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twenty-six

Morai

“ W ith this, we have concluded our negotiations,” Anasta said. Morai scrunched at the meats that sat in a pail in front of Anasta. On their hunt for the white peacock, who now sat snuggly in the blue-green dragon's talons, more dragons had shown up and were now in a circle all staring longingly at the meat. Morai looked up at Anasta, who was looking back at her with glowing golden eyes. She shifted uncomfortably, she would never get used to looking at those eyes.

“Thank you,” Morai said.

“Hmmmm, do not mention it. Your friends were a delight.” Morai scowled at Neoni who had the grace to blush next to her. Apparently, while she and Luka were looking for the white peacock, Neoni, Fida, and Tanen told Anasta about their travels. Anasta was so delighted by such stories that she gave them information about dragons that no one else knew, and Neoni, ever the information collector, scribbled everything down. Morai lifted her eyes to the sky where stars twinkled, and the moon illuminated everything. She’d been hoping they would leave before the sunset, but it looks like that would be impossible.

“If you would allow it, Anasta, we would like to set up camp here for the night,” Morai said.

“That would be unnecessary. I can create a portal to send you to the Chepi territory.” Morai blinked.

“That would be very helpful,” Morai said. They could spend the night in Braken and leave the next day. Though why couldn’t she just send them straight home, that would be even more convenient. Morai was about to ask when a hand clamped down over her mouth.

“Do not push your luck,” Luka whispered in her ear. She shot him a glare. Luka shrugged, releasing her.

“Or you could go ahead and ask. But don’t say I didn’t warn you,” he said, a mischievous glint in his eye. Morai huffed but didn’t say anything. She could hazard a guess that portal magic could only travel a certain distance, and creating one from the forest all the way to Linden could work but with adverse effects. Like losing a limb or something worse.

“Thank you,” Morai said again.

“Hmmm.” Anasta turned her head and opened her giant maw, but instead of breathing fire, she breathed out air that coalesced into a portal that shimmered in dark purple light.

“Off you go then,” Anasta said. “And do not forget: once a month.” Morai nodded.

“I won’t forget,” Morai said. She would just let Kirnon know to take care of it.

“And give my greetings to Kirnon.” Morai nodded before grabbing Luka’s hand, took a deep breath, and walked into the portal. The journey from the Chepi to Braken was uneventful, it was just a reverse of how they got there, except the Chepi were quite excited to see them, giving them enough mushrooms that they didn’t know what to do with. Morai smiled. Kirnon would be delighted to get them, though.

“Who’s that?” Luka asked as they made it to the outskirts of Braken. Morai squinted not that she could see much with only the moonlight to guide them. The silhouette of the figure was small, and whoever it was paced back and forth. As they got closer, the figure became clearer.

“Oh, I think that’s Inan.” As though hearing her name the figure paused and looked up.

“They’re here,” Inan yelled, running to them, and following behind her was a man Morai did not recognize. Inan threw her arms around Morai in a tight hug.“Thank you. Thank you so much,” Inan said.

“Uhh, did something happen?” Morai asked.

“Oh, forgive me,” Inan said, stepping back and grinning at them.

“This is my husband, Ebod,” Inan introduced. The man smiled at them, his dark hair was long and looked like it needed a good cut, along with his beard. But other than that, he looked healthy.

“Thank you for rescuing us from the forest, my wife told me that you might have been the ones who woke us up,” Ebod said, his voice was a bit hoarse from disuse. Morai smiled at him.

“It was no problem at all,” she said.

“They’re back,” someone shouted and soon a crowd of people spilled out of homes, all of them thanking them, some crying, while others laughed.

“You will be staying in the inn, correct?” the innkeep said, beaming at them.

“Yes, just for the night.”

“Good, I will give it to you for free. How about a celebration. Everything’s on me tonight.” Everyone cheered exuberantly.

“Umm, we’re quite tired and would like to…”

“Nonsense,” someone Morai didn’t recognize said.

“You’re the heroes of our village, of course we’d celebrate you. After all, the night is still young.” And that was how Morai and her friends were roped into celebrating for most of the night, stuffing their faces with food and drink.

The next day saw them bright and early.

“We wish you a safe journey,” Inan said.

“Thank you,” Morai said, getting into the carriage along with Neoni, Fida, and Luka. Tanen sat up front on the coach. “I cannot wait to give these to Kirnon,” Neoni said, beaming at the baskets of herbs she had gathered from the forest.

Kirnon was, indeed, beside himself with excitement at the number of feathers that they’d brought back along with the mushrooms and herbs. Morai could tell he was thrilled by the constant wiggling of his white eyebrows and how he kept eyeing the items while talking to her.

Morai’s heart leaped at the gold coins he gave each of them. She finally had enough to move, now all she had to do was convince her parents.

“...and that’s why I think it would be worthwhile for me to move to the capital city, not only will building another guild there be helpful but it’d expand our reach,” Morai said, ending her presentation. She tried not to fidget as her parents looked at the glowing board she’d set up in the kitchen that contained her presentation. The board could appear with a tap on a mana stone designed for such things, and it would disappear with another tap.

“I think our reach is pretty expansive as it is,” her dad said.

“Yes, but think of all the business we’d get. This is the capital we’re talking about,” Morai said. Her dad leaned towards her mother and whispered something. Ophelia frowned.

“Is that the only reason you want to move? To build another guild?” her mother asked. Morai swallowed, trying to dislodge the lump in her throat. She could not tell them she was moving so she could have Luka all to herself, that would squash all her plans thus far. Thinking of Luka made her heart ache, they’d gone back to ignoring each other when they got back two weeks ago, and Morai couldn’t imagine anything worse.

“Yes,” Morai said. Both her parents stared her down, and it took everything Morai had not to fidget. Her parents shared a look, then Ophelia sighed.

“I realize we’ve always been pushing you and Luka to best each other. But to think that it would come around to this…did you really think you couldn’t tell us about Luka?” Morai swallowed again.

“What does this have to do with Luka?”

“Really, Morai, you don’t expect us not to notice…”

“If you don’t want to tell us, then it’s fine,” her father said. Ophelia scowled at him.

“You aren’t thinking of letting her go without her telling us, are you?” she asked. Her father raised a brow.

“Come now Ophelia, there is no use pretending we don’t know the real reason. Besides, I’m sure she’d tell us eventually when she’s ready.”

“Yes, but…”

“Huh, I’m still here,” Morai said. Ophelia clamped her mouth shut and turned to her.

“Fine, we'll let you go.” Morai grinned.

“On one condition, you visit us at least once a week.”

“Once a week, that’s…I’ll be on the road for most of it.” It took at least two weeks by carriage to get to the capital city, they could use the teleportation device, but they were expensive to use, and she won’t be able to afford that until her guild was up and running.

Her guild. She still couldn’t believe she’d have her own guild, granted it’d still be under the family name, but it would be all hers.

“Fine, once a month then.”

“Ophelia…”

“Fine, once every other month. Happy?” Her mother grumbled, folding her hands across her chest and glaring at her father who smiled, patted her shoulder, and kissed her forehead.

“Thank you,” Morai said. “You won’t regret it. I’ll make our guild the best in the kingdom,” she said. Her mother lifted her chin, and her dad grunted. Morai beamed, she was finally free.