RavensDagger

  Chapter Two Hundred and Thirty-One - A Crysis?“So, what’s this about needing transportation?” Amaryllis asked. The words were a bit rude, but her tone was surprisingly business-like.

  Shard of Waterwatches passion, Third Split and One Whole--and gosh, we really did need a niame for them--bobbed up and down. “We seek passage to the Lonely Isnd, for ourselves and oher.”

  “I think we do that,” I said. I couldn’t help the eager grin. This wasn’t a full-blown adventure, but it wasn’t too far from it!

  “Assuming you pay, of course,” Amaryllis said.

  I pouted. Mouff was b, but I couldn’t fault Amaryllis. We had fuel to buy, a pantry to keep stocked, wages to pay ahings to pick up along the way. Awen was doing most of our maintenance, but maybe we’d need specialized help at some point, which would also oney.

  The cry shifted, and for the first time I noticed a little leather pouch tucked against its side. The fp on it opened all on its own, and a small device came floating out of it. It looked like a mini-typewriter that had been driven over by a semi-trailer. It was all squished and covered in little rods and levers, there was even a little crystal poking out of it.

  The cry held it up before them and Amaryllis looked at the device. “You know, I ’t uand them, right?”

  “Uh, they’re not saying anything,” I said. “What is that?”

  “It is a unication device, to call and receive items stored elsewhere.”

  Like Amaryllis’ banking ring!

  The device started to clid cck as the buttons and levers upon it were pressed in and turned in quick succession. I felt the barest flicker of something before a appeared, then another and another. Soon, some two dozen golden s were floating around the device before, with a snap, then all stacked together into two golden rods.

  “We hope this is suffit remuion for the journey. repared to give the same amount once again upon our arrival.”

  I trahat for Amaryllis, and she nodded. “For a trip that’ll only take two days, that’s a very good payment, which leaves me very suspicious. What sort of trouble are ying with you?”

  “Amaryllis, just because they’re generous doesn’t mean that they have any sort of ulterior motives,” I said.

  “We must admit to some ulterior motives,” the cry said.

  My mouth shut with a cck of teeth. Oh.

  “What is it?” I asked.

  “The one we wish t with us is young, a shard not yet made whole, and ohat will never reaeness. They are a shard of growth.”

  I trahat as best I could. “Do you know what that means?” I asked.

  Amaryllis shook her head. “It doesn’t mean anything to me,” she said.

  “Five us, we fet that not all know as much about us as we do. It is suffit to know that this young shard represents what some would sider a danger in our society. They should have been broken, acc to our ws, but we and some others do not see things that way. The simplest, a, solution would be to merely move them to a new home. The Lonely Isnd is a pce where we have brought other simir shards.”

  I didn’t uairely. The other cry they wao get was somehow dangerous, and had to be brought elsewhere for... their own prote? Or maybe it was to protect the rest of the cry? “Are they going to be trouble orip over?” I asked.

  The cry shifted from side to side. “They are young, and perhaps inquisitive, but troublesome they are not.”

  I looked at Amaryllis, then back to Shard of Waterwatches passion, Third Split and One Whole. “Okay,” I said. “Are you going t them over? You pay us after you’ve returned.”

  The cry started to bob, then aborted the gesture. “We... would appreciate some assistahe little shard ot yet fly of their own accord, and we are trying to avoid the notice of other cry within this city.”

  “You’re ly hard to notice,” Amaryllis said oransted.

  “Five us, we may have misunicated. We, ourselves, are under no danger. It would be wrong, and distasteful, for another cry to attack a whole member of our society. It would simply not occur. We are under no dahe shard is offered no such protes.”

  “I’ll go with you then,” I said.

  “Alone?” Amaryllis asked.

  I shrugged. “I guess?”

  She shook her head. “You idiot, you’re inviting trouble. I’ll get Bastion. Awen is still fixing things in the engine room and I’m too busy to be running around and carrying things. That’s grunt work.”

  “But I’m not too busy for that?” I asked.

  “No,” she said before walking off and heading towards Bastion, who ractig at the rear of the ship.

  Soon enough, the sylph was joining us on the pier while Amaryllis took old a down to stash it.

  “So,” Bastion said as he adjusted his belt. He didn’t have his full suit of armour on, just the padded jerkin he wore underh and his big metal-shod boots with his pants tucked in. “I hear that I’m needed?”

  “Your assistance would be wele, soft one,” our new cry buddy said.

  I transted again, and Bastion nodded. “It would be my pleasure,” he said befesturing ahead. “Please, lead the way.”

  We started to follow the cry as they floated ahead of us. It seemed like the best speed they could manage wasn’t much faster than a brisk walk, which was fi gave me more time to think of a cool niame.

  Their name as an a was... SWCTSOW. SaWaCTaSOW? No, that was toe, and besides, who was I to decide on someone’s vowels. Maybe just passion then? Or Crystal. That was a real name. Well, so was their name, of course. Blue? On at of their colour?

  ing up with a good niame was hard.

  “So, Miss Bunch,” Bastion said.

