"Woah it never fails to surprise me how everything looks so small up here!" Raye says as she stands outside the ship with the wind flowing through her hair.
"You know, I don't think I like the view. My fear is of falling off!" I say as I carefully look over the guardrail. Yea, no I should probably take a step back before I fall over. I walk back a few steps and notice I bump into someone in the process. "Oh sorry I wasn't paying attention-" It was T-elos, who I could sense was near me but I was too scared from looking over the rail to notice.
"It's fine, just watch where you step. You don't want to fall over." Was she teasing me? I'll decide to let it slide this time. We decide to go to the internal part of the ship with Raye and Zenobia to where the others were sitting. We talk about our experiences so far until we hear something near the front of the ship.
"What going on?" Riku asks we all turn our heads toward the sound of the voice.
"It seems like the captain wants to make an announcement," Cadman responds. After it seemed like the captain finally got everyone's attention, he began his speech.
"We have just received word from the Agnian Queen that all ships must dock at New Torna for the time being, therefore, our original destination of Torigoth City has been changed. We are sorry for the inconvenience."
"A detour puts a wrench in our original plan," Herald explains. "Torigoth is quite a ways away from New Torna with Agnus Territory is one of the largest regions in Alrest."
"Yea but we have no choice in the matter, once the ship docks, we'll just have to find the fastest way to get to Torigoth City. New Torna is the Royal capital, after all, they have to have some sort of transportation right?" Raye asks as we all process what we should do.
"Riku heard that Agnus cities so far apart that suitable way of travel is aircraft. That or could risk going by foot." Riku interjects.
"Walking there is fine by me! I've heard that Agnus has some pretty powerful monsters to fight, so at least we'll have fun if we run into one!" Zenobia exclaims.
"Don't you mean you would have fun, the rest of us would be trying not to die!" I respond.
"Well let's just hope that it doesn't come to that. For now, let's just wait until we reach the dock. Maybe we can even find out why our route got changed mid-flight." Cadman says in his usual calm tone.
"You're right! Alright, everyone! Onward to New Torna!" Raye exclaims while throwing her fists in the air. Everyone else on the ship turns in her direction. I honestly don't know how she's able to do that so openly.
***Timeskip brought by Zenobia doing pushups with Riku on her back***
"Hey, check it out! That's New Torna down there!" Raye says we look over the rail to see a massive city on the shore of a gigantic body of water. The ship finally made it to the dock where it was filled with people. However, we also noticed that there were people in what looked like royal uniforms approaching the ship as well.
"Hey, what's going on?" I ask as the same people that now had boarded the ship. "Is there something wrong?"
"There is nothing to worry about. Due to recent events, we are under orders to search for anything suspicious in the ship's cargo. You are all free to leave afterward." Huh, I guess they heard about what happened in Tantal, or maybe even Mor Ardain? I'm not entirely sure. Whatever, I guess we have no choice but to wait. They scour the cabin while some go below the deck to where I guess the cargo is located, another was talking to the captain. However, I also saw some glaring at us. It was at that point it hit me that our group was some of the only people that had blades on the ship. One of them even got close enough to us as if they were trying to look at our blades' core crystals. Although it wasn't long before they walked away.
"You can put your hand down, Nick." Huh? What does Herald mean? I look down and realize that my hand was extended in front of T-elos. Did I do that subconsciously?
"Oh, yea I don't know why I did that." The royal militia finally let us off the ship claiming that they had found nothing on it. "Ok so does anybody know where we're supposed to go?" Everybody shook their head, this is when we realized that this is all our first time in the Agnian region. It's honestly surprising that we're just now realizing this.
"Well first things first, we should probably ask around and get a map of the region," Cadman states as we walk away from the docking area. "Herald and I will obtain a map while you all ask around for a way to get to Torigoth City. Let's all meet up at the statue over there". He pointed over to a large statue that seemed to be in the center of the area we were in.
"On it!" Raye exclaims as we all split up and ask around. T-elos and I decide to walk out a bit farther than the others to some shops and ask them for directions. Well, it was more like I was asking them. T-elos stood behind me most of the time. I think she might have intimidated some of the people we spoke to, albeit by accident.
"Ok thank you for your time," I say to a vendor who gave us enough information to decide what to do. "Alright, let's make our way to the meeting point."
"Very well," T-elos says as we make our way to the statue in the center of the district. I notice that this place must be very popular since there are so many people around the place. We get to the place and decide to wait for the others. The city was really wonderful now that I have a chance to really look around.
