Mevia was busy.
They were all busy, one way or another, but Mevia sometimes wished she could trade places with Isa.
Or heck, Harper. She'd been a part of Himira. She knew redstone somewhat.
(Not as extensively as Harper did. The redstone expertise hadn't come about until they'd all been separated.)
The army could get rowdy. Very, very rowdy. Not to mention there were constant requests to increase the paycheck. Even when it was already double the amount of what the other lords paid.
But Isa, while excellent at combat (she tended to surprise people when she would pull out a second sword and dual wield as if it was second nature, as though wielding a sword that was already practically triple her size wasn't enough), had no interest in fighting beyond doing so to protect the people, and Harper wasn't the best fighter.
She wasn't awful, mind you, but Mevia had 'inherited' more of Himira's fighting than Harper had, and Harper had 'inherited' more of Himira's interest and knowledge in redstone, while Isa had 'inherited' nearly all of Himira's ability to be diplomatic and socialize.
A fairly good distribution, if not exactly an equal trade-off. It gave Mevia an excuse not to talk to people.
She had a very good gift at saying exactly the wrong thing at the wrong time, according to Isa once when she'd been scolding her for a particularly rude jibe at someone.
Sometimes she wished she was like Harper.
Almost nonverbal around everyone else.
She was shaken out of the thought by the sound of the communication orb chirping to life, slowly rising into the air until it was hovering at eye-level height.
Mevia stared at it.
Glanced around.
Then she figured it was better to just answer now, rather than risk the person on the other end waiting for her to fetch the others- if one of the lords needed all of them to talk, they'd just ask.
So she tapped the orb, which let out a cheery chime and a puff of illusion-smoke, before it solidified into a screen.
"Hello, Mevia," Ivor said mildly from his side of the screen, lifting his hand in greeting.
"Ivor?" she asked in reply, slightly stupidly.
"No, it's Xara," he said, chuckling at his own sarcastic joke, before he sobered and regarded her. "I need to talk to you about something."
Mevia paused.
Sounded important.
She pushed aside the paperwork for the army (what a shame) and laced her fingers together, resting her chin on her hands. "What's the matter?"
"Well, there's been some trouble in the border cities of Enchantra..."
"So, er, that's why we're apparently going to be taking a detour to Enchantra to figure out what the heck is going on over there," Mevia finished, summarizing the reason she'd come into the room and, without any preamble whatsoever, announced, "Er, so, looks like we're heading to Enchantra for a week at least."
The October Children could hardly just sit there and wait for their ticket to the party to come back, after all.
Petra shrugged nonchalantly. "Yeah, I don't really mind. Still got a few weeks until the party."
"Plus it's your job to help Ivor out," Lukas pointed out.
"Yeah, yeah..."
Jesse kicked quietly, feet swinging above the floor from where they were nowhere near touching the floor with their feet. Gill was watching in an interested way. "Ivor's gonna talk to us?"
"Yeah, he is the one who asked for help," Maya pointed out, grinning.
"Oh, yeah."
Isa smiled pleasantly and patted Harper on the back. "Yes, I don't think Harper particularly minds that we have to go see Ivor, of all lords," she said, in a tone that was somehow both pleasant and almost devilishly mischievous.
Harper's cheeks darkened slightly, as if embarrassed. "Shush," she mumbled, elbowing Isa slightly and trying not to continue blushing.
She failed miserably, but it was a good attempt.
"Oh, you guys are coming too?" Aiden looked faintly interested at this.
Mevia shrugged. "He did make the request to us specifically. When I suggested bringing you he said that if you wished to, he would appreciate the help."
Petra made an agreeing sound, rubbing her chin. "It makes sense. You guys are the second-oldest lords. Xara, Romeo, and Fred were fairly new."
"Well, 'new', but yes, that is true," Isa said agreeably, although an observant onlooker (and Jesse) would've noticed the way she glanced at the other two lords.
Lukas rubbed Jesse's back when he saw their slightly anxious look. "Don't worry- it should only take four days to get there, and then we handle whatever the issue is, and we'll have enough time to get back and head to the party."
"... okay..."
