Navalia had a busy couple of days. She spent them browsing the markets for something. What was that something? She didn't know yet.
Hunter's birthday was coming up. And since Navalia has the biggest crush on him, she wants to give him a good present.
She would've done it a while ago, but she didn't find out until she helped set up his Penstagram profile.
Navalia had no idea what to get him. She had gone through her list already, but none of the items seemed good enough.
His ears weren't pierced, so she couldn't give him any decent earrings. She couldn't give him any of the cool stuff she gets from jobs since they seemed too tacky as gifts, so she didn't go with the amethyst throwing stars.
She couldn't even give him a card since words can't express how much she cares about Hunter.
Navalia wandered around the night market, hoping something will catch her eye.
Her pocket buzzed, the muffled voices of her younger siblings coming from the cutesy walkie-talkie that Luz wanted them all to have.
"Aren't you two both with Eda right now? Why do you need to use these things?"
"But Valiaaaa! This is fun!"
"No arruines la diversión!"
"Nice Spanish, King!"
"Ustedes niños hagan lo que quieran, pero yo voy a apagar esta cosa hasta que yo termine."
"Wow, Valia! I guess you really were paying attention during those Spanish lessons!"
"Yeah yeah, I'm gonna keep doing my thing, I'll see you guys at home."
Navalia turned off her walkie-talkie and kept looking around at the shops.
"I don't think Hunter wears anything other than his uniform or what's under it, so clothes won't be a very good gift. But just in case, I'll get him an outfit."
She shoplifted the clothes she thought he'd look nice in.
"Now, what am I going to get...?"
She spotted a shop with a lot of bookshelves and writing stuff. Like the Demon Realm version of Barnes and Noble.
"Of course! That cute idiot is also a cute nerd! Books are the answer! I just have to get stuff he doesn't have."
Which was way harder than she thought.
From what she recalled, Hunter already owned half the store. Navalia had a tough time finding something. But she eventually found the perfect things.
Hunter loved research things, but he also liked books with mystery plots. Extra points if they had a cool scientific element.
Navalia found a good mystery novel about these kids of different ages in a mental hospital, all of whom don't know how they got there. Now they have to break out using the hospital supplies and utilities while also trying to figure out who or what put them there.
She found one that she got two copies of, one for her and one for Hunter. It was a rivals-to-lovers romance about two soldiers in the Emperor's Coven trying to rise in the ranks because of their own personal pasts, and they fall in love over time as they discover the corruption in the system they're in.
"I want to annotate this with him..."
And the very last book she got for him was "From Earth to Sky; the Continued Study of Wild Magic," which was the sequel to the book Hunter first told her about.
While the store clerk wasn't looking, Navalia put the books into the zip up tote bag Eda lent her.
Just as she zipped the top up, she was startled by the shout of a familiar voice.
"Naverick! What are you doing?!"
Navalia shot up and gripped the tote bag. Hunter had found her, since it was Saturday night and they were going to do their usual shenanigans.
"Nothing! I'm not shopping, I'm doing illegal activities!"
"...shouldn't that excuse be the other way around??"
"Uh..."
She smashed a small vial smoke potion on the ground, creating a cloud of great smoke around them. She then escaped down the road of shops.
"I wasn't doing nothing!!"
Hunter ran out of the cloud and after her.
"That implies you were doing something!"
"Fuck your grammar!!"
She used a fire spell to shoot up to the rooftops and kept running, making sure the tote bag was secure every six seconds.
Hunter jumped onto the roof behind her.
"What do you have in there, Navalia?"
"Uh, drugs!"
"You're being weirder than usual, Valia! What did you put in there?!"
"Nothing!"
She lifted her mask and whistled at him, using bard magic to heighten and weaponize the sound waves.
The move was borrowed from Raine after she'd heard about it in the story Eda told her and her siblings the day before.
Hunter fell on his ass, his ears ringing from the whistle.
"Ow!"
"Sorry!"
As he was getting up, Hunter spotted three suspicious hooded figures.
"Those must be the suspects."
He jumped down from the roof and snuck after them.
When Navalia turned to make an attack, he had run into an alley.
"...dafuq? Did he just ditch me?! The nerve!"
She chased after him from the rooftops, ending up in a small clearing down the alley. Just as Hunter was about to arrest some random hooded people, Navalia jumped down and tackled him.
"Huntsman!"
"Gh! Naverick!"
One of the hooded figures played a red recorder, causing a smoky cloud to befall them as they all got away.
"I forbid you to flee!"
Navalia gasped.
"I thought you only used that line on me!"
Hunter took off his mask.
"I can use that on other criminals!"
Navalia took off her goggles.
"So you are chasing other criminals! And you have the nerve to do so in the middle of our chase? I can't even look at you right now."
She huffed and turned away.
"Technically, I was after those guys tonight, not you."
Navalia gasped and slowly turned to him.
"Am I just a side quest to you?"
Something broke under her feet.
She looked down to see a yellow liquid and crushed glass.
"I get the feeling that's not good."
"Gee, I wonder if the glowy circle diagram we're standing on has anything to do with it?"
The whole thing started to shine super brightly, overtaking the two of them.
The next thing Navalia knew, she had blacked out.
✺
✺
✺
Once Navalia came to, she was in a strange dim lit hallway. The first thing she saw on the walls was a strange painting called "The Triumph Over Wild Magic" that had the Emperor and her family on it.
It wasn't pretty.
"Where the hell am I?"
She pat herself down, looking for her staff. But Cthulhu was gone, as well as her tote back and goggles.
"Oh I think you know exactly where you are."
Hunter had been leaning on the wall behind her.
"After all, it's your fault you trapped us in the Emperor's mind in the first place!!"
Navalia blinked.
"...eh?"
Hunter rolled his eyes and told her about his night. About how he was searching for the people who planned on invading the Emperor's mind, how he ran into her like they planned.
"Oh yeah."
Navalia stood up and cleared her throat.
"Is that all I am to you now? A side quest?!"
"What? No! You're number one on my list of arrests! I swear!"
"Hmph! I better be! I'm not this annoying for nothing, you know!"
Navalia looked more closely to the paintings in the mind-hallway.
"Uh, I know this is a little bit off topic, but since this is a mindscape, shouldn't there be more trees or something?"
"Well, mindscapes reflect the individual. Yours probably has the memories stored in the form of film reels or something. I've read a lot about this subject."
"Huh. You should tell me more sometime."
Hunter cleared his throat, trying to ignore the heat of his cheeks. He noticed a painting and ran up to it.
"Woah, look at this one! You know, unfettered wild magic wiped out our family. Everyone knew too much and got themselves hurt. That's why Belos took in the survivors, and dedicated his life to making the coven system!"
He ran up to a different painting that portrayed Belos as some sort of Jesus.
"That's why he was so well liked! Our sigils protect us from ourselves and make the Titan happy."
Hunter noticed the one next to it. It was him, knelt before Belos.
"Oh! This is when I inherited my staff! Hey Nav, did you know I'm the youngest scout to become Golden Guard?"
"Oh. That's... a good thing?"
"I think so. I never did find out what happened to me predecessors... why does Darius look so sad here?"
Navalia glanced back at the one with her family. She and the rest of them looked so scared.
She clenched her fist.
If Belos ever tried to hurt them or Hunter, she was going to—
"Wait, what's that sound?"
She heard low crying from behind a corner of the hall. She peered to see a small purple child wearing a wood mask that looked like the one worn by—
"Belos?" Navalia and Hunter said at the same time.
As the kid ran away, Navalia turned back to where Hunter was. A dark figure in the shape of the emperor approached.
"Emperor, you're here!"
Hunter knelt respectfully. Navalia did her best to cover her face without her goggles.
"We beg for your assistance to return to the physical world, so I may capture your enemies! And so she can stop whining and let me complete my mission!"
While Hunter had his head turned to her, Navalia saw the purple child behind the dark Belos figure, gesturing for them to run.
Dark Belos then started looking more like a druidic monster, eyes opening all over the body.
"Hunter!"
She ran in front him and shot a ray of green lightning.
Since she didn't have the correct balance, Navalia went tumbling backwards, causing her and Hunter to fall through the hallway and start falling into a darkness.
Navalia was able to spot a ground below them. She went through her pockets and pulled out one of Luz's glyphs.
She pulled Hunter close to her and activated it.
Just as they were about to crash, they hovered to a temporary stop, then were dropped onto the ground.
They helped each other to their feet.
"Where are we now?"
They had landed in a dead, wilted looking grove of trees. There were faded portraits of memories in the trunks.
"I think... it's the Emperor's true mind."
"True mind? Really? The gallery—"
"Must've been made of all his lies! When you deceive people for however long he's lived, he's bound to start believing them himself! Like borderline personality disorder! I've been trying to tell you, he's not who you think he is."
Hunter picked up a cracked bird palisman. It faded away in his hand. He got up, trying to shake it off, but clearly uneasy.
When he did, Navalia spotted the painting behind him. Two little boys were playing together with sticks. One of them made her uneasy and confused.
Even though the older one had his eyes scratched out, he looked so much like Hunter.
