Chapter 29- Revelry and Returns
New York City- Chosen Tavern- 5th day of the month of Niffle of the 6983 GR (Evening)
Nath’aniel-
The Brotherhood celebrated their successful mission, and the mage was more pleased that they could complete it without bringing more tarnish to their names. Then as Erik smmed down his third drink and their second hour in this establishment neared, the mutant leader told the older man tending the half wall. “Well Mike, I promised that we would only take up a couple of hours of your night, and my people should really get back. So I think we should call it an evening.”
“Not at all, it was an honor meeting and serving legends such as you and the Captain.” The owner said smiling. Other than when he and Shanna had shooed him away, the old tribesman had been all smiles while they were here.
Nath reached into his robes, but didn’t activate the interface, he just muttered towards it. “Warm up the Portal room, and warn Cuhra that we will be returning soon.” Since he knew that the Citadel would be listening through it unless the privacy rune was triggered.
As he stood up, the mage reached out with his spell tether to the two conjured gsses. Both he and Shanna had drunk the remaining water earlier, so he just needed to sever his connection to them. And like any other spell he canceled, they winked out of existence a moment ter.
Seeing that as a sign, the blonde vanished into a puff of yellow sparkles. Since revealing that she had effectively gained immortality, the woman had been quiet. Nath'aniel could feel through their bond that she was conflicted and he hoped that this revetion didn't lead the woman into a depression-like state that Betsy went through when she was first bonded to him.
‘Maybe I should sit her down and talk to her more ter.’ The mage wondered, as he waited a handful of minutes while the tribesmen made their way towards the various exits. The two local women were heading towards the front, while the mage, Captain, and Mosul-bearers were pnning to take the back exit that led to the alley behind the building.
Before Nath’aniel could leave, his telepathic lover intertwined her arm with his, before she held in front of her a ft box that radiated thermal energy. He raised his eyebrows at the thing and the way she grinned at it.
Once in the alley, the super soldier asked. "So do you have a base here in the city?"
“We did, but it is more than likely under surveilnce now. Besides we live in Nath’aniel’s Citadel now. So I doubt we will go back to it.” The mutant leader told him.
They stood in the alley for a minute, and the athletic blonde man was about to ask another question, but stopped when the purple line appeared in the air beside them. The portal widened and opened to its full capacity of letting two people through at a time, before anyone moved to go through it.
Even with the wide opening, most people went in alone, so it took some time for them to all get through. Enough for Steve to point and ask Nath'aniel. "What would happen if that opened atop of something or someone?"
The mage blinked once, as he hadn't really thought about it before, but theorized. "An object would be cut in half. Much like a bde went through it, while a person it would vary. If it were a mage, we would simply be pushed out of the way as our bodies can absorb the extra energy. As for you tribesmen, you would explode in a fiery bst from the mystical energy touching you."
“You don’t always have to be so detailed in your answers all the time Nathy.” His woman whispered into his ear.
“What? He asked, I answered.” Nath expined.
They were the st pair through, behind the Captain, who stood staring at the metal walls of the chamber. Curha wasn’t the only one waiting for them on the other side, Exodus too stood at attention and was listening to the four teenagers tell him what they did while in New York City.
“Your people built this pce?” The super soldier muttered in surprise.
"What's even more startling is that they built it over five thousand years ago, my friend," Erik told his fellow war veteran.
“Wow.” Steve let out in shock.
“Wait till you see the view from the balcony.” The mutant leader muttered.
‘Welcome back.’ Curha signaled at them, although only he and Betsy would understand her of those in the room.
"Thank you for receiving us Curha," Nath'aniel told her before bowing a bit, since his arm was still entwined with his lover. He was pleased when he saw the fire elemental return his bow, and he was even more pleased when the younger members of the Brotherhood stopped in their storytelling to bow to her too.
"That is…?" The super soldier started to ask but stalled as he probably didn't know what to ask without sounding rude.
"This is Curha. Curha this is Steve Rogers, he will be joining us for dinner tonight." Nath'aniel introduces the spirit to the Enhanced. The two bowed to each other.
