Chapter 24

CHAPTER 24: Reverberations

It was once known as the Isle of Req'tosh, originally it was inhabited by several types of omnivorous fauna. Small deers with antlers that curved forward into many little hooks lived inside its flat forests. They used their strangely shaped antlers to fish the shallow waters.

A few centuries before Kresha's time, horrific plagues in Kragshall pushed many into migrating towards safer lands. A small tribe of humans and draconians discovered the island on their sailing ventures to Odbrane, finding its wildlife and terrain rather prosperous.

They named the island Req'tosh, meaning 'Real Solace,' as it was the first time they found themselves at peace. Additionally they domesticated several herds of fishing deer, calling them Goldhorns and Silverhorns. Their diets of fish caused their fur to glisten brightly and the fur pigments changed to bright yellows and white, making them appear as though they were made of the rare metals.

The island grewing, becoming a fishing port after the plagues were minimised a few decades after. Kresha had been there while going on a research expedition with Myriad and Diven. She found it to be one of the very few places she enjoyed visiting.

A lot of the Kragshallian culture remained from the founders, giving her a somewhat sad but also nostalgic feeling when seeing the island.

Now it was completely erased from existence.

After her heart stopped racing from panic, Kresha could feel traces of magic residue in the wind. It was a mix of every element, but the faint buzz of electricity against her skin told her that the source of the explosion was magical in nature.

She may have been grieving the loss of Req'tosh but part of her was still analyzing the details of such a massive event. It wasn't until Arkyn touched her shoulder that she realized that he had been trying to ask her a question.

It didn't help that the wind at the mountain's peak was still roaring, carrying a lot of his artificial vocals away with the thin air.

"Do you know what caused the explosion?" He asked for a fourth time. Uncertain what could discharge so much magic in one instant.

He didn't even need to convert to his metal form to sense the magic, he could feel the exact same tingling as Kresha did along the four large mana spheres in his chest. The main reason he asked though was to bring her out of her panicked state, losing control of the psionic tether and the flooding of feelings told him more than he expected.

There wasn't just sadness at Req'tosh's destruction inside Kresha, but also years of rage, sadness, and pain just pouring out of her mind. The sensation was brief before the disconnect, but was so ingrained inside Kresha that shaking off the runoff of her emotions was rather difficult.

'I know I am lacking in emotional expression and comprehending how I should react in such situations, but nothing in the flashes of my past life has ever felt that intense.' He thought while finally getting a shake of the head from Kresha.

She just quietly gestured at the door to return back inside, not bothering to set another mind link as they wanted the silence to think over their respective problems. Arkyn picked her back up and gave one last look at the rising sun before they shut the Keep door and resealed the Earth Array.

Kresha took off the mask as soon as they were low enough, but only to smoke from her pipe. After Arkyn gave her the crutches and returned the breathing apparatus to the storage closet, he discovered she locked herself in her room.

Only after a few days did she come back out, acting as if the trip to the surface never happened. She'd yell and complain every few hours about menial things and errors, making her way to the library to occupy her time to cool off. Arkyn decided to leave things as they were.

Every time he thought to ask her a question, all that raw emotion he caught a glimpse of would remind him that he could never be sure how she truly felt. Instead, he spectated from afar and waited until there was something he could do with some form of certainty that he could help instead of make things worse.

He waited for quite some time and was surprised when she took the initiative herself one day. He passed her while walking by the Harvest cavern when suddenly she stopped him.

"Arkyn, you might enjoy this setup too, come here." She waved him inside and saw that she had done a little remodeling.

Kresha had made a mover golem bring all the furniture and several stacks of books from the library. She had brought a bunch of food from storage and

"The smells and the lights make this the least suffocating place to read down here. It's fantastic." The tone and smile she gave made it seem like she was completely serene, not caring at all for the sounds of Pyck the gardening golem's loud movement or flecks of dirt and mud landing on the books when she worked.

The behaviour seemed completely out of pocket for her, making Arkyn concerned as to whether or not her mind might have finally snapped.

At first he thought she was consuming alcohol stashed somewhere else in the Ash Keep, but he had done a thorough sweep shortly after they returned from the surface. However her state of being deemed something else had happened.

The answer came shortly after, as she went into a severe coughing fit. Her lungs sounded as though they were filled with a lot of fluid and Arkyn saw pieces of grey phlegm being expelled to the floor with each exhale.

When she half sat, half collapsed into the nearest reading chair, he knelt to her side in some attempt to help. The only issue was he didn't know how.

Unsure of how to treat her or even see the cause of painful expulsions of dark mucus, he went the diagnostic route and switched to his metal form.