“Man, why did you have to go out and just admit that’s what we did…?” Nayleen sighed as both she and Varhi climbed back up the way they came down the shore line.
“Why should I try to hide it if he clearly knew? Actually, why should we hide it in the first place anyway?” Varhi asked, glancing back at her. “I’ve got no shame to hide. Besides, we didn’t do anything. It was pretty one-sided.” He smirked.
“That’s… not what I meant.” Nayleen grimaced.
“Yeah, yeah, I know. In all seriousness, I didn’t expect that to set Cyial off like that.” Varhi mused out loud. “I guess there won’t be any privacy between us with him around. I didn’t know he could ‘eat’ off of that, too. I was under the impression he was the one who had to be doing it himself. Maybe we should just invite him next time?”
“Now wait a minute…! Don’t just go and assume things like ‘next time’ like that!” Nayleen exclaimed, her face turning red.
“Sorry. You’re right. I didn’t mean to imply it like that.” Varhi apologized sincerely. “But he did have a bit of a point. He’s starving and we could have fed him, but we just left him to suffer like that. I can understand why he tried to attack me. Or… his hunger tried to, anyway.”
“I’ve never seen Cyial lash out like that before… Not even when he finally stood up to Balgira did he react like that...” Nayleen murmured.
“Like I said, it wasn’t Cyial — not the one you know, anyway. It’s pure raw animal instinct taking over him and dismissing any clear rational thoughts. Sometimes he’ll react to things and lash out without meaning to. He needs food, Nayleen.”
Nayleen sighed. “Are we sure we want to leave him alone with Sairek, then?”
Varhi nodded. “Sairek has a decision to make that he has to decide on his own right now. Besides, it’s not like Cyial would kill him or something brash like that.”
“Not kill him, but neither did the three demons that kidnapped him in Lamen. They didn’t even get very far, but that traumatized him. Cyial knows it. That's probably why he’s refusing to eat...”
“It sounds like the experience somehow ended up doing more damage to Cyial than Sairek.” Varhi noted.
“Cyial's own species was involved and showed off the worst side of it, and now, his own worst side is coming out.” Nayleen explained. “It might have given him vibes that he is just a monster or something.”
Varhi blinked. “I don’t understand. Humans do terrible things all the damn time. I don't feel shame in myself for what terrible acts other people have done.”
Nayleen shrugged, not disagreeing with that statement. “Maybe it’s more personal to him because he is different from the majority of us?”
Now it was Varhi’s turn to shrug. “Well, we’ll deal with it when we get back, if Sairek hasn’t succeeded.”
“I’m kind of getting a bad feeling just leaving him there alone with Cyial.” Nayleen grumbled.
“My gut says it will be fine and it’s never led me astray yet. For now, we need to get some grub and I need to do some overwatching to make sure we’re safe hiding under their noses.”
“You better be careful.” Nayleen cautioned him.
“Hey, I can sneak well enough when I need to.” Varhi replied a little defensively. “Relax, I won’t get close at all.”
“I want your word on it.”
“You really don’t trust me with this, do you?” Varhi forced a smile looking back at her. “You have my oath as an unofficial Masirean knight. Whatever that’s worth now-a-days.”
Nayleen made a face at him, then snorted out of her nose. “Okay then.”
* * *
Sairek lurched into consciousness with a gasp, awaking abruptly from a void of darkness. However, he was stopped by Cyial’s hand on his chest, his head having been laying on the other boy’s lap. “What—Huh?” He stammered in confusion.
“Thank goodness, you’re awake…” Cyial let out in relief. Sairek looked up at Cyial’s face that was staring down at him. He could see the other demon had been crying; his eye sockets were swollen and a bit red, but it seems like that may have been a little while ago.
“What happened…?” Sairek groaned, and then flinched with a grimacing expression, raising his right hand to his forehead. “Urrgh… L-Lands... I feel like I might vomit…” He groaned. His forehead was damp with sweat. Dripping, even. So was the rest of his body, actually.
“You passed out…” Cyial murmured, looking away dejectedly.
“Unnh…” Sairek winced, unable to respond to Cyial immediately. His eyes clenched tightly shut. He didn’t understand at first, but he realized the way his head felt, it was as if it were splitting open. Much like if he had used every ounce of ethereal in his body. As he thought about it more though, the more that comparison made sense. Actually, it’s probably exactly what was happening.
Cyial had bitten and licked him... a lot. Though the bites themselves were not extremely hard; he didn’t even see any marks on his body as he looked down at himself. Cyial however just kept pouring more and more of that saliva toxin of his into his body which filled him with an urgent desire, for sure, but from what he understood, a part of that was black magic, even if it was a part of Cyial. Demons were magical beings, after all, not physical like he was. No doubt, the black magic had completely evaporated whatever ethereal he had in his body and left him dry. And when he was dry, his body had zero defense for Cyial's toxin that left him feeling ashamedly vulnerable to Cyial's hunger afterwards. No ethereal made the hunger to connect to his conscious extremely easily to 'feed' off of. It left nothing to be able to hide the responses of the... 'lectures', he supposed, that he was subject to. Or hide his embarrasment and arousal or even curiosity. He remembered what had happened. It was a bit of a blur, though. But Sairek remembered clearly enough that it was causing his face to flush a little again, so he stopped. His head was still throbbing, anyway.
Pulling himself sluggishly from his thoughts, Sairek looked up at the demon who was still clearly upset at what they had done, but had to close his eyes from the headache. “To be honest, Cyial… I was expecting worse. This headache right now is more of a displeasure than that was…” Sairek admitted.
“You’re just saying that…” Cyial retorted venomously with disgust at himself, closing his own eyes tightly.
Sairek opened his own eyes, looking at Cyial through his own wrist in front of his vision from clutching his head. “Cyial, I’ve had to fib a few times, I admit, but you know that I don’t lie. Especially to you. It really wasn’t that bad… even though I've got the impression that your hunger was actually taking it easy on me... Probably to not scare me off. Either way, the point was that it was consensual—”
“If it took it easy on you then you should understand that ‘next time’ you’ll feel even worse than you’re feeling now…!” Cyial cut in with a hard shake of his head.
“Next time I should have vials of ethereal available to make myself better in mere minutes instead of being stranded in a cove in a country where the ruler is trying to hunt me down.” Sairek grumbled. He closed his head for a moment, trying to meditate as Fuyiki had lectured him, but he shook his head in frustration. “Ugh… I can’t sense anything at all, either...”
Cyial slowly opened his eyes back up, looking apologetically at Sairek. “The venom is still probably running within you, but most of the potency would have worn off by now… but it’s still in your system, my… my black magic…”
“Flaming Lands… I could really use a mint herb right now…” Sairek grumbled. He looked around the cove and at all of his discarded clothes, then back outside the entrance. The light was starting to look a warm pale outside. “Geez… It must be time for Varhi and Nayleen to return soon. I guess I must have passed out for a couple of hours at least.”
He was more thinking out loud to himself than speaking to Cyial, because the pain in his head was practically deafening to his own thoughts. Out of desperation to try and mend the pain at least somewhat, he rolled over on the sand to his shirt, pulling it towards himself via clasping the royal jewel within his hand and brought it close to his forehead where he forced whatever dwindling energy the jewel had gathered within the past few hours into his own system, causing the currently-orange jewel to taper out almost completely and become little more than a small speck of dark red in the center. Sairek blinked a few times testingly, though his face was still scrunched into a grimace. “...That’s a little better, I guess…” He said dryly, though the relief of pain was marginal at best. It would at least rid himself of the dregs of black magic within his system, speeding up the recovery process. The sooner he could begin to meditate, the better.