"Hey, T-elos, when the mission is over maybe we can come- ow!" I feel my body get pushed forward as I instinctively throw my arms out to balance myself. I turn around and see a hooded girl. "Oh sorry, I didn't notice you!" Wait why am I apologizing?
"Oi out of the way!" She then rushed off. Almost as if she was running away from something. That's when I hear someone yelling off in the distance, and it was coming closer.
"Someone stop her!!" Huh, the royal guard? Was she a criminal or something? I'm not entirely sure what's going on, but I'll try my best to help. Maybe it'll also help relieve some of the daggers that were thrown at us when we were on the ship.
"T-elos you up for this?" I ask her as the guard runs past us.
"Heh, it might be a little fun?" She says as we start running after the guards and the girl they were after. Thanks to Newt's training, my endurance has increased greatly, I'll definitely have to thank her at some point! "Nick, we should take the high ground, we're getting nowhere on the ground." She's right, we'll just be running around and get tired. We use Telo's jumping affinity to scale a building and ran across the rooves.
"Hey what's going on?" Huh? I turn to see Raye and Zenobia have managed to catch up to us from somewhere. "We saw you dash away from the statue and knew something was up!" Raye exclaimed.
"Long story short. We're helping the royal guard catch a Gormotti girl who was running away from them." I say in between breaths.
"Got it! We'll continue the chase from up here. You two find a way to cut her off! Let's go, Zenobia!"
"See ya later little bro!" Zenobia says as they blast past us. Were they always that fast? That's amazing!
"Come on T-elos! We can't let them outrun us!"
"Heh, I'm actually running this fast so that I won't outrun you." Huh?!?! Am I just slow?
"Wait really?"
"Maybe. Just keep up." She's just messing with me at this point. We finally find a point where we can safely jump from a roof and continued our chase on the ground. I'm surprised that I was able to run this long. Being the driver of an aegis-level blade must come with its perks I guess. "Nick I see her. She's on the street across from us. We just need to be a bit faster to cut in front of her."
"Looks like we won't need to." I notice a few things out of the corner of my eye. Two of them were Raye and Zenobia, who finally passed the guards chasing the girl. The third... is an animal blade? We then cut a turn to run across the street and ran in front of the girl, with Raye and Zenobia in tow. "Hi again, sorry about this but it seems that we needed to stop you."
"Ugh, just what I needed. Fine, you got me." The girl says as she raises her arms in the air. She then turns around to face the blade that we saw running alongside us. "Same as last time?"
"Indeed, although I must say that this was your best attempt yet" The blade responds as the guards catch up to the group. "Please see to it that the princess makes it back to the castle."
"Princess? She's royalty?" I say with a shocked face.
"You got a problem with it?" She says darting her eyes at me. I honestly didn't think I said anything wrong, but oh well.
"Not at all!" Although her demeanor doesn't really scream royalty.... The guards escorted the princess back to the castle while the blade stayed back to talk with us.
"I would like to thank you all for assisting in catching the princess."
"No problem does this happen frequently, uhh..." Raye responds seemingly pausing since she didn't know the blade's name. Actually, none of us knew his name.
"Ah I apologize, my name is Dromarch, and I am general of the royal guards. I can confirm that this does happen occasionally. However, it's very convenient that you were the ones to chase after her. I was also told to look for your group.
"By who?" Raye replied.
"The Queen." After that, it honestly felt as if we were drawn to royalty at this point. We decided to follow Dromarch back to the castle, passing by the statue to meet Riku, Cadman, and Herald.
"Hey so, how does the Queen even know about us?" I ask Dromarch as we all make our way to the castle gates. Wow, this castle is much bigger than the one in Tantal.
"Well, word spread about an attack in Mor Ardain, along with a series of earthquakes. Coincidentally, you all arrived in New Torna not too soon afterward. I'm sure the Queen is just worried about her people, although I'm sure you are not the same people who attacked Mor Ardain."
"Oh well, that's actually perfect! We were actually here to try and find a way to stop whatever they're planning." Zenobia responds as we all walk into what seems like a large throne room. There were two people on the other end, one started to look familiar as we walked closer to them. The other was also familiar, but I couldn't put my finger on where I had seen her. "Hey ain't that the girl we were chasing earlier?"
"So how long was it this time?" The woman, who I presumed was the queen asked the princess.
"3 hours."
"Ohh that's my girl, if only this old lady could get out more-" She then seemed to finally notice us standing in the room and immediately changed her posture. "Ahem, ah this must be the group that just arrived in New Torna, as Queen, I humbly welcome you to our kingdom!"
