Explaining the full extent of what he had found involving the square in the dust was difficult for Jayler, but luckily for him, Liathine seemed to catch on without any issues. She was just as perceptive as he remembered, and she understood before he even fully realized what point he was trying to get across. Her eyes narrowed and went dark as she recognized what Jayler was trying to say, and she simply nodded to herself as Jayler finished the remainder of the story. He could tell that she was trying to put the pieces together in her mind that would paint a grander picture of the situation at hand.
"I see," Liathine muttered simply. Jayler was sure that was the least of what she was thinking, but he didn't want to pester her about it too much. He had full confidence that Liathine was going to find some way to make sense of all this. It was practically her trademark at that point to pull answers from thin air without anyone needing to put forth much effort. He didn't know how she did it, but he decided not to ask her about it either. It was clear that Liathine had more than enough on her plate as it is.
"What do you think we should do about it?" Jayler questioned when the silence grew to be too much for him to bear. "That means that somebody's been here, but I don't know who it could have been. They were here recently too, but why would they bother coming by? It just doesn't make sense to me."
"They must have wanted whatever was here beforehand," Liathine shrugged. "As far as I can tell, what was taken from the drawer was likely a picture of some sort. The outline in the dust that you described would imply that solution. The drawer in question sounds as if it's a bit too thin to have held a box. We don't have a way of saying for sure what the picture could have been of or why it was there, but I'm sure that we'll figure out a way to find the answer soon enough. You can go on and spread the news to the rest of the Clan Leaders if you want, but I doubt they'll have much more to say on the matter than either one of us does."
Jayler nodded slowly, closing his eyes as he contemplated Liathine's words. He really couldn't think of any reason that someone would want to come by the palace. It had been abandoned for ages as of the time that the Clan Leaders and Draconic Superiors decided to establish it as a home for Hanilia. Many stayed away because they were afraid of the rumors that something was off, so the rare person that would have possessed the confidence to infiltrate the space was likely one of a kind. Jayler knew that there was no way of tracking them down as it was right now, so all they could do was wait until a clue appeared before the team.
That didn't stop Jayler from wandering back up to the room in question though. He glanced down at the desk that he had been messing with before, and he checked the place where the square outline in the dust could be found. He brushed his fingers along the wood before holding them up to his face. Just as he expected, they came up completely clean. Whoever had infiltrated the palace had been there recently, but he wished that there was something more that he could do.
The knowledge that he was helpless until something else happened left Jayler feeling uncomfortable, if he was being perfectly honest with himself. It reminded him of his issues regarding the Silver Knight. All he wanted to do was find a way to reach the truth that he had spent so long searching for, but some roadblock or another got in his way. It was frustrating, to put it nicely, though there were a thousand other harsh words that he would have preferred to use.
All he needed was a name. In both cases, a name would bridge the gap between his lack of knowledge and the revelation necessary to find the truth. He wished that the Silver Knight had been thoughtful enough of the future to think of giving him her name prior to her abrupt disappearance, though he understood why she had held back. At the time, the war had just ended, and she was still getting used to the idea of remaining safe in the aftermath of such violence. Jayler couldn't blame her for her choice, but that didn't stop him from feeling a bit disappointed that he couldn't do more to reach out to her.
Jayler glanced back and forth between his hand and the desk before him. A sigh pushed free of his lips, and he shook his head. He simply didn't understand what he was meant to do next. There were too many questions swirling through his head for him to even begin to count, and he absolutely hated it. Jayler was fully aware that he was stuck in his tracks as far as his potential investigation was concerned, but it was still frustrating.
He forced himself to look away from the desk as soon as he could manage it. He needed some time to figure everything out before he would be able to even think of making further progress. Too much was happening, and he knew it. Maybe he simply needed to settle down in the castle that the Clan Leaders were trying to develop. Jayler needed to snap out of this.
Jayler started to walk away from the room as soon as he was able to force his body to move once again. He could think about everything that was happening elsewhere on Skylia or anywhere else in the Galaxy of Hyperion another time. He had to stay focused. The Hanilia had to come together, and it wasn't as if anyone else was stepping up to the plate, so it fell to him and the Clan Leaders. As much as he longed to continue his investigation, Jayler knew that he had his duties, and his priorities had to lie elsewhere for the time being.
~~~~~
Jay, Lana, Ronan, and Arian had been on the move for quite some time, simply floating from town to town in search of new information. It was a slow, agonizing process, but Jay knew that there wasn't much else they could do. They didn't have any specific origin points for the rumors that Lana had mentioned, so they would simply have to track down leads themselves. It wasn't ideal or optimal, but nothing in life ever seemed to be.
"I don't think that any immortals would willingly wander out into the limelight, if I'm being perfectly honest," Arian remarked with a sigh and a shake of his head. The constant movement was clearly starting to grate on his nerves, and Jay could tell that he was desperate for a break. There hadn't been much time for him to relax, all things considered, and Arian's anxiety was starting to hit a boiling point. It was unfortunate, to say the least. Jay wished that she could do something to ease his nerves, but there wasn't an easy solution to the dilemma, so she decided to keep her concerns to herself.
"You would expect people in most towns to notice that something was going on though," Ronan remarked with a light frown. "I mean, if a regular person saw that one of their neighbors wasn't aging at all, they'd catch onto something being weird. The only reason that nobody realized that I was aging so slowly was because of how hidden away Cloudpeak has always been."
"It looks like we're going to have to keep to small towns if we want to find new information then," Lana said, her eyes slipping shut for a moment. "That's not exactly an easy way to go about this though. There are a thousand small towns on Skylia, and that's not even accounting for the fact that these mystery Hanilia of ours could be hiding somewhere on another planet. We don't really have evidence that they're on Skylia specifically."
"This is starting to feel like we're searching for a needle in a haystack," Arian confessed. "I understand that it's sort of the point of the whole thing, but... I don't like the fact that we have to do so much if we want to find the people who could possibly help Skylia out of a potential crisis."
"I'm positive that something is happening," Jay announced firmly. "All that happened with Cryai makes me believe that there's a figure lurking in the shadows right now. We might not know much more about them than the fact that they're an Ice mage, but... If they're planning to harm Skylia, or any other planet, for that matter, it's our duty to fight back and do what we can to change fate from reaching that twisted outcome."
"You've got a lot of optimism regarding this," Arian commented as a small smile spread across his features. "I don't know how you're able to do it. I try to be confident, but every once in a while, I just hit my wall, and I can't figure out how to drag myself back into reality. I guess that running around like this all the time is making me anxious. I don't know how cut out I am for all of this danger."
Jay's mind was cast back to the battle against the Ice mage within the remains of Nadia, and she remembered how strong Arian had been during the fight. He was far from being on her level, but that was a high bar that not many fighters could surpass due to Jay's history of spending years upon years training to refine her skills to perfection. Still, he had far more experience than she would have expected from someone who claimed that he wasn't much of a fighter. Arian's anxiety regarding battle appeared to be created by a history of violence, but Jay had no evidence to confirm such fully. She had her suspicions, but she didn't want to go around accusing Arian without any evidence. The last thing she wanted was for a chat between them to end in confrontation. Their mission was too important for them to turn against each other and start arguing at such a critical point in their mission.
"That's okay. Don't worry yourself about it too much," Ronan assured him. He placed one hand on Arian's shoulder gently. "I'm not exactly ready for all of this fighting either, but I'm sure that we'll be able to get through it together. We've got one another to rely on, and I think that's going to make it a lot easier for us to power through. We're better together than apart, right?"
Arian nodded his agreement, and he raised one hand to take Ronan's fingers between his own. "Thanks for that," he said softly, still unwilling to look Ronan in the eye. Jay could tell that he was thankful for Ronan's words, but his lingering embarrassment kept him from properly expressing the depths of his gratitude.
Jay thought about Arian's words for a long moment before she shook her head. "In all honesty, I don't know if I would really call it optimism," she admitted. "I simply know that there's a lot of work to be done, and I think it would be for the best if we moved on and did what we could to accomplish our mission as soon as possible. There are a lot of people counting on us, and I refuse to let them down."
"You're so proactive about helping other people. I don't know how you can do it. If you ask me, the way that you act reminds me of a hero straight out of a legend," Arian remarked with a small laugh.