He glanced back towards Cyial for a moment, who was distancing himself from the Prince, once more balled up into himself. Sairek knew, emotionally, Cyial was in turmoil, but at least physically he was looking much stronger and healthier. That feral look in his eyes was gone completely and the soft look in Cyial's eyes he was used to had returned. He didn’t know how much Cyial took from him, or how much it would satiate his friend, but he hoped it would be long enough to at least last until they got back home safe and sound. At the very least, Cyial’s physical health should no longer be an immediate issue.
Sairek reached over to the rest of his clothes, and pulled them back on, lest he be caught completely bare before the other two came back. When he was fully dressed again, he moved to sit next to Cyial and moved to try and comfort him, however, Cyial flinched and didn’t really respond positively to the gesture. Regardless, Sairek stayed with him, leaning against him gently at first, but his body eventually started becoming heavy, and he was leaning more into Cyial until he was practically using the other boy for support to even sit up. Cyial must have felt this, but still, he didn’t move.
Varhi was the first to return, carrying some sticks and stones within his satchel; he dropped them into the middle to relieve himself of the additional weight, as he studied the other two. “...Are you two alright? Not even a hello or greeting—and geez Sairek, you look like shit. Did something happen?”
“I feel like shit…” Sairek mumbled, once again lifting a hand to his head to grip it. “We… did it.”
“...Did what?” Varhi asked.
Sairek, despite the pain in his head, stared at him dryly. “The thing.”
“...What thing was that?”
Sairek transformed his stare into a glare.
“...Oh! That thing! Then…?”
Sairek looked at Cyial expectantly for an answer. Cyial looked away initially, then released a long exhale. “...I’m fine…” Cyial's voice cracked, barely speaking above a whisper.
Varhi gave the demon an even look. “...You see, I’d like to believe that, but every time you’ve said that, it’s been a lie. So you understand why it’s hard for me to take your word at face value, right?”
“Well what do you want from me!?” Cyial snapped, his expression grimacing as tears began to flow freely from his eyes. “Y-You asked me a question and I gave you an answer…! If that’s not enough for you then please just leave me alone...!”
Varhi rubbed the back of his head as he frowned. “See, this is what I mean, you’re clearly not fine, Cyial—”
“Can you please stop…?” Sairek asked. “What Cyial had to do was even harder for him than it was for me. He's much better than he was. Just—Just please drop it for now. We’ll talk about it later if we must.” Sairek sighed. "Besides, I've got nothing left to give... I'm tapped out in more ways than one..." He added with a grumble as he failed to nurse the pain in his head by massaging his forehead.
Varhi sighed, shrugging with his palms facing upwards, conceding. “Whatever you say, boss. Actually, I probably shouldn’t chit-chat too much anyway. I want to get this fire ready to set up, and then look for Nayleen.”
“Uh? Did something happen to her...?” Sairek asked.
“No. At least... I don’t believe so.” Varhi answered. “I simply want to help her carry any game she may have caught, if any at all. She’d have a hard time not being seen if she caught a lot of animals, or one big animal. Imagine if she was trying to drag a deer by herself, or something.” He clarified. “We still need to be careful not to be seen, after all. I spent most of the day just watching the monastery, but the soldiers there just spent the entire time keeping guard and keeping occupied with card games. We shouldn’t have any issues staying here as long as we keep low.”
“Oh, I see.” Sairek accepted. He wordlessly watched as Varhi over the next ten minutes organized the sticks and stones to create a neatly done fire pit, ready to be lit up at any time.
Furthermore, Varhi prepared his homemade stand to boil water, hooking his canteen above the prepared camp to boil the water inside of it when the fire was lit. He stood back, studying his handiwork for a brief moment. “...There, that should do it.” He said, glancing back behind him to gauge the remaining daylight, before looking back to Sairek and Cyial, studying them for a moment. It looked like he wanted to say something, but he didn’t, instead opting to stand up and turn around taking a few paces towards the exit before he turned his upper half back towards them. “I’ll be back again in a bit.” He said, then glanced back towards Cyial for a moment. “It will get better, alright, Cyial?”
Cyial didn’t answer, or even show signs of acknowledging he heard Varhi, causing the other boy to frown. He turned back around, walking his way towards the pair before he knelt down in front of Cyial, grasping both of the demon’s hands which were hugging his knees together into both of his own. This finally caused Cyial to glance up, his eyes still a little swollen and puffy from crying. Varhi studied him for a brief moment. “It will get better, alright, Cyial?” Varhi repeated again with more conviction, but this time also added, “I promise in oath I will get you guys back home safe and sound.”
“...You shouldn’t make promises or ‘oaths’ that you don’t know that you can keep…” Cyial whispered.
Varhi nodded. “I believe you are right. Yet I’m still giving you this oath, Cyial.” He said, then gave the demon a few pats on the head with a wry smirk. Cyial glared up at him in annoyance. “Three days at most. I’ll have you all out of Masirean in three days.”
“Now you’re just making fun of me…” Cyial growled, his tone starting to become agitated.
“No, Cyial. I’m a sarcastic asshole but I’m not cruel, nor do I have the capacity or care to intentionally lie.” Varhi said. He let go of the demon’s hands now, allowing him to resume hugging his knees as he stood up to look at Sairek. “Though actually, I guess I should say "three days after Sairek gets better again." Do you think you can feel better by the end of tomorrow?”
Sairek peered up at him, having resumed trying to massage his forehead with his left hand. “I don’t know. I’ve never been… afflicted with black magic overtaking my system like this before, but the magic itself is starting to fade from my body. Worst case scenario, I walk with a massive headache and won’t be able to cast magic very well.”
“That’ll do. We won’t need to walk very much. Just a little further than we did today.” Varhi nodded.
“Then let’s not even wait until after tomorrow. We’ll go tomorrow.” Sairek said.
“Ohoho, look at you!" Varhi praised him with a smirk. "I’d love to, but it’d really be good to stock up on our food supplies first. It’s going to be perishable so not that much, but we should at least have a day or two worth of provisions. Mostly potable water since we’ve got none. We should be safe here, there’s no need to rush that much. I gave myself three days but that's because I know it'll take three days, not two.”
“Ugh, fine…” Sairek surrendered.
Standing up from his kneeling position, Varhi stretched and shook his legs a little bit. “I’m going to go collect Nayleen now. I’ll be back soon.” He announced, turning back around and walking towards the exit of the cove, leaving Sairek and Cyial alone once again.
“...Cyial…” Sairek began, then hesitated for a moment, looking at the other boy. “Could you do me… a small favor?”
“...What is it, Sairek…?” Cyial asked quietly.
“Please connect to my consciousness.”
“I… don’t think I could handle you looking inside my mind like that right now… Or me inside yours after what I did...” Cyial mumbled.
“That’s not what I want to do. I don’t think I’m capable of it anyway. I can’t sense any ethereal. I’m blind to it right now. That means I can't sense you, either. What I need you to do it for me is ‘guide’ me through the weave.”
Cyial was silent in response. Sairek wasn’t sure if Cyial was trying now or not, but a moment later, Cyial’s frown deepened. “...I can’t sense…” He began and trailed off, his expression becoming more concentrated. After a moment, Sairek felt Cyial’s presence essentially worming its way into its head. So strong his presence was, that it surprised him.
