Hey, my stories are still being read! Woo hoo! I was half expecting I wouldn't get a reader unless I made some weird crossover with Gravity Falls and a demonic Illuminati Dorito, but I guess that isn't the case! Either way, I hope you all enjoy this chapter, which technically was originally part of chapter 1, hence the length!
Chapter 2: Little Talks and Little Relics
After teaching Emilia how to use the duct, the four members of the Fun Bunch Plus One Extra warped one by one to the entrance of Werites Beacon. As they walked through the front gates, the sun began to dip lower in the sky and the clouds on the horizon transformed from white to shades of pink and orange.
A cacophony of noise came from the inn's front lawn, where a large number of merry bandits were relaxing. Most were settled in front of the entrance of the lounge-slash-restaurant, all holding frothing mugs of ale in their hands. Csaba, Moses' second-in-command, sat near a large oak tree when he noticed his leader walking up the road with friends in tow. He jumped to his feet and told the bandit next to him to watch his drink, running over to the group with a grin. "Hey Moses!"
The bandit chief grinned back at Csaba before he briefly looked at the large group of bandits cheering and drinking themselves into a stupor. "Hey yourself! The boys are more riled up than usual, what's up with 'em?"
The blue-haired man pointed over towards the Misty Mountains, towering peaks almost glittering in the late-afternoon sunshine. "We found a pair of dragons fighting over in the range past the Misty Mountains. It took a bit of effort, but the boys managed to take one of them down. Turns out it was part of the swarm of dragons that attacked the city a while back."
Moses raised his eyebrows and whistled through his teeth. "That's a nice prize! No wonder they're celebratin'."
Csaba nodded and dug around in his pocket for a folded slip of paper. "I've already went and talked about prices for the bones and scales with the armory shop; they said they'll pick them up and pay us in around a week."
The bandit chief took the paper and scanned it quickly. After he'd finished he handed it back to Csaba with a wide grin. "Sounds good to me! Say congrats to 'em for me!"
"Sure, no problem!" Csaba said before glancing at the rest of the Fun Bunch where he finally noticed Norma. His eyebrows shot up and he smiled cheerfully. "Hey, Bubbles! You're finally back! How was your trip to the mainland?"
Norma shrugged with a wide smile. "It was alright, I guess… It was nice to be back at the University after so long, but I really missed here too. All in all, there was too much studying and not enough treasure."
Jay quirked an eyebrow at her, "But I thought you told us—"
"Shh! Not now JJ, I'll tell you all 'bout it later!" Norma whispered evasively and gave him a sharp look. The information dealer quickly caught her meaning and nodded slightly, remaining patient until later on.
Moses waved goodbye to his fellow comrades, most who had begun joking about someone's love life. From the blush rapidly spreading across Csaba's face, Norma guessed that he was the subject of conversation. The bandit turned and held open the door towards the downstairs of the inn. "Come on, y'all! Let's go eat!"
The restaurant hadn't changed one bit over Norma's six-month absence. Warm lighting flooded from the large lamps on the ceiling and cast golden light across a variety of dining tables. Off to the side of the room, a baby grand piano gleamed in the center of a small stage. Waiters walked between the different customers at the tables, and in the corner the resident pianist Go Shiina chatted with the bartender.
Norma pumped her arms in the air and cheered, "Woo, I missed this place! Let's grab a seat, you guys!" The five grabbed one of the tables away from the stage near the far wall. Jay grabbed an extra chair for Emilia as Moses set the girls' bags next to the wall behind them, and they settled into their chairs. Norma sat between Walter and Moses, while Jay sat next to the bandit chief and Emilia scooted between him and the other Ferines. One of the waiters noticed them sit down, and motioned he'd be over in a few moments after dealing with the unruly couple he was serving.
Jay propped his elbows on the table and laced his pale fingers together, looking over at the girls with a relaxed expression. Anyone who personally knew the ninja would notice the corners of his lips twitching into a small smile. It was similar to the contemplating expression Walter often wore when he had first arrived in Werites Beacon.
The shinobi was plotting. "So Norma, it's good to see you again and it's a pleasure to meet your acquaintance, Emilia. Before I ask about your trip though, Norma, I'm rather curious about your new friend."
Emilia looked over at Norma with obvious hesitation, who just shrugged and waved her hand lazily. "Don't worry about him, Emilia! JJ's a nosy ninja who sells information to people and practically has an obsession with knowing everything about everyone or anything. Unless you can dodge all of his hounding like Wally has, just go with it. He won't share it with anyone if you don't want him to."
The Ferines girl slowly nodded after peering at Jay for a moment, who was giving Norma a dirty look for her comment about his 'obsession'. She took a calming breath and spoke. "Well… My name is Emilia, although my true name is…" She hesitated, looking over at Walter with pleading eyes.
The blond shrugged slightly. "They won't look at you strangely for it. Most Orerines I've met just consider them surnames, and Norma is the only one here besides us who know their significance." She still looked nervous. "If you're curious, they already know mine. It's Delques."
Emilia found herself relax from the blond's words, although she wondered why his Ferines name was so dark. She suspected that it might have to do with his teriques. Either way, it allowed her to open up a bit more.
