"Are you sure you want to leave so soon?" Calyx asked, his voice almost a whisper. "You still have a few days in that token of yours, do you not?"
I scratched my head. "Yeah, we still have a few days of basic map subscription, but it's not a big deal. We wanted to try and sell these alchemical reagents at the city and maybe even the wolf meat if it doesn't spoil on the way there."
"Oh. I see," he said.
I looked at him. His face was sad, and it was clear that he didn't want us to go. Elyra was feeling rather protective of him, and even Vespera had warmed up a lot to his presence, to the point that even she was feeling awkward about his strange, sad mood.
I decided I needed to ask. "Hey, I know we are allies and all that, but I thought we were kind of abusing your hospitality a little bit these last few days. Not only did we act like we owned the place—" I looked at the girls, and they knew exactly what I was talking about "—we ate your food, drank the ambrosia, and never once paid anything back. We aren't… contributing, you know? We are allies only on paper, and that's only because I warped the rules of the riddle."
Strangely, this seemed to make him feel even worse. "Is that really how it is?" he asked with so much innocence that it disarmed me for a moment.
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"I simply hoped," he said, taking a shaky breath to center himself and failing. He sat against the trunk of his tree, hugging his knees. "I hoped that our alliance really was… real. I have been alone for so long…"
"It is real!" Vespera said immediately. "We just feel like freeloaders, you know? We've been sleeping here, fighting the wolves, eating and drinking your stuff, all for free! There must be something we can do for you!"
"Your company is more than enough," Calyx said, still not looking up.
"Hey," I said, sitting beside him. I nudged his face so that he would look at me. "Don't cry. We are going to keep you company. Promised."
"Shit," Vespera said with a laugh intended to diffuse the tension. "And here I thought you were getting fed up with us."
"You do not understand," he said meekly. "To one as old as I am, time changes its meaning. What are a few days spent together when I know I have to face centuries of loneliness?"
"That's because you are stuck here, isn't it?" I asked.
"I do not resent the tree," he said.
Elyra touched his shoulder. "No, what you resent is immortality."
The dryad nodded. "And the feeling of being incomplete. Wrong. It is when I am alone that those strange feelings and thoughts fester. The rot spreads. When I am with you, for a while I can pretend to be different. To be connected."
"Different how?" I asked.
The dryad shrugged. "I wish I knew," he said. "Actually… perhaps I shouldn't say."
Vespera took his hand for a moment. "Take your time," she said.
"I am envious of the bond you three share," he blurted out.
She let go of him. He looked up, eyes full of tears. "I'm sorry," he said quickly. "I didn't mean to—"
He began to apologize profusely, while the demon just stared at him. I got near her and tried to shake her out of her state. I was beginning to feel worried.
"Vespera?" I called. "Vespera!"
"Little troublemaker?" Elyra called softly.
That did it. "Wanna throw hands???" the demon said reflexively, before blinking. "How strange… I thought I saw something for a moment."
"Are you… mad at me?" Calyx asked. He had gotten up, but he was easily the shortest and smallest of us, so it was like he was standing in the middle of a circle of giants.
"I'mma be real," Vespera said. "I wanted to get mad at you. On one hand, I get it. On the other hand, don't you dare set your eyes on Sol or my little angel or… on me!"
There was fire in her voice, but not the venom I expected.
She opened her mouth, and for a moment no words came.
The moment dragged on, with Calyx looking up at her with his wide, green eyes. His hair of leaves fluttered in the wind, showing his pointed ears underneath. Just for a moment.
Vespera bit her lip. "That's what I wanted to say, at least."
"I smell a 'but'," I said.
"Must stink," she rebuffed me.
I stared at her. Elyra broke down laughing. I followed. She also gave in and laughed. Calyx stared at us.
"Get it? A butt? Stinks?"
His mouth made a little 'o' and he actually smiled. "That was funny, yes."
"Anyway," Vespera said. "I felt something, and now I'm not so sure. Calyx, have you always been like this?"
The dryad shrugged. "What do you mean?"
"I don't know…" she said, trailing off.
"It's alright," I said, trying to tie the whole conversation. "We know you meant no offense. We just get a little defensive when it comes to the bond between us. It's very, very personal and private."
"I can understand," Calyx said. "Still, one can dream."
"I think I know what Vespera wanted to ask," Elyra said suddenly, after being quiet for a while. She looked at him. "Calyx, are you a male or a female?"
"Dang," Vespera said. "Yeah, we all sort of just assumed…"
"I am a dryad," Calyx said. Then looking at himself, he added. "Ah, I suppose I must look like a male, do I not? This is just a body manifested from the magic of the tree. I cannot exist away from it, for I am its spirit."
"But the tree is sentient," the demon said.
"That it is. It has its mind, and it has a spirit: me."
"You did not answer the question," Elyra pressed.
"I am… neither. I am just a spirit. I do not have carnal desires."
"Then maybe you misunderstood our bond a little," the demon said.
"Actually, it's just how we use it," I argued.
"It's a natural consequence of the bond itself, spacer boy," she shot back. "You don't share that much with someone and not fall in love."
"Love, not lust," I said.
"For me, they are two faces of the same coin," she said. "And apologies, but I don't want guys, genderless spirits, or people who don't share our vision in the bond."
"I wasn't considering it," I said.
"Neither was I," Elyra added.
Vespera raised an eyebrow.
