Chapter 151: Wake

Farrah hadn’t had a formal memorial, just a handful of dinners and informal gatherings story-telling and everyone getting blind drunk. With the unexpected appearance of her parents, Rufus had bounded into action, organising a formal memorial for the day before the adventurers left for Emir’s contest.

After the service, the traditional wake was held not in a bar but the guest wing lounge of the cloud palace. If nothing else, it had a better stock of alcohol than most taverns. Jason looked over the group, some of them from afar while others Farrah had come to know in her months in Greenstone. Some were friends, others less so, but there was no antagonism on display as people paid their respects. Jory was present, the kind-hearted man looking red-eyed as Belinda stood beside him for moral support. She and Sophie had never met Farrah and Sophie was not present with her friend.

Elspeth Arella and her deputy, Genevieve, stayed just late enough to be respectful and left early enough to be discrete. Madam Landry, their long-time landlady appeared. She was not an essence user and was somewhat overwhelmed by the cloud palace and the company until taken in hand by Farrah’s parents. Her fellow Magic Society members were in attendance, in two contingents.

One was the group around Clive who actually knew and worked with her; the other Lucian Lamprey and his deputy, Pochard Finn. Despite the superior schooling in social niceties between a foreign nobleman and the secret child of a crime lord, Lamprey lacked the social delicacy of Arella, overstaying his welcome long after she had left. Jason was grateful that Sophie was not in attendance, struggling to restrain his own distaste for the man. Determined not to make a fuss at Farrah's wake, he diplomatically avoided Lucian to avoid triggering any of his bad social habits.

Lamprey himself, however, had other ideas. He was drinking Emir’s expensive alcohol faster than anyone else in the room and, half in the bag, sought out Jason with an expression of half confused drunk and half determined anger.

“Asano,” he called out loudly as he approached. Rufus moved to intervene but was arrested by Danielle Geller’s hand on his arm.

“If Jason is ever going to live up to his potential,” she quietly told Rufus, “he needs to show that he can deal with situations with tact instead of bombast, bravado and provocation.”

“Now isn’t the time for lessons,” Rufus hissed at her.

“This is exactly the time,” she asserted. “We are adventurers, Rufus. Our most important lessons come from confronting monsters.”

Lamprey swaggered up to Jason, glancing around to make sure he had an audience. His deputy, Finn, tried to guide him away but Lamprey brushed him off. Jason turned from the conversation he was having to face Lamprey. Jason’s expression was schooled into blank composure.

“Director Lamprey,” Jason said. “Thank you for attending. Farrah’s membership in the Magic Society was very important to her; I know she would appreciate the strong representation the society has presented here. For you to come in person is very gratifying.”

“You think I don’t see through you, Asano?” Lamprey said in the way drunk people have of being loud while thinking themselves quiet. “You think you’re so smart, playing people off one another, bending the rules into whatever shape you like. But cleverness didn’t save your friend, did it? When she came face to face with power it cut her down in an instant. You didn’t even have the courage to be there when it did.”

Everyone in the room was watching now as Jason gave Lamprey a slight smile.

“It shows you as a man of character, putting aside personal animosities in the face of a greater threat,” Jason said, aggressively misrepresenting Lamprey’s intent. “I’m glad that such a man can come here today and put aside old problems, that we might face the new ones together.”

He took Lamprey’s hand, solemnly shaking it. “We appreciate your commiserations, Director. I believe your deputy was just saying that you have to go, which is understandable. A man of your position has so many calls on his time. We do thank you for coming, though.”

Pochard Finn rapidly stepped up as fury crossed Lamprey’s face, ready to erupt. Emir also moved alongside Finn, discretely using his aura at close proximity to squash Lamprey’s impending outburst.

“Thank you, Director Lamprey, Deputy Director Finn,” Emir said as he and Finn ushered lamprey to the door. On the other side, Emir’s staff helped Finn guide Lamprey out of sight as Emir returned, the door closing behind him.

