Ch. 2.22 | Guild Reunion
PoV: Sanya
Mai cast her Globetrot Anchor, and the group emerged into the back hallway of the guild hall. Their clothes still clung to them from all the rain. The occasional drop of water landed on the floor. Sanya felt like a wet cat.
During the teleportation, she got the impression from her otherworldly addition that it could have stayed in that space, gone further to the world's seam, and communicated to its companions.
It did not do that. Fear and uncertainty impressed upon Sanya, as well as a lack of anything to report. Maybe even a small helping of rebellion. She wondered if the thing would still force open portals. Maybe she could convince it not to? . . . Okay, she still did not know anything about her parasite. Still, a girl could hope.
The librarian had been left in the wilderness. She would probably be fine. Maybe. In the case she came across one of the other vampires running wild, maybe not so much. She would need to recover her channeling ability. Oh well! She had her chance.
“Is Aisha or Fazl even here?” Zahira asked.
Mai knocked on the door to Aisha’s office. Zahira and Esmat peeked around the hallway corner and into the main room. A dozen voices sounded from it, everything from whispers to enthusiastic exclamations. Sanya could still hear Zahira just fine, though, because all those voices came from further back.
Zahira turned back to the group. “Well, I'm going to take a nice long bath. Send a message when Aisha gets here.” She vanished into the main room.
“I. Uh,” Esmat shrugged, gesturing towards the main room. “I guess I'll go, too.” They followed Zahira out, probably heading towards the house they shared together.
“Who wants lunch? [Pocket Repository],” Mai asked, tossing her staff into her Repository and closing it.
Sanya stepped up to the edge of the hall and poked around the corner. “It's definitely too crowded. As much as our cooks are talented, I'm kind of tired of eating their food.”
“You wanna—”
“Go out to eat somewhere? That would be . . . nice.”
“Yes! We're finally going on a date, it only took the advent of the end of the world!”
Should they, like, even have the privilege of eating out right now? Was it right and okay to do so, considering the looming, inevitable end of society? Maybe the whole thing was to enjoy their life now before the eldritch entities destroyed it all. Sanya and Mai should be studying their grimoires and practicing spells and—later. After food. She could spare this much, for her, and for Mai.
Sanya scoffed. “We've . . . gone on dates before.”
“Let's go let's go!” Mai took Sanya's arm and pulled her into the main room.
“I guess we'll stay behind and wait for Aisha to show,” Sanya heard Lania muttered.
“It works out! I can send them quick meowssages with some cats.”
“Ha!” Calinichia laughed. “You two can wait here, I'm going to go see what kind of society you have created here. And thus the dusk must take me!”
A bat flew overhead, passing Sanya and exiting the guild hall. I wonder who that is . . . Sanya thought sarcastically.
Mai practically ran out of the building, still holding tightly onto Sanya. They procured looks from adventurers and patrons, anywhere from curious to amused to annoyed or confused. Then there were the whispers. It probably did not help that Sanya's hands were ephemeral and gray now. Whatever, it's not like one more rumor or piece of gossip would matter anymore. Especially not when there were juicier things to gossip about, like Sanya's gender.
She rolled her eyes and shrugged off the whispers. It was time for food! And hopefully giving Mai a decent time, because she deserved it!
“Hey, where is your Fleshspawn?” Sanya finally noticed.
Mai looked up at Sanya and smiled. “It's in my Repository right now.”
“Ah.”
So, was it not a living thing? Could living things even be put in pocket dimensions? Huh, Sanya thought someone would have tried it by now.
☆ ☆ ☆
Sanya and Mai exited the restaurant. The latter was particularly glowing. Metaphorically, of course. It would be quite strange if Mai suddenly stayed glowing. It was probable in the circumstance that she had some sort of mage type that could glow. Sanya did not think that either Spatial or Fleshweaving magic could do that.
The place they had gone to was far from the upper echelons of dining. It was a modest, decent place the average person could pay at. Still, it had some of the best cooks in the city—in the opinions of both Sanya and Mai. Maybe even Zahira . . . and Esmat. It may also have been given approval by Aisha.
Sanya had thought that dying had fried all of her taste buds. So if something was good to Aisha, it must have been amazing.
“Sometimes,” Mai sighed, grinning. “Food is better than sex.”
See? Wait what?
Sanya paused, eyes squinted, brows furrowed, examining Mai from the corner of her vision. “You've had sex?”
“Well, uh,” Mai stuttered. “No?” She added in a mutter, “But I would have if it weren't for someone.”
“Maybe . . . maybe we can. Since it's the end of the world and everything, I-I can make a concession.”
“Really?” Mai perked up. “Don't say that unless you mean it.”
“I . . . I don't know.”
“Blegh.”
Sanya and Mai stepped onto the cobbled street. Early afternoon traffic made it particularly busy. Actually, the streets were always busy while the suns were up. It's not like the streets emptied out during the night, either. There wasn't a curfew or anything like that.
The two of them did not get very far when a cat brushed up against Sanya's leg. What would a cat be doing here, having gone straight up to Sanya—
“Kitty!” Mai exclaimed.
“Oh,” Sanya bent down to give the cat a few scratches behind its ears, then took the rolled up note in its mouth.
