Chapter 69 - Nice

Rose, with six others, was bound in chains of bronze and tears. Skorri laughed, his one red eye blazing like a cursed star. They could not breach Dublin’s heart - its rune-stones still stood fast - but they gnawed at its bones and carried spoils enough to boast of in song and mead-hall.

Thus the wolf of the north turned his prow toward other shores, trailing smoke and sorrow behind him.

The Saga of Bjorn, Verse 3

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“Hey Felix, are you sure I can’t swing by your digs?” Sora asked. “For like, just a minute?”

Getting Felix to Dublin was surprisingly hard. The Gates of Mist only opened at particular times, and even if he could get to the Port of Dreams whenever, that didn’t mean The Prydwen was sailing. He had to take one of the gates connecting Earth to Arcadia in Sacramento, then start the trek to Avalon. Everywhere in the world was only seven hours away from Avalon, it was part of what made it such a good port and trading hub. Seven hours of walking to Avalon, then another seven hours to Dublin. Much faster and safer than any other method, but it was a hell of a lot of walking.

Sacramento was way too far to flame or surf the leylines to Dublin, even if he had the power and skill to even try. The wixen around Sacramento - if it even existed in Arcadia - were relatively hostile, and wouldn’t appreciate Felix and company dropping in.

Simply booking an international flight on Earth would’ve been an easy solution, if Felix had a passport. Lacking both a passport and other identification papers, he couldn’t exactly walk on a plane, even if Erik was willing to foot the bill.

“No.” Felix answered.

Somehow, the Morsin heir had sweet-talked Headmaster - or in this case, Duke - Thalorien, and the two Praetorians were coming along as escorts. Sora was also coming along, in theory to be a guide in Dublin. In practice? Felix was pretty sure she just wanted to see the noonie world.

There was a casual disregard for immigration and borders. A sense of ‘who cares what lines the noonies are drawing? The only ones that matter are in Arcadia.’

“And LIFT!” Vivian ordered, the other four snapping to her commands. Three of them lifted the sofa up, then Vivian and Hazel quickly unrolled a rug under it. 

Felix couldn’t work out how much the sofa cost. Something like this would be $799.00 at the local IKEA, but this wasn’t a cheap Ikea sofa. Possibly hand made, probably enchanted, and in a wildly different economic setting, it could be anything from cheaper, if it was as simple as waving a wand and casting spells for five minutes, to a six-figure antique monstrosity with ancient magics woven into the literal stitching. Then again, said stitching was fraying a hair, so probably not. He was looking forward to getting back home, where he knew how much things cost and the prices made sense. 

“And down.” Vivian said. Felix and the others gently set the sofa down, and Sora flopped onto it. 

“Now that we’re finally done, we can relax!” She held out a hand, like she was holding on to an invisible drink. Her eyebrows scrunched up.

“You can’t summon items while you’re in the bag.” Alexandria whispered. “You need to use an actual spell.”

“Oi! We’re here.” Erik’s voice boomed. “Come on out!”

Felix groaned.

“We just finished getting the place nice.” He complained. Sora flipped up off the sofa, and patted him on the back.

“That’s life. Now, get going, you’ve got to go up first.” She said.

Felix almost asked why, then clicked his mouth shut. Yup, alright, that’s why he was going up first. The rope ladder was still there, and he quickly climbed up, the four girls following behind. He exited into a familiar cabin room in The Prydwen, then got out of the way for the others to exit.

“Are you going to spend this entire trip socializing?” Felix asked Erik. The blond shook his head.

“Nah, no need. Maybe a little, if it gets boring. Snacks, drinks, games?” He asked as the others came out.

“Well… I was thinking we could review-” The rest of Felix’s sentence was muffled as Sora slapped her hand over his mouth.

“I’m usually speaking for myself when I say this, but this time I’m speaking for everyone when I say - heck no, we’re not doing that.” She said. 

Felix started to bite her hand, and Sora quickly saved her fingers.

“You utter savage.” She complained. “Who bites!?”

Felix chomped the air a few times, and Vivian rolled her eyes before sitting down with aplomb. The rest of them followed, with Hazel sitting down on the edge, ready for a quick escape.

Then again, on The Prydwen, it wasn’t like there was anywhere to escape to. 

