~Chapter 180~ Part 3
Time passed quickly as I tried my best to keep an eye on the gang exploring the oddly idyllic Abyssal village. They agreed to meet up at the tavern at dinnertime, and since things worked out for them more or less as planned, they were now spending time a bit more leisurely.
My girlfriends and Snowy finished interviewing the Fauns in record time, mostly because they didn't provide much tangible new information. That made Judy a bit grumpy, but it was soon forgotten when they stumbled into the food court of the village and all three of them unanimously decided to help with the cooking.
Meanwhile, Penny completed her hunting trip and returned with a wild boar the size of a small car. That was pretty shocking already, but according to the locals, these things were fairly common, and they had to hunt them to make sure they didn't literally upturn half the surrounding forests. That made me wonder about the ecosystem of the Abyss all over again. I've heard about 'island gigantism', but I was pretty sure it was more of a 'small animals get bigger, big animals get smaller on islands' kind of deal, not 'already big animals get humongous'.
Though again, I had a couple of other potential explanations in mind, ranging from selective breeding of whatever local fauna was available for domestication to magical experimentation going wrong, but I didn't have much time to think about it. Why? Because my sister grabbed hold of the class rep, and it somehow turned into an outdoor barbecue party. Go figure.
As for the childhood friends, they finished their good Samaritan stunt at the hospital, and they were currently exploring the village streets while sharing a bag of simple pastries. I figured they got them from one of the thankful patients, or maybe it was an extra bonus from the doctor.
In any case, they kept wandering for a while, and I was just about to Far Glance at someone else when the guy suddenly threw his head back and frowned.
"Man, I just can't get used to this…" Josh muttered.
After a few startled blinks, Angie followed his example and looked up as well. Her brows gradually scrunched up as she tried to figure out what he was referring to, but when she failed to find anything out of the ordinary, she sent him a sideways glance.
"The… sky?"
"Yeah." Seeing that she didn't get it, Josh turned to face her and pointed up at the same time. "Why is it red?"
"… Didn't Neige say that it's always been like that?"
"Yeah, but I'm asking why? The sky of Elysium looked normal, so why's this one colored like that?"
The Celestial girl promptly shrugged with a mildly confounded, "How the heck am I supposed to know?"
"I mean…" Josh conspicuously glanced left and right, then leaned closer to whisper. "Shouldn't Deus know? Didn't she… I mean, he… Whatever. The point is, both the Abyss and Elysium were made while Deus was around, right?"
"Yeah, but I don't think Deus had anything to do with it. Not directly, I mean…" She paused, and after some pondering, she declared, "I'm gonna ask later!"
"Later? Why not now?"
"I think she's sleeping right now."
That made Josh stop in his tracks and raise a critical brow at her.
"You think?"
"Hey, it's not easy sharing a body, you know? Some stuff is just hard to explain."
"I get it, I get it. Geez." Josh raised his palms in surrender, then let out a shallow sigh, and they continued their idle wandering down the street. "Seriously though, if not for the red skies, this place would be pretty cosy."
"Idunno, I think it's nice either way," Angie responded absently as she followed the direction of her boyfriend's gaze. "You know, this really isn't how I imagined the Abyss in the past. I always thought it would be full of angry spiky stuff and horny people."
"Horned," Josh corrected her, but the Celestial girl huffed and puffed in return.
"Potayto, potahto. You know what I mean."
"Yeah, sure, but to be fair, Elysium wasn't exactly what we expected either."
"Fair, fair."
They continued to slowly amble in silence for a while, and I was just about to look for greener pastures when Josh suddenly blurted out, "Hold on. I'm kinda seeing a parallel here."
"Parallel?"
Angie looked a bit stumped by his sudden declaration, so he hastily clarified, "I mean, think about it. We ended up in Elysium because we were jumped back home, and then we got entangled in the whole Deus prophecy thing along with Leo. Just like how Lili's brother jumped me back home and almost dragged me here because of the whole Emperor prophecy thing."
"Right. Now that you mention it, it's kinda similar." Sha paused for a second, but then shook her head. "Actually, it's not that similar. I mean, Leo's Director friends didn't know I was related to the prophecy of Deus."
My what?
"Yeah, we just kinda got caught in that, but it still makes me wonder what would've happened if I somehow ended up here. Would I really have been dragged into another prophecy?"
