Chapter 41: Forage

Cyial slowly trudged his way up a hill, his breaths coming out in labored pants. A few gulps of water really wasn’t enough after all, it would seem…
But really, it wasn’t water that he needed—he needed more of… that energy.

Both of what he called his “white” and “black” energy reserves were at an all time low right now. Unlike humans, or even a regular banished demon, his energy reserves recovered naturally slower than both.

...Much slower.

He recovered much slower than a human because his body, unlike a human, didn’t naturally draw in ethereal when he was low and as was already established multiple times to him by now, he couldn’t meditate like Sairek or any other human could in a pinch. Even connecting to other people like he and Sairek could was quite difficult usually, though Fuyiki had chalked it up to Cyial just being talented. Of course, but he and Sairek knew the probably real reason behind that... Regardless, the only way he recovered Ethereal instead of drawing it in was pretty much just by breathing and consuming food; what little his body didn't naturally release, anyway. It didn't absorb the energy, just like he didn't really absorb the nutrients of human food.
Meanwhile, his “black” energy didn’t recover naturally at all. Even a banished demon in the Overworld recovered that over time slowly. Sustenance was required that wasn’t just human food. Each demon type had their own quirk. An incubus like himself was an obvious dilemma, but some demons had it easier, such as simply enjoying an intense hot or cold climate; though usually, those demons were generally fire or ice demons respectively, so what gave them the energy they needed to keep going was fairly obvious.

“Why does my energy have to be so… taboo…?” Cyial groaned to himself, falling onto his hands and knees in the soaked grass as the rain fell. He was at his limit. He needed another break…

Normally when he felt this hungry, The Beast inside of him wouldn’t shut up, whispering suggestions and enticing promises with rather vivid imagery to ‘get him in the mood’, or to be more precise, what it had attempted to do to Sairek on his birthday when Cyial meant to take just a scoop off the top of Sairek’s energy, but it was strangely silent right now. He supposed that there were indeed more important things taking place right now so maybe it understood that? His hunger did come and go in waves, but this was the worst he had felt so far. True, he didn’t want to let Sairek realize how exhausted and hungry he actually was, but the other reason he was insistent on going was that he wasn’t sure if he could hold back his hunger for very long in the state he was currently in. Weakened or not, if the hunger inside of his head stopped being silent, no matter how weak he was from starvation, he could easily overpower Sairek and Varhi both, and they were both weakened as well. It would be easy to pin them both and—

Cyial raised a hand and slapped himself hard across the cheek, the harsh sting of pain that followed instantly cleared his head from such vile thoughts before they ran amuck, but still, what was left behind was a depressing guilt inside of his chest and the realization that it wasn’t going to get any better until he was no longer hungry. It was only going to get worse and worse. He hadn’t even meant to make Sairek owe him anything on the boat. Yes, the whole tail thing would be very embarrassing for him, but he didn’t mean to do that. Yet, Sairek accepted with little hesitation, so maybe—

“Dammit… Stop it–!” Cyial cried out loud to himself, grasping and clenching his gloved fingers on top of his head, the fingers threading through his ashen bangs of hair. “'Blessed by Yggdrasil’ they say… This is nothing but a curse! I can’t even go thirty seconds without thinking of my friends as food and doing awful things to them…!”

Cyial pulled his knees inward and hugged himself as he sat on the incline of the hill, biting his bottom lip. The stress of everything that happened so far was bad enough, but the constant reminder as of late of what he was nagging at him over and over was even worse to him.
He… He just wanted to be ’normal’... This whole ‘pretend to be human and try to ignore it’ game he’d been playing at for over a year just wasn’t working anymore. He had to do something; he’d start losing control at this rate, even with the whispering urges in his head being silent right now. The pain of hunger when being unable to eat was truly a painful one, something he was sure the others were also experiencing, but a day of hunger pains didn’t live up to the months he had been enduring so far.

And at least their stomachs didn’t literally talk to them...

Cyial wiped his face with his arm to dry his eyes and blinked a few times, looking back towards the shore where they had beached at. From where he sat, he could see the plume of smoke rising up from their camp location now, signalling where they were camping and also signalling that Sairek had managed to successfully get the fire working. Sighing, Cyial swallowed down his emotions – his concerns and his self pity, and pushed himself to stand back up. As much as he would love to just let his emotions and frustration come out finally, being sick and tired of holding them in for so long as he had been; now was one of the worst times for that kind of self-pity. He had a job he needed to get done and the other three were relying on him.

...That said, he was at a total loss of what to even look for. Just looking around blindly would take too long and would consume more energy than he was sure he had and was possibly even dangerous in his current state. They weren’t the only living things out here, surely. If they were back in Ceareste, he’d at least have some general ideas of what kind of places to look, but different things grew in Masirean, and aside from the beach and rocky outcrops that were erect behind the shore, up out here was nothing but steep rolling hills and distant mountains much further inland.

At a loss, Cyial rummaged into his robe and pulled out his book, kneeling back down on the ground with his back facing the wind to protect the tome from as much of the rain as possible. Water wouldn’t damage it permanently, but it would still be unusable for a while if the pages got too wet, he’d need to wait for them to dry again if they did.
“Masirean… show me Masirean…” Cyial mumbled softly to himself as he flipped through the pages idly, channeling his thoughts into the book. The reading contents he was scrolling through were whatever topic he had last been reading about, which was just some age-old stories when he was tenting with Sairek back in Ceareste. The pages as he turned them became blank, and a few more turns later, text appeared on the pages as the information in the book was shifted around to present itself to him.

