NOVEL SIMPLE Chapter 70: Can We Talk?
It didn’t take them long to find the interface, which was just a block away in front of the white building where Dr. Benza and the others had worked the magic to launch the islands. The walk also gave the side effects from using Eloquent and Enraged time to fade, and Hiral a chance to retrieve the Emperor’s Greatsword. Seena’s explosion had sent it on quite the trip, but a simple pull of Attraction brought it back to him while they looked for the interface.
“Anybody want to do the honors?” Seena asked.
“You should do it,” Hiral said. “You were the one who technically killed the squid. Uh, that was pretty impressive, by the way.”
“Only because you two kept it busy, and Left and Right supplied extra solar energy,” Seena said. “It was a good plan. How’s your shoulder, anyway?”
Hiral looked down at where his Coat of Ur’Thul had already mended itself, then lifted his right hand. “It’ll be good as new in a few more minutes, once Regeneration+is back to full strength.”
“Good. How about you, Sis?”
“I’ve been chugging so many potions on cooldown I’m beginning to worry if they’re addictive,” Seeyela said, an empty potion bottle in one hand and her eight-eyed helm in the other.
“Party Interface says you’re close to topped off,” Hiral said, raising an eyebrow as another full bottle appeared in her hand.
“Uh, yeah… Guess I don’t need this, then. They are kind of tasty. Maybe just one more?”
“Fine,” Seeyela said. “And stop procrastinating.”
“This,” Seena said, pointing at the interface, “was always Yan’s favorite part. The loot and achievements. Just feels wrong to do it without him.”
“He was always so excited—like a little kid getting presents,” Hiral said. “Think I understand why a bit better now, though.”
“Because he was an experience junkie?” Seeyela asked.
Hiral chuckled but shook his head. “Because he didn’t want a repeat of what happened with Balyo. He wanted to be strong enough to protect the people he cared about.”
All three of them looked up at the bright sky towards the last place where they’d seen their friend. And at the red scar marring the boundary of the dungeon.
“He sure saved us,” Seeyela said quietly.
“And looked pretty badass doing it,” Hiral said.
“If he heard you saying that, it’d go straight to his head.”
“And I’d be okay with that, if he was still here,” Hiral replied quietly.
“Me too.”
“Who’s procrastinating now?” Seena asked from in front of the interface. “We have two whole islands’ worth of people who still need protecting.” With that, she swiped her hand over the interface crystal.
Despite the clear sky high above, the whole dungeon went pitch black, the sun vanishing in the blink of an eye. The buildings all around the party completely disappeared, and it almost felt like they were floating in a vast, empty space, with only the deep scar left by Yanily’s attack against the Enemy standing out.
One by one, though, stars appeared in the sky, faster and faster with each passing second, until thousands of them lit up the dungeon. And they were joined by something else—four something elses, to be exact. Hiral had only seen mention of them in a few of the many books he’d read, but they could only be one thing: moons of four different colors.
“Are those the same colors as the races?” Seena asked the same question that had popped into Hiral’s head.
“Green for Growers, blue for Makers, yellow for Builders, and that red must be for the Bonders,” Hiral said. “I’d read about the moons, though only in passing, and it didn’t talk about their colors. I wonder if that’s real, or just flavor for the dungeon?”
“Another mystery about our world to add to your list,” Seena said, though all five of them couldn’t seem to take their eyes off the moons.
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“They are actually those colors,” Li’l Ur said, “though you rarely see all four in the sky together like that. It only happens once every few decades. Every forty-two years, to be exact—or rotations, as you like to call them.”
“Wow,” was all Hiral could say, but after another minute staring at the large, cratered celestial bodies, he finally tore his eyes away. They were on a timer.
Predictably, there were four chests laid out around the dungeon interface, each with a beam of moonlight encompassing them. Hiral’s was easy to pick up—the yellow light was a dead giveaway—and a second of looking clearly showed which was Seena’s and which was Seeyela’s. One slanted column of green light had wisps of fire dancing within, while the other had deeper veins of green that made the hair on the back of Hiral’s neck stand on end. The fourth and final chest sat within a pool of gentle white light, and that would be the group chest.
“Could be a fishing rod,” Right said, pointing at Hiral’s long, narrow treasure chest.
Hiral chuckled at the reference to Vix and Yanily’s banter back in their very first dungeon, but it still brought the spike of pain and loss back. He was going to miss those guys.
