They were all set to leave in a couple hours. No one got a wink of sleep last night, too wired from all of the events that happened over the past several weeks. Being hit over and over again with no end in sight sure sapped their energy. But despite the deep-seated exhaustion hovering over their heads, there was a warmth shared among them that returned from a prolonged absence.
Hak had returned with Kija and Jae-ha from the red-light district safely, Zeno, Shin-ah and Yoon flew to Yona and Calista's aid, and Lili, Tetora and Ayura were in the process of healing.
Time wouldn't stop. But it could afford to slow down right now, just for them. The peace and tranquility was well deserved.
Yoon scolded them at first the second he caught Yona giggling at something Zeno said, but couldn't bring himself to persist once Calista and Yona both managed to persuade him to sit in between them.
Calista really wasn't sure who started talking first, but before she knew it, hushed whispers were floating around the room in a manner that lacked their usual energy and boisterous nature. Stories were told with a wistfulness that wasn't fooling anyone and hesitant insecurities came to light under the cover of the moonlight, hushed reassurances whispered back and forth until there was nothing left to be said.
Yoon's breathing had evened out an hour ago, but the assassin was still wide awake. This was the last time she would see them for a while and she wanted to cherish it.
Turning her head to the side, Calista couldn't help the sleepy smile that appeared on her face at the sight of her beloved blue dragon asleep beside her with his trusty squirrel sleeping on top of his head.
His hand was curled loosely around hers, preventing her from drifting too far. He had fallen asleep soon after Zeno had plopped on top of Kija after their impromptu tug of war with his fluff. Zeno had ultimately claimed it as his own in the end and refused to give it back. It didn't matter.
Shin-ah just ended up pulling her closer as a result, half-murmuring into her ear that she was warm as he tucked himself around her.
Inhaling deeply, Calista relished the peace and blanket of safety they had created for themselves and let herself get lost in time.
A week wasn't an eternity by anyone's standard, but they all were well aware of what could transpire in that short time period alone. Hell, in a span of a week, Yona had her birthday, Soo-won chased them out, assassins attempted to murder them, and the Wind Tribe almost went to war with the Fire Tribe. But it's for that reason specifically that Calista knew she had to take advantage of the downtime while they had it.
It was as good of a time as they were going to get.
Calista shifted, and smiled softly as the youngest grumbled in his sleep on her other side, adjusting himself unconsciously so that his head was comfortably pillowed against her uninjured shoulder.
Losing herself in her thoughts, she knew that the separation would most likely be hardest for him.
Even though he hated to admit it, their pretty boy genius was arguably the most vulnerable in their group in a general sense. He had his wit and could throw a mean kick where the sun didn't shine if he absolutely had to, but it was usually the consensus of the older ones in the group with the most experience: her, Hak and Jae-ha, that he was never to be put in a situation where that was warranted if they could help it.
And as the sun rose over the river hours later, marking the start of another day, if Yoon grumbled about the harsh light and complained about how his back hurt and how there was a crick in his neck, well, no one commented on how his eyes were looking a little misty.
Kija folded the blankets alongside Hak as Yona and Zeno were still blinking away the last remnants of sleep.
They were getting ready to depart. Once he clumsily got to his feet, Shin-ah was helping Kija and Yoon pack what they could, adding everything that the youngest insisted on taking with them even though it looked far too much for him to carry, and Calista had made herself scarce, not equipped to help her brother do the heavy lifting like usual.
Instead, she chose to lurk in the corner and ended up sulking despite her best efforts to keep her gloomy mood away from her friends.
But something in the back of her mind resurfaced when she lifted her head long enough to see the yellow dragon running circles around the room before he plopped on the ground in the center, beaming at all of their comrades surrounding them.
Calista took a deep breath and steeled herself against her initial reaction to clamp down on her tongue hard enough to draw blood.
Zeno was startled as something landed in his lap and he blinked owlishly at the twin daggers that sat there innocently, training confused baby blue eyes on the person currently casting their shadow over him.
A moment passed where they just stared at each other, until Calista finally cleared her throat. "Keep them safe? For me?"