"Heroes and mercenaries aren't exactly the same thing," Jay murmured. She didn't want to even come close to addressing the fact that Arian was far more accurate in his assumption than he had realized, so she chose to ignore his words. Instead, she let her gaze drop to the ground as the group strayed away from the town that they had arrived in most recently.
"Well, now that we're finished looking around here, maybe we should move on and pay attention to the next town," Lana suggested. "We can go on and teleport there since that would be easier than walking. If we don't need to move on foot, we shouldn't do it. In my opinion, we should conserve our energy in case we wind up coming to blows with someone."
"I hope that we don't have to fight," Ronan said softly, glancing down at the ground after he moved his hand away from Arian's shoulder. "I'm not exactly experienced in battling other people. No soldiers ever came to Cloudpeak, and those that did intrude on the town were taken care of by Mayor Cryai. I think that he was trying to keep me in the dark on purpose for the sake of manipulating me... I never wanted to imagine that he would use me like that, but the facts have made it clear that this is what happened."
Jay felt her heart pull in sympathy at Ronan's words, and she wished that there was more she could do. Ronan's isolation from the world had been the result of Cryai's selfish nature, and pulling him away from that was far easier said than done. He didn't seem to understand the severity of the situation he had been brought into because he had spent so long living as if there wasn't even the slightest possibility of anything going wrong. Cryai's influence could still be felt even after the death of the caretaker of Cloudpeak.
Lana suddenly drew a circle in the air, and Jay was snapped out of her concerned thoughts at the sight of a portal. Lana was the first to walk through, and after the tip of her ponytail disappeared, Arian trailed after her. Jay gestured for Ronan to go ahead of her, and the boy gave her a curt yet polite nod before following her directions.
Jay took a minute to follow the lead of her team, and she frowned to herself as she looked around the area one last time. There was a lot to consider involving their search. There were still three more Skylian Mages to search for as far as she was aware, and it would take a long time to find even one of them. Out of the three rumors that Lana had mentioned, only two of them could have been applicable due to the issue of only one Fire mage being able to fit in the group.
Still, she would have to deal with that issue when the proper time came. She walked through the gate and allowed herself to shift along with the portal. The rest of the world fell away from around her.
When the light of teleportation faded from around her, Jay was in a completely different location. She blinked a few times to adjust to the new lighting. The primary star of Hyperion, Jariis, was slipping its way over the horizon slowly, and Jay could tell that they had made their way to a different time zone of Skylia. Jariis was often called the sun regardless of its actual title because of how heavy Hyperion's connections were to Earth, and she knew that she had grown up knowing it by that title as well.
"I hope that we aren't walking directly towards the sun to reach our destination," Arian sighed, following up on Jay's thoughts regarding Jariis exactly. Lana gave him a nervous yet sympathetic smile, and Arian let out a small whimper before shaking his head. "That's exactly what we're doing, isn't it?"
"I'm afraid that we don't have much of a choice on the matter," Lana told him with a small shrug. "This is where we're going to search through next. It might be a nice place to linger for the night as well. I've heard that there's a tavern here that's known for spreading lots of rumors when the stars come out. We can hang around there and see if anybody has access to the information that we're searching for."
"That's why we came here so late in the day!" Ronan realized, clapping his hands together in excitement. "I understand now. That makes sense. How about we go and see what we can find out before the sun goes down? We have some time to spare, and I think that we should use it as much as we can."
Jay nodded her agreement, and she held up one hand to shield her eyes from the overpowering light of Jariis. A few small homes were starting to come into view on the horizon, and she allowed herself to focus on the details of the buildings rather than concentrating on the illumination of the star ahead. The houses were all in rather good condition, and the windows seemed to glow with the gentleness of dusk. In a way, it was almost entrancing, and Jay had to force herself to concentrate on the mission at hand to keep from being too distracted.
Soon enough, the bulk of the town came into view, and Jay was able to see the space for what it truly was. There weren't many buildings in the area, but there was a splendid hotel that spiraled into the sky. Right next to the hotel was a small building that Jay could only imagine was the tavern. Something about it gave off an almost nostalgic vibe to her, as if it was meant to draw people in with the might of its homey and cozy atmosphere. It was certainly working for her, and she imagined that the rest of the group felt the same way.
