Prelude 2 - Attention

Despite the fact Cestia encouraged him to hustle, their first stop amidst the towering evergreens was a quietly majestic cat house. Kaye respected cats he'd met in his life and, in turn, they would give him a raise of the head and leave him alone.

As Cestia breathlessly explained, each cat was a stray adopted by local organizations like the royal guard, the church inside the walls, and a travel agency. Without fear, she brushed her slim hand over the back of a gray, banded tabby who stretched up to meet her touch but made no other commitment to her attention.

"I could get a cat now. I could take this little guy with me. But he'd have to stay at the inn, until I get a proper house."

Kaye bent his hand out to pet a midnight-black kitty, but the feline rumbled like a compressed thunderhead as his digits approached. So, he kept to rowing his fingers through the air like he was petting a ghost cat. Cestia managed to grab that aloof one without hesitation and scratch under its neck. He settled back on the grass before Cestia soon urged him onto the next location.

Several soldiers in leather armor with tall, sloping helmets marched in orderly formation before a small tower. Through a dense thicket, he could make out the silver, sun-dappled pinnacle of a stone bridge leading off to parts unknown.

Crossing a narrow, wooden bridge with deep creases along its support beams that bowed too much from their steps, Cestia guided him to a train station with a bench that appeared slapped together from several bundles of unfinished logs. Despite this appearance, it held their weight well, even though it desperately itched through his pants.

A distant roar grew gradually louder. Bound in a moment of ease, Kaye dipped his eyes closed and the rest of his body sought to follow suit, like a marionette with all the cords snipped off. But the rebound brought him back to consciousness.

"Tired", Cestia responded without even a hint of a question. Kaye challenged, "Just feeling the long journey and the wait."

"It's almost over", she proclaimed. "We'll get our Daring uniforms from the Diem Squad and at least get our combat lesson in. Then, I know there's an adventure task which we should immediately ace. Some survival stuff and magical bags. Crafting tools. Simple as that! Also, we'll find out how strong we are."

Kaye's mind caught fragments of comprehension as Cestia excitedly sailed through all that. His attention was on her flush, rounded face. How had it once belonged to little Cee-Tee?

He had no siblings. The handful of kids his age either had no time on their hands or too much. They'd always tease or berate him. The worst was Bixly, a fat oaf from a family of fat oafs whose family raised bloated, reeking farm animals with more manners than any of their brood. The unspoken rumor around town posited further than that.

Kearny, too young to know exactly when to pull back his words, felt flashes and ringing pain from asking to see Bixley's tail. Fist after fist rained down on him till it felt like he couldn't breathe. A splash of silver-spinning blue toppled the immense bully.

He didn't know or remember much when he recovered, except for Cee-Tee's fierce declaration, "He's my friend and you will never lay a hand on him again!" As the story got told and retold days to years later, Cestia wielded a jagged, dead branch, a carving knife, or a full sword depending on the ambition of the teller.

On the bench, she squeezed her hands in her lap. "Something is bothering you."

He swallowed after a deep breath and relinquished his parchment to her. She puzzled for a moment and asked, "Why does it say 'Kaye'?"

Cupping his forehead as he failed to flick away a mote of grit in his eye, Kaye swam through a tide of excuses, qualifications, and problems before setting his words on, "I messed up. I didn't pay attention and I just messed it up."

Tracing the material of the document like her fingers could scrub away the error, Cestia resolved, "We'll just need to get some Beyond Celestial Currency to fix it."

Cestia glossed over that neither of them knew how to acquire it or had even heard of it before crossing into this kingdom. But she pivoted confidently to announce, "In the meanwhile, Kaye is a cool nickname. Kaye the Slayer. Sharpshooter Kaye. It works!"

Though he nodded with apparent enthusiasm for this solace, he remembered how fervently Cestia delighted about his true name. And it was his name. Well, not really. Passed down from at least three generations of ancestors, with the oldest a bookkeeper who retired on the farm.

The mechanical noise rose to an overwhelming vibration that rattled the air, despite the breeze. Through a clearing, Kaye watched a scaled-down train mount the crest through the trees. Smells natural and strange danced together with a cloying wet warmth that streamed from the engine as it squealed to a halt.