"Well… my village elder gave me the name of 'Welares', which means 'Many Writings'. I guess he knew I would be a bit of a bookworm when I grew up." The others nodded, and she continued. "I was born seventeen years ago in one of the northern countries on the mainland, and unfortunately my country was… a battleground for a few bandit tribes. I lost my village shortly after I was born, and my family and I roamed around for a while before settling near a mountain range near Gadoria."
Walter glanced at Norma with a question in his eyes, whose nod confirmed his suspicions. "It was the Needlepoint range, wasn't it? The north part that bordered Crusand?"
Emilia sadly nodded, tucking a strand of wavy hair behind her ear. "Yes. As you can guess, Crusand and Gadoria went to war a few years ago, and my new village was destroyed shortly after that. …I ended up losing my parents, but I managed to escape with my little sister Millie with me. We tried our best to cope, since we still had each other."
"You have a little sister?" Moses questioned with a curious expression on his face. Norma kicked his shin under the table, causing him to yelp in surprise and pain. Norma gave the redhead a rare serious look which made him shut his mouth. Emilia wasn't done talking.
"Yes… Millie's five years my junior, and her name was Seluren meaning 'healer'. She was always optimistic about life, and even after our parents died she always wore a smile on her face." Emilia smiled slightly though her eyes hid a deep sadness. The fact she had also referred to her sister in the past tense gave Jay a good idea how her story would end.
A waiter came over before Emilia could continue, and everyone quickly ordered their meals so she could continue. "We had heard rumors from other Ferines and Orerines alike of the Legacy; an ancient ship the size of an island and the last sanctuary of the Ferines. We tried to find a ship to take us there, but we hadn't found any. There were no ships sailing for the Legacy save for a few… and they were leaving from Crusand and the Holy Kingdom of Rexalia. Rexalia was almost a hundred miles away, but we tried our luck anyway; we wouldn't dare go near Crusand."
"And? What happened?" Moses asked as he unconsciously leaned closer to the blond across the table, eager to hear more of her tale.
"Well…" She hesitated in continuing for a moment. "We were walking through a less-traveled forest path avoiding the main roads, which were frequently patrolled by soldiers of both Gadoria and Crusand. …We were ambushed. A large group of bandits who were capturing Ferines for Crusand found us. The Crusand Empire were still searching for the Merines and we looked the part."
Emilia crossed her fingers on the tabletop, and averted her eyes to them. "We managed to escape, but we didn't escape injury. Millie was badly cut on her leg from their swords, and the wound became infected…" She swallowed hard, and her voice quieted. "She… she got a bad fever, and I couldn't find any way to make it go down. We didn't have any medicine with us and it would be days before we got to Rexalia."
Her shoulders slumped, and her eyes became watery. "She got to the point where she rarely stayed awake, and when she did she was delirious. She hallucinated, asking about our parents and our village; she would ask, 'where's Mommy? Where's Daddy?'" Emilia swallowed hard, and blinked away the tears in her eyes. "And… …One morning, she… never woke up."
The group was silent for a few moments, some not knowing exactly what to say and others reluctant to share their own losses. Norma hadn't heard her entire story in detail until now, and she stared down at the table with sad eyes. Emilia seemed to snap out of her memories and shook her head apologetically when she saw the looks on their faces. "I-I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make you all sad." She said, rubbing her eyes.
Jay just waved her apologies away, his eyes somber. "No, I should apologize to you, Emilia… I didn't mean to bring up bad memories." He looked over at the others, and Norma's eyes were lost in happier memories of her friend… their friend and comrade, Grune. "I can understand how difficult it is for you. We all lost someone as well… One of our good friends died half a year ago, and it's… hard to move on when everything around us reminds us of her."
Moses nodded slightly, his lips drawn in a tight frown. His arms were crossed and he purposely faced away from them so that his good eye was hidden from view. While Grune's loss had affected Norma the most, Moses was having a hard time coping as well, since he had developed quite the crush on the beautiful woman. Walter kept silent, a pensive expression on his face as faint memories of his past floated to the front of his mind. Emilia's story had hit far too close to home for him, and his heart hurt knowing how many others had stories just like hers.
Norma rubbed her watery eyes and attempted to smile at her friend. "Well, Millie would be happy you got here safe and sound like you two wanted, right?"
Emilia caught her meaning and nodded with a sad smile. Walter gazed at her and part of him wondered if Fenimore had met Emilia's sister on the other side, past that beach between this world and the next.
He suddenly had a thought pop into his mind. "Emilia, you came here to start anew, right?" She nodded and he continued. "There's a Ferines Village here on the Legacy, and I've needed to meet with the Elder Maurits soon anyway. If you want, I could speak him and another acquaintance of mine; try to find you a place to live there."
At first, Emilia looked stunned and her eyes widened in shock. Moments went by before her lips twitched upwards as a true, bright smile lit up her entire face. Her blue eyes seemed to shimmer with hope. "Really..? You'd do that?" He nodded, and she brought her clutched fingers to her lips, and seemed to tremble from happiness. Tears of joy shined in her eyes. "T-thank you… Thank you so much! You're all the kindest people I've ever met!"
