Chapter 11: Until next time

Upon hearing the captain’s booming voice from outside, Zahra practically flew out of the closet.

“Loukas, key!” she hissed, holding out a hand as she rushed towards Rylan.

The young guard tossed it over. She caught it even as she sank down in front of Rylan, gesturing at him to hurry up and present his ankle.

Rylan got down on one knee as well, hastily pulled up the leg of his britches to expose the metal band. He practically held his breath as she inserted the key and twisted.

There was a quiet click inside the infernal device, followed by a familiar sensation of loosening around his ankle as the ring’s locking mechanism released.

However, in his excitement, he wasn’t quick enough to keep the heavy metal device from dropping onto the carpeted floor with a heavy thud.

Cringing, he glanced over at Loukas, who was listening at the door.

“I don’t hear any—” Loukas cut himself off with a frown, as the sound of running footsteps and opening doors could be heard from the distance.

“Fog!” Rylan cursed, as he got up to his feet. “How am I going to make it out of here unnoticed?”

Zahra smiled mischievously, and fished a familiar set of keys and a glowband from her apron. “You know, in all the commotion, I never did get to hand these back in. Think we can get you up on the roof from the balcony?”

“I think we’re about to find out!” Rylan replied, grinning wide enough that it hurt his cheeks.

Loukas grunted as Rylan moved his right foot from the young guard’s shoulder to the top his head, and pushed off as hard as he dared. The light coming from the multitude of moons and stars above glinted off the lacquered roof tiles as he struggled against gravity.

Next to them, the door to the balcony opened as Zahra came out, having stayed behind to quickly straighten things up in the room.

“Why isn’t he up there yet?” she hissed.

“Would you like to—ugh—take over?” Loukas grunted in reply.

The roof had been a bit higher up than they’d hoped, but Rylan was making good headway. As his friends bickered softly, he slowly but surely pulled himself up and over the edge.

When he was finally fully onto the slanted roof, his heart racing, he let out a sigh of relief, only to tense up again from distant shouting.

After a brief moment of panic, he concluded that they probably hadn’t spotted him. But still, there was no time to lose. Staying flat against the roof, he popped his head over the edge and grinned down at Zahra and Loukas. “All right, wish me luck!”

Zahra beamed back, though there was a tremor in her smile. “Good luck, Ryles. Don’t forget to wri—”

“Wait,” Loukas interrupted. “Is your plan to go running off through the cloudsea again?”

“Ehm, yes? I figured I’d hitch a ride to a free city like Cliffport or Summit from a nearby island...”

“But you’re planning to go right now, with nothing but the clothes on your back?!”

Rylan blinked at him. “Ehm...”

“Come on man, you at least need food, and a sleeping bag!” Loukas hissed at him. “Fog, if you get lost in the cloudsea without a condenser, you’ll die of thirst in days!”

Fog, he’s right...

When he’d planned to run last time, Rylan actually had thought of such things. Perhaps it was because of his haste, or his new status as a Quinthar, but this time, he’d barely considered the more mundane dangers of the cloudsea.

It seemed being a Quinthar did not protect one from one’s own stupidity. Rylan was going to take care to remember that.

A noise from the hallway filtered through to the balcony, causing all of them to freeze for a moment. After glancing over, Zahra whipped her head back up. “Meet us by the basement entrance! We’ll get everything you need!”

“Knives!” Rylan hissed back, his mind racing. “Don’t forget knives! And some way to carry them!”

His Skill would be useless without them. The little letter opener he still had in his boot was not going to get him far.

“Just go!” Zahra hissed back, waving him off as she hurried after Loukas, back into the room.

As the door shut behind her, Rylan took a deep breath, and started carefully crouch-walking up the slanted surface towards the little metal dome housing the cistern on top.

It rose from the very middle of the rectangular building, and, unlike the tower, was fed by a straight fogtube that went down at an angle.

Rylan’s heart beat in his throat as he tried key after key on the exterior door, feeling very exposed so high up on the roof. Down below he saw guards with oil lamps moving around in pairs, searching through bushes and keeping an eye from the watchtowers lining the walls.

So far, none of them had looked up.

Finally, the lock clicked. The door thankfully swung open soundlessly, and he closed it behind him as quietly as he could.

Never before had he been so relieved to be surrounded by fog, and utter darkness.

Despite the cold metal hurting his skin, Rylan kept his ear pressed to the hatch leading into the basement of the servants' quarters. It seemed no one had thought to search the fogtunnels yet, but when someone inevitably did, Rylan had no intention of getting caught.

Seconds passed like minutes, and minutes like hours as he waited. When he finally heard footsteps coming down the stairs, his heart practically jumped into his throat, but he quickly recognised them, and twisted the key to unlock the hatch.

Zahra smiled at him as he carefully pushed it open and walked up out of the mist, but it didn’t quite reach her eyes. “Loukas should be on his way with a fog condenser and sleeping bag soon,” she said, placing down the backpack she was shouldering. “He got roped into the search.”

“Makes sense,” Rylan replied, his initial spike of excitement at seeing her quickly fading as he took in her subdued mood.

She loosened the drawstring on the sturdy kelp backpack, and opened it up. “Right, so we got you about a week’s worth of rations—plenty of rice, some dried mushrooms and cloudweed; nothing fancy I’m afraid—and a simple pan with a firemetal heating element to warm them with. Oh, and some leftovers from tonight’s dinner, since you skipped it.”

