Galaxy of Hyperion: Mystic Heir

Chapter Five: Plans

There wasn't all that much for him to go off though. The Silver Knight had told him what her former name was before she took up a new title: Lia Rose. Still, that wasn't enough for him to actively track her down. He had changed his name at one point after all, and trying to find him through his birth name wasn't going to work out either. He didn't know at all what she could have changed her name to, but without that simple clue, how could he track her down? All he knew was that she supposedly looked similar to him underneath the silver armor. 

Jayler was a Hanilia in the Clan Leaders' group, but the Silver Knight was part of the same faction. There had to be a reason for that. She was likely part of another Hanilia group, but which one? If he was going to be trying to reach out to other Hanilia as part of the castle operation, he could get closer to finding her, but that was still a shaky proposal. The Silver Knight was rather good at hiding herself when she didn't want to be found, and who could say for sure if she was ready to come out of the hole she had been in since the end of the war with the Fearbringers? His only way to reach out to her was already proving itself to be shaky and uncertain, and he hated it. 

Jayler watched as his mother's car slid into the nearby parking lot, and he forced himself off the bench. His smile had faded away already, something that tended to happen when he thought of how hard tracking down his sister was going to be. Michelle didn't seem to suspect anything as Jayler slid into the passenger seat of the car before shutting the door. 

"What did you wind up staying after school for?" she asked first before taking the car away from the lot. 

Jayler kicked himself for not coming up with an excuse sooner before covering at the last moment. "Just studying with some friends," he replied. "I'm going to be heading over to Luke's house tonight with the rest of the group. We wanted to get a break from schoolwork after all that studying."

"Alright," Michelle smiled, looking over to her son for a moment before her eyes flickered back to the road. "You seem to be in a rather good mood. Is it because you're going to be seeing your friends?"

Jayler hadn't even realized that he had started grinning after getting back in the car. Hyperion had slipped into the back of his mind again when he wasn't paying attention, it seemed. Finally, he was back in a world of magic after all this time, and his joy for such wasn't going to be forgotten easily. 

But Jayler didn't say any of this. Instead, he shrugged his shoulders loosely. "I guess so," he replied. 

~~~~~

Jay was already starting to get a bit frustrated with Lana Tarulum. 

The first step of her shared journey with Arian was proving itself to be aggravating already. Despite how long the two had been searching, all Jay and Arian had stumbled upon was the concept that Lana would reach out if someone acted in a way deserving of the gods. What was that supposed to mean? 

It appeared to be symbolic of a pure act, but Jay still wasn't sure what Lana could have meant when she said something like that. Arian seemed to be just as confused as she was deep down, but he hid it behind a mask of optimism and determination that everything would be fine. Jay wished that she was less realistic for just a moment, wondering why she wasn't able to buy into Arian's easy reassurances. 

After Jay and Arian walked away from the library, night had fallen, and Jay couldn't help but cringe at how late it had become. The first day had been far from promising, and she was already starting to get frustrated. She kicked a stray pebble on the ground and watched it bounce away before screaming at herself to focus and stay grounded. There was no reason getting worked up when she was encountering a small roadblock. Soon enough, everything would come together. All she really had to do was give it a bit of extra time.