Unlike the other lands, Masirean’s information was much shorter – though that didn’t mean information about it didn’t cover a number of pages; the other lands just had far more history than Masirean did due to it being the youngest nation by far. Still, it was too long to sift through all of it manually, he didn’t have time to spend an hour reading. His eyes scanned left and right over the pages, looking for keywords and he only had to go to the second page to find something he was looking for. As habit when he was alone, Cyial mumbled to himself softly as he read the words aloud;


“The continent consists mostly of plains, forests and mountains with a few rivers, lakes and valleys dotted inbetween. So far north compared to the rest of the land, Masirean becomes quite cold, nearly cased in snowy winter and north is fairly mountainous in nature, though the mid and southern part of the land is comfortable enough in the summer and even houses a few smaller deserts near the shoreline south with a few oasis dotted around.
Masirean’s climate is quite unique in this regard, and many different kinds of plants can be found there for all sorts of useful purposes, many which exists around the world sparingly, but are much easier to find in Masirean as they grow all year around, but the small size of the continent with the even smaller biomes still limits their number of availability...”


Cyial clenched his teeth slightly at this news. That was… worrisome. It could be that most of the areas to even find plants could be outright picked clean. Still, surely plains like these were the most common biome in Masirean, and this place was pretty far away from civilization as you could almost get in Masirean, so there had to be something here… right? There was a list of the type of plants that were found within Masirean, Cyial glanced down at the list, giving it a quick once over, looking specifically for herbs that were useful.

“Green, red, orange, yellow, white and blue herbs… blood drop caps… mint herbs... etherweed near the shore lines… Varhi probably wouldn’t touch a feathered toadstool anytime soon…” Cyial grumbled to himself, “and… arcane berries – sometimes…”

Out of all of those, the arcane berries were the most promising. At least it was something meant to be consumed vaguely as food. It would certainly help give Sairek his energy back. The other herbs would work too for medicine, if he could concoct them right. However that required clean drinking water, something he was woefully lacking right now. Technically they could be chewed raw but even Varhi’s worm idea may be easier to stomach than that. The exception to that was yellow or white herbs, preferably the yellow ones, but both of those weren’t very common.

All of these herbs generally grew in the leaves of either small trees or bushes, but as Cyial lifted his gaze to look at his surroundings again, he saw absolutely not a single tree or even a bush in the near vicinity around himself. There were some distant ones he could see on the crest of the hill he stood on, but that would be quite the walk, was far more inland, possibly too close to the path and more than that, he didn’t know if he had the energy to make the trip there, try to forage something and then make it back. All of that for a slight chance that a tree here and a tree over there may have a herb was... a waste of energy.

So, that meant the only possible viable option was etherweed by looking around the shoreline. It was the most plentiful out of all the herbs and it was also another thing that could restore Sairek’s ethereal. Not… very well, but something was better than nothing at this point. It was technically edible too. Very unpleasant, pliant, tough and chewy – it was kind of like seaweed that was just a little more magical. Sairek probably wouldn’t be for the idea, but as he continued to look around, all the other options just weren’t feasible. He didn’t have the clean water to boil the etherweed down into a proper brew for Sairek to ingest and that would also require a blue herb to complete the mixture into anything tangibly useful than just watered down etherweed anyway, so raw consumption was probably the best way to go. Sairek would probably want clean water to wash the terrible taste away anyway, and they'd also need clean water to clean the herb as well considering he'd be plucking them from the ocean.

Cyial sighed as he closed his book and put it back into his robe. He doubted Nayleen would have better luck either, except maybe to find a monster, but they weren’t in any condition to be hunting something that could fight back. Two of them were hurt to the point of being unable to move enough for travel, he himself was exhausted and close to passing out and wasn't fit for any long-term travel himself. Nayleen was the only one marginally considered ‘okay’, but Cyial couldn’t discern if she was actually feeling okay or putting up a facade like he was doing so the group wouldn’t be as concerned.

Disappointed that this search ended up fruitless, Cyial slowly began trudging his way back towards the rise of smoke in the distance, treading carefully as to not overexert himself. A trip that would take him twenty minutes or so, given his pace.

When Cyial did make it back, he saw Sairek had done well establishing the core campsite despite having one arm and leg basically be out of commision, having gotten the fire going, the lifeboat, albeit awkwardly, was set up and in use with Varhi being in a deep sleep underneath it, protected from the rain and mostly protected from the wind.
Cyial wondered if sleeping in armor was uncomfortable or if Varhi was just used to it by now. In a way, he almost pitied the other boy, he couldn’t understand why someone would volunteer for such a difficult life. Cyial never had a choice and neither did Sairek, even though the difficulties they faced were far more social than what Varhi had chosen, he certainly didn’t welcome the difficulties much like Varhi apparently seemed to. Perhaps because of Jimmy though, it was the only thing he knew how to do properly. Though Varhi didn’t seem to want to admit it, it was obvious to Cyial that he respected the man, something that seemed to be fairly rare, if Varhi’s disposition to the trio and his apparent tendency to work alone when they first met was any evidence, anyway.

Sairek for his part, while evidently awake, was not paying any attention to his surroundings. The other boy was laying on his good side facing the small fire in the shelter of the cliffside so he was out of the rain, using his arm as much of a pillow as he could, his eyes closed, his other hand holding his stomach a bit firmly. The lack of snoring was giving him away for being awake, though probably lost in his own thoughts. Not that Sairek snored, unlike what Varhi was doing, but he could just tell by his breathing he was awake. He'd gotten quite accustomed to it by now, after all.

Before disturbing Sairek, Cyial walked over towards the rain catcher and checked how much had been collected. He was again met with disappointment. Nothing more than a two or three gulps at best. Still, at least it was working. Cyial glanced at both Sairek and the sleeping Varhi and pulled the flask out of the sand that was starting to become muddy at this point. Cyial took one big swig of water, leaving the rest and buried the flask back into place. Each gulp of water down his throat only made him thirsty for more, but he knew he couldn’t be greedy.