No, seriously. My what? Since when were the ex-directors my 'friends'?
Of course, since I couldn't contact them, I had no way to correct their mistaken assumptions either, and the conversation quickly moved on, so I didn't dwell on it for long either.
"Now that you mention it, remember when Leo used to insist that you were the chosen one of all of these prophecies? Good times."
"Let's agree to disagree." After grumbling a bit more, the guy grimaced and blurted out, "Now that I think about it, didn't that whole prophecy business turn out to be hogwash? I mean, you're Deus, Ammy is the Conduit, Leo's got the Knights because he pulled out a fancy sword from a rock, and Lili's brother is this Herald thing. I ended up being the only unimportant one!"
"Actually, didn't Friedrich and his friends develop the machine that powers up Draconians using your ability to absorb powers? Their prophecy was about the revival of the bloodlines, and you're kinda responsible for that."
Josh eyed his girlfriend with the kind of disapproval entirely reserved for people who are peddling uncomfortable truths, and he burst out in an indignant, "If that's true, then these prophecies suck monkey-balls!"
This was mid-afternoon, with everyone out working, so Josh's public exclamation fortunately didn't draw much attention. What attention it did draw, however, was a rather peculiar one.
"Oh, my? Are you talking about prophecies, my dears?"
Coepi Urbs, or whatever this place was called, was a small-ish and fairly isolated settlement, so there wasn't much commerce to be made. From what I gathered, there were only two or three small general shops in the village, and Josh just happened to voice his indignation in front of one of them, just when the proprietor was busy sweeping the front porch. Not only that, but it was a familiar face, too. Namely, the elderly woman with faded cyan hair woven into a single, thick braid, peeking out of under her colourful floral-print headscarf, contrasting hard with her drab brown and black dress.
She smiled at the pair and put her broom to the side, and that was enough of a signal to make Angie skip over to her side with an ear-to-ear grin of her own. Extrovertism: one of the lesser-known superpowers.
"Good afternoon!"
"My, aren't you a lively one!" the elderly shopkeeper chuckled and glanced over to Josh in turn. "Are you interested in the prophecy of the Emperor? Don't be shy. It's only natural, seeing how the world changed because of it."
"We wouldn't want to—"
"Yes!" Angie cut Josh short before he could respond properly, and sent him a 'Aren't we here to collect info?' kind of look.
"… Yes, we'd like to hear more," the guy relented, but still tagged a grumpy, "But only if you have the time."
"Oh, don't worry, dearies. Business is in the doldrums at this hour, so I have the time. Come inside!"
Following her urging, the duo entered the unassuming storefront. The inside was… more or less as expected. It was something of a variety store, and it had a truly eclectic collection of wares on display, from carpentry tools and children's toys to sewing kits and honest-to-goodness bows and arrows. The latter, in particular, immediately captured Angie's attention, but she quickly stopped gawking and caught up to Josh and the elderly woman at the counter.
She pulled out a large three-legged stool and sat down, then produced a rosewood pipe with a long, curved stem, stuffed it with some shredded dry leaves, and finally snapped her finger a couple of times. There was a flash of magic; whether it came from her fingers or the pipe itself was hard to tell, but soon the contents of the bowl ignited into a gentle smoulder and she made a long draw.
"You see, dearies," she began by using the stalk of her pipe to point at Josh in particular. "The Prophecy of the Emperor is old. Really old. Even my own grandmother's grandmother told her it was a story of olden times, and nowadays, fewer and fewer people tell the tale. Even fewer took it seriously. Until recently, that is." She let out a low chuckle and took another draw of her pipe. "Do you know how the old story goes?"
"It's that… there would be a Herald who could absorb the power of the Abyss?" Josh responded first, and Angie was eager to follow up.
"Oh, oh! And then, he would herald the return of Bel of the… um… It was 'the Tenebrous Flames', right?"
The shopkeeper exhaled a mouthful of thin white smoke and let out a quiet chuckle.
"No, deary. That's not how the story goes."
"It isn't?" Josh blurted out in surprise, and the old woman looked at him with eminent amusement in her deep blue eyes.
"People nowadays see it that way, because the Emperor of the olden days is back, but when my grandmother told me the prophecy when I was but a wee child, there was no mention of him at all." She drew on her pipe again, without breaking eye contact with Josh, as if to purposefully raise the tension. "You see, dearie, people say that the Lord of Inanna channelling the power of the Great Sources hidden within the fortresses of the Seven Noble Houses is what 'absorbing the power of the Abyss', as you put it, meant all along. Then the Emperor came back and publicly declared him his Herald, and at that point, there was little room for doubt, but that's not how the original tale goes."
"What does it say then?" Angie chimed in, looking unexpectedly hyped by the conversation. "Is there some kind of secret we don't yet know about?"
"Secret? Maybe," the old woman chuckled with a meaningful smile. "You see, dearies, the Herald was supposed to come from the outside, not from the Abyss. Not just that, but the Herald was supposed to come to the Abyss first, and then the Emperor was meant to come second, so how could the Emperor come first and appoint a Herald like that?"
"Yeah, that doesn't make much sense…" Josh mused, his eyes focused on the old woman and his fingers unconsciously rubbing his chin. "Does that mean Lili's brother might not be the Herald after all?" The shopkeeper looked at him funny, so he hastily amended, "I mean, the… erm… Lord of Inanna?"
"But if he's not the Herald, then wouldn't that mean that Bel isn't the Emperor?" Angie asked on the side, but she shook her head in denial as soon as she finished speaking. "No, Bel is definitely the Emperor, but maybe… he wasn't supposed to be the Emperor the prophecy was about?"
The old woman pretended to be confused by the discussion between the two, but her eyes remained calm, and I could see the corners of her mouth twitch, as if trying to suppress a grin.
"Ma'am, can you tell us more?" Josh, for once, made a decisive move and pleaded with the shopkeeper, but after a long beat, she drew on her pipe again and exhaled the smoke in a powerless sigh.
"I would love to help you, my dearies, but the old grey stuff in here just doesn't work the way it used to…" she lamented as she tapped the stem of the pipe against her temple. However, before anyone else could get a word in, her expression bloomed into a smirk, and she let out a soft 'Ah!' as she rose to her feet. "But fear not! As luck would have it, I just happen to have what you need!"
She turned around and reached out to the nearest cabinet, where a bunch of books were lined up on the shelves, right next to the cooking utensils and other miscellaneous kitchen items. She browsed the titles for a while until her eyes lit up with recognition and she dexterously pulled out a thin volume from the middle of the row.
"Look here! An original, first edition copy of 'Legends and Folk Tales of the Abyss' by the famous Conteur Ushum himself, in its original leather binding! I knew I still had it lying around somewhere!" She presented the book in its deep blue binding to the duo so that they could read its title themselves.
Of course, they couldn't. While they spoke the same language as everyone else (odd accents notwithstanding), the Abyss had its own writing system that was this unholy amalgamation of the aesthetics of Celestial Scrip and the letters of the alphabet used on Critias. It was kind of like an extremely warped version of the cursive writing one would see in old medieval manuscripts, and I could kinda-sorta read it if I squinted hard enough, but that was mostly due to sheer exposure from spying on Crowy's and Dimas's paperwork.
The childhood friend duo didn't have such exposure, so they had to take the old woman's word for it.
"I'm reluctant to part with this book, but I've heard you've been helping around the village all morning, and it would do more good in the hands of bright youth like yourselves than collecting dust on the shelves of this old lady, so… How does sixty-five Coins sound to you?"
"… Pardon?" Josh blurted out, his expression slack from surprise.
For the record, the two of them got paid a little over fifty Coins, the generically named local currency, for helping out in the hospital, so it was straight up beyond their budget. Of course, the shopkeep (probably) didn't know this, so when she saw Josh's reaction, she immediately doubled down.
"Believe it or not, this old book was passed down to me by my grandmother, who received it from her grandmother! It's practically a family heirloom, so sixty-five Coins is almost as low as I can go in good conscience."
"Yes, I mean…" Josh floundered, only to exhale hard and raise a palm. "Give us a second."
He pulled Angie aside, and the two of them got into a conspiratorial huddle.
"What do we do? Should we look for the others and borrow some money from them?" Angie proposed, but Josh shot her idea down.
"I'm not even sure that book has any value, let alone sixty-five coins. We could rent the room at the tavern for three days for the same money." He glanced over his shoulder, then back to Angie. "Also, can we even read that book? I couldn't make sense of the title."
"Neige could read it for us. Probably."
