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They had lost track. Somewhere deep in a forest, they wandered around aimlessly. Near Zeh, there were rumors that a group of Belos worshippers were up to no good. Even if it was just a rumor, they wanted to investigate.
Unfortunately, the others didn't have time, which meant that Darius had to work with the Hack Alador.
His suggestion to go alone fell on deaf ears, and Eberwolf laughed at him. So he had no choice but to drag Alador along with him.
“We lost track because of you,” Darius grumbled loudly.
“I already apologized, but look what we found because of it.”
Darius wasn't even listening to the explanations about the stupid stone that the wannabe engineer had found. Instead, he just rolled his eyes and rubbed his nose in annoyance.
Not only was he hungry and thought everything Alador was saying was nonsense, but what was much worse was that he couldn't get his beauty sleep.
Without Alador, he would have been in a beautiful guesthouse in Toe by now, lying in a soft bed and relaxing, but no, he was trapped here in the middle of the forest with a hack who was telling him something about magic stones.
Darius could literally feel stress lines forming on his face from grimacing so much.
Enough was enough.
“Even if it's the kidney stone of the Titan himself, I don't want to hear anything about it”
Annoyed, he plopped down on a tree stump. He ignored the fact that his clothes were getting dirty.
They were already ruined anyway because he had carelessly stepped into an oversized mud puddle earlier. He almost felt sorry that he had dragged Alador along in his attempt to find footing, but it was, well, just Alador.
But when he said, “Look on the bright side, it's a free mud mask,” he wanted to strangle him. How dare he say something like that to him?
“Believe me, if this were the Titan's kidney stone, its power would be even stronger. Although... hm,” Alador pulled on his glasses and examined the stone again with intense concentration.
Darius groaned loudly. If Alador tried to lick the stone now, he would scream, out loud. Annoyed, he frowned. “Where on earth have I ended up?”
“In a forest in Toe,” Alador replied absently.
Now he was sure that this was his punishment for working for Belos; it had to be. “Hmm, I’ll take a closer look at that tomorrow,” Alador finally said, putting the stone in the breast pocket of his overall and taking off his glasses. “Let’s go to the inn and rest. It’s too dark to continue searching.”
“What inn?” asked Darius, clearly surprised, as he hadn’t seen anything that even remotely resembled a building. Alador gave him a crooked look. “I just told you. Were you not listening?”
“Anyway,” Darius said, waving his hand dismissively. “Is it far from here?” He stood up and looked around.
Alador looked at him without comment before sighing and pointing in the direction they had come from. “Just follow me if it's not too much trouble.”
“Tsk.” Even a blind man can find a something sometimes, Darius thought grumpily.
They walked silently back a few hundred feet until they reached the inn at the edge of the forest. If you could call it an inn.
The wooden building looked as if it was only standing thanks to good wishes and faith in the Titan alone. You could literally see the patchwork of repairs that had been made over the years.
A new coat of paint wouldn't hurt either, mused Darius as they drew nearer.
To his surprise, the interior looked less run-down than he had expected. It was old-fashioned and rather old-school, but it would do for one night. It definitely took some getting used to, but beggars can't be choosers.
At the reception desk sat a young woman with thick glasses, her reddish hair tied back in a messy bun, her nose buried deep in a book. Behind her, thankfully, there were still a few keys left in the key box, making him wonder what kind of people spent their nights here.
“We need a room for tonight,” Darius said to the woman, who dropped her book in shock. She probably hadn't expected any guests so late.
“Oh, um...” She looked uncertainly from one man to the other. “But we only have one room left.”
Now it was official, he was being punished. How unlucky could one be?
The receptionist continued talking, but Darius had had enough; he just wanted to lie down and take a nap. So he would share a room with the idiot; he had done worse things and survived.
“We'll take it anyway,” he wanted peace and quiet and a nice hot shower. The receptionist's eyebrows shot up and disappeared under her bangs.
“O-okay,” she said, almost choking on her words. “”Don’t I have a say in this?,” Alador said, offended. Darius shrugged, “If you want to sleep in the forest, be my guest.” Since Alador didn’t argue, he took the key.
“But I have to mention that-”
“Yeah, yeah, breakfast from 7 a.m. I read that,” Darius interrupted her rudely and dragged himself up the wooden stairs. The room number was written on the key and was quickly found. He heard Alador's footsteps behind him and left the door open for him.
The room was just as rundown as the rest of the house and smelled a bit stale, but that was the least of Darius's worries.
The room had only one bed, an ugly, small, much too narrow bed. There was no way two grown men would fit in there, not to mention that he would never share a bed with that hack. That was simply unacceptable.
He turned on his heel and immediately bumped into Alador.
“We have a problem,” he said instead of an apology, “The room only has—”
“One bed, I know. I can listen when people talk,” said Alador, pushing him aside.
Darius couldn’t believe it. “Is that okay with you?” he asked outraged, stretching out his arms.
“I can imagine worse things,” said Alador, sitting down on the desk chair and unwrapping the stone again. “Are you snoring or drooling?”
Darius blushed. How rude can one be, he thought furious. “I’m going to the bathroom,” he announced, stomping past Alador and into the small side door, which he hoped was not a closet in the end.
Finally, he got lucky—it was a normal, even modern bathroom. He quickly slipped into the shower. All the dirt was preventing him from thinking clearly, and he definitely needed to think clearly now.
All he really needed to do was conjure up a second bed, and everything would be fine. Why hadn't he thought of that right away? Oh well, never mind. Now that he was clean, he felt like himself again.
Unfortunately, this feeling of happiness didn't last long, because a golden sign telling him that no conjuring magic worked inside the hotel completely ruined his mood again.
At least he could have room service wash his clothes and bring him new ones for the night. So he had to celebrate these very small victories. He wouldn't tell Alador about any of this.
He probably should have listened to the girl at the front desk, then he wouldn't have gotten his hopes up, but that would have meant admitting the hack was right, and he really couldn't do that. Instead, he ordered a second pair of pajamas and left the bathroom.
Alador was bent over in front of the stone in such a way that Darius got back pain just from watching. Since he didn't know how else to start the conversation, he simply threw the pajamas he had ordered for him at Alador. Perplexed and taken aback, Alador looked first at Darius and then at the pajamas.
“You're welcome,” said Darius with a grin. Very pleased with himself, he sat down on the bed.
“Actually quite okay, not too hard but also not too soft,” he stated methodically, shifting his weight back and forth.
“Are you checking out the bed?” asked Alador, visibly amused, and stood up.
“Of course, I sleep on it after all, and my back isn't as crooked as yours yet, and I want to keep it that way.” He should have left it at that, but he just had to add this comment: “At least I pay attention to my appearance.”
Alador snorted amused, “You know I was always more popular with the girls.”
“You can hardly count Odalia as 'girls' just because her ego was bigger than was good for her,” Darius countered, equally amused. “Touché, even you can be right for once,” said Alador, staring at an invisible spot. “I wish I had seen who she really was sooner.”
“Me too,” Darius muttered, barely audibly.
While Alador was in the bathroom, Darius thought about how they could share the bed without him and Alador having to touch each other in any way. Tragically, the answer was: not possible.
This bed was so small that you could hardly turn without falling into the other person's arms or throwing them out of bed. Intentionally or not.
Annoyed, he groaned and ran his hand over his face. It was madness; he just wanted to sleep.
He was so incredibly tired that he hadn't even noticed that Alador had come back from the bathroom and was tinkering with the stone again. He had taken one of his devices out of his backpack, which he apparently always carried around with him. Darius had no idea what it was, but it glowed in a pleasant blue light.
He watched Alador work silently for a while, but then he got tired of waiting to be addressed. “Don't you want to go to sleep?”
“No, I want to know what this stone can do,” said Alador without looking up, “You can sleep if you want. After all, now you have plenty of room for your beauty sleep.”
Darius grumbled angrily. Here he was, concerned about the dark circles under the hack’s eyes, and all he got was a stupid comment.
“Fine,” he said, sounding not only much too harsh, but also more hurt than he should have been.
Then Alador will have permanent dark circles under his eyes, he didn't care. He wanted to be gracious and find a way for them both to sleep here, but if he didn't want to, well, tough luck.
Turning off the light, he said “Good night” with emphasis and turned his back on Alador.
Darius pulled the blanket over his head and closed his eyes, pressing his eyelids tightly together. But it didn't help. Whether it was the dim blue light, the hard bed, or something else, Darius couldn't say, but he just couldn't sleep. And it made him angry, especially since he knew how to solve his problem, which only made him angrier.
Grumbling, he got up and went over to Alador, who was so engrossed that he didn't even notice he was there.
“Go ahead, what's your guess?”
Startled by the sudden question, Alador looked up and saw Darius leaning against the wall, looking down at him. “Shouldn't you be sleeping?” he asked, and Darius clicked his tongue. “Your light is too bright,” he said simply, looking at the stone. “What's your idea? Maybe I can help you, and then I can finally get some sleep.”
Surprised, Alador blinked briefly, but began to explain what he was looking for in that stone.
"I have examined this stone several times now, and I am certain there is a reason why it is so finely polished. The forest where we found it is known for its dryness, so it can't have been storms or other friction, which leads me to suspect a magical origin." Alador went on to explain the tests he had carried out.
He didn't know what it was, but something about this simple stone fascinated him. Darius nodded from time to time, but otherwise said nothing.
Alador was probably getting carried away with something nonsensical again, but this stone wouldn't let him go; it called out to him. But maybe he just wanted a distraction.
Although he had tried his best to find a way to break the seals that Belos had placed on him and others and free the magic that was suppressed by them, he had not made any progress, and that was extremely frustrating.
He wanted to finally be part of the solution and not the problem, but he couldn't manage it, and that annoyed him tremendously. His honor as an engineer was at stake, and he wanted to make Amity and the twins proud.
He had let them down for too long and given Odelia free rein. He wanted to change that and needed a victory to do so, but the Titan did not seem to have his best interests in mind.
“What if it has something to do with wild magic?” asked Darius. Alador looked at him in surprise; that idea hadn't even crossed his mind. He leaned back in his chair and thought about it, but he couldn't come up with anything.
“You said you found the stone in a clearing next to a tree stump. Maybe this place was used for rituals,” said Darius, scratching his chin thoughtfully.
“Maybe the wild witches used the stone for something and that's why they polished it smooth. Maybe... you know that flat, rounded stones fly better across the water when you throw them, and—why are you looking at me like that?”
“I'm just surprised that you actually listened to me.” He had told him where he found the stone before they went into the inn.
Darius let out a croaking sound, turned his face away, and crossed his arms in front of him. “Of course I listened. Someone has to pay attention to you. Now and then you do say some clever stuff.”
Alador hadn't expected that response. Not only had Darius listened to him, he had also called him clever. He literally didn't know how to respond, so he lowered his head and thought about what had been said.
And then he had an idea.
“Darius, I need you,” he said, standing up and reaching for Darius's hand.
“WHAT?!” Darius stared at the engineer's excited, sparkling eyes, his own eyes as wide as dinner plates.
“You have to direct your magic at the stone,” Alador explained, and Darius breathed a sigh of relief. “I thought—wait, what?”
Alador explained his idea to him. The stone could have once served as a conductor and thus as an amplifier of magic, and he had to try it out.
Their first attempt ended with a loud bang and angry knocking on their neighbors' wall, for which Darius went to apologize. The second attempt was quieter, but still not a real success. However, the two men did not want to give up, and after a while, they had a solid idea of how they could use the stone.
They had been a good team back in their school days, and it turned out that they still were, even after years of separation. Neither of them knew when or how, but at some point they had become so tired that they had gone to sleep eventually.
Darius woke up in the morning feeling anything but rested. The night had been much too long, which he simply wasn't used to anymore, and he was lying on his stomach, which he didn't like at all. Darius wanted to sit up when something breathed on his neck and pressed itself against him.
Startled, he screeched and pushed the thing away, which crashed to the floor with a bang.
“OW! Are you nuts?” yelled Alador, who had been so rudely awakened. He had only wanted to move closer to his pillow, and now he was lying on the floor.
“Why are you breathing on me? What’s wrong with you?” Darius snapped back.
“I wasn’t, I was asleep,” Alador replied offended.
What had been harmonious cooperation the night before was now shattered, and they continued to argue. But one good thing came out of it.
Even though they hadn’t found the Titan’s kidney stone, they had found the key that helped them remove the Sigil Marks once and for all.