Cyial was sufficiently wet at this point though and starting to get a little cold, even for him. Though he knew the chances of him catching sickness from being wet and cold from the rain was next to nothing. Demons, while able to get sick, it was extremely rare; being cold and wet as he was starting to become however would sap him of even more energy though as his body struggled to stay at an optimal temperature, so Cyial stepped his way next to Sairek to sit down, the other boy only opening his eyes to look at Cyial after he finished settling down. Sairek shifted his posture to sit upright for a moment, only to move to lay down again, this time, his head almost resting on Cyial’s lap, but was more accurately on his leg as Sairek lay on his back.

Cyial looked down and his chest tightened some. Sairek’s eyes had a weariness to them, and though he noticed Sairek’s expression itself was neutral, he was starting to know Sairek well enough that it was that emotionless mask he talked about. His eyes however were holding back an immense feeling of guilt and uncertainty in them, slipping through the facade.

“Did you find anything…?” Sairek whispered, his voice a little hoarse.

Cyial frowned, closing his eyes and slowly shaking his head. “There’s nothing but plains and meadows past here for miles. To forage for anything would take hours just to get somewhere, then hours to walk back. There may be something we can use along this shoreline itself though.” Cyial opened his eyes to look once more at Sairek. “Have you ever heard of a herb called etherweed?”

Sairek gave a small nod, which actually surprised Cyial a little. Not that the plant was rare, but Sairek’s lack of understanding of herbs and plants in general was usually just from pure ignorance. “It’s for the most basic ethereal potions… the lowest grade stuff. Not even ethereal, really, but it does help stimulate the mind and as a result, helps with concentration, at least a little bit.” Sairek answered.

“Yes, and since it’s used in potions, do you know what that means?” Cyial asked. Sairek gave silence as a response however, so Cyial continued. “It means we can ingest it safely.”

Sairek blinked once, the guilt evaporating from his eyes. Then his eyebrows furrowed in a slight bit of confusion, then he frowned in realization. “Aww, no... “ he whined.

“Sorry, but there’s nothing else that grows around here that I can think of. In theory, there should be plenty around here though. This sort of environment should be the best for them.” Cyial said, expressing with a slow sweep of his left arm over the shoreline.

“Well, my solution isn’t much better.” Nayleen’s voice suddenly piped in from the side, catching Cyial off guard and he tensed up momentarily before looking towards his left side as Nayleen approached. Unlike him, she didn’t come empty handed, but she wasn’t carrying an animal.

“What are those…?” Sairek asked, lifting himself up with a weak grunt to sit upright.

“Cattails.” She answered.

“Y...You murdered cats—?” Sairek asked, his expression becoming horrified.

Nayleen rolled her eyes at him. “No, Sairek... They’re plants, called cattails. They’re a type of typha plant.”

Sairek blinked slowly.

Nayleen held her gaze, took one of the cattails under her arm and held it up to show him.

“I don’t get it.” Sairek said.

Nayleen’s form sagged in surrender. This was the kind of ignorance on plants Cyial was used to Sairek having and he chuckled slightly, watching Nayleen pull her form erect again. “We have to wash them with clean water, but cattails are edible.” She answered, looking squarely at Sairek. “Completely. Edible.” She spoke clearly and slowly.

Cyial chuckled again, but the reality was that he felt a bit stupid. Of course, they were next to a water source—the ocean; it wouldn’t be out of the question that there were a bit of marshes or rivers nearby, where cattails grew plentifully, judging with how much Nayleen had under her arm. “Where did you even find those?” He asked.

“Not that far away, there's a little pond nearby. I plucked everything from there. I also grabbed some of the water, but it’s definitely tainted. We're going to have to boil it first, though I don’t know how we’re going to do that other than just hold the bottle over the fire for a very long time.”

“That’s… not feasible.” Cyial replied.

Nayleen sighed. “I know,” she said, then paused, and screwed up her face in thought. “Do demons get sick?”

“If you’re suggesting I can drink the tainted water or eat unclean cattails, the answer is no, I cannot. I may be resistant to most illnesses but I’m definitely not immune to them.” Cyial said. “Something like that would definitely still make me sick fairly easily, especially when weakened like this...”

“Mmph…” Nayleen mumbled.

“Are… those seriously edible?” Sairek grumbled.

“The bulb is sometimes used in salads and though they can be eaten raw, they’re usually boiled, baked or grilled. Makes them much easier to eat and makes them taste less… bad.” Cyial explained. “They’re kind of like etherweeds; they taste bad, are chewy and pliant, unless cooked properly.”

“Wonderful…” Sairek drawled sarcastically.

“Hey, they are better than worms. Probably.” Nayleen reminded him, nudging her head at a sleeping Varhi.

“We really need clean water…” Cyial grumbled. That really needed to be their next priority. Even etherweed would be no good if they couldn’t get clean water and the slow rain catcher wasn’t enough. It was just stopping them from dehydration and that would only last for as long as the rain persisted. “We really, really need to find a clean water source or something to boil the water in—wait a second…” Cyial paused, leaning over without getting up to reach for Varhi’s satchel. He began digging inside as he pulled it back over to himself. Nayleen and Sairek watched curiously as Cyial rummaged inside, before pulling out one item, then another two looking similar.

“The… spit roast?” Nayleen asked.

