Chapter 152: Coming for you
[ Towards the Old world...]
The waves had barely settled when Kieran dragged himself out of the sea, boots sloshing with brine, clothes hanging heavy and foul with fish oil and seaweed.
He spat out saltwater, scowled at the horizon, then turned to the figure climbing up behind him from the rocks.
"Velor," Kieran growled, " your brilliant idea already started to stink...we smell literally like fish and rotting corpses."
Velor, water dripping from his lashes, looked far too pleased with himself for someone who had also just swum halfway across the ocean. His grin only widened when he took in Kieran’s appearance.
"Oh no, my dear friend. You smell like a well prepared bloated corpse," he smirked. "A necessary evil, if you want to waltz into the Old world without triggering every ward and alarm system in place...or raise suspicion in the least...we don’t want to repeat the same show you gave them last time. Do we now? "
Kieran looked down at his reflection in the puddle near the rocks. His hair was now streaked blonde, bleached with a potion Velor insisted was ’essential for anonymity.’ His sharp jaw was covered in patchy stubble that looked fake enough to insult his entire lineage.Velor even tried to add a moustache but Kieran threw it straight into the ocean!
"Tell me again," Kieran said slowly, more to the ocean, voice like distant thunder, "why I couldn’t just burn my way through the gates of the Old world and take Autumn myself."
Velor made a face like he had just stepped on a sea urchin.
"Because you would die before you could reach her."
"I have faced worse."
Velor rolled his eyes. "No. You have caused worse. There’s a difference."