"Please allow me to introduce you, this is Queen Nia of the Agnian kingdom, and this is her daughter, Princess Eira."
"Not to be blunt but it seems as though princess escape a lot," Riku exclaims. Herald flicks him on the head in response.
"Do not worry, it's just what she does." Her majesty says while getting up from her throne and walking towards us. I had just received word from the King of Tantal that you all would be here at some point, I did not expect it to be so soon."
"Your Majesty, if I may, are you forcing yourself to talk like that?" I ask her. She hesitates a bit while Dromarch and Eira chuckle to themselves. I suddenly feel everyone staring at me, including the Queen. She then lets out a huge sigh.
"Even after being queen all this time, it's still so draining to keep up the act of one." She says as her whole demeanor seems to change almost instantly. "It feels so much better to act like me for once." Wow, she's like an entirely different person now.
"My lady, are you sure it's alright to drop the act so soon?" Dromarch says as he stutters a bit.
"Oh it's fine Dromarch, keeping up that facade for so long has driven me crazy at this point." She responds. "I've heard so much about you all, especially you." Is she pointing to me?
"Me? I'm not that special really." I say nervously. I sometimes hate when all the attention is on me.
"What did you hear about him?" Raye asks as we both are seemingly shocked. I sometimes forget how protective she can be sometimes.
"I've heard about him being the driver of a very dangerous Blade. Turns out the rumors were true. Let me ask you something, Nick. Are you prepared to take responsibility if something were to happen because of her?" What kind of question is that? The obvious response would be to say yes, but....
"I have faith in T-elos, she won't cause any serious problems. We're a team, so her actions are my actions. However, to answer your question, yes I will be prepared." I respond as the room went quiet. Honestly, it felt so tense waiting for the Queen to respond.
"Well, that's good to hear. What about you T-elos?" Huh, she asking T-elos?
"My driver may be slow at times, but he's always one to keep his word, and so am I. I won't cause any issues, however, I won't make any promises if others anger me." Hopefully, she's joking. I honestly don't think I could truly stop her if she ever got upset. The queen seemed to think to herself before sighing and smiling at us.
"Well that settles it, you two are good in my book." The Queen states as she turns her back to us as she walks to a nearby guard and whispers something to him, all the guards then retreated from the room. "Sorry about that, even though Shellhead's son gave you all the okay, I still wanted to confirm it for myself."
"Phew, your majesty, actually we came here to see where this gear could come from." Raye says as she pulls out the gear from her bag. "We heard that we could go to Gormott for more information. Is there any sort of way we could get there?"
"I'll be honest, I have heard about your mission to find Mythra. However, even I don't know where she could be."
"Riku don't mean to intrude, but it seems as Queen knew Aegis personally."Riku says as my brain started going into overdrive Oh now I know where I've seen the Queen!
"Wait! You're the Gormotti girl in the picture Brighid showed us!" I suddenly blurt out. I didn't mean to but the shock of realization sort of forced it to happen.
"Hehe, you catch on rather quickly. Yes, I am." She says as she pulls out her own copy of the picture. "Those were good times."
"Wait but if this was five hundred years ago...how old does that make you?" Zenobia asks while being confused.
"A lot older than I look, that's for sure. I'm lucky to look this good after all this time." The Queen responds and she looks at the picture.
"Does that mean that the girl you're holding is Princess Eira?" I say while pointing to the baby she was holding in the picture.
"Ah no that's my other daughter. She was a prodigy at playing instruments, especially the flute. She lived in Fonsett with her husband since they didn't wanna be in the royal limelight."
"Ah, I see." I say as I sort of retreat while I let the others talk with the Queen and see if they can arrange something so we can get to Gormott and I notice Zenobia just standing with her eyes closed. "Hey, Zenobia, what's up?"
"Someone or something very powerful is here. I can just feel their presence from their raw power." She responds as she starts to get excited. I guess Zenobia can sense power. That's pretty unique. That makes sense for her though. "Although its presence is somewhat different, almost as if it's not from a blade."
"Huh well, I say let's not go looking for it, especially since we just got on the Queen's good side."
'Of course bro! I may love to fight, but I can control myself too you know!" I somewhat doubt that.
"Yea I know," I say as I notice the princess out of the corner of my eye. I decide to walk over and say something. "Hi. I think we kinda got off on the wrong foot when we first met. My name is Nick and it's a pleasure meeting you."
