Chapter XXIII (23)

  After her revelation about the ash, Mitsuko felt a bit ill about treading outside. Each person in Tempus’ streets had been reduced to millions of specs. Just breathing in the air was taking in lungfuls of the slightest remains of people. She had to remind herself that if she was correct, whatever spell disintegrated everyone in the streets, also did the same thing to all organic material. That meant food and clothes and millions of other things. Humans were probably only a tiny fraction of the dust. It didn’t make her feel much better, but it should, so she kept telling herself that.

  Villagers came up and questioned them about Theo and his mother. Thankfully, Holly, the more personable of the two of them, took care of answering and explaining how all the events unfolded for them. They eventually found Theo by following her instructions. He’d been sitting cross legged in front of the temple, his head bobbing. But the only sign of Hideo were streaks of blood across the ground that led into the pyramid. And nobody dared enter the pyramid to search for him.

  Mitsuko watched the soot-covered boy. He could walk and even talk. But it was as if he was still caught up in a dream and was sleep walking through life. The same healer that had worked on Mitsuko’s legs had also examined him, but couldn’t find any more than superficial wounds. Nothing to explain his odd behavior. But Theo didn’t try wandering back to the temple, so the villagers all just kept an eye on him, hoping the strange symptoms would fade.

  But Mitsuko saw no sign of Theo recovering back to a normal boy. Not before a ship arrived from Mauve Island to take the stranded passengers back to civilization.

  They’d spent several days in town. And, unlike in Mitsuko’s original loop, the shipwreck survivors had made their way into the town. The rescue still came a couple days later than when Mitsuko had arrived on The Terror in the first loop, but a ship did at least eventually come to gather them.

  “We’ll scour any libraries in the city for information about a cure,” Holly promised the healer as the rest of them boarded the ship. “If I find anything at all, I’ll send it to you immediately.”

  Mitsuko leaned against the ship’s gunwales and watched the exchange. The healer was flirting with an oblivious Holly, clearly looking for any excuse to keep the conversation going. He barely said a half a dozen words total to Mitsuko over the last few days, but the man couldn’t get enough of her friend’s charm. Mitsuko always found it interesting how tall guys seemed to seek out the shortest girls possible. Maybe it was an innate drive in them to balance out their height for future generations.

  “Whew,” Holly said, finally ascending the plank onto the ship. “He was a talker.”

  “I noticed.”

  Holly blinked and an evil smile spread across her face. “Ahh, you’re jealous.”

  The gnome elbowed her hip and Mitsuko rolled her eyes.

  “Hardly. In fact, it’s refreshing to see you getting attention.”

  “What does that mean?” Holly said defensively. “I’m a slayer of men. I get attention all the time. You know, I was supposed to meet up with another gnome while in Mauve. I wonder if that’s now fallen through. Anyway, I’ve been on like ten times more dates than you in the last year.”

  “I meant, I prefer you getting attention over me,” Mitsuko explained. “I only went on one date in the last year. And that was a disaster.”

  “True. I remember that one. He tried to burglarize you in the middle of the night and run off with your sword ring,” Holly recalled. “Though you only tend to try dating if you’re drunk. And even then, you always look for the sleaziest guy in the bar. You have the absolute worst taste.” Holly grinned mischievously. “And don’t think I forgot about that time in Tross. I swear, you see a pair of horns and think, ‘dangerous pointy thing that can gore me while in the throws of passion? Count me in!’ Both of your cheeks were pierced through when you stumbled back downstairs. I had to waste a high grade healing potion. Still surprised you didn’t choke on your blood.”

  “He was unique,” Mitsuko muttered. “I’d never seen an ox Kemon before. It was almost like meeting a sane minotaur.”

  “‘Sane’ is a stretch.”

  Eventually, Mitsuko managed to escape the conversation.

  The sailors on this ship were an altogether different group than on The Terror. For one thing, everyone acted incredibly jolly. They sang songs while they worked and always greeted her with smiles. And none of them looked like they lacked for food. In their first meal together, Mitsuko and the other passengers had a full course meal placed on the table in front of them. Honey-glazed ham, salads, pasta, even a large pudding for dessert.

  “Finding survivors of a wreck is something to celebrate!” the captain said when questioned about the incredible hospitality. He slapped his large belly and beamed at them all. “Every crewmember on this ship fears exactly the events you all went through. The greatest nightmare of every sailor is being sunk. You all survived that nightmare and fought on to see a new dawn. And that’s to be celebrated!”

  Everyone cheered and they clinked mugs of ale with those around them. It was a good golden brew that went down easily. After a mug or two, the wreck survivors all relaxed a bit more. Mitsuko saw one break down, but she thought he might be crying out of sheer relief. One of the sailors wrapped an arm around his shoulder and spoke to him for a bit and got him laughing alongside him in minutes.

  Mitsuko drank and chatted politely, but they’d need more than a couple of beers to loosen Mitsuko’s tongue and get her to lower her guard. Holly was easier. Half a drink in and she was already engrossed in a tale of gossip with one of the sailors. Mitsuko only listened with half an ear. It was a familiar overly complicated bit of drama. A shade of which you could find in every human culture across the world. Someone slept with someone else which caused the first mate to be angry with a different sailor. The original problem person quit which caused his duties to fall on someone else. It ended with laughs and jokes about the first mate throwing someone’s underwear overboard.

