I don't remember when I finally drifted off last night. I had stayed curled beneath my covers, feigning sleep to avoid any conversation, while unease gnawed steadily at me.
It was not the outcome of tomorrow's discussion that concerned me… strangely enough.
It is clear they have all made up their minds and have decided to continue to escort Kayin and me to the Nguo.
I can't believe they would follow through with this; I should be relieved—I am relieved… and thankful—but a creeping fear I can't explain lingers alongside the relief and not knowing why only makes it worse.
Maybe that is how I fell asleep, I must have been so stressed that I simply passed out without realizing it.
The next morning, I wake up to a rich and pleasant smell in the air. It gently lulls me out of my sleeping state. I sit up to see Kayin couched by the fire, pouring steaming water into several wooden cups.
He looks over in my direction. "Good morning."
I walk over to him and sit on a stool nearby. "…Hello."
"Slept well?"
I shrug, and he doesn't question any further. He just nods as if he understood.
I shift my attention back to what Kayin is brewing, and my eyes widen. That deep brown, almost dark colour… and the familiar fragrance. It can't be…
"Is that… Coffee?"
"Sir Mubarak's wife gifted it to me yesterday."
"Oh, so you plan to wheedle us with some coffee, huh?" We both jump. Ewa is now crouched between us. She casually reaches out and picks up a cup from which she sips the beverage slowly. She doesn't seem much affected by it. "I have to say, it might just work."
This girl and her love of creeping on to others.
"I am not planning anything," he corrects her. "I intended to share it with everyone ever since it was given to me."
Ewa narrows her eyes at him, an impish smile dancing across her lips as she takes another sip. "Do you regularly receive gifts from older married women?"
"Don't speak nonsense."
"I'm just saying… The way I saw it, you looked awfully accustomed to such situations. You begin by politely but gently attempting to refuse the gift. She insists a few times then you accept with the most grateful and charming of faces—That's how you get in their heads, don't you? Then they won't stop thinking about you, that sweet polite young man who saved them in their hours of need…"
I quietly watch, with no small amount of amusement, as Ewa offers the most innocent looks—fluttering her eyelashes like an infatuated maiden—to a scowling Kayin. He looks, for the lack of better words, speechless. In the end, he just sighs in resignation.
Just as Ewa lifts the cup to her lips, I seize her arm in a rush of panic.
"E-Ewa, you should not drink so much, this is dangerous."
She turns to me curiously. "And it's dangerous because?"
She is not taking this seriously, is she?
"This is coffee, right? Something so potent should not be consumed so carelessly, too much of it could kill you. I don't think it is safe to drink it even with your strong metabolism."
"This? Are you sure we are talking about the same thing?" Ewa asks after a moment of hesitation.
"I am. I recognize the smell of it. That thing is a dangerous drug. It messes with the flow of Spiritual essence in the body. Even when heavily diluted, the volume of essence produced by the body increases so fast so abruptly that people collapse from a stroke… and that is if they are lucky."
"Vyswe'eyaga, I'm not sure what you are talking about, but it's completely safe," Kayin proceed to grab a cup of his own and, to my dismay, drink from it. "See? I wouldn't have served it to you otherwise."
I stare several seconds at him, preparing bracing myself for his imminent collapse. But nothing happens.
He is fine. He is completely fine.
I check with my senses the rhythm of his essence and nothing seems out of place. He completely unaffected—And so does Ewa, the flow energy in her body is the same as usual.
Ewa picks up another cup and hands it to me. "Here. Have a taste."
I stare at the cup for a long moment. A confused reflection of myself staring back at me on the glossy surface of the dark liquid.
In the field of sorcery, its property to amplify the volume of essence output—the very thing every practitioner of magic longed for—made it coveted as a most prized material.
But the flow of essence in the body increases so brutally that it is usually fatal… or in the best-case scenario, one will get to never be able to wield sorcery again.
That is why something like that was banned by the empire.
"I mean… How can I know it will not affect me? For all I know, the people of this time may very well be immune to its properties."