“See?” Danielle said to Rufus. “I told you from the start; the boy has a political mind.”

Lamprey was the last of the socially obligated attendees to leave by far. In the wake of his departure, sombre, controlled expressions gave way to real emotion as the wake truly began. The drinks flowed, eyes grew damp and there was even some laughter as stories were shared.

One group of attendees was a team of iron-rankers, looking nervous at the preponderance of high-ranking people around them. It wasn’t just no-name silvers of a provincial city, either. Their host, Emir Bahadir, was drinking with Thalia Mercer and the time witch, Danielle Geller. Constance, the famously unyielding head of Emir’s extensive organisation, was disconcertingly expressive as she casually chatted with Gabriel and Arabella Remore. Even after years at Remore Academy, the iron-rankers were intimidated by Instructor Gabriel.

The iron rankers were a team from Vitesse, having trained at the Remore academy. Gabriel had discovered them when they were shipping out and had been the one to invite them to the memorial and wake. They had come up through the academy a few years behind Rufus, the Remore family’s own prodigy whose presence had loomed over the other students.

Just the auras flowing around the room were enough to disconcert, even to those with years of aura training. There were a few other iron-rankers who were seemingly calm under the pressure, except for the one man who disregarded it entirely. They watched him swan about like he owned the place, for all the world as if the potent aura soup wasn't there. He walked up to legends and spoke to them like they were normal people. Even more startling was that they didn’t seem to look down on the iron-ranker at all, welcoming him into their conversations.

“Nate, who is that?” Lance asked. Lance was an elf and the leader of the team. His long, light brown hair was cinched back behind his head.

“The outworlder we heard about,” the leonid, Natalie, told him. “Asano.”

Natalie was a female leonid and, like others of her kind, was smaller than males like Gary.

“He’s the one Rufus has been training?” Maximilian asked. He was a member of the rare draconian race, larger even than male leonids and covered in glossy scales. His were the colour of dark leaves, green moving into purple.

“That’s what I’ve been hearing,” Natalie told him.

“What kind of training?” Oscar asked. He was a handsome celestine with dark skin and matching silver in his eyes and hair. “The aura training at the academy didn’t teach us to handle auras that well.”

The last member of the group was a smoulder with the typical midnight skin and burning-ember eyes. Her hair was cropped extremely short. She had her gaze locked on Jason as the others talked.

“Farrah also trained him?” she asked.

Frowning at her friend's intensity, Natalie nodded. The smoulder strode out from the group in his direction.

“Padma!” Lance called out under his breath but she ignored him.

Jason spotted the smoulder girl marching across the room like a woman on a mission. She couldn’t have been any older than Humphrey, probably younger. She was the one he had been told about, coming at him with emotion storming through her aura. A Remore Academy graduate should have better control but the girl was clearly in turmoil. When she reached Jason it was like the wind dropped out of her sails, leaving her standing in front of him, becalmed.

“Padma?” he asked softly. She nodded and he gave her a gentle smile.

“I’m Jason Asano. How about we get you away from these obnoxious auras and have a chat?”

He didn't wait for a response before sweeping off, picking up two glasses and a bottle as she meekly followed him to a quiet corner of the room. Jason slowly teased Padma’s story out of her as she clutched the glass of sweet liqueur in her hands like a talisman. Jason kept it refreshed from the bottle as she talked. She was hesitant at first, but with sympathetic prompting from Jason, the words were soon pouring out of her.

Padma and her team had trained at Remore Academy, a few years behind Rufus. He graduated ahead of them but his presence at the academy hardly lessened, a symbol for the students that came after. When he first brought back his team, Rufus had sought Padma out, who didn't even realise Rufus knew who she was. Rufus' new team member, Farrah, had the same essences as Padma and Rufus had introduced them. Farrah took the young smoulder under her wing, becoming something of a mentor.

Jason listened with no more than a few nods and words of acknowledgement to show his attentiveness. He quickly realised that Farrah had been more than just a mentor to Padma. Farrah had been her idol, a source of inspiration and a guiding hand. Padma had been eagerly awaiting her return to Vitesse, proud of her successful induction into the Adventurer’s Society while Rufus and his team had been far away in Greenstone.