Lana didn't allow Jay to stray too far from their scheduled path though, and she made her way to the hotel. "This area seems far more friendly to passerby than Cloudpeak was. I mean, this area has a reputation for tourists enjoying what it has to offer. It's a small area, but everyone who comes here loves it. I'm sure that there will be at least someone here who has heard something. It's something for us to at least consider when we're looking for the few remaining Skylian Mages," she told the group.
There was something about Lana's phrasing that bothered Jay. It certainly would have been easier to say that there were three of them left. It was easy to assume that the mages who remained were three in number given the fact that there were three other categories of magic remaining. They had found the Skylian Mages who controlled the Air and Earth subgroups, but Mystic, Fire, and Water yet evaded them. Saying that there were three of them would have been realistic, and nobody would have objected to such an assumption. It simply made sense this way.
And yet, Lana had chosen to pass up on this opportunity, and Jay didn't like that in the slightest. She was sure that there was a reason for Lana to keep that secret, but she didn't know why Lana was trying to hide it. Then again, Jay had more than a few secrets of her own that she wasn't ready to discuss with the rest of the team, so she should have been more sympathetic and open to the concept than Lana was being. Still, it bothered her, and she made a mental note to corner Lana when they could get away with talking without the boys around. Jay was determined to hear as much as possible when she got the chance, and Lana was the only one who had the answers she was looking for.
The inside of the hotel was rather nice, and Jay had to admit that the idea of sitting down on something cushioned after their long day of searching was beyond incredible to her. They had started the day later than most, but teleporting so much was not something that she enjoyed. Jay could handle teleporting around a few times, but with how much shifting they had been doing, she was starting to feel nauseous. This had been an issue long before the magical withdrawal came into play, and Jay was sure that the two matters couldn't have been related.
"This looks like a place out of a fairy tale!" Ronan exclaimed, his eyes wide in surprise. Jay hadn't ever seen him so excited, and she couldn't blame him in the slightest. Given how sheltered Ronan was, it was only natural that he was caught off guard the beautiful decor of the lobby. She had to admit that it was impressive as well.
In fact, she had only ever seen one other place look this effortlessly incredible. It had been quite some time since she was last there, but she never would have forgotten the appearance of her favorite building in the entire Galaxy of Hyperion. When she closed her eyes, she could still see--
"We'd like two rooms, please," Lana told the receptionist behind the desk. Unlike in Cloudpeak, the receptionist seemed pleasant and open rather than shaded and terrified. She simply smiled to Lana before shifting her attention over to her computer and starting to type away at the keyboard with a speed that seemed almost effortless.
Jay hadn't even realized how spaced out she had gotten until after Ronan and Arian glanced over at her in concern. She shook her head to show that it was nothing to worry about in her opinion, but she could tell that they weren't buying it. There was no way that she was going to actually discuss it all in detail, so she decided to keep the explanation of what happened as simple as possible.
"Just thinking," she told them simply. This was far from being sufficient for Ronan and Arian, but if they had further issues with it, they chose not to press her. Instead, they simply looked away, and Jay had to resist the urge to let out a sigh as a reaction. She felt bad for not wanting to talk about it, but she didn't think that she was ready to fully explain the depth of her issues with emotion. Hell, Jay wasn't sure if she would ever be fully prepared to open up to others about the horrors of her past.
Lana returned to them a moment later, and a bright smile lit her features. She was holding tightly to two keys, and she passed one over to Ronan. The boy looked down at it in fascination, and he smiled to himself as he examined the object in full. "Wow... This sure is fancy," he murmured.
At first, Jay was thinking that perhaps his wonder was related to his general sheltered nature, but she quickly changed her tune when she actually set her eyes upon the key in question. It seemed to glow in the overhead lighting, and the tint of splendid silver that coated the surface of the key made it radiant and ethereal in a way that no key had a right to be. This town truly did understand that its money came from the tourism industry, and that was where much of the funding went. The homes from before, which appeared simple on the outside, were likely far more complex when the door was actually pushed open. She could only imagine how rich the people in the area were, and she wondered how any could possibly possess such obscene amounts of money on their own.
