Chapter 164: Chapter 164: Tactical Breaktime
Chapter 164: Tactical Breaktime
"Wait, that worked?!" Irrithuriel looked at Mercury, completely aghast as he showed the map to her. Getting out had been much easier, though his resources were nearly empty by the end. Still, he was able to quickly scale a bit of the cliffside and hide there, regenerating, before taking a path that would be completely impossible for most humans to walk.
Mercury just shrugged at her, giving an equally confused expression. Despite the shock, the old lady quickly pulled herself together, and spread her wings wide.
"Whatever the case, I'm glad to see it panned out well," she said. "Ready to head back?"
There was a short break in the conversation as Mercury took a deep <Breath> and centered himself. Getting to the mansion had already been an experience, so getting back would most likely be equally fast.
Which is why Mercury wanted to be in ihn'ar for it. A few moments later, his thoughts clicked into place, and the world looked just a little different. Only then did he nod at Irrithuriel.
Then, in less than a second, he found himself going through the air at breakneck speeds. The wind howled in his ears, pushing his fur back. He didn't even need to breathe, the air pressed itself into his lungs. His eyes were dry in a moment, but with a small bit of understanding, the <Water> in the air kept them wet.
And Mercury saw a world unlike he'd ever seen before.
It took only a moment for him to understand how the wind felt.
What he understood was that he already aligned well with it. The wind meant freedom. The absolute freedom to go wherever it wished whenever it wished. It would blow, and take, and move, and shake. It could be a gentle breeze, or a raging storm, but it was only ever wind if it moved.
The thought aligned with Mercury himself. His travels, seeing the world. There was a tacit understanding there; he wished he could borrow the freedom of the wind. And the wind responded.
It wanted to do things, too. To dance, to move, to sing. To rush through fur and past skin, to journey alongside those who go fast, ahead of them and behind them. It wanted to be a tailwind, and it wanted to be a tornado, and whatever the wind was it was only because it wished to be.
And it was willing to share a bit of that wish with Mercury.
[The individual has acquired the ability <Wind (Lowest)> through a specific action!]
Then he landed again.
Immediately, he let the ihn'ar fall apart as he returned to a more normal reality. But even then, the air now spoke to him. Quiet, hushed whispers. They were easy to ignore, and hard to make sense of, more like a gaggle of children talking to each other with him standing at the sidelines. If he focussed, he might hear something, but otherwise, it was noise that easily faded away.
Mercury jumped from irrithuriel's hands and landed on the soft grass. The sky felt a little less foreign now, but he still generally preferred to have the ground underneath his feet.
A couple seconds later, Zyl came from the log cabin, welcoming them back. Before the dragon even got a chance to ask how things went, Irrithuriel walked past him.
"We'll talk inside, alright? I need to rest these old bones a little," she said, waving her hand.
Zyl chuckled in response. "Yes, alright, alright. I'm just glad you made it back safe, you two."
"What else were you expecting, silly?" Mercury teased. "I told ya it would be fine."
He walked through the doorway with Zyl by his side.
"Though, granted, there was your father in the study, and I think he might have seen me," the mopaaw added as the door shut behind him.
Both Irrithuriel and Zyl froze at his declaration. Their heads slowly turned to meet him.
"Please, Mercury, tell me a little more about that?" Zyl pleaded, his brows furrowed in worry.
"Well, I was in the study, trying to find the map. It was in one of the drawers of the desk, but Thorythenior was sitting at it. He didn't wake up while I was copying the map, but when I left, he saw me jump out the window with one eye, I think," Mercury explained.
There was another long silence.
"Did he say anything?" Zyl asked quietly.
"Yeah, something along the lines of it being too annoying, so he wasn't moving. I think he just closed his eyes again and went back to sleep."
This time, a sigh of relief followed from the young dragon, and he placed a hand on Mercury's back. "I'm glad you made it out safely. That could have gone a lot worse."
"I mean, at least Trinya didn't see me at all. That's good news, right?"
"Very," Zyl assured him. "This already went about as well as we could have asked for. I think expecting it to go any better than this would have been a little greedy." He gave a cheeky smile at that. "Then again, dragons are known for greed."
