The large buildings in Trivulon were closer together, all made of black glass, and the streets were wider; the green flag flying higher. There were no homeless on the streets and it was clear just looking at this Alchemist town that it was in considerably better shape than Zmeyal. 

“It’s not so bad here,” Pepin said as the canoe was brought up alongside the docks.

“Told you it was a bigger town,” Emelri chimed in, “and more stable for that matter.”

“Keep an eye out for your sibling,” Adrian reminded them as he stepped onto the wooden platform. “We may still be able to catch them in town.”

Taking a moment to tie the canoe up, Emelri climbed out after him followed by Pepin.

“We can ask the boat keeper,” she offered.

Atop a massive boathouse that connected to the docks, she spotted a qivaz leaning against a wooden railing, looking down at the group of three blankly.

“Excuse me!” Emelri called in ancient Elden, waving a hand above her head. “Has a black canoe come through here?”

The qivaz with long white hair, light brown skin, and a busty chest answered in a masculine voice, “A black canoe? Haven’t seen any of those in a long while.”

She raised an eyebrow. “You haven’t?”

“That’s right. More expensive than the wooden ones considering you have to hire a magic user guide just to travel in one. It’s been a day or so since anyone has come through, to be honest.” All three of their faces fell. “Why do you ask? You looking for someone?”

“Yeah. A magic user. Has black dreads. Is wearing Venwi clothing.”

“Can’t say I’ve seen them. My guess is whoever you’re looking for must not have stopped here. Maybe they continued on to the dock in Witle. It’s west of here.”

She chewed on her lip, muttering to the others, “They must have decided to keep going. Probably didn’t want us to follow them.”

“They could be anywhere by now then,” Adrian said.

“Shit, I know.”

“We know they’re headed to wherever Carnadine is,” Pepin interjected. 

“That’s right,” Adrian concurred. “They obviously received some kind of intel of where she’s at, so we just need to do the same.”

“You haven’t heard of a Spiller named Carnadine, have you, Boatkeeper?” she projected again, and the qivaz shook their head.

“Nope. You’d be better asking someone in town.”

“Damnit.” She turned back to the others. “Trivulon is enormous, plus there are so many routes Toulou could have taken from here.”

“Well, first things first,” Adrian said calmly, “we desperately need supplies. While stocking up, we can ask around. If we split up, we can cover more ground. How does the money work here?”

Considering him for a second then nodding, she pulled out the bag of gemstones they’d gotten from Mr. Ot in Zmeyal. She took out a round green gem between her fingers. “This is an Emer. Twenty-five Emers is one Saph.” She pulled out a blue stone next. “Twenty-five Saphs is one Diam,” a white, nearly see through stone was pulled out last, “and twenty-five Diams is a shit ton of money.”

Pepin snorted as she gave them each ten Emers and two Saphs.

“Thanks, Emi. I’ll grab food. Pep you get cooking supplies, and you—”

“I’ll get us some fishing supplies so we can hunt on the go,” she affirmed. “Don’t worry, I know how to fish. I’ll think of anything else we might need.”

He nodded. “We’ll reconvene in an hour with our findings.”

 

❀❀❀

 

The exhausted group of three stood outside a shop window. Emelri was currently trying to smooth over the tenth or so owner they’d talked to in town while the sun slowly inched downwards, threatening to sink into the horizon. They’d spent most the day asking around while restocking on supplies, but things were not looking promising.

“I usually stay out of Spiller business,” the owner declared. “It’s better that way. Safer. I suggest you do the same.”

Sighing, Emelri muttered her thanks and left to stand with the others in the still crowded street. “Great. What do we do now?”

“There has to be someone who knows something,” Adrian said, lifting his long thick hair and throwing it over his shoulder in an attempt to cool off his neck. “We just haven’t asked the right people.”

“Sorry to interrupt,” someone behind them addressed, and the group turned to see a woman around Emelri’s age with waist length black hair, brown eyes, and bronze skin in a long silk robe, “but I couldn’t help but notice your distress. Were you bunch needing assistance? I’m known in this town as a guide for Quioxtryl refugees as well as others. I’d be happy to direct you to where you need to go or answer any questions you—” She paused, her eyes falling on Emelri, then something flashed in them. “Huh? Wait… Ziluria. Is that you, Emi?”

Her heart stopped as she searched the familiar dark eyes. “L-Lula?”

“Yes! It’s me. I-I don’t believe it!” 

“Lula!”

The friends ran towards each other, meeting in the middle in a crushing embrace.

“You’re alive!” Emelri exclaimed, pulling back to touch foreheads.

“I was about to say the same! I never saw you again after you left to get help, and there was that big explosion...”

She lifted her head to look at her. “So, you made it out and now you live here? How did you escape?”

“I was lucky. Just after you left, some people showed up to lift the wreckage, so I was able to get off the main street to come and find you and that’s when everything was blown sky high. Had I stayed there a moment longer... well, I wouldn’t be here to tell the tale, would I?”

“I’m so glad you’re safe.”

“I looked for you for years, Emi.” There was so much emotion in those brown eyes, it took everything for Emelri to maintain her composure. “I can’t tell you what a relief this is. What happened to you, and also… huh? Your arms.” Her hands found Emelri’s biceps as astonishment crossed her face. “They’re massive. Hard as rock too. That axe… are you some kind of warrior now?”

Emelri chuckled, flexing shamelessly for her. “Something like that. You really think they’re that big?”

She exhaled a laugh. “Yeah, you look great! So then, how did you escape Yundet?”

“By the grace of Ziluria. I’d love to tell you more, but… we’re sort of in the middle of a family emergency right now. You wouldn’t happen to know of the Spiller, Carnadine, would you? We absolutely need to find her location.”