Ewa raises my hands so that my cup brushes over my lips. "There is only way to find out."
I look up at her dubiously, but she just smiles with both her thumps raised beside her face. Kayin just stares curiously.
He is a sorcerer, and he is just fine. Then I should be as well.
With a deep breath, I lift the cup and drink.
Only to be assaulted by the vilest, most bitter thing I had ever had the misfortune to put in my mouth. It is with great effort that I manage to not just hurl the disgusting thing on the ground.
But now I find myself in a precarious situation. The leftover of the disgusting coffee is trapped in my mouth, yet I cannot spit it out. Kayin made it for everyone, I don't want to offend him by doing something so rude.
"Pfft…"
I jerk my head, only to lock eyes with Ewa who struggles to contain a smirk off her face. I have an annoying suspicion she had anticipated my reaction.
"Ah, if you find it too bitter I can add some sugar if you want," says Kayin.
I force myself to swallow the remnants in my mouth. "Yes, please. Add a lot of it."
"It's now confirmed that you are one of those sacrilegious people who likes it sweet. You're smothering all the aroma, Vyvy."
"How can anyone like something so bitter?" I complain. "This is insanity."
"You wouldn't understand even if I explained it to you. It's a grown-up's thing."
I blink once. Twice.
"I am older than you."
"—Pssh. I am talking about the mind… mentally, you are not mature enough to enjoy the delicacy that is coffee. But it's alright," she says while patting me on my shoulder, "you will get it. One day."
I am at a loss for words. I cannot tell for certain whether or not she is serious or if she is just messing with me.
"Don't mind her." Kayin says as he drops four sugar cubes. "Anyway, how do you feel? Any noticeable changes?"
Now that he mentions it. "No, everything seems… normal." Except for the lingering aftertaste in my mouth, my body doesn't seem to react negatively to it. My mind is clear, and the flow of my essence in unperturbed.
Oh.
"See?" Ewa exclaims. "You worried for nothing, as I said."
"Do you people have to be this noisy so early in the morning?"
The words slice through the atmosphere, sharp and unexpected. A groan erupts and N'jobu shuffles up from his covers, glaring in our direction. "The sun isn't even up yet."
"Gee.. Being grumpy is no excuse to ruin it for everyone. Bossman, I say you don't give him any coffee as penalty."
"Ewa, that is a bit much."
"No matter," he scoffs, crossing his arms. "I'm not so easily bought."
"Urgh, why is there some much noise so early?" Someone whispers, it is Sazayi, "I'm not done sleeping yet… That smell, is that coffee?"
He quickly joins us and helps himself with a cup. "Just what I needed," the sigh he lets out is one of pure contentment, he then whips his head at us with a frown on his face. "How could you withhold this for so long? I never taught of you to be so egoistical, Kayin."
"For the love of God, I did not withhold anything," he replies, "It was gifted to me just yesterday."
"Oh… Should have said it sooner then."
His gaze then slowly falls on me. He lingers for a short while before saying, "Good morning, Vyswe'eyaga."
"Good… good morning to you too."
He nods wistfully and takes another sip.
"Oh, you are all up now, that's good."
Azikiwe and Gamba emerge from somewhere in the foliage, closely followed by Ike. It is only now that I realize that not present since morning.
~~~~~~~~~~~
Soon, everyone is seated down with a steamy cup of coffee cradled in the hands, except for Ike who is leaning against a tree not far. The mood is serious, but it is also slightly lighter than yesterday. Everyone looks more relaxed now.
I wonder if it is thanks to the coffee…
"Now that everyone's here," Azikiwe says, claiming everyone's attention. "Let's continue where we left off."
I slightly tense when sensing the subtle gazes shifting in my direction, struggling to keep up a calm impression.
"So, what's the plan? How did you intend to venture the Nguo?"
The instance that follows is a mix of confusion and awkwardness. All eyes are primarily focused on me, expecting me to answer the questions, but with nothing to offer them I instinctively turn to Kayin, and they all naturally do the same. Our eyes meet, surprise flashing in his eyes as he looks around at them—only for him to look away. His lips are drawn into a tight line when he lifts his hand to scratch the back of his neck.
Oh. Ooh!
He… had no thought about it, had he?
Well, I can't really blame him. I did not think much of it myself. I had never bothered to ask what the Nguo was in the first place. Kayin and Uncle Owono did not say much about it, except that it was a dangerous place and since Tchio also never mentioned it in our first and second encounters it quickly slipped out of my mind.
"You have got to be kidding me," N'jobu stares wide-eyed. "You had no plan… At all?"
"I never planned to venture there to begin with."
"Of course you didn't, you were going to just look around then be on your merry way." N'jobu snaps back.
"And what's your excuse?" He asks, nodding his head in my direction. "This is your task to begin with."
"I…" but decide to close my mouth. There is nothing I can say to be honest.
Someone sighs, long and hard. Then a heavy silence follows.
"Alright," Ewa exclaims, "no plan. It's not an issue; we just have to… figure something out. First, what are we looking for specifically? And how do we find it without dying out there?"
"We are looking for … something evil? If I remember correctly," Sazayi answers.
"That's the vaguest thing I have ever heard. How do you find something like that?" N'jobu glances back in my direction, "That… Prophet of yours, did he not give some kind of clue about what it could be? Shape? Size? Is it an object, or a person, perhaps?"
"N-No, I, I don't remember that he did—He did give me these, when we met again later." I retrieve the compass from my Subspace, and the pendant around my neck and lay them on my lap for all to see, "the compass seems to show us where to go; it has always been pointing north ever since I received it. I don't know what the necklace does, though."
"Let me have a look."
I hesitate for a brief second before handing them to him. N'jobu fiddles around with the compass as Sazayi examines the pendant's gem, turning it around in an attempt to discover something on it, then exchange the items with each other. Soon, the pendant and compass are passed around for everyone to inspect—except for Kayin who had already seen them before, and Ike, he pass them over with barely a glance.
"That's hardly anything," N'jobu says as I retrieve the items.
"You don't know that," Ewa shakes her head, "who knows… maybe these are powerful artifacts who just happened to look boring."
"What is the point if you don't even know how to use them?" Sazayi asks.
"That's part of the surprise. Have some imagination…"
He gives her a strange look, his mouth opened as if he wanted to say something but ends up shaking his head.
"The compass, at least, will guide us through that misty land. That will be enough for now." Gamba says.
Azikiwe nods, "We just need to not get caught by any horror dwelling there."
"Vyswe'eyaga, how confident are you with the potency of your wards?" Kayin suddenly asks.
"Fairly confident," I answer. "I should be able to hide everyone's presence without any problem, I think."
"For how long you can sustain those wards anyway?" N'jobu asks, "who knows long this trip is going to last."
I consider his question for a moment, silently doing a rough estimate.
"Since we are talking about holding the spell for a prolonged period," I say under my breath, "it is better to draw an array than to just cast a spell matrix… depending on the durability of the material, then I think I can maintain a Cloak for a week or two, maybe longer if I can take breaks in-between."
The cloak could even last indefinitely if only I had some high-quality Spirit crystals on my person.
"Will the wards really be sufficient?" Sazayi asks.
"It has worked well so far," Kayin responds, "and really, we don't have any other options."
Ewa suddenly springs to her feet, arching her back in a languid stretch. Slivers of sunlight pierce the thick canopy overhead, casting dappled patterns across her skin, which shimmers with a warm glow.
"Sooo, we are done here, right?"
As her stretch melts into a relaxed stance, Ewa pivots toward me with a spark in her eyes and a sassy grin tugging at her lips. "Then onward. Into the unknown. To seize the destiny that awaits us."
"Actually, it is Vyswe'eyaga's destiny," N'jobu calls out. Ella whirls on him with a glare sharp enough to cut, but he just shrugs carelessly.