12 - Top Three (Patreon)

It had been awkward for her to reunite with her party members as she apologized profusely for her stupidity and single-mindedness, leaving them to panic as to her whereabouts. A small part of her had made her believe that they wouldn’t really care if she was gone. And she was both surprised and ashamed to find out just how wrong she had been when they all hugged her fiercely and promptly scolded her for her disappearance.

A few hours after the reunion, they had arrived again to drag her from the dorm she had returned to, seeing it as much more of a refuge now for her to come back to after being away for so long on her own. Where they were dragging her to though she hadn’t known until they arrived and surprised her with both the reason and a spread of food that Uriel had apparently made while she was gone.

“Thanks for this everyone,” Phoenix said as she and her teammates all sat comfortably on a magical heated blanket atop a small overlook that gazed over the ocean as it curved around the land from the north to the west. They were located just a couple kilometers outside the city walls, which they could still see in the distance, and with Phoenix’s portal power they weren’t concerned about any potential threats at the moment.

The party was settling in to eat a picnic dinner as the sun hung low behind them. They were all smiling, enjoying the small break from the last three nights of responding to Crystal Caste monster attacks against the city walls and just wanted to take the evening to pretend the blood moon wasn’t going on.

“Think nothing of it,” Dazien said with a grin and sat down next to her with a plate of food, “Lord Wayland may have mentioned that you needed a break and not to push and ask questions, but we’ve all been pushing hard and can understand getting burnt out.”

The charming gemite nudged her arm playfully with his own, “Please, just tell us next time when you need rest and we will be more than willing to accommodate.”

Saiya sat on her other side and hooked an arm in hers before having that paw hold the plate for the voxen to eat from as her friend said genially, “That’s an order as party Healer.”

The others laughed as Phoenix blushed and said softly, “Yes, ma’am.”

The Shatter Bard sat near her sister and said, “So, this is an unofficial team building exercise, but it’s time to play Top Three.”

“For once, I’m going to agree with Rayna and say that is an excellent idea,” the party leader said with a wide smile before popping a sweet blue manarin into his mouth.

“What’s Top Three?” Phoenix asked curiously.

“Well,” the pugilist began, adopting a lecturing tone, “Somebody starts, that’ll be me of course-”

“Why do you get to go first?” Dazien cut in, pausing the bite he was about to take out of a ruebean.

“Because it was my idea, obviously, now don’t interrupt, little lordling.”

He gave her an affronted look and scoffed, “I am more than a mere lord.”

“Yeah, but ‘kingling’ just doesn’t have the same ring to it. Now shush,” the woman said with a flick of a soft tail against the gemite’s mouth followed by turning back to an amused looking Wayfarer, “The person who starts, gets to ask any question they want to a person and that person has to answer honestly with their top three things. So for example, if I ask ‘what’s your favorite food?’ you would answer with your top three favorites. Then it’s that person’s turn.”

“What if it’s a question that can’t have three answers?” Phoenix inquired.

Rayna corrected herself, “Er, I take it back, the rule for questions is that it can’t be the yes/no kind. So no asking things like ‘have you ever kissed someone’. That kind of question would need to be phrased like, ‘what were your most memorable kisses’. Make sense?”

The head of red curls bobbed up and down and the bard clapped her hands, “Great! Now, first question,” the voxen surprised her by turning to Uriel and asking, “Favorite books?”

The cinderen appeared thoughtful for a moment then answered, “The Callanth Guide to Magical Creatures, The Complete Monster Compendium, and Out of the Woods.”

“That explains all the random creature knowledge,” Phoenix remarked with a chuckle, “I’ll have to find a copy and check them out.”

Uriel gave his usual slight smirk and said, “You can borrow mine,” then looked to Saiya and asked, “Favorite songs?”

The sweet voxen made an expression Phoenix had never seen before, and honestly found adorable, as the Healer scrunched her nose and stuck out her bottom lip in a pout, “That’s an unfair question. There are way more than three to list.”

The group laughed and Phoenix felt it wash away the sorrows that had been plaguing her as she added, “Well, which three would you have us listen to first?”

The Healer thought for a moment, still seeming frustrated by the limitation of three, “Symphony of Snowfall, Melody of the Rising Sun, and,” she paused, glancing at Phoenix, “Aria of the Final Star.”

Rayna nodded appreciatively, “Those are really good ones,” then grinned and added, “Not enough drums for my tastes but I can still recognize their mastery of composition.”

