It was about as easy as he expected to convince Makoto.
It wasn't so for Ramona and Oclier. Firstly, he had to take the long way around to get to fifth street from eighth where Makoto lived (Because the particular alley that connected those two streets was closed off for an investigation). Hearing himself explain the situation and asking two people he was acquaintances with at best to go on a potentially life-threatening quest was...kind of hard to listen to. Surprisingly, they accepted, and agreed to meet at the castle.
The spirit, Yami, hadn't said a word or so much as stirred since that morning. He was still trying to work out the conversation she had with Zori, which he relayed to Makoto when he talked to him. He had found out one thing, the reason that the summoning circle didn't have an indicator for what layer of the spirit world he summoned her from was because that it was a layer so far down that humans so far hadn't been able to reach. An undocumented layer.
That brought up more questions than it did answers, though, and both Zori and Yami seemed to know what allowed him to summon her now, something about his family's dealing with dragons, and most likely the same thing that Zori said would allow him to summon her Dilucu when he figured out what it was.
He had a feeling that his father knew, it was just one of the things that he'd been keeping from him, and maybe, just maybe he could find some of the answers in the shrouded memories surrounding the demon he defeated.
Zilder and Malika met Makoto, Ramona, and Oclier at the castle gates at sunset the night after, the rest of the time between the early morning he informed them and then all of them spent preparing. They brought everything they thought they needed for the trip. Ramona brought her sword, Oclier a staff, which looked to be ordinary except for runes carved into it, similar to those that Suzannah had on her sword, and Makoto his handguns.
They withheld bringing essential travel equipment, Zilder assured them that the king would supply everything they needed. He brought them through the castle, forgoing a scenic route and taking them straight to the throne room. The king was waiting for them of course, sitting barefoot with his legs crossed on his throne.
Standing beside him was a girl, at least someone that Zilder assumed to be a girl. She had long grey hair braided into a ponytail, and was in full armor. Their sixth member, Zilder presume.
"Welcome, welcome!" The king greeted. Zilder heard a small gasp from Makoto, and he remember that this was his first time seeing the king. Ramona and Oclier, who'd probably been living in the capital for much long, had most likely seen him already in his public appearances, and Malika had been seeing him frequently since she lived in the castle.. "I trust Zilder has explained the nature of this situation to you. If he has brought you, I'm sure he is more than capable in your abilities."
The king looked the group over, four humans and an elf. Zilder wouldn't mention it, but he was wondering how they would fare against angels if there were some still in the temple when they got there. "No doubt he's also told you all about the reward. It, of course, extends to all of you as well, bring me the mirror and you shall receive anything within my power to grant, so long as it's reasonable.
"We understand your majesty." Malika replied. "We're honored to accept this mission."
"Wonderful." The kind closed his eyes momentarily, as if recalling something. "There aren't many who would accept such a mission. The temple itself is one thing, but a trek to find it with all of the monsters roaming around in this day and age is...unsettling. Before I end up spooking you, thought, let me introduce your company for this mission. Second Lieutenant- ah...Chin Bo Shun! That's her name. She will be accompanying you for the expedition."
"Nice to meet you." Zilder said to the recently named random soldier, and she bowed in return.
"Now I must stress the importance of this mission. I'm sure the other countries have at least had similar ideas. Veredan to the north would have a lot to gain with contacting the gods, and you will be skirting their borders to get to the temple. The foxes to the east I don't believe will be much of a problem, they'll most likely keep to themselves. I don't know about the Galians to the sound, and many of the lands to the west, you shouldn't have a problem wi-"
Just then, the door burst open. Suzannah strode past two very confused guards who had no choice but to let her in. The group cleared a path for her as she walked right up to the king in his throne. "Father, I demand you allow me to go on this quest."
"Suzannah," The king spoke calmly, seemingly ignoring the loud noise of the door opening that made everyone else in the room start. "You must understand, as much as you want to go, you are my heir, you're much too valuable to the empire than you seem to believe. It's not that I'm doubting this group's ability to protect you, but there's always something...something that could happen. I'm sorry, but I can't let you go."
She turned to Zilder, who nearly gasped at how angry she looked. "Convince him! You are leading this mission are you not!?"