His brow scrunched and he shook his head, trying to pass them back to her. No matter how ditzy he came across most of the time, the double meaning wasn't lost on him. His neutral façade cracked, a hint of exasperation and dismay flashing though for a brief instant. "Zeno doesn't want them. Zeno doesn't wanna use weapons."
Hesitating, Calista grimaced. "I know, but—"
At her insistence, Zeno's expression darkened. "Miss. Notch should know better."
Calista flinched but opened her mouth to defend herself, when—
"Yona!!"
Spinning around at the abrupt call, Calista instinctively stepped in front of him and breathed a sigh of relief. It was just Lili. Twisting her head back discreetly, her eyes widened a fraction when she noticed the lack of steel in Zeno's empty hands.
Catching her gaze, the yellow dragon smiled and leaned back, a flicker of worn scarlet ribbon resting just outside his hip. And her erratic heartbeat slowed once she caught sight of the familiar worn hilts. She flashed him a grateful look. But the even look in his eyes had lost all traces of earlier ease and guilt twisted in her chest for being the cause of it.
They weren't done talking about this.
Lili breezed into the room, sweeping the room through narrowed eyes, locating the princess with relative ease thanks to her red hair.
Yona's eyes widened at the girl's sudden appearance, pausing her packing to greet her friend. "Lili!!"
The younger girl spared a glance at Calista before her eyes landed back on the other, planted her hands on her hips and stared her down. "How are your wounds?"
And the fighter shrugged off the sudden show of blatant disrespect as she panned over her. Catching Jae-ha's eye, she shook her head. It wasn't worth it.
Jae-ha's jaw flexed but he followed her lead and didn't call the other girl out on it. Even if he wanted to.
Yona waved Lili's concern off airily, ignoring the way her shoulder twinged painfully and remained blissfully unaware of the shocked stare she was getting from the other girl as she undressed. "It's not a big deal."
While Lili was being utterly flabbergasted at why she was undressing in a room full of men, Hak rolled his eyes and leveled their princess with an unimpressed stare. Shin-ah's neutral expression crumpled into a small frown at Yona's nonchalance and zero self-preservation skills. Kija looked like he might burst into tears at her indifference, but Jae-ha was quick to commandeer the white dragon in another conversation about returning the borrowed linens to the staff before he got the chance to.
Yoon scoffed, not amused by how Yona tried to play down the severity of her wounds and glared pointedly at the arrogant girl. "They're both stable for now."
Calista blinked at the venom in his words, wondering what got him so worked up. A quick glance to her side and she balked at his white knuckles and tense shoulders.
"Yoon," She whispered, low enough that no one else would be able to pick up on it. "It's alright. You took great care of us."
And he relaxed. Just a bit, but it was enough for everyone in the room to breathe a little easier.
Lili, to her credit, appeared properly abashed for her disrespective tone from earlier and ducked her head slightly.
Yona shook her head as the youngest amended her statement, far too concerned with the wellbeing of the others. She lurched forward and Hak and Kija both lunged to catch her when she stumbled, but her attention didn't deter from Lili, even as Yoon yelled at her from across the room for moving too much. "More importantly, how's Tetora? And Ayura?"
Calista frowned at the disregard for her own health, but understood where she was coming from. Tetora had been badly hurt. And they hadn't heard any other updates on her condition. The last thing they all knew was that Zeno and Yoon were helping the doctor, and that Tetora, in her fragile state, had asked for the yellow dragon's presence.
Hak, Jae-ha and Kija had all been on edge, Yona more curious than anything else, but Calista had been the one to reassure them that it was fine and let them go ahead without having one of them tag along as a chaperone.
Her brother raised an eyebrow at her questioningly but she shook her head.
Later, Calista mouthed to him.
"Tetora needs to stay in bed for now. Her life is not in danger anymore though." Lili informed straightforwardly, subconsciously playing with the bow at the front of her dress mindlessly. "And Ayura's only sustained minor injuries."
Yona sank back into Kija's hold in relief and Calista released the breath she hadn't been aware she had been holding in as Lili continued to explain what had happened, the latter not noticing the door behind her opening.
"She's awake and asking for you."