As she bowed, Curha signaled. ‘I am pleased to have your company.’ Not that the man could hear her.
When both were standing upright again, the mage added. "She is a fire elemental or fire spirit. She is not native to our pne, but she is our friend and ally, so I ask you to treat her with respect."
“Of course.” The Enhanced agreed immediately. Then he frowned and asked. “Can she speak?”
Erik answered for him. "She can, but most of us can't hear it. Only two of the members of my Brotherhood can in fact understand her. Psylocke here and another member. Who is currently away on a mission. Oh, and of course Nath'aniel and the Citadel too I guess."
“That’s… actually pretty neat.” The Enhanced admitted.
Nath mouthed the word ‘neat’, unsure of his usage. Yet he was stopped from asking for crification as Exodus moved to join them, now that the younger members were done telling him their stories.
“Exodus, this is a good friend of mine, Steve Rogers.” The mutant leader introduced the light maniputor to the super soldier. As the two shook hands Erik added. “He can be trusted.”
“That’s not why I am here. I wanted to ask Master Nath’aniel for a favor when he returned.” The knight admitted.
"Well, I am going to deliver this pizza to the Great Hall," Betsy announced before vanishing in a puff of purple sparkles. The mage frowned when she dematerialized the pizza box with her. As he was unsure when she learned to do that.
The others also took that as a cue, as Erik wrapped his arm around the taller man's shoulders and stated. "Let's see if the trolls can beat your alcohol immunity, shall we." The two war veterans headed for the room's only exit.
Curha offered the mage the two used power cells before she too left. So the only people still in the portal room were only the mage, the knight, and the hidden Lancer. As Shanna floated nearby them in her spirit form.
“You are the only magic user that I trust.” Exodus opened with.
“Thank you?” Nath’aniel accepted the statement somewhat confused.
The knight then told his story saying. "When my powers first manifested I thought I was blessed by god, I did not know about mutants or anything, but when I started to suffer defeats and was betrayed by men I thought were my allies I was left alone, with such events I lost my faith in god. Then I was saved by a group of Celtic druids.'
"They heard about my eyes, which glowed a little even then. They thought I was one of you, a mage." Nath'aniel crossed his arms, a touch offended by these 'celts' beliefs. "So they took me to their vilge, and tried to teach me their arts of magic, beyond that the better part of a year I spent there with them, but any detail I can tell you no more, because they sealed my memories with a spell."
"That is the favor you want, to restore your sealed memories?" The mage guessed.
Exodus nodded, before answering. “Yes, I was more than willing to let the past lie, especially after I slept for the better part of a millennium,… but now that I know that one of them still walks among us, I wish to recall my time spent there."
“The Ancient One.” Nath guessed again, recalling the man's reaction during her visit.
Again the knight nodded, before admitting. “She had hair then and was much younger, but her voice is the same.”
The mage raised one of his hands to rub his lip in thought, before admitting. “Memory magic is not an area that I am overly familiar with, and with the time discrepancy there is nothing easy for me to lock on to, to dispel.” Hearing that made Exodus sigh. “That does not mean I cannot help, it just means that I can’t just poof you a cure right away. But there is an alternative… Citadel?”
“I am online, young master.”
"Can you prepare a bnk dream-stone for Exodus for me please?" Nath'aniel requested.
“Right away.”
Seeing the knight’s frown, the mage expined. “That you are still able to recall some things, tells us that the seal is not completely tight. And the subconscious from dreaming is the easiest means that we have to access your sealed memories, especially since you just recently reunited with her.”
“So I might dream about my time there and the stone will be able to capture those memories.” Exodus guessed.
“Precisely.” Nath’aniel agreed, before adding. “But there is of course a chance you might dream of something else entirely, so before you retire tonight, try to recall her, and if doing so keeps you awake, ask the Citadel to put you to sleep.”
“The Citadel can put us to sleep?” Exodus asked with concern in his face. The thought engine answered the knight’s question.
“I can put a sedative in the air, limiting it to some rooms or fill whole floors. The sedative doesn’t always work though.”
"Another defense should we need it," Exodus muttered while shaking his head.
The mage then moved to leave, assuming if the other man had anything else he would say so. When the man joined him in step the military constructs guarding the Portal room stood at ease, as they passed.
Both men moved to the nearby Re-locator, once inside the tribesmen asked. “Was our leader’s theory right, and the Captain is one of us?”
"No, he is an Enhanced just like everyone originally believed," Nath'aniel expined, before trigging the control runes of the room to shift them to the third floor.
“Then why is he here?” Exodus asked.
"Because like you and I, he just recently woke up after many years had passed him by as he slept, but unlike you and I, his powers make him immune to your tribesmen's means of rexation, so your leader offered some of mine." The mage admitted before leaving the room and walking towards the Great Hall.
The other man frowned, but didn’t say anything as they entered the dining hall.
All the Citadel’s residents were in attendance. The Brotherhood were obviously the loudest having gotten used to living here the most, but the various beast-men were clustered together here and there in the room, even the two Leaper girls, who were technically penal servants of the Magi, were in attendance.
Atop a long table in the middle of the hall stood the rge frames of Steve and Sam, both were drinking from oversized wooden mugs as the teens of the Brotherhood chanted the word ‘chug’ repeatedly.
Off on a side table sat Copycat and his disciple Wanda, the only teen not chanting. The mage wondered why the albino tribeswoman wasn't with her usual partner, the regenerating Deadpool. Yet before he could move or ask anything, his other lover Samantha, coughed up her drink when she tried to shout out his name.
When she coughed, the Enhanced finished his mug without distraction. Nath saw Quicksilver patting the rge four-armed woman's back as she tried to clear her airway. Still, except for the cheering teenagers, many of the Hall's occupants turned to look at what distracted the woman.
The beast-men all rose to their feet before they bowed in greeting at him, a bow which the mage returned to them. Then he heard his other lover shout his name. “Nath! Betsy brought me a pizza, can you believe it?”
Hearing the happiness in the rge woman’s voice brought a smile to Nath’aniel’s face. As he watched her pick up and start devouring a slice of the foodstuff, a pair of the dinosaur-kin Pterons, and another pair of the insect-like Shell-kin approached them.
Both species were generally smaller than humanity, with an average height for the lizards being five feet, and the Shell-kin being even smaller with an average height of four feet. Although the insects that lived in the Citadel had told them that other castes of their race were taller, all of the members that asked to remain here in the Citadel were casteless.
The leading Shell-kin had a small stack of papers in his small hands, the four bowed again, but only the one with the papers speaks. "Hail, Tower Lord. With the help of the Pterons and your two Leapers, we have completed the first harvest."
Nath'aniel nodded, knowing that they would be gathering the fruits, berries, and other crops from the Greenhouse soon, but such an event would not happen today. It still amazed him how quickly the Shell-kin picked up nguages, as the little buggers had learned all of the inhabitants' native nguages, even his own of Magi. Not as quickly as a mage, but what took his disciple a couple of months the little insects did in one.
He was further surprised when Exodus stepped forward and took the offered stack, instead of letting the mage do it. As Nath’aniel read the notations on the pages he had to ask. “Are these numbers correct?”
“Yes, I weighed them myself.”
The Citadel reported, just ahead of Exodus asking. “What? Is it not enough?”
The mage shook his head before he answered. “No, even at only a half harvest, this year they have gathered twice the amount of the most bountiful harvest that the Greenhouse has ever produced.”
“I can expin. While you slept, there was a mystic explosion in the basement.”
Nath nodded at that, stating. "That would have been when Cuhra arrived on our pne."
"There was a massive overflow of power in the system, even after I filled all socketed power cells, there was still too much, so I pumped the excess into the Greenhouse, increasing the inner realm's size."
"And I have been too busy to have checked it out myself." The mage admitted. He thanked the beast-men for their hard work, who thanked him for letting them stay. Then Nath'aniel got smothered in a bear hug from his four-armed lover, who also insisted that he try the pizza.