"My curiosity was simply scientific," the angel said in her defense. "As for Calyx—"
"There is no need," he said. "I misunderstood the intricacies of your bond. What I wish for us to be is not that. It's something different. People who are there for each other, who share some time and nice memories, but who also live their own lives free to do as they wish."
"That would be friends," I said.
"Then," Calyx said, looking at us. "I wish for us to not only be allies, but also friends."
We smiled at him. "Yeah," Vespera said. "We can totally do that."
I felt much better after talking things out with Calyx. The girls were the same, of course, and I could feel their thoughts through the bonds. Now that we knew that what Calyx really wanted were some friends, we could really begin to build a nice relationship with him.
As for the problem of the passage of time, we couldn't make any promises. He understood, of course, although we all thought that he was hiding some trauma under the surface that he was not telling us about.
"He'll tell us, in time," I told the girls.
Vespera hummed. "Maybe. You are the people expert, after all."
I was about to laugh at her joke when I realized it wasn't a joke at all. After all, I was the one with the most experience out of us three.
"Meager pickings," I said dejectedly.
Elyra perked up, a playful glint in her eyes. "Don't beat yourself up, my love." I noticed that she looked in the demon's direction as she said that. "You can handle Vespera, you can handle anyone."
The demon scoffed. "Cheeky angel," she said.
The demon was much more reluctant to show affection of the love type than Elyra was. It made me wonder what the problem might be, and how to rectify it.
"Hey, I think I found Buck's guild token!" the girl in question called. Picking it up, we felt a spike of something. "It… tingles?"
I walked over, noticing that Elyra, too, had stopped trying to fit all the things we wanted to carry back to the city in my backpack to check out what was going on.
"I agree," she said after touching it. "It does tingle. There is some lingering magic, and it is reacting with… Sol, can you try to touch it too?"
I did, and now we all had hands on the little enchanted metal rectangle. That's when I felt it.
"The bond," I said. "I think we can use it."
I tried to push, but whatever the sensation was, it slipped away. I gave chase, but nothing. The girls added their efforts to mine, but it was like trying to grab smoke.
"Let's join forces," Vespera said.
"Hop into my mind," Elyra said. She was blushing. "Let me lead."
"I'm already liking this." The demon licked her lips.
"Nothing of the sort," the angel rebutted. "Quick, before the sensation vanishes!"
We all hopped over.
◈◈◈
A memory. We are back in the hauler, like when Vespera had hopped over to my mind.
No. Not a memory.
We are in Elyra's ship! Looking out the window, I see the big hauler plowing through space in a straight line and then Vespera's ship beside it, black with red streaks. The hauler is a messy, blocky metallic thing, just like I remembered. For better or worse, it is home. The home of my mind.
"Hmm, no strange sensations from being in the angel's body," Vespera says with a pout.
She is right. I notice that Elyra has an enormous control over herself, although it comes at a cost. She keeps her walls up all the time, disconnecting her mind from her body, muting the sensations. Now that I notice this, I realize that they are there, but distant.
Vespera also notices this but does not say anything out loud. Inwardly, she thinks this must be why Elyra enjoys certain kinds of kinks so much when she feels safe enough. She's been feeling safer and safer with us, and she's been pushing the boundaries of her own discovery, but outside of those situations, the walls remain.
"Look at that screen," she commands us, clearly uncomfortable with our line of thought.
We are in her ship, in her mind, so of course she knows what we are thinking. Hopping over is much more than just having the bond there with us. It's sharing at the deepest level.
Which means… "of course I trust you two, dummies," she says. "And yes, I would even bear through the embarrassment of having my deeper fantasies and traumas exposed like this, were it not for the fact that we are here for a reason, and it is time sensitive. Look at the sensor array."
I do. It's familiar technology to me, and I wonder if her mind chose to manifest like a ship because of me. I mean, of course it has.
Elyra taps on the screens and manipulates the sensors with practiced ease. Even though she has never seen this tech, this is her place, her domain. The ship is only a flavor, a coat of pain to represent something that would otherwise be ineffable. One that she chose specifically because of me. I know it for a fact now.
She smiles at me and then refocuses. On the screen we see a small meteor.
"We can't intercept it, but…"
She maneuvers the ship and matches speed with it. The other two ships follow suit, although their movements are mechanical and predictable, with nobody in the driver seats.
"I think we can scan it," she says. "Vespera, there should be—"
"—I see it," she says. "Phase scan in three, two, one… pulse sent."
"I'm getting the readings," I say. We all are.
Flashes, memories.
Buck's last moments of life. The riddle. Fear, primal fear. Buck's vision locks onto the deep red eyes of the dryad Calyx while he is possessed by the spirit of the tree and compelled to follow its rules. The riddle makes no sense to him. He breathes, panic settling in. He tries to weasel his way out. He tries to buy time. He even looks back, and through the shield, he sees us… me, Elyra and Vespera. But we can't help. We are frozen in time.
He swallows. Long minutes pass. The dryad is patient and waits. Finally, Buck falters and mumbles something. A pleading. It is the wrong answer.
Cold. Not even pain. Just cold. Then darkness.
The vision fades. We are back in Elyra's ship. The meteor continues on its merry way, but the screen with the sensor readings says: SIGNAL LOST.
We look at each other. Deep space outside the windows, making me wonder what it represents.
"Let's give it back to Bib at the guild," I say.
Vespera nods. Elyra wipes away some tears and nods as well.