Saiya nodded at her sister then looked up at Phoenix, pausing for a long moment as the young woman observed her, before asking gently, “What do you miss most from your old world?”

A stillness came over the pair of men at the mention of the unofficially taboo topic. She could only assume that they hadn’t told the newest party members yet about avoiding the mention of her homeworld that came with bad memories.

Phoenix gave her friend a soft smile then thought for a moment before answering, “Music, video games, and pizza. I didn’t get a lot of that last one but I loved when I could get away with having some.”

Dazien and Uriel relaxed at her response but Rayna looked offended, “We have music!”

“Yes, but not the electric guitar which means you don’t have the really good music,” she teased with an impish grin.

“What’s an electric guitar?” Saiya asked curiously.

“I’m not sure I can explain it properly without something to compare to,” the Wayfarer said with a thoughtful expression, then tried her best to first explain what a guitar was and then the electric variant. Then she remembered that she had magic powers and conjured up an illusory model of one with her [Lunar Dream] ability for the voxen to examine, though it couldn’t produce any sound. The Healer, in turn, surprised her by using a passive ability to conjure an example of the instrument based on the model.

Passive Ability: Accompanion

Type: Utility (construct, magical, arcane)

Current Caste: Crystal 7

Crystal Effect: Can construct a musical instrument of your own design.

The pair spent the next few minutes tweaking the design and sound to match Phoenix’s memories while they all ate, chatted, and laughed at some of the odd sounds being made. As Saiya continued to work on the instrument, Phoenix said to the others, “It’s my turn to ask a question now, right?”

“Yup,” Rayna responded, taking another bite of a meat skewer, “Ask away!”

She turned slightly and tilted her head as she asked Dazien, “Why do you want to become a king?”

His eyes widened in surprise then he gave a slightly sheepish grin, “Ah, I guess you never did ask me before. It’s not really some grand elaborate plan honestly…”

The young warrior looked a bit embarrassed and she nudged his arm like he had done to her earlier, “I’d still like to know. No judgment, just wondering what pushes my leader forward.”

The gemite gave her his usual cheeky grin, “Well, aside from being in a position of power that could actually help a lot of people, and the fact that I’m obviously a natural choice for the job?”

His grin changed as he met her gaze and was replaced with a soft genuine smile that she rarely saw, “My mother always said I would become one.” He turned his eyes towards the blue moon that was now beginning to rise up into the sky and got the faraway look that came with reminiscence, “She would call me her ‘little prince’. It’s one of the few memories I still have of her.”

Phoenix's smile dropped as she recognized the implications within the statement, “I’m sorry,” she whispered.

Dazien shook his head and smiled back at her, “Don’t be. I think you can empathize with the loss, since you said you didn’t leave family behind.”

She nodded solemnly, and said, “My father died before I was born. My mother… Well, she died much more recently in an accident. I still haven’t quite recovered from her loss,” she admitted and she felt Saiya’s familiar embrace as the voxen put the instrument aside to hug her tightly, wrapping both tails around her once more.

“Both my parents died during the last blood moon. I was only four, so it’s a bit harder to remember them, but those wounds have healed. I hope you know we’re all here for you, if you ever need to talk,” Dazien assured her.

Uriel spoke up next, “My family died after we were attacked by bandits while traveling. I had just turned 14.”

The musical fighter admitted to them, “Our mother died on an adventuring contract. Her whole party was wiped out, including her sister. That was almost 17 years ago now.”

Rayna readjusted her position on the blanket as she took another bite of food and continued, “It was two years after that, during the last blood moon Daze mentioned, that our entire clan got wiped out by a swarm of monsters that had spawned within our camp.

“Voxen are nomadic by nature,” the bard explained, “We move around a lot and our leader had gotten distracted. He forgot to activate the rituals we normally put in place after settling in a new area. That leader just so happened to be our uncle and, with Saiya and I as the only survivors, we became the new clan leaders by default.”

Saiya’s grip tightened around Phoenix and she gently patted the woman’s back in support and said, “I guess we’ve all experienced the loss of parents…”

“Sadly, losing a loved one far too early is not uncommon in our world. Especially among those who chose to become Adventurers,” the gemite said somberly.

“Thank you… For telling me,” the Wayfarer responded sincerely, “It’s… It might sound a bit selfish of me, but it’s nice to know I’m not alone and that you all can understand.”

