Rising Shards

We used the gate rosins Diast gave us, which warped us back to the temple. Diast begrudgingly pointed Razmus towards the temple doors of Laenie, Aira, and Lillia, who were waiting nearby wearing expressions of various stages of anxiousness. After staring at them and humming and “ah hah!”ing a a lot, Marne shot energy at the doors.

“That oughta do it,” Razmus said. “Told you I’d hold up my end of the deal.”

“Yeah whatever,” Diast said. “...thanks, I guess, ugh.”

“No, thank you, Roux made most excellent progress today.” Razmus said.

Razmus cast another spell, making a big portal appear that he and Roux left through.

“Now that’s a blorpy portal,” Oka said.

“What does a ‘blorpy portal’ mean?” I asked.

“You know,” Oka said, waving her hands around. “All like…blorpy and stuff.”

“So is he gonna like bug us now?” I asked.

“I dunno, Roux probably will.” Kalei said. “That isn’t far from how she normally is.”

“That was some serious archnemesis business,” Oka said. “But like…in a pretend learning way?”

We watched as Diast double checked the doors. I wasn’t sure what exactly she’d need to check to make sure magic void memory doors worked, but she seemed satisfied enough.

“OK, so Aira, Laenie, and Lillia, as I explained, you’ll be taking on solo jump fifteens today,” Diast said. “If anything gets weird call to me, alright? I’m gonna hang out in the temple here just in case he screwed something up. Any questions?”

Aira and Laenie each raised a hand.

“Yes?”

“We need to ask Zetokalei something!” Aira said.

“…Zetokalei?” I said.

“It saves us time when we’re discussing the three of you,” Laenie said. ”I suggested Z.O.K., but according to Aira that’s taken.”

“Also what we have to ask is kinda private,” Aira said. “But it’s not like bad or anything.”

“Sure, just make it quick,” Diast said.

“I will begin my jump fifteen then while they are conversing,” Lillia said, approaching her door. She took a deep breath before entering. I was hoping I’d see her like teleport away because I was curious what it looked like for someone not in a memory trial to see the jump fifteener open a door, but it shut behind her before I could see any cool weird teleportation.

Aira and Laenie looked pensive as they approached us.

“So. Hey, we need a favor from you guys,” Aira said.

“Everybody with their favors today,” Oka said.

Laenie handed Oka a piece of paper.

“Can you go to this spot and make sure nothing there gets messed with while we’re in our memory trials?” Laenie asked. “It’s important.”

It was a map of Rising Shards and the surrounding area, with a spot circled on it.

“What’s there?” I asked.

“It’s…you’ll see when you get there.” Aira said. “Alright, thanks! That’s a huge relief!”

“We didn’t agree to—“ I started.

“Oh, come on Zates,” Kalei said. “I’m sure it’s nothing we can’t handle.”

Aira and Laenie waved as they left for their own jump fifteen doors.

“That’s weird,” I said. “Isn’t that weird? I thought they’d ask us to do homework or watch Aira’s cat or something.”

“Maybe we have to go to this spot on the map to do their homework and watch Aira’s cat.” Oka said.

“You think they would have just…told us that.” I said.

Once Diast was satisfied with the doors and got a little tech kit set up to monitor Aira, Laenie, and Lillia’s jump fifteens, she checked in on us.

“You guys can go, take the rest of the day off, alright?” Diast said. “Thanks again for helping me with all that stupid wizard energy crap.”

“I can still kinda feel it,” I said, rubbing my wrists again.

With nothing better to do, Oka, Kalei, and I followed the map Aira and Laenie gave to us to see what they wanted us to watch. We left the general school grounds and headed towards the beach.

“I got it,” Kalei said. “Big sandcastle, wouldn’t you want that to stay safe? Lots of threats, people running it over on accident, people purposefully messing with it, the destructive will of the water, you know.”

“That’s the best guess so far,” Oka said. “My guesses of secret gold or a money stash are second and third.”

“Are any of my guesses on the list?” I asked.

“All yours involve secret portals that for some reason teleport us to Raina Starlight,” Kalei said. “Pass.”

“You wouldn’t pass if it was a secret portal that took us to Raina Starlight while she was filming Tower of Hate and Love.”

“Fine, you get fourth,” Kalei said.

“Yay!” I said.

Aira and Laenie had drawn pretty specific directions to a spot under a rocky formation a bit of the ways down the beach. I didn’t see anything that looked particularly worth guarding, not even a sandcastle. There were some cave openings that reminded me a bit of the spot that Roux had us stuck in, but less void-y. They gave off a relaxing energy somehow.

“Oh man, is this the make out cove?” Kalei asked.

“The what?” Oka asked.

“Make out cove,” Kalei said. “Legend says there are miles of caves past this spot, and water flows all through the cave, in like the natural version of lazy rivers and hot springs too. And people go there to make out.”

“Wow,” I said.

“Yeah dude,” Nikki said.

Kalei yelped as Nikki stepped into view. She must have been standing in the cave opening waiting for anyone to stop by.

“Aira and Laenie ask you guys to watch this spot?” Nikki asked.

“Y-yeah,” Kalei said, looking toward the ground. I found that downward glance most interesting.

“I was gonna ask them why they were at make out cove when they found it, but I forgot.” Nikki said. “Amara was watching too, if you see her tell her she can go, I guess. Alright, later.”

Nikki put her headphones on and walked away.

“Later!” Kalei said a bit too late.

“She kinda scares me,” Oka said. “She’s so carefree. What stresses her out? It boggles my mind. I have to sit by her in math and she’s always blasting music on her headphones, so I’m simultaneously concerned for her hearing and annoyed by her music taste.”

“She’s probably fine, I’m sure she knows what she’s doing,” Kalei said. She looked in the direction Nikki walked away long after she was out of sight, which I also found most interesting.

“Alright, so what even are we guarding?” Oka asked. “I don’t see anything.”

“That’s a concerning statement for someone on security detail!” Someone called out from above us.

Amara, the Kanibari fox from my club, stood on the rock grouping above us with her arms crossed.

“How did you hear us all the way up there?” Oka yelled.

“Because I’m actually right behind you.” Amara said, somehow suddenly being inches behind us. I screamed a lot and fell over; my usual reaction to sudden appearances and surprises. Once I caught my breath, Amara pointed up at the “Amara” in the rock grouping.

“Just a dummy,” Amara said, seconds before the pile of sticks, potato sacks, and a pretty accurate wig fell over. “With a little speaker up there that I can call in on on my phone to make people think I’m up there so I can sneak attack them.”

“You’re really dedicated,” Oka said.

“Aira and Laenie asked us to watch whatever’s here,” I said. “So if you have stuff to do, you can go.” I kind of hoped she’d leave because she had scared me, and she radiated intensity.

“Nah,” Amara said. “Since we started here, I’ve been scoping this beach out, mapping any potential infiltration points to the school. I have to protect my fellow students, namely Rain. So when Laenie and Aira asked for my assistance, of course I jumped on the chance! And I won’t abandon the task.”

“So do you know what’s out here?” Oka asked.

“All I know is that it’s at our feet.” Amara said. “And that Aira called it ‘a discovery.’”

“Now I’m really tempted to dig in here and see what it is,” I said.