"He managed to land a blow on you?" Ysevel asked, far more shocked than I was to hear that. "Yes, though I kindly returned the favor by giving him a cut on the left side of his face. The match was called a draw, but I never forgot his name," she said with a distant smile.
"Taegin," I said, realizing who she was talking about and catching both her and Ysevel completely by surprise. "You know him? He's still alive?" she asked, rushing forward to us. "B-but how? I thought he would've died long before you were ever born," she said with a glint in her eye I didn't know she could even have.
"Wait, Thoma. How are you sure?" Ysevel asked after blinking repeatedly. "When we went to the meeting in Coltend, a priest wanted to pick a fight with him. During the verbal dispute, Taegin asked if the priest had ever been to the Underworld, though he denied the question, saying that it was a ridiculous notion," I replied, trying to keep the story as short as possible.
"That… makes a lot of sense, actually," Ysevel said pensively. "I remember when I first met Siraye that she'd mentioned her father had journeyed to this realm, but I don't think he ever specified how he made it back," she continued, turning to face me.
"If Siraye is your mother, then that means… Egeshe krag!" Kalia said in realization. "Yes, I'm his grandson," I nodded. "I knew it. I knew I recognized that form of yours," she said, shaking her finger at me. "I'm surprised you recognized it after all these years… cycles?" I said, half-questioning my terminology. "It's hard to forget a strike like that one," she said with a chuckle.
Just how fucking hard did he hit her? I thought, astonished at the thought of Taegin and her in a duel.
"Come now, let's get some rest and food," she said, reforming the plate across her face. "Athar, Irun. That means you, too," she called out. "We'll be right there, Lady Kalia," Irun shouted back from across the dome. "I just realized you've never shown Irun your face, have you?" Ysevel asked quietly. "Not even once," Kalia said, shaking her head.
"Is it because he's your disciple?" I asked. "More because we were training in Pyrdredd, the very home of the Undergod, than anything else," she said in a hushed tone just as they were arriving.
Irun, while looking generally the same, tousled Athar's hair, which he'd cut much shorter since the ends were once matted and full of thick, bulging knots. "Come on, shit ass, I'm hungry," I called out to Irun with a snort. "Ooooh, I like that name," Athar's voice slipped momentarily as he shook his head.
I guess he stopped slapping himself, I thought with a mental shrug.
"Sorry about that," he said apologetically. "It's the first one in a few cycles, but I'm learning to get it under control," he said, scratching the back of his head. "It's fine. Now, come along. We need to eat and rest," Kalia said coldly, still not having gotten used to Athar's core being placed inside his alternate's body.
"Yes, o-of course, Lady Kalia," he said with a respectful bow. She gave Ysevel and I a knowing glance before she turned to face a table made of pure kataki. On top of the large, round table, there were three octagonal rings with runes inlaid within them.
She muttered something in her native language that I couldn't quite hear, but with a pulse of dark mana, the rings began to glow, as I could see something being pushed through the impromptu portal that was created.
"It still impresses me every time," I whispered to Ysevel, who nodded in agreement. "Eat," she commanded as the table reformed a few legless benches for us to sit on. There was a selection of dried meats, bitter, and some other unidentifiable creature that Kalia took for herself and began to tear into with her fingers.
There was a note attached to the tray that I noticed was written in the same runes Krozz used when he took down mine and Ysevel's information at the tavern. "What's that?" I asked, gesturing to it just before Kalia picked it up. "It's a note from Krozz. He wishes you three well and to stop by before you make your return to the Between," she said briefly before taking another bite of the strange creature.
He thinks fondly of you two, and was glad to hear that we've formed a bond, she sent Ysevel and I. If there's a way to send a message back, tell him we'd love to visit if we have the opportunity to do so, Ysevel sent back with a warm smile.
After we finished eating, Kalia reabsorbed the table into her armor and told us all to get some rest, sending us off to our designated areas to sleep in. Each one had its own tall box for us to clean ourselves in, which, again, Kalia had provided for us to use.
After a brief shower and a change into a dark-gray tunic, Ysevel and I unfurled our bedrolls near one of the apexes of the octagonal rings while Irun and Athar did the same near another just off to our right.