Lili shrieked in fright. "Ayura!!"
The woman angled her head, acknowledging her lady, and only straightened until after Lili hastily excused herself from their group.
Calista approached her first. Coming to a halt before her, she noticed how her eyes were dark, exhaustion lining her face upon closer inspection and how her fingers shook ever so slightly.
"Starling." Calista greeted with a nod.
Ayura let out a heavy breath, but the beginnings of a twinkle sparked in her gaze. "Notch."
Kija frowned. "I'm lost."
Apparently after Tetora had gotten stabbed, Ayura left to go get help, but she ran into the guards of the establishment making their rounds. At first, she was extremely hesitant to leave Lili alone, but they didn't have any other choice. They were outnumbered and needed reinforcements.
But apparently the establishment had heard of suspicious activity in the northern corridor and were looking for any involved.
The presence of Ayura's weapons made the guards wary and drew the wrong conclusion. They shouted for her to lay down her swords and ordered for her to be taken into custody. Ayura had pushed back, hands resting on her hilts but she never drew her blades. If she gave up now, Lili and the others would be hurt.
They clashed blades, Ayura only able to convince them to follow her when they reached a stalemate. She had been wrought with worry that she had taken too long and that it would be too late.
Imagine her shock and horror when they arrived on scene, Tetora having been dragged out of the way with Lili huddled over her body. The masked man in blue was fighting alongside the dark-haired assassin and the other girl was crumpled on the ground with her other two friends hovering over her.
She had immediately sprung into action and let the guards do their jobs. They took care of the rest and incapacitated the remaining drug puppets standing while two of them stabilized Tetora and whisked her away from the fight.
Over the past couple of days, it had been touch and go for a while there, but she was finally in the clear. Gravely injured, but in the clear nonetheless.
The recovery would be tough, but she had faith in Tetora to pull through.
Tilting her head to the side in a silent question, Calista waited until Ayura conceded with a short nod before speaking.
"Starling. Right hand advisor to the Chief of the Water Tribe."
"Ex-advisor." Ayura corrected smoothly, ignoring the way that Yoon's jaw dropped. "Now I serve my lady as her guard."
Calista's upper lip twitched. "Of course."
"And what do you, Notch: Kouka's Phantom to the late King, exactly have business with us here?"
Yona gasped upon hearing her title, but Calista didn't seem offended or frustrated. Likewise, while the rest of their group was baffled, Ayura remained silent, patiently waiting for an answer. Her tone was not accusatory, but rather assessing.
It made sense. If the fighter was here to harm the Chief's family, then she would have no other option than to stand in their way.
But Calista, following her train of thought easily after years confined to the underground by Reaper's hand, shook her head.
"Not here for her." Calista stated firmly. "My new master has issued an order of protection for the civilians, and I intend to enforce it."
Ayura lifted an eyebrow, intrigued. "Against who?"
Sharp silver grew deadlier. "Against any who threaten the gift of life."
Against any who encourage, barter, or trade evil things to be used to take a life, against any who express ill will towards someone else so violent that they had to intervene, against any entity or god itself that threatened to crush humanity between its fingers.
"Against people who threaten each other." Calista spoke, slowly but evenly. "You and I both know that there is more grey area than black and white. I will be my master's shield so that she can carry out what she's set out to do."
Satisfied, Ayura nodded approvingly, and the others in the room that they had just witnessed their fighter pass an unspoken test.
Kija, still confused, twisted his hands behind his back. "So... that's a no on the explanation of what those nicknames are about?"
No one got the opportunity to answer him as Ayura briskly took her leave.
Calista jumped as something clattered to the floor. Kija had fumbled with a belonging of Jae-ha's, an elongated flute of sorts, but the green dragon didn't seem bothered by it as he carefully picked it up and packed it without so much as batting an eye at him.
As soon as Ayura departed without another word, everyone had resumed packing, needing to finish soon before they lost any more daylight. Her heart sank when she noticed that they were nearly done.
And all of the sudden, the room felt too small and constricting. Heart pounding and vision swimming, she sucked in a gasp thankfully too quiet for anyone else to notice.
Quickly and without a second thought, Calista fled.