A Scale of Sapphire

Willow

Have you ever had tens of thousands of voices calmly speaking to you all at once, each one talking over the others in a maddening cacophony even though you can clearly understand them all? Probably not, now that I think about it. Either way, that’s what using the detection network was like. Thousands of voices all with a direct line straight to my brain. Honestly, it’s a miracle I stayed conscious at all, and an even bigger miracle that I stayed sane. Mostly.

By the time my brain finished processing the overflow of information, I’d somehow fallen into Aoife’s arms, and she and Erica looked pretty worried. I tried to reassure them with a smile.

“I think it worked!”

“That’s great, Pix.” Erica was shaking her head slightly, “It also scared the shit out of me. How about next time, you make sure you’re already lying down when you do it?”

Aoife nodded her agreement.

“I nearly gave myself a nosebleed trying to catch you in time, babe. I was really scared for you…”

They were probably right, weren’t they. I was so excited, so eager to be able to help that I hadn’t considered how dangerous this idea was. Even as I’d opened myself up to the network, I’d felt it. I could feel how close my mind had come to… something. I was teetering on the edge of an abyss, and I had no idea what was waiting at the bottom.

“Fuck. You’re right. I’m so sorry. I should’ve been way more careful from the start. I think I want to work with Crab Apple on a way to drip feed the info. This test almost ended really badly, I could feel it. If I want to expand the network at all, I need to give my brain more time to process the information, rather than trying to communicate with thousands at once.”

Erica leaned down, narrowing her eyes at me.

“And..?”

“And I’ll make sure that I’m lying down, and that I have someone nearby who knows what I’m about to do and is prepared to take care of me while I process the info. Happy?”

“Quite.”

“Good. Now let’s get everyone together, and maybe get me a map too. I want to talk about what I learned.”

Erica

It was strange to have everyone in one place. We’d all been sharing the same chunk of land, sure, and I still visited Cass pretty regularly, but this was the first time since we moved here that the whole village(?) was gathered together. The Fletcher’s took a break from their current endeavor to build a generator, Cass dragged Ethan out of hiding, and even Spruce and Dewdrop decided to join in. All told, there were eleven of us gathered around a bonfire in the middle of what was once a road.

Once we were all gathered together, Willow called for everyone’s attention.

“H-hey guys! Uh… public speaking was never my strong point, and it’s kind of way worse now that everyone is literally looking down on me, so uh… I’m just gonna go right into it.”

She opened an atlas on the ground in front of her, then, as everyone began to crowd around her to see it, she quickly passed it up to me. I held it up on the page she’d turned it to, and she began hovering beside me.

“Ahem! Anyways, I recently did a test run of a new plant based detection system I’ve been making, it worked, and now I know the rough locations of several individuals and small groups within twenty miles. There’s apparently a group of about five centaurs and three humans right here!” She pointed to a spot on the map. “Then we have an individual human and some kind of giant here and here. There’s a pair of pointy eared humans I can only assume are elves right around here, and a single human who’s made friends with some kind of giant wolf thing right here. And… that’s about it. There’s a lot more people within twenty miles of us than I expected, honestly it feels like we should’ve run in-”

“Sorry Willow, where was that last one?”

There’s no way.

“Oh yeah, the dude and the wolf were…” She searched the map for a moment. “Right around here! They were last seen in a house just a little ways south of-”

“Pine river.”

Fuck. Don’t make me hopeful. Don’t you dare get my hopes up.

Aoife’s hand slipped into mine, and I felt her press up against me.

“Erica… do you- have you been here before?”

I cleared my throat and tried to stay calm.

“I uh… I used to live in that neighborhood, with my parents, in a house just a little ways south of the river. I never really expected us to come this way, and I never really knew how to bring it up so… Sorry.”

Everyone was watching me now, I could feel the weight of their attention bearing down on me. Why did I bring this up? What was the point? What was I trying to do?

“I…” Oh shit I was about to start crying. “I know it’s kinda dumb, and it’s probably just some dude in the same area, but I guess I just started hoping it was my dad or something…” Yep. I was definitely crying now. I could feel tears soaking into my fur as I tried and failed to keep it together. “Pretty stupid, right?”

And then something cold came crashing into me, and pale arms wrapped around my waist like a vice. Ethan was clinging to me, staring up to meet my eyes, crimson tears threatening to overflow in their’s.

“It’s not stupid. It’s not stupid at all. Even if it is someone else, you’re not stupid for hoping. You’re not stupid for wanting, for wishing. You love your dad, right? Then o-of course you’d want to see him again!”

They were definitely crying too now, though their eyes shone with a defiant passion, like they were daring me to disagree. I was half tempted to do just that. To reaffirm that there’s no way the man with the wolf could be him, that it was stupid of me to think that it possibly could be. Part of me wanted to shove Ethan away and pretend none of this ever happened… but I didn’t. Instead, I wrapped my own arms around them and pulled them tight, looked at the rest of the assembled people, and spoke calmly and clearly.

“We’re going to be making contact with these people we’ve found, right? We’re stronger together, and if we’re gonna have any chance against Cyrus, we need to be stronger. I want to be the one to make contact with the wolf guy, and I want to do it alone if that’s alright. Please.”

After a quick discussion that briefly dissolved into Ethan and I getting hugs from pretty much everyone in attendance, a decision was made.

I could go.

And I could go alone.

Matt

Our return to Sunrise was met with unusual fanfare, the fact that there was any fanfare at all was strange on its own, but there was the angel, and the people had gathered, and standing in front of all of them was Cyrus. The sun dragon himself gave us a welcoming smile as we passed through the gate and a sense of calming pride blossomed within me. 

“Chelsea! Matthew! Welcome back! Lloyd here was just telling me about the good work you’ve both done.” He gestured to the strange, burning amalgam of eyes beside him. An angel named Lloyd. Huh. “When I heard about our two new hunters, I thought I’d come to congratulate you both myself.”

With that, he approached us, and my pride swelled even further. We protected the village! We kept its people safe, of course I’d feel proud! The guilt that had been plaguing my conscience since the attack was washing away, cleansed by this pure warmth. First he shook Chelsea’s hand, whispering something that made her eyes widen, then he shook mine. His grip was firm and authoritative as he leaned in and spoke.

“Lloyd kept an eye on you as you fought, to make sure you didn’t get hurt, you see. He was more than satisfied with your performance, but your attitude..? We need to talk. Meet me in my office.”

For a brief moment, my pride was once again tinged by guilt. My conduct. My behavior. I’d let him down. I shouldn’t feel guilty for protecting my people. I wouldn’t. That’s what he was talking about, right? I’d do better. I’d be better.

Before I could ruminate on what he meant any further, he turned to face the gathered onlookers once again.

“These two, this young man and young woman have done an invaluable service to this town. They protected Sunrise with the same loyalty and skill that I'd expect from any hunter, and it is in honor of that, that I name them both, Matthew and Chelsea, hunters of Sunrise! Tonight, there shall be a feast in honor of all the brave hunters who offer their lives for your protection! And may their future exploits grow ever greater!”

Excitement and joy, raw and overwhelming, struck me like a freight train, and I turned to Chel, eyes shining. We were hunters! We’d protected people, we’d beat the monsters, and now they were throwing a feast in our honor! It was amazing!

So why did she look so concerned?