It stated “Aisha's back” in what could generously be called abysmal handwriting. Maybe the cat wrote it?
Okay, do not let Nadiyya write letters. Leave that for Aisha's strangely calligraphic writing. A history of writing essays seemed to do that, Sanya supposed.
To be fair to Nadiyya, she had talons on one arm—that could not have been too useful for writing and gripping pens. That being said, was that even her dominant arm? Sanya couldn't remember.
Sanya was about to pet the cat more, but it ran off into the busy street. Sanya frowned.
Mai threw her hands into the air. “I didn't get to pet it!”
Sanya nodded. “Come on. Also, there's way more cats in the city. Nadiyya can probably bring one over for you, too.”
Mai went silent, considering this for quite some time as they weaved through the crowds. “Do Nadiyya's cats even like pets? Are they even really cats anymore? Why would a cat walk away from free scratches? Or are they drones?”
“I don't think that cats are bees, no.”
“Okay, maybe not the cats, but the birds are definitely drones.”
☆ ☆ ☆
“Good,” Aisha said, standing in the main room of the guild hall. She had cleared everyone out prior to their arrival. Just their inner circle remained. “You're all here.”
Nadiyya and Lania were sitting at one of the bench tables. Esmat and Zahira had just arrived, standing by the entryway foyer. Sanya and Mai had entered maybe a minute or two before them. Fazl was sitting down, eating a late lunch.
“Calinichia isn't here,” Lania noted.
Aisha tilted her head. “Who?”
“Oh. Right,” Lania floundered. It seemed Lania forgot that Aisha did not know about Calinichia. Hopefully Aisha would not take the vampire aristocrat poorly. “Umm. We maybe kind-of brought back a vampire with us? She's okay! Mostly.”
“You . . .” Aisha brought a hand up to her forehead and rubbed it, eyes shut. “Okay. I'll trust the group's judgment. So, uh, what happened? Is the portal shut?”
Zahira groaned. “Where do we even begin? . . .” Sanya nodded, a lot had happened today, and it was potentially overwhelming.
“I take it that it's not shut?” Aisha glared.
“No. It is. It's just that . . .”
“This is going to take a while, isn't it?” Aisha sat down onto the bench seating of the tables. “Who thinks they can report it?”
No one spoke up. Esmat was not much of a talker, neither was Sanya. The rest did not seem interested in detailing their account. Sanya thought for a moment that Nadiyya would not be able to string it together, but winced internally and chastised herself. Nadiyya was better and smarter than that, and she really did not deserve Sanya thinking about her in that way.
Sanya looked towards Mai. It was either her or Zahira, but she trusted Mai with it more.
“Ah,” Mai said. “I guess that will be me, then.”
Mai spoke about them entering the red portal, meeting Calinichia, the vampire that had turned Lania, and beating the other vampire. She, with Zahira's help, taught about the whole vampire biology of that. They teleported away at the threat of more twisted vampires, and hung out at Calinichia's. How, during the teleport, Sanya and Esmat had disappeared for a moment, the information dump given by Calinichia, and all of the implications of that.
Aisha had very little in the way of reaction to that last detail. Her attention jolted a tiny amount at the whole eldritch teleportation thing. Yet, not about the parasites or the portals opening and the impending destruction of the world. She took that very well.
“You don't seem surprised,” Zahira spotted.
“Ah . . .” Aisha said. “I'll get to that after.”
Mai continued on about how someone outside their group started to close the red portal. They headed over there, where the librarian had been slowing it down for them.
“Yes, the librarian,” Mai repeated at Aisha's surprise.
“What was she doing there?” Aisha asked, mostly to herself, because Mai was getting to that. Why would she leave that out?
So, Mai explained that—the whole oracle event, reiterating the entire end of the world thing, and then the fight against her.
“Uhhh, what happened to her?” Aisha asked about the librarian's fate.
“I-I left her in the wilderness—she'll be fine . . . probably,” Sanya answered.
“There's other vampires out there now?”
“Yes.”
“And she has no mana?”
“Not for a bit.”
Aisha sighed. “That's . . . fair. She deserves that much after what she tried, I suppose.”
“You're . . . are you on our side?”
“Of course,” Aisha confessed. “You're like my children, even if you're only nine to eleven years younger. We'll get through this together.”
Did Sanya see Aisha as a mother? Adoptive aunt, maybe. Grandmother? Even that seemed more likely than mother, especially given the gray hair. (Jesting!)
“And that leads up to the present!” Mai sing-songed, concluding her report.
The group turned to Aisha.
“It's your turn,” Zahira said.
“I met with Zulfaqar,” Aisha swallowed. “I'll go into the details in a minute, but . . . suffice to say . . . we will be at war by tomorrow.”
Everyone nodded bleakly at the implications. Some swallowed.
“Okay . . . given everything we know, let's make a plan. Portals opening will continue to happen, and quicker, but the least we can do is slow them down. As for Zulfaqar . . . we let him take Glorestra. That's just, not our fight—it probably won’t be a fight. They'll just walk in and take it. We will defend outside Calderae, and Hope if they somehow go there.
“Zulfaqar did not say anything about going to Hope. That doesn't mean he won't.
“And, of course, we all need to train and get stronger. It will be long nights reading by candlelight, I'm afraid . . .”