Draith
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Chapter 143 - Storms Outside and In
🕑 Added 2025-06-26 14:00:12 +0000 UTCThe next morning, the storm continued below us. After finishing with the well, I'd gone on to convert what looked like it'd once been a performance hall into a greenhouse. On its own, it wouldn't even make a dent in the food needed for all the refugees. But combined with Nexxa and I using Bloom, we were able to add some produce back in folk's diet.
It was a nice bump in morale but hardly overcame the frustration building among the refugees.
As the night got late, I came across Bevel and a bunch of kids. They were… I wanted to say they were playing tag, but the rules I knew for tag didn't tend to include one of the participants using magic to bounce over the others' heads in order to tag them.
I was familiar with the variant where one person had to tag everyone else to be not it, from Perth's memories. It had been a group of servant kids and Calbern. Calbern had been the one with the special rules, of course.
It was nice, seeing Bevel playing with kids close to her age. Cape Aeternia didn't have many of those.
Though that probably wouldn’t be true for much longer.
And Books was planning to bring even more…
I didn't get to watch her for long as several of the adults decided that now that they were all safely ensconced in a mountain fortress, it was the perfect time to settle some old grudges. There were several fights during the evening.
Neither Nexxa or I had got much quiet at first 'cause of it. That'd lasted right up until Nexxa had gotten sick of mediating.
Two of the short, stocky, not-technically-but-totally-dwarves were shouting at each other over a barrel of Tetherfall alcohol that we’d supplied to help people relax.
“Next one of you who decides that this camp is the place for you to measure your Fronting dicks is going out into that. And you’ll be taking the express route,” Nexxa declared with a quiet fury as she used a burst of wind to whip the barrel out of their grasp, sending it up and over the wall to demonstrate her point.
Both of their dark faces had gone a couple shades paler. And one of them looked like he was about to continue despite her demonstration when a woman, who did look like an elf, stepped forward and grabbed his ear. He muttered a few curses even as she apologized and dragged him away.
At that point, people had broken apart, more afraid of Nexxa than willing to push their feuds. I suspected there were still a bunch of new bruises in the morning, but at least people had kept it from affecting the whole camp.
Just after sunset, the Howling Defier set out with the first wave of refugees back to Cape Aeternia with Tresla at the helm. She had Calbern, Selvi and her scouts with her to keep an eye on the refugees. Meanwhile, Nexxa's people were set up on one end of the courtyard of the complex, guarding the beacon.
First time I’d seen it, I’d thought it was just another piece of luggage. It was only when they’d wheeled it into their section of the courtyard I’d realized the beacon had been loaded on a cart.
Not even a magical cart. Just a simple steel cart that she'd gotten from the captain before everything had gone to hell. It’d been broken when I got there, used as part of one of the shelters. Nexxa had added some enchantments, but only the bare minimum to be able to move the beacon in the first place.
It and Nexxa would remain in the fort until I could find a new place for her to set up back east. I'd definitely need to talk to Vaserra. She knew the surrounding lands much better than I did.
The balconies, wall tops or whatever you called the part of the wall where you walked, only had partial protections from the cold, yet I found myself atop them anyway the next morning. Bevel was there, and I'd followed, sharing in the sunrise. It was quite the view, seeing the sun break across the violent storm clouds, lighting up the few other points high enough to pierce through.
It was probably an illusion, but it almost felt like I could see Mount Aeternia from where we were sitting, its tall narrow profile like a lighthouse standing guard over the cloudy waves.
Behind us, I could hear the sounds of the refugees waking up. Shouts and curses, alongside the more pleasant sound of children playing nearby.
"Lots of anger," Bevel said after we'd been up there for several minutes. She was sitting right on the edge, over a drop of what must've been thousands of feet.
Probably wasn’t the best thing to do, as a role model, when I sat down beside her instead of telling her to get away from the edge. "Yep," I agreed, reaching over and ruffling her hair. "Hasn't been an easy trip for them. Lots of danger and hardship."
Bevel grunted. "Stupid."
“I’ve done stupid stuff too, you know. We’re all stupid sometimes,” I said, rubbing at my chin. “Think they’re entitled to a little bit of stupid. It's not easy, losing your home and moving hundreds of miles to some place you've never seen, nevermind heard of. All because monsters have been showing up and destroying everything you've ever known," I added.
