|Mianite| Missing Through the Void

[Chapter 6] Glasses

Deciding that following the mining expedition would be far more interesting than watching and worrying about Declan, Orchid and I left him to his thoughts. Unfortunately for us however, it seemed we were wrong. Watching a few people hack away at stone for an hour is not, as it turned out, particularly interesting when no monsters sneak up behind them.

"Well I'm beat," Tucker said after an hour of mining as he lay his pickaxe down on an outcropping in the cave.

"Break time!" Tom said gleefully, dropping to the ground and pulling out his lunch.

"Jordan," sonja said, "where are you going?"

"I just... Uh..." He paused awkwardly in what seemed to be mid-step towards a small secluded dead-end portion of the cave. "i just have to..."

He seemed, for whatever reason, entirely unable to finish his thought. I walked towards his destination to see what was so important about it, but there didn't seem to be anything there.

"Oh come on Jordan," Tucker said mockingly. "If you have to take a dump just say so."

Everyone smirked choked back laughs as Jordan's face grew bright red. Without responding and clearly too flustered to fully watch what was going on, Jordan walked straight through me. He shivered violently but was determined to walk away from the group. Not wanting to invade his privacy, I was hesitant to follow him, but after a few minutes it became apparent that he had simply wanted to get away from the group.

Following Orchid's unspoken lead, we walked into the small cavern after him. We found him sitting with his back pressed against the far wall and his hand pressed against his forehead as though he had a headache. I sat down in front of him and Orchid stood beside me.

"You alright?" Orchid asked, making him jump. In doing so, his glasses slipped slightly, revealing for the first time his bright blue eyes. I did not know why, but I felt the strangest sense of deja vu.

"Yeah,"He said and quickly went to move the glasses back up along his nose, but not before Orchid took in a deep breath.

"What's wrong?" Jordan asked her.

"I don't know..." she said. "Something about your eyes..."

Jordan blushed and pushed the glasses up even further. "I don't really like people to see them," he said. "It makes me feel like they can immediately read my emotions, before I even know what I'm feeling. It makes me feel exposed."

"They seem... familiar to me..." Orchid said wondrously.

Jordan stiffened and did not move for a moment.

"You've... You've seen them before?" He asked.

"I think so," she said softly, clearly beginning to doubt herself. A long pause caught in the air between them and I didn't dare add anything to their conversation.

"Capsize?" Jordan asked, sounding much more sure of himself than he looked.

Orchid backed up slightly at the name, starting to flicker.

"You said you traveled through the void with us the first time," Jordan said, much more confidently. "I was worried that you were Furia, because they died just before we left. But... Could you be..."

"I-I don't... I don't know..." she stuttered in response.

"Can you tell us more about Capsize?" I asked, quickly adding, "if Orchid really is her, maybe it'll help her get her identity back."

Jordan seemed to hesitate slightly but eventually took a shaky breath and removed his glasses altogether. Again I felt very strongly at the sight, but Orchid seemed completely mesmerised as she sat down next to me, staring into his eyes.

"Well," Jordan began softly, "she was a pirate in The Realm of Mianite; our home realm. But not how you'd normally think of pirates; she and her crew followed Ianite so..." He seemed to get lost in pleasant thought before quickly shaking his head and continuing. "She and her brother traveled to the mainland a couple of months after my friends and I ended up there. We grew pretty close and she gave me a rose."

He paused to pull something out from the bag he always kept in his pocket; a bright red rose, still as fresh as if it had been picked that morning. "She called it 'Jardon's Rose' and I've kept it with me ever since. Of course I lost it the first time we went through The void, but Martha was able to recover it for me."

After a moment of comfortable silence I stood up and headed towards the door. Jordan turned to watch me.

"You two keep talking," I said. "I think this should be more of a private conversation."

When I returned to the others in the main part of the cave it seemed tucker was packing his things to leave. I decided to follow him, figuring it was my best shot at some entertainment. In the end, he led me to a large, pink and black monstrosity of a house, situated in the large valley across from the lake.

Sonja was standing facing the house with her arms crossed. "Why couldn't you just let me build the house?" she asked when she saw Tucker.

"Because I didn't want to live in a pink house," he replied.

"Yeah, because this is so much better."

"Well we should just have this main part here be basalt and the tower and that part there could've been pink," Tucker said. "Simple. But you wanted to porch to be pink."

"And you didn't want my rug in the basement or pink sheets on the bed," Sonja said.

I sighed as the two squabbled over furnishings. While Orchid would disagree, I did not find arguments the slightest bit entertaining. They annoyed the hell out of me. So instead of focusing on them my mind and eyes wandered, until I noticed Ianita.

She was all alone and wandering, almost creepily towards the pair.

"Ianita?" I called out, hoping for the off chance that she would be able to see or hear me. Oddly enough, her eyes did flicker towards me, and something was eerily not right about them. "Ianita, where is Declan?" I shouted again.

This time she didn't respond at all, continuing her beeline towards Tucker and Sonja. I knew something was not right, but they still hadn't noticed her, instead focusing on their house.

I ran over to the pair and began desperately flying through them, sending chills through their bodies in an attempt to get their attention. They shuddered and, finally, looked around for some evidence of the strange wind.

"Did you feel that?" Sonja asked.

"Yeah, but I don't-" He stopped, finally spotting Ianita. "Is that Ianita?"

Sonja whirled around to see where he was looking. "I think so. But why is she all alone?"

"I don't know."

"Is Dec alright?"

"Is she?"