Padma had been looking forward to a reunion where she could share her pride, only for news to come of Farrah’s death. When Emir’s call went out for adventurers she didn’t hesitate. Each berth on the ships bringing people over was a prize, Emir’s people organising tournaments to bring the best. Despite her inexperience, her team supported her and won through. She wasn’t even certain in herself why she had to go, but she felt driven, compelled by some internal need she didn’t fully understand.

After she finished her story, Jason nodded. He shared a little of his own experience of learning from Farrah, leading to an exchange of what her mentorship had been like. Jason could plainly see that Padma had weeks of bottled-up frustration, aching to get out. He methodically used questions and little anecdotes to poke holes for it to vent out.

They sat in the corner talking for more than an hour before the speeches began. Rufus and Gary gave short speeches; anecdotes now smoothly-honed in the retelling. Jason got up to speak last. Stepping out in front of the group. His eyes lingered on Farrah’s parents, who he had come to know over the last few days. Farrah’s mother gave him a sad, encouraging nod.

“I’ve known Farrah since the day I came into this world,” he said, then frowned. “That's was roughly half a year ago; not when I was a baby or something. I think everyone here knows my whole thing.”

“Stop talking about yourself, you dinkle,” Gary called out getting a round of laughs.

“I’m setting a scene, you hairy goon,” Jason shot back. “I’m building up a narrative.”

“Build faster,” Gary said. “I don’t want to sober up while you’re prattling on.”

“Maybe if I don’t keep getting interrupted. Where was I?”

“You’re very sad, the end,” Gary said. “Let’s drink more.”

“That’s enough out of you,” Jason said, jabbing a finger in his direction. “Right, so, I met Farrah on the worst day of my life. I had no idea of where I was, what was happening or even if I was in my right mind. My first encounter with real power was when she blasted lava across the room like that was a normal thing that can happen. And that was Farrah; unassumingly awesome.”

He looked down, smiling in reminiscence.

“After that, she introduced me to the world. Rufus taught me to fight like an adventurer and Gary taught me to move like one. Farrah, though, she taught me to be an adventurer. How to look at the world around me, literally and figuratively. I have a habit of running my mouth before my brain gets going and long before I have any idea what I’m talking about. Farrah was the one who brought me crashing down to earth before I let what I didn’t know get me killed.”

He looked up and around at the gathering.

“We all know that she died like an adventurer,” he said. “There are people in this room who wouldn’t be if she hadn’t stood tall in the face of the most terrible enemy. The monstrosity that cut her down, his time will come, but this isn’t about him. It isn’t even about adventuring, really. At least, not for me.”

Jason paused to sip at the drink in his hand.

“Yes, she taught me,” he continued. “Yes, I fought with her. By which I mean that I stood around while she blew up an apocalypse monster. It seemed very involving, in the moment. But most of my time with Farrah wasn’t as a fledgling adventurer. It was as a friend. The big moments are the tales we’ll retell but it’s the little ones I look back on and smile. Sitting around as Farrah and Clive talked some theoretical nonsense over everyone’s head. Farrah and Gary teaming up on Rufus because he’s gotten too stodgy. Sharing a meal, or an afternoon in the park. The adventures will be the stories we tell, but the friendship is the thing we’ll miss. To Farrah. Our friend.”

He raised his glass and everyone did the same.

“That is where I was going to leave it,” Jason said. “When Rufus told me to speak last tonight, I was reluctant. But he said that it should be me. That the last word should be one of legacy which, like it or not, I’m a big part of. It was convincing enough to get me up here, but this evening I met a young woman with at least as much claim to that as I. She hasn’t prepared any words, but I’ve seen for myself that she has them inside here, ready to go.”

Padma was listening to Jason with dawning horror. Smoulders were physically incapable of turning white, but she had at least gone a shade of very dark brown.