Moses' cheeks were tinged pink from her enormous smile, and he had to shake the stars out of his eyes before grinning at the Ferines. "Aw, no problem, Emilia! We're always there to give a helpin' hand!" She beamed back at him, her eyes sparkling. The bandit's head hit the tabletop with a thud, his face the same color as his hair.
The blond's brows shot up in alarm. "Oh, are you ok…?" She trailed off when she realized she didn't know the redhead's name. "Um… I'm terribly sorry, I never caught any of your names!" She smiled sheepishly.
Jay shook his head. "It's no problem, we never properly introduced ourselves. My name is Jay, and like Norma said I am an information dealer. If there is anything you need to know, you'll know where to look…" He trailed off, a small knowing smile on his face.
Walter rolled his eyes, "Spare her your usual song and dance, Jay. She isn't interested in blackmail." This caused the shorter teen to shoot a pointed glare at him, which he easily shrugged off. "As for me, I'm known to everyone as Walter. I'm usually clearing the local areas of monsters or helping in the Village of the Ferines. It's a pleasure to meet you, Emilia."
A long moment passed when she turned to Moses in curiosity. Norma innocently sipped at a glass of water while she kicked him in the shin, causing him to sit up with a yelp of pain. He finally noticed the blond looking at him, and he cleared his throat sheepishly before grinning, "Well, mah name's Moses Sandor, bandit chief, Sacred Eres user and beast master extraordinaire! Pleased to meet…"
The redhead's voice trailed off when Emilia shifted in place, glancing at him as if she expected he would hit her. Jay groaned in exasperation and slapped a palm against his face. He was about to comment on his severe lack of tact when Moses quickly waved his hands in slight panic. "Hey hey, wait a minute! Hold up now! I'm not like those other guys! I'm a beast tamer, not a marauder; I don't hurt or kidnap people!"
The other three members of the Fun Bunch gave the redhead a look, remembering how he kidnapped Shirley a year ago. "Me and my boys hunt the monsters 'round the Legacy an' keep things safe for everyone. I ain't a bad guy…" He trailed off, looking over at Jay with a pleading look in his good eye.
Jay sighed gestured towards him. "Moses is correct. He's generally a good person and nice, even if he is stupid-"
"Watch it, squirt." The redhead warned, shooting a pointed look at the ninja.
"Like I said, he's far from harmful." Emilia seemed to be listening and Jay looked up at the ceiling in thought. "Think of him as… an overly affectionate puppy who hasn't yet been potty-trained—"
"Alright, that does it! Get back here, Jay!" Jay quickly sidestepped out of his chair as Moses practically leapt over the table at him. Jay quickly ran downstairs towards the battle arena while the redhead bolted after him, yelling insults all the way down. Other people turned to look at the commotion, curious about the audible shouting and yelling from downstairs. This caused Norma to roll her eyes, Emilia to sink down into her chair in embarrassment and Walter to rub his nose muttering about headaches.
The blond woman continued to stare in the direction where the two members of their party with wide eyes. Part of her swore that she had seen her life flash before her eyes. "Are they… always like that?" She asked hesitantly, as the other two groaned.
"Most of the time they're in the same room together, yes…" Walter replied, hand caressing his forehead as he heard faint crashing noises and high voices coming from down below. The staring had begun to die down, though now gossip also filled parts of the room.
Norma shook her head and grinned at Emilia. "Don't let their arguing fool you though. They're practically siblings at this point, with how much they get on each other's nerves."
Emilia smiled at that, and stood up. "I think I'll go try to cool their heads a bit. Please excuse me." The two nodded in her direction as she straightened her dress and walked towards the stairs like nothing had ever happened.
Soon after, a waiter appeared at their table, looking over at the two in confusion as he held five heavy plates. Norma quickly explained their other friends had run off and promised to refund them if need be. Eating there almost every night while she lived there helped her case a bit, so the waiter just passed it off and wished them a good evening.
As Norma started digging into her food almost immediately, the two roommates conversed about random things; conversation starters, really. What the mainland was like, various weather patterns, gossip around the love triangle that was Chloe/Senel/Shirley…
Walter bit his lip fighting back a snicker at one of Norma's escapades at the University when the bags against the wall caught his eye. He forced away his humor remembering a question he wanted answers to, and turned to Norma again, "Speaking of the University…"
The treasure hunter was finishing off her seafood bread bowl at that time, and turned to him with a mouth full of food. She muffled out a reply he could only guess was, "Yeah, what's up."
"Erm…" The Ferines trailed off, recoiling a bit from her bad table manners. Norma noticed him leaning away from her, and swallowed down her large bite and gulped down some water. "Yeah?" She asked. The blond leveled a serious expression at her with his blue eyes looking a little sharper than usual. …Then again, her roommate was always serious.
He glanced at the bags for a brief moment, and she shifted in place. "…What? Something bothering you?" She asked, somewhat hesitant in knowing the answer. She had one guess what was eating at him.
