The Butterfly Effect

{-Kaius-}

Messengers didn’t need any of the forms of subsistence mortals did; they didn’t need to eat or sleep, so long as they had their gods’ blessings and the gift of ambrosia. But that didn’t mean they knew no such thing as rest. In fact, Kaius was certain there was not a single Messenger that would not admit to indulging in the now-needless acts of eating or sleeping… even Jun, when they thought no one else was looking.

Which was a lot of words to say, the team rested for a couple of hours during the night. They weren’t in that big of a rush to get this done, so they knew they could spare the time.

But they were all up and ready to keep going by the time even the tiniest sliver of sunlight started to seep through the trees.

“Must we get going already?” Kaius asked with an overdramatic sigh. “I was just starting to get comfortable.”

“I’m grateful for the interruption, actually,” Tevie remarked. “I hate those half-dream, half-memory things. Somehow worse than mortal nightmares…”

Hayze—the one responsible for waking them up—didn’t seem to acknowledge either of them. “I’m fairly certain we’re not alone here anymore. The Skiá activity is more organized and I’m beginning to feel the presence of another Messenger—one that belongs to Darkness.”

Kaius, after a moment, knew that she was right—he could feel it, too. “Ah. Well, then, I suppose it’s justified. Let’s go meet with this mysterious Messenger, shall we? I daresay they’re probably at the end of their patience, if they were waiting for us.”

“Then I’ll try this one more time.” Once again, Tevie reached a hand up to the charm. “Kiri, we think we’re about to come across one of Eldrianna’s Messengers. What’s the gods expecting us to do if we end up needing to confront them?”

And yet again, there was silence.

“They’re probably busy helping the Fos,” Kaius said casually. It was just another generic response, though, to keep their minds from wandering. “I do believe I heard that Mazel was out, so there’s probably not a lot of ‘older siblings’ there to watch over things.”

There were obvious flaws in his logic, most obviously that Kiri nearly always announced when they had to go help the other Fos. But despite all its flaws, they all took it to be truth, because it was the better of several possibilities.

Hayze brought them back to the matter at hand to remark, “It’s not like this is something completely new to us. We can handle this on our own for a little while, if not completely, while we wait for Kiri to respond. As long as we don’t do anything too reckless, it should be fine.”

“Just try to tire them out, right?” Tevie prompted. “Stall long enough that whoever it is decides it’s not worth the trouble?”

Kaius nodded. “That’s what we’re going to have to try to do, at least. It’s safe to assume that the gods don’t like Darkness, but that doesn’t mean we should confront one of her Messengers directly. Getting into a full-blown fight is only going to cause problems that are much, much worse than simply waiting it out.”

A fourth voice—familiar, but not friendly—echoed through the forest. “Or, you could walk away and stop interfering at all. There’d be no reason for a confrontation then.”

“I’m sure you know that we can’t do that, Talia,” Kaius casually remarked. “We’re doing just the same thing that you are—following orders. Believe it or not, our gods dislike incomplete missions just as much as yours does.”

“But at the end of this, someone is going to have to come back empty-handed, and I’d rather it not be me.”

Just then, the Messenger walked out, proving Kaius’s theory; it was Talia, just the same as when they’d last seen each other, whether or not either of them truly knew when that was. And, for once, she seemed to carry herself with a certain air of confidence—or, rather, fear.

Darkness was one that controlled people nearly solely by their fear, and her Messengers were no exception to this.

He’d feel bad for Talia, honestly, if it wasn’t the kind of scenario that she pictured: that one of them was going to have to end up being unsuccessful, and neither of them wanted to be that person.

“It’s not too late for you to walk away, either,” Kaius remarked. “I’m sure Darkness, for all of her Skiá, can’t control or know everything. I mean, if she did, she would’ve acknowledged the kind of state this place has gone into…”

“Kaius,” Hayze hissed, “I don’t think that’s making it any better. You’re either trying to talk or down, or you’re going to shut up to let one of us to it instead. I am not going to sit by and just let you make this worse.”

Talia barely seemed to notice. “Whether or not you’re right, that’s not something I want to risk. I think you can understand that, can’t you? So just leave. I’m not going to back away from this—those were my orders. If you try to do this the ‘peaceful’ way, you’re going to very quickly realize that Eldrianna doesn’t care about that. There’s no distinction, so long as you’re in her way.”

Tevie pulled both Hayze and Kaius closer, though they were all still able to keep an eye on Talia.

“Look,” Tevie mumbled, “what’s really our plan? Because I’m pretty sure she’s right. The other gods might care about whatever natural balance remains between them, but Eldrianna rarely does. As long as it’s something she wants, she’s going to get it, even if that means directly working against us. She’s done it before, she’s doing it now, and she’ll do it again. That’s the full extent of it, and that’s not going to change depending on what we do and don’t do now.”

Hayze sighed. “Well, we can’t fight her.” She touched the charm. “Now would be a pretty great time for some advice if you’ve got it, Kiri! Could really use some information about how we’re going to dance around this problem!”

And still, there was no answer.

There wasn’t any true reason why they should keep trying to keep up a lie, but Kaius still muttered, “They have to be taking care of something else. Probably taking them longer than expected.”

Though it turns out they weren’t as quiet as they thought they were, because Talia tilted her head and repeated, “Kiri? Isn’t that the Fos that you all cared so much for?”

“I don’t see how it matters to you,” Hayze shot back. “They’re in Sanctuary. There’s nothing the Skiá can do about that.”

Talia, slowly, raised her hands up and shrugged. Her voice lacked any true emotion to it, but that was pretty normal for her. “I was just asking a simple question. I didn’t mean to make this yet another point of conflict.”

“Either way, I don’t see how it matters to the task at hand,” Kaius pointed out, more calmly than his fairy friend. “Kiri isn’t someone that you should be concerning yourself with. I daresay they’re not even related to the situation at hand. If I thought that you had anything to try to hide, then I would’ve simply assumed that you were stalling.”

“Because everything that Darkness or her spawns do need some kind of ulterior motive, right? You should see Kiraat. Only about half the things he does is something that Eldrianna wants, yet she doesn’t seem to care where he’s gone off to or what he’s doing.”

Tevie, even if his tone made it sound like it wasn’t going to work, remarked, “Look, this isn’t really getting anywhere. What if we just pretended to fight? No one actually touches each other but it looks enough like a fight that Eldrianna is happy about whatever she wants you to do, and we get to do what we came here for. Not the most ideal of circumstances, but certainly something you can agree with, no?”

Talia shook her head. She made a quick gesture, and a Skiá formed on either side of her. “My mission is to protect what remains of this place from you. I was expressly told that that mission was not complete unless you were gone and nothing else was harmed. I’m not going to be able to get away with something just because we all struck a ‘deal.’”

“Oh, well.” Tevie glanced at Hayze. “Think you can figure out where the next thing we’re supposed to be getting rid of is? There’s got to be at least one more, if Talia hasn’t given up already.”

With a bit of confusion, she responded, “If you give me another moment, I might be able to determine a more exact area, but I’m pretty sure I can guess the general idea now.”

“Would you, hypothetically speaking, be ready to run in that direction in, say, another couple of seconds?”

“Wha—”

“Did I say hypothetical? I meant that I’m about to do it right now.”

Tevie snapped his fingers and a large amount of vines grew around Talia. It wasn’t a lot—just a momentary distraction.

But it was enough of a distraction for Hayze and Kaius to understand what he was trying to do, and they were all darting away within moments. Talia was undoubtedly going to catch up to them soon but, well, at least they were able to get the head start.