Behind the boys playing, there was a mob with weapons.
Navalia was torn from her thoughts by Hunter waving in front of her face.
"Hey! Navalia! Are you ok?"
"Oh! Yeah, I'm fine. Sorry, did you say something?"
"Yeah. I said we're probably being punished because you provoked his inner self!"
"Well excuse me, but he was going to attack you! And did you see that thing? It turned all lanky and had like a thousand eyeballs on it!"
"Oh nOoOo! EyEbALLs! Didn't think you were so easy to scare."
Navalia squinted and turned her walkie-talkie on with full volume. They got an earful of Luz singing a Selena song in a weird voice.
"YAH!!!"
"Hypocrite."
Navalia skimmed the rest of the paintings as she cut in while Luz was singing.
"Hey Luz, not that I wanna ruin this little concert, but I'm in a predicament here, so could you make sure Eda's listening?"
"Oh! Hi Valia! Sure!"
"Navi, what is it?"
"Hey, you mind going over to the alley next to the vial shop? Hunter and I dropped our things there."
"Yeah, but why did you leave them there?"
"Because we ended up trapped in the emperors mind."
"What the—?! Oh, wait, yo Blondie, your friend wants to talk to you."
Hunter blinked.
"But I'm with Navalia already..."
A tweet sounded over the walkie-talkie. Hunter leered over Navalias shoulder.
"Flapjack! Are you ok?! Did they hurt you?!"
"Man, relax. They wouldn't do that. Don't worry, Cthulhu's with him too, right honey?"
They heard some gargles on the other side.
"Yes, we're ok, dear. And I have some more of Luz's glyphs, so don't worry."
She passed a couple handfuls to Hunter.
"So yeah, mom, Hunter and I are kinda stuck in the Emperor's mind.
"The shit you get into— has the inner Belos spotted you yet?"
"Yeah, he has. And with my mask off, too. Anyways, we got away. Also, can there be two inner selves?"
"No, I don't think so. But I think I've heard of strong emotions materializing. For now, just stay safe. If you're devoured in his mindscape—"
"We'll be trapped!"
Navalia looked back to see Hunter pacing nervously.
"Dragged down to his deep subconscious forever!"
Navalia blinked. Hunter looked down in embarrassment.
"What? I said I read a lot about this stuff..."
Navalia blushed in frustration. She was going to die here if he kept being so cute. King's voice was heard from the walkie-talkie.
"We're gonna get you out! We'll make a return spell as fast as we can!"
"Just don't lose this walkie-talkie, it's the only thing we have to communicate with you." Eda warned.
"Got it."
Hunter snatched the thing.
"I'll be home soon, Flapjack. Stay safe ok?"
Flapjack chirped from the other end.
"I love you. Over and out!"
Everyone awwed. Hunter angry blushed and gave the walkie-talkie back to Navalia, who visibly looked like her heart melted.
"I wish that were meee..."
"What?"
"You never told me his name was Flapjack!"
"Oh. I didn't?"
"And you love him, too! To think you didn't even like him over a month ago!"
"Shut up!"
They heard a rustle behind them.
The purple child Belos came out from behind a tree.
"You. You're the little kid Belos."
"What?"
The fact that he was there made Navalia suspicious. This might've been the Emperor before all the villainy, but she still didn't trust it.
But she didn't have the privilege of going with her mistrust right now. She wanted to get answers and to get out of there.
She knelt before the boy.
"Hi. You warned me about the other guy. Thanks."
Speaking of the other guy, his roar sounded. When Navalia stood up, Kid Belos clung to her leg in fear.
She looked down at him, feeling a tad uncomfortable.
"If strong emotions can take a form, maybe this kid is his conscience or guilt."
"What? Ha! Belos has never done anything worthy of feeling guilty."
"Not even stinking up a bathroom before someone else goes in?"
"What? No! Besides, it's obviously his uh... se-sense of innocence! His pure intentions!"
"Ok... well whatever he represents, maybe he'll guide us to safety. And maybe even help me learn what all this means..."
She looked at another painting real quick. The boys from the other one were older now, and they were going up to someone with an outstretched hand, a pinkish flame coming from the palm.
She liked back at the kid, who she still didn't fully trust. He nodded, agreeing to keep her and Hunter safe.
"What was that last part?"
"Uh..."
The roar sounded again, only closer this time. The kid ran off.
"Just follow him!"
The kid went through one of the memory portraits.
"Wait, we can't just invade the memories! That's sacrilege!"
The roar got closer.
"Good thing I don't remember what that means, because we're going in anyway!"
She picked up Hunter and threw him into the painting.