Land of the Blades

9. Sea

That day started as usual, everyone wake up and prepared to do their routines. I too had awaken on time, but like every morning, I needed a couple of moments of contemplating the void to finally ready myself to the day. After years, I had learned to get up and dress myself even on that state, and I only got back on the bed after getting ready a couple of times per month.

—Raise and shine, your sliminess —I muttered, but the plate that served as Rulers' home was nowhere to be found—, oh, that right...

Before I could formulate another though, I heard a commotion. Bort was running all over the place asking if anyone had seen Dia. I would have told her, but he just passed my room without asking. A few minutes later, he used her whistle to signal an emergency meeting, in which he declared that Dia had gone missing.

—What do you mean he is missing, he is probably just wandering around like usual —Jade spoke.

—I looked all around, he is nowhere to be found! Who was the last person who saw him yesterday?!

I raised my arm— We talked until very late yesterday, but he said he was going to sleep right after that.

Bort looked at me fiercely, as if trying to find any reason to blame me for his disappearance. Then Euc, Rutile and Red Beryl appeared.

—Excuse us for being late, I was going to apply water resistant resin to Euc, but we couldn't find it anywhere.

—And my latest project also disappeared!

—Speaking of things that had disappeared —I chimed in—, Dia wanted to sleep with Ruler so he is also missing.

Then I finally wake up and had a realization, all the missing things were connected.

—They went to the ocean!

It was the only thing that made sense, Ruler had just tried to convince me to follow her to her kingdom, which I find a bit suspicious but didn't recognize it as a threat. However, since she failed to fool me, she had surely tried to convince the next most gullible gem, Dia. I still couldn't get how Ruler had convinced him, since Dia couldn't understand her words, but that was beside the point right now.

I tried to convey my train of thoughts the best I could, and with Sensei's approval we went to look around the beaches of the island. We eventually found one in which the jar with the rest of the water resistant resin was, left behind along Dia's shoes.

—Everyone, gather in groups of two and apply the resin to each other—Jade instructed—, then we will go underwater and search in different directions, but keep going on a straight line. Rutile was awake until four hours ago, before the resin disappeared, so they couldn't have gone too far away.

It was decided that I would stay along with Sensei at the beach, while everyone else would work on the search effort. Even Ghost Quartz, our mysterious librarian and chief of the long recovery facilities joined, forming a team with Bort.

Shirou was the only one who didn't join the search immediately, saying that he needed to finish something before, and around half an hour later, he came back with a strange mechanism. It was a long flexible tube attached to a balloon at one side, and some sort of mask at the other.

—This will allow me to breathe underwater.

Sensei was visible confused, but didn't say anything.

—I... will go with him, everyone else is going in pairs but him, and even if I can't fight, he can use an extra pair of eyes like mine.

—...I'll allow it —Sensei said in a somber tone, putting her head over my head—, just come back home safely. The same goes for you, Shirou.

We both nodded and entered the water after applying the resin. The rest were too far to see what direction they had taken, but I pointed towards a trail of sea plants that seemed to have been eaten. Shirou asked me to get on his back with hand signals, since the mask covered his mouth, and after I did, he "leaped" with great strength, paddling with his hands and feet. He could barely raise himself from the bottom, as he was carrying both of our weight combined, but he propelled himself forward every time he was about to touch the ground. With this technique, we were able to cover a lot of distance in short time, until we eventually saw a glitter in the distance.

There, we find Dia, and a creature that I will come to find was Ruler's final true form, full of tentacles and bags of water, but relatively similar to us and with a beautiful face. They were surrounded by tall stone towers full of holes.

—Ah, you found us.

Shirou readied his blades, which admittedly scared me a bit, but I tried to put my "serious business" face. Dia immediately put herself between us and Ventricosus, and tried to say that he had come to that place on her own will, as I expected her to do.

—What did you say to her to convince her to come? Moreover, how can he understand you?

—You say it as I had manipulated her into coming, he noticed I was homesick before even I realized it, and offered to accompany me. As for your second quest, I have no idea.

I crossed my arms.

—If that was to be truth, why so secretive.

—Sensei wouldn't have allowed it, the sea is beyond our limits.

—T-that might be so, but... we already were talking about going in a few days, why were you so rushed?

Ventricosus looked away.

—We live longer in captivity than in our homeland, but by being feed with sugar water and moon dust we become feral and stupid, I was the only able to keep some semblance of reasoning. For me, it felt like a couple of months passed, my memories are clouded by moments were I couldn't pay attention to my surroundings, so I didn't noticed at first. If the stars don't lie to me, it has been around twenty years since my family and I were captured by the Lunarians. I wondered how my subjects were doing after so long, having to defend by themselves without a king to guide them. Where they all captured? Were they killed? My mind couldn't put those thoughts aside.

—Well... I can understand that sort of thing... but... —I looked around—, your homeland is in ruins and nobody lives here anymore, are you satisfied?

—This is not my homeland, we were merely passing by this ruins — she said— , this is a city where humans once lived.

—Humans?

Dia nodded and told us it was what they had been talking about. Humans were a tribe of people who lived in this planet before all of us, those who had inherited their flesh to the Admirabilis, their bones to us, and their souls to the Lunarians...

He was telling all of this very happily, but his expression changed when he looked at Shirou, and he hurried to his side. I looked at him too and saw him holding his head with his hands.

—Phosphophyllite... —the Ruler spoke—, just as much as you care for Cinnabar, there is someone I need to save...

I turned around to where she was, confused by her words, but instead of her silhouette, I saw countless arrows approaching me from above. Then everything went dark, and I expected to have been shattered in so many few pieces that I had fainted instantly, but the fact that I could reason such thing make me realize I hadn't yet been broken. I opened my eyes slowly, finding Shirou holding me and Dia very closely to him, as a shield made of his own matter extended in the shape of flower's petals.

—RHO AIAS!