Kiri’s opinion of Tomlyn was getting worse by the day. The man travelled horribly. He fell asleep on watch, then complained that he couldn’t sleep on the ground when it was her watch. He kept Renee awake with his snoring, and was terribly picky about his travel rations. After the fiasco of the other night, her patience was wearing thin.
They had been fortunate enough to be able to follow Kida and Destiny when they left Lumo Bay, and although Kida was an unusually fast flier, they had managed to keep up with them, if not gain any ground. When they had landed for the night, Kiri had come up with the bright idea to ambush them in their sleep. They could take Destiny first while Kida was making a round on watch, then grab Kida when she was distracted. It would be simple and effective, if not entirely elegant.
Then Tomlyn had spoken up. After all, he had claimed, he was a hunter. He was an expert at laying traps and catching people, it was how he made his living. So Kiri had backed off, given him the lead, trusted him to handle it. That had been a mistake. He had tried to set a rope trap around the tree Kida had climbed to keep watch, but she had heard him and easily leapt over it, directly onto Tomlyn. After that the man hadn’t stood a chance. She’d trussed him up easily, first with her boleadoras, then with his own rope. Apparently he had another coil in his pack beyond the one he carried on his belt. It had taken Kiri and Renee a good half hour to get the knots untied to the point that he could wriggle free, by which time their quarry was long gone. All in all, the entire operation was a horrible, miserable failure.
Now they stood in the clearing, staring at each other, slowly coming to the realization that they had absolutely no idea what to do. Their last lead had just disappeared into the darkness. It was useless trying to track Midas, the man could vanish into a crowd like nothing Kiri had ever seen. The only thing she could think of would be returning to Onsen, where she was first hired, to try to track down Black Diamond again. Maybe he had new information. She hated returning to an employer empty-handed, that kind of thing was horrible for a mercenary’s reputation, but at least it would show her commitment to the job. It wasn’t like she could give up now. Derek was still missing, and Midas had damaged her pride, something she intended to get revenge for.
Renee was lying on her back in the grass, and had been staring up at the stars for quite some time. Now she pushed herself up into a sitting position and looked up at Kiri, her expression the most serious Kiri had ever seen in all the time she’d known the girl. It seemed like the gravity of the situation they were in had even managed to quell Renee’s normally exuberant personality.
“Kiri…” she began, her voice so quiet Kiri had to crouch down next to her in order to listen. “I… I haven’t been entirely honest with you.” She paused again, and Kiri had to fight the urge to interrupt. “It’s true that I’m on vacation, but I never told you who I worked for. The company is called City of Gold, it’s in Port Antil. About six months ago I was part of a team that made a major archeological find. The biggest in the company’s history, in fact. As a reward, and as safety to ensure we didn’t know what happened to the artifact, we were all sent away on long-term vacations.”
“All right, but what does this have to do with us? Is the artifact important?” Kiri asked, working very hard to keep her voice level.
“No. At least, not to us. It’s really powerful, but that’s not what I wanted to tell you. City of Gold is run by a wizard, a very powerful wizard. I’ve never met him personally, but I’ve heard his name from my boss and the others in the company. His name is…”
“Midas,” Kiri finished. Pieces began to click in place in her mind. It had always struck her as vaguely odd how willing Renee had been to go along with their mission. She had never seemed like the type to take on jobs like this - archeologists weren’t often mercenaries, after all. Renee must have been keeping an eye on them, maybe even with the intent to sabotage. Somehow, though, the idea of the small, cheerful angel plotting something as treacherous as that seemed strange and very out of character.
“You were just curious, weren’t you? At first it was just an excuse to have fun, then when you found out we were after Midas, you wanted to know why,” Kiri said slowly, thinking aloud.
“At first, yes,” Renee replied. “But then Midas approached me, back in Lumo Bay while you were off busy. He wanted me to stay with you, but he wouldn’t tell me why.”
Kiri frowned and crossed her arms, glancing at Tomlyn, who was listening intently to their conversation, but didn’t appear to have anything to add. “And he didn’t mention anything else? Anything useful?”
“No. Just that I was to stay with you, and act as I saw fit. He said he knew that I would do the right thing, but I don’t know what the right thing is supposed to be…” Renee seemed almost distraught now. It bothered Kiri more than she would have expected to see her crewmate, no, her friend so worked up. Moved by an instinct almost entirely unfamiliar to her, she dropped down in the grass next to Renee and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. Tension radiated from the girl, so much that Kiri found herself tensing in empathy. For lack of anything better to do, she settled with rubbing Renee’s shoulder gently to try and calm her a bit.
“Hey, it’s alright. You’ve been great so far. Really brave.”