"Probably," Josh conceded the point, but not the argument. "Still, it's too much."
"But it might be a quest item! I've done enough DM-ing to recognize a plot hook if I see one!"
"I told you to stop treating this as a game," the guy chided her, but then stifled a groan and added, "But I admit that this granny got her hook in us."
Angie was about to say something, but then she suddenly closed her mouth and blinked a few times.
"Hey? Deus is awake now, and she says she has an idea!"
"… Okay, I bite. What is it?"
"She says he used to haggle a lot at the markets when she was young, so she wants to give it a go."
Josh considered their options for a moment and ultimately nodded in agreement.
"It's worth a try. Just make sure not to piss her off, or something."
The response from that request came not from Angie, but Deus, as her eyes were already in a golden amber hue and she let out a haughty scoff.
"Just watch and bask in my greatness, Boy!" she declared and turned on her heel, then marched up to the counter. She paused for dramatic effect, then suddenly slapped the countertop and exclaimed, "Do you think I was born yesterday, woman? If this brand-new book is really a family heirloom of yours, I'll eat my sandals! I'm willing to give twenty coins; take it or leave it!"
That… wasn't off to a great start, and I was eager to see where this was going… only for someone to choose this exact moment to violently shake me out of my Far Sight.
"W-What?"
"Hey, wake up! We're in trouble!"
It took me a couple of long seconds to focus, and then I threw the hand off my shoulder.
"Oh, come on! We were just getting to the funny part!" I complained as I sat up on my bed, only to freeze and squint at the unexpected interloper. "What are you doing here?"
"It's not important!" The Girl snapped at me, with only her upper body sticking out of a familiar portal and her voice sounding like a swarm of angry sparrows. "Listen, there's trouble, and the others are looking for you, and why are you in prison, anyway?"
"It's a long story, and…" I responded reflexively, only to lurch to a halt as her words sank in. "When you mean 'they are looking for me', who are you talking about?"
"*************, ********************, and ****. Who else?" she responded with undisguised indignation, and she was clearly referring to The Man, The Woman, and The Boy.
"Oh, good. For a moment, I thought the Predator Moon made a move." I was slightly relieved, but only slightly.
"Uncle Polemos? Who's that?"
I shouldn't have been surprised, considering how much noise we made, but Ollie was already at the door of my chamber and eyeing the blonde girl sticking out of her portal with clear apprehension.
"Ah… Don't worry, Beansprout, it's just a… erm… guest." I glanced between the two and then hurriedly added, "He's Eolienne. I'm looking after him at the moment. Ollie, she's…" I almost said 'The Girl', but the word got caught in my throat, realising how silly it sounded to introduce someone like that. On second thought, I spent quite some time trying to come up with alternative, less nondescript names for the four Emergents, so before I knew it, I blurted out, "She's Oriole. She's a friend, so no need to be alarmed."
"Oriole?" the kid repeated after me, followed by a soft giggle. "That's a funny name."
I sucked in a breath. The Emergents had been receptive to my naming schemes, but I was afraid that springing one on her like that was maybe a bit too presumptuous, and Ollie calling it 'funny' probably didn't help things. Yet, when I looked at her, The Girl was not only less frantic than before, she looked downright bashful.
"Eh… ehehe…" Her awkward chuckles came to a halt when our eyes met, and she suddenly flushed red, which… somehow also affected her planetary image as well. I didn't even know planets could blush. It only lasted until she abruptly pointed at me and said, "We… We'll talk about this later!"
She then immediately ducked into her portal… only to then come out of it again and point at me once more.
"Ah! And come to my Domain right away! Seriously, we'll be in so much trouble if we can't figure out how to explain this!"
"Explain—" 'what?' is what I would've said, if she didn't disappear from the conversation for a second time, and this time her hole in reality also disappeared with her, leaving behind a pregnant silence.
"Uncle Polemos's friend is weird," Ollie stated the obvious, and while I was tempted to chide him, he wasn't exactly wrong in his assessment. "Are you leaving again?"
"No, I just need to lie down for a moment. You can go back to your room."
"Oh. Okay."
Ollie didn't dwell on what happened and casually skipped down the hallway. Once he was out of sight, I let out a pent-up breath, lay down on the bed again, and readied my special 'stubby' phantom limb, and poked my head with a quiet, "Let's see what the hubbub's all about…"