He put his hands up in a surrendering gesture. "I'm sorry, princess, it's out of my hands. The king won't let us leave with you." He was being honest, but in a split second he saw a kind of glint in her eye, a look she gave him that implied she understood something, and Zilder had no idea what.
He was about to call her on it, but she strode past him, angrily walking until she reached the doors of the throne room and slammed them shut on her way out.
"Forgive her." The king stated. "I'm sure she'll calm down about it once she sees her position. I want her to be here and safe, she'll cool off soon."
Zilder wasn't so sure about that, but he didn't say anything about it. "So, when are we setting off, your majesty?" He inquired.
"Tomorrow, I would like for you to be off as soon as possible. Nine weeks is a long time, but I would like for all of you to be here earlier than that if you can. There might be some kinks or such that we may need to work out with the mirror, so I'd rather find out about them before we actually need to use it." He beckoned for Zilder to come closer, and handed him a long, old looking roll of paper. "This is the map, plot out your route tonight. There are some key places along the way that you would do well to visit along the way to help you in your quest. I wish you luck."
"Thank you, your majesty, I won't- we won't let you down."
That night, most of the group convened in Zilder's room which surprisingly wasn't cramped. Malika was in her room instead, for whatever reason, but she said she would read over everything as they were leaving. The group decided that they would first stop at a city named Ithaca, which was directly on their path to the temple's location. The city was ancient, but it was on the current map of the lands still, so they knew it still existed. What was also still there were the deep forests surrounding the temple, but who knew what was lurking in them now?
They were thinking of skirting around the edges of the forest on the old map, as it showed a pathway that lead directly to the temple. The forest might have more or less reclaimed it, since it didn't show on the more recent map, so they would just keep going straight for the tower from Ithaca, which by walking would take a couple of weeks in itself, or about a week on horses.
"What about dragons?" Makoto asked, all eyes went to Zilder.
"That'd be six for all of us, I'm not sure my father can spare any of them for us unless you all don't mind waiting two days for them to get here from Wilde."
"One works." Oclier told him. "It can be used to carry our supplies."
A packdragon, even if it was slowed by the weight of the supplies, that would still shave some time off of the trip. So they had a means to get there, and a semblance of a plan. They didn't know enough to account for everything, but they were confident they had a solid chance at this.
Everyone dispersed, Ramona, Oclier, Makoto, and the random soldier sleeping in guest rooms. The next morning Zilder went and asked his father about the dragons. "For you, Zilder I can get you one. No more, but you should be able to make due with him."
After that, the morning and early afternoon went by quickly. It seemed like a mess of getting the final preparations ready, fitting the dragon, taking all of the supplies they needed. The time to leave was approaching rapidly, and Zilder was walking down a hall of the castle, heading toward the front gates when he was stopped by Malika.
"Zilder, drink this, now." She held out a potion, bubbling purple in and long bottle.
"Is that what I think it is?" Zilder asked, staring at the bottle intently.
"Yes. I spent the better part of last night working on it, so you better drink up."
Zilder took the bottle from her, examining it, then taking a whiff. It didn't..smell like anything, which was unsettling.
"Just drink it already! It's not poison!" She urged.
"Fine, fine! It just looks really, really odd, alright?" He gulped, and starting drinking it down. It burned a bit going down his throat, but was strangely cool in his stomach. He took a deep breath when he finally finished drinking it.
"Remember anything."
He tried looking through his memory. It was the same feeling as ever, fleeting sights of things he wasn't sure were real or imagined, nothing enough to coalesce into a solid memory, however. "No...I don't."
"Give it time, they'll come back gradually. With the strength of the ingredients in that potion they'll definitely come back."
"Alright, I'll take your word for it." He looked down the hall toward where he was heading. "You ready to go? It's just about time."
Malika nodded. "Yes, I am. I can't believe I'm about to do something like this. I mean I've been training to use my magic offensively, but I can't imagine having to use it on angels."
"Don't worry about it. Let's go, I'm the leader, remember? Don't want to keep the rest of the group waiting."
They ended up meeting in the castle garden. A single fire drake were strapped and saddled with the group standing beside him. The king, queen, princess, and Zilder's father came out to see them off.
"Look who showed up late to their own sendoff." Makoto noted