In the end, finding Colt boiled down to a matter of chance.
Jay had been starting to get incredibly sick of waiting for a way to find Colt, and Lana's constant research, as helpful as it was, left Jay feeling antsy and on edge. She couldn't find a way to calm herself with how anxiety-inducing the concept of trying to search Colt was. Sleep was a constant battle with her own mind, and she couldn't find a way to break through the veil that blocked her from the future.
Lana and Jubilee's incredible skills with gathering information ultimately led them in the direction of Colt. They had wound up in the same city that Colt was passing through by pure luck, and Jay was beyond happy to finally see the outline of a figure that Jubilee had described back when they first came together. Her jaw dropped in shock, and Ronan began to grin wildly when he realized what was happening.
If Colt realized why they were there, he chose to not bother with running away. He simply stood there and stared as the team searching for the Skylian Mages drew closer, and his eyes narrowed as Arian began to wave to him. Jubilee's face settled into a gentle smirk, and Colt let out a small sigh before glancing down to the ground.
When Colt finally did move, he began to walk as far away from the nearby town as possible. He moved slowly enough for the Skylian Mages' group to follow him without any issues, and the crowds bustling through the town square were suddenly inconsequential. Jay couldn't help but smile at the thought that their little group was finally together to the extent that she was aware of. After all of the searching that they had been forced to endure, they were able to find Colt. Their search undoubtedly wasn't complete quite yet, but they were one step closer to being together in full, and that was all that Jay could ask for.
Jay pulled back as the rest of the group arrived in the outskirts of the nearby town, and she let out a small sigh as Colt glanced up to meet her gaze for the first time. She could see that he certainly fit the description that Jubilee had described. His skin was a lovely tan color that complemented his hair perfectly. For the most part, his hair appeared to be a deep brown color, but there were highlights of mahogany red that could be seen glittering in the light. His eyes were deep brown, and gold flecks dotted the dark hue. He wore mostly dark clothing from black to navy blue, and the lower half of his face was hidden in a scarf that obscured his lips. A pair of goggles with cracked lenses sat on his forehead at the heart of his messy hair, but he didn't seem to mind in the slightest.
"It's nice seeing you again," Jubilee remarked to Colt after they had all settled down. There was a laugh playing at the back of her throat already, and Jay could hear the sound before it even formed.
Colt's eyes narrowed, and he shook his head dismissively. "You don't know what you're doing here. I thought that we had come to a silent agreement about not meeting once again," he commented.
"Unfortunately for you, I never agreed to such a thing. Besides, I had my suspicions about you from the outset, and I'm seeing now that I most certainly had a reason to think that there was something off regarding you, Colt," Jubilee told him with a loose shrug. "I believe that I know who and what you are... Skylian Mage."
Colt's shoulders went tense, and his eyes narrowed. "I'm afraid I don't know what you're referring to," he told her. He attempted to keep his voice even, but Jay could still see that there was something strained to his entire body. Part of Jay's mind wondered if perhaps Colt was intentionally showing such signs of weakness. If he was truly as good at his job as Jubilee had made it sound, he wouldn't have been so vulnerable at a first encounter, so this was the only explanation that Jay could think of that made sense.
"We've been trying to gather the Skylian Mages together, and I think that you're one of us. Meet Jay, Arian, Ronan, and Lana," Jubilee told Colt with a smile. "I understand why you've been acting as distant as you have been, you know. I want to make that clear from the beginning. You're working with Otholle, and you don't exactly have much of a chance when it comes to escaping the clutches of your employers. Am I correct in such an assumption?"
Colt took a step back, and his eyes went wide with a sense of falsified alarm before he cleared his throat and glanced to the ground once again. "It seems that you truly do mean that I should leave my previous endeavors behind to focus on other things," he murmured. When he looked up once again, everything about him seemed composed and relaxed. Jay could tell that all of his previous tension was nothing more than a distant memory, and if she had to guess, it wouldn't be an issue throughout her future interactions with him.
"As a matter of fact, that is what I mean," Jubilee responded with a shrug. "Why don't you make this easier on us all and just come with us? I can tell that you're completely miserable in your current job, so there's no point for you to stick around. I don't want you to run back there when you have a much better chance of enjoying yourself around here."
