MAZE - The Endless Quest

“What the actual fuck?” Skyler gasped while looking over the dark ocean on the edge of the ship. It was the middle of the night and she had a very long day.

Vash was by her side, sitting on the ground holding a bottle of wine with his clawed feet, “You know, I used to be good at this. All my friends asked me for help when they struck out. If the person they were interested, wasn’t into them, I always found someone else they liked,” he took a large swig.

Skyler lowered her head, and softly banged it against the railing repeatedly, trying to ignore the story Vash was counting for the 8th time, “That just doesn’t make any sense. How? How?”

“Life was easy back then. I could dance, sing, and things worked out,” Vash took another swig, but the bottle was empty even after he tried tilting it upside down.

“I thought she had game. She hooked up with that girl. The one she saved from Delta. I thought she was smooth, but maybe… maybe it was just a white knight syndrome on the part of the girl, right?” Skyler asked, knowing Vash wouldn’t have an answer.

The harpy started to laugh maniacally, “Why are you trying to make sense of that? Nothing does anymore! The world is chaos! I can jump into the ocean and my feathers will still be dry! Look,” Vash struggled to get up and started to climb over the railing, only to be stopped by Skyler, who quickly held him.

“Get it together, man!”

“We can’t!” Vash hollered, almost tipping over the side of the boat. Not that this would make him fall into the water. They were on the upper deck, and if he were to fall, he would simply land on the floor below. In addition, the Moby Dick had a few barriers in place around it that stopped anyone from jumping overboard, “No one can be together anymore. The laws of the MAZE shifted and we will all be alone forever.”

“What the hell happened to you two?” Neria asked as she approached, she had just left the infirmary. The healer was stopping there every few hours to see if people needed help.

“The world is broken. Nothing else matters, nothing else makes sense,” Vash started laughing maniacally again, but was quickly hit with a strong sleep spell coming from Skyler.

“Tone it down, dude. It’s not that deep,” she huffed and placed his unconscious body on the ground, “We are just frustrated with Hera.”

“Why?” Neria leaned over against the railing.

“A cute elf tried to talk with her earlier, she seemed to enjoy it but the guy was too nervous to keep up. So we tried playing matchmakers. But man, that dude really has some issues. Every time Hera spoke, he ran off. And the one time he mustered the courage to talk, what’s the topic Hera decides to talk about? Shedding. She started talking about how weird it is to change skin,” Skyler rubbed her eyes, “Seriously? Shedding? It took us ages to overlap enough spells to make the guy able to listen to more than a single word without freaking out and running away.”

“You used spells for that? That feels really sketchy,” Neria frowned.

“Vash started singing, a song to boost people’s courage and suppress fear. It’s not mind control or anything like that. Even if we did focus a lot on the elf.”

“I mean… it stills feel borderline wrong, you know.”

Skyler looked at Neria and paused for a moment, “You’re right. I think we drank a bit too much, and got too invested.”

“At least you stopped before anything happened. Even if that wasn’t the intention. Just don’t do that kind of thing again. It’s one thing to cast that spell on Hera, if she asks, but another to hit a random guy that doesn’t even know what’s going on.”

Skyler nodded, “You’re right, you’re right. We got too close to crossing a line. Or we did cross, I don’t know.”

“Hard to tell, it depends on how they feel about that,” Neria nodded and turned to Vash, noticing five empty bottles of wine around him, “But isn’t this reaction a bit much?”

“Yeah, I think he’s having an identity crisis. From the little he mumbled, he was supposed to be a good matchmaker back home. Everyone who asked for his help either got with who they wanted to be with, or if the person really wasn’t interested, he would help them find someone else. It was a point of pride for him. Failing made him… well,” Skyler just gestured towards the harpy.

Neria glanced at Vash with a confused expression, “He never mentioned anything like that.”

“To be fair, despite everything, we don’t know all that much about each other. Like we know the big things, but not the small details.”

Neria nodded, “I never thought about it, but you’re not wrong.”

The two of them glanced at the ocean, the waves reflecting the moonlight in the distance.

“Maybe we can change that,” the triton said after a few moments.

“What?”

“Us not knowing that much about each other. I know we are a team, and I trust you to have my back, but I would like to think we would still keep in touch as friends after all of this.”

Skyler looked into Neria’s eyes and smiled, “I would like that. Just… ask again tomorrow. I have no clue if I will remember anything in the morning.”

Neria chuckled, “Sure. But tell me, did she really not realize what the two of you were doing?”

“What were they doing?” Hera’s voice came from the side as the Empress got closer to her friends, emerging from the staircase to the side, “Are you two ok? You vanished, I got worried.”

Skyler stepped back, “Yeah, yeah. No, we’re fine. Don’t worry about it. Vash just had way too much to drink. I’m going to take him to his room,” she quickly picked up the harpy and ran off.

Once they were far enough away, Hera started laughing, “Ok that was really fun.”

Neria stopped, blinking slowly, “What exactly are you talking about.”

“Messing with them like that. They deserved it after what they put me through today,” Hera replied.

“You knew?”

“C’mon Neria. I’m not that clueless. Sure, I didn’t realize the first couple of times Galin came to talk to me, and I don’t think they had anything to do with the very first time he approached, but still. The two of them might be good in social situations, but if they put spells on the mix, they are as subtle as a train crash. That last one they used was so thick I couldn’t even see Galin through all the mana.”

“Why didn’t you say anything?”

“Because I realized Galin needed the practice. And it wasn’t annoying. Besides, he’s cute. If it worked out, I wouldn’t complain. But that’s not gonna happen.”

Neria nodded, “Because of the shedding?”

“Oh? They heard that? No, that’s not it. Galin asked me about that. He used to have a pet snake and always wondered how it felt. The problem is something else,” Hera looked out to the ocean.

After a moment, the triton huffed, “Are you going to tell me, or am I also being punished?”

Hera chuckled, “Sorry. I got distracted. He is from an old part of the elven kingdom. People there still have arranged marriages. So, he never flirted with anyone, much less anything more. But once he came here to help, his friends pushed him to try something different. The thing is, he is not equipped for anything that is not a serious relationship. And I don’t want that. Not now at least.”

Neria nodded, “Too much is going on to think about anything serious.”

“Exactly, I’m up for some fun, but that’s about it,” the Empress replied.

They just stood there, staring into the distance, but eventually, Neria broke the silence once more, “I’m up for some fun.”

Hera turned to the triton, “Wouldn’t that be messy?”

“Only if feelings get involved. And we should have a couple of rules. First, I don’t care if the others know about it, but I wouldn’t want to announce it. Also, never during a mission, only when we are not working.”

Hera raised one eyebrow, “And you are already saying I’m going to come back for more?”

Neria gave the Empress a devilish smile, “Oh, I know you will.”

The Ophidianite chuckled, shaking her head while taking Neria’s hand, “It’s always the quiet ones.”

“Right back at you. Also, do you remember a particular taste I have?”

Hera didn’t reply, and simply wrapped the Triton’s waist with her tail, tightly. That caused Neria to almost jump, but she steady herself and glanced at the Empress.

“You might not be the only one coming back for more.”

Early next morning, the Moby Dick sounded the bells, letting everyone know they were arriving at their destination. The Harmony Guardians all gathered on the deck to see the city coming into view. According to Neria, the real spectacle would be once they went underwater, but even then it was an incredible sight.

The island was big, but it could be viewed in its entirety from this distance. Several colorful buildings, with various tarps and long pieces of fabric, stretched over the city to create some shade. Looking at that felt odd, by every metric, a structure like that one should break at the first storm. But the entire thing was enchanted with materials made from the bottom of the ocean. The kind of thing that could withstand the massive power of the oceanic currents. Each house was flat with a cone shaped roof made so that water would just drip down back to the ground.

There were also a few massive ships, two of them in a port by the east side of the island, and another five spread around it. Far enough away from the city to not seem like a threat, but close enough to protect it in case something happened. The ships were also entirely made of a glistering blue material, reflecting the sunlight like a prism. Near the middle of the island, the buildings parted ways, and a large spiral road led down to the ocean. Long flags were placed around the entrance and they spiraled downwards as if being pulled by an unseen force.

“That’s the Jet Stream,” Neria spoke up, “It’s kind of like a whirlpool without water. It just sucks the air in and it gets trapped in the city.”

Beyond the pier, on the other side of the island, emerging from the ocean, were a couple of tall structures breaking through the waves. The soft yellow walls had occasional pops of pinks, blues, and purples in strands of coral that helped solidify the structure. All the way in the very top of the tallest building was a trident adorned with a golden seashell that functioned as a lighthouse, a sight they couldn’t see now, but that, according to all those who visited before, was simply magical.

The air on the island was incredibly humid, the sun stared brightly down the sky, but still, that combined with the strong breeze from the open ocean somehow didn’t make the people here sweat. Instead, it made the temperature just perfect to make you want to go for a swim. If this was the triton capital, the home of the triton, it was easy to understand why they became so proficient in the hospitality business.

“Holy shit! Is that… Sovereign Stofin!” one of the triton form the army gasped and pointed at the pier. There was a small group of people all adorned with elegant clothes and a couple of guards, with a man in the center of the group. A man that Hera had seen one before. He had azure skin, webbed hands and feet, a dorsal fin going across his back and wore a coral crown. However, his attire was anything but casual, a fitted robe of deeper blue with gold trimmed edges covered his body and a clearly ornamental and extremely gaudy golden and gem encrusted trident held firm on his hand.

The man was looking at the people in the Moby Dick, and his eyes met with the Ophidianite Empress’.

“Oh fuck,” Hera sighed.

“What’s wrong?” Helena turned to her friend.

“I’m pretty sure any hopes of sightseeing I had just went out of the window.”