MTLNOVEL Chapter 17: Chapter 017
Nagisa lay on her bed staring up at the fungal ceiling, deep in thought. This was wrong, this was all wrong.
She hadn't seen Kyoko since returning to Tel Mithryn. The older girl had been taken by Neloth to his tower, and after that, well… Nagisa assumed Kyoko was busy blowing off steam somewhere again. She'd been doing that more and more lately, meaning Nagisa was seeing less and less of her.
Despite her age, Nagisa wasn't stupid; far from it, actually. She knew Kyoko was suffering here, and she was doing it for Nagisa's sake. They needed to leave, even if Nagisa was afraid of doing that. She was safe here; even as alien as Tel Mithryn was, it was the closest thing to home she'd had for the past week, and what little she'd seen of the rest of Solstheim was dangerous and scary.
Where would they even go?
If only they knew where Mami was.
… Would Mami even want to see them? Nagisa turned over in her bed in a fit of anxiety over the possibility of that meeting.
Kyoko finally entered the room looking exhausted and burnt-out. She gave Nagisa a wave and a halfhearted smile before flopping onto her bed below Nagisa's.
Well, now or never, Nagisa supposed.
"I've uh… been studying a new spell," she told Kyoko.
Kyoko inwardly groaned; the last thing she wanted to deal with right now was more magic shit, "Not right now, okay Nagisa?"
Nagisa flipped over the side of the bed and showed the spell tome she'd been working from, "… You might be interested in this one, actually."
With a sigh, Kyoko turned over from staring at the wall and looked at Nagisa's book, "… Longstride," she read out-loud.
Nagisa grinned, "It makes us move faster. We can be in Raven Rock in a matter of hours.".
Kyoko sat up, her mind instantly switching gears as she considered the possibilities. In the end however, she shook her head, "It's too dangerous." Even ignoring everything else, that dragon was still out there and had their names on its shit list. She doubted even a spell could outrace the damn thing, going by how fast it had flown up to her.
Nagisa's smile faded before she pulled herself back up. A moment later however, she landed on the floor below, book still in hand before turning to Kyoko dropping herself on the redhead's bed.
"So how long are we staying here?" she asked Kyoko seriousy.
"I…" the redhead's gaze unfocused. It was a question she'd been trying not to think about. How long was long enough? It couldn't be forever. God, no. "… I don't know."
Nagisa considered her next words carefully. She wasn't quite sure how to express this, and more than that she wasn't entirely sure how Kyoko would react, "… I appreciate everything you've done for me over the past few days, I really do. I don't know where I'd be if you weren't here. But it's not doing good things for you."
Kyoko looked at her, "And what else am I supposed to do?"
"… I think you're trying to be Mami for me and again, I appreciate it, but I don't want you to be Mami. I want you to be Kyoko."
The redhead's expressions shifted from shock to irritation at the accusation, to floundering embarrassment, to finally soft laughter as she fell back on her pillow. She wanted to go off on Nagisa for comparing her to the blonde girl, but the truth was Nagisa was dead on, and Kyoko was kind of mortified by that.
"… Crap," she said, letting some of the anxiety and stress she'd been bundling up ebb out of her, "…. You're pretty smart for a kid, you know that?"
Nagisa giggled, "I was handpicked by the Law of Cycles." Handpicked, and then betrayed her. She ignored the pang of guilt that surfaced.
Kyoko smiled at that, but then became somber again, "You're the last thing I have from Earth," she admitted quietly, "If I lose you, then…" she trailed off, not wanting to finish that train of thought.
Nagisa grabbed Kyoko's left wrist gently, pleading, "Then we should go find the others, right?"
Kyoko looked up at the bunk above her; when had she become such a coward?
Just be Kyoko, huh? It was something so simple it was laughable. A determined look crossed her face, then a wry grin. If Nagisa was willing to risk it all, then who was she to say no?
"You wanna know how to roll with Kyoko, huh? Then let's roll".
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Homura returned to Sky Haven Temple only long enough to ransack it. While cloaked in her invisibility spell, she changed her torn clothes out for clean ones and then flew through the empty kitchen, taking as much food as she could stuff in her pack. When she was satisfied, she went to the armory to see what she could grab there. Along the way she grabbed a few restoration potions from the temple stockpile, and drank one for magicka recovery.
Initially, she'd intended to take a full armor set; after the past week she knew how to put them on, and a smaller set built for one of the wood elves on staff would have fit her well enough. But upon entering the armory, she was reminded just how gaudy and ceremonial her Blades armor was—it was like some mishmash of Japanese Samurai and Roman Legionary, and if she took the armor she'd be instantly recognizable—her japanese features would be conspicuous enough, she didn't need fancy armor on top of that. Besides, it was heavy plate armor and Homura preferred to be fast and nimble.
Instead, Homura grabbed a nondescript cloak with a hood, a pair of thicker leather boots than she'd been given, and an odd pair of leather gauntlets. If she was going to grab armor, it would have to be from elsewhere. Her choice of weapons were easier; someone had left an old iron short sword when they'd joined the Blades, and in the corner there were a number of hunting bows on a rack and cheap arrows. She grabbed a wood elf one, perfectly her size with a small round shield guard to help protect her arm attached. She tested the weapon—still good.
Her last stop was the library. She grabbed a map of Skyrim, unrolling it on the table and quickly finding the location of "Morthal". She then rolled it back up, stuffed it in her pack, and then grabbed a pair of books—one a general primer on magic that she was still going through, and the other a guide on Tamriel.
Taking one last moment once she was in the main hall to go through her mental checklist to make sure she hadn't forgotten anything. For the briefest of moments she felt a bit of guilt out of stealing as much as she had from the people who had taken her in, but she squashed those thoughts. She'd warned them that they should have left her in the wilderness, so this was on them. She was an evil being; even so reduced in scope and power, she was so far past morality that it didn't matter what she did. She should never be trusted, and now these fools would pay the price.
After taking one last look at Sky Haven Temple's main hall, the invisible teenager fled the cavern and rushed back out into the night air—free.
What she didn't know however, was that one person had noticed her end her invisibility spell as she ran off into the night. Theodor Gorlash had been on night sentry duty, and he grinned like a madman before following in pursuit.