I'd heard that story more than once the night before. Most of the people Nexxa had gathered were the survivors of much larger communities. And a lot of them blamed others for their loss. I'd heard more than one set of voices complaining about Nexxa not saving people. About how if she'd just been there an hour earlier…
I might've found sleep, but it hadn't come easy.
Bevel shifted, leaning forward slightly, causing me to reach towards her with a hand. Just in case. I knew she could fly, which was the only reason I hadn't had a heart attack when I saw her sitting there, but that didn't stop the instinct. "You can see them down there. The ones who didn't wanna come up," she said, pointing almost directly below us. "Why'd they stay? It's safer up here."
While I was tempted to point out her own position wasn't exactly the safest, I figured she was probably waiting for exactly that. So, instead I asked, "Would you have believed some Magus who flew in on an airship if he told you he was going to fly you up to a fortress in the sky that'd shelter you from the storm?"
"Yep," Bevel replied without a moment of hesitation.
"Well, not everyone would. Also, it's probably not a good idea to be so trusting," I said, chuckling softly.
"But you're a Magus. So's your sis. Even the jerk stopped the Howl from breaking stuff, and he was the worst person ever," Bevel said, turning to look up at me, her brow scrunched up. "How's that being trusting?"
"I… well, consider all the other things 'the jerk' did. That's what most people think of. People like him," I said, making a general waving motion that didn't really convey anything.
"Oh. He didn't ask before doing anything. Just took," Bevel said, turning away her voice distant as she squeezed her hand into a fist. "Never asked."
"Most people aren't familiar with what a Magus can and can't do, nevermind what we’ll choose to do. They don't know us. And not knowing makes it scary. There's already a lot they don't know," I said, returning to the original point. "Like… what they're going to do, now that they've lost their homes. And sometimes people turn their grief, loss and hurt into anger."
My gaze lifted, searching the sky for any sign of the Howling Defier. Part of me had wanted to go with the first batch of refugees, to get started on everything we'd need to do to settle them in. But I'd been needed here, helping to take the pressure off Nexxa.
Despite being Hydra-souled, she wasn't great at Earth magic. She also couldn't do more than one thing at once. Keeper had a fourth Order spell that would let her think of more than one thing at once called Split Minds. But it was one of those spells that came loaded with warnings about possible psychosis and other side effects, even in Keeper's menu description.
Probably best not to waste my limited shards on a spell that’d drive my sister mad.
"Still stupid," Bevel grunted after sitting quietly for a minute. Then she got up, lifting herself away from the edge with her magic, barely touching her feet to the stone as she pushed herself forward. She stopped, wavering unevenly at the top of the steps, looking down. Then she leapt over the side, to the outcry of several high pitched voices.
When I got up to check on her, Bevel was brushing herself off, while glaring down some kids around her own age. Or her apparent age, anyway. "No more fighting," she declared, crossing her arms as she singled out one of the larger boys. "Doesn't matter if you're scared."
I watched on, wondering exactly what I'd missed that had prompted Bevel to feel the need to interject.
The boy responded with the sort of bluster I imagined was automatic in boys that age. "I'm not scared. Least of all, of some skinny girl who can't even stand up straight."
As I looked over the edge, I saw several other adults gathering around the children. Part of me thought I should probably step in. But… I had faith in Bevel. She wouldn't hurt him. And I knew there was no way he'd be able to hurt her. Not without taking her by surprise.
"You are scared,” Bevel refuted. “And stupid," she added, nodding her head slowly her voice even and solemn, as if stating some deeper truth. "But that's no reason to be hitting them," she said, waving a hand at several other children. One of whom, I noted, had a bruise forming on their face.
"You're stupid," the boy spat back, his face going red.
"Can be," Bevel admitted, nodding along. “We’re all stupid sometimes.”
That simple admission took everything the boy'd been building up right out of him. It also drew a few soft chuckles from the surrounding adults. I simply smiled sadly.
"Uh…" he said, looking around.
"It's okay to be scared," Bevel said, stepping towards him. "I used to be scared all the time. Even when I was asleep. You lost your home. Your family. I did too. I lost… I thought I lost everything. And that's not fair."
He simply stared at her. She took another step forward.
"But I have a new home now. Soon, you'll have a new home too. It still won't be fair," Bevel said, taking one last step forward, stopping right in front of him and putting her hand on his much taller shoulder. "But, hopefully, if you’re as lucky as me… it'll be fair enough."
