Chapter 144: Made Of Gold

Chapter 144: Made Of Gold

It’s hell in there. Don’t go in.

The things inside don’t die; you get lost in the yellow fog. Can’t find your way out.

Take off their head, they regrow it—bury them and they crawl out.

Lost everyone in our group, ain’t fucking worth it. There is no city hidden away, ain’t no treasure. All that’s in there is death.

-Everbright, Warning Of Yellow Canyon, (234, 3rd Era)

Getting back in Yniol’s car was almost like returning home. He knew how much it meant to the man, and despite the threat, it was like the wound healed. Yniol went right back to treating him how he had before. With a bit of an odd lean. He’d offer fatherly advice—which was a dynamic Erec didn’t know how to deal with.

Enide mocked him and asked when they were going to get hitched in front of everyone. Yniol would freeze up whenever she mentioned it, and she’d start laughing.

She wasn’t the only one. The other Pendragons crammed in the car picked up on the tension point and turned it into pushing buttons and teasing her father where they could.

Though, through the conversations, they ended up explaining what a hitch-trip was. A family tradition. Before they’d accept two bonding together, the would-be couple would pick out a place on the map to exchange their vows. The longer the distance they had to go, the more fortune was said to fall into their marriage. After picking a spot, they’d each get a car, and select the men and women they trusted most. Then the road trip would begin. Along the way, they were to find something ‘priceless’ to give to the other person.

Though odd, it was a welcome tradition to the marriages Erec was used to seeing. Arranged marriages, the multi-day feasts, balls, and ceremonies given by the Church were a chore to drag himself through.

He filed it away, as yet another insight about the people outside of the walls.

The Church claimed the Goddess was the only one with the right to sanctify a marriage, but now he saw it as yet another lever of control they had over people. With the deluge of revelations he’d had about them and their control, the more he came to understand that he couldn’t live under their rule. He could only hope that whatever the Royal Family was engaging in would limit their power.This chapter made its debut appearance via N0v3lB1n.

When they stopped for the night, Erec bid Enide and Yniol farewell. There’d be time to spend with them later; turning down a drink with Yniol. His top priority was to check in with his friends. After such a long drive, he imagined they’d be feeling better.

“Garin?” Erec asked, walking up to the right of a Pendragon's car. “Better?”

“...Like I’m made of gold,” his friend shook his head. “Clean air fixed me up, but let’s find somewhere I can get out of this Armor... Munchy is losing it, and it reeks.”

With a few quick words to Boldwick, Erec got approved for a ‘scouting mission.’ A justifiable excuse to clear themselves from everyone else and get some distance. He tried to get Colin involved as well, but the poor bastard was already under the heel of his father. Being dragged away for some impromptu training session.

It made him nervous since he didn’t know how well Colin could keep his changes a secret. If the Duke figured out what happened, there’d be a massive fight between him and Dame Morgana, one likely to drag everyone else into it. But that wasn’t a place Erec wanted to, nor could insert himself between.

“Well?” Erec asked as Garin clambered out of his suit.

“Vortex Industries?”

“That military facility had something to do with it. I saw something that said their name—and I think that android was related as well.”

“I don’t see it,” Garin shook his head. “How are the two related? Why do you even care?”

“Think about it. If that military vault was old-world, and it could open a Rift... Doesn’t that mean that the Church had it wrong? What if we found something there that proved that these Rifts were something else than caused by the Goddess? Listen, I have a gut instinct, alright? This is important. I’m sure of it.”

“You’re willing to abandon the Kingdom over a gut instinct? Goddess above, Erec. I’d almost feel better if you said that you’d fallen hopelessly in love with Enide.”

“Listen, I know it sounds sketchy, and is a bit of a stretch. But I promise you, it feels like there’s something very important in this vault. That doesn’t mean I’ve settled on what I’m going to do. I haven’t decided to abandon the Kingdom. Can you help? I don’t want to make a choice on splitting away from all of this—I want to find the road that takes us all there. To help Enide, to see what’s hidden beneath, and leave us all better off than before, together. I don’t know how to make that work, or how to get Boldwick on board.”

“The issue is that Boldwick’s about to get what he wants from this expedition in Vega.” Garin rubbed his chin.

“I know that.”

“So, it’s simple...” Garin expanded his hands, “We find a way to convince him that helping with that will get him something he wants more.”

“What does he want more?” Erec asked.

Garin shrugged. “We have time to figure that out. The two of us can do it, I’m sure of it.”

With that, Garin extended his hand. Erec took it, only for his friend to pull him in for a close hug.

“But don’t ever leave me alone, alright? Even if there are miles between us, we’re friends until the grave.”

“I’d die for you,” Erec said, and he meant it. No one else in this world so completely understood him. His best friend was someone he’d go to war for. And given what Garin just did—made himself an enemy of the church—he knew his friend felt the same.

A lightness filled his core as they pulled away. Garin went to work cleaning out his Armor, then climbed into it. From there, they finished scouted then headed back toward the camp. The entire way, Erec’s head spun with ideas on how to convince Boldwick. On how he might make his different wants come true. And then, even in Vega, what he might uncover about his Mom.

An intrusive thought rang through him.

These plans to make everything work. It was naïve. Maybe it might work, maybe it wouldn’t. But if he caught a hint of where his Mom went in that city...

Would he throw it all away to chase her?