“Huh? A Spiller? I’ve never heard of her. What’s wrong? Are you in trouble?”

“No, but our family member could be. We need to find them as soon as possible.”

“I see. And who’s this that you’re with?” She considered Pepin then her gaze lingered on Adrian. Lowering her voice, she added, “That guy... Don’t tell me you found such a catch?”

Emelri coughed on her own spit, utterly repulsed by the mere idea of that. “That’s my adoptive father, Adrian, and this is Pepin who was adopted at the same time as me.” The two men nodded in greeting.

She bowed her head in reply. “Wait... adoptive? So, you did leave your mother’s then?”

“Yup! I actually did it this time, and you won’t believe it, but I’ve been living in Elderian.”

“Elderian?” she shouted, and several people looked over at them.

“Yes! You see—” Adrian cleared his throat and they both looked over at him. “Er, sorry, we’re in quite a hurry, Lula. Could you help us out? Surely, you know someone who would know something about Carnadine. We’ve already wasted so much time today asking around.”

“Oh, of course! If anyone knows anything, it’s my mother. Come with me and I’ll take you to the house. You can ask her yourself.”

“Oh, thank you Lula!”

She nodded. “Let’s go before it gets dark.”

“We really appreciate it,” Adrian said as they all followed the black-haired woman down the street. “You’re the first lead we’ve had all day.”

“It’s no problem at all.” She grinned at him, then leaned down to Emelri’s ear to whisper, “He’s not single, is he?” and received a hard smack to the arm. “Kidding! I’m kidding! Anyway, tell me about this nonsense about Elderian and what you’ve been up to while we walk.”

 

 

By the time they made it to the house, Emelri was able to quickly catch her up on everything from the portal to the search for Toulou’s location, or rather, Carnadine’s.

“Emi, that’s awful. You’ve been through so much already. I’m sorry about your sibling, Pepin.” She offered a sympathetic smile before pushing through the front door. “This all must be so difficult for you.”

He shook his head reassuringly.

“Lula, is that you?” A masculine voice inside boomed.

“Yes, Mother! You won’t believe who I found on the street! It’s Emi!”

Pushing past the door, Emelri was crushed into a hug by a woman with white hair and light brown skin who would have been mistaken for a man were they in Elderian. “Oh Emi! It’s been a long time! Who are your friends? Come in, come in!”

“Thank you,” Adrian said graciously as he stepped into the modest-sized home. “My name’s Adrian. I’m Emi’s adoptive father.”

“Are you now? Well, now, nice to meet you, Adrian. I’m Duje, Lula’s mom. Please, come sit.” She gestured to the sitting area.

“Thank you, Duje, but we’re in quite a hurry. We’re trying to find someone named Carnadine. Wherever she is, I believe our family member Toulou is too.”

“Hm.” Duje stared in thought for a moment. “I have heard of Carnadine, yes.” All three of their faces lit up. “I don’t know where she’s at exactly, but I do know someone who would. A real strange oldie who lives on this town’s hill. He knows everything going on with the Spillers. Paranoid old man. He stays on top of all that so that he doesn’t get jumped in the middle of the night or something.”

“Wonderful! Will you direct us to his whereabouts?”

“I’m afraid we won’t be able to go tonight. He’s very suspicious. Has traps set up after sundown to trigger if there are any intruders. Even if you could get past those traps, he won’t talk unless it’s daytime. It’s a very particular rule of his. I once tried to tell him his hillside was on fire, and I couldn’t even get a response from him. He didn’t do anything about it until the morning when it almost reached his house. Said he couldn’t leave his house when the stars are out under any circumstances. Old nut.”

“Old Man Yll is really something,” Lula mumbled in agreement. “I’m really sorry we couldn’t be more helpful, Emi.”

She shook her head slowly. “No. It’s alright.”

“We’ll just have to go to this Old Man Yll’s early tomorrow morning,” Adrian said firmly, and Pepin looked up at him wearily. “There’s not much else we can do since it’s getting late, and we have no other leads. When does he come out of his house?”

“The crack of dawn,” Duje said. “Do you three have a place to stay tonight?”

“Oh, we have camping stuff and everything—”

“Oh, no no no.” She waved a hand, her other going to her hip. “I insist you stay here. We have a spare room for a reason. Emi, you can sleep with Lula in her bed if that’s alright with you, and you two can get your own room and your own beds.” She pointed to the men.

“That’s very kind of you,” Adrian said with a polite smile. 

“We can lend you a donkey as well if you’re needing a better way to carry supplies. It’ll be no trouble.”

“Oh, that’s too much, really,” he said, looking a bit flustered. “We couldn’t possibly accept—”

She laughed. “It’s nothing. Emi is an old family friend. We’d do anything to support her. We used to have her over all the time though her mother was never the wiser. Daldi would’ve killed me if she ever found out her daughter came over to our place.”

“Oh. You two didn’t get along?”

“We didn’t even know each other,” she said with another laugh, motioning to the living room again. “Here, come sit. Daldi took one look at my daughter’s black hair and forbade Emi from ever seeing her. That woman was always... an intense character, though she was well-liked by those she deemed worthy of her friendship.”

“Have you eaten already, Emi?” Lula interjected, looking her over, and Emelri shook her head.

“Now that I think about it, we forgot to eat lunch.”

Adrian laughed sheepishly. “We... may have been a bit focused on finding Toulou that we forgot to eat.”

“Why didn’t you say so?” Duje exclaimed. “We were just about to start on dinner. We’ll set you three places at the table for tonight and no, it really won’t be a bother, Adrian.” She gave a kind smile at the former king who swallowed the protest on his tongue.