Sheba had been a lonely child. Reading minds meant she could manipulate people very easily, and while being catered to constantly was nice at first, she found she wasn't much a fan of how guilty it made her feel. She often found herself retreating to her room to read, after borrowing books out of Lalivero's small library, or stealing them from her foster mother's shelves: Romance novels far too smutty for someone her age to understand, and science fiction books with morals and hidden themes, and mystery books where she always had to skip ahead to the end just to see if she was right.
The most prominent books, though, were the fairy tales—fantastical stories of knights in shining armor, glittering castles, and princesses locked away in towers. Later, when she found herself locked away in a tower, books became a retreat for her once again. As a captive, she was rarely allowed to leave without an escort, so she asked her caretakers to bring her as many books as they could find. She'd hated that room, but some small part of her still regretted having to leave all those books behind.
She always resented the leading ladies in those old fairy tales, even though she was told she should try to emulate them and the way they were quiet, demure, and kind. While she was a captive herself she held on to every ounce of anger that she could, channeling it into a snippy attitude that she unleashed on practically everyone who spoke to her.
The knights and the princes, on the other hand, she found much more interesting. They could go from cunning strategist on the battlefield to benevolent lover in the space of a breath. They fought gracefully with swords, and could sweep their partner away into a ballroom dance just as well. Painfully eloquent and passionate, the knights in her stories could talk strategy in war meetings just as well as they could proclaim their love for their princess. Fairy tale knights were also very, very good at kissing.
Sheba wasn't sure, in light of all that, exactly why she fell for Felix.
He was too quiet, for one thing. The most passionate and angry she had ever seen him was on top of Venus Lighthouse, fighting for her freedom, and after that he became even more withdrawn. He mostly only spoke up when he was asked to make a decision. Any guesses at his opinion would have to be confirmed with a Mind Read, and although he'd given her permission to do that whenever she pleased, she didn't quite feel right about it.
His fighting style wasn't elegant, either. He was rough around the edges, cared more about function rather than form. It was only later that she realized the similarities between Felix's no-frills fighting style and Saturos's, remembering what little Felix had told her about his time in Prox. They were all fierce warriors, he'd said, relishing in the glory of the fight and the blood of their enemies. Felix took no such enjoyment from fighting, so the only thing that was left to show through was his brute strength. She didn't think he'd be a particularly adept dancer—he carried himself well, but was prone to stumbling, as though (in spite of his age) he hadn't gotten used to the length of his limbs yet.
And kissing... Well, honestly, Sheba didn't think he was interested in kissing her, so she'd never find out. But to be fair, she'd tried to hide her own interest in him as well, figuring he'd probably rather focus on the quest.
Felix was rugged, nothing like the clean-cut princes in the stories—but he was tall, and his dark hair and eyes gave him something of an air of mystery. The mayor's wife in Madra said he had kind eyes, and Sheba found herself agreeing. He always took mercy on the weak and less fortunate ones, going out of the way to help a young boy trapped in a cave just as unhesitatingly as he helped two separated penguins reach each other on some tiny nondescript island. And then of course there was the matter of him throwing himself from the aerie of a lighthouse in an attempt to save her life... That wasn't something she could easily forget.
She thanked him at the inn in Daila, the first quiet moment their group had had in days, but he quietly brushed it off. She couldn't even begin to guess at his reasoning—part of her wanted to think that it was because he loved her, but the rest of her dismissed it as unhealthy romanticism, and she went about her crush in silence, for the most part. Sheba spent all her personal allowance on romance novels, and Jenna was the only one to shoot her knowing smirks when Sheba came back to the ship with yet another paperback in her hands. She'd end up staying up too late reading those romance novels the day after she bought them, blowing out her own candle hours after Jenna had gone to sleep in the room they shared.
After one such night of late reading, she drags herself into the ship's kitchen once the sun through their porthole window is too bright to ignore, flopping down into a chair and then dropping her head on top of her folded arms.
"Something got you down?" Piers asks, leaning against the counter next to the tiny stove.
"No, I'm just tired," she answers into the table. It was true enough.
"Well, hopefully some food will wake you right up then," he says, smiling brightly. "Felix insisted on doing the cooking this morning."
Sheba perks up at that. Piers is a talented cook, but Felix is a connoisseur—or at least, as much of one as he can be with limited supplies while they're traveling. Anywhere they went, if someone had a good meal on the table, he would suddenly become a lot more verbal. He looked around at people's kitchens and asked the home's occupants what they did to get their vegetables so crisp, what was their preferred way to season meat, how to keep one ingredient from overwhelming the rest. He'd made polite small-talk (something he despised) with an older couple in Madra for nearly thirty minutes, just to flatter the wife enough to get her to write down her battered mushroom recipe.
That's something those romance novels never got right, Sheba thinks. All those princes expected the women to do all the housework, but there's not much better than a man who can cook.
Right on cue, Felix reenters the kitchen, looking only slightly ridiculous with a light pink apron thrown over his white undershirt. His hair is tied back in a higher ponytail than he usually wears it, and it really brings out his resemblance to his sister. He gently elbows Piers out of the way, and stirs whatever's in the pot on the stove. He tastes it and pauses, pursing his lips, then turns to Sheba, holding out the ladle. "Try this. I tried to improvise and make my own pho, just with what we've got on hand. We have to go back to Champa and ask Obaba what she does with hers, I don't think I simmered the broth long enough."
She stands and joins him in front of the stove, leaning over to look. It definitely looks like the pho they'd sampled in Champa, with white noodles and browned beef in a cloudy broth, colored by fresh vegetables.
"Ah, careful," he says, reaching out and pushing her hair behind her ear. "Don't want it in the food."
Her mind reading abilities mean that she's very perceptive to peoples' emotions even without using Psynergy, and her instincts say he meant nothing by the hair touch. She feels her stomach flip nonetheless. "Right," she says, accepting the ladle he'd offered and taking a taste. "I think it's a little bland, it could use more salt."
"I thought so too," he says, turning to grab the small dispenser of salt they had to add a bit more to the soup. Somehow she feels proud of herself for coming up with the same answer he had. It's like they're on the same wavelength.
Breakfast is as delicious as she'd anticipated, the pho accompanied by some bread and fresh juice from fruits they had. As they eat, Kraden looks over the maps and decides that their next stop should be in a town in the nearby continent of Hesperia, where they can stock up on weapons and supplies.
Saturos and Menardi had been the previous owners of the maps, which they'd mostly drawn themselves based on information from old trading routes between Prox and other places in the Great Western Sea. As such, it wasn't always the most accurate, but it was certainly the best they were going to get. As they traveled, the five of them had taken to completing the maps, scribbling notes in the margins and next to continents. Sheba's current favorite was a recent one in Jenna's messy scrawl, where she'd written next to Lemuria: "4 out of 10, didn't live up to the hype. Conservato can drown in a whirlpool." Piers had written a small smiley face next to her note with the word "Agreed."
She volunteers to do the dishes after they were all done eating breakfast, but Felix insists on cleaning up after himself, so Sheba excuses herself out to the deck, where she climbs the ladder on the side of the mast. Standing on the lookout tower was the best place to feel the wind in her hair. She could tell more from the wind than Piers could, despite his sailing background, and it had come in handy quite a few times when she was able to direct them towards a town or away from a storm.
Sure enough, Kraden was right about the new continent. The ship was anchored at the moment, but Felix had been sailing all night and it couldn't be more than a half hour's journey away. There are plenty of mountains, though, and she can't see any sort of town. Something prickles in the back of her mind, fragments of images flashing through her brain, and she squints uselessly into the sun in an attempt to refine them. Some kind of a green stone...and a stick? No, not quite… She gasps aloud as it comes to her. It's the Shaman's Rod.
Kraden had told them about the legends in this area after they'd acquired the Shaman's Rod from the Jupiter Adept in Isaac's party. The Shaman's Rod was, according to legend, traded for the Hover Jade, which itself was said to have some tie to Jupiter Lighthouse.
She makes up her mind right then. They need that Hover Jade. If there's any place in the whole of Weyard where she might find a clue to her past, her future, anything about herself, it's Jupiter Lighthouse. And if they need the Hover Jade to get there, she'll steal it from them herself if she has to.
She climbs back down the ladder, skipping the last few rungs in her hurry, breezing through the kitchen and down to the bedrooms. Kraden calls after her to ask what's wrong, but she ignores him. The rod rests in the corner of her side of the room she shares with Jenna, and she picks it up, spinning it once or twice in her hands. She imagines she can feel it humming, as though it's alive, and grins. Finally it's going to have a purpose!
She takes off upstairs again, carrying the rod. "What's that for?" Jenna asks, still sitting at the kitchen table finishing her breakfast.
"I just have a feeling we'll need it at this town we're going to," Sheba says, grinning.
Jenna turns to Kraden. "Where are we going, anyway?"
"The continent called Hesperia," he says, squinting through his glasses at the map spread out over the kitchen table. "There were some murmurings of a village a ways inland, but it looks as though there's some traveling required in order to get there."
Felix walks upstairs, fully dressed this time, pulling his hair back again into a cleaner, lower ponytail. The first thing he notices is the rod in Sheba's hands. "Is that the Shaman's Rod?"
"She thinks we'll need it for the town we're going to next," Jenna says.
Felix shoots a questioning look at Sheba, and she just shrugs. "It's hard to explain," she says, and he rolls his eyes.
"Situation normal, then," he quips, and heads out to the deck to prepare for their short journey to land, followed by Piers. Sheba trails along after them and climbs to the top of the lookout tower again, setting the Shaman's Rod down at the base of the ladder. Watching their approach to the new continent is much more interesting from the higher vantage point, and she'd learned that it made it easier to avoid helping.
They arrive at a small beach, and from where she stands Sheba can see a small cave nearby and guesses that's where they're headed. Upon disembarking, Jenna notices a sign next to the cave, confirming Sheba's suspicions.
"Kraden, can you read this? It just looks like a bunch of random lines to me," Jenna says as they examine it.
"Hmm," he drones, adjusting his spectacles. "Almost. Let me think for a moment."
As he flips through a small reference book he'd hidden somewhere in his robes, Sheba looks harder at the sign. She's not sure what Jenna meant by the words looking like random lines—to her they almost look like they could be words.
"Shi-nen?" she guesses, and Kraden looks over at her, delighted.
"Very close, Sheba. It says something along the lines of, 'The village of Shamans is through this cave.' I believe it's some sort of a derivative of Ancient Anemosian…" He launches into a description of how the ancient language had morphed into its more modern form, but Sheba barely hears him. Out of the blue, she's feeling faint and a little shaky, despite having eaten plenty that morning.
Piers's hand on her shoulder brings her back down to earth. "Are you all right?"
"Never better," she says, smiling brightly at him before chasing after Jenna, who had already headed into the cave. The dizzy feeling is already fading, hardly even a buzz in the back of her mind, so she decides to ignore it.
The cave itself is fairly cut-and-dry. They're in and out in under an hour. The town on the other side, however...
"Is it just me, or does it seem really, really quiet?" Sheba asks in a whisper to the group at large.
"Yeah," Jenna answers, also in a whisper. "And everyone is glaring at us."
"Beg your pardon, but this is the Shaman Village, correct?" Kraden asks, seemingly choosing a person at random. The woman glances at him, and then looks back at the person she was standing next to, making no attempt to answer, or even speak to her companion.
Sheba slips up behind the villager, faking an accidental brush against her arm.
Until the chief says otherwise, nobody will talk to these outsiders. It's the law. Sheba winces a little at the outright annoyance she feels in the woman's thoughts, but this chief sounds like a person they need to be looking for. She walks back through town to the entrance, where she finds Felix standing near a weapons and armor tent, looking frustrated.
"They're closed up, just like everywhere else in town," he complains, voice pitched lower in reaction, she assumes, to the quiet in the rest of the town. "Inn's open, but the innkeeper holds up signs rather than speaking."
"Maybe he doesn't want to sacrifice any potential profit," Sheba offers, and he shrugs.
"We haven't done anything wrong, so I can't figure out why they're treating us like this. And I checked with Kraden earlier, they definitely speak our language…so it's not like they can't understand us."
"Actually," she says, grabbing his sleeve and pulling him off to the side where they'll be out of earshot and can speak at a more normal volume, "I read some lady's mind. We're outsiders, and apparently their chief made a law that unless he says so, they can't talk to us."
Felix raises an eyebrow. "Then why would they have the signs to direct us towards the town? …Very interesting. Thank you, that's useful."
Even the lightest praise from him makes her feel kind of fluttery. "Yeah, so I think if we could just find this guy, we could get this all sorted out."
He nods, eyes already scanning the town. "Let's try the sanctum next. The Great Healers are usually from out of town, he might actually speak to us."
The Great Healer does speak to them, and he gives them the name of the chief as well: Moapa.
"He lives in the large house at the top of the hill. Oh, but I'd be careful, he doesn't like to be disturbed..." the healer calls after them as they exit. He is ignored.
The five of them approach the large building together, and after some hesitation, Felix walks up to the front door and raises a hand to knock. Before he can actually do so, however, the door slams open, revealing three powerful-looking men. Moapa brusquely introduces himself (Sheba's happy that he's at least speaking to them, the cold shoulder is one of her biggest pet peeves), and instructs them to leave town if they have no business there.
Sheba clears her throat and steps forward, raising the Shaman's Rod so he can see it. It takes Moapa a moment before he recognizes what it is, and his eyes grow wide with shock.
"That's the Shaman's Rod!" he exclaims. "Have you outlanders come to claim the Hover Jade?"
Sheba nods, probably a bit more emphatically than she should have, and Moapa squints at her.
"Well, that's a shame," he says, after a pause. "We won't be giving the Hover Jade to you! We were instructed to give it only to the descendants of Yegelos, the hero of Contigo, and you clearly are not Contigan."
She sees red, and immediately lashes out at him. "That's preposterous! We're returning your rod! We've come so far already!" And you're not going to take my destiny away from me!
"And what difference does it make if we're from Contigo or not!?" Thank the Elements, Jenna's always got her back.
Even Piers speaks up: "Make no mistake about it, we are the intended recipients of the stone of Yegelos." Sheba imagines he hasn't heard the story of the rod's origins—if anything, Isaac's Jupiter Adept friend was the actual chosen one. But Sheba isn't about to say anything and lessen their chances.
"Is there no other way we can get our hands on the Hover Jade?" Kraden asks, and Moapa again shakes his head.
"No. You ask the impossible."
Out of the blue, one of his men speaks up. "What about the test? The way of the vanishing sand?"
Moapa immediately smiles, and there's something sharp in his eyes that Sheba doesn't like. "Yes, if you outlanders truly wish to claim the Hover Jade, you must earn it. If have the courage, follow me!"
He's a little bit of a drama queen, Sheba thinks to herself as he swaggers past them with his two subordinates. She shakes her head once he's far enough out of earshot. "If you'd told us there was a test, we'd have been out of your hair by now."
"What kind of a test is this?" Jenna wonders, eyebrows furrowed.
Kraden pats her reassuringly on the shoulder. "I understand that you're a little concerned, but unless you try it, you'll never know!" He smiles. "Give it your best, everyone!"
"Easy for you to say," Felix mutters under his breath as they follow after Moapa. Jenna snorts, and Piers has to duck his head to hide his smile.
The "test" turns out to be one of the whirlwind stones from Air's Rock, in front of a massive wall of sand. Sheba shoots a disbelieving look at Felix—too easy! Felix smiles back at her, and makes a "go ahead" gesture.
"To inherit the stone of Yegelos—" Moapa begins, but Sheba's already stepped forward and cast Whirlwind on the massive stone. Closing her eyes and tilting her head back, she enjoys the momentary rush of the wind whipping around her, and reopens her eyes to find Moapa and his men staring at her slack-jawed.
"Impossible... The sand disappeared!"
"But she's just a girl!"
Felix starts to laugh but quickly aborts it into a cough. "Just a girl," he repeats amusedly, softly enough that Sheba thinks she might be the only one who heard him, and shakes his head. She turns back to Moapa.
"Well, you wanted the sand to vanish, so...there you are, that's your challenge done! Now hand over the Hover Jade."
He holds up a hand. "There is more you must do before you can earn the stone... You must reach the end of Trial Road."
"I thought only the chosen hero could travel the road. So that'd be him," says one of Moapa's men, gesturing towards Felix. As if Sheba needs another reason to be angry. She hears Jenna gasp too, so at least she's not alone.
"What, are you saying I can't be the chosen hero?" Sheba snaps. Moapa actually balks at that, flinching back in surprise at her tone.
"Our heroes have always been men," he begins, but Sheba cuts him off. She can feel little angry sparks dancing from her fingertips, and while she'd normally attempt to suppress it, she doesn't quite feel so careful around Moapa.
"I don't like your attitude, mister! I can be every bit as heroic as some guy!"
"That may be true, but you must respect our customs. It's the same in Contigo, you know." Moapa's men shrug in unison and begin to walk off, and Moapa follows. Sheba actually stomps her foot in frustration.
"Wait," Kraden says, and for some reason his voice stops them. Maybe it's just the fact that he's a man. "Moapa, what were you just saying about Trial Road? If they beat it, won't their names join the ranks of your heroes?"
Jenna nods, her face still flushed a little with anger. "Kraden's right. It shouldn't matter if a girl does it, all that matters is that we finish!"
"Unless you're afraid a girl like me might become your town's newest hero," Sheba says, unable to resist one last jibe. The three men turn to each other, discussing amongst themselves.
Eventually, Moapa looks back at Felix, then at Piers, pointedly ignoring the girls. "Trial Road is a difficult one, and when you reach the top, a battle awaits you. It's difficult even for me, so I expect you will find it quite impossible—especially your women. Still interested?"
Felix and Piers, to their credit, both turn to Sheba and Jenna before nodding their assent. "We're in. All four of us," Felix says.
"You seem confident, but it is your ignorance speaking," Moapa says, shaking his head. He leads them to Trial Road, and after an explanation of the rules, instructs them to choose a side. Sheba doesn't quite understand why the removal of armor *throughout is necessary—they're already racing through a puzzle-filled cave and then fighting at the end! B/ut Felix doesn't seem concerned, so she lets it go. This is a test meant for legends, after all—they'll just have to measure up.