“I just remembered – there is a small detail I noticed with Varhi’s canteens that ours don’t have.” Cyial said, getting up and crawling towards Varhi. He very carefully unhooked the canteen from the belt against his sleeping form. He looked the canteen over. It had been a long time since he last grinned with such relief and elation, but now, Cyial indeed grinned as he crawled a bit back towards the other two and held the canteen up with two hands, one hand holding the body of the empty canteen, and then the other holding onto a singular, small, circular ring of iron; almost matching the girth of the spit roast’s bar perfectly as he slid it through the ring to demonstrate his idea.

“Sweet Lands, Varhi prepares for freakin’ everything!” Nayleen laughed. “Even when he’s asleep, he’s saving our hides. Give it here, I’ll pour the water I’ve collected into that instead. Can you set up the spit roast?”

“Sure.” Cyial answered, handing the canteen over to Nayleen. Then he moved himself over towards the fire and began setting it up. It was much like the rain catcher, which made Cyial assume that Varhi had made this thing himself too, though the design was more simple. It really was just a metal bar, with simple leather-bound handles at the end of each side, and two legs for a stand.
Speaking of which, the metallic ring on the canteen seemed to also be Varhi’s work. The other boy didn’t act intelligent half of the time and often gave an impression of being brash and more reactive, but he really did seem to prepare and plan ahead carefully and meticulously.
Or, perhaps Cyial was giving Varhi too much credit, and he could have just been doing things based on Jimmy’s suggestions, he supposed, but it oddly enough didn’t seem like it. Varhi was surprisingly thorough and meticulous it seemed, based on what he had seen of the boy so far.

After all, the other boy seemed to be exceptionally perceptive to both his and Sairek's dilemma, something Cyial wished the other boy would just let go of...

With the spit roast set up, Nayleen slid the canteen to hang by the ring above the fire. The canteen itself was protected by cured and dried animal leather where one could hold it in two thick lines around the middle for extra grip, but the container itself was constructed from cast iron, so she was sure that the water would be able to boil if it became hot enough. "Just goes to show that sometimes the solution you’re looking for is right under your nose!” Nayleen smiled.

“Apparently. Both the cattails and the water.” Cyial said, still feeling a bit embarrassed and useless, despite his discovery. Maybe the hunger was making him stupid. ...Was that a thing? He knew one losing themselves to emotions, like anger, could do that after all, so maybe it wasn’t a stretch that his hunger really was affecting him.
Well, nothing that he could do about that. Not without suffering the consequences anyways, which he deemed worse than simply going hungry. It’s not like the rest of them were even in a position to feed from anyway even if he wanted to entertain the idea.

“So… what now…?” Sairek asked quietly as they had been just sitting in silence for a couple minutes.

“We… wait, I guess?” Nayleen replied, unsure herself. "We can’t do anything until the water boils, and that could be thirty minutes to an hour. We’ll wash the cattails to eat first, then we’ll boil another canteen of water for the etherweed and maybe boil the crab afterwards?”

“I don’t think that crab is going to fit in a canteen, Nayleen.” Cyial told her dryly.

Nayleen frowned. “But—It’s such a waste! There’s gotta be a way…”

“I could technically use waert with a mix of balinzer, into Cyial's motar and pestle, that would prevent the pewter from melting, but…” Sairek trailed off.

“...Hey, yeah! That would work! That would wash the crab off, and then we can just cook it. After the cattails, a bit of drink and rest, you could do that, right?” Nayleen asked.

“Yeah, but I don’t know if I would expend more energy than it’s worth, but maybe if the jewel recovers enough by then, I could use that anyway.” Sairek said as he glanced down the length of his body to eye the jewel. “To be honest, I never used it very much because there was no reason to, so I don’t know how long it would take before it gets a usable amount of energy back, especially because the ethereal in Masirean is less potent than that of Ceareste.”

“Well, as long as it doesn’t take so long that the thing starts to decompose…” Nayleen grumbled. “I should have kept it alive and just… made sure it couldn’t escape.”

“That’s needlessly cruel to the animal.” Sairek interjected.

“Well, yeah, but we’re kind of in a bind here, you know.” Nayleen frowned. “Weren’t you even the one to suggest Cyial to fish with his tail?”

That reminder made Cyial blush and look away elsewhere from the conversation.

“Yes. I’m not above hunting for survival when it’s needed; but we should still remain humane about it as much as possible. They’re alive too, you know. The animals are just trying to live their lives as we are.” Sairek tried to clarify. “Their souls could have even been human like we are now once before. Or we could have even been like them in our previous lives.”

Nayleen’s frown deepened. “...It’s kind of creepy when you put it like that, you know.”

“I think that’s Sairek’s point and why he’s uncomfortable with it.” Cyial interjected to her. Sairek nodded in confirmation.

“I thought we were all souls were just all made up of the same stuff, just humans have the most of it?” Nayleen asked.

“In theory. It’s never actually been proven.” Cyial said. “That’s usually why in the Yggdrasil religion for those that follow it strictly, it’s a sin to kill needlessly.”

“Not that I follow that, mind you… but, you know…” Sairek mumbled as he fidgeted where he sat a little uncomfortably. “I just—don’t like killing things. Even if it’s a fish, or an animal… I know it’s necessary sometimes, or even in something like self defense, or even monsters, but I’d rather distance myself from it as much as possible…”

Nayleen sighed. “I understand. You have a great appreciation and respect for all life. It’s not a bad thing, so don’t be embarrassed about it.”

Sairek weakly smiled at her. “The castle wouldn’t think so… It’s part of the reason why I’m afraid of becoming King and hate being Prince in the first place, but you guys already know all of that.”

Nayleen waved her hand dismissively. “Well, in the meantime, instead of just sitting here, Cyial, you and I should go look around the shore here for some etherweed for Sairek. The sooner he gets his energy back, the sooner we can eat some miniscule crab for supper... or maybe breakfast at this rate.”