Seven modest cars trailed behind. Some, like the one Cestia insisted on, were open to the air while others wore a meager cover like a threadbare umbrella. Plush, red seating wrapped around the interior. The front-facing bench allowed them to sit nearly shoulder to shoulder with enough room for each to have another partner on the other side.

The driver at the engine didn't ask for a ticket or where they were headed. He just straightened a wide cap with a swipe of sweat from his brow as he fussed with the machine.

"Would you like to do that?" Cestia's question would've gotten lost in the noises if Kaye hadn't turned her way.

"Oh. I dunno. I wouldn't know where to start."

"It's a job class", she noted. "Mechanist. Start as a Merchant, advance to Forger and Smith. Till you wind up an Arc Wielder, master of flying armor machines. Doesn't that sound really cool?"

Kay smiled even though that sounded like another jumble of things. In studying the established jobs for adventurers, he couldn't make it more than a few lines before it all felt like knotted noodles where one end slipped and melded with others, and even tracing a thought through the connections left him confused as to where he was and should go next.

Sword...guy, he got that. But none of them were so simple. Light Lord. Ravager. Sword Dancer. Harbinger. Swashbuckler. Outrider. Rogue. Beast Rider. Alchemist. Diablor. Shadowhunter. Adept.

He wasn't sure if any of those were real, ones he'd glimpsed in a book of folklore, or names he'd just dribbled out of his head. They all felt real by varying degrees. But it was like being given memories of a smattering of puzzle pieces in broad, bright colors with no sense of how they all fit together.

But he was here on faith and following the wash of Cestia's energy. They had vowed to become the greatest adventurers together. The King and the Queen, by reputation. Whatever he didn't understand in this moment, he resolved he would learn. And this resolution was easily encouraged with Cestia giggling as the wind teased at her hair and the train shifted, then rolled away from the station.

The path cut for the train was narrow, with needles reaching out far enough to scratch Kaye's fingers if he wasn't careful. He didn't want his fingers out there though, he wanted them inside and close. But resting them near Cestia wasn't an option either. He knew she wouldn't take it for anything unusual. Her attention was on some space ahead of them anyway, so she probably wouldn't even notice the touch.

When they were young, it didn't matter. They just assumed they would always be together and do everything with each other. That meant living in the forest, naked if they had to be. He fought a wave of red heat through his head at that memory.

"Yeah, it's cool", he finally answered, far too late for it to make sense with their conversation. Still, Cestia picked it up without missing a beat, washing Kaye's brain with her remembered details of this Mechanist field of adventuring. Before she got too deep, he asked, "Are you...going to choose that?"

Compared to his wandering words, she swiftly pronounced, "Nope. It's just cool. I will be a Swordlady and a Knight to follow."

Will. He had no doubt that word swung all of Cestia's determination behind it. When she decided something and set her will to it, it happened. Like the rope swing across the river to their secret hideout. Kearny had envisioned it, but Cestia willed it into being with a plan and lots of climbing. She even did research on construction, so it would be secure even as they got older.

The last thing they did before they left home was swing over one last time. It didn't waver under their weight, as though it had been a core firmament, crafted by powerful magic to withstand through the eons. Like Gleipnir holding the wolf god Fenrir at bay, Kaye reflected. Unfortunately, he couldn't remember the entirety of the legend, only that it was really really strong.

He wanted to be as strong as that. As strong as what he saw in Cestia. It didn't matter that her knees through her armor showed leanly with some trace of youthful baby fat across her unmarred flesh. Or that she had to alter the smallest of the boots at the local shop to get them to fit comfortably and prevent sores.

Cestia's hands, soft though they were even now, could bring around any well-balanced sword like the wing sweep of a falcon carrying the deadly bite of its beak and talons. He had to return to the ample curves of her figure and bust no matter how many times his mind screamed memories of plucky, tough little Cee-Tee. At the same time, if she willed to challenge even Freya's beauty then he knew no goddess who could stand in her way.

It didn't take long for Kaye to get used to the air fighting at the edges of his face. The breeze was still there, but the breath of the trees and mists of nearby streams mixed with the pulsing heat of that ceaseless engine.