Still, she didn't have much time to think about that further. Lana's voice snapped her out of her thoughts. "That's for you and Arian. They set us up with a room that's connected through a small hallway between the two different spaces, and we'll be able to see one another when we pass through, but the main areas are still separated before. These keys also work on the doors that keep us out of the hallway, so the key that you and Arian have for the main door will also unlock the door to the hallway. It needs to be unlocked from both sides in order for anyone to actually pass through for the sake of privacy," Lana explained. She was holding to the other key tightly, and Jay could tell that it was meant for the two girls to share.
Jay immediately realized what the thought of a shared room for her and Lana meant, and she had to resist the urge to focus in on the silver object resting between Lana's fingers. This would be her chance to ask Lana about what she was hiding from the rest of the group. It wasn't going to be easy to get Lana to actually answer her inquiries, but Jay was desperate to try. Lana had clearly put together pieces to the puzzle that Jay was not yet aware of, and if they were to succeed in their mission, the entire group had to hear her out. Lana's insight could easily have wound up being the difference between the full union of the Skylian Mages and their prolonged issues of separation.
"Let's go on and settle down for at least a little bit before we go to the tavern and talk with the people there," Lana continued, and she gestured for the group to follow her. "The lady behind the desk said that we're going to be on the fourth floor at the far end of one of the hallways. That should make it nice and easy for us to find where we're supposed to be staying. That's for the best since we want to save as much of our energy as possible for tonight when we're going to need to ask everybody about what's been going on both in and out of this town."
"Do you really think that we're going to be able to find anyone there who can help us out with all this?" Arian questioned with a small frown. The group stepped into the hotel's elevator, and Arian reached out to punch the button with two fingers.
"This town is known for having a lot of gossip in its local tavern. People come here every once in a while to make sure that there isn't any information that they can use for other subjects. At the very least, I think it's worth a try. Shady people stop by here as well under the guise of being simple consumers, and they listen in on other conversations if they have reason to believe that something strange is going on," Lana explained with a light smile. "We should do what we can to find out more, and checking this tavern seems like a great first step to me."
"It's a nice place for us to start from. I agree with you there," Ronan nodded. "I know that there was a tavern back in Cloudpeak too. I went by there every once in a while, and I rather enjoyed being in there when I could. Of course, there wasn't much that I could do since nobody ever thought I was old enough to drink anything alcoholic... Perhaps Mayor Cryai told them that I couldn't have anything regardless of my age. That certainly sounds like something that he would do given the recent profile of his personality that you've proposed to me."
Jay didn't understand how in the world Ronan could remain so chipper and upbeat about everything despite the dismal circumstances that he found himself in. If she had heard about such a large betrayal, she would have been crushed, and moving on would have been the last thing from her mind for ages. Still, Ronan was facing the rest of the world with a smile, doing his best to help out others despite the circumstances that he had been placed in. It was admirable, and Jay couldn't help but wish that she was a bit more like him in that respect.
Her thoughts were brought a screeching halt as the elevator reached its desired floor of the hotel, and Lana glided out effortlessly. She began to follow the directions that had been given to her along with their room numbers, and the other three members of the group trailed after her in silence.
Soon enough, Lana stopped moving, and she looked up and down the two doors in question. "Let's go on and head in," she smiled before pressing the key into its respective lock. She opened the door easily and gestured for Jay to walk in first. Jay gave her a small nod before walking inside, and Lana trailed after her once she had given a small wave to the boys. Ronan and Arian followed suit with their own room.
Jay glanced around once they were inside, and she had to admit that the space was incredibly nice. The lobby most certainly told a story of how incredible the rest of the hotel was going to be. She was almost sad that they were only staying for one night, but it wasn't as if they had a choice in the matter. They were going to have to keep moving if they wanted to accomplish the mission that had been presented to them.
Jay sat down on the bed that was farthest from the door, and she glanced over to Lana. The other girl gave her a light smile, and Jay frowned internally. She was positive that Lana was hiding something, but she didn't know where to begin. She didn't even have solid evidence that anything was going on. All she could do was wait and see how their inevitable conversation unfolded.
This was not going to be easy.
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This update is coming hella late at night but it's okay
-Digital