Kalia, however, gently nestled into a kneeling position near the obelisk as if she were going to meditate.
"Do you think she's actually sleeping? We've been here for a while now, and I've only ever seen her do… whatever that is," I heard Athar say in a hushed tone. "Nope, and if you talk any louder, she'll definitely hear you," Irun shot back with a whisper. "That doesn't answer my question, shit-ass," Athar said with a shake of his head, lowering his voice to the point where I could hardly hear him.
Meanwhile, Ysevel and I were stifling a chuckle at the use of the name I'd called Irun earlier.
"According to what I've seen, they can use ambient mana to replenish their energy. It's why it looks like she's meditating, but in reality, she's actually just taking in deeply focused mana," Irun said, lying down in his own bedroll. "Oh, I get it!" Athar said, putting a balled fist into an upturned palm. "I wonder if I can do that, too," he said pensively.
"I have no idea, but given that you're an anomaly to begin with, why not give it a try?" Irun asked with a noncommittal shrug. Athar finished unfurling his bedroll and got into a similar kneeling position as Kalia. "Comfy?" Irun asked sarcastically. "Not particularly, no," Athar replied bluntly. "Here," I whispered, throwing the small pillow I had at him and smacking him in the face while Irun stifled a laugh.
"A warning would have been nice," he said, pulling the pillow away from his face and revealing a raised eyebrow. "I gave you one," I replied wryly. "Just saying here isn't much of a warning," he said lightly. "I do what I can," I replied with a shrug before laying on my back beside Ysevel.
"Here, you can use mine," she said quietly, handing me her own small pillow. "What about you?" I asked with a raised eyebrow. "I'll manage," she said with a wry smile as she scooted her bedroll up against mine and laid on my chest.
Are you sure you're okay to do this in front of them? I asked through our mental connection. They're bound to find out at some point, and now that we know that Kalia knows, I don't really give a shit what they think, she replied with a subtle nod in their direction. Fair enough, I replied with an upturned lip.
"Oh, look! Lovebirds," Athar's altered voice came out much louder than his usual whisper, prompting Irun to glance at us, then shake his head with a snort as he turned back over.
I stand corrected. I want to hit him, Ysevel sent, almost causing me to burst into a fit of laughter as I closed my eyes to sleep.
After what felt more like a nap than actual sleep, we woke up to the now-familiar clatter of Kalia's blade on her forearm. "Wake up," she said aloud between our bedrolls, eliciting groans from all of us as we shifted awake. I could smell the food on the kataki table a few meters away, so I gently prodded Ysevel to wake up.
She's a deep sleeper, I thought as I could still hear her gentle snoring.
"Ysevel, come on. It's time to get up," I said, shaking her gently. "Eh?" she groaned with a small amount of drool in the corner of her mouth and her hair in a mess. "We need to get up. Kalia's already got breakfast set out for us," I said, trying to hide my childish grin because of her morning face, as she called it. "Oookay," she said sleepily while trying to sit up.
Within the hour, we finished donning our armor and eating and were soon back to training. Luckily, the breakfast woke Ysevel up, as she had, apparently, grown fond of Krozz's cooking during our time in the dome. "I hope you two got enough rest," Kalia said with a wry smirk on her face. "It felt more like I blinked and woke up again, but yes, I think we did," I replied with a chagrined smile as I formed the kataki blade. "Good," she replied just before dashing in for an attack.
Since my blade hadn't fully formed yet, I wasn't able to deflect the attack entirely, earning me a small cut that led from the top of my eyebrow down to my cheekbone.
Fuck, I can't see with all the blood in my eye, I thought, desperately backstepping as I deflected a subsequent blow aimed for my liver.
Ysevel dashed in, wreathing herself in scarlet mana as she reeled her sword back for an attack. Kalia saw the attack coming, but Ysevel sent out a phantasmal form just ahead of her to strike first before her own blow met its target. "Impressive," Kalia said, dismantling the phantasm with her own scarlet mana before Ysevel's attack landed.
"Thank you, but you missed one," she replied wryly during a barrage of attacks as another phantasm spawned in behind Kalia, already mid-swing. Kalia was forced to dodge the attack that came from behind and repositioned herself to intercept my attack aimed at her torso.