a winded exhale himself. Both Sairek and Cyial looked at each other, studying each other’s state. Both had a coat of sweat over their faces and looked utterly tired, but Cyial continued to look fairly pale.

“I bet this isn’t the kind of physical workout Fuyiki was thinking of that we’d be doing, wasn’t it…?” Cyial chuckled weakly.

“No… I don’t think so.” Sairek smiled a little.

The two sat, looking at each other for a little longer in silence before Sairek moved first and wrapped his arms around Cyial in a hug, although the drain the day had done to his stamina made it pretty weak. Regardless, Cyial moved to return the gesture, hugging Sairek back where they both stayed for a moment more in silence before Cyial took the initiative this time. “We’re almost out, Sairek. Hang in there…”

“Yeah… I know…” Sairek whispered, his voice came out a little hoarse. “We’ve made it through the worst of it—”

“AH–! DAMMIT!”

Nayleens sudden exclamation echo down below in the evening air. It jerked both boys back from their embrace and in sync, they scrambled to get up from where they were sitting and moved over to glance at the ledge. “Nayleen–!?” Both boys exclaimed in unison.

Sairek was expecting the worst, but he saw Nayleen had reached the bottom and was standing. She was hunched over with Varhi still on her back, with her own back facing them; at least for a moment. When she turned around, Sairek saw the problem. She was holding her left hand, and there was blood dripping off of her fingers that weren't protected by her gloves “What happened!?” Sairek yelled down.

“The rock gave away the last couple of feet, and because I didn’t want to drop and accidentally fall on Varhi or have us tumble down the rest of the mountain, I dragged my hand down. Those rocks are sharp! I only have fingerless gloves unlike you guys, so my fingers got cut badly.” She explained. “Damn that hurts…!” She hissed more to herself than them as she looked down. “Look, I’ll be okay. I’ll nurse this while you guys make your way down. I got bandages just in case.”

Sairek groaned in frustration. At least it could have been much worse, but stuff like this was not something they could afford to keep happening. Little by little, they were being chipped down to fumes. If this kept up they would collapse just at the brink of finally being safe. Climbing down cliffs like these at night was stupid and dangerous, but Varhi couldn’t afford the time and it wasn’t safe out here still...

“You can go first… I still need a minute…” Cyial said.

“...Are you sure that’s all you need? You look awful, Cyial…” Sairek mumbled.

Cyial despite his exhaustion, made a face at Sairek. “Well, you don’t look so good yourself, either.” He replied dryly, then stuck his tongue out at Sairek. “Besides, knowing you, it would take you five minutes to get down.”

Sairek forced a smirk. “Oh, so that’s how it is, huh? I’ll see you in five minutes, then.” He scoffed in mock emotional hurt, maneuvering himself to the edge of the cliff as he placed his staff down at the ledge, then paused...
...For twenty seconds.

“...Oh, goodness.” He heard Cyial lamented with a sigh..

“Q-Quiet, you…!” Sairek sniffed, moving himself to turn around as he dipped one leg over the edge. Gripping the edge with both hands, he lowered his other leg even lower, making sure the rock he was trying to put his weight on could hold his weight by putting a little force on it before he put the rest of his weight down—

“Ugah!"

The rock underneath his left foot broke and he lurched downwards, though still gripping the edge, it was a sort of slow fall that gave him enough time to mentally prepare himself. Instead of attempting to hang on, he instead allowed himself to slowly slide the rest of his body off that was above the ledge to slow the fall as much as possible and brace his legs for the impact. However, the ground was slanted so when his legs fell eight feet or so after his hands lost their grip from the edge. He lost his balance and began to tumble.

Tumbling down a mountain at night when visibility was low was extremely dangerous, and Sairek knew this, however, as much as he tried to stop his momentum, he could only slow it down a little, until he eventually crashed his side into a rock. He was about to rebound off of it and keep going, but he managed to throw his hands out in desperation onto some dried branches around the rock, though his hands slipped from them—or he pulled them out from where they were rooted, he wasn’t sure which—it served enough to halt his momentum and he slid only a little further down on his back before coming to a rest.

“Sweet Lands, are you okay!?” Nayleen shrieked.

“Ugh… I’m fine…” He grumbled. His left shoulder ached a little from slamming into the rock, but well, that’s what the clothes he wore were for. He glanced back up the cliff he’d just plummeted from. “Well, uh… it’s your turn…!” He called up to Cyial.