"I feel like there's a bit more to it than that," Colt told her evenly. Still, he didn't object at all to her proposal, and when he continued, something about him almost bordered on being agreeable. "I believe that we have quite a bit to discuss before we can consider this subject resolved though. Why don't we speak somewhere a bit more private? There are some people who have eyes and ears everywhere. I feel like you know that better than anyone."
Jubilee laughed at his words, and she shook her head in a way that made it seem as if she was playing it off as opposed to plainly objecting. "Alright then. If you want private, I'm sure that we can do something like that. Any suggestions for a place to go, you four?" she questioned, suddenly referring to the other members of the group.
Jay didn't have an answer for her, but Lana most certainly did. "There was a small patch of forested land near the entrance to the town. That should offer us with a bit of cover and privacy, wouldn't you say?" she questioned. "If anyone tries to eavesdrop on us, I'll know. There are some perks that come with being the person that I am."
Jay was positive that Lana was referring to her robotic makeup, and Jubilee seemed to catch onto this as well. The Fire mage simply nodded before she started to walk away, her two ponytails swaying as she moved further from the nearby town where they had found Colt in the first place. She silently implied that everyone else was meant to follow her, so Jay did so without a moment of hesitation. At long last, they were making progress in coming together as a team, and that was what mattered most.
The trip to the quiet area of trees nearby seemed to take both an eternity and no time at all simultaneously. Jay was desperate to hear what Colt had to say, making the moments drag on like nothing else, but at the same time, she was almost afraid of his words as well. The paradox bothered her, and she found her stomach knotting itself a dozen times over out of a blend of fear and anticipation.
The trees all seemed to be leaning in, ready to listen with everything they had at their disposal despite not truly being sentient. Jay watched as the branches swayed overhead in a gentle breeze as the six members of the group formed a small circle at the center of a clearing that was only just barely large enough for all of them to stand together. She glanced around at the others who were around her, smiling to herself as she realized how much things had changed in the past few weeks since she first began to search for the Skylian Mages.
"Go on and talk," Jubilee instructed Colt, pulling Jay away from her thoughts immediately. Jay pressed her shoulders back in a show of confidence as she watched Colt through narrowed eyes. She didn't know what she was meant to be expecting from this conversation, but she was going to stick it out regardless.
Colt watched Jubilee with a critical gaze, undoubtedly dissatisfied with her bluntness, before he answered. "You can call me Colt Curre. I'm an information gatherer working with the Otholle company, though I suspect that you already knew about that. They've been asking me to find out as much as I can about various subjects, but I want out. Then again, Jubilee is incredibly nosey, so I suspect that you were already aware of that as well."
Jubilee gave him a barbed stare for a moment due to the nosey comment before she focused in on the subject at hand once again. "You can find at least relative safety with all of us. We haven't been forced to fight yet as a team, but we'll do what we can to keep you away from the trouble that Otholle would undoubtedly bring. I don't want to put up with them, and I know that the rest of the group feels the same way. We'll do what we can," she told him.
"We have fought, as a matter of fact," Lana corrected Jubilee. "Not since you joined the group, but we have engaged in combat once, and I know that Arian and Jay were fighting together at least briefly before I showed up as well. As far as I'm aware, everyone here has the ability to transform to one of the higher levels of magic."
"Hisero for all of us as far as I'm aware," Jay told Lana before her gaze fell on Ronan. "Well... Except for Ronan. Solani, right?" She had been able to sense, at least to some degree, the power levels that the other members of the group possessed, and she was positive that her assumptions would wind up being correct.
Ronan nodded at her words, and Jay glanced down to the ground. Hisero was the highest level of magic, and it wasn't something that many people her age had reached. Then again, it wasn't as if she was exactly part of the status quo. She had stood out from the crowd for as long as she could remember. Solani was the second level, and while most people who had lived for as long as Ronan had would have been at the Hisero level, Ronan wasn't exactly the same as the rest of the mages who were his age. His isolation within Cloudpeak made that rather clear.
As for Jay personally, she wasn't fond of transforming. She hadn't ever done it much, often preferring to fight with simply a sword and her own wits. It wasn't exactly ideal for all situations, but it was what she was used to, and she wasn't about to contest such a thing. Jay hadn't ever fought transformed when she was at the Syllix or Solani levels, as a matter of fact, and she rarely used her Hisero form either. Of course, there was a reason for that, but she wasn't about to betray such a fact to the rest of the group.
