Meanwhile, The Delta, Oblitesco
~Avery’s Perspective~
“Huh?” Castor answers. “Repeat that.”
“We accept your offer,” Pax replies.
“Holy shit,” Alex mumbles. “They actually have a death wish.”
Castor blinks a few times before shaking his head.
“I thought I told you-”
“To talk to Theos first,” Landon interrupts. “Yeah, we know. And we did. But because these 2 can’t swim, he let us take your offer instead.”
“Damn,” I say. I turn to Alex. “Looks like you owe my wife 50 lamina.”
“Now’s not the time to talk about your bet,” Castor states firmly. “You do realize that your lives will be in danger, right?”
“Yeah,” replies Pax. “We do. But this is Landon’s home we’re talking about.”
“What about Theos?”
“William and Pax can’t swim,” Landon answers dryly. “Theos wanted us to collect 5 Sea Shards. And I’m not risking my damn life to the possibility of an obolus hiding in a cave somewhere."
“He’s got a point,” Joshua admits. “I say let them join.”
“Josh-” Castor begins.
“You offered them a deal, and they accepted it. Don’t go back on your word.”
Castor sighs.
“Fine,” he says. “You three can go with us. We need to go to Averill first though. You guys wanna come along for the ride?”
“Sure,” says Pax.
“Alright. Go get ready. Come back to the ship in 10 minutes.”
“Got it.”
A few minutes later
~Pax’s Perspective~
I look around at the activity bustling all around me.
“Damn,” Will murmurs. “They’re fast.”
“Like a well oiled machine,” Landon agrees.
I fiddle with a strip of cloth Landon and Will call a bandana. To be honest, I don’t know why I bought it from that clothing stall in the first place.
“I still don’t know why you wasted some of our lamina on that,” Landon mumbles.
“It was only 30 lamina,” Will shoots back. “That’s not much.”
“Alright everyone!” Castor yells. “Get to your stations!” He turns to us. “You three go below deck.”
We walk down to an area below the deck of the ship and sit down.
I look down at the bandana. An instinctual feeling overcomes me. As if I had done it millions of times before, I use my left hand and wrap the bandana around my right wrist before tying it there with a knot. The strip of cloth fits like a glove around my wrist.
“What?” Landon asks, bewildered. “How? Why?”
I shrug. “No idea,” I reply.
At that moment, I feel the ship begin to move. As the crew members around us work their stations, the three of us begin to talk about random things.
And for some reason, I feel oddly comforted by the bandana tied around my wrist.
End of Chapter XXIX