Galaxy of Hyperion: Mystic Heir

Chapter Twenty-Three: Bonds Reforged

Days came and went, and time began to bleed into a seemingly eternal stretch that was driving Jay absolutely up the wall. The search for a way to contact Colt continued as she had expected it to, but results were minimal. Lana and Jubilee were efficient when it came to finding new information, but it never quite seemed to be enough. The lack of action left Jay feeling particularly impatient. After years of being used to constant action, needing to wait around for such an extended period of time made her feel terrible, and she felt as if she always had to be moving around or doing something with herself so that she didn't feel completely useless. The newfound buzzing sensation that had settled beneath her skin was already beyond uncomfortable, and she detested it with everything that she had. 

It wasn't as if Jay had been expecting this to be easy. That was far from being the case, as a matter of fact. Jay knew what they were going to be getting into was difficult from the outset, but that didn't seem to ease her discomfort in the slightest. All she could do was buzz around like some kind of eager honeybee desperate to land on a flower. It was upsetting, and Jay wished that she could banish this feeling for even just a few moments so that she could sleep in peace. It was exhausting to constantly toss and turn before waking up without having received any decent rest the night before. All in all, she just wanted this stress to end. 

However, Jay knew better than to believe that it was that simple, so she allowed herself to sigh and continue on as she had been doing. They would be able to figure everything out soon enough, but until then, she would simply need to be patient. The world needed her to calm down and keep from acting rashly. Repeating such phrases to herself scarcely helped to calm her raging nerves, but it was something, and she needed the mantra far more than she could have ever anticipated initially. 

Jay glanced over to the other side of the small hotel room that the group had settled down in. It was far from being as large or extravagant as the one that they had been sharing near the tavern Jubilee used to work at, but it still worked. Plus, it was far cheaper, so they were able to save on funds by a significant amount. It was far more effective given that they had no idea how long they were going to be searching for Colt. 

As it turned out, Otholle was far more picky about what information slipped through the cracks than Jay expected. Most information about the Colt figure that Jubilee had come into contact with had been shoved aside and drowned out by other tidbits of the truth with perhaps a few lies mixed in for the sake of adding nice flavor. Those who did claim to have seen a shadowy mage with darkened eyes and shattered goggles said that he appeared be more phantom than human and wondered if perhaps he truly existed at all or was merely a figment of their imaginations instead. 

Jay let out a small sigh and closed her eyes as she sat down on the bed that she had been sharing with Lana for the past few nights. The group had been sharing this room for the past few days, and Lana and Jay split one of the two beds while the boys took the other one. Jubilee used the couch for her space and folded it out so that she could have all the room in the world. She often made joking comments about how she wouldn't object to sharing with Colt when they were able to eventually find him, but all that did for Jay was rub in the fact that it was going to be a while before they did anything to get closer to the frustratingly avoidant mage that had been ducking through their every suspicion. 

Then there was the matter of the final mage that they were meant to be tracking. Jay had found herself thinking about this figure a lot as of late, especially when she remembered the fact that Lana was positive that she knew something the rest of the group was unaware of. Jay wondered about the mage of Fire who had seemingly been brought to the land of the living by Mersall. She didn't like the idea of potentially having to ally herself with someone who had collaborated with the recent generation of Fearbringers given all of the chaos that they had caused, but she understood that she couldn't afford to be picky given the circumstances.