Walter was silent for a moment, frowning at her response. "You wonder if something's bothering me." He let out a frustrated breath. "Norma, you left a little over five months ago out of the blue, without much warning or explanation. Then there's no word from you save for one or two letters, and that was just to tell us you were busy with Nerifes-knows-what and were coming back today. Then all of a sudden, you come back and everything is supposed to be all smiles and rainbows again?"
Norma didn't bother to hide her wince. She had known for a while this lecture was going to come up, be it from Walter or Will or anyone else. Because she had been so focused on her research in the University, she barely noticed how much time went by. After five months at the University, she had written maybe two or three letters to her friends. The few times she did, they were replies to their own letters, full of excuses that she was busy with some secretive project at the university, she would tell them later and that she would be back in a few months.
Walter used to disappear a lot, especially before the whole situation with Schwartz, her poisoned injury at the Ice Monument and the events at the Crystal Forest. Even then, at least he would leave her a note on where he'd gone or when he would be back. In turn, the Ferines disliked being left out of the loop. He was like that anyway though, so Norma had expected this with a feeling of dread since arriving at the Legacy.
Walter's brows knit together and a soft growl left his throat. "Norma, we're your friends, right? Could it have killed you to at least write back once in a while? At least so the rest of us aren't worrying about an avalanche of books falling on you or something ridiculous like that?"
Norma looked at his exasperated expression and realized he was actually upset she hadn't kept in contact. Well, more than usual, anyway. Usually whenever he was scolding or lecturing her, he'd keep his expression calm and let his icy glares do the talking. But at the moment, there wasn't any of the trained restraint or intimidation she had known him for, and it showed. Norma wondered if he was annoyed because she hadn't so much stayed out of contact with the Fun Bunch as she hadn't contacted him.
A thought ran through her mind. When Grune passed, Norma had been depressed and heartbroken to the point she took the first opportunity to leave the Legacy for a few months to heal. It hadn't occurred to her that her leaving might have upset the blond so much. Ever since she found the Everlight and Walter resolved to remain in Werites Beacon, he seemed to grow a lot more mellow around her and, dare she even think it less strange out-of-character imaged pop into her mind, cheerful. He actually seemed happy for once! Even while he still had moments where he seemed lost in thought or woke up in the middle of the night from some bad dream or memory, he seemed a lot more relaxed then he used to be.
Norma realized that when she had left for the University, she'd taken away the person he leaned on the most for pretty much anything. Without bothering to send letters or even write back, she made it worse.
Norma looked at him with guilt in her eyes, swallowing hard. While lost in thought, the blond's gaze strayed towards the stage where Go Shiina was playing a light jazzy tune. "…Wally, I'm sorry I didn't write or stay in contact. I was super busy with research at the University, and I lost track of time. Zamaran called me back for something super important and I wasn't allowed to tell anyone about what I was working on. I couldn't tell anyone about it."
The blond turned back towards her, his gaze frosty, "I'd understand if it was something you couldn't talk about, but not keeping contact about anything else? Not bothering to write about when you were coming back to the Legacy, or the fact you were gone for half a year? Do you remember our conversation after what happened in the Crystal Forest? The promise I made to you?" She flinched under his gaze and nodded slightly. "It's rather hard to keep that promise if I'm not there to protect you, isn't it?"
Norma looked up at him through her eyelashes, her head bowed and shoulders hunched up in discomfort. "I'm sorry, Wally, but…" She bit her lip. "Werites Beacon reminded me too much of G-Girl… After everything that happened with G-Girl and Schwartz, I wanted to just… go for a little while. I couldn't stay here without seeing her in some corner of town, in the bakery, Teach's house. Everywhere I went, I remembered her being there, and I kept thinking about what happened and the fact G-Girl isn't here anymore." Her voice hitched, and she had to swallow around the lump in her throat. No, she promised herself she wouldn't cry again…
Walter's gaze softened, no doubt remembering the week after Grune died and how nothing seemed to make her happy. Even with that, he was still irritated, and it showed in his voice. "Norma, you don't think I already knew that? Her passing was the hardest on you, but we were all grieving for her and I barely knew the woman. Was it really so bad you just had to… leave the Legacy with nothing but a note left behind? Like the rest of your friends couldn't have supported you too?"
Every time the blond spoke of the party, it seemed more like he was speaking for himself. He opened his mouth ready to continue on, but hesitated. Instead, he sighed heavily and ran a hand through his hair, his blond fringe out of his face for once. Frustration and bits of other emotions flickered across his face before finally settling on a weary acceptance. "Just… Please, keep us in the loop if this happens again, all right?"
Norma looked at her weary-looking roommate, and nodded slightly. It was then she noticed the small dark smudges underneath his blue eyes, and she bent lower to get a better look at them. "…You have bags under your eyes, you know."
"I haven't been getting that much sleep." Walter replied simply, sitting up as the same waiter came and took their empty plates.
"Why not? Is Maurie making you patrol the entire Legacy every night or something?" She asked, propping her chin up with her hand and looking at him with a small grin on her face. It was almost an ongoing joke between the two how much he poured himself into his work, especially on his first life.
"Oh, ha ha." The blond replied as he rolled his eyes, giving her a deadpan stare. Norma silently cheered the return of her disgruntled roommate as she waited for him to continue.
He leaned back in his chair slightly, tipping his water glass onto its corner and spinning it slightly with a finger. "To answer your question, no. But I'll admit I've been running myself ragged trying to find any truth in those worrisome rumors about Gadoria with Jay and making sure the Ferines who do arrive here get to the village safely." He let out a small sigh, staring down at the glass. "After that, I'm often helping clear the local area of monsters with Senel, Chloe and Moses. Next is acting as a courier between the village and here, often between Maurits and either Shirley or Madam Musette. Then I struggle keeping Thyra and those three kids who idolize me out of my hair whenever I'm in the middle of those tasks. After all that I might have some time to study, usually until late in the night when any other sane person is asleep. I've been too busy to sleep well—"
"Wait, studying? Studying what?" Norma asked, entirely confused now. She thought he was done with the whole research thing after he saved her life.
The water glass landed on its bottom again with a clacking sound as the blond lost his concentration. Walter opened his mouth to answer, but froze as if he realized it was a secret he didn't want others knowing about. He quickly shook his head and fiddled with the glass again. "…Nothing, I think you misheard me."
Norma raised an eyebrow, "Really? I heard you say you were studying something. What is it?"
"It's nothing, Norma." Walter replied tersely, keeping his gaze on the glass less it fall over.
"Doesn't sound like nothing to me. Come on Wally, I won't tell anyone!" The treasure hunter said in a chipper tone, grinning at him.
"I already told you, I'm not studying anything!" The Ferines responded with a glare at her, obviously not wanting to talk about it.
She frowned, recognized a nigh unwinnable battle when she saw it. It was time to break out her trump card. She crossed her arms and gave him her best skeptical expression. "Really…? And here I thought you didn't lie, because that sure looked like one to me."
The comment earned her an icy glare, but Walter knew when she had beaten him in their word battle. After a long moment of glaring at her, he let the glass clack back onto the table and turned his gaze away from her. If she didn't know better, his cheeks grew a little pink as he murmured something under his breath.
Norma strained to hear his words, but didn't catch them. "Could you say that again, Wally? I didn't hear what you said." Norma asked politely, knowing antagonizing the Ferines would earn her no answers.
"…Cooking." He replied a bit louder, but even then she barely heard it over the chatter and music in the background.
"Cooking?" That certainly caught the treasure hunter by surprise, "You're trying to be a chef or something?" She hoped not. His sense of taste wasn't exactly the best and it said something when she had more experience than him in cooking.
Walter raised an eyebrow at the brunette, probably thinking the same thing. "…No, I'm not." He shook his head and folded his arms on the table. "I'm…" He hesitated for a long time before gesturing towards her. "Your teacher, Sven… You've finally accepted his passing, right?"
"Well… yeah. Sure I still miss the goofball like heck, but finding the Everlight helped me past that." Norma answered slowly, a brief smile lighting her face as she thought back to their misadventures years ago. Her smile faded when she noticed the blond in front of her stopped talking, staring at the empty glass and lost in thought. "Why do you ask, Wally?" She asked, her head cocked to the side in both curiosity and concern.
"I… haven't yet, on more than one count. Call it my way of dealing with it." He quietly answered after a long time, fingers tightening on his forearm and creating little indents in his sleeves.
Norma's brows furrowed together in confusion, knowing she was missing something but not sure what. "I still don't get it… How do you get over something like that by learning how to cook?"
To anyone else in the room, the blond in front of Norma looked apathetic, though those who knew him would recognize the far-off look in his blue eyes. It was the same sort of tired expression she remembered him wearing during some nights. On the rare occasion she woke up in the middle of the night, she would see the blond sitting up in bed wide awake. Sometimes she asked why he was awake, but after a few nights of this she eventually figured out they were past memories catching up to him in his sleep, ones he refused to speak about.
Even after they had become close friends, the Ferines very rarely mentioned anything from his life prior to Senel and Shirley's arrival to the Legacy. The most she had ever heard him speak about were some things he did working under Maurits, and even then, he skipped a lot. Some parts she assumed had resulted in injury or some other gruesome scenario, and didn't blame him for leaving them out. Before that… practically nothing at all. It's like the younger version of him had never existed, from how little he mentioned or even alluded to.
Trying hard to think over something the blond might have mentioned before now, Norma struggled to remember anything even remotely related to cooking. Why cooking, of all things? It seemed like such a random thing. Suddenly, a memory hit her like a tram. Back before the Crystal Forest, before Madam Musette's house and even before the hurricane… She couldn't remember much, but she had made some joking remark, asked a random question. He mentioned his…
Oh… Norma's brows furrowed together in realization. She felt like an idiot. He had mentioned he liked spicy food because his mom made spicy curry all the time, but she couldn't cook to save her life. Now he was trying to learn how to cook as a way of coping with her loss. From what Madam Musette said, she had probably died when he was still a kid, and since he never spoke about his childhood, she could only assume the worst with how hateful he had been against humans. "Oh…" She quietly said at last, downtrodden she'd even brought up the subject.
The air between them was tense as she tried to figure out a way of apologizing for bringing up the subject, for making him think about most likely bad memories. She was finally broken out of her thoughts when Walter quietly exhaled a small sigh. "Don't worry about it."
She struggled to find a way to cut through the awkward atmosphere across the table when he quietly exhaled a sigh. "Don't worry about it."
Norma looked over at the blond with guilt and worry in her eyes. "Wally, I…" She trailed off clumsily, suddenly finding her glass of water the most interesting object in the room.
"I'm sorry… Am I interrupting something?" The two immediately straightened and looked over at Emilia, who was clutching a small cloth bag in her fingers. She gazed at the two downtrodden-looking roommates with concerned eyes, obviously missing some important discussion.
Walter shook away the depressing memories running laps through his mind and looked at Emilia with just the light weariness in his eyes. "Not anymore. Just remembering past times." Norma gave the blond a pensive look, but the quick glance he shot her clearly stated to drop the subject.
So she did. Norma nodded, and peered behind the blond to notice a severe lack of short ninjas and scraggly-haired bandits. "Hey Emilia, where's Red and JJ?" Norma asked.
Emilia gestured towards the door on the opposite side of the room. "They went home a little while ago while you two were talking. Jay mentioned you two had a lot of catching up to do, so I chatted with them outside for a bit. He also mentioned that he wanted to talk to you about something tomorrow, Walter. Something you two were looking into?"
Walter nodded, and Norma suddenly had a thought pop into her mind. "Oh yeah…! Hey Emilia, do you have enough gald for a room?"
"Well, yes… Though I don't really have that much though. It took most of my savings to buy a ticket to the Legacy in the first place, and I don't have much left. I supposed that I would figure out the rest when I got here." The blond woman looked from side to side, her face flushed with embarrassment.
Norma waved it off, "Well, you already know Wally's hooking you up with a pad over at the Village of the Ferines, but you can just grab a room up-top and put it on our tab! No worries!"
Walter sighed as he shouldered Norma's overly heavy duffel bag, all traces of their previous conversation gone. "I don't mean to come off as greedy, but if you start paying for everyone's room then the two of us are going to end up in debt with the innkeeper again."
Norma nearly keeled over at the thought, and then turned to him with a cheerful grin, "Oh, it's no problem! Sure, we might not be killing monsters and saving the world on a daily basis, but at least now you're actually paying for stuff instead of freeloading!" The blond glared indignantly at her, but she just shrugged it off with a wide yawn. "Ah, I'm pooped! Let's go to bed already!" She maneuvered around the various tables and marched up the stairs towards the inn's lobby.
Her roommate just sighed and massaged his forehead, "I should be used to her doing that by now…" he muttered under his breath before turning to Emilia, who had collected her own belongings. "Come on, let's go get you a room."
She quickly followed him up the steps as he followed Norma. While the treasure hunter could be heard tromping up the stairs after wishing her new Ferines friend a good night, Walter was busy speaking with the innkeeper about a spare room. The man smiled at the two after the man paid him some gald and motioned Emilia to follow him upstairs. She gave Walter a joyous smile, then trotted upstairs after the older gentleman. Walter slowly followed, waiting to bid Emilia a good night before turning to his own room.
As he opened the door and walked through the foyer like he always had, he briefly forgotten one rule the two set in place. Knock on the door before entering less someone was already inside getting dressed.
The blond immediately heard the brunette singing loudly from across the room, "Ah, somebody, somebody… Can anybody find me somebody to love?" From her loud singing the brunette didn't notice the blond enter, so she was still facing away from the door and pulling on her pajama top near the window. Walter's face rapidly turned bright red when he realized he'd seen the colorful bra she wore underneath. Bright yellow… Of course it would be yellow.
Doing his best to throw that mental image into a dark corner of his mind before it went any further, he pushed the door closed with his foot. The loud slam caused Norma to jump and stop singing. She quickly turned to face him with an embarrassed blush on her face, "H-hi Wally! I didn't see you there!" She narrowed her eyes suspiciously. "…You know, I was getting dressed here; you could have knocked!"
Walter gave her a deadpan look, even as he willed the flush in his cheeks to go away. "Sorry, I forgot. Though I would have assumed you'd change in a place I couldn't accidently walk in on you." He continued over to the bed, letting the straps of her duffel bag slip off his shoulder. Grabbing a hold of them, he held the bag to her with one arm.
She grinned at him in thanks and grabbed the straps to retrieve her bag from him, "Thanks Wall—" He let go of them and the bag instantly went to the floor in a loud thud. "Aah! …How can you even carry this thing with one arm?! It's so heavy!" Norma wailed in surprise.
Walter smiled slightly at the eren's compliment, and he tried not to chuckle as she struggled to pull the bag off the floor. He walked over to the dresser and tossed his bag of gels onto then knelt to take off his boots. "It comes from all the work that you tease me about… Will can probably lift those with ease though, considering that hammer he carries around."