“We may also find more crabs, that would be nice.” Cyial said.

“Despite how many cattails as I've gotten, this will hardly feed the four of us, and then there’s still the problem of finding food for tomorrow morning, so yeah.” Nayleen said. “Once Varhi has rested up some and we get Sairek’s wounds finally properly cleaned as best as we can manage, we can try the whole fishing gig thing he suggested.” Nayleen then turned back to Sairek. “Are you okay with being alone with Varhi again?”

Sairek nodded. “I’m just… gently napping, doing what you taught us about survival and trying to conserve whatever energy I have left.”

“Good, I’m proud you remembered.” Nayleen complimented him.

Sairek chuckled gently. “It was only a little more than a week ago, Nayleen. My memory isn’t that bad.”

“Feels like months ago already.” She frowned. Something Sairek nodded in agreement with. “Cyial, you ready?”

If he was being honest with himself, he didn’t wish to leave Sairek so soon, but he reasoned they both wouldn’t be that far away. It took a bit of effort, but he managed to stumble back up onto his feet. He felt a little dizzy. “Yeah...”

“Are you okay?” Nayleen asked him, a look of concern on her face.

“...Not really, but I’ll survive. After this we’ll be resting until tomorrow morning anyway, right?” Cyial asked.

“I guess so. Just don’t push yourself.” Nayleen cautioned him.

“I won’t.” Cyial reassured her. “Besides, if I do feel awful, I won’t be too far away still. I’ll start heading right back.”

That seemed to be acceptable to her and she nodded. “I’ll go this way and you go that way. I think that side is shorter too, so you’ll have less work to do. Let’s go.”

Cyial with only the gesture of a nod, turned to face his back towards Sairek and Nayleen and began to slowly walk off outwards, aligning his direction so he’d eventually meet towards the water where he’d begin looking underneath the water’s surface.
Etherweed, while it grew in water, didn’t really grow in the deep waters. Sometimes the plants during storms could get yanked from the soft soil underneath the shore and just wash up on the beach with any luck, but he may have to wade his way into the water to collect some of them as well if he was unlucky. He was already a bit wet anyways though from the rain, so he didn’t really mind having to dip himself into the water. Still, it wouldn’t do good to have his robe completely soaked with that much water, so he’d have to think of something. Maybe he’d just gather whatever he could on the shore line on the first trip and on the return trip back, grab the ones in the water; then he could dry off quickly back at their camp? Yeah, that would work...

Four minutes out in his walk and he was already seeing some etherweed lurking in the water. Promising. A couple of minutes more and he smiled a little. At last, there were some on the beach. Not a lot, but it was there. As he walked, he bent down and picked them up, just pocketing them in his robe for now. There was certainly a fair bit more in the water. This could take a while on the way back.

Nayleen was also correct that his side was fairly short, because not even a twelve minute walk, and he was already facing up against a cliffside that abruptly inclined and cut the sandy shore off. When he reached the end, he began simply walking back until he had last seen some etherweed, and when he reached it, he slowly disrobed himself of his gloves, robe and shoes, leaving him only in his undergarments. He left them folded on the muddying sand on the beach. Slowly, he stepped his way towards the water, the mud sinking between his toes as he crept into the cold ocean water. It would have been enough to maybe chill a human and make them at least gasp in surprise, but Cyial was fairly indifferent to such temperatures. It’d have to be colder than that to shock him.

What did concern him a bit was the forcefulness of the waves. The water was choppier than usual. By the time his hips and stomach was creeping into the ocean water he was struggling to maintain his balance against the force of the waves as he made his way towards his prize.

Finally, taking a deep inhale of air, he dove his head underneath the water, his garnet eyes glowing even beneath the surface of the water as he blinked once, reaching out and with a bit of a breathless grunt of effort with both hands, pulling two clusters of etherweed out from the sand they were growing in. When he emerged to the surface again, he exhaled the excess air out from his lungs and shook his now soaked bangs from his eyes away from his face, reaching his left hand up to brush them back aside so they weren’t in his eyes anymore.

That wasn’t so bad, and he’d seen about seven clumps in the water just like this one. One down, six to go.

Wading his way through the water back onto the shore, Cyial put the etherweed away in his robe, then simply carried his clothes in both of his arms as he walked along the shoreline until he spotted the next bundle of etherweed. This one was so close to the shore, he didn’t even need to go underwater to grab at them, and neither for the next one afterwards, though they were less bountiful.

The next one he spotted afterwards was much more bountiful, but it came with the problem that it was much further out than the rest of the others. He’d have to swim up to it to reach it rather than just wade in the water. Cyial considered it for a moment; he really wasn’t feeling well and while the risk was low that something could happen, it was a risk and a fairly needless one at that. Everyone else was relying on him to come back and he promised, first Sairek, and now Nayleen, that he wouldn’t push himself. The last thing he wanted was to over exert himself, not have the strength to fight the waves if they somehow pulled him in and then just drown barely within touching distance of the shore.
...So he kept his promise. The etherweed would still be there if they needed it. Maybe he could get it tomorrow, when he wasn’t feeling so horrible and the weather was perhaps better.

Cyial gradually made his way back, picking up one more bundle, abandoning the second last one like he had the fourth and then picking up the last bundle. As he trudged back to the camp, he was still dripping wet. And Sairek upon his return back, looked at him and blinked. “Cyial? Why are you almost naked and wet like that…?”

Cyial snorted a laugh at that. “Etherweed grows in the water. I had to go get it. I didn’t want to come back empty-handed this time.”

