54th day of the 10230th year since the passing of Kriene
“Is this really necessary?” groaned Gwenyth as they walked back towards the Opaline Tide.
“Nobody’s even going to look at us.” she said.
She had moaned twice about this before, giving different justifications priorly, namely – ‘It’ll be a casual event, I’m sure.’ and ‘It’s a lake party, you’ll ruin your clothes in the water.’ Her concerns had been dismissed, quite cavalierly, she might add.
“Of course they will be.
We’re going to be the youngest there.” said Venedir.
“You contradict yourself.
No one will want to talk to some kids.” shot back Gwenyth.
“Hmm… no.
Odds are I’ll be the best looking guy at the party.
The rest will all be oldies so my competition will be lesser than usual.”
Zander scoffed.
“You aren’t even the best looking guy in the drift.”
“Who would that be, then?” Finley queried with a smile.
“Linny, of course.” to which Linny beamed and replied.
“Though, since I am not part of the drift, it really has to be you, Zander.” Zander grinned widely, accepted the compliment with a nod and fistbumped the demon.
“See, the two of you are suffering from some serious delusions, maybe you ought to skip out on the party.”
“Definitely not.” “Maybe you should.” were the overlapping replies of the demon and navigator.
“It is my first Faring party.
Wouldn’t miss it for anything.” said the demon with adolescent glee.
Venedir seemed to relent due to his cheeriness.
“You aren’t old enough to attend such parties anyway.” teased Sylviane.
“Certainly am!” he protested.
“Certainly not!” she countered.
“Maybe not!” he conceded with a smile.
“But I certainly look the part.
And surely they would ask questions if all members of the drift were there but one.”
“All but two.” muttered Gwenyth.
“I have half a mind to skip it altogether.” though her tone had that half-heartedness to it which didn’t make the others take her seriously.
“People getting suspicious would be less desirable than me attending a teeny tiny party, right?” Linny asked in a singsong voice and Sylviane couldn’t help but relent and smile.
“But still… walking so fucking much… we just came from the Oaty yesterday.” Gwenyth whined.
“Consider it the day’s exercise, and the weather is so nice for a walk too!” said Callie.
It was true.
It had grown increasingly cloudy in the hours after noon.
The idea to get some better clothes to wear – originated from Sylviane during lunch – gained much traction as the weather grew more facilitative to indulge such whims.
Despite being all but forced along for this, Gwenyth actually enjoyed the walk.
She could even recognise the trails and hills and flat patches of grass that she had seen yesterday.
The walk seemed to take less time this time around, perhaps because it was more purposeful.
Once at the vessel, they quickly went about getting any and all additional stuff they might need.
The rent of the villa had been paid for a week since they did not seem to deal in any smaller units of time in Kinamel, despite it being off season for them.
The drift had been not too reluctant to commit for a week since rates were cheap and they were anyway hoping to vacation for a fair few days.
But it did mean they needed to get a bit more stuff now that they’d gotten the lay of the land and had a better picture of how they would be spending their time in the laketown.
Since Gwenyth had undertaken the effort to come so far, she thought it only appropriate to grab a dress – a pretty sleeveless black piece of clothing that reached till her knees – for the party along with a couple of other things she thought she could use.
While she was done fairly quickly, it took the others nearly half an hour to get done with things – even Linny, who had gone to Venedir’s room to borrow some of his clothes for his stay at Kinamel, at least until he had bought some new clothes.
Through a series of yellings emanating from the driftfellows’ rooms, they discerned that everyone was ready to leave and so they did.
Zander was the last one to arrive, having rushed to the control room to check on things.
He took around five minutes, having a big smile on his face as he returned.
“There doesn’t seem to be any intimation to the Faring at large about the prison break.
Still no communications about any such happenings in Fluviale or pertaining to a criminal drift on the run.
Nor have they bothered to check in with us yet.”
“With the state of Youvlon as it is, I’m sure they have much more pressing matters than checking in with drifts individually.
It might even have overshadowed our shenanigans in Fluviale.
At least there’s a silver lining to that disaster.” said Sylviane as they descended from the deck.
After they had returned to the villa, there still remained a few hours till Wairodon so they decided to visit the sports courts again.
They had paid a visit in the morning to play some badminton with borrowed equipment.
Now that they were more warmed up and the weather was much cooler, tennis was the choice of sport this time around since they had brought its equipment.
All of them excepting the demon had played it before and had a good sense of it.
But to Linny’s credit, he really was a quick learner.
Like with badminton he picked up tennis quite quickly as well.
His height and width certainly helped his case, and the fact that he was fitter than any of the Serendipity driftfellows.
Gwenyth herself was more partial to tennis than anything.
It was a game of exercising self-control and that gave it its elegance.
During her first year of fighting, it had come to her as a surprise how much playing sports complemented combat training and exercises.
It helped her become a better fighter and improved her skills and health in general.
As she sat out one of the latter matches and watched the other six play – one-on-one in separate courts -, she felt immensely grateful to have a drift that shared these essentials with her.
She had felt this bonding over shared interests even with their previous group of friends but somehow, it felt more valuable here.
Maybe it was that their philosophies had been shared and bonded upon as well.
Perhaps her mind was retrospectively discounting her kinship with her school friends after what happened a week and a half ago.
It threw her a bit when she realised it had not been even ten days since they had set out as Farers.
It seemed like such a long time.
She could understand a bit now with respect to how the Faring could help with the Becoming, more so after meeting Alicia.
The Faring seemed to be an institution meant to provide one with ample time with their loved ones, disguised as a government job.
It was natural that Alicia should feel antagonism towards the current state of the Faring.
In the passed few decades, she would have seen the Faring shifting closer and closer to a literal government job.
Maybe the institution itself might be becoming more and more like the government.
After all, there were a lot of government officials involved in the Faring from what she had seen in Youvlon.
She’d also heard that a lot of farers ended up going into the government as well.
So it only made sense that the two institutions were not so independent.
Gods!
She half-wished she’d never met the Allbound.
She was a fresh drifter and did not deserve to have the heaviness of institutional suppression brought upon her out of nowhere like this.
To distract herself, Gwenyth had herself substituted in for Sylviane – who had been playing against Finley – when her match ended – it being the first to reach its result since she had snapped out of her rumination.
Gwenyth did not take a break for the rest of the evening.
It was some time before Wairodon that they winded up, passing another drift – which seemed to be headed towards the courts – as they headed back to the villa.
Finley and Zander immediately ran off towards the sheep when they approached their property.
Gwenyth herself was in the mood for some rest and immediately headed into the villa, not sticking around to know what the others were getting up to.
She went to her room – the largest in the villa, which she was sharing with the girls.
Sleep came quickly.
Though it did not bring as much comfort as she was hoping.
* * *
202nd day of the 10227th year since the passing of Kriene
All morning Gwenyth felt as if she would burst from happiness.
Their cohort was finally in the Arkonsian range of mountains.
That too in her birthday week.
But precipitation during the monsoons had rendered the ranges largely unnavigable.
After the conditions had grown less hostile over the course of summer, the passages had been cleared and made navigable by the Farers by the time autumn rolled around.
But Gwenyth still refused to believe it.
She did not want to dare to hope.
She had been heartbroken when the summer ranging had been cancelled, even shed a few tears, though no one else knew that – except for Hanelie, her best friend since they were seven.
But now that they had ascended the midhills and into the mountain peaks, Gwenyth was increasingly filled with elation – so much so that Hanelie had to hold her arm to ground her.
“Gwen, we’ll be here for a week, darling.
If you continue like this, you’ll swell so much with happiness that you’ll turn into a balloon and fly into the sky far, far away.
Then what will I do?” she said with a smile and pressed her face to her shoulder.
“You’ll probably have a better time if I’m not there.” Gwenyth teased.
Hanelie shook her head vigorously into Gwenyth’s shoulder.
“I could never.
Plus I haven’t even given you your birthday gift yet.
And I worked hard on it.” Gwenyth smiled a little and turned to her.
Hanelie was a builder, soon to be a trained one – just as Gwenyth was to be a trained fighter.
“You could just give it to me now, you know, birthdays are just a social construct, a day like any other.”
“Nope.
You’ll only get it on the day of.
Which means you’re stuck with me for another…” she checked her watch.
“Four days and seventeen hours.” Gwenyth groaned half-heartedly even as a smile tugged her lips wider.
“You’re very pestersome, you know?” Gwenyth mumbled.
Hanelie laughed softly and hugged her arm.
“I know.
I have to be.
I’d get nowhere with you if I were not, sweet Gwen.” Gwenyth could almost feel the colour rushing to her cheeks and it was not from the cold.
“I’m not sweet.” she said, attempting a flat, toneless voice.
“You are… overly so.” Hanelie – instead of taking offense – beamed widely and peeked her head around Gwenyth’s shoulder to look up at her.
“I am.
But there is no such thing as oversweet.
If there was, you’d be more susceptible to that adjective that I am.” Gwenyth sighed audibly in defeat.
“We’re lagging behind because of you.” she muttered.
“Haww!
How dare you?” replied Hanelie.
“This is the reward I get for making sure you don’t get left behind.
Fine…” she grumbled in mock anger and stomped off.
Gwenyth stood for a couple of seconds, smiling, and then ran after her.
“Wait, Hanny!”
* * *
54th day of the 10230th year since the passing of Kriene
“Zanny!
For the last time, you can’t have any of my make up!” The voice was Callie’s.
Gwenyth’s eyes slowly opened and the warmth she had been feeling not even ten seconds priorly now faded as if it had never existed in the first place.
“Why are you making such a ruckus?” she cribbed as she slowly rolled around on the bed to look at Callie, who had the bathroom door open.
“Zander is just being an annoying little-” she was interrupted by a knocking sound on the door, “I swear to god Zander!!” she said, her head turning towards the door, even though she was still really looking at the mirror in the bathroom.
“It’s me.
Damn, he’s really got you all worked up.” Sylviane said as she entered and looked at Gwenyth.
“You’re not even out of bed yet.” she observed.
“You didn’t wake me.” said Gwenyth defensively to which Sylviane turned to Callie.
“I don’t know what to tell you, she’s a sound sleeper and I really can’t strain my voice by shouting.” she said.
A smile played on Sylviane’s lips, one Gwenyth could not see but hear as she said “Clearly.” in an otherwise dry tone.
Callie tilted her head a little.
“Our lovely navigator is an exception.” Sylviane came back to Gwenyth.
Her red eyes seemed to pop more to her that evening.
Maybe because of her make-up, more specifically her eyeliner – a beautiful golden colour.
It did not soften the impact of those irises and Gwenyth turned away.
“You know you can’t sleep anymore than you have, right?
You have to get ready…” Sylviane sniffed audibly.
“And bathe before that.
I hope that the mattress hasn’t absorbed your smell.” she said and then walked away.
“Callie when you’re done, I’ll just need a minute to put my dress on.
Let me know please.
The guys are already ready, by the way.”
Callie scoffed.
“Thank god.
Maybe Zander will eat their heads for a change.”
Gwenyth, having finally gotten up from the bed, now moved fast, using Zander and Linny’s room for bathing, changing and dressing.
She did some light make-up, not too time consuming.
Luckily she did not make the others wait much, getting ready around ten minutes after Sylviane.
They finally assembled downstairs and a round of compliments was exchanged.
They were a decent looking bunch of people all in all.
As they were about to leave, Venedir stepped to her side.
“You haven’t had dinner, Gwenyth.
You sure you don’t want to have something before we go?”
Gwenyth had not realised that she had slept through dinner before Venedir’s question, but even as she did, she felt that she really wasn’t hungry so she would be just fine.
And so they headed to the lakeside.
Pier Thirty-Seven was mused about quite a bit.
The lake was big enough – that they knew.
But the fact that it had so many piers was unusual – at least from their perspective.
Maybe they could act as a confluence for the meeting of land and water beings.
Navigation through the laketown and through till the lakeside was not inconvenient even at the twenty-eighth hour.
To adjust for less visually gifted beings, the town had good street lighting systems.
Violet was their colour of choice and Gwenyth wholly seconded the choice.
It was a soft but vibrant shade that bathed them, making their figures look more enchanting than they were.
As they entered the lakeforests – a buffer between the land and sea -, the lights became more creative, stitched into the branches, leaves and trunks of the trees.
Some dimly glowing crystals of the same colour lined the forest trails, reminding her of the prison cave in Rainy Village.
One thought led to another and soon Gwenyth found herself avoiding the clearly inanimate trees – lest she were to be attacked again.
It was their luck that they emerged squarely at Pier Thirty-Two and a signboard there indicated the direction they were to go to ascend the Pier numbers.
Pier Thirty-Two itself was a small frail thing, Sixty feet long and around ten feet wide, bobbing in the water.
It did not inspire confidence in the party.
Maybe it was more of a beach party than a pier one.
In any case, they had gotten dressed up which meant that the only option was to attend the party at least for a couple hours to get the return out of the time invested in getting ready.
It took them another twenty minutes of walking till they started hearing the noise – presumably emanating from Pier Thirty-Seven.
Despite the fact that they were hardly half hour late to the party, they couldn’t help the childish quickening in the pace of their walking because of the excitement – Linny lesser than the others.
The demon would have taken off into a sprint if he could.
A small smile stayed on Gwenyth’s lips for the small remainder of their walk.
Thirty-Seven was the largest of any piers they had seen till yet.
More than four hundred feet in length and around seventy feet in width, it was already packed heavily with a variety of beings – so much so that the farers could hardly be made out from a distance.
The lighting was markedly different – bright red, gold and green, flashing and moving beams of light emanating from the structures set up all along the sides of the pier.
The drift approached the entrance of the pier, the pace in their step lost for most now.
It was a big crowd, and Gwenyth for one had never been to such a crowded party before, let alone an adult one.
Her body was shaking slightly from the adrenaline, though it was not so marked, especially when she was walking.
It is just a party.
She chided herself and tried to calm herself, but the reaction was biological and not mental so she could only curse her stupid nerves as they entered the throng.
It was colourful mess of people.
It seemed to her that the whole town and lake had showed up to this one party.
Soon, the group decided to split a little.
Gwenyth and Finley wanted to try some food.
Venedir and Callie wanted to mingle and talk to people.
The others were in the mood for dancing.
Food and drink were in overflowing varieties and Gwenyth – who by that time had grown hungry enough – decided to try some non-human foods as well.
They certainly were edible and in her accepting state of mind, she could realise the subtleties of flavour and taste and how they could appeal to different creatures – though they certainly did not appeal to her – but what she could not understand is how Finley could look so pleased with the non-human foods.
In fact, he almost exclusively ate those foods only.
A bewildered Gwenyth – whose appetite had been lost by her culinary exploration – decided to leave Finley to his refined tastes and went over to where the alcohol was kept.
Despite her stint with alcohol being a short one, it had been enough to make her realise that self service was the way to go.
Making one’s own drink was an art and Gwenyth: well, she was an artist.
Having her palette cleansed with a nice drink restored her appetite a bit and this time she stuck to human foods, finding some nice finger foods of potato and chicken, though the aquatic foods layout was the most impressive.
With access to non-sentient creatures of both the sea and the massive lake, that was the most frequented and overcrowded section of the food and drinks tables, more so than even the intoxicants’ – and hence one that Gwenyth avoided.
She just wanted to have some normal food in relative peace.
She had the rest of the night to lose herself in this crowd of people.
After a half hour of – to shed the notions of courtesy when passing verdicts upon one’s own behaviour – stuffing her face, Gwenyth finally found herself drawn back to the bar once again, fishing a beer bottle from the cooler and heading to one of the quieter edges of the pier, looking out into the lake.
Even in the night, there were only a few patches of light visible in the lake.
While Gwenyth had not done even a year of environmentalism, she knew enough to know that most aquatic creatures did not need artificial lighting to see in the dark.
The few who did were mostly creatures of shallower waters who had failed to evolve after Kriene’s disappearance.
In shallower waters, especially close to civilisations – terrestrial or aquatic -, provision of lighting was quite easily made, evidences of which were right before her.
In the tranquility of the view before her, the din of the party eventually faded into the background and Gwenyth lost her sense of time in the expanse of the lake’s flowing waters, until she was finally interrupted by Callie.
“I’ve been looking all over for you.
This is not what you do at a party.” she chided.
“Come, dance with us.
Venny and I found Alicia.
We were talking to and dancing with some of her driftfellows.
They’re really nice.
He’s probably with them even now.” She said and grabbed Gwenyth’s arm.
“Come on.
There’s only so much brooding you can do at a party.” she said and Gwenyth relented, following Callie into the crowd.
It all seemed unnavigable to Gwenyth but her friend seemed to have better bearings.
It took her all of two minutes to find Venedir, who was with around a dozen other people – all part of Alicia’s drift, she imagined.
The Rum Baxters, they called themselves.
The name made Gwenyth smile and kept her demeanour pleasant enough as she was introduced to them.
She instantly forgot almost everyone’s names as they were introduced, only really processing the fighters of the drift – perhaps to the instant kinship she felt with them.
There were two of them in the group here.
One was a girl called Anila.
She had a beautiful smile and was as tall as Linny.
The other was a guy called Moroj Limase who only a bit taller than Gwenyth.
They both were incredibly fit and had she not known Alicia’s age and not been able to point out the subtle signs of aging in the two, she would have sworn that neither of them was over sixty in age.
She stuck close to her driftfellows and the two fighters through the next hour or so, gradually feeling comfortable enough to dance more freely and not just sway and move her hands a little.
She eventually tired and felt a bit drowsy from all the food and drink she had consumed and had to step away, where she found Alicia in conversation with a few farers and water spirits.
It was good talking to farers who weren’t her own age.
Her time in Youvlon had left a bad taste with respect to young farers out there.
The ambition and competitiveness they so unabashedly showed was nowhere to be found in the Rum Baxters or the other drifts in Kinamel.
Perhaps it was just how the Faring had become in recent decades.
Or mayhaps maturity and age were the dictating factors for mellowness and general good-naturedness.
Which made Gwenyth almost sympathise with her contemporaries for the humbling they were most likely to receive from life.
Gwenyth eventually got into animated conversation with a farer called Gerolde Osimane.
He was relatively young, only thirty six.
He was a liaison with the Eventide Drifters – the name a dead giveaway with respect to the zone his drift operated in.
“What if you people ever get an assignment not in the Eventide zone?” Gwenyth asked teasingly, a smile playing across her lips.
“We never do.
We were all born and brought up in Eventide itself – in the hundred-and-tenth sector.
And it isn’t as nascent as the Faring’s operations in Apricity.
So we get to travel a fair bit across sectors.
It makes for awfully lengthy assignments but that’s the job.”
“And is your drift on leave now?”
“No… the Isle protector for Rhefalt has asked us to help out with mineral deposit extraction from an extensive network of caves on its south eastern coast.”
“Oh… we’re headed to the northernmost part of it for obsidian.
But I thought you operated only in Eventide.
Why is the isle protector for Rhefalt contacting you?”
“But the northernmost part would be in the sixty-fourth, right?
And I don’t think the Faring has entered the sixty-fourth yet.
And what are you talking about?
Rhefalt is also in Eventide…” he trailed off then smiled.
“You’re not your drift’s navigator, are you?”
Gwenyth shook her head.
“I’m the fighter.”
“Well, great!
And wait a second.
The fighter?”
“Yeah we only have the one: yours truly.”
Gerolde raised his eyebrows in surprise and then shrugged.
“Well I’m sure you’ll be good to carry that burden.
What I was getting to before was that Rhefalt covers four sectors.
I’m going to the one south of yours – the eightieth.”
Gwenyth smiled and crossed her arms.
“So, what are you doing here?
I am no navigator and certainly know less than you, but surely Quinlac is not in the way…”
He smiled back.
“It most certainly is not.
But our drift was in the mood for a break.
We like to maintain a balance while being on the job.
Taking lengthy leaves to relax is economically unsound, don’t you think?” He grinned.
Gwenyth couldn’t help but a laugh a little and shake her head.
“I can’t argue there.” She said and raised her hands a bit in concession.