Upon Vestia: Chapter Thirty-Three

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"Hey man," James said to Kay, after waiting for a few seconds for the guy to pause his work, and realizing he wasn't going to. "How you holding up?"

~~
"It's my job to care about the books," Ethan said. He tried to look like he had no emotional investment in the state of the library, with moderate success. "Vestia pays me to keep them nice and safe and organized, which they aren't." He watched Esk curiously, "Who put you on janitor duty?"

Matt muttered something under his breath. "I like water." He snapped, yep, he sure as heck wasn't himself right now.

---

Armin went along with starr because okay, he was kinda clingy okay?

Jarral was still reading his ludicrously large book, knowing that inevitably, someone would come to ask him inane questions or one of his uncles would come to harrass him.

"I know, I just wanted to make sure you were alright and still with us. You don't have to get out if you don't want to." Shanre replied gently.
~~~
Starr found Jerral eventually, glad that Armin and Luna came with her. She didn't want to go alone after all. She would knock at his door

[Of course I did,] Asher responded. He couldn't convey his sheepish smile very well over text, he just hoped Kay could imagine it. [Things have been... pretty good, other than the obvious of course. The kids are great. Nova's been teaching them all to handle their magic, which is good because I definitely can't do that, and they do well in school. Unity Station is nice, it's very small, but I think we all like the people there.]

~~
Ellie looked nervous. Yeah, Matt was so not in a good mood. She was gonna stay well out of his freezing range, yep.

She nervously ate some more of the food Vestia had sent. "Vestia sent food," she told Matt.

Matt sighed. "I need clothes." Vestia had brought clothes hadn't she?

---

"Enter." Jarral instructed, rising to his feet again.

[They must be getting big.] Kay mused. [Nova and Thalia are well?] Damn, nobody had told him about Thalia either. Whoops.

Ellie went to grab the clothes Vestia had left for Matt and brought them over to hand in. "Here you go, Vestia sent them over."

~~
[Yes, they're all growing up. Moone's 21 now, which is a little surreal,] Asher wrote. He hesitated on the question about Thalia. Hmm, it wasn't a secret now that he'd told Matt, he supposed. [Nova's well. Thalia decided to leave a few years ago though.]

"Glad she has extras" Shane said with a chuckle. He wanted the subject to stay light.
~~~
Starr entered and smiled softly at Jerral "Hello again."

Kay's eyes widened. [What? Why? Does Matt know? What about their child?] Shit, he'd never liked Thalia but shit... Matt... poor Matt.

----

Matt groped around for the clothing and very awkwardly got dressed.
Nothing really fitted him properly but it'd do.

---

"I assume you have questions?" Jarral asked, bowing his head quickly and keeping his eye on the pair.

Armin bowed his head back "It is a pleasure to meet you"

Jarral looked unimpressed.

Shane would wait to help Matt if he asked for it. He knew Matt was still injured as well as being emotionally hurt.

~~~
Starr nodded and took a seat on the floor with Jaral, though with enough distance to not be 'in his bubble' "Yes, many, but we can start with the most curious one. One of our people seemed to have vanished when we...teleported through time. I was hoping you would have heard of Sawna Or found her still out here?" He wouldn't of, she had somehow been sent to her home universe.

Luna chirped as she looked around this new place curiously. It was strange and she liked it so far.

[I told Matt earlier. Ellie and Shane are with him right now,] Asher wrote. [Thalia told us we would be safer without her. She left their daughter, Alana, in our care and told us not to try to find her.]

~~
Ellie handed over the clothes and then went back to the food. She still thought Matt might decide to freeze someone.

Matt managed to get dressed at least. He wouldnt bother with his shoes though.
He used one crutch to sort of drag himself to the door and opened it. His hair was still wet, he hadnt bothered to dry off properly.
He looked miserable. "I don't know what to do..." He admitted.

----

Jarral looked curious, he spoke something to the shadows that gathered around this room, a weird insubstantial sounding language. The shadows whispered back and Jarral listened quietly then nodded. "I do not believe you... teleported through time so much as I believe you were thrown back out of the rift."

"Thrown out?" Armin asked.

Jarral nodded. "When all that magic exploded into the universe you tried to contain it, in doing so you concentrated it into one small area, tearing a hold in reality, creating a rift from this universe into the... in between space, for want of a better term. The Abyss. " He folded his hands across his lap. "It is not only demons that dwell in that place, it is the realm of entities well beyond mortal understanding. Gods and god-like beings. I believe Fate had a hand in this."

"In sending Sawna away?" Armin sounded uncertain.

Jarral shook his head. "She was likely an... unintended consequence. The shadows tell me she was not from this world. It is possible that the power that sent you all here, also sent your friend back to her own universe not realising that was not where she was supposed to be, though whether she also ended up at the wrong point in the timeline I cannot say. "

"but why ten years later?" Armin wasn't really understanding any of this, hopefully Starr did.

"Again, i do not believe this was intentional. You must remember that the way immortals view time is quite different to our own perception. Our lives are fleeting to the gods, our existance a blink of an eye. Ten years is, in the grand scheme of things, close."

Armin looked troubled.


---

Kay frowned. Safer without her? Sounded like the sort of faux noble shit a keeper would come out with. Was that super racist? Merith and Heny had made statements like that all the time, making themselves seem oh so noble, oh so generous when really they were anything but. Still, it sucked to have your worst fears about your brother's partner confirmed.
[How did Matt take the news?] Should he go speak to him? no, probably not, he was with his friends, they were probably far far better at all this right?
Matt knew Kay had never liked Thalia, so maybe it was totally inappropriate to go to him now.

---

"Start by eating some food, maybe?" Ellie asked. "I mean it won't fix anything, but it might be a good idea." She didn't even know how to start on the bigger problem here though. What Thalia had done just sucked.

~~
[He didn't take it well. Then again, I'm not sure it's possible to take news like this well. Losing someone undee these circumstances is just horrible,] Asher replied. [It was unfair what she did, unfair to everyone.] He had always tried to only speak politely about what Thalia had done, but even he had to admit how much it had hurt her family.

[How is their daughter?] Kay asked, that had to suck. no, it DID suck. He'd never met his father, and much as his mother always insisted he'd be there if he could, there were times Kay didn't truely believe that.
Esk too, had a father who'd abandoned him and Matt? Matt had grown up without both his parents, Kay knew how important family was to his brother.

---

Matