Evarus Falls

As it turns out, re-stealing an airship was even easier the second time around with the aid of a giant hole in the sky distracting everyone. With Edson’s knowledge of the Colosseum’s security, they were up and out within fifteen minutes.

Sadie took control of the helm and punched in coordinates while the others rested. As she steered them northeast further into the outlands and over the tropical desert, named for the rainforest caverns below the sands. The midday sun beat down on them even through the clouds. Sweat drenched her shirt clinging it to her back. It stuck to her with every turn of the wheel like a nagging conscious.

But she couldn’t stop thinking about her conversation with Ben. Maybe this was all a trap. Ben made her hallucinate to lure into messing too much with tears and thus getting herself killed and erased from existence. After he sorted through her memories, he no longer needed her and wanted her gone asap.

Except if that was the case, he only needed to wait a few more days for the world to rip her to shreds. No, this blowhard still needed her alive to find this key because for some reason he couldn’t. Specifically, her. But why? Why not ask someone more experienced? Vidar, or Ravi, or literally anyone other travelers.

When he first forced her into this, she never questioned her abilities in the game, but It felt like she was at the bottom of a slippery pole. Every time she made progress, she slipped back down as she learned more.

He must have shown her the Decay because either no one else could get to it, or no one else was crazy enough to try it. The key was there and probably the missing people too.

She entered the destination coordinates into autopilot to take a break. Her phone buzzed.

Gate: I do not approve of this plan. I will not be able to help you.

Sadie steered them towards a somewhat recent tear at the Phoenix Loon Ruins from a week ago. Recent enough to not be totally scarred over, but old enough any guards would abandon it to deal with the new tears all over Evarus.

Sadie: What do you mean?

Gate: What you described to Vidar, your conversation in the Decay, I could not see it as I can everything else. You appeared unconscious.

Would her plan work at all? She didn’t realize her body stayed in Evarus.

Sadie: It’s the only idea I have, and we’re running out of time.

Sadie: If it makes you feel better, I’m finally ditching Fawkes.

And everyone else. She couldn’t ask them to follow her. Gate didn’t reply, and she put her phone away hoping it was wrong. While annoying—almost worse than Navi when she caught glimpses of Mom playing Ocarina of Time Remastered+ (and almost as ridiculous as the title Nintendo gave it)–Gate being a fingertip away was comforting, and arguing with it made her feel better.

She joined the others in the climate-controlled kitchen below deck.

“So what’s this theory of yours?” Jiyu pulled herself up to sit on the counter. “Now that we’re out of cranky hottie’s hair.”

“Pleaaase stop calling him that.” Fawkes stopped practicing axe fighting movements long enough to roll his eyes. “And hasn’t anyone ever taught you manners? That’s where food goes.” He pushed her down away from where he was cooking a soup he called harira.

“What? I’m sixteen. It’s entirely appropriate to talk about how hot people are. Doesn’t mean I want to spend time with him. No different than talking about idols.”

“Are you sixteen or fifteen?” Fawkes asked. “Don’t Koreans count age differently?”

“Why can’t I be both? It’s just a number.”

“So fifteen, and younger than me.” He stopped swinging his axe and tapped the butt end against his chin. “Aren’t there honorifics or something you should be using for me?”

Jiyu’s face scrunched as she peeled an orange. “We’re not in Korea. You’re not speaking Korean, and I’ll kill you first.” She stuck her tongue out at him before eating a slice.

“Sadie already called dibs on that.”

Sadie snorted a laugh and then composed herself. “I think I can communicate with Ben again.”

“You said you couldn’t talk to him,” Edson said. “Before, he was only in the Decay with you.”

“Right.” Sadie gulped and pulled at her clinging shirt. “But I think he was trying too, and maybe if I go back and touch the tear directly, we could actually talk.”

“Would he even talk to you?” Jiyu asked. “I mean, the bastard is kidnapping people. I don’t think he really wants to talk.”

“He did tell her the key wasn’t in Evarus,” Fawkes pointed out.

“Exactly.” Sadie nodded, feeling weird Fawkes was on her side for once. “Maybe there’s more he’s willing to say, or maybe I can—I don’t know—interrogate him. About the cloaked man and where people were taken to.”

She hated lying to her friends, but she didn’t intend to put them in danger either. It’d just be herself.

Friends? Did that fit? It’d been ages since she called anyone a friend, but she wasn’t sure what else she was supposed to call them. Crew seemed too impartial for people you had a possible near-death experience with. So friend, she guessed, but only because nothing else fit.

They rode along in silence, each getting some rest, until yellow-tinted clouds engulfed the airship.

Fawkes leaned against the rail on the quarterdeck. “Do you think what they say about yellow snow applies to clouds too?”

“That’s disgusting.” She cringed, not just at the idea of yellow clouds. Even Fawkes was becoming hard to lie to.

“It’s from the phoenix loon ashes burning for a thousand years as a warning. Everyone knows that.” Jiyu on the steps adjusting the runes on her pistols.

“That doesn’t make any sense.” Edson joined them on the quarterdeck looking slightly green. “How could an ash cloud last one thousand years? Maybe if it came from a volcano.”

“We’re inside a video game that’s not actually a video game but really a cyberworld trying to eat us, and you want everything to make sense with Earth physics?”

“You guys ruined the joke,” Fawkes complained.

Jiyu looked over her shoulder at him. “I thought jokes were supposed to be funny.”

“It was a little funny,” Edson said.

“Boys.” Jiyu huffed and rolled her eyes.

“Guys, can you focus on the mission,” Sadie said, “We’re almost there.”

“I’m trying not to focus on the fact we’re purposefully going to touch a tear again, and at one of the most cursed places in all of Evarus.” Edson covered his mouth like he needed to be sick again. “Oh, God, we’re all going to die, aren’t we? This is insane. We’re insane.”

“That’s the spirit,” Jiyu said cheerfully.

“No one is crazy here.” Sadie spotted the Phoenix Loon Ruins through the clouds and began their descent. “And no one is dying.”

She hoped.