Setting himself to sit by the fire as well as his clothes so they could begin drying off, Sairek himself moved to sit up and crawl closer to the fire to sit next to Cyial on the opposite side of where the other boy’s clothes were and pressed up close to him, like if he was trying to share his body heat. Sairek indeed felt warm and dry and this time it was Cyial who leaned his weight against Sairek. He suddenly felt very tired. He’d not felt this sleepy in a very long time. He only felt this sleepy when he had stayed up several nights in a row working hard on medicine because of a sharp rise in demand. Within a couple of minutes, almost subconsciously, he had repositioned himself from sitting to instead be laying on his side, using Sairek’s upper leg as a pillow.

Sairek shifted his position and Cyial glanced up a little to see that he was removing his own shirt as best as he could with the work being primarily done with his one good arm, along with his cape, mantle and tabard all in one go, and then moved to drape the several layers of cloth over Cyial’s form as best as he could. The demon hummed quietly in thanks, feeling much more comfortable now, and let himself drift off into a deep sleep. The occasional drops of rain falling on his face wasn’t even enough to phase him back awake, especially thanks to the soothing motions of Sairek's arm gently rubbing his back through the cloth...



When he did wake up again, he must have been moved at some point, as his head was no longer resting on Sairek’s leg, but instead, Varhi’s satchel with his own folded robe being used to cushion the satchel for his head as a pillow. He was still tightly tucked under Sairek’s shirt and cape, which acted basically like a thin blanket for his legs, but the warm summer humidity with him now being parked under the cliff to protect him from the elements, as well as just being a demon, made him comfortably warm enough. It also helped that he now was no longer wet, seemingly having become dry when his consciousness slipped from him, probably thanks to the fire.

What woke him was the gentle whispering of voices. Opening his eyes, he saw Nayleen and Sairek by the fire and… Varhi, also up and sitting. At some point, they must have helped remove his armor, because he was out of it, only in his undergarments. Looking towards Sairek, he was also in a similar state of undress. Nayleen was leaning towards him and in front of him, checking out the wound that he had taken to his leg as Sairek sat with both of his legs spread partially spread and outstretched.

“You know how embarrassing this is for me, right…?” Sairek grumbled, glancing away, not noticing Cyial being awake yet.

“Gosh, you are such a baby. Varhi undresses just fine.” Nayleen let loose in an exasperated sigh.

“That’s because he has no decency.” Sairek grunted.

“Hey...!” Varhi called back at him. “It’s not that I don’t have any decency, it’s just that I know when I should wear clothes and when I should strip out of them. You got shot multiple times, you know. She kind of needs to clean the wounds.” He grumbled with a sniff of his nose. “Now quit whining and just let her do what she needs to. She doesn’t care if you’re in your tighty-whities or not. She’s your friend who’s trying to take care of you regardless if she’s a girl or a boy.” Varhi lectured seriously.

Sairek sighed; an exhale which got caught in his throat as he winced. “Agh! O-Ouch! That stings!”

“Sorry. I have to get rid of the dried blood to clean this properly. The leg is starting to get infected. Hopefully this herb helps.” Nayleen said.

“H-Hopefully…?” Sairek glared at her.

“It should help.” She corrected herself.

Sairek’s glare continued. Nayleen swiftly defeated his glare by raising her right hand up and flicked an index finger against his forehead, causing him to recoil a little and hold his forehead from the grievous wound she had just inflicted on him. “Ow!” He let out in surprise. “Owww!!” He let out again, this time in genuine pain as Nayleen placed pressure on the wound and a piece of plant on top of it. Instinctively, he tried to jerk his leg away, but Nayleen’s grip on it was firm and she held it mostly in place.

“The more you squirm the less this will work, you know,” she said, “and then I have to do your arm after this.”

Rather than make a quip this time, Sairek only responded with annoyed grumbling and mutters under his breath. Varhi meanwhile nonchalantly reached out for a cattail stalk, ripping it apart with his teeth and chewed. Sairek made a face at him.

“What? You know stuff like this is what I eat half the time anyway, right?” Varhi asked. “This ain’t nothin’ new to me.”

“...Could you please not talk with your mouth full?” Sairek asked.

“I could.” Varhi replied, looking at Sairek.

Sairek blinked at him. "Then why are you still doing it...?"

“I won’t, but I could.” Varhi clarified.

Sairek leaned back, bracing his good arm behind himself so he didn’t fall backwards and looked up at the darkened evening sky. “Sweet Lands, what did I do to deserve this...?”

Cyial chuckled quietly to himself and moved to sit upright completely, wrapping the Prince’s cape around himself as much as he could. “Do you need my help, Sairek?”

Sairek looked back down, almost startled and blushed. “Cyial, this isn’t—” he stammered and halted.

“...Isn’t what?” Cyial pressed him to continue.

“N-Nevermind…” Sairek grumbled, barely audible. Cyial smiled. He didn’t mean to make fun of Sairek, but he had to admit, the other boy was fun to tease at times. He understood why Nayleen did it so much. “H-How long is this going to take?” Sairek tried to change the subject.

“I ‘unno.” Nayleen shrugged.

“What do you mean you don’t know!?”

“Cyial’s the doctor here, not me. I just know the stuff works. Probably.”

Cyial crawled over to meet them, keeping Sairek’s clothes around himself, primarily draped over his shoulders along his back. It was only after crawling out he realized that it had stopped raining, at least for now, though the clouds were still fairly heavy. “That depends on the herb you’ve found and are using,” he answered. When he reached them, he gently moved to place his hand in place of Nayleen’s. “I can take over from here.”

“A green herb.” Nayleen answered his question, relinquishing her grip to allow Cyial to do it instead. "There ya go Sairek. You'll be less embarrassed with a boy, right?" She teased him. Sairek's eyes gave a sidelong glance away from her, not answering.