“No I haven’t.” Renee sniffled, and Kiri realized to her horror that the girl was actually starting to cry. “I’ve been useless, and drunk half the time.”
“You aren’t the only one who’s been drunk, good buddy. Besides, you keep our spirits up! Tomlyn and I would be a pretty dour pair without you.” Kiri could only hope she was saying the right things. This was way outside her comfort zone, but she was trying her best. Amazingly enough, it seemed to be working. Renee’s sniffles had slowed and she was wiping at her eyes, blinking up at Kiri through the tears with a half smile that did funny things to Kiri’s head. It almost felt like… some strange cross between pity and friendship and something else.
Kiri had always been an only child. She’d grown up in a household with parents who were loving, but busy. If fortune had blessed her with siblings she would have understood what she was feeling. Renee was becoming like a little sister to her, although Kiri would never be able to put it in those words. Instead, she simply hugged Renee close and patted her on the back.
“Besides, good buddy. You’re part of my crew. That means we need you, and will watch out for you no matter what.”
Now Renee managed a grin that was much closer to her normal cheery expression. Kiri sighed in relief. Touchy-feely talks like this were just not her thing. From the look on Tomlyn’s face, they weren’t his either. Of course, he got to keep his distance and just watch - let the girls cry, go figure. Just like a guy.
Kiri stood and offered a hand to Renee, who took it and let Kiri pull her to her feet. They brushed the grass and debris off their pants and exchanged a grin, glancing at Tomlyn to see that he too had managed a smile. They were still a dysfunctional crew on a mission of dubious legitimacy, but at least there were no tears now.
“So. That was wonderful and touching, but we still have no plan,” Tomlyn said, laying on the sarcasm a bit too heavy for Kiri’s tastes, but she let it slide.
“I think I might know,” said Renee. That drew both their attentions. “I work for Midas, who is the head of City of Gold, right? So we go to Port Antil, to the company. Even if Midas isn’t there, they’re bound to know something about his whereabouts!”
Kiri laughed and pulled Renee into a one-armed hug, punching her lightly in the shoulder. “You, good buddy, might have just given us the push in the right direction we needed! To Port Antil then!”
“To Port Antil!” Renee and Tomlyn echoed.
They set about untangling the hammock, which had gotten quite mangled from lying in a heap on the ground all night. It gave them all new energy to have a goal in mind again. Kiri knew it was a tenuous lead at best. While Midas might indeed have been the head of City of Gold, that in no way guaranteed they would know anything about his whereabouts. In fact, with the effort he’d expended so far in staying hidden, Kiri found it entirely unlikely that they would know much at all. But it was still worth trying. Any information, no matter how seemingly insignificant, might prove useful.
Before they took off, Kiri paused to check her map and compass, fixing their bearing in her mind. She knew roughly where they were, judging by the distance and direction they’d flown from Lumo Bay. It would take them a good long while to reach Port Antil, at least a week and a half of travel if they didn’t run in to any complications. She plotted them a course almost directly west, bearing slightly north. It took them directly across the Mist Plains of Corad, the large empty space in the middle of her map, but they would just have to risk it. If they planned right, they could make it all the way across in one day of flying. Staying the night in the Mist Plains was not on the top of Kiri’s list of things to do. There were strange stories about what lurked there, outside the walls of the city of Corad. The farther above all that they could stay, the better, to Kiri’s line of thinking.
Nestling into the hammock, Kiri found she could actually keep her map braced on her lap after the initial wind of takeoff, her compass in one hand, the other wrapped in the ropes for added security. Renee was on her right, Tomlyn on her left, both angels’ wings beating steadily against the air, carrying them upward and forward. Every so often she would shout directions to one or the other, depending on which way they needed to turn. All in all, it was a fairly effective system, with one crucial flaw. It was mindnumbingly, exhaustively boring. At several points Kiri found herself dozing and had to jerk herself awake. It was dangerous to fall asleep, she was the only one who knew which direction they had to go.
They reached the very edge of the Mist Plains just before nightfall and made camp. That night, Kiri rechecked their position, although her knowledge of the stars was limited to a “best guess” situation. Even so, when the set off the next day, Kiri felt certain that she was steering them in an easy tangent that would cut straight across the edge of the Plains in a line towards Port Antil. So when they were still flying above the formless, shapeless, rather eerie whiteness that was the Mist Plains from above when the sun began to set, Kiri started to worry. Within an hour they were forced to land, as it grew far too dark to fly safely. As they dropped down into the mists the air grew thick, damp, and cold, and visibility reduced to a grand total of about three feet.
Kiri felt it prudent to issue a warning as they began to set up camp. “Stay close, everyone… we sleep in shifts, don’t leave sight of the others. This is going to be interesting.”
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