"Alright," Colt muttered, but Jay was positive that despite his positive word, Colt didn't think that this would be enough to defend them from the clutches of Otholle. If they were truly as ruthless as Jay had been led to believe, it was only a matter of time before issues began to arise because of Colt's departure from their group.
Until then though, all they could really do was stick together, and Colt seemed to understand such a fact. "Skylian Mages, huh..." he whispered, taking in the appearances of everyone in the group. "Six of us? That's rather strange. I would have expected there to only be five, one for each of the major element types."
"I'm not..." Jay began to say, raising one hand to interrupt Colt before his assumptions could go out of hand. She knew her place in the world, and she didn't want Colt to misconstrue it. She most certainly wasn't the same as the other members of the group.
"Jay," Lana suddenly cut in, her voice far sharper than Jay had been anticipating. The girls locked eyes, and Lana's expression hardened. "I want you to be honest with us. I know that there's something going on, and you're going to have to tell us sooner or later."
Jay's eyes widened, and she tried to stifle her shock at the fact that Lana was forcing her to tell the truth about the past so soon after Colt had showed up of all times. She could feel the gazes of everyone in the group on her, and Colt's eyes in particular felt incredibly probing despite how new he was to the team. Ronan's gaze spoke of pure curiosity, but Jubilee's wonder was a bit less innocent. Arian looked down to the grass below, watching as the individual strands bended.
"Then again, I suppose that I shouldn't only be calling you out for something like this," Lana continued, and Jay felt as if she could breathe once again when everyone's gazes shifted to Lana instead of her. "After all, there's someone else who has a few things to share with us as well... Isn't that right, Arian?"
The only word that could have been used to describe Arian's expression was shock. His jaw dropped, and he went as pale as a ghost in the blink of an eye. When he began to fumble for his words, Jay's own eyes narrowed. She had thought there was something off about Arian for quite some time, but she hadn't ever wanted to get too deep into questioning him about it. After all, she had her fair share of secrets, and she knew that she would have been hypocritical to try and get him to tell the truth when she was averse to complete honesty about her past herself.
Lana didn't seem to care about that in the slightest though. She knew what she wanted, and she was going to find a way to draw the truth out of both Jay and Arian no matter what it took. All Jay and Arian could do was stand there silently, neither one sure of how to answer Lana's inquiries. Was there even a way to respond to her? Jay couldn't help but wonder.
Lana took a small step towards Arian, and her expression began to soften. "I want you both to understand that I'm not trying to hurt you by doing this," she started off by saying. "I want you to understand that this is a safe place. We're going to be working as a team for a long time yet, and I know that you're not going to be able to feel free as yourselves if you're hiding things all the time."
Jay gave a brief glance over to Arian, and she watched as he shifted his attention down to the ground as a way of ignoring the eyes of everyone around him focused squarely on his silhouette. Arian let out a sigh and shook his head. "I... Um... Lana, how much do you know?" he questioned. He seemed to have already given up on trying to put up a mask of being fine, and deflection seemed to be the farthest thing from his thought process. It almost surprised Jay how quickly he gave in, but she supposed that she shouldn't have been surprised given how Arian lacked confidence when anyone looked too close at him for too long.
"Quite a bit," Lana answered with a hollow smile that overflowed with a strange sense of sadness. "I was able to pick up on it a while ago, but I didn't want to force you to say anything unless I had to. Still, all six of us are together now, and our search is finished. You knew that from the beginning, and so did I. I'm tired of acting like everything is still going, Arian."
Ronan's head tilted slightly to the side, and his expression was filled with legitimate curiosity that made Jay's heart twist in her chest. "I don't understand what you're trying to say here," He confessed. "Lana, how did you know so much? You know... Whatever it is you know, that is. I don't know exactly what it is that you're talking about, but..."
Lana sighed. "Since I'm a robot, I have the ability to sense the elements that can be found in a person. My sensors were muddled when we were in Cloudpeak because of Cryai's influence, but they've been as clear as can be ever since we left the place behind. I could tell it from the very beginning when I met the two of them... Arian and Jay have been hiding the full extent of their magic from us," she explained.
"Come to think of it, you haven't ever told us what element you have, Jay," Ronan murmured, swallowing nervously at the realization. "But I guess that we're thinking about Arian right now... What's going on with you?"
