Work Text:
“That reminds me, someone wanted to meet you two at a wooden walkway below Etris.” Nova continued, briefly looking away. “They said it’s urgent, too… Try to be fast about it, yeah?”
She seemed to be aware of who she was talking about, given she soon added, “And, uh, don’t be scared of the first impression. It’s a fellow groupmate of ours, I promise you’ll be fine.”
A lone Vesperian sat at the walkway running right above the Etrean Sea, her shoes slightly wet from the waves hitting the beams. She readjusted her mask on her face, looking down at the reflection of the sky within the water. She glanced behind her, hearing footsteps, but quickly returned to gazing into the sea upon noticing it wasn’t who she hoped it was.
Some of that water got on her pants as she waited. Great. Tress would have to fix that issue later, though.
After a little bit of waiting, Tress could hear someone talking quite loudly and enthusiastically. Approaching were a very excited Amon chatting with an annoyed Winter. As soon as Amon noticed Tress she ran up to her, leaving Winter behind.
“HIIIII!!!!” Amon was beaming. Winter was able to catch up and apologized for Amon. Tress picked herself up from the planks when she heard Amon’s enthusiastic greeting, waving back at the two.
“Ah, it’s you! Glad you came this quickly…” Tress was doing her best to try to even slightly match the enthusiasm, which wasn’t too easy given the gravity of the situation. “You too, Winter. Good to see you here.” She walked towards a more sun-shielded spot at the walkway, leaning with her back against the wall.
Winter, seeming to have understood something was up, gave Amon a silent note to calm down. “Hey. What’s up?”
Tress silently beckoned the Adret and the Chrysid to lean next to her, taking a deep breath as they did. She bit her lower lip under the mask, clearly not enjoying the fact she even had to bring this up in the first place.
“Right. To put it short, a lot, but if I’m to put it in long, it’s about someone I know you two might have talked with around a week ago. I’ve asked Rein to ask around the Union’s Eastern base for any clues so I can focus on the situation here.” The Contractor recalled the events of a recent expedition within the Depths. If it got to a point where even Klaris was willing to take a record from a Ministry agent, it was far from a joke. “I’d also ask you two to come to a more public place, say Lance’s Food, but that Ganymede there - Ploom, was it?” Tress briefly guessed, “I don’t trust them, to be quite honest.”
Tress had one main reason to not trust Ploom, and it was what they were reading. It always was that one specific book written by Pleeksty. It couldn’t have possibly been this long for them to read it every time she swung by Lance’s Food to introduce another soul in Etris to the good a Mushroom Bisque can do to a soul. “Either way, Ploom isn’t why I asked you two to come.”
“I think it’s no secret by now that me and Julian were down in the Second Layer…” Tress sighed. “I wish I could say everything went smoothly. It all went to hell when it came to that face-off against Chaser. This may sound insane, but he got a splitting headache soon before we found him; I tried asking him to get back to Castle Light if he couldn’t handle it anymore, I tried asking Klaris to remind him he can do that, he insisted on staying.” She paused upon noticing she was getting increasingly agitated. “But that’s just Julian for us, I think.”
The Vesperian’s sights fell on the waves, the Suncross’s light beams reflecting off the water’s surface. “Either way, we found him and I offered to deal with Chaser myself since I could see him struggling to manage it. That was when he finally folded, though…”
“Chaser attacked, and I guess something had to happen, at first I thought some awakening given he protected me from the attack from a distance, but it wasn’t Thundercall he used. The moment I brought that up to Klaris, she said she couldn’t even reach him anymore…” Tress shivered at the thought. “He seems to not even remember what happened. Llfiend only got to him after Chaser inevitably died, we both were pretty much immediately taken away from the Light Hook to give the Divers a better view of the situation from our points of view, they did all the checkups for him and found nothing aside from what they already knew about him.”