Cyial however frowned at the herb. Green was the weakest of the herbs. Really, they could help with wounds and preventing infection, though they were better at eliminating non-threatening venoms, or, as they were more commonly used for—just getting rid of mosquito bites. Still, they did have a cleansing property to them, and the puncture wounds made by the bullets were small, even if the property was fairly weak. “Yeah, they’ll work, but this will be a little while, Sairek if it is going to work.”

“Ugghh…” Sairek groaned, receiving an answer he clearly didn’t hope to hear.

Cyial glanced over towards Nayleen. “You may as well get started on Varhi while I help Sairek.”

“Oh, no. Varhi is just streaking again.” Nayleen waved a hand dismissively, causing Cyial to frown as he looked towards Varhi.

“I am not ‘just streaking’! Moving in my armor hurts, dammit! I need more than a green herb to help me—I need a damn hospital!” Varhi protested at the same time he reached out to take another chunk of cattail to chew on and swallow angrily before speaking up again. “With how I am right now, armor won’t help me. I may as well at least get more comfortable. I bloody deserve it after the shit I’ve just been through! Cut me some slack!”

Cyial stared blankly at Varhi a little. With his exasperation and how he was moving, he... almost seemed fine, if the bruises all over him hadn't betrayed him. He sighed. “Yeah, yeah… Well then, it’s going to be night soon, so maybe you can set up that tent instead, Nayleen.” He suggested.

“No, she doesn’t need to.” Varhi said with a bit of a huff. “I’ll show you how easy it is. Go grab the collapsible tent from my satchel, Nayleen.”

Nayleen walked off to do that, while Cyial moved to place his second hand to apply more pressure onto the herb and thus, Sairek’s leg wound. The Prince grimaced at this, but said nothing. “Hey, did Nayleen clean this first, by any chance?” Cyial asked. Sairek looked at him and nodded slowly. “And the arm?”

Again, another nod. “And those herbs too, before you ask.” Sairek said.

“Okay, just checking to make sure.” Cyial explained. He figured as such but it would have been bad to just assume and be wrong.

When Nayleen returned holding the ‘box’ that was the collapsible tent. Varhi lifted up his arms as high as he could raise them before wincing in discomfort and Nayleen placed the box in his grip. Varhi rotated the contraption over as he settled it on his lap. “You just place the tent where you want to put it, push this little button right... here. Hold it down hard for a couple of seconds, after that, turn it back up on this side and… step back. It will do everything else by itself. That is all there is to it.”

“...Are you serious?” Nayleen asked, her expression one of wonder but also not entirely believing.

“Only one way to find out, is there? Of course, make sure the area you put this in is nice, flat and clear, including tiny chunk of rocks.” Varhi smirked faintly, handing the box back to her. Almost like a child in a sweets store, Nayleen jogged some distance away excitedly, closer towards the propped up life boat, giving the box some nice isolation from anything else around and dusting the sand of pebbles around the vicinity before she followed Varhi’s instructions. She turned it over, pressed her index finger on a red and white striped button, turned it back over, placed it flat on the sand and then stepped back.
Fifteen seconds later, the box shook a little. Then, it was as if releasing a self-inflating balloon, except this 'balloon' was with pegs and all which shot out from the top into the corners to extend by itself and flap open, causing the other three to gasp or let out other similar sounds of awe as within seconds, from within a tiny box, emerged a fully complete tent enough for at least two people, set up to already sleep in.

Varhi’s smirk deepened. “Now just grab the box from under the—”

“Oh, that is so cool~!” Nayleen squealed. “Can I—Can I do it again?”

“What—N-No!” Varhi blanched. “That thing is nearly as expensive as my sword! It’s not a toy! Besides, you saw that I had to put it all back into the box manually in Karvadean...” He scolded her.
Nayleen booed sadly at him, but such a boo was not enough to persuade Varhi to change his mind.
“Anyway, as I was saying, grab the box from underneath the tent and squeeze it back into my satchel if you don’t mind, please...” Varhi requested, folding his right arm over his left in front of his stomach as he sat

Nayleen obediently began doing just that, while Cyial and Sairek were still staring wide-eyed at the tent, before finally regaining their senses to look at each other.

“Kior is going to be such a huge culture shock for me... We’re not even there and I can already feel it.” Sairek sniffed.

Varhi snorted at this. “Self-setting compact tents and projectile weapons that can be fired with just the squeeze of a trigger is only the tip of the iceberg. You haven’t even seen the machinery that’s powered over there. That stuff does some truly miraculous things.”

“Jimmy’s boat…?” Sairek tried.

“Hah. Jimmy’s boat is impressive to what you would find on the market elsewhere, but the actual Kiorian military boats make Jimmy’s boat unimpressive in comparison. You know they have ships that just fly in the air, right?” Varhi asked.

“I’ve heard about that, yeah. Cyial and I talked about that a bit already, actually.” Sairek answered, suppressing another grimace. “Though, from what I’ve also heard, they can’t fly anywhere except within the boundaries of the city. Or, basically that, anyway.”

“Yeah, that’s true, but you know how Jimmy’s engine needed ethereal to run? Those ships don’t. Just good ‘ol coal and steam.” Varhi replied.

“...No ethereal?” Sairek blinked. “How—How is that possible?”

“I dunno. 'good 'ol science' too, I guess.” Varhi shrugged. “According to the demons, the Underworld doesn’t use any magic to operate its machinery, so why can't we? Clearly they are way ahead of us in technology than we are, as we apparently rely on magic and they don't. Ironic when you think about it, since they are beings made of primarily magic."

