Jade heard shuffling besides her and opened her eyes just enough so she could see Acantha leaving the tent. The elf waited and then turned around, mimicking how she thought a sleeping person would move. The tent was empty except for her, this was odd since Jade was usually the first to wake and gather breakfast. She heard voices, whole conversations, inside her head repeat themselves. She sighed. She was sure she must have slept for at least a few hours, but she didn’t feel like she had. She shook her head as to rid herself of a fly and immediately regretted it because a sharp pain shot between her eyes. It had all started this morning, after having finished searching for youngling Sndus. Z’phyr had warmed up to them after having eleven of his followers returned to him and he kept his promise of providing a means to communicate with any person in his view, which, from this vantage point, was limited to just every single person on the continent.
First Jade spoke with Aoda, who told her that she did not know a location of a Hellgate, but she suspected that Iris, Avron or Madigas of the Imma would know more. Acantha and Morn decided that Madigas should be called next. Up until that point, their only interaction with Madigas had been through Saint Iratus, who had apparently put in a good word for them, because the imposing Totem was forthcoming in sharing that he did indeed own a portal to hell. In return for payment, he would let others travel through his portal. Jade had grinned widely, they had found a way out.
“We can ask Aoda to trade with Madigas,” she said. But Acantha raised her eyebrows in surprise.
“What, just like that? And I suppose you want to leave the rest of the people here to drown?”
“We can ask others to pay us, instead of Madigas,” said Morn solemnly.
“Good idea,” said Acantha smiling, “It’s only fair that we receive a fee for helping people escape the flood, right?”
“Riiight,” said Jade, with an ‘I’ that lowered in pitch as she stretched it to cover up the words she decided not to use.
After speaking with Lumira of the Sloan and a representative of Geldland, they learned that Bal’stali, Totem of Kathra and Ghar, owned a second Hellgate, further up north in Karthra territory. Bal’stali offered the same deal as Madigas and explained that for his Ghar followers he needed passage through a different Hellgate since his two people loathed each other. At this moment Jade felt a small throbbing on the inside of her forehead, which would take the rest of the morning to travel to the upper left backside of her head where it would demand attention regularly by giving Jade the feeling someone was beating at it with a hammer.
It took negotiations with five other representatives before getting back to Madigas and Bal’stali to work out the details. They were trading gold, bags of blood, secrets, the life of a Totem and the assassination of one of their enemies, all of which Jade knew had to be coordinated by her, Acantha and Morn. She massaged the bridge of her nose and sighed. In a flat voice she said:
“So, we are not talking to the Y’nall.”
“Oh no, do you remember when we rode with them in the forest? Ha! That guy was convinced that I was some kind of puppet and that you had made me.”
“That was odd, yes,” Jade pressed her hand against her forehead while Morn and Acantha talked with Boom-Boom. She mumbled that she had to lie down and went into the tent to do so. There she had lain ever since. Just her and her hammering head. Jade closed her eyes again until she heard a whisper:
“Jade, are you awake?”
Jade sighed. “Yep.”
“Effy is here,” Acantha’s voice sounded surprisingly gentle, yet urgent.
“Coming.”
***
It was nearing the end of the afternoon when Effy arrived on her snake of leaves.
“Hey Z’phyr!” she greeted the Totem, “Wanna race?”
Z’phyr laughed an amicable ‘Caw caw’ and positioned himself next to the snake of leaves.
“Ooone,” Effy started counting, “Two!” Effy’s snake took off, following the circle around the crater. Z’phyr followed suit with a negligible backlog and caught up with her. Flying next to her for a while, he shot a look at Effy, who smiled back with her eyes closed. Z’phyr turned and flew upside-down with his belly up, still keeping up with Effy who was visibly giving it her all. Then Z’phyr flew off and performed a looping. Effy’s laugh rang over the vulcano, spreading joy even to the onlookers. They finished the full circle around the mountain with Z’phyr being the obvious winner, but Effy was still smiling wide.
“That was fun, old man. Prepare to get your butt kicked next time,” she said. “You ready?” she asked when Acantha had finished breaking down the tent. Effy’s clan-mates climbed on top of the giant snake’s back.
“We’re heading off towards the Imma, you know where his gate is, right?”
Jade said that she did. They flew all night and arrived at dawn. Already people were clustering about in the fields of the Imma lands.
“Shouldn’t we help out with gathering our clan?” Acantha asked when Effy dropped them off.
“Aoda is doing that, she has already gathered everyone from our desert settlement, see,” Effy gestured over to a small group of people of which they recognized some as Sloan.
“Thank you, Effy,” said Acantha.
“I live to serve,” said Effy stoically before taking off into the sky, disappearing westwards.
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