“You have absolutely no defenses here anymore… Is that because you have no ethereal? What did my hunger do—” He heard Cyial think inside of his head; despite the wording of the question, it was more a question to himself than to Sairek. Cyial wasn’t trying to probe inside of his head or thoughts or memories, but the way such a connection worked made it virtually impossible. After a few moments, something surprised Cyial which is what caused him pause, and he felt the demon retreat, looking back and staring at Sairek. "O-Oh." He gasped out for a moment, before his expression frowned. “...Really?”
“Really what?” Sairek asked, with a frown of his own, though nervousness at what Cyial may have saw was beginning to creep in. If he had no defenses, he could have seen anything.
“You… liked it?”
“Wh—?” Sairek felt his face heat up as his word caught in his throat. “I said it wasn’t that bad... not that I liked it!”
Cyial stared at him with a dry look.
“...I didn’t!” Sairek exclaimed, biting his bottom lip.
The demon exhaled slowly. “I would have thought you would hate me for it like you did those three… not like it…” He mumbled. “I may... have to reevaluate you a little.”
“I didn’t like it… I just didn’t hate it!” Sairek tried to explain.
"That's not what I felt just now..." Cyial said softly, turning his face away and looking at the cove wall to his right. "I guess you're not wrong, though. You do fib." Cyial said, closing his eyes and sighing. "If this keeps up, you might become a full-classed pervert. But fine. It's all foreign and new to you, it feels nice when you experiment on yourself... I get it, I suppose."
"Cyial—!"
“Oi, quit yelling.” Varhi’s voice chastised from the entrance of the cove, causing Sairek and Cyial to look.
“But he—” Sairek tried, then bit his tongue. Explaining what was too embarrassing...
The older lad just stared at him blankly for a moment, but seeing Sairek not continue, he turned to the demon instead.“Cyial, if you’re feeling better physically now, can you give us some help, please?” He asked.
“I… I guess so.” Cyial replied softly, giving Sairek a credulous look as he got up. Sairek pouted at him as the demon left with Varhi out of the cove. Still feeling woozy and his head continuing to throb in pain, Sairek closed his eyes, leaning back against the rocks and dirt, doing whatever he could in an attempt to minimize the discomfort of his head. He heard shuffling noises at the entrance, but he didn’t open his eyes to peer at what was going on until a couple of minutes later where Cyial, Varhi and Nayleen were all pushing something into the cove. Now with his curiosity piqued, Sairek leaned to the side to get a better look from around the two boys in front to see what they were hauling.
“Is that a… deer?” Sairek blinked slowly.
“Yup. Y’know when I said the ‘maybe she caught a deer’ thing, I was just joking. Turns out she one-upped me.” Varhi said.
“Oh, really...?” Sairek pressed, looking up at him.
“Yeah. This is the first one.” Varhi added, glancing back towards Sairek.
“What do you mean ‘first one’... you caught two?!” Sairek asked, now looking at Nayleen behind Varhi and Cyial.
Nayleen shook her head. “No, sorry.”
“Oh…”
“I caught three.”
“W-What—!?”
* * *
“So how the heck are we supposed to eat three entire deer before they go bad…?” Sairek grumbled, staring into the now lit fire, watching the venison cook.
“Eat them.” Nayleen answered unhelpfully.
“An entire deer would serve us supper today and breakfast, lunch and dinner tomorrow!” Sairek argued.
“I hope you like deer, then!” Nayleen quipped.
Sairek pressed his hand into his face and groaned. “...Whatever. You and Varhi are both heavy eaters anyways… These aren't the usual white-tailed deer though that would live in plains like this. Shouldn’t these be living in the forest?” He questioned.
Nayleen nodded. “If I had to guess, they’re probably from the forest in Karvadean. And we know how that place went. They probably fled from there.” She mused, tilting her head up thoughtfully. Maybe there is another path somewhere they escaped from or something."
“Hm… that’s probably why the bat attacks have gotten more aggressive lately, then. A bunch of food is fleeing directly into their hunting grounds.” Varhi surmised thoughtfully. “It also makes sense why I saw a wolf being carried off by them in the middle of nowhere. I didn’t give much thought about it at the time, it’s not entirely uncommon for wolves to be in the plains, but a stray one alone in a field out in the middle of nowhere is odd.”
“Anyway, that settles food. We just need water.” Nayleen nodded, glancing towards Sairek. “We’ll probably just spend all day tomorrow gathering that. Then we can leave the next morning.”
“I… I can help with that…” Cyial offered.
Varhi looked at Cyial appraisingly. “Are you sure?”
“Sairek… Sairek fed me, so…” Cyial began to answer with reluctance, looking back at Varhi, then as Varhi was about to speak, answered before the other boy could ask the telling question. “It’s enough. It feels weird, actually… Weird at how quiet and clear everything is after all of this time. I don’t know how long my hunger will be satiated for. I don’t think I’m ‘full’, but for now, it’s gone. The urge to harm Sairek is gone...”
“I wouldn’t really call what happened harming me. A little rough but I’m clearly fine aside from the headache and feeling tired.” Sairek cut-in. “Honestly Cyial, you’re exaggerating it a little.”
“What happened?” Varhi asked boldly.
“L-Like I’d tell you! Why don’t you tell me what you and Nayleen did–?” Sairek huffed.
“Okay, if you want. So, she—”
“That was a rhetorical question!” Sairek interrupted with a shout, his face beginning to turn scarlet.
“Oi vey...” Varhi huffed, looking at Sairek with half-lidded eyes. “Yeah, you seem to be just fine to me. In fact, you won’t shut up.”
“Ugh… How the Blazes am I supposed to survive two days living in this hole with you?” Sairek grunted.
“Aw c’mon. I’m not that bad.” Varhi frowned, feigning being hurt. “Like I said in Karvadean; let’s enjoy this little camping trip while it lasts, eh?”
* * *
Two days had passed. Sairek crawled out of the cove and groaned with an exhale as he raised his arms up, stretching to greet the morning ocean air along with Cyial following behind him. After he was done stretching, Sairek turned around to face the demon and then nearly stumbled backwards as Cyial hugged him. “Eh? Good morning to you too, Cyial.” He smiled a little.
“I’m sorry…” Cyial mumbled into Sairek’s chest.
“You’re apologizing to me for giving me a hug?” Sairek frowned in confusion.
“No… that’s not what I’m apologizing for…” Cyial murmured, releasing Sairek and then stepping away to give him some room. “I meant that I’m sorry for lying to you about how I was doing… You’ve sacrificed so much for me, I know it wasn't easy for you after what happened... and yet, I’ve done nothing but chastising you for it and acting like the victim of my own circumstance instead of thanking you for your sacrifice… I’m such a terrible person…”
Sairek looked at Cyial for a moment, before deciding it was his turn now. He grabbed the smaller boy and pulled him back towards his form, wrapping his arms around him. Cyial’s face was blanketed into Sairek’s clothes as the Prince gently rubbed his back with a hand in a reassuring gesture. “I know it was hard for you too… but I think we were both making a big deal out of something that was actually relatively small at the end of it. Even the smallest of things can seem overwhelming when you’re afraid. Even if society will not accept us together ever, I don’t and won’t regret it.” Sairek answered. He allowed Cyial to pull back, looking down at the smaller demon who was looking back up at him in turn. “We’re together. So that means we need to support and look after each other. You’ve made plenty of sacrifices for me, too… and you’ve taught me so many things as well, Cyial.”
A sound from the entrance of the cove caused both Sairek and Cyial to glance towards the entrance, where Varhi was positioned to be half crawled out of the cove but had paused in the middle of doing so, at least until he recognized that he was spotted. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt your… touching conversation.” He apologized.
“It’s fine... Our ‘secret’ is out anyway.” Sairek replied, loosening his grip on Cyial, though the demon did not move away from him. “My head still hurts a bit, but I’ll manage. It’s slow, but the ethereal is making its way back into me.”
“Your head still hurts?” Varhi asked.
“Yeah and that’s with Cyial’s help with meditation. It’s not very effective doing it that way I guess.” Sairek shrugged.
“Well, it usually takes two or three days for a normal human to go from empty to full again, and you’ve got that jewel to worry about.” Varhi reasoned.
Sairek nodded. “Yes, the enchantments still eat energy up, slowing down the recovery process.” Sairek glanced downwards at the jewel itself. It was still far from fine; a deep yellow, almost like a sun set. “I don’t know how far we can carry the lifeboat with this energy, along with the rest of the venison.”
“Well you’re not half crippled and I don’t have to carry Cyial. The walk should be much faster. Really it’s not too far. We can get there by evening. It’s best we get there no earlier anyway. We can find a spot to rest along the way if you need to. We'll take it easy for you.”
Sairek hummed in thought. “While my head will appreciate the breaks, that won’t do much for the jewel but I guess it’d be better than nothing. Worst case scenario we may have to ditch the boat.”
Varhi shook his head. “I’d rather we not. We need everything we can get. But if it comes down to it, sure. We shouldn’t need it anymore, but in the worst case, it’d be good to have. If the plan fails, we’ll have to make it to the islands on our own. It’s not too far away from the mainland. It would be a right pain in the ass, but that lifeboat can make the distance by just paddling if we become that desperate and I like having an insurance plan.” Then he looked out towards the ocean. “Besides, it’s great for fishing.”
“Here she comes.” Cyial chided in abruptly. Sairek and Varhi glanced towards the entrance of the cove as Nayleen crawled out, bow strapped along her back.
“I tried to make it look like nobody’s been here for a while as best as I could. The tide should cover whatever prints we leave in the sand sooner or later.” She informed them, then looked towards Varhi. “...How did you want to go about this, anyway?”
“We’ll basically just retrace our steps for a bit. I'll explain about my plans when we get closer.” Varhi shrugged. “I don’t know quite where we landed in relation to Cyvolta, but we were pretty close. That’s why I wanted to get out of there the last couple of days. We were practically hiding right under Avotash’s nose. A bit too close.”
“Well, Sairek’s idea seems to have worked at least. We weren’t disturbed or have been spotted yet.” Nayleen said.
“Yeah, but it would be more risky the longer we were there, but regardless, are we ready?” Varhi asked. Sairek, Cyial and Nayleen all nodded together in unison. “Alright, let’s go then.”
* * *
After stopping for lunch which was, unfortunately, deer meat that was starting to taste not-so-fresh at this point, by the time it was evening, they took another break, waiting for the sun to set. They could see the first signs of living civilization that they've seen themselves for the past couple of weeks up ahead, and for Varhi, it had been nearly three.
Cyvolta was much more different than Lamen despite them both being port cities. For one, it was much smaller, not that Lamen was exactly big either, but Cyvolta was much smaller. However unlike Lamen, it was far more dense and compact. Sairek could see that from the roofs that peeked out from over the walls and from the ports leading into the ocean south, despite being from a smaller city, it housed a far larger port than Lamen's. Granted, the ocean was much more accessible in Cyvolta than Lamen’s ever was, which only had access to the ocean due to a seam in the continent that allowed ocean water to run through towards its location. Most boats that came out of Lamen returned back to Lamen only days later, mostly to just go on fishing trips. Occasionally the merchant ship or two would come by, but given how annoying the location was to reach for most ships, it didn’t happen often. That said, considering the Masirean capital was practically on the opposite side of the map compared to Marid, sometimes it was easier to just sail around the continent than dock north and make the entire walk down.
Cyvolta itself had access to the vast majority of both Ceareste and Kior, so it was no wonder it was so vast. Yet, they would hopefully be passing by the location entirely, if luck was on their side… except for the first part of their main plan.
“So that’s Cyvolta, huh? Doesn’t look too hard to find someone in there I guess. It’s small.” Nayleen observed. "Hey... that's Jimmy's boat, isn't it?" She pointed at the port.
"So it is..." Varhi grumbled, looking ahead. "I'd recognize that ship anywhere. It's practically been where I've lived when not on a job staying at an inn. The only real place I've been able to call a proper 'home' if I didn't have money."
"They probably repaired it by now. It's been nearly a week." Sairek sighed. "I wonder what they're going to do with it."
“Well, either way, come here. I’ll try to draw you a general map and where to look to find this guy Nayleen.” Varhi motioned them over to a more discreet location near the water. Varhi moved to squat down and reached to his belt, pulling out his letter opener, where he began to dig sharply in the sand, doing his best to try and detail and define the lines as much as possible for visual clarity. They mostly sat for an entire seven minutes, just watching Varhi draw before he spoke up again.
“Okay, this is the entrance here. This is the north side.” Varhi explained, pointing to the top. “It’s the only entrance normally, but as you can see, the docks are nice and exposed and the entire city isn't completely enclosed by the walls, so you might be able to slip in from there, both on the southwest and southeast side. Unlike the main entrance, both are not quite guarded as strictly. I doubt they’ll be looking for just a lone girl slipping in, that’s not what the towers are there for either. It’s to keep monsters at bay. Monsters which will be much more obvious than you.
“These are the general layouts for the buildings in the city. This isn’t to scale obviously, but the city is pretty uniform and neat. Almost like a mini grid. Buildings and streets are separated into "blocks" and there's nothing but buildings and tiny, tiny alleyways to reach structures in the middle of the blocks
The guy you're going to look for lives in the inner east section. Basically, if you were entering from the east side, you’d pick the middle second lane from the top here, and going from east to west, you’d want to look at the eighth building along the south end of the block. That’s where he lives. His name is Belgarion, tell him you’re a friend of mine. If he refuses, which he probably will at first, offer him three-hundred seru up front; just to come here and hear Sairek and I out.” Varhi explained, then looked at Sairek expectantly.
“Three-hundred?” Sairek blinked. “I mean, that’s barely scratching the wallet but even I know that’s a bit of money for something so little.”
“That’s nearly a month’s wages for most barebone jobs…” Cyial mumbled.
“I want to give her more just as insurance. Give her a thousand.” Varhi said.
“...You weren’t kidding earlier about wanting insurance plans.” Sairek replied dryly, as he began fishing for the wallet.
Varhi gave an apologetic shrug. “He’ll probably accept three-hundred, maybe five-hundred at most, but you never know. If he knows our descriptions; which he probably definitely knows mine, then he might need more bribing to be convinced. There might be a bounty on our heads for all I know... Which concerns me a bit, since he likes money, and is a little bit of a coward."
“If there might be a bounty, I should take extra steps to make sure I don’t get caught just in case.” Nayleen reasoned, standing up as she unsheathed one of her knives, and took a look at the flat of the blade deeply for a moment. Sairek blinked. Was she looking into her own reflection within the surface of the knife?