  “You know, you could just call me Broccoli,” I said. “Or Broc. We’re friends, o be all formal and such.”

  “Of course. It’s a difficult habit to break,” he said.

  I bumped his shoulder with mi was a little strange; Bastion was an adult, and a boy, but he was still a bunch shorter thahat’s okay. It’s never wrong to be polite. But not having to be as polite with friends is one of the fun things about having friends,” I said.

  “I suppose,” Bastion said. “By the way, I’m impressed that you speak cry. I know that Syphfree has had diplomats who could uand it before, but they required a very specifibination of skills to do so. More to be able to unicate back.”

  “Oh,” I said. “It’s a riftwalker thing, I think.”

  Bastion sighed. “Yes, of course it is.”

  “Wait, did I ell you?” I... couldn’t remember telling him. I was an awful friend.

  “No, you didn’t. But I’m irely ignorant. If anything it gives credeo your having received a quest from the World.”

  “Oh, cool,” I said.

  “Do try to avoid spreading that around; it’s the sort of thing that’s best kept to oneself.”

  I nodded. I could totally keep a secret.

  Our niame-less cry friend led us out of the docks and down a wide stairwell and onto what looked like it might be one of the city’s main roads. It was wider thahers we’d been on, and had a gss ceiling over parts of it, allowing natural light thten the pce up.

  We kept walking--and in their case floating-- for a while until we turned down a sed staircase and found ourselves on a muarrower road.

  “We reserved a room at this inn,” they said as they floated into the courtyard of a small inn. A sign was bolted to one wall, a bit of rust leaking off of it staining the paint below. ‘The Walled Inn. Cheap Beds, Cheaper Meals.’

  “A quality establishment,” Bastion deadpanned.

  “We do not require food for sustenanor do we have mueed for space,” the cry expined.

  I transted absently while looking around. It did look a little tacky and cheap. “Whi is yours?”

  The cry, instead of answering, hovered over to one door and pulled their little gadget out of their pouch again. Soon they summoned a key whilocked the door. “We will o cover the shard with cloth, to keep them hidden,” they said as they entered. “It is Shard of Waterwatches passion, Third Split and One Whole. We have found some soft ones willing to carry us to our final destination.”

  I stepped in after them while Bastion took up a positioo the door.

  The interior of the room was a bit cramped. There was a bed tucked in the er, with a night stao it. No windows on the walls, but one on the ceiling, strangely enough. It did illumihe room, but I wasn’t sure if that was for the best. It was the di, dirtiest inn room I’d ever seen. I was sure any of the innkeepers I’d befriended would have had a fit at seeing the peeling aper and broken furniture.

  The cry took up a good portion of the room’s space, and it wasn’t until they shifted to the side that I saw our sed passenger.

  They were a cry too, of course, but uhe bigger, bulkier one I’d met, they were slim and jagged, their body curved around in a sort of half-moon shape. “Little shard, this is the soft oh which we will travel.”

  “Hello!” I said.

  The littler cry floated a bit closer, then started to tip over to one side, as if they were top heavy. “Hello,” they replied, their voice a high pitched chime. “I-- we are a Shard of Mountaintrowth, Fourth Shard, and not Yet Whole.”

  “I’m Broccoli Bunch!” I said. “I guess I’m my mom and dad’s shard? Uh, is that how it works?”

  The shard made a tinkling sound, like crystal cups being shaken together. Laughter? “I don’t think it’s how it works for soft ones.”

  “It’s o meet you. Ah, it’s going to bee hard to talk to both of you if you don’t have shorter names. No offence?”

  “We uand,” the rger cry said. “Soft one names are difficult for us as well. They are often meaningless. And when they do have meaning, such as your name, vegetable pile, it is often a meaning that puzzles more than enlightens.”

  I held back a giggle and nodded. “I get it. So do you have niames? I could call you Blue, and this cutie I could call... Moonie? Because you look like a moon!”

  The newly named Blue bobbed. “t this temporary h the gravity it was given.”

  “Moon-Shaped is an acceptable name,” Moonie said.

  “Do cry do hugs?” I asked.

  “Broc,” Bastion barked, his voice tense. “I think we have trouble.”

  I spun and rushed to the door to look out. It didn’t take much looking to see what Bastion was talking about. A pair of cry, both about as big as Blue, though one was far more jagged and sharp-looking. They were h closer to us, a deep bell-toll sound ing from them that didn’t quite mean anything but still made me think of the hum of a ’s wings.

  “Shard of Waterwatches passion, Third Split and One Whole, we are aware that you are within this building. Surrehe broken,” One of them chimed.

  I reached out, grabbed Bastion, and yanked him in before snapping the door shut. “Okay! Time to leave, I think.”

  “I will front them,” Blue said. “No harm will befall me. Escape with the Brok-- with the Moon-Shaped one.”

  “Ah, right. Are there other doors around?”

  Bastion poio the window in the ceiling.

  “Well then,” I said. “Let’s make a big escape!”

  ***

  RavensDagger

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