Mercury smiled back, pressing his head into Zyl's arm for a moment in affection. Then, he looked back to Irrithuriel. The old lady had by now sat down at a chair and was draped over it, acting as though she was entirely exhausted.
"I swear, I envy you young'uns' energy. This was the most exhausting thing I've done in ages!" she lamented once she noticed their looks. Her wings were gone again, and so was her tail, returning her to the misleading image of a graceful and slightly frail old lady.
"Well, I suppose you'd want to eat now, then?" Mercury asked with a grin.
Irrithuriel returned him a look of displeasure. "And I suppose you expect me to cook, Starlight?"
"Oh, I'd be happy to give it a try as well," the mopaaw returned with an even wider smile.
The old dragon grimaced at that, then pushed herself off the chair while grumbling. "Dang rascals. You might as well rob me blind at the pace you're going through my food storage. These old bones aren't made for this much work…"
On and on she went, occasionally waving a wooden spoon for emphasis. Zyl and Mercury shared a chuckle, waiting until she was done preparing the food.
A few hours later, all of them were lying back with full bellies. Mercury had rolled up on the bed first, Zyl joining him a moment later, while Irrithuriel simply leaned back in a rocking chair in front of the fireplace, slowly bobbing back and forth.
The cabin was quiet until morning came, the late night adventure finally behind them.
Mercury only woke up when a few rays of sunshine landed on his face. He stirred slightly, noticing the weight of half a blanket and Zyl's arm draped over him. A smile quickly laid itself across his lips, and he kept his eyes shut, enjoying the quiet a little longer.
In the back of his head, he was already considering the map and the ensuing things they had to do, but at least for a little while, he enjoyed the slow morning.
Bit by bit, the world woke up. Mercury dozed off many times again, but there would always be a bird to call him back. It was funny, he only noticed now just how different the birds sounded in the mountains than back when he was travelling through forests.
They were more sparse, but quite a bit louder when they did appear. Probably more eagles or something rather than sparrows or crows. Did those live in forests? He honestly had no clue.
Whatever the case, there were loud birds now, and they only became more insistent that Mercury wake up. So, eventually, he relented. With a force of will, he crawled out from under the blanket, gave a long look at Zyl's adorable sleeping face, his lips slightly apart. Mercury tapped his snout against the dragon's forehead gently, before soundlessly hopping out of bed.
There were a couple notifications to go through. Namely the ones which levelled. <Veil> and <Night Vision> both reached level 4, while <Quiet> went from 8 straight to 10, then promptly went through an automatic evolution, turning into <Soft Steps>. It was nice that he didn't need to pay any points for it that way.
Slowly, Mercury opened the shutters on the windows, letting more light in than the scant few rays that seemed to have found his face exactly. Irrithuriel was sleeping in the rocking chair, snoring ever so slightly.
Sunlight started to enter the room, casting great squares of gold across the runed wooden floor. Occasionally, some of Irrithuriel's tiny helpers would skitter over the bits of sunshine, and the light would reflect off their icy party, creating small fractal patterns on the ceiling.
Once all the windows were open, the two dragons still didn't stir. Mercury smiled a little at that, then decided to open the door to the outside and grab some fresh air. After only a couple steps, he saw a very familiar shape laying on the hillside, legs splayed across the grass.
"Morning, Nir," Mercury greeted, taking a seat next to the girl.
"Hey," she croaked, her voice hoarse as though she just woke. "Up early?"
Mercury took a look at the sun. "Not really," he said.
"Mh."
"You came here for any reason?" he asked.
"Yeah. Wanted to ask. Did I help?" she turned to look at the mopaaw, her face strangely blank.
He smiled at her. "You did great, Nir. I managed to get everything done with pretty much no problem. I think your dad might have spotted me, though."
She smiled a crooked smile, though her cheeks flushed slightly in happiness. "I'm glad," she said, looking back up at the sky. "And don't worry. Father won't do nothing. Too lazy."
Mercury chuckled at that. "You sure?"
"Sure as can be," she nodded seriously. "If you tried to wake him, though? Different story."
"I like to tell myself I was quiet."
"Good. Good choice," the girl said.