Arian looked up to the gazes of everyone in the group before he sighed and shook his head. "I don't think that I can really keep it a secret anymore... I mean, it's not like it was going to stay hidden forever. It was only a matter of time before all of this came crashing down around me," he muttered. "Remember how Lana was telling us about a recent creation from the Fearbringers who we suspected was given life by Mersall?"
Jay already had a sneaking suspicion that she knew where this was going, and her stomach twisted in response. Arian let out a nervous laugh as a way of breaking through the tension, but it did little to calm the anxiety that hung in the air as heavy as lead. "That's not... That's not exactly true. It was another Lakinya that gave life to the creature in question, and... It was me," Arian replied. "The one that the Fearbringers made recently... The last immortal that we suspected was a walking contradiction... You're looking at him. Surprise?"
Jay forced herself to look down at the ground, hating how well all of the pieces came together. She always had a sneaking suspicion that there was more to Arian than met the eye, and that most certainly appeared to be the case with this new revelation. Despite appearing physically to be around her age, Arian always seemed to have something weathered and anxious to his gaze. Arian detested combat far more than she ever anticipated, and his nerves regarding it were most certainly tied in with his connection to the Fearbringers.
"You have the elements that branch off from Mystic magic," Jay concluded as soon as she was able to force herself to speak once again. "You haven't shown it much because we haven't engaged in combat as much as one would have expected, but... It seems clear now. What element were you even given life through? What in the world happened?"
"It's... It's complicated, alright?" Arian finally told her. "I don't know how to describe it without making you all sit here for hours as I bounce through the truth. There's quite a bit of history to my existence, but I suppose that there's not really a way that I can avoid it. The truth is out there now, and I can't run away from it now."
"I suppose that it makes sense why you would want to hide something like that," Jubilee snorted. "You're not going to betray us. I can say that much conclusively. You don't have the same aura and militaristic strength that the modern Fearbringers do... Well, did. The war on Daragon is over, and you weren't there as far as I can tell. The Fearbringers who sided with Mersall are still struggling quite a bit for obvious reasons."
"Yeah," Arian replied with yet another nervous laugh. Just as before, it did little to actually break through the heavy tension hanging in the air. "I wanted to try and avoid talking about it if possible, but... Given that everything is coming out now, I can't really run away from it now. I'm a Hanilia, and I'm the fifth of the Skylian Mages. Would you look at that? Our little group was completed long before we even realized it, and there's no reason for us to keep searching... I'm sorry for keeping all of this a secret. I'll tell you everything. We're going to be working together from here on out, so it's the least that I can do."
"You aren't the only one who's been hiding things," Lana remarked, and Jay felt herself grow nauseous at the reminder that she was going to have to talk about her past as well. All eyes settled squarely on her, and Jay realized just how critical the gazes of Jubilee and Colt could be when they were adjusted in the proper way. "You say that you're the fifth of the Skylian Mages... But you aren't the last one."
"Of course," Jay muttered. She had known that this was coming the instant that Lana began to approach her about keeping too many things secret, but she didn't want to actually confront the issue. Jay wasn't ready to think about the past quite yet, and it was far from being a distant problem. Arian's past appeared to be far more buried than his lies of sixteen would have led her to believe, but Jay could still feel the fresh scars from what had happened to her. When she closed her eyes, it was as if the universe was forcing her to experience hell all over again, and she wasn't fond of the idea of having to explain such to her companions.
Lana shook her head, and her eyes fell on the symbol on Jay's cheek. "I know that marking on your face, you know," she continued. "I've seen it before, as a matter of fact. I could feel something incredibly familiar the moment that we met... After all, I've seen your magic before. Some would dare to say that it never left this world in the first place. It's been present since the ancient days when Hyperion still walked the face of these planets."
"Quit talking in riddles, will you?" Jubilee suddenly cut in, and the irritation on her face was visible as she glared in Lana's direction. Jay would have almost laughed at the irony of Jubilee hating the secretive pattern of words if not for her own agitation in that instant. Jubilee had been alright with talking in such a way back when they were in the tavern, but all of that fell apart when Lana was the one behind it. Jay realized that Jubilee was likely upset because she no longer felt in control of the situation, but all she could do was make a brief mental note of it in that instant. After all, there were far more pressing issues than analyzing Jubilee's character, and she could feel the truth whispering over her shoulder, waiting to be released into the air at long last. It was far from being a pleasant feeling, but she couldn't escape it any longer than she already have.
Lana took in a grounding breath before offering a response. "You see... The symbol on her face happens to be the Mark of Skylox," she replied. "It's a symbol that you'll find on one who happens to be a reincarnation of a god. I believe that a member of the Clan Leaders currently bears the Mark of Soluna, and the two gods just so happened to be twins. Of course, that part is none of my business... But I can say exactly where her magic came from. It's easy to put the pieces together when you recognize the symbol and the last person that it was found on."
"Lyloc," Colt cut in. "The last person who had that symbol was Lyloc, and her sister Evangeline was the last one to possess the Mark of Soluna. Evangeline died a long time ago, but Lyloc was alive up until recently, up until Zelda of the Fearbringers decided to lead an attack on the palace where the Skylox Heroes lived."
"Lyloc's death certainly came as a shock to all of us," Lana continued. "But she continues to live on regardless. Her spirit might have disappeared from the realm of the living, but I can promise you solemnly and from the bottom of my heart that her magic still lives on. Jay here is living proof of that. Your magical signature is identical to what Lyloc's was, and I've been able to tell from the very beginning. You haven't spoken a word about what happened to you before you wound up as a member of the search party for the Skylian Mages, but I believe that it's rather easy to put the pieces together."
"Lana, why are you doing this?" Jay questioned. She didn't want to address anything else that was happening, and even though she could feel the confused and almost accusatory gazes of her companions locked squarely on her, Jay did her best to ignore them.
"I believe that we should all be as honest with each other as possible. We're going to be working together for a long time yet, after all. We don't know how long this mission is going to last. Ronan, Jubilee, and I have already told you about everything that we've been through. Colt might as well have done the same earlier, and I'm sure that we'll be able to hear more from him as time goes on. I don't want you and Arian to keep hiding everything and leading us on a wild goose chase for people who have been standing right in front of us the whole time," Lana answered. "There are six Skylian Mages unlike what one would expect at a first glance. Five of us preside over the respective categories of elements found in the Galaxy of Hyperion, and the sixth carries the magic that was found in Lyloc's body up until her demise. It's no coincidence that you and Arian were told to find the rest of us. You were the two most likely to keep it all a secret."
Jay forced herself to look at the ground, unwilling to look at Lana any longer than she already had. She knew that Lana was right, but she didn't want to say anything if she could avoid it. The truth was about to crash down on her, threatening to bury her alive if she wasn't careful, and there was nothing that she could do to fix it. At this point, all she could hope for was damage control, and her efforts on such a front would ultimately be limited when push came to shove.
"Well, I believe that we've spoken about this for long enough," Lana finally told the group's members. She sat down on the grass below and smoothed out her clothing before pressing her shoulders back into a perfect line. "Why don't you go on and tell us about what's going on with your pasts? I believe that it's time we all learn more about each other, and I think that this is the first step to us fully trusting one another as a team. We have a lot of work ahead of us, and this is a perfect place for us to start."
Jay didn't realize that she was on the grass alongside Lana until after her legs had already folded beneath her. Arian, Ronan, Jubilee, and Colt followed suit. Despite having just joined the party, Colt already seemed to understand the aura of the team rather well, and he remained quietly critical throughout the change of situation. Jay wished that she could be hearing more about him as opposed to spilling every little detail about herself, but she knew that she had long lost her say in the matter when she went into the search by trying to hide everything about who she was.
"I guess that it's time for me to start talking, huh?" Arian finally said after the group had settled down. Unlike Jay, he seemed to be suffering under the full force of his own guilty conscience, and he almost seemed ready to get it off his shoulders and into the world at large. He began to mess anxiously with the hem of his shirt simply because he wanted to give his hands something to do.
"Yeah," Lana agreed. She smiled kindly in his direction, and Jay wondered how someone so caring could simultaneously be so harsh in her efforts to reach an honest understanding. Deep down, she knew that it would be for the best in the long run, but Jay still found herself unsettled where Lana was concerned. She hoped that the feeling would pass with time, but she supposed that it didn't matter for the time being. She was going to listen to Arian's story about everything that he had gone through, and hopefully, it would offer her the motivation she needed to be honest as well. That was all that she could pray for, but there was no way of saying for sure until after everything had been said and sealed away.
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This update is late by a few hours but shhhh here you go
-Digital