Norma huffed, and dragged the bag over to the foot of her bed. "Well… Phooie, I forgot how heavy this thing was!" She struggled to pull the bag up onto her bed, the straps straining under the weight. A stitch on the bottom of the heavy canvas finally gave way and ripped open, sending the duffel's contents falling to the floor. An assortment of clothes, books, brass research tools and other miscellaneous items fell with a large clatter. "Aw,dang it!" She cursed angrily, bending over to pick up the fallen books, clothing and other items off the floor.
As Norma tossed books in a stack on the window seat, a small object bounced out of a jacket's pocker and rolled away from the pile. It stopped when it bumped into Walter's feet and the blond bent down to pick up the small item. "What's this…?" He asked, curiosity coloring his voice. A small spherical ball wrapped in coarse strips of cloth sat in his hand. He began to un-wrap the cloth to look at the object hidden underneath the fabric, but a shriek of dismay from his roommate stopped him.
"Wait wait wait! Don't open it!" Walter looked over at Norma, who held out her hands in panic. The blond blinked in confusion as she began to run around the room, locking doors and pulling curtains shut. She quickly grabbed his arm and dragged him over to the desk. "Norma, why are you…?" Walter began to ask, but Norma interrupted him again.
"Hold on a sec!" The crystal eren rushed over to the pile of clothes on the floor, digging through them until she found a small velvet pouch with golden drawstrings. She ran back over and flipped on the small lamp on the desk, bathing the two in golden light. Norma's light-brown eyes reflected gold in the light as they sparkled with excitement. "Ok, now you can open it." She whispered eagerly.
Walter stared at her as if she asked him to disarm a bomb, but figured if it were some sort of prank she wouldn't be standing so close. He looked back to the ball in his hand and slowly peeled away the cloth. The strips fell away in his hands, revealing a strange clay-red sphere. It was a bit smaller than he had thought; around the size of a small peach and covered in faded carvings. What interested him was the formation they created. There were four perfectly circular rings across one side, all meeting at each end of each other, creating a star-like four-pointed shape in the center of the sphere. In the middle of it was another smaller ring, and some sort of discoloration inside of it.
The Ferines looked at her, noticing how intent and serious she was staring at it, yet her eyes were lit with excited fascination. "…Did you find this on the mainland?" He asked slowly, wondering what could make this so special as to invoke such a reaction from her. He hadn't seen her so excited about an archaeological find since their group found an ancient dragon horn worth thousands in the Quiet Lands.
Norma nodded. "This was why the old man asked me to come back to the university so quickly. The university's scholars found this at an excavation of a coastline ruin near Gadoria. He was very secretive about it, and stated the ruins and this… relic dated back to around the Kingdom of Terises."
Walter's eyebrows rose, and she continued, "I know, you wouldn't have thought it just by looking at the little thing, but it gets better." She dug through the pile of miscellaneous items on the floor and found a flat black case. Opening it, she retrieved an expensive-looking magnifying glass crafted from brass. She held it up to the light and magnified the center ring of the stone ball's etching. The blond looked closer, and noticed that inside the circle was a small triangle with a few carved characters inside the two shapes. His eyes squinted trying to make out the markings, but they seemed too worn away to make out.
"Ok, so there are some blurred carvings… or symbols. It's unique, but that doesn't make it as special as you make it seem." He responded, trying to hand it back to her. Something about it made him uneasy for some reason…
Norma pushed it back at him. "Hold on, hold on! I'm not done yet! …Give it here a sec!" She set down the magnifying glass and plucked the little ball from the bed of cloth strips it laid on. She made him drop the coarse cloth onto the desk and gestured towards it. "Watch…" The treasure hunter announced as she placed the relic into one of her palms. She activated her eres, and gently touched the object with her shining fingertips. The perfectly engraved circles seemed to glow from within, and the carved characters became clear and more focused.
Walter reached over and grabbed the brass instrument from where she set it down, and looked through it at the symbols, shifting the glass up and down to focus it just right. With the symbols shimmering, he could see there was another tiny triangle inside the first, with some sort of rune inside of it. There were seven symbols in all: three on each side outside of the larger triangle, three inside of it and the intricate rune inside the smallest triangle. They looked similar to Relares, but the lines were more jagged and sharp. "…Is this supposed to be Relares?" He asked, lowering the glass instrument from the sphere.
Norma shrugged. "I have no idea, I'm as stumped as you are! None of the markings on the symbols are as smooth or curved as Relares, but they don't look like anything else I've seen before in my studies. Even the scholars at the University are scratching their heads about it." Norma let her eres fade away and grabbed the small velvet pouch from earlier. She gently pulled open the drawstrings and reached inside to pull out a large shard of iridescent blue crystal. "You remember this, right?"
Walter nodded, "A shard of the Everlight… I didn't know you kept it."
"I always keep it with me. It's just a way of keeping my master's dreams with me, and… to remind myself to never give up. No matter what." She smiled when she looked at the shard, remembering Sven's last message to her.