“Before you open that, Hiral, can I talk to you?” Seena asked.
He gave one last look at the chest, part of him kind of hoping it was a fishing rod, then turned and nodded at Seena. “Sure, what’s up?”
“Alone,” she clarified, nodding off to the side.
While the beams of moonlight fell like lances from the sky to illuminate the chests, the rest of the lighting in the area was far more subdued. Darkness still covered most everything, and there was almost an edge about fifty feet out from the pedestal.
Hiral looked at Seeyela to see if she had any idea what it was about, but the woman just shrugged and sat down beside her chest. A potion bottle appeared in her hands, and she stared at it for a second before shaking her had and making it vanish again.
“Sure, everything okay?” he asked.
“Yeah,” she said without elaborating. After a few steps in the direction she’d indicated, she stopped again and looked at the little lich on her shoulder. “Sorry, Ur, could you keep Seeyela company for a bit?”
“I’m sure my would-be apprentice’s doubles will be more than…” Li’l Ur sighed as she raised an eyebrow at him. “Yes, mistress.” With that, the lich floated off her shoulder down to the ground, then bobbed over to perch on Seeyela’s knee.
Hiral reached the “edge” of the area a few steps before Seena did, then stared out into the darkness. The stars were only up in the sky, and straight ahead of him was a great big field of… nothing. If he took another step forward, would his foot find the road that’d been there a minute earlier, or would he fall down forever?
“Stars up on the island were prettier,” Seena said, joining him.
“It helped we had wine,” Hiral pointed out.
“And cheese. Sander got the best stuff.”
“I hope he’s okay. Korkin too. I saw them in the fighting near the portal.”
“I’m sure they made it.”
“Yeah. So, what did you want to talk about?” Hiral turned from the stretching darkness to look at the woman beside him. She was still looking straight ahead, but then she nodded to herself as if settling on something and took a step to face him straight on.
“Two things: First, that was reckless,” she said with a sudden heat in her voice, poking his right shoulder where the Enemy had almost taken his arm off. “A few more inches to the side and it would’ve split your head right open.”
Hiral winced at the slight pain from his still-healing shoulder getting jabbed. “It had to be done. We weren’t going to win without taking some risks.”
“Hiral,” she said more quietly before reaching up to take his head in her hands. A slight pull brought his forehead down to rest against hers. “Other than each other, we’ve lost everybody who came down to the surface with us to find my sister. Yeah, Nivian and Wule are still… around, but they’re not with us. And there’s no guarantee we’ll find them again. Sometimes I wonder if it was worth it…”
“It was,” Hiral interrupted, putting his hands gently against the back of her head to keep her close. They’d had this conversation more than once over the last year, according to his memories. “We wouldn’t know Fallen Reach was in danger again if we didn’t come down. And now we know how to save it.”
“I know. I’m just tired of losing people.”
“You won’t lose me. All that’s left is going up to Fallen Reach and replacing a few crystals.”
“We still have to deal with Fitch,” she reminded him.
“Yeah, and we’ll have a whole island of Shapers to help out with that.”
“You know it’s not going to be that easy.”
“Never is.”
“So, please be careful.”
“I will.”
“Good. Because I figured out why the PIMP brought us together in our memories.”
“Oh?”
“It wanted to remind us there was more to all this than fighting and losing people. There’s a ‘later,’ and we can’t lose sight of it. When this is done—after we save our homes—I want to find out where this ‘later’ takes us.”
“Me too.”
“So don’t die. Or try to run off somewhere. Remember, I have Vili, so I will come up to Fallen Reach looking for you if I have to.” She pulled his head tighter against hers.
“Not going anywhere,” Hiral said.
“Good.” Seena gave his head one more gentle squeeze, then let go and took a step back. “I’m looking forward to ‘later.’”
“Me too.”
“And I’m looking forward to opening this chest,” Seeyela said, her voice coming through the party chat quite clearly. “You all done yet?”
Hiral and Seena’s eyes widened at the same time.
“Uh, did you… hear… everything we just said?” Seena asked, her face turning red.
“Yeah. You left the party chat on. It was very cute. Oh, and Hiral, if you hurt my sister when this ‘later’ comes, you’d better remember I can get up to Fallen Reach too.”
“Understood,” Hiral said, while Seena just chuckled and shook her head.