"I'm Eira, you don't have to put the princess part every time you mention me. I know it can be a hassle." Oh ok, that's a relief, just like Amara.
"So how come you like escaping so much?" I ask her curiously.
"Well, wouldn't you like to know?"
"Actually I would." I retort as I look at Eira who doesn't actually look all that similar to her mother.
"Mmm fine. Well, I sometimes take the food and other things I get here and give them to the orphans who live on the street. They even help me run away when I eventually get caught. It's all in good faith really. The queen has put orders in place that help these kids, but I decided that I want to help in my own way too." My eyes widen.
"That's amazing! I wish I could be as fortunate as you to help a lot of people. As a beginner mercenary, you don't get to do a lot of things." I say with a chuckle.
"Beginner? As in you just became one?" Eira replied.
"Yea just over a week ago actually. My life has been rather eventful ever since. I sometimes think that I'm not even supposed to be here." Now that I think about it, I really never was supposed to be on this mission in the first place. "I'm really only here because I became a driver."
"That's not true!" Zenobia interjects while she glides over to us. "You're here because you're our brother, and you have proven yourself to be strong too. Don't forget about what you did back in Tantal now. You were amazing! I could sense the fighting spirit in you."
"Fighting spirit?" Eira said as she clearly looked confused.
"Ah don't worry, my sister has a knack for fighting, her reputation as a Blade in Leftheria is insane."
"You call her your sister, even though you're not related by blood?" Eira replies.
"Of course, my family likes to think that everyone in our house is family, not to mention we all grew up together anyway. It's only fair that we treat each other as siblings." I then explain further about our situation with Zenobia to Eira. All of a sudden she started tearing up. "Hey, are you okay?"
"Yea I just need some fresh air." She says as she ran out of the room. I hope I didn't say anything wrong.
"I apologize, she has had an extremely rough past. It's not my place to tell her story. I'm sure she'll tell you all when she feels ready." The queen says as she walks over to me. "Don't worry, you're an alright kid Nick."
"What makes you say that, your Majesty?" I reply.
"You just remind me of someone I knew a long time ago, that's all. And if you're anything like him, I know you have the determination for this mission." I guess she also overheard our conversation.
"Thank you, your Majesty. I'll do my best!"
"You mean we'll do our best!" Raye says as Cadman and Herald seemed to have finished talking to each other. I then realized that someone had been missing for a few minutes now.
"Yea, by the way, has anyone seen Riku?" Everyone then looked around to notice that he wasn't in the room anymore. "Huh, I guess I'll go look for him. You're coming T-elos?"
"Hmph, I have nothing else better to do." T-elos then followed me out of the throne room and into the hallway, which was rather large.
"Hopefully we don't get lost."
*3rd person POV*
"I'm glad her new driver seems to be a good kid this time." The Queen says to herself as she turns back towards The rest of the group that was still in the throne room. "Now then, because of me prioritizing the Agnian citizen's safety, getting to Gormott by ship won't be possible for a while. I'm sorry to say but the next quickest way would be to travel on foot."
"That's no problem, your Majesty, we all could use a bit of exercise anyway," Cadman replies while Herald continued to speak with Dromarch about Gormott. "Although I have to ask, your Majesty. Are you sure you don't know where Mythra could possibly be? It would sure save us a lot of time."
"Trust if I knew, I would have gone to get'er myself, but they insisted to keep their final resting place a secret." The Queen says with a sigh. "However, it's like him to leave clues for someone who is worthy."
*1st person POV*
"Woah, maybe we should have asked the queen for directions before we walked out huh?" I say as we walk down what felt like a labyrinth.
"Hmph, even I could have told you that."
"Ok, I deserve that one- huh?" I see a certain nopon as soon as we turn one of the many corners. "Riku!"
"Meh-meh!" Riku turned around. "Riku swear artificial blade passed by door earlier."
"Riku, artificial blades are a lot more common now thanks to technology, maybe it was one of the guard's Blades," I say as I look around to see if I could confirm what he was saying. I didn't see anybody, but this place is huge so maybe he just got lost like us.
"I thought I heard a familiar voice." I turn to find Eira who seemed to have changed into something that seems like adventure clothing.
"Hey, your Majes-" I start to say before she reaches her finger out in my face
"Stop right there. That's a mouthful. Just call me Eira from now on. This goes for all of you."
"Are you sure? You are a princess. It seems rather informal."
"Not when I'm gonna join ya group!"
"Ah, I see.".......Wait, what?