Motioning to the ball in her hand, she continued, "When I was working late one night, I had the Everlight shard in my jacket pocket and forgot to put it away. When I reach over to grab a book, the shard fell out and touched it. There was a big flash of… something, and there were red sparks all over the place. They even singed the books I was working out of! The shard was blasted across the room, and there were black smudges all over it. It was like it had been struck by lightning or something."
She placed the shard back into the pouch it came in and placed it on the desk. "I don't know what caused this thing to react so violently, but I was gonna come back and chat with Maurie about it. Maybe he has a clue about it, since the Everlight has some of Nessie's power in it, right? Maybe he can recognize the symbols in the middle of the carvings, if it really is Relares."
The Ferines' face was unreadable as he stared down at the innocent-looking ball in Norma's fingers. "This relic sounds ominous, Norma. I… I don't know, something feels off about it to me."
"Really?" The crystal eren quirked her head to the side then looked down at the sphere in her hand. "Nothing feels bad to me; I feel fine." She held it up to the lamplight for good measure; nothing odd about it at all.
He shook his head and continued, "That's not what I mean." She began to toss the strange sphere lightly from hand to hand and Walter shifted uncomfortably. "Maybe it's just me, but something just doesn't seem right about it. It's not in the way Schwartz or the black mist felt wrong by twisting your own emotions against you, but… It feels malicious."
Norma stopped tossing the ball like a toy as a serious expression crossed her face. "I don't know, Wally… None of the professors at the University felt anything different when they were around it, and for good measure they did a bunch of experiments on it to make sure it was safe." She looked at the ball seemingly lost in thought. "The thing seems to have some kind of power hidden away inside, but it hasn't shown even a little bit of that until the shard touched it."
The brunette turned the ball on its side and glanced at its circular rings. "I mean, they even tried to see if it could be damaged, but the thing's practically indestructible. Chisels, sledgehammers… Heck, even my spells didn't do anything to it! Not so much as a crack on it, yet it's that old…" She looked to Walter and motioned for him to catch it. "Here, try using your eres on it. The thing's more durable than a diamond!" She tossed it his way, and he caught it with one hand like he would any ball.
Almost immediately after the stone ball touched his hand, a number of things happened within the next few seconds. Blinding red light erupted from within the artifact, shining through the engravings as if the ball was an elaborate Jack-o-Lantern. Red arcing wisps raced across the surface of the clay ball like electricity. Suddenly a burning, searing pain exploded from where Walter held the relic, shooting waves of fire through him. With a strangled cry of pain he threw the ball away from him and it bounced off the opposite wall, leaving a singed mark on the wallpaper. He stumbled backwards and his back hit the wall, knees finally buckling and sending his violently trembling form to the floor.
Norma rushed to her trembling friend, ignoring the sphere as it gently rolled to a stop and the light inside faded. "Wally!" She knelt by his side, apologies spilling without end from her as she pulled the blond upright so he was leaning against the wall. His blond hair hung in front of his pale face, shrouding his eyes from view. "Oh my god, I'm sorry! I-I didn't think it'd do that! Wally, are you okay?!"
The Ferines stayed quiet for a long moment, his blue eyes clenched shut as he dug his fingers into his arm. Be it from shock or pain, he couldn't force his hands to stop shaking. "Rgh… I could be better…" He grit out between clenched teeth in a jerking tone. His fingers twitched and another jolt of pain shot up his arm. Walter dug his fingernails into his hurt arm, hoping that maybe it might give his mind something else to focus on.
Norma quickly grabbed her straw off the desk and a soft yellow glow filled the room as her eres activated. The yellow light made Walter open his eyes, noticing her fingertips illuminating her worried expression. She gently ran a hand from his shoulder down to his clenched hand, resting on top of his white-knuckled one. "Please, let me see…" She asked quietly, looking at him with eyes filled with concern and guilt.
Slowly, he let his hand slip from his arm and swallowed a sound of pain when she turned his hand over. Norma opened his hand slightly, and her face reflected the same shock that made her stomach flip. His entire palm was badly burned as if he'd held a molten ball of iron, and blood began to trickle form the worst spots. Norma bit her lip as guilt washed over her. Swallowing the lump in her throat, she began casting her healing eres on the burns.
"Norma…" She heard Walter speak, and looked over at him. He stared at back at her with anxiousness in his eyes. "I don't…" He paused for a moment before starting again. "I don't think that artifact reacts just to eres, or the Everlight... It reacts to anything related to Nerifes… and that includes Ferines."
Norma swallowed nervously as she looked back at the now dull-looking sphere, glowing symbols no longer shining from within as it returned to its previous appearance.
What in the world… had she brought back from the mainland?
The artifact is described as being the size of a peach, though it's truly the size of a tennis ball. However, I wrote peach only because I couldn't figure out if the gang would have tennis as a sport or not… Have any of the other Tales games had sports like ours besides maybe football/soccer? As for what it does, you'll just have to wait and see…
There's a LOT of background info between the last fic and this one, especially after the main storyline. The reason I didn't write about THAT instead is because I would get burned out on it rather quickly and stop writing just like Good Help is Hard to Find. I apologize if there's any confusion about what's gone on, though I hope the other characters are gradually filling in the gaps!