Tress breathed out after all the talking. “What I’m getting at… have any of you two noticed anything strange about him within the last week before he set for the Ethironal Shrine?” She then realized the strings at her wrists and arms might give this a second meaning. “I don’t mean this for anyone except myself, and him, for figuring out what all of this could have been.”
Winter looked down, “He did seem to be in some pain a few times I saw him. I tried to ask him about it but he always avoided the topic. Sometimes we would just avoid talking entirely. Not sure what it means.” Amon held her chin as if thinking, “Well, a few times he looked a little annoyed around me but I just think that’s because I talk a lot.”
Tress squinted her eyes (though it’s not like it was visible that she did), thinking about what they both said. What Winter said seemed about right from what she knew about Julian, though something didn’t add up with Amon’s account.
“Amon I really don’t think he’d be annoyed at you talking, if anything he does seem to listen if he knows it’s something a person cares about. I think the annoyance was from something else… I’ll ask Rein if she got anything from the Union in that regard later.”
Amon seemed to mumble to herself, “Hmmm… I guess I’m just kinda used to people being annoyed with me…”
Winter’s eyebrows furrowed, “Hold on… Chaser? What were you guys doing with him?”
“Winter… I hate to break this to you, but Chaser is a Ministry agent.”
Winter raised an eyebrow, “I mean… ‘oh nooo’ but it isn’t like I was planning on giving him a visit either.”
“Yeah. The difference is that you don’t have to, I had to because Zi’eer had a message for him and who was a better errand boy to deliver that than one of his Contractors that’s already planning to head to the Depths.” Tress heaved at the thought. “Safe to say I didn’t get to deliver the full message because he had the brilliant idea of attacking me.”
“Hold on… You are a contractor… so why did he attack you?”
“Like hell do I know, Winter.” She huffed. “Apparently he will attack everyone who comes by mid-talking so they’re caught off guard for him to have the upper hand in… disposing of them, as he puts it.”
Tress closed her eyes for a bit. “Either way… Thanks for your input, you two. It’ll probably be a while until I get to figure out what’s wrong, and if anything can be done to help it.”
Winter’s face darkened, “Yeah… Julian is important to all of us, if you need anything please ask me.”
“I’ll try. Thanks, Winter.” Tress prepared to get back on her track of figuring out who else might know a thing or two. “I’ll check around the Luminant, then head back to the base for the day and see if Rein found anything.”
Amon looked around while thinking, “I was planning to sail back to the Hive, but I’ll look around there and ask if anyone sees him and if they noticed anything.”
Tress nodded in acknowledgement. “I won’t be holding you two further, then. I’ll see you two later in the base.” She waved at the duo and went off to gather her mind and maybe set off to find a mutual… Old friend whom they both dislike. It was a stretch, but maybe the Lost King’s servants have seen a thing or two?
There was no time to waste.
“Yeah, I’ve found something. The Union knows a thing or two, but it’s mostly just one guy who does.” Rein rested her hand on top of Tress’s hand, her artificial fingers finding space between the Vesperian’s flesh-and-bone finger tissue. “I think it was Adar who mentioned noticing a few things? Most notably he seemed wearier than usual, to the point of him even letting Juli rest up in the lab near him if he needed it.”
Tress got briefly sidetracked nodding upon hearing Adar and Julian shared a bond this close, but got snapped out of it when Rein continued speaking. “It didn’t help much, though… He did take up on the offer, but the rest did nothing in the long run.” The Celtor-looking construct paused. “Though he did also state Julian having a large amount of dried worm husks? I’m pretty sure they’re effigies to a Drowned God, Korilfiend if I’m to guess.”
“You want me to ask Korilfiend about this?” The Contractor could barely comprehend the idea, at least until Rein explained what she meant. “Yeah, but you don’t need to go to the Third Layer? I think he’d let you borrow one, I’ve heard him mention once that he’s struggling to fit all the husks he gets in his bag.”
“I guess this does make it safer.” Tress leaned forward, resting her chin on a hand of hers and closing her eyes. “Might as well be worth a try… Maybe we can get in touch with Korilfiend this way.”