Chapter Forty-two

Chapter Forty-two

Kay followed as Eleniah stormed back inside, still angry about the theory he’d pieced together. He totally understood; if he had someone he loved who claimed to trust him, treating him like that all the time, he’d be angry too.

He peeked into her room, where she was leaning over her desk.

“Come here.” She beckoned at him.

He stepped inside and looked over her shoulder.

“We’re leaving tomorrow if you don’t have any good reason not to?” She glanced at him.

Kay shook his head.

“Right, so we’re leaving tomorrow.” She pointed at the map of the three continents on her desk. “We’re here. Nelam is direct to the east, so we don’t want to go that way. I don’t recommend going south because we’d still be on the Nelamian border for quite a distance and further south is the Iron Wastes. Even if we made it through the Wastes, we’d only end up in Weathered Clans territory, and they don’t like outsiders. West is mostly uncontrolled land or city-states similar to Tumbling Rapids until you hit Oriah’s Pass. If we went through there, we’d end up in Skainiel, which isn’t a bad place.”

“And north is all unexplored wilderness, right?”

“Yes, it is.” She agreed, “And my recommendation is that we go that way.”

Kay stepped back so he could look at her better. “You want us to go into the wilds?”

She turned around, so she was facing him, and leaned on the desk. “Yes.”

“Alright. Why?”

“A few reasons.” She held up a finger, “The first one is that if Nelamian agents come after us, it’ll be much easier to lose them if we go north. There won’t be as many people to see us and talk about our movements, and any difficulty we have traveling through the wilds will be the same difficulty for anyone following us.” She held up a second finger, “Second, it’ll be good for you. Life isn’t all living in a city, roaming out for one job or fight, then returning. There’s a good chance of you needing to be away from civilization for a long period, so we might as well practice it now.” She held up a third finger with a big grin. “And third, adventure! I don’t mean going on jobs for the Adventurer’s Guild,” She continued hurriedly, “I mean real adventure! Exploring the unknown, getting into danger, finding treasures and mysteries! We could even find a Dungeon! Although that’s unlikely.”

Kay looked at her, then turned towards the map. “You really think this is a good idea?”

“I really do. Let’s wander into the unknown and see if we can find something interesting!”

Kay smiled at her excitement. “Alright, you’re the more experienced of the two of us. Let’s do it.”

“Nice!” Eleniah swung an arm over Kay’s shoulder and stared down at the map with him.

“The Seramist Isles are over here, right?”

“Right, almost all of the islands around Egynal are part of the Isles.”

Kay traced his finger across the map, covering almost all of Diushul as he did. “And Nelam is all the way over here. Probably years of travel for an average person to get from one to the other.”

“It would be faster with good transportation or higher tier people, but yes, it’s a really long trek.”

“Why does your cousin give a shit about Nelam at all?” Kay asked in a bewildered tone. “I doubt the two countries interact once a year!”

Eleniah sighed. “Shipping.” She pointed at the third continent, to the north. “Kementa has a lot of products that we can’t get or produce on Diushul and Egynal, so they’re expensive commodities. There’s been a lot of competition between the Isles and Nelam over contracts and access to different ports.” She shook her head. “Even though the destinations are an immense distance apart, they are both seeing the other as a competitor.”

“So your cousin got you involved in political wrangling in a city thousands of miles away from home because of shipping disagreements that have nothing to do with this city. Or you, really.”

“That’s right.”

Kay shrugged. “We’re out of house arrest; they didn’t find us guilty of anything.”

“What about the Nelamians?” Alice leaned in close, “Did they get in trouble?”

“The Graceful Success people got banished, and their stuff was taken, but the Illuminators managed to get themselves out of any punishments.”

They shared annoyed looks.

“So the people that gave us that False Identify bracelet got away with it?” Korz asked with a dangerous tone.

“I don’t think so? I talked a little bit with the Illuminators’ Director while I was held captive, and I think that was against his orders or something like that? So the person who actually did that probably got banished with the rest of them, or maybe punished by the Director?” Kay shrugged. “Or he could have just been playing me there like he did with some other stuff, I don’t know. Sorry.”

Eleniah silently brought out the same bracelet from her traveling bag and slid it to the center of the table.

The party stared at it until Verndan spoke up. “I think...” He reached out and picked it up. “I think we’ll stop by the Illuminators and be very loud about how this almost got us killed because we thought it did something different. Let’s see how they react to that.” He twisted it back and forth in his hand as he stared at it.

“That’s a good idea.” Eleniah added, “If they haven’t punished the person who fucked you over, then you can find out and figure out how to deal with it. If they have punished them, you’ll know that and decide how to react in that situation.” She paused, a hint of hesitance in her body language. “I don’t mean to criticize you, but I’ve been wondering. Why did you never test it out?” She nodded at the bracelet, “Why wait until you absolutely needed it before making sure it did what it was supposed to?”

“Because we were told it had a limited number of uses left,” Verndan replied easily. “We didn’t want to waste a use testing it when the Illuminator person told us there were only about ten uses left in it.”

Kay and Eleniah grimaced.

“That’s definitely premeditation then if they made up a reason not to test it.” Eleniah pointed at the bracelet in Verndan’s hands. “The real enchantment recharges itself over a few hours if it’s out in the sun.”

“Huh.” He looked at it again, then put it away in the pouch as he glanced at his team. “If we decide to keep it, that’s good to know.”

“So, what are you guys going to do?” Korz asked. “You’re obviously meeting with us for something.”

“We’re leaving Tumbling Rapids,” Eleniah told them.

“So you’re saying goodbye?”

Kay nodded. “Goodbye for now. If we all keep tiering up, we’ll have time to meet each other again.”

They all smiled back at him.

“Good point.” Korz reached out and shook Kay’s hand. “Good luck trying to catch up with us.”

“Oh, is that what’s going on?”

“Damn straight it is, we all beat you to tier three, and we’re going to beat you to tier four.”

Kay laughed, and they settled in to tease each other and have a happy goodbye.

╩╦╩╦╩╦╩╦╩╦╩╦╩╦╩╦╩╦╩╦╩╦╩╦

Eleniah kept quiet for the most part and just watched Kay have the time with the friends he’d made. She felt a little bad about separating him from them, but that was the way things happened sometimes. And, she reminded herself, it wasn’t like she’d forced him into it. He’d chosen to come with her. She kept the smile that threatened to take over her face from that thought down. She did feel a little bad, but mostly she was thrilled. Some dumb event happened like they tended to do, and instead of getting split up from the friends, companions, or comrades she’d made, he was coming with her! She wasn’t heading off on the next step of her journey through life alone again!

She stared at Kay as he talked with Alice’s party. The smile worked its way onto her face even as she fought against it. She couldn’t help it. She wasn’t going to be lonely anymore.