Then, reaching back behind herself, she gripped the back of her hair, keeping it taut, and held the knife poised. Before Sairek realized what she was doing, she sliced off a good chunk of her hair from the back of her head with the knife in a quick and clean slice. A few strands of her blonde hair freeing from the grip of her fist almost immediately. She moved her hand to the front to free her ponytail from her now removed locks, before tossing her strands of hair to scatter into the wind out into the ocean waters.
“N-Nayleen…!” Sairek gasped. “But why?!”
Nayleen proceeded to slice into her hair more with her knife, gripping locks of hair on her side, and trying to even the cut as best as she could, ignoring Sairek’s exclaimanations for a moment. When she finished, she looked completely different compared to how Sairek used to recognize her. “Well, if they’re looking for my description… I just have to change my description, right?” She finally answered.
“But it’ll take years for it to grow back...!” Sairek protested.
Nayleen shrugged. “I’ll survive. It’s just hair. And it will grow back. I look a bit like a tomboy now, right? Not at all like any kind of girl they might be looking for!”
“Mmf…” Sairek could only answer with a frown. He felt guilty. He was the one who dragged them into this situation from the beginning, after all… Everyone was making so many sacrifices, just for him...
Nayleen shook her head slightly. “Oh, stop frowning. Short hair can look good, too.” Nayleen chastised him. “I’ll fix it nice and proper when we get safe from here. Also gimme the money.” She gestured, holding out an outstretched hand.
Sairek almost had forgotten about that, and he grumbled as he dug into the wallet, counting out the tiny colorful glass-like stones under his breath until he had an entire handful of the more expensive ones and held them clenched in his fist to Nayleen. “There... One-thousand and some change. Fill up a couple of canteens of water and whatever food you can reliably grab, if you can.”
“Cool.” She said, cupping the money in her fist after Sairek deposited it into her palm, where she then pocketed it into her pants.
“We’ll be waiting here. It’s a bit closer than I’d like but with the light fading, I don’t want to wait too far away from civilization. We’ll keep dark. No ships or even the towers should be able to spot us out here as long as we stick close to this cliff. Basically, once you get him, just lead him back here. When he’s here, I’ll do my part.”
“What if he doesn’t agree to this at all?” Sairek asked. “He could rat us out. We’re taking a big risk here.”
“I don’t think he’ll do that but you are right, it is a possibility. That’s why I said to keep that lifeboat handy.” Varhi explained, and turned around to eye him. “I suppose if that happens… then we’re not sleeping tonight. We’ll walk all the way to Krevest during the night off the road and arrive there by morning and stowaway that way. Because if by the off-chance he informs anybody, I want to be long gone before the rest of Cyvolta can respond. We won’t get out of here if they go on lockdown after they’ve realized we’re here for sure.”
Sairek gulped.
“Eh, don’t look so nervous. I got two more ideas in mind if something happens. I already told Nayleen them when we were out two days ago, I'll fill you and Cyial in while we wait.” Varhi then turned back to Nayleen. “Is there anything else you need?”
Nayleen nodded. “More information if you have any. Like what are the guard patrol routes like? How many are there... that kind of thing.”
“There’s probably about a dozen guards in total, I don’t know their routes, though. That’s also not counting the people monitoring each dock space. Though if there’s no ship, there probably won’t be someone there to monitor. There’s also the towers, which are manned by at least one person, usually two. Four towers, two on each south side and two at the north entrance, they have the city pretty nicely overwatched on the inside, so stay away from any scenes and don't cause any. They will see it and respond very fast. Won't be a lot of people either and street lights will keep you mostly visible, so don't try pickpocketing or yoinking anything either. Too much risk of being seen, even if no one is around on the street.”
“Basically I’m gonna have to avoid the detection of like, two dozen guys? Yeesh.” Nayleen frowned, rubbing the back of her head, before beginning to remove her bow and quiver from her shoulders before handing them to Sairek. “Alright then. I’ll be back in a bit.”
“Good luck…” Cyial called out to her apprehensively.
Nayleen turned around, giving Cyial a thumbs up as she walked her way towards the city by herself.
“...And now the hard part. Waiting…” Sairek sighed, vanishing Nayleen's gear into his jewel.
“...What do we do if she doesn’t come back?” Cyial asked.
Varhi turned to look at Cyial. “We’ll wait until before sunrise if it comes down to it. But if it starts becoming light, we won’t have a choice. We’ll have to move. We’ll stick out like a sore thumb out here during the day.”
“...And then what?” Cyial pressed.
“...I... don’t want to think about that." Varhi swallowed, then erased the drawing in the sand and began to draw in the sand again with his letter opener.
"Now what are you doing?" Sairek asked.
"I told you, right? I'm going to explain plan B and C. There's also plan D—but that's if the A, B and C all fail. Which is just "go back into hiding as best as we can. Plan B is if plan A fails at the end. Plan C is if plan A fails and we can't do Plan B." Varhi began, then smirked at Sairek. "...I told you I like insurance, right?"
* * *
Sairek didn’t know waiting could be so physically exhausting. The nervousness was draining him and by now it was nearly midnight. Though overcast, he could see through the clouds that the moon was high in the sky, as it faintly glowed through them.
“It’s been nearly four hours…” He sighed out loud.
“Give her time. Sneaking in a city like this requires patience. She’s probably playing it safe.” Varhi tried to reassure him, but even he was sounding weary. “You can sleep if you want to. We might need it.”
“I wish I could but I’m too nervous to sleep…” Sairek grumbled.
Varhi only shrugged in response as they fell into silence between each other once more. Sairek glanced towards Cyial who was reading his book, as if in an attempt to help distract himself, but sometimes it looked like he was just staring through the pages rather than actually at them.
About a dozen more minutes later, Varhi shifted to slowly stand up and stretch, then peeked over the cliff they were hiding on, then a second later, stated. “Oh, shit.”
That exclamation caused both Cyial and Sairek to stiffen in alertness and right themselves. Sairek moved to peek over the edge as well, struggling a bit more since he was shorter than Varhi. “...Nayleen!” He exclaimed in a hushed whisper.
“Hi guys.” She smiled with a nonchalant wave. A man was standing behind her, nearly six feet tall, silver hair cut short, dressed in travelling clothes that were the common faded whites and leather browns, and looking fairly displeased, all things considered. Despite the hair color, he didn't seem to be too old, early thirties at latest.
“Hey, nice to see you again, Belgarion.” Varhi smiled. “Did you miss me?”
“No. I wish I could share such a sentiment.” The man answered with a weary tone. “What the Blazes have you gotten yourself in this time, boy? The city is swarming with news about you!”
“Yeah. The King wanted me to ‘accidentally’ die I guess, because I apparently knew too many of his secrets, but I didn’t die because the Prince of Ceareste here and his friends bailed me out of a bad situation. Then Avotash tried to steal the Ceareste royal jewel and we countered back by stealing his. Now we’re public enemy number one, it seems. I think that about sums it up.” Varhi answered.
“...What?”
Varhi frowned. “Are you really going to make me repeat all of that...?”
Belgarion looked at him expectantly. Varhi sighed in resignation. “Okay… Then again: King Avotash sent me on a mission to investigate Karvadean except he actually wanted me to die because I knew too many of his secrets and I survived thanks to the Prince of Ceareste and his friends here. In retaliation, Avotash tried to steal the Ceareste royal jewel and we countered back by stealing Avotash’s royal jewel. Now we’re the most wanted group in the country. Got that?”
“...What?”
