2 | Fire (I)

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Nyxis inclined his head at the dark ceiling a few distance from his head

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Nyxis inclined his head at the dark ceiling a few distance from his head. He clicked his tongue as it chose to drop small chunks of debris at his hair. His scalp had been itching since he and his companions entered the tunnels. The idea of people seeing him with pebbles peppering his locks like dandruff was revolting and something he wouldn't allow when he could.

Over the past few days, it had been nothing but a constant reminder that he wouldn't have a proper bath unless they defeat Synketros and Cardovia. That's why he's out here, trudging in a dimly-lit tunnel excavated by a paranoid shard fairy and accompanying the most bizarre assortment of keijuis.

Cyrdel, a brownie and the Heir to the Alkaran throne, muttered as he walked, his fingers tinkering with a lump of metal he had plucked from the wall a few paces back. The heir's tool belt, which hung around his waist, bulged with random minerals and things he found interesting during their journey.

Nyxis didn't know what to think of that except maybe it was the brownie's only way of coping with boredom and frustration of being cooped up for days in an air-deficient walkway while being surrounded with nothing but brown and the putrid smell of earth and...something Nyxis didn't want to name.

Anahel cursed audibly to Nyxis's right, the shard fairy's mouth fouler than an average portmaster. Nyxis had the advantage of meeting one when Cardina was considering turning the small portion of the Disfavored region into a trading port. In retrospect, Anahel's swearing made Nyxis think maybe he was just travelling with not one, but two, portmasters.

The shard fairy complained about everything—the walls, the dimness, the air, Nyxis's face (he won't be forgetting that jab any time soon)—and after days of travelling, Nyxis could feel his brain absorbing all that. It took up all his headspace to stop the urge to snap at the shard fairy to shut up.

Of course, his years of growing up in a Human family trained him to never answer back to his superiors, whether by rank or years. From what Nyxis could glean from his companions, Anahel had been around for thrice Nyxis's entire lifetime.

As were their other two companions, the husband and wife, Eldan and Airese. Nature fairy and brownie, respectively.

At first, Nyxis was appalled at the idea of cross-race bonding but after seeing how natural Eldan and Airese's connection were, he decided he didn't mind. Not that he was allowed to, in the first place.

Eldan ran his hands along the earthen wall, his senses no doubt looking for any connection to plant life above ground. He was a kaviste keiju, a type of Nature fairy who has some sort of command over plant life. Up until now, Nyxis hadn't thought he'd see one in action. In fact, he spent their first day of travelling asking Eldan the specifics of the synnavaim.

Nyxis learned that Eldan couldn't make plant life appear out of nowhere. There has to be some form it could start from, for example, a seed. Kaviste keijuis weren't making trees grow by magic. Rather, they were merely boosting the plant's growth capability and that kind of magic has too great of a price.

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