Rylan accepted the paper-wrapped package gratefully, opening it to find rice balls, most likely stuffed with mushrooms. Despite his distaste at the familiar food, his stomach rumbled at the smell, and he took one out and took a bit.

While munching, Rylan watched carefully as Zahra pulled out one thing after another to show him. She’d apparently taken the liberty to raid his dresser, as he spotted at least two fresh sets of clothing stuffed in the bottom.

“And of course, some knives,” Zahra finished, carefully taking out a cylindrical leather package, which she then rolled out, to show off the handles of eight different knives, each sticking out of its own little pocket.

Rylan’s eyes immediately went wide. “Is that your dad’s personal knife roll?!”

“I didn’t have time to actually make it wearable for you,” Zahra said apologetically. “But I’ve included some leather straps here, and put a sewing kit in this pocket, so hopefully you-you can...”

She sniffed, taking a moment to take a deep breath as she wiped at the corner of her eye.

“Thank you,” Rylan said quietly. “For everything.”

“Don’t talk like that,” Zahra said, shaking her head, her voice shaky. “Like we’re never going to see each other again. I can’t stand it.”

Wordlessly, Rylan crumpled and tossed the paper that had contained his meal, got up and pulled her into a hug. Zahra clung to him as sobs started to wreck her body.

“As soon as I get to a free city, I’ll write you every week,” he murmured into the crook of her neck. “And once I’ve settled my debt, and gotten a little stronger... I’ll visit. Or pay for you to visit me, we’ll see.”

“I’m going to miss you like crazy,” Zahra sobbed, and Rylan felt his own cheeks growing wet as well.

The door at the top of the stairs opened then, causing them both to tense up. Thankfully, it was Loukas who quickly made his way down the stairs, clutching some stuff in his arms.

Zahra finally let go of Rylan, still sniffling, and smiled warmly at the young guard.

Loukas grinned at them both and quickly placed down a thick bedroll and a small metal device shaped roughly like an hourglass.

“The bottom twists off into a handy cup like this,” Loukas said with a quick demonstration. “It doesn’t have a huge capacity, but since you’re a fancy Quinthar now, you can charge the cloudmetal with mana from over here, if you want a quick refill.”

“It’s perfect, thank you very much,” Rylan replied, pulling him into a hug as well.

Loukas stiffened at first, clearly surprised by his affection, then chuckled and hugged back. “You’re welcome, buddy. Just don’t forget about your old pal Loukas when you become a fancy lord or something.”

Rylan snorted as drew back. “Couldn’t if I tried. Trust me.”

“I’ll take that as the compliment it was clearly meant to be,” Loukas replied with a big grin, before his eye fell on the leather that Zahra was carefully rolling back up. “Wait, is that what I think it is?!”

Zahra glanced up at him, mischief dancing in her still-reddish eyes. “I said I’d get knives, didn’t I?”

Loukas looked a little sick as she stuffed it back into Rylan’s new backpack. “Oh man, your dad’s going to be so pissed...”

Zahra shrugged. “I’ll handle him.”

She beckoned Rylan to kneel down next to her then, and proceeded to show him the rolled-up straps of cloth hanging from the sides and how to use them to tie the bulky bedroll on top.

He ended up stumbling a bit from the weight as he slung it onto his back. Loukas steadied him, then showed him how to adjust the straps with the buckles.

Finally, the young guard hesitated for a moment, then took the sheathed dagger off his belt, and held it out for him.

Rylan started reaching out for it, then stopped halfway. “Are you sure? Won’t you get in trouble for this?”

He shrugged, with an easy-going smile. “Maybe. But those knives in your backpack aren’t going to help much if you run into something tonight. Go on, take it.”

He did, and hooked the sheath over his belt.

He wasn’t sure if his Skill would recognise the dagger as a knife, but even if it didn’t, he’d at least have a dagger.

Finally, there was nothing left to prepare.

“Well, I guess this is it,” Rylan said. “You should probably both get out of here soon, join the search or whatever. You know, try not to look too conspicuous.”

“You worry about yourself,” Loukas replied resolutely, putting an arm around Zahra’s shoulder, who leaned into the touch appreciatively. “We’ll be fine.”

“Good luck out there, Rylan,” she said, her voice starting to tremble a bit again. “And be careful.”

Rylan nodded. “I will. Thank you. Both of you. And... I won’t say goodbye, so how about this instead: until next time.”

“Until next time,” Zahra agreed, smiling at him.

“Until next time,” Loukas echoed.

With that, Rylan took a deep breath, turning around, and walked down into the mist.

As he turned around one last time to close the hatch behind him, he saw Zahra bury her face into Loukas’s neck, and felt the tears in his own eyes spill forth as well.

The bulky backpack—and particularly the bedroll on top—made manoeuvring through the tunnels more difficult than usual, but at least the fog helped reduce the weight, and navigating towards the exit was as easy as ever.

All Rylan had to do was move against the flow, and he was no stranger to doing that.

He reached the heavy outer grate that lead into the marina without any trouble, and did his very best to unlock and open it as quietly as he could. Afterwards, he didn’t bother closing it or removing the keys.

If it were up to him, he’d never need either again.

Rylan kept his ears and eyes perked as he took his first step out into the thick syrupy fog that filled the marina, but despite this, he still nearly jumped as he heard a most unwelcome sound from beside him.

“Hello Rylan,” Soren said, from where he was leaning against the outer wall next to the heavy grate.

Author's note:

Rylan made it quite a ways, but he hasn't escaped yet! Will he succeed? Let me know what you think. ;)