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  Still though, despite the lively atmosphere, Mitsuko grew quieter as the dinner stretched on. She lapsed into a melancholy mood. Soon…this would all be undone. If Sterling was to be believed, only she would remain. Everything that happened these last few days would be nothing but a few memories that existed in her mind.

  They finished eating their meal with the captain and his sailors before retiring for bed. Together the shipwrecked passengers all got their own big room, separate from the sailors. When they entered, Mitsuko though it was more like a long hallway than a traditional room, though she wasn’t going to complain. Their room was lined with hammocks, hanging two high on either side. Mitskuo and Holly chose two in the back. Holly under Mitsuko. The porthole on the side of the ship was sealed shut to keep out the sunlight.

  Mitsuko rocked back and forth in her hammock, swaying slightly with the ship. She stared up at the boat’s ceiling, mind racing. Everyone else in the room slept. One woman was snoring loudly but the others were all so exhausted that they slept through it.

  She heard Holly grumble and sit up below her. Her friend stumbled off to go find somewhere to piss.

  “Hey,” Mitsuko said when Holly flopped back in her hammock. “How long has it been since we first arrived at the archipelago?”

  “Go to sleep, Mitsuko,” Holly muttered.

  “You know the divination spell to figure it out, right?”

  “Casting a spell right now sounds like such a pain.”

  “Just satiate my curiosity,” Mitsuko pressed.

  “Fine.” Holly grumbled as she sat back up. “Do you mean since we arrived on the island?”

  “When our original ship sank. The moment the dome dropped.”

  Holly shuffled around, performing a somatic ritual with her hands.

  “9,893 minutes and twelve seconds.”

  “How many days is that?”

  “If I was a master numerologist, I doubt I’d be out doing fieldwork with you. Can I sleep now?”

  Mitsuko didn’t respond, instead doing the calculations in her head. That was…almost 165 hours. Which meant six days and twenty-one hours. Three hours remaining.

  “What would you do if you thought everything might reset in a couple hours?” Mitsuko asked her friend.

  “What do you mean?” Holly asked.

  “We’ve been here for nearly an entire week. What would you do differently if you could repeat it all?”

  “Easy. I’d get on a different lifeboat.”

  Mitsuko smiled while Holly laughed.

  “Seriously though,” Holly continued. “I think I would have gone back down into the ship and retrieved some of my stuff. I thought it was going to sink a lot faster than it actually did so I rushed to get on the lifeboats as fast as possible. But in reality, the ship’s elementalist did a fairly decent job at holding back the water and buying us time to evacuate. I hate that I lost all my notes. I know there are copies of a lot of it back in Kyonaka, but that’s thousands of miles away from here. And everything I worked on for the last two months is now a glob of wet paper down at the bottom of the sea.

  “That’s all hindsight, though. No point in stressing about it now. I mean, who knows? There’s a theory that changing even the smallest thing back in time could snowball into catastrophic differences. We could have all been turned into kraken food if we’d done anything different. All things considered, I think we got by pretty decently. Could have been a lot worse for us.”

  “Saying something could be worse doesn’t make our situation good,” Mitsuko pointed out.

  “But it makes it look better by comparison. Gnomes know about this sort of thing. Comes with being a natural illusionist. We have an eye for making things look better.”

  Mitsuko mulled that over. Then asked another question that had been bothering her.

  “Holly, do you think I could be a hero?”

  Holly actually guffawed and snorted. Mitsuko winced. Her question had been worded so…childishly.

  “Seriously?” Holly replied. “Mitsuko! You are a hero. One time I saw you charge into a burning basement with a melted ice sword and reemerge with an old lady slung over a shoulder and a half barbecued parrot on your head ripping out the little bit of hair that hadn’t been burned off. You were literally on fire.”

  “That was just—”

  “It was not what anyone else would do. I definitely didn’t do it, for one.” Holly hesitated. “You know what I said about our situation looking good in comparison? Placing something really horrible next to something mediocre makes the lukewarm thing appear a lot grander. Well the opposite is also true. You’re not as powerful and attention grabbing as some of your friends. That’s true. But you’re equally as good of a person. You just don’t see it. We all look bad when stacked up next to that sort of people. I mean, Mitsuko, you were the student of a legendary delver and a confidant of a fucking emperor.”

  “Maybe you’re right.” Mitsuko sighed.

  “No. I’m right. If you had the same amount of power and influence as some of your friends, you’d be a legendary figure.”

  Mitsuko stared up at the planked ceiling. She had never had that sort of power. Everything had pointed to her being completely inept at spells until this week. It would be so much better if nearly any other person with a penchant and talent for spellcraft had been put in her place. Being able to hurl fireballs, soar through the skies, teleport at will, and summon lightning would have made her last few days a great deal easier.

  Still…for some reason, Sterling named her as Champion. And someday, she planned to ask him why. But first, she needed to gain more abilities and level up.

  She closed her eyes and finally let the exhaustion take her. She slept.

  *Ding*

  *Mend Level 2

  Mend, Strengthened

  Mend’s Aura, Acquired

  *Ding*

  *Mend Level 3

  Mend, Strengthened

  Mend’s Aura, Radius Enhanced

  Mend Self, Acquired

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