“Boys.” The vivacious blonde muttered, the other girls nodding in agreement.

“I meant you as well.” Vivian pointed to Sora. She squawked in protest.

“Review the ritual.” Felix finally managed to finish. “Get in a few more practices.”

Alexandria was nodding along.

“Let’s practice it twice, then move on to something fun.” Erik suggested.

“Like flying!” Sora said, grinning at Felix. “Hey, want to give it a try here? Lots of water to fall into, instead of dirt, trees, and stone.”

Given how that had been Felix’s previous excuse when Sora tried to teach him how to fly, it was a good argument. What she wasn’t mentioning was it was entirely possible to get left behind as The Pryden sailed away, which wasn’t exactly a ringing endorsement of the idea.

“Do you want to fly less?” Felix asked with a grin.

“Uh-”

“That’s what I thought.”

“Oh! Wait!” Vivian said, waving her hand between Felix and Sora. “I have a request!”

“What is it?” Felix asked. “I’m not letting you borrow my clothes to model.”

Vivian had asked, and Felix had said an empathetic no. He only had one set! She could go to Old Man Henderson’s if she wanted to try them on. Then again, given how vicious the old man was to anyone trying to shop there… might not be the best idea. If the store was even open!

Vivian waved him off.

“No, no, nothing like that. You’re going to be in the noonie world, right? Well… I was hoping you could pick up a few things for us. It’s possible to go there and back ourselves, but it’s a massive pain, and Grey importers mark things up a huge amount. I’ve got a shopping list, and obviously I’d pay you for the stuff, and a little extra for your trouble.”

Vivian pulled out a shopping list. She pulled out several shopping lists, color-coded by store, a sparkly border by type, and with a neat list of prices next to everything, in both euros and denarii. Felix started to mentally convert from the second one. He knew that a euro was worth roughly a dollar… but what direction did it go in? Was 10 euros slightly more or slightly less than 10 dollars?

The list was an introduction to a whole new world of items that Felix had known about, but had never gotten prices for. Even if he had walked into a Sephora store before, he probably would’ve been hustled right out without a chance to look at a single item. The prices he was seeing were utterly staggering. 

Lipstick could be almost $100? Each? 150 ml of moisturizer was $299? Almost $2/ml? $199 for perfume was the only thing that didn’t surprise him, even he’d heard about how damn expensive it was. 

Felix felt vaguely ill as he tried to tally up everything. The Sephora list alone was thousands of dollars, although it looked like it was the biggest order. Oysho, Zara, Claire’s… Vivian came prepared. Why on Earth would she wait to drop all of this on him as they were on the boat?

“Now, I don’t know what the local prices are like, but this is what it costs where I live. If it’s more expensive than that, don’t bother getting it. Just let me know!”

Felix muttered some excuse and thrust the papers back at Vivian, staring out the port window to the sealife below.

Everyone started arguing or talking, Felix wasn’t listening to who or what or why. He knew Vivian was trying to say something to him, but he didn’t want to listen or hear it. Erik cut through the din with a sharp whistle and a bang of his wand.

“Yo, Felix.” He said. Felix continued staring out the window. He eventually decided it wasn’t Erik’s fault, and the boy had nothing to do with things, and grunted an acknowledgement. 

It also helped that Sora kicked Vivian under the table.

“Want to do all of us a favor and grab some goodies in Sacramento? I’ll front the funds for everything, you grab the stuff, we sell it to the rest of this lot, and maybe grab one or two extras for other students. We split the profit 80 to you, 20 to me, what do you say?”

Felix’s ears perked up at that, and his mind immediately sprang to Benjamin, who used to sell candy bars out of his locker to the other middle schoolers for a buck each. Way, way too much for a candy bar, but Felix had never had the funds or connections to risk buying a bag of candy bars himself and trying the same thing, 

But if someone else was taking the risk… and only wanted a bit of the profit… well, what else was he going to do on his break? It wasn’t like he could spend days with his mom, she had to work. Yeah, the few hours she was home would be nice, but the endless hours after that? Sure, he could go shopping for his friends on someone else’s dime. It almost sounded fun! Getting to see the inside of all the stores he’d never been in, buying stuff he’d never be able to get in his life. 

Ugh, parting with money was going to be hard either way, even if it wasn’t his. 

He wasn’t going to let the chance to work hard, experience new things, and most importantly, make money, pass him by.

“Sure.” Felix said, slowly dragging his eyes back to everyone. “I’ll do it. Why ask me now, and not, like, a week or two ago?”

Sora waved that off with a laugh.

“We’re teenagers, we can’t think more than a week ahead. We’re not all swots like you.”

Alexandria zapped Sora with the flick hex, and the half-Korean girl jumped at the stinging rebuke.

Hazel gasped, and bolted upright in terror.

“What’s wrong?” Was the general question.

“I’m not supposed to be here!” She shrieked, starting to run to the cabin door then pausing. “I signed up to stay at Camelot! I wasn’t going to come! I don’t have any of my stuff!”

Don’t laugh. Felix sternly told himself. Do NOT laugh.

Sora broke out into giggles, and Vivian took the chance to viciously kick her back under the table. Erik smiled his best friendly grin.

“Well! You’ll just have to crash at Dublin Castle for a few weeks. Don’t worry about it! We’re going to be hosting everyone else. It’s not like we can turn The Prydwen around. Alternatively, go with Felix, and head back to Avalon in a week, then get back to the castle then.”

Hazel shuddered at the second idea, and Felix felt vaguely offended. At the same time, he would make the same choice. Super nice castle with spare rooms and good food, versus a trailer park and ‘good luck finding a bed’? Yeah, he’d make the same call.

“I’ve got to talk to one of the teachers first!” Hazel stammered out, before fleeing the room.

Alexandria tilted her head in the silence.

“Does anyone else hear that?” She asked.

“Hear what?” Erik asked, and they were all silent for a long moment.

“Like a scrabbling noise. Maybe?” Alexandria said. “There!”

Felix shook his head with the others.

“I didn’t hear anything.” Sora said.

“MICE!?” Vivian shrieked, practically climbing up on Alexandria. “There’s mice here!?”

“Nobody said anything about mice.” Erik said. 

“It’s a ship, there’s probably mice here?” Felix said. He wasn’t entirely sure, but the two were almost always associated together. It just made sense. Big, old ship? In the bottom? Mice.

“I’m going flying.” Sora grumbled as she stood up. “Erik, can I get my broom please? Thanks.”

The others stared at her. Felix and Alexandria had their mouths open. Sora looked around at them.

“What?” She asked.

Erik quickly caught himself and morphed into a grin.

“Sora Park! You do have manners!” He teased. Sora promptly flipped him off with both hands, and Erik pretended to wipe sweat off his face.

“Oh good! Back to normal, I don’t need to call for an ego check.” He teased again. Sora went pale white.

“Don’t even joke about that.” She said, plopping back down into her seat. “Makes me want to practice my shields instead of flying.”

Erik was already pulling Sora’s broom from his bag, and bopped her over the head with it.

“Go fly, my most loyal minion.” He said. “You won’t get anything done like that. Go, fly, and if you still want to practice in 20 minutes or whatever, then come on down and join us. Shoo.”

Felix helped the girl along by pre-emptively waving to the door.

“Alrighty! Bye all! Don’t do anything I wouldn’t!” Sora grabbed her broom and practically flew out of the room. Given that one leg was already over the broom, it wasn’t that much of a stretch.

“That doesn’t limit our options at all!” Alexandria whispered after the vanishing girl. Felix wisely kept his mouth shut, and didn’t mention that Sora probably hadn’t heard her. Alex was prickly, and he didn’t want to get on the wrong side of her sharp tongue.

“Monsters and Magic anyone?” Erik asked, pulling out a handful of decks. Vivian started to groan, and Erik good-naturedly elbowed Felix. “We need something to distract our resident swot, unless you’d rather review exams…?”

“I’ll take the insect deck.” Vivian promptly swiped the deck in question and started shuffling. Felix grabbed one of the ‘resource rich’ decks that liked playing big spells and bigger monsters, and the four of them started playing. It was a long trip.

Five turns into the game, a half-rotted head smacked into the porthole, and slowly smeared gore across the previously pristine ocean view.

Its eyes burned with unholy light.