“Padma,” Jason said. “Please come over. The last word is yours.”

Everyone followed Jason’s gaze to the girl trying hard to look like a nondescript piece of furniture.

“You have things to say and I’ve already heard you say them well,” Jason told her. “They’re worth sharing.”

She stayed rooted on the spot until Gabriel's voice pierced through the room with practised authority.

“Cadet Padma Parsell,” he said with the projection of a theatre veteran. “Front and centre.”

Padma’s body moved, Instructor Gabriel’s voice triggering a conditioned obedience. She found herself standing next to Jason, in front of the assembled high-rankers. Jason gave her a smile and an encouraging pat on the shoulder before moving off.

She started speaking. It was hesitant, with a staccato rhythm as her nervousness had her pausing and losing track of what she was saying. As she continued it became smoother, nervousness washed away by passion. It wasn't a great speech but no one in the room doubted her love and sincerity. Jason stepped in just before she started to flounder.

“There we are,” he said. “Passion has an eloquence that transcends words and I think we can agree that none of us will top the passion of this young lady. So let the words be done and we can do what Farrah would do: get hammered on Emir’s expensive booze.”

After the speeches, the real drinking started in earnest. Farrah’s parents, Amelia and William, took Jason aside to thank him for his words.

“Farrah said you could be good with words,” William said. “A little too good, she told us. Likely to get yourself into trouble.”

“She talked about me?”

Farrah’s parents lived in the town Farrah grew up in, albeit in a much larger house, courtesy of Farrah’s adventurer earnings. There were no water-link speaking chambers there, but they had travelled to Vitesse every month to speak to their daughter.

“She certainly did talk about you,” Amelia said. “We weren’t sure quite what to expect from her description, though.”

“You should know that she thought you had an incredible potential,” William said.

“If you could learn to get out of your own way,” Amelia added. “I think she’d want that pointed out.”

“It does sound like her,” Jason said. “I’m so sorry she’s gone.”

“We always knew there was a chance this would happen,” Amelia said. “That was something we accepted when we first started working to get those essences for her.”

“Doesn’t make it hurt less,” William said. “But we were at least a little prepared for it.”

Jason nodded.

“What about your family?” Amelia asked. “Farrah explained your situation to us, which seems a little unusual, even by adventurer standards.”

“I’m not sure,” Jason said. “I don’t know if they think I’m dead or missing. I make recordings for them, for if I ever get home. When I get home.”

Jason suddenly frowned.

“I’m sorry, but something just occurred to me. I’ll leave you to the condolence of others. Again, I’m so sorry.”

Jason made his way over to where Rufus and Gary were speaking with Clive, leaving Farrah’s parents seeking out Padma to speak with her.

“I just had a thought,” Jason said to Rufus, Gary and Clive. “Farrah’s parents were asking about my own parents and I thought of something. I got here because of Landemere Vane, and you think he was getting some kind of advanced astral magic from the Builder, right Clive?”

“It’s a possibility,” Clive said. “What he was doing wouldn’t get you home, though. It only served as an accidental catalyst for much larger, natural forces, though.”

“But what was he trying to summon?” Jason asked. “Something from the Builder’s world in the astral? That’s interdimensional travel. Landemere’s knowledge might not have the answers, but it could have clues.”

“All his notes and writings were taken by the church of Purity,” Rufus said. “They would be impossible to get a hold of, even if they weren’t destroyed.”

“You’ll also need to up your knowledge of astral magic theory if you ever want to understand them,” Clive said. “Skill books won’t be close to enough.”

“But they’ll be a start,” Jason said. “They bestow whatever knowledge was put into them, and I got those books from Landemere Vane himself. Even if they don’t have something that might help me get home, they might have something that helps us against the Builder.”

“You can’t use them until you hit bronze-rank though,” Gary said. “That’ll be months.”

“Oh, there are ways around that,” Clive said. “They’re a little rough, but we can look into it after Emir’s event.”

“Alright, then,” Jason said. “It’s a plan.”