Cyial’s worried look turned into a dull one. “Hopefully I can get down a little more gracefully than you...” He barely heard the demon speak as he reached over, grabbing Sairek’s staff and wrapping his tail around it tightly. Slowly, he inched himself over the edge and began working his way down. Sairek pushed himself back up onto his feet and stepped back up the incline to stand beside Nayleen.

After a minute though, Cyial paused, his breathing had started to become labored all of a sudden, more than he had been doing usually. Sairek’s expression changed into concern. “...C-Cyial? Cyial, are you alright?”

The demon didn’t respond for a moment, blinking, as if confused where he was or just remembering what he was doing, then his expression shifted from confusion to realization over his face. He slowly turned to look down at the remaining distance, and at Sairek and Nayleen. “I’m… I’m passing… out… I’m about to pass out...” He barely managed to say, his words almost panicked, but came out strangely calm. “I can’t hold on…I, I... getting faint...”

Sairek immediately pushed the rest of the distance to meet up with Cyial as the demon’s grip began to slip from loosening the grip he had on the cliff and began to fall, Sairek rushed up faster and held his arms out just in time to catch Cyial as he fell, though the boy only fell about five feet or so, Sairek still staggered and fell to the ground softly with a grunt, but saving Cyial from tumbling down even worse than he had. Cyial’s grip on the staff with his tail loosened and went completely slack as the other boy fainted. The staff began to roll down the hill, though Nayleen staggered herself as quick as she could over to crouch down and intercept it and catch it in her hands.

“Cyial…? Cyial!” Sairek called out in grave concern.

Cyial’s eyes remained closed for a pregnant moment before he slowly opened them, garnet irises glowing in the night air as he panted for breath. “Nnmm… S-Sorry... “ He mumbled faintly, slurred.

“Nayleen—What happened to him…?!” Sairek demanded her, pushing himself up while still holding Cyial in his arms.

“I think he’s just exhausted—we all are. Cyial has stayed up for the past two days keeping watch for us in Karvadean earlier, too. We’re pushed to our limit, Sairek… even I’m feeling a bit faint…” Nayleen huffed. “We need to get out of here. If we all start passing out here, we’re done for.”

Sairek clenched his teeth. His dearest friends were literally collapsing all around him and they were the ones who had followed him here because they cared about him. Sairek shifted Cyial’s position and the demon was lucid enough to help out as best as he could, maneuvering himself onto Sairek’s back just like he had for Varhi, though Cyial was smaller, lighter and capable of holding onto Sairek more than Varhi could. “Well, we’re still up. What’s our move?” Sairek asked Nayleen.

“The plan hasn’t changed. It’s still our best bet. Besides, the longer we stay in Masirean, the more trouble we’re in. If anyone spots us camping in the middle of nowhere, we’re screwed. Don’t forget we’re still trespassing and you’re technically committing a war crime.”

“As if I could forget that…” Sairek grumbled, then he happened to glance up and his face fell. “Oh, just great…”

What once was a clear night sky was becoming fairly overcast now. It was light, but there were tiny snowflakes beginning to gently flutter downwards. Nayleen looked up and frowned. “It’s about to storm again… and if you remember how strong the last one was when we were in Ceareste… We’ve still got time though. Hopefully we’ll be out of it before it starts getting too bad… even at the pace we’re going.”

“Us hoping hasn’t been going well so far tonight...” Sairek grumbled, shifting Cyial’s weight a little and beginning to walk down. Nayleen, still holding Sairek’s staff, used it as a sort of walking stick to help balance her way down with the heavier load she had.



Ten minutes later, the ground was starting to flatten out, but the snow they were beginning to trudge through was beginning to increase, fatiguing them down even more. Though it was only a couple inches deep, with how much weight they were carrying on each of their backs, even having to push their feet through a couple inches of snow was becoming taxing on them.

“We’re… We’re almost there…” Nayleen huffed, glancing up, her face covered in a cold sweat. They were almost at the mountain cliff side that they had parked behind. They just had to hug it, walk around it and then they’d be at the rendezvous point.

By now the snow which once was light had become quite heavy, and the wind was picking up, the chill biting into all of them when it blew, even Sairek was beginning to feel his vulnerable ears beginning to burn with the cold. “Twenty… more minutes you think…?” Sairek grunted in effort.

“Maybe less… but yeah… maybe being generous is smart at this point… twenty minutes… that’s um… reasonable right…?” Nayleen wheezed. “Damn… it’s already past midnight… This is the Pits—Oh wait…” She paused. “I guess I shouldn’t use that term anymore…”

“Well.. it’s befitting… because we’re still kind of here for now…” Sairek chuckled weakly. “I’m going to pass out... on one of those beds in the ship... for an entire week after this…”

Their conversation trailed off there, falling back onto heaving grunts or just heavy breathing, both of them mostly looking down and only slightly ahead of them for the next six minutes until a loud sound up ahead of them that sounded like a horn rang out. They both paused and glanced at each other and Cyial also lifted his head up as well from his half-passed out state. “...Am I hallucinating…?” He asked quietly.

“No, we heard it too.” Nayleen said.

“Not what I heard—what I see…” Cyial corrected. “The water is over there… I think that’s the ship...!”

Another loud horn was heard as if it could hear Cyial. Sairek laughed out loud in relief. “Oh thank goodness. He must have gotten worried and moved the ship up closer to see us better. Come on, let’s go, we’re almost there...!”

Trudging through the snow but now with the end of this nightmare in sight, both Sairek and Nayleen felt a second wind of adrenaline come through as they pushed on through the snow. About three more minutes of walking and they could see the familiar hull of Jimmy’s ship.

“There… There’s a sight for sore eyes…” They heard Varhi mutter weakly over the sound of the engine that was becoming audible as they got closer to it.

“Glad to see you’re still alive and with us.” Sairek said, glancing towards Varhi, then back when he heard what sounded like chains moving and the ramp they had once exited off of was beginning to descend back down in front of them.

“I can’t die yet… I have a reason to live… I just need to figure out what it is…” Varhi whispered and began to chuckle, then winced. “Ow… fuck—that still hurts...”

Nayleen snorted in amusement. The ramp descended down in front of them and they began to climb back up it slowly, until finally they were back on the ship properly, where both Sairek and Nayleen in unison collapsed onto their hands and knees where Jimmy ran up to them.

“Shit, are you guys okay–?” He demanded.

“We’re all alive…” Nayleen grumbled. “Have we got a tale to tell you. But Varhi is in bad shape…”

Jimmy untied Varhi from the rope around both he and Nayleen were connected to and pulled Varhi up. “No hugging… I’m too beat up…” Varhi managed to groan. Jimmy froze for a moment, seeming like he had been about to do that and stopped, and instead hauled Varhi over his shoulder while holding him up and steadied the boy with his other arm. “Ow… stoppit…” Varhi droned weakly.

Sairek set Cyial down and both were too exhausted to even move to sit up, just laying there next to each other.

“I’m so sorry you three.” Jimmy said, his voice and expression pained.

“Don’t apologize… I did it because I wanted to…” Sairek grumbled, propping himself up onto his elbow. “And besides… we got him out.”

“I’m so, so sorry guys…” Jimmy continued.

“Oi, I said stop apologizing—”

“They… They caught me...” Jimmy declared.

... ... ...

“W...What...?” Sairek whispered. The sound around him seemed to evaporate into an eerie stillness...

...until the suddenly bang from the doors to the cabin opened with an abrupt slam and Sairek stared ahead with widened eyes from where he lay on his stomach on the deck of Jimmy’s ship. The trio’s faces became pale in realization and horror as they looked up. One man stepped out, along with about half a dozen others behind him. All but one were knights and they looked like they were suited up, ready for some kind of war.
Ahead of them in the middle, the one who wasn't a knight instead stood a middle-aged man, wearing a golden crown, which on top of the crown was a jewel very familiar to Sairek. After all, he had just witnessed finding nearly a dozen of them several times its size. Where Sairek’s was diamond shaped, this one was smooth and oval.
He walked forwards alone, until his feet stopped just inches in front of Sairek’s face, causing the Prince to have to look up in horror, while the man looked down at him befittingly.


“Greetings, Son of Aayron and Melina Ceareste. It is good to finally meet you again in the flesh. My, you have certainly grown quite a lot since I’ve last seen you nearly a decade ago! Do you remember me, young man?”

Sairek could only stare upwards, his mouth felt dry, no sound escaping his mouth.

“Hmm, it would seem not, but you certainly recognize who I am regardless.” The man hummed. With slow and deliberate movements, he moved to kneel down in front of Sairek to get a closer look at the young lad laying exhausted on the deck of the ship in front of him. His dark brown eyes boring into Sairek’s own green ones intensely as the Prince of Ceareste could only manage to lift his head off the wood of the ship to stare in horror.

“Young Prince of Ceareste... I am Avotash Masirean.”