Cyial now pulled the herb up off of Sairek’s leg, then looked around. Varhi moved to point for Cyial at a small pile of green herbs laying to the opposite side Cyial was on. The demon nodded his thanks, reaching over to grab one, then examined both herbs he had in his hand; the one he used and the fresh one. The used one was covered in some of Sairek’s blood, making him frown. He tossed the herb into the fire. It was starting to die out, but maybe the herb would make it last just a couple of minutes longer. “We don’t have anything to bandage these wounds with still, do we?”

“I’m afraid not.” Varhi replied.

“That’s bothersome…” Cyial frowned. They ordered me to strip me of everything in my robe... they even took my book at some point, but I never thought to take anything but my book," he sighed. "It looks like you’re sleeping undressed then as you are, Sairek.”

“Why…?” Sairek asked, his tone wary.

“Your clothes are hardly clean and they’re bloodied. Wearing them without a bandage to cover the wounds would just get them infected again anyway. The wounds have mostly clotted and stopped bleeding for now though so you won’t bleed out, of course.” Cyial explained, pressing the herb now against Sairek’s arm, causing Sairek's bicep to flex and tense up instinctively.

“Y-Yeah, but I’m not staying undressed until they close up...” Sairek said through a sharp inhale of clenched teeth, obviously in pain from the pressure applied to his arm.

“No, of course not, but just sleep undressed for tonight—and be careful of how you sleep. We’ll put you in the tent to minimize the risk of infection as much as possible, so the sand won’t get on the wounds and stuff.” Cyial explained. “I guess we could tie the herbs with some rope around the wounds on your limbs too as a make shift bandage. They’ll probably fall off as you naturally move around in your sleep but it might hold for at least a few hours. We'll renew the herbs again using the same trick tomorrow morning underneath your clothes. They might stick better if you're careful about how you move, and you might start being able to put a little force into the limbs again tomorrow, too, but we might still need another day or two before you can walk."

“Nayleen will probably sleep outside as usual...” Sairek shrugged tensely with his one good arm, not wanting to interrupt Cyial's procedure of pressing the herb to the wound by moving it.

“It’s okay, I’ll make sure she doesn’t push herself. I think we’ll be fine without a watch tonight anyway.” Cyial said. “I walked out a good way into the plains and didn’t see anything of threat. At least we're not near something's territory.”

Sairek thought for a moment and then the realization to some of what Cyial meant struck him. “Wait... you’re not sleeping in the tent?” He asked.

“Oi… I’m used goods too, you know.” Varhi reminded him, his tone feigning emotional hurt, but his tone also dripped of sarcasm.

“S-Sorry, that’s not what I meant, it’s just…” Sairek trailed off.

“We’ve almost always slept together since we first met, that’s all. I think there’s only been one day where we haven’t.” Cyial explained to Varhi. "Though, I guess I'm not counting times where we've camped together, but I stayed up to watch."

“I wouldn’t know. I sleep better alone in my own tent, so this will be uncomfortable for both of us.” Varhi said, glancing at Sairek who looked a little uneasy, though it was difficult to spot because he was also grimacing in pain. “Still, I trust you guys more than the other random people I’m sometimes forced to team up with for a job. You guys did save my life. Probably twice now.” He grumbled that last bit.

“I was just doing what I felt was right…” Sairek mumbled.

“I think you did the right thing, Sairek.” Cyial tried to reassure him. He knew Sairek had a lot on his mind. What he had done would carry a lot of weight and responsibility that would probably ripple throughout the world and make news if word got out. What he did, and why he did it – no one else in the world but his friends would probably be able to understand or comprehend.

To Sairek, life was just… valuable, whether it be a person, or even the life of a crab, Sairek just valued the existence of life and wanted to preserve it as best as he could. He wondered if he acted this way, due to the loss of his mother. If so, then Cyial was concerned about how much the loss of his mother actually hurt Sairek, especially losing her when he was so young.
Still holding the herb against Sairek’s arm, Cyial shifted his grip on it to his left hand and raised his right arm around Sairek’s back in a sort of half hug, giving his good shoulder a reassuring and gentle squeeze. Sairek turned to shift the gaze in his eyes into Cyial’s own, their eyes locking. Sairek’s eyes softened after a brief moment at the silent communication they were having and looked down slightly. “...Thank you…” He whispered.

Cyial gave Sairek’s shoulder yet another squeeze, then moved to rub his back gently, then pulled away. “Have you eaten anything yet?” Cyial asked.

“As much as I could stomach…” Sairek grumbled.

“Have a little more.” Cyial ordered.

“Eehh…?” Sairek pouted. “But—”

“I know how little you tend to eat.” Cyial cut him off in a dry tone of voice.

Sairek rolled his eyes. “You’re worse than my father.”

“The more well fed you both are, the faster you two will recover from your injuries, which means the faster we can get out of here.” Cyial reasoned.

“I’m not hurt nearly as badly as Varhi is.” Sairek sniffed.

“Varhi is on his fourth cattail already since I woke up.” Cyial replied dryly once more. “How many have you’ve eaten?”

“Um... One.” Sairek answered meekly.

Varhi reached over to grab two cattails and held them out for Sairek and Cyial to take. “Sharing is caring, right?”

Sairek shot Varhi an unamused look. Varhi smiled sweetly at the Prince in return. A little annoyed, he took one of the cattails and slowly bit into it from the bulb on top. His face instantly grimaced as he slowly tore at the stem and chewed. “Urrgh… i-irredeemable this is…” The Prince’s voice quivered.

Cyial took the second cattail with his free hand and chewed into it as well. His expression immediately became a little bit pale.

...Irredeemable indeed.

“Down the hatch it goes!” Varhi replied cheerfully, shoving a good chunk of cattail in his mouth, not seeming to notice the other two’s ghostly expressions at the plants’ terrible taste.


Yeah, Varhi was definitely something else, Cyial concluded.