Varhi gave the man a displeased look. “...You’re doing this on purpose and I don't like it.”
Nayleen plopped down the little ledge they were hiding behind to be on their side. Sairek meanwhile climbed himself to stand up atop it instead, then Varhi followed him to join as well, so they were both standing more level with the man. “Please sir, we could really use your help.” Sairek pleaded.
Belgarion sighed, moving his right hand to rub his forehead with his fingers. “How do you keep getting into these situations, Varhi?”
Varhi frowned. “You make it sound like I’m completely helpless all the time. It’s not my fault Avotash wants to get rid of me because I caught him red-handed lying.
...Well, it kinda is my fault, actually... um—okay fine. But it's not my fault he’s a lying piece of shit.”
“What’s he lying about, then?” Belgarion asked.
“Karvadean, while not intentional... I think, it was his own doing. He’s been searching for something, deep underground.” Varhi explained without revealing too much information. “The villagers there found it, and when they unearthed it, the power they found was so corrupted that the village and nearly the entire forest around it had been…
“...Well, let’s just say, not many things scare me, Belgarion, you know that. You’ve even seen firsthand what I can do by myself. Karvadean fucking terrified me and beat me to a bloody pulp for good measure. It’s thanks to Jimmy coming to Sairek here and them coming to bail me out from the goodness of their hearts that I’ve not been transformed into a monster right now or worse. A fortune that was not shared with the rest of the villagers.”
There was a moment of silence that hung in the air, before Belgarion turned towards Sairek expectantly.
“...It’s the truth. We’ve all seen it. Avotash wants to try and hide the fact. He even hired some of my country’s men to go take a look to see what could be done to try and keep the situation under wraps from the general public, framing Kior as well in the process.” Sairek answered.
“Avotash commandeered Jimmy’s ship and began torturing us for information, and he tried to relieve me of my jewel because I wouldn’t tell him what he wanted to know. Flaming Lands, he even shot me twice with a Kiorian-crafted gun... Look, you can still see the bullet holes in my clothes.” Sairek continued, pointing both to his arm and then down to his leg with his left hand.
“We need to get out of here and get back to Ceareste. After we’re safe, we can inform the council. This could spark a war if this isn’t handled right. It could lead to something even more disastrous if what is happening in Karvadean is left unchecked. It could change the world. What’s going on in Karvadean needs to be put under quarantine by the council and people need to know what is going on before the situation becomes worse. Avotash needs to be questioned and the last time I tried to get answers he tied me to a chair tortured me, shot me when I retaliated and he also brutalized Varhi who was already in critical condition.”
Belgarion was silent, thinking for a moment, before releasing a long, weary sigh of resignation. “I need a better business partner…” He groaned, glaring at Varhi.
“Oh come on. I’ve paid you upfront every time. This will be no different, it’s just Sairek paying the funds.” Varhi huffed. “I even protect your cargo most of the time. Frankly you should be paying me for all of the favors you owe. I'm willing to forget all of that and have Sairek pay you handsomely if you help us get out of here.”
“Whatever... What is it that you want me to do?” Belgarion asked, ignoring Varhi as he looked at Sairek.
“We need to get to… Krevest, was it?” Sairek asked, glancing at Varhi for confirmation, who nodded. Sairek turned around to continue. “Just from here, to Krevest. Just leave the city like you are doing a normal regular journey to peddle goods and transport cargo to the islands for Malode. We’ll meet you further down the road in a couple of hours. We’ll hop in your carriage and you just stow us away. Before entering the town, we’ll bail out again and wait nearby.
Sairek raised up his left hand, extending his index and middle finger. “Leave two boxes for us filled with lightweight items, like sheets or blankets when you’re transporting items on the ship. The bigger the boxes are, the better. We’ll sneak onboard and hide ourselves in them while you’re offloading the cargo to stow away on the ship… After your cargo has been checked and cleared on the boat, we’ll sneak inside the boxes and stow away to the islands. That’s all you need to do.”
“So all I need to do is get some junk to put on a ship and carry you all there?” Belgarion hummed in thought.
“If you got any camping gear or other things like food, we’ll gladly take it with us as we leave the ship and we’ll compensate you extra for it. We’ve got nothing but the clothes on our backs and some badly aging deer meat.” Sairek muttered the last bit.
“Alright, that part is fine. Still, as simple as that sounds, if I get caught aiding you lot, I’ll get the death penalty. That’s treason.” Belgarion argued.
“Let’s get to the haggling bit then. I offer four-thousand seru. That’s for transferring us and any camping gear and non-perishables you can put on offer.” Sairek offered immediately, and Varhi stumbled to the point where he nearly fell backwards and waved his arms to correct his balance.
“What the—You’re crazy!” The other boy protested. “I know you’re rich but—”
Sairek shot Varhi a glare to silence him, then looked back to Belgarion. “Pick us up, drop us off and leave two extra big boxes on a ship. The cargo you drop off is gear that we can use and some bare basic rations. That’s all you need to do and four-thousand seru is yours.” Sairek persuaded, opening up his wallet and pouring a handful of the small stones in his hands, holding his palm open to show he was not bluffing.
Belgarion stared at the money for a moment thoughtfully. “I want seven-thousand. No less.”
Varhi clenched his teeth. “Oi! You ungrateful—”
Sairek kicked Varhi firmly in the upper leg not protected by his sabatons, causing the other boy to grumble in protest. “May I ask why you're nearly doubling my offer?” He asked calmly.
“There’s a bounty on all four of your heads right now for five-thousand seru on your whereabouts. I could go and claim that reward right now with no risk involved to me. So if I’m going to do the job and put my own self at risk, I need more.” Belgarion answered matter-of-factly.
“Is that so…” Sairek mumbled, taking a look at Varhi. “It looks like you were right to be so cautious after all...”
Varhi was clearly displeased.“Of course I was right, you took the freakin’ Masirean royal jewel! And to add insult to injury, that bastard is giving the five-thousand seru reward for our bounties that I was supposed to have when I finished the Karvadean job, the bastard!” He hissed.
“No, no, you misunderstand, Varhi. The five-thousand is just for information about your whereabouts. Bringing you guys in alive is fifty-thousand.” Belgarion clarified.
“F...Fifty—!?” Varhi choked and Sairek heard both Cyial and Nayleen gasp while Nayleen added a swear. “Yeah, Sairek, you really pissed him off.” Varhi grumbled.
“...You don’t have to keep iterating that point…” Sairek muttered with a frown. “There wasn’t much choice I had; he tried to rob me first. I would have left his jewel alone had he not tried to go for mine. I don’t even want to keep the thing. I’ll just hand it to the council if we can even make it out of here in one piece. He can go pick it up himself.” Sairek then turned towards Belgarion. “Seven-thousand seru it is, then. We need to go as soon as possible of course. It's best while it's dark. If you can do this today, how long do you need to prepare?”
“Be ready for me in thirty minutes. To the east of the city, there’s an area dotted by trees, then it goes back to clear and then there’s a forest. Find somewhere to hide in those trees by the road out of sight. Varhi should be able to recognize my carriage.” Belgarion explained. "I'm not going to stop unless you all come out. If you miss me, then that's that. I'm not going to risk going back and forth for this."
Varhi stared at him. “Boy, you’re making us hustle along at a breakneck place, aren’t you? We’re gonna have to sprint nearly blind in the dark to make it to that rendezvous point in that amount of time!”
