9 - What Do You Mean Missing? (Patreon)

Dazien knocked on the door to Phoenix’s dorm room. This was the second time she had been abnormally late to meeting them and it was usually not a good sign. This was further confirmed when no answer came and he had Uriel scent for her again, not smelling anything fresh from their Supporter.

He contemplated breaking in but thought it might be pointless if she wasn't there, not to mention get him in trouble with Lord Wayland. With that thought, he changed course to the Wayland Estate, Uriel faithfully following his lead and he appreciated that he didn't have to explain himself all the time to the man.

The amethyst warrior had enjoyed their quiet day off at home yesterday, reading books together by the small hearth and drinking tea, but he couldn't help but wonder if it might have been even better with the Wayfarer by their side. Phoenix seemed to share his insatiable curiosity and desire to improve.

They both worked hard at whatever they attempted and cared about protecting others, even over themselves. She was a lot like Uriel too, shy around strangers with a contempt for being the focus of attention and was comfortable with silence.

More importantly though, she knew how to make both of them relax and smile. In the last few months, he had witnessed the cinderen begin to open up and engage with others more than he had in the eight years prior to the strange woman crashing into their lives. If she had been there reading alongside them, would he have gotten to see Uriel smile more?

Dazien knocked on the door to the Wayland Estate and waited patiently for the staff to answer. When they claimed that Phoenix wasn’t there he requested Paul instead. He was lucky they even agreed to pass on his message and he wondered if his connection to the Lord’s Protégé was the only reason they had even listened to his question instead of slamming the door in his face.

While he wasn’t one to assume the ill intent or arrogance of nobles, he knew that the staff were often kept busy and didn’t want to waste their time on random people that stopped on their doorsteps. When the Emerald Caster came to the door however, looking at him in a way that threatened retribution should his reasons for summoning him to the door not be adequate, he thought perhaps he should have searched the city a bit more thoroughly before coming here.

“What is it, kid?” the golden lord asked him bluntly. No greeting or name… again.

“Ah, good evening, Lord Wayland,” he began, glancing over his shoulder at Uriel who remained frozen behind him, “We just came to inquire about Miss Fraser’s location? It seems like she’s missing.”

“What do you mean missing?” the Wrath Blade asked and even his weaker senses could pick up the invasion of the man’s aura upon his own.

“She was meant to meet us for dinner over an hour ago. We checked her home first but there was no sign of her,” he explained then added sincerely, “It’s not like her to be late, sir.”

Paul frowned at him and for a moment he feared that the man would scold him for not searching elsewhere first but he was surprised when the man said, “Thank you for coming to tell me,” then pulled out an item from the pouch at his belt that seemed like a glass ornament holding a bright flame within it, “She’s alive at least. I’ll search the inner city,” then he pointed at the pair of them, “You two go check the AOA grounds. Try to get a hold of your other party members too.”

Dazien nodded, “Thank you, Lord Wayland.”

Rayna was both pissed and annoyed. Angry that their leader wasn’t doing enough and annoyed that she didn’t know how to help. It had been three days since anyone had last seen Phoenix and it seemed she was nowhere in the city.

She had grown fond of the awkward yet determined redhead over the last couple weeks and she wasn’t about to give up on finding her. Paul Wayland had explained to their party that Phoenix had potentially been targeted by political rivals of his but that his search of the city revealed the Wayfarer wasn’t within it.

That only left the wilds and the fort towns for them to search and she didn’t like the odds of either option. Rayna could move pretty fast but combing thousands of kilometers of open tundra to find a single Crystal Caster was a fool’s errand. There was no way she could cover it all in a reasonable amount of time, be safe while doing so, and guarantee not missing the crossing of their paths.

The Shatter Bard couldn’t just not do anything though, so she kept running. Sprinting through the streets of the international district on her way to tell that wannabe king to do more to find their Supporter. She wasn’t sure what exactly he should do more of but obviously he needed to do more of something.

As the door opened from her persistent knocking, she pushed past Uriel and into the small room to talk to the man sitting on a small couch, bent over some papers splayed out on the short table in front of a tiny unlit hearth.

He was just sitting there. Not searching. Not doing that talking thing that he loved doing so much. Not leading their party. Not doing anything! Did he even really care about their missing party member or did he already write her off?

Rayna stood at the end of the seat and table and pointedly placed her paws on her hips as she practically yelled at their cocky leader, “What are you doing?!”

Tired amethyst eyes glanced up at her. Was he up late partying or something? He definitely seemed the type. Everywhere they went the gemite seemed to charm and flirt with everyone. Maybe he was already busy finding a replacement he could charm into following him?

“Rayna,” he said wearily, “I’m not really in the mood for ban-”

“I don’t give a blopgum’s arse what you’re in the mood for!” she snapped at him, “Phoenix is missing and you’re hiding in here like nothing’s wrong!”

“What?” the gemite asked, biting the word and his tired gaze turned into a cold glare but she didn’t care. He needed to get up and do something.

The voxen gestured to the glass next to the papers on the table and asked, “Is that more wine? Up late ‘celebrating’ again? Are you actually glad that Phoenix is gone?!”

In the back of her mind, she knew that her words were unfair and cruel but she had to say something that would make him react. So she wasn’t completely surprised when Dazien grabbed the glass and threw it at the empty hearth as he stood and shouted at her, “It’s tea, you fool of a fox! I was up late filling out AOA forms so that Phoenix wouldn’t lose her license for not showing up for our missions and requesting permission to track her with said license! But apparently, either she put it in her dimensional storage or someone else did because it’s not working!”

“You should be out there!” the Striker yelled back, stomping a foot for emphasis, “Out there looking for her! You don’t need some dumb tracking device to do that! Talk to people that can find her! Since you seem to care more about socializing than whether Phoenix is dea-”

She took a step back as the warrior stepped closer and jabbed a finger in her face and interrupted, “Don’t you ever claim that I don’t care about any of my party members again, yourself included!”

The bard scoffed, “You don’t care about me. You barely know-”

“Of course, I care about you!” he exclaimed, throwing his hands up in frustration and backing away slightly, “I don’t need to know your whole life story or every little detail about your mind to know that you are a valued member of my party and I don’t want anything bad to happen to you!”

The gemite ran a hand through his messy hair, as he backed up another step and asked her incredulously, “Gods, Rayna, is it really so difficult to believe that just because I’m not running around the city that I am trying my best to find her?”

“Your best isn’t good enough!” she yelled and then got angrier when she felt her cheeks become wet.

Dazien paused and stared at her. She wiped the tears away furiously, refusing to open her mouth in case a sob tried to escape as well. The useless man took another step towards her and she wanted to punch that look of pity he was giving her right off his smug face as he said softly, “I know… I know it’s not good enough but all I can do is keep trying. I swear to you that I am trying, okay?”

She angrily nodded and he gave a weak smile as he asked, “If I hug you, are you going to punch me?”

“Right through that wall,” she responded instantly, returning his pained smile, and her leader chuckled.

Uriel was in the small kitchen area of their apartment; stress cooking. It was one of the few activities he enjoyed and was fairly decent at. Anything to keep him calm right now was a good thing and he absently rubbed at one of his golden earrings only to grumble a moment later at the flour now coating his ear.

He had been wearing the piercings for about seven years now, after an “incident” at the temple of the Parent that almost killed some fellow orphans. They were magically enchanted to help keep him calm and focused so he wouldn’t cause even more accidents and he found himself grateful for them again.

It had been four days since Phoenix vanished from the city and their entire party was on edge trying to figure out what to do next. Dazien had barely slept and after Rayna managed to calm down yesterday the pair had been going to various establishments together to find ways to track their missing Supporter.

That left the Mage with nothing to do but stay calm and keep cooking. His partner would be back soon and he had already finished making their dinner for that night, along with dessert, and tomorrow’s breakfast, and some nice easy road meals for the party that he kept in the special dimensional backpack they had all pitched in for that was more efficient at storing large amounts of food. It was a good item to have for adventuring parties that wanted accessible storage options that any of them could use while traveling and most Casters still needed to eat on the low Caste tundra.

He hadn’t come close to filling it still but he had made pretty good progress, grateful for the fact that none of it would spoil in the dimensional space that kept it in a perfectly preserved stasis. Unfortunately, he couldn’t put the pots and pans in it, only able to use a specific type of organic cloth to wrap any food that needed to be contained, but that was what his [Fortress of Solitude] was for, since it could store most of their non-essentials like that.

As he finished pulling a tray of ruebean muffins out of the small oven they had, the door opened and an exhausted gemite trudged through the entry, shrugging off a heavy knee-length coat and hanging it over the arm of the old couch before falling face-first into the solitary bed pushed against the far corner of the room.

“No luck?” he asked his partner.

Dazien groaned before tilting his head to the side to be able to talk, “I swear Rayna hates me.”

“I think we both know she’s just worried and trying to fix things; just like you are,” the cinderen pointed out.

“Sure, but she’s always yelling at me. I’m either so bad at everything that I can’t fix anything and am a waste of space or I’m so good that I’m supposed to automagically solve everything by saying a few words to the right person and snapping my fingers to make Phoenix reappear,” the warrior vented.

Uriel shook his head as the corner of his mouth twitched slightly and said, “I think that just means she already trusts you to lead us and feels safe enough to know you won’t toss her away for talking back.”

The gemite sat up slowly and sighed, “I guess,” then the man began kicking his shoes off and removed his shirt to stretch taut muscles, “I’m going to try and catch a couple hours of sleep. I don’t think I can push any more without breaking something.”

A soft scratching sound at the door caught their attention and they glanced towards one another. Uriel lifted flour-covered hands and Dazien rolled his eyes, “Fiiine,” the warrior groaned and stood to answer the door, not bothering with replacing the shirt.

“Hello, Bliss,” Dazien’s voice came from the now open doorway and a moment later a small black cat leapt up onto the counter near where the Mage had set his latest creation. The warrior followed after shutting the door and chuckled at the small meow the Chimera gave and asked, “Here for more treats? Uriel does make the best ones.”

Another small mewl and the cinderen couldn’t say no as he popped out one of the muffins and placed it next to her, “Here you go, I doubt the fact it just came out of the oven matters to a Sapphire Caster, even one kitten-sized.”

“Should we get a pet?” Dazien surprised him by asking suddenly then added, “I know how much you love animals. Why don’t we get one?”

Uriel rolled his eyes at his partner, “Because we’re Adventurers that aren’t home for long stretches of time. Pets need feeding, remember?”

“Ah. Right,” the gemite conceded, “I knew that,” the man added with a yawn before going back toward the bed, “Wake me in a couple hours, okay? I still want to go through some papers.”

“If you fall asleep, I’m not waking you, King.”

“Senesh…”

“You need sleep. It’s for your own good,” he retorted then added as Dazien opened his mouth to argue again, “Don’t make me get Saiya to order it.”

The party leader shut his mouth and gave a small pout that the Warrior King only let him see as his companion grumbled, “Calling in the Healer is cheating.”

Saiya sat in the center pavilion of the temple district, an area designated for the lost to come that they might be found. It was a large open space that had many small tables of various colors spread around for people to sit at and wait for a clergy member to find them or to listen to the ones that would proselytize on the outskirts. She had been wandering to this place everyday since Phoenix ran away six days ago.

The first day, she asked one of the priests of the Undertaker to tell her if the Wayfarer died. It was her biggest fear since it was her job to keep the party alive and not being there didn’t feel like a good excuse. The priest had reassured her that Phoenix Fraser still lived though quickly departed as though some urgent thing was calling.

The second day, she was approached by an intern priestess of the Mender who wanted to recruit her. She never felt the calling of that popular faith, however. They seemed mostly focused on patching people up and seeing them on their way when she knew from experience that not all wounds could be so easily healed. The priestess also couldn’t help her with finding Phoenix or keeping her safe so she moved on.

Day three, an acolyte of the Lover approached her, curious about her… interests, and she had to politely decline their offer for a private tour of the luxurious temple rooms. After the acolyte left, a priest of the Parent took their place, inquiring about her plans for a family, and she decided to leave for that day.

Saiya felt a bit better when a pair of priests belonging to the Gamer stopped by her table on the fourth day with a board and the offer of a distraction and chat. After a few matches of Monarch’s March while she tried explaining her worries, the priests listening and offering both advice and reassurance, she left a bit lighter than she had arrived.

Yesterday, however, her melancholy had returned and she spent most of her time in the square in silent solitude. The only surprise came when she got up to leave and a Cleric of the Hero walked up to simply tell her, “Miss Fraser will be safe. She is finding her strength.” Before she could ask more though, the human man gave a courteous bow and left her to ponder alone again.

She was afraid that today would be much the same as yesterday when she sat at a small teal table feeling more lost than ever. It wasn’t long until an elf sat across from her though and smiled kindly, “Hello, Lady Dewsong. My deity wanted to congratulate you for your perseverance so far. You have journeyed far to find yourself here at this time.”

Saiya took in the woman’s clothing and said, “The Traveler would know just how far that is, wouldn’t they?”

“Farther than I think you even realize,” the priestess said with a grin, “I’m Priestess Kyleen Lastrand. I believe we share an acquaintance.”

“Did Dazien give you that charming smile too?” she asked curiously. Even she wasn’t so blind to not see how the beautiful gemite affected the people around him and he was extremely friendly with everyone.

The ebony elf laughed and shook her head, “That man has definitely had his own unique journey around the city.”

“That wasn’t a no,” the voxen pointed out with a gentle smile.

“I was referring to Miss Fraser. She has traveled farther than most considering she had to cross realities to get here,” the priestess pointed out.

Saiya nodded in understanding and admitted, “It is hard for me to understand what that’s like.”

“Is it?” Kyleen asked, tilting her head to the side, “I would think you would understand exactly what it felt like to have your family and friends all die, leaving you behind, and being forced to adapt. Coming to this strange cold land with customs and people so different from yourself.”

The voxen fell silent in thought and the priestess continued, “My deity also wanted to mention that the journeys we walk are not always with our feet. The choices we make are more than just forks in a road. We travel through life and the journey itself can be what heals the wounds that can’t be mended.”

Saiya stared at the priestess for a long moment before giving a soft smile and saying, “Thank you, Kyleen. I’ll think on that more.”

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