“You’re never alone, Phoenix,” Dazien said firmly, “Not anymore. None of us are because we have each other. Friends are always there for one another, remember?”

Phoenix smiled at them then looked at the sky that had started to turn red with the rise of Krafti, the blood moon. She stood as the moon rose, the silent signal to begin the other thing they had come here for before returning to the city, “Looks like it’s time to get that summoning done.”

“It’s more of a bonding ritual than a summoning,” Uriel corrected as he bent forward to start collecting the remaining items of their picnic with Dazien’s help.

“But it’s still a Familiar, right? Like Tala,” she tried to clarify.

“There are some key differences between a passive Familiar, like mine, and a non-passive Familiar, like yours,” Saiya explained as both of the voxen stood, “Passive Familiar abilities are all bonds to physical living avals or monsters of the same Caste. The bond lets them grow quicker in power than they normally would on their own but they serve the will of their bonded Caster.”

“Why did we have to wait for nightfall, though? I don’t remember needing to do that for Tala,” the Wayfarer asked.

“That’s when monsters are more likely to spawn or awaken from slumber. While more dangerous, it is usually a boon to bond with one,” Uriel explained as he finished putting the food away, “When a monster bonds with a Caster as a Familiar, it helps stabilize their magic and make them closer to their aval counterpart. They can increase in Caste and their aggression is calmed.”

Saiya nodded in agreement and continued her original explanation, “Familiars that are active abilities, like your [Cosmic Phoenix], are more like… temporal beings that have a magically constructed body based on the ability’s Caste, that’s the main reason it can merge with your own body, and the same soul can come to inhabit it whenever the temporal body gets reconstructed and the soul summoned to it.”

“Is that a complicated way of saying that my Familiar can’t actually die?” Phoenix asked Saiya as she studied the intricate ritual diagram the Healer was creating with some kind of magic-infused sand and a bunch of Water Shards placed at various points within the diagram.

“Basically,” Rayna answered for her sister, “Unfortunately, because her Familiar is passive, when he died during our clash with the Soul Reapers he can’t just be resummoned like Tala could be.”

Saiya nodded, “Sandy was a good boy,” she said softly, focusing on her work, “He died protecting me and I will never forget him.”

“I’m sorry for your loss,” Phoenix said sympathetically, “I’m sure it’s hard to replace a Familiar like that. Tala and I haven’t been together long but I know I’d be a mess if I lost her forever.”

“Thank you. It is difficult but in our line of work it is not that uncommon. Now that I’ve processed a lot of the loss, I think I’m ready to try forming another bond. It will help all of us if I have a Familiar,” Saiya admitted. Everyone nodded in understanding and stood back to watch the ritual and began preparing for a new party member.

Phoenix pulled up her own Familiar ability to check if there was a difference in the wording between hers and Saiya’s but also wanted to check the current progress that she hadn’t looked at since her battle with the Frost Lurker.

She had expected the ability to gain a lot of experience, since it had been such a challenging fight, but the percentage had barely moved. Odd. She made a mental note to pay closer attention to the before and after amounts of progress in the future to gauge the growth of using Tala for extra damage instead of absorbing starlight and see if one was more efficient than the other. Then she read Saiya’s ability as the gentle voxen activated the ritual.

Passive Ability: Call of the Sea

Type: Familiar (ritual, magical, covenant)

Current Caste: Crystal 6

Crystal Effect: Bond to a Crystal Caste Water-attuned aval or monster to serve as a Familiar.

It didn’t take long for a creature to answer the Healer’s call, it surprised them however when it flew down to land in the middle of the ritual circle rather than swim up from the ocean.

To Phoenix, the creature looked like a baby seal with short slick white fur and lower half tapering into hind flippers. However, instead of having two foreflippers to move and swim around with, it had a pair of white feathered wings and instead of a smooth rounded head it had white plumage on top sticking up like a crown.

“It’s adorable,” The redhead said as she watched the cute creature bark in excitement at the Healer. “What kind of creature is that?”

“It’s a Seagull,” Uriel answered automatically, “They're common enough near the beach here.”

Phoenix looked confused as she looked back at the winged seal, “It definitely isn’t. Seagulls are obnoxious scavenger birds, not adorable sea mammals.”

The cinderen raised an eyebrow at her and gave a smirk, “You think I’m mistaken?”

She scrunched her face and mumbled, “No, but this is going to be annoying for me. If it had been ‘Sealgull’ it might not be as bad, but still… pretty terrible naming.”

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