"Yeah, you can just ride your horse, so you don't have to worry about slowing us up- unless bandits show up, but they would hardly show up just because of you," Maya said, comfortingly.
"Technically they would, if they got wind that a human was travelling with us," Gill pointed out.
Maya smacked him over the back of the head, still smiling comfortingly at Jesse and ignoring Gill's vehement protests and cusses.
Maya didn't look it, but when she smacked someone (someone being Gill) over the head, she did it hard. "Nope. They won't show up just because of you," she said, cheerily.
Jesse decided not to counter that. They didn't want Gill to suffer from Maya's ire even more, so they nodded with as convincing of a smile they could muster (it was not the most convincing smile they could muster, but it was reasonable enough). "Alright," they said mildly enough.
Petra rolled her eyes at Gill. "Boy, you'd think you'd have learned by now," she told him teasingly.
"Yeah, yeah..."
Mevia hummed, crossing her arms and regarding the October Children. "I suppose you'll have to prepare..." she said, slightly thoughtfully.
Her eyes travelled to Jesse. "And maybe we should get Jesse a chestplate or something."
They blinked in surprise.
"Bad," Harper said, shaking her head.
"Yes, I know our armors are more made for magic and speed," Mevia said slightly impatiently, rolling her red-and-black eyes, "but it's still better than the fuzzy jacket."
Jesse frowned slightly, trying not to grin. "I like my fuzzy jacket..."
Mevia made a sound of irritation and ruffled their hair, making them giggle. "You child. I meant it's better protection than the fuzzy jacket."
Well, couldn't argue with that.
Gill stretched slightly, leaning on Maya's shoulder. (She glowered at him.) "So, what would we call this? It's not really a mission. But it's not a request, either, since we're traveling with the lords..."
"I guess you could kind of call it a road trip," Jesse offered.
"Road trip?" Lukas repeated, jokingly and with a lopsided grin on his face.
Aiden, who was talking to Isa about something, lazily pumped a fist into the air. "Road trip. Woo," he said, in what was perhaps singlehandedly the least enthusiastic voice Jesse had ever heard, before resuming his conversation with Isa.
(She looked as though she were hiding a grin at the remark afterwards.)
Jesse looked down at Reuben.
He snuffled and rubbed his nose against their wrist.
Jesse smiled and rubbed the little pig back, trying to calm the little hard knot in the pit of their stomach and ignore it. It was fine.
Everything would be fine.
It was just a trip there, some troubleshooting, a trip back, and then the party. Simple. It shouldn't even take more than two or three weeks at maximum, according to the other lords and the October Children and Petra, and Jesse trusted them, despite having only known them for a week, Jesse trusted Lukas and Maya and Gill and Petra and Mevia and Isa and Harper and hell, they trusted Aiden.
Surely, surely nothing could go wrong.
(Right?)
A/N: Jesse, I think you may be wrong. xD
Well, that's this chapter done! I'm... actually in Taiwan right now, so time zones are great. I hope you enjoyed the chapter regardless!
And yay. Road trip.
I am a slice of bread. Reviews are me getting toasted. I'm slightly burnt and I love it.
Responses to reviews!
LegendEmpress: Nah, I was like "ah, yeah, so we get attacked by a dragon... then... a party" xD / Agh yeah xD / There were a lot of puns in there, honestly xD / Haha, yeah xD / He did, he was really blunt. xD / It's nice! Thank you.
ThinMintE: xD / It's a nice quote, yeah. Honestly, the original source material was... not as dark xD
Toni42: Indeed xD We really gotta finish that xD / It's been mentioned, probably, just not in a lot of detail due to how... shocking the whole experience was. But yes, dragon love xD / Ehhh. He's not being a jerk at least.
TheAmberShadow: Water you doing? Pun websites are useless, all they do is waver and give you bad jokes. / Quietly, yes xD / Hehe, that'd be interesting. / Pffft xD / I'm on vacation too, haha.
Guest: xD xD Glad you enjoy it.
Guest: (thumbs up)
Darkbeast Dend: Glad you enjoyed it!
Well, that's all for now. See ya, so long, and g'bye x3
x.X. A.L. X.x