“Those are my terms.” Belgarion said. “I don’t think you realize how much hot water you’re in, boy. Besides, if you want to make it to Krevest before sunrise today, we have to go almost immediately.”
Varhi shrugged. “You saw me deal with those four bats earlier. Getting myself into bad situations and getting out of them is what I excel at; for better or for worse.”
“Honestly…” Belgarion grumbled. “It was a nice two weeks of peace and quiet, too…” He continued, turning around and beginning to walk back towards the city.
“Now that’s just rude!” Varhi exclaimed back, crossing his arms, but Belgarion didn’t respond to him and just kept walking back towards the city.
“Well… that’s set up. I guess we should start heading out.” Sairek said, turning back towards the other two.
“I’m extremely nervous… if this doesn’t work, what will happen to us?” Cyial asked timidly.
“That, I don’t want to think about. We can’t afford to mess up. So let’s just simply not.” Sairek said. “We spent all of last night planning this and it’s already set in motion and Varhi's contigency plans are... risky, but they could work. If we change things now and start having doubts, it could go worse than what we originally thought of. We have to believe this will work.”
“Listen to you; you’re almost sounding like a genuine leader. And you say you can’t rule.” Varhi smirked.
“The difference between you and I is that I know when to speak and when to keep my mouth shut.” Sairek replied dryly.
“That’s not true, mister-I’m-always-grounded.” Nayleen chided in.
“H-Hey, quiet you. Come on, let’s get going.” Sairek urged them.
“See, he only wants to go now because it’s true.” Nayleen continued to tease, climbing up the ledge. "But I guess he does know when to shut up because he's acting all quiet now."
“That’s not it at all...” Sairek protested weakly.
“Uh-huh~”
* * *
“I bet hiding in trees like this brings back memories for you, doesn’t it?” Nayleen asked Sairek as they were crouched down, out of view from the road in some bushes nearby in a small canopy of trees.
“Yes… I was even plotting to sneak out of the country then, too. It’s almost been a month since then, hasn’t it?” Sairek asked.
“Just about.” Nayleen agreed. “Kind of a short amount of time when you think about it.”
“And yet so much has happened… Almost feels like simpler times.”
“I hear something.” Cyial cut-in, causing the four of them that were hiding in their trees and bushes to glance at Cyial before peering intently along the road. Nothing came into view immediately, but soon the others could pick up on the distant sound of wheels on paved dirt along with horses walking. Varhi stared ahead, unblinking, until he stood up abruptly and began to jog forwards, calling out a ‘stay here!’ in a whispering hiss as he did so.
Sairek watched from their spot as Varhi approached the carriage and it halted as he approached it. A moment of watching Varhi later, he gave a waving motion towards their direction. Receiving such a signal, the rest of the other three got up and walked forwards as well whilst Varhi waited for them.
Sairek could see Belgarion sitting in the driver seat, looking extremely nervous. “If you look like that the entire way to town, any officials on the road are going to pull you over for questioning.” He stated, his tone dry.
Belgarion eyed him. “You do realize the kind of crime I am committing and what will happen if we get caught? They were already expecting my cargo just when leaving the city. Soldiers know something is up and to be suspicious of all cargo leaving the cities. A fifty-thousand bounty grabs peoples' attention.”
Sairek hesitated, then glanced towards Varhi, who moved himself into a thoughtful gesture, thinking deeply.
“...Are we sure we want to do this? It sounds like we’re just walking into ourselves getting caught…” Cyial said, worriedly.
“...Yes, we are doing this.” Varhi said after a brief pause. “Avotash still shouldn’t know we’re here, unless someone spotted and ratted us out. We’ve been extremely careful of that, though." He explained, looking towards Belgarion as he finished his thought. "Besides… if we don’t do this, what else are we going to do? We need to get out of here one way or another.” Varhi then shrugged casually back in Cyial’s direction. “It’ll be fine. Masirean soldiers always inspect cargo and stuff when Avotash gets antsy about something anyway. Come on, let’s go.” He instructed, shifting himself to walk over to the back of the carriage and opening the backdoors, then gestured towards it to the other three.
“Hold on,” Belgarion demanded, looking towards Sairek. “My money.”
Sairek paused, glancing towards Varhi for a moment who gave him an even look. He turned back towards Belgarion, giving him an even look of his own. “You haven’t even driven us yet, but fine, as a sign of good faith…” He grumbled, digging into his wallet and pulling out the money Nayleen had returned to him. “Here’s seven-hundred just for showing up. Drive us to the drop off point, and you’ll get the rest.” Belgarion looked like he was about to protest, but Sairek answered with finality in his tone and quickly, moved to join the others at the back, glancing towards Cyial when he arrived. He didn't want to give Belgarion any unnecessary openings.
Cyial still looked unsure, Nayleen however moved to jump herself inside the back, then turned herself around as she sat waiting for the other two.
Cyial released a long sigh. Sairek offered him his left hand, and gave Cyial’s right hand a gentle squeeze of reassurance. Cyial looked up at him, concern still etched on his face but his eyes had softened from Sairek’s reassurance. Together they walked a few steps closer to the back. Both Sairek and Varhi helped Cyial up, with Varhi giving Cyial a reassuring pat on the back once he was climbing himself inside.
“Your turn, your majesty.” Varhi offered, helping Sairek climb in. Once the Prince was seated, Varhi gestured them all to make space with a quick shooing motion with his hand as he took a couple of steps back, before sprinting forward and letting out a grunt of effort as he outright jumped up four feet from the ground, bending his legs inwards as he landed in the carriage with a bit of a slide.
“Well, well, don’t you just have a spring in your step...” Sairek noted sarcastically.
Varhi grinned and patted his right leg on his sabaton. “The silver’s sweet, ain’t it? Gotta love it. Now let’s get inside, before someone comes by.”
Closing the door to the coach, leaving them in mostly pitch black darkness, save for Cyial’s eyes which glowed completely in the dark, they slid to the back of the coach and huddled up against the wall. Varhi raised his head up a bit, looking at the ceiling as he raised his right fist and gave the back wall three hard knocks. With that signal, the coach began moving after a small lurch.
“My heart feels like it’s going to thump out of my chest…” Cyial huffed a little as if he was out of breath. “I can’t stop shaking…”
“They already checked the cargo, we should be fine.” Sairek tried to reassure him, and reached out, holding onto Cyial and pulled him closer towards his body to try and comfort him. Cyial took the offer, leaning himself against Sairek. The demon wasn’t fibbing. He was actually shivering, and he knew it wasn’t because of the night being a bit nippy than the norm.
Varhi spoke. “Sairek’s right. Like I said, unless someone spotted or ratted us out, it should be smooth sailing. If they're inspecting cargo between cities, everything should be good until we get near Krevest.”
“We won’t have much time though. If day breaks, we’ll have a much harder time going unnoticed.” Nayleen noted.
“Yes.” Varhi agreed. “The ship goes back and forth every morning and every evening. Of course, we need to hide in Belgarion’s cargo or else we’ll definitely be spotted. We will have to sneak on board during then. I’m just worried now that the alert is out, there may be more guards than normal. All of the Guard gets antsy when Avotash is pissed. He sacks people just because he wants to when he’s angry.”
“...So it’s less because they actually care and more because they don’t want any excuse to get fired.” Sairek remarked dryly.
“Possibly. Though, we can’t forget that fifty-thousand seru is a pretty damn good motivator to be thorough.” Varhi cautioned him.