The two stared at the sky for a long while.
"How did you get the dome down?" Mercury asked eventually.
Nir grinned at him. "Violence."
"Ah."
"I went to the dome room. I hit the console very hard. I apologize, and people fix it. Works every time," she explained further.
Mercury smiled. "I suppose violence can solve many problems, sometimes."
"Yes!" Nir agreed enthusiastically, chuckling to herself.
Then, the two were quiet for a bit again. Eventually, Zyl walked out and saw them. He took his seat next to Mercury.
"Morning Mercury," he said groggily. "Hey Nir."
"Morning."
"Heya."
Silence.
Zyl laid a hand on Mercury's back again, enjoying the warmth through the fur.
"Breakfast?" he asked.
"Breakfast," the mopaaw confirmed.
They got up after a few minutes of sitting, Nir looking at them from the grass.
Zyl was hesitating, even biting his lips.
Mercury didn't.
"Come along, Nir. Enough food for all of us," he said.
Immediately, the girl's face lightened up. "Okay!" she said happily.
- - -
A couple hours later, Nir had left again, heading back to the mansion. Would it be suspicious that she headed out again the day after one of the locks on Trinya's desk was broken? Maybe. Would it be even more suspicious since she broke the dome? Definitely.
Did Mercury care all that much? Not really.
Zyl's family was already quite paranoid, Trinya probably a little less than Berthorn, but still. She would most likely be wary anyway, so they would wait before attacking the first smithy. Mercury still had a couple pages until he promised to be in Stormbraver. Which seemed to just about match up with the time it would still take for the whole weaponization of Zyl's spark to happen.
They'd get to that in maybe a week or so. For now, they could take it a little slow, and give the situation time to cool off.
Which is exactly what they did. For seven days, Mercury, Zyl and Irrithuriel mostly simply sat at the lodge. Mercury practiced his magic more, managing to get <Ice Magic> as well as <Fast Learner> to level 2 each.
But aside from that, he spent a lot of time resting, if one could consider it that. He'd sit outside, listening to the wind and the grass. Spent long evenings chatting with Zyl about everything and nothing.
He talked to the dragon about his past life more, and about his current one, about everything he'd experienced. He also learned a lot more about Zyl in exchange.
Irrithuriel gave them a lot of space to enjoy each other's company, though she did enjoy occasionally joining in on less personal conversations, or simply sitting by the fireplace as she went about her business. Oftentimes, she went out to gather some more herbs for her alchemy, and every now and again, Mercury would come along to help.
She made another potion for Zyl, which he drank, and it helped him recover some more. By now, he was able to live mostly as normal again. He could walk, talk, and even summon aspects of his dragon form without issue. But he probably shouldn't fight quite yet.
According to Irrithuriel, his wound was still healing. She'd applied stitches, to the point where it mostly seemed fine, but if he overexerted that muscle, they'd rip open. And he'd have to almost certainly start the entire healing process over.
They also talked more about getting his spark back. It wasn't exactly as simple as just putting it back where it belonged; Zyl would need to spend some time absorbing it and acclimatising to it again. He'd changed a bit since losing it, after all, so it would be like a puzzle piece that doesn't quite fit.
Still, it was still more than helpful for helping him heal back up, and could turn what should be a recovery of multiple chapters into one that would only take a couple pages. If he got it, he might even go to Stormbraver with Mercury, which the mopaaw was definitely looking forward to.
Just imagining Marcel's face when he introduced his boyfriend as the leader of a nation and a fully fledged dragon would be absolutely hilarious. But for now, it was a far off dream.
Day after day drifted by, the sun rose and set over the mountains. Nir visited two more times, and was invited inside on both occasions. The talks with her around were still a bit stiff, but Mercury did his best to have things flow as naturally as possible.
<Diplomacy> was doing quite a bit of heavy lifting on that front, too. Maybe it would level soon, maybe it wouldn't, Mercury could only wait and see.
After the seven days, they discussed that it was time to put their plan into action.
Mercury woke up, had a healthy breakfast, then a few minutes of mental prep time, and finally, he set off with Irrithuriel, to see whether or not the first crafting location had Zyl's spark.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone