Rising Shards

Dr. Diast’s wayback pedestal didn’t fully take us out of the void. As we all caught our breath and were checked over for injuries, we were in the field of flowers, not quite home. The node where most of our void adventuring took place felt close enough to home for me to relax, enjoying the sun setting over us.

“I have a whole station prepared for this,” Caya said. “I know you know the coordinates.”

“I was putting this together pretty frantically.” Diast said. “I remembered this spot better.”

After getting the all clear that I had suffered no major injuries, I paced around a bit. Oka and I found Kalei, who was still with her mom, both of them grinning, though Mahina’s was a bit more cheerful than Kalei’s.

“It hit me when we were stuck in the bunker,” Mahina said. “It wasn’t a premonition or something like that. Just a feeling.”

“Ma, the hell are you talking about?” Kalei asked.

Mahina ruffled Kalei’s hair. “I had a sudden feeling that you were gonna be the one to get us out of this mess. That you’d get the finishing blow somehow.”

“Ah…” Kalei said. “Well, yeah. I had to kick Ovie’s ass at some point, right?”

“That was really awesome,” I said.

“Yeah, well, I was really pissed.” Kalei said.

“I hope you all learned the truth about how powerful Koridia rage can be.” Mahina said.

“Mom, Koridia rage isn’t even a thing,” Kalei said. “Can’t you go do a lap or something around here?”

Mahina perked up. “Oh, is this that field of flowers with that lovely trail you told me about?”

“Yeah, that field of flowers,” Kalei said. “Bet you can’t do a full lap around here before we all have to go home.”

“Oh you’re so on.” Mahina said, rising to her feet and getting ready to run immediately. “But like, call for your mother if you’re leaving, we don’t need any more Koridias left in the void today.”

“How the heck does she have any energy left?” I asked as Kalei’s mom took off running for the trail at her daughter’s direction.

“If I ever need to get my mom to leave me alone, the best way is to challenge her to a workout or a race or something. She can’t resist. I didn’t even bet her anything.” Kalei leaned back.

“How are you doing?” Oka asked. “With the…I don’t even know where to start.”

Kalei rubbed her hands. I noticed they were bruised and scratched up, and I had a hunch they weren’t from that last fight given that some had started to scab over already.

“I’m really sorry about…yeah.” I said, unsure if Kalei wanted to hear Nikki’s name at the moment.

“Yeah…” Kalei said. “Me too.”

“We got your back though, you know.” Oka said. “Always.”

“I know,” Kalei said.

Oka and I gave Kalei another hug.

“But you two could cool it with the hugs, you know?” Kalei said.

“We’re just very hug happy folks,” Oka said.

“And you’re very huggable, you know.” I said.

“Nah, quit it with that,” Kalei chuckled. “I’m too much of a badass to be ‘huggable.’” She took a deep breath once we finally let her go. “It means a freaking lot that you guys came for me.”

“There were even more at the start, but each place we ended up knocked a few away.” I said.

“Yeah, Kai hurt her knee,” Oka said. “Iris and Maia were there, but then…”

“Scrungy showed up.” I said.

“Yikes.” Kalei said. “Iris get her ass beat again?”

“Maia this time.” Oka said. “She put up more of a fight, at least. I think. They were far away when the fists were a-flying.”

“Wish I could’ve seen that,” Kalei said. “I wanna see someone kick Scrungy’s ass, she deserves it.”

We did our best to quickly explain our side of the day’s journey to Kalei. She perked up the most when Oka talked about the steed sprites she and Lillia found.

“Diast better have kept some of those for me,” Kalei said. “There’s no way you and Lils are the only ones who get horses.”

“I’m sure she’ll have some ready even if they’re not the ones from that bunker,” I said.

“I don’t want to think about those horses getting hurt,” Oka said. “Diast better have saved them.”

“But they’re just like retention sprites or whatever.” Kalei said.

“When you have one of your own, you’ll understand.” Oka said.

“Sure, sure, I bet Lils would say that word for word too.” Kalei said.  “Speaking of, where is she? I gotta thank her, too.”

“She’s still getting looked over by Dr. Diast,” Oka said. “I think Ko’s over there too.”

“No thank yous for my perfect driving?” Risa asked, joining the conversation.

“Dude, we jumped like right into the fight after you drove, sorry we didn’t congratulate you.” Kalei snorted.

“Yeah, well.” Risa said. “How about my perfect timing pushing you out of harm’s way?”

“That was pretty sick,” Kalei said. “Thanks for that.”

Oka and I didn’t know what to say as the two chatted. They knew each other and were friends way longer than we were, and seemed to already be getting back in their old conversational groove. Kalei did manage to introduce us again, and I somehow managed to get a few more sentences out than just awkward croaks of hello.

“I’m not even supposed to be here, so I’m going back with Kitty.” Risa said.

“So.” Kalei said.

“So I only got a few minutes here.” Risa said. She looked our way.

Once more, there were awkward vibes between Risa and Oka and I, so we left so they could have a bit more privacy before saying goodbyes.

“How do you feel about her?” I asked. I couldn’t shake my discomfort at Risa being a Wildfire Hearts student, or the fact that she up and left Kalei one day and abruptly ended their friendship.

“I dunno,” Oka said. “I don’t have bad vibes, necessarily. But I don’t really have good vibes either.”

“Dang,” I said. “I forgot to do the handshake test.”

“Ahhh,” Oka said. “That would’ve been a good time.”

“It would’ve!” I said. “Don’t tell Stella, she’ll be mad I forgot.”

Oka and I strolled for a bit together, stopping when we saw Lillia had finished getting checked over for any injuries by Diast and Caya.

“I’m gonna check with her quick,” Oka said.

“Alright!” I said. “Don’t go too far, right?”

Oka smirked. I couldn’t resist giving her a quick peck on her cheek, which rendered both of us incapable of finishing sentences.

Once Oka had left, I spotted Marmalade a bit away from the rest of the group. This was her first big void trip, so she was probably feeling a lot. I figured I would do my best to listen to her vent, but she didn’t look pleased as I approached.

“Is everything…” I started, noticing why she wasn’t too happy to see me. “…alright?”

She held one of the Sharai Daggers.