“...Right.” Sairek grumbled. Even he knew that was a hefty chunk of money. Any soldier with that kind of money could pretty much retire for the rest of their lives if they were careful with how they spent it.
“Regardless, the plan should work. After all, we’re boarding the ship after they investigate the cargo. We’re only hiding in the boxes to stay out of sight for the duration of the sail. Once we depart, as long as we stay hidden in the boxes, we should be safe.”
“What makes you say that for sure, though?” Nayleen asked.
“There’s little to no soldiers on the islands. It’s mostly residential and workers who do the heavy lifting, the soldiers there just supervise to make sure they do what they’re told and don’t steal anything. The next time the cargo should be checked is when we’re in Malode.” Varhi explained. “Maybe we’ll get caught then, but we won’t be in Masirean anymore. We can plead our case there.”
“I guess that’s the best we can hope for…” Sairek sighed. “But if we have to bail the ship, how far is Malode from the islands?”
“Way too far on a lifeboat.” Varhi cautioned him. “We’d need to make it most of the way to even have a chance.” Varhi then glanced towards the small windows of the carriage, though it was too dark to see much of anything. “Either way, this trip is going to take a few hours. We should all get as much sleep as we can. You included, Cyial.”
They fell into silence then. Sairek settled as comfortably as he could. It reminded him of when they were departing Shamira, but he was far too nervous this time to get more than a little shuteye. Even when he did begin to doze off, a small bump or jerk of the carriage would jolt him back. It was thirty minutes later before he decided to just give up. “Sorry to ask this question… but are we almost there yet?” He grumbled.
"Don't even start with that nonsense." Varhi replied in a dull tone and moved to sit up, peering out a window. “Bah... I can’t see shit.” He shrugged. “It’s not even been an hour yet though. I assume we’re—uaahh!!”
Varhi fell off balance as the coach abruptly jerked to a halt and he grunted as he fell on his back. “Belgarion, you utter asshole…” He growled. "Why did he stop?"
Sairek’s face contorted into an amused grin at Varhi's spill, which quickly evaporated into one of horror as he heard voices outside of the carriage. Varhi’s expression visibly changed as well.
“Halt!”
“Pull over!”
Cyial blinked in alertness, evident by his garlet eyes becoming visible in the dark, and Sairek felt Nayleen shift.
“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me…” Varhi hissed, pushing himself upright into a kneeling position to stare at the backdoor, then the backwall towards the direction of the driver seat; though there was the wall seperating them, it was apparent who his gaze was directed towards Even in the darkness, his glare turned icy. "You..." Varhi hissed venomously.
“A merchant's greed knows no bounds…” Cyial growled in a feral fashion; the same kind Sairek heard only the first time when Avotash threatened them.
“We need to think up a course of action real fast…” Nayleen said tensely.
Varhi turned away from the back wall and bowed his head in thought for a moment. “We’re going to have to break out and run for it. Sairek, I’m going to carry you, and I need you to concentrate all of your power into my boots as much as you can. Keep them charged. We're going with plan C.”
“Wait, why me—what about Nayleen and Cyial–?” Sairek immediately began to protest.
“You’re the Prince and you have two royal jewels on you. If we lose you, we have absolutely no bargaining chip.” Varhi reasoned.
“And just what does that mean?” Sairek glared.
“You know what it means. This isn’t the time to play this game, Sairek. Whether you like it or not, you’re the Prince and you’re the real target here that he’s ultimately after—not us. I’m just bonus points, and he’ll aim at the other two solely to lure you in.” Varhi reminded him, before moving to stand up, left hand bracing the wall of the coach for balance, his voice coming out in a growl. “Regardless, I don’t care what gets thrown at me. I keep my oaths. No one is being captured today and I'm not abandoning anyone... We’re all going to make it out of here and we’re all going to get on that damn boat… Now hurry up and get over here. We have no time to argue.”
Sairek growled in protest, but with no other options, he moved to stand up and make his way beside Varhi. “And just what are you planning?” Sairek questioned.
“When they open those doors, I’m going to give two people a ‘present’ and a ‘hug’. That’ll give everyone else an opening. Once I do that, we’re all going to exfiltrate outta this coach. Once we make it out some distance, I’m going to drop you all off, and handle them myself to buy the rest of you lot some time. We’ve got to take them out. If they return and send an alert out, we’re never getting out of Masirean. I’ll hold them off. Circle around ahead of the road and hide to meet back up.”
“We don’t even know how many there are…!” Cyial protested.
“I can handle it.” Varhi turned around to glare at him. “No mages? No problem. Other knights are who I’m best against.”
A moment later, Sairek tensed as the door knob was jiggling to turn. Varhi reached into his satchel and pulled out his pot lid, readying it to throw. And then as soon as the door opened, Varhi threw it as hard as he could.
As if in slow motion, Varhi tossed the pot lid as three figures opened the door. There was a resounding DONG As the figure to their left had the pot lid slam into their full helmet, knocking them directly off of their feet, and the makeshift weapon of cast iron rebounded off into the midnight darkness somewhere.
Then Varhi grabbed Sairek with both of his arms tightly, tensed his legs, and jumped with excessive speed, twisting his form to bodyslam with his smaller frame, pointing his left shoulder into the breast of the middle figure while leaning Sairek away from the tackle attack to outright shove them back out of the way, whilst at the same time, an arrow fired from within the coach, sinking into the right soldier’s left shoulder, causing him to cry out in pain whilst Varhi merely winded the middle one, causing him to stagger back.
Rebounding off of the soldier and landing back in the coach, Varhi concentrated whatever energy he had left in his boots as Sairek fought to expend his own energy to constantly replenish it as fast as he could. Varhi released a grunt of effort as he literally leapt out of the carriage at the opening he created on the left side, jumping a good twenty feet, landing with another grunt, and continuing to expend energy in his boots as Sairek still channeled into them, running at a breakneck speed, as if the boots, armor, and Sairek he carried in his arms all weren’t weighing him down at all and then some.
Sairek stole a glance back, seeing Nayleen and Cyial both following after them, though Varhi was outdistancing them easily thanks to the power being expended within his boots. The three soldiers behind them were beginning to recover, especially the two who were only stunned and were giving chase. That’s about all Sairek saw before he felt Varhi move his arms, and suddenly toss Sairek into the bushes, causing him to roll and tumble inside vegetation with a yelp.
“GO!” Varhi yelled, the sound of him pulling out his greatsword could be heard. “Cyial, Nayleen, go with him!”
“Don’t let them get away!” Sairek heard one of the soldiers yell as he struggled to untangle and right himself up, managing to sit up by the time Nayleen and Cyial reached him to pull him up onto his feet. Sairek stole a glance to the road where Varhi was moving to intercept the soldiers who were trying to ignore Varhi completely with weapons at the ready. Varhi let out a viscous combative roar, outright leaping twenty-five feet at one of the men and absolutely bodying him as he did so completely off of his feet and slamming him into a tree on the opposite side of the road, before he spun around swinging at a second soldier who moved to try and counter attack from behind in a flanking maneuver. Varhi's swing missed, but allowed his intent to be seen as the swing had been clearly ready to cleave someone in two had it connected as planned, forcing the soldier who tried to engage with him to withdraw his attack.
“Stop staring, GO…!” Nayleen hissed at Sairek, shoving him along and dragging him, forcing his eyes to be torn off the scene.
With renewed haste, Sairek complied. They began moving their way through thickest of trees and bushes, down a steep hill, further out of side as the sounds of combat began to rage behind them...
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