No whisper willows filled the air with their jagged leaves like angled blades. He could sit for hours in the dark as the southern winds traced their ephemeral fingers across his flesh and the wordless voices of the forest spoke to him. These trees were silent.

"Well, you have till you're level 10 to settle on a job."

"Level...10?"

She arched a cerulean eyebrow. "You...did read the books I recommended for you before we left, right?"

He'd skimmed some of the texts, but he was too embarrassed to outright admit that. "Of course. But we can go over it again. So...we're both fresh."

She knew, and he knew she did. Her hand firmly settled on his shoulder as she elaborated, "Levels are your power, your strength against all foes. And it rises with Yaemir Essence. The gods and other beings that created the nine realms left their traces behind. You know about the shattered hearts, right?"

Pressure like an icy drip on his forehead dashed away his clarity of thought. At least, what clarity there was. Hearts. Hearts...he understood hearts in the physical sense and how his ached beyond the physical when he was away from Cestia or disappointed her with his stumbles of memory, attention, and especially the freshly-flawed parchment.

Readily and fervently, he assured her he knew about these hearts. These shattered ones. It had to be bad they were shattered. So, he put on a tight, solemn expression before answering, "The shattered hearts are in pieces."

Cestia inspected him from head to toe with her eyes scrunched skeptically. "Right....Anyway. So, levels. Flip your parchment."

To Kaye's surprise, he found something presented in active, wavering text, like ghostly hands writing and rewriting the words and numbers before him. Cestia elaborated, "Always check for another thing with whatever you are given. A second and third utility especially. Even the smallest things may have the biggest uses. This is your starting level."

 

KAYE LINDGREN
Class - Daring [Male]
Level 1 - [Diem Squad Prospect]
Core - 1
Job - 1/10

Stats
Attack - 8 / Defense - 1 / Magic Attack - 3 / Magic Defense - 1
Food reserve status - 0/3
Weight - Normal
Height - Normal

 

The numbers after that overwhelmed Kaye until he returned to the safety of the ones that made the most sense to question, spilling out concerns, "One? I'm only a one for some? And what do height and weight matter? And there's percentages...?"

Cestia showed off her parchment to compare, even though she completely obscured "Weight" with a finger that wasn't going to budge anytime soon. "I can't tell you about everything on here. Some are for how monster attacks affect you. And if you consume certain things. But anyway, there's a guy in the forest who will begin our training. And this is pretty close to our stop!"

With a flip and a bound, Cestia vaulted out of the train car and landed on the darkened earth around the rails with a hop.

In addition to Cestia's gymnastic display, she kept easy pace with the train and encouraged Kaye to hop out, "...However you like."

That little spider tickled at him again with her invisible webs of anxiety. He shouldn't have fretted. What Cestia just did was little more than a warm up to all their antics under the big tree. Kearny leapt on slick stones to cross rivers when he didn't feel up to swinging on less certain vines. But that never felt real. It never felt like he could actually get hurt. Of all the things he could've and should've thought about, the ground retreating beside him burned through everything else.

Ultimately, it was Cestia starting to work up a sweat between pants that led him to hoist himself up on the edge of the cab and swivel over the side. But he misjudged the ground, his hold, and just about everything necessary.

His arm slapped around the edge and barely cleared the rolling, twisting metal as the train thundered along next to his ear. Everything burned, but only for a moment.

[HP -1 ---- 99/100]

Coughing into the wild grasses, Kaye batted his fiery hair away from his eyes as Cestia hopped the nearest train car to get to his side. Though he may have only damaged a tiny piece of his life, the wound to his ego was immense, dripping, and raw.

Once the train was away and the ground had begun to settle, Cestia offered to help him up. Kaye shook his head and rolled, slowly getting to his knees before stretching to his feet.

He couldn't see Cestia's face as he brushed himself off, but he could feel the sentiment of a droplet of sweat hanging off her with concern as much as his droplet dangling with flush embarrassment.

Cestia withheld comment and instead urged him that it wasn't far to their destination.

Back a few paces, a clearing led to a crude path marked with flat, silvery stones. At the end of it, they found a man hunched over a wooden board with a pair of pants stretched out.

Spools of thread and thatches of cloth surrounded him as he squinted at a ragged patch in the pants and raised a sword ominously above it.

"Excuse me?" Cestia spoke first.

As though awakening from a spell, the man gazed over and smiled. His top was delicately embroidered and sunk to his knees. His hair poked out like raspberry-tinted. barbed black spokes. The brighter colors paired with and didn't overwhelm the dark patches of his wild locks. While Kaye's fiery hair licked down as far as his neck, the disorganized jags barely left the bushy center.

"No need to excuse. Greetings! Diem recruits! It's a pleasure!"

Flipping the sword into the ground behind him as simply as setting down a needle, the man hustled over from his work and shook their hands with both of his. "Truly a pleasure! Most choose Figaro for their intro missions. Been too long."

Though Cestia briefly considered whether they'd come to the wrong place, the man vigorously assured them that he represented the Diem Squad. Although, he admitted, "I usually wind up with the curious, eccentric, and weird. Although not always. Normal folks too! Totally normal!"

Silence hung over the forest, parted only by a strange, rummaging noise from inside the small wagon behind the man. Compared to those in the busier region, this one had cobwebs next to the wheels along with split wood, barrels, and irregular stones. A clothesline with a loose bow in the middle dangled between the nearest evergreen and a decorative prominence atop the wagon.

"Call me Rufus. I'll prepare your inventory gear, get you started as official Darings, and show you the ropes. First, I can go over a few things...I have notes."

Chucking several large objects over his head, Rufus searched through a large pile of what could best be described as organized trash, even though some of it looked quite elegant. After hunting for a while, he drew forth a wedding dress that appeared not to be made of silk but rather several strips of paper lined up and stitched together.

Clearing his throat, Rufus stated, "My notes." But he couldn't leave it at that, adding swiftly, "Don't use a magical sewing machine when you're really tired."

Shifting the dress around, he read out, "Welcome to the Diem Squad, the honorable adventurers of the realm. The nine realms. Well, the multiverse that binds together the nine aspects of reality. As far as we know. We were founded by the great King Vincent the IV to safeguard against the return of the ancient beast sealed away by the great Theros, fifteen thousand years ago: The Nithehor. Basically...it will consume all life, eat the remains of the gods, destroy Yggdrasil, and gnaw upon the ruins of all things, never to be sated.”

Rufus glanced over at them and amended, "But that's not your specific...job. Although, if there are signs and portents of a beast that wants to kill all things, please pass that along to the leadership. Your job is to grow and get stronger so others can be protected. You're starting out at level 1. To grow, you first need to fight. Why does fighting do this? Because reality is made of the ancient frost god Yaemir. His/her… left ambiguous, body and sinews, blood and organs, and other pieces form all that we know. And the most important part of all...is their shattered heart or hearts. A little bit of them is in every living thing, but when you get too much of it without the temperament of empathy and understanding, like some beasts in the wild, it brings power with vengeance and fury. That’s why it is the duty of an adventurer to take down the hostile creatures who have too much of the hearts in them. To get there, you have to accumulate a little bit at a time. Your parchments, and what I’m going to give you soon, measure your levels with respect to this godly energy. You’re also going to get a special isolation box for the beasts that you can tame, capture, and befriend. There’s a crystalline egg preservation system, but I’ll get to that later. Your shoulder bag storage will be essentially limitless, but I can only give you a certain number of sectors. There are others who can help you to expand that space further. Now, I have to mention hats and headgear, although by headgear I mean a variety of things you’ll be wearing which don’t necessarily go on your head. With me so far?“

If Kaye was completely honest with himself, he would’ve admitted that somewhere around 'sinews' he lost his place and even before then with the horrible monster from thousands of years ago, which drew him back to a younger age when he feared such beasts might linger at the edge of the shadows beneath his bed with a jagged claw searching for him if he wasn’t completely bundled up. Cestia had no such reticence, as she remarked bluntly. “My friend didn’t get any of that and I have several questions. But you mentioned fighting?”

Rufus set the dress that held his notes across his shoulder, trying not to bend and fold it so much that he might lose an important section, as he sighed and resolved, “In that case, it might be better to just let you jump in and fill in the gaps later. So, we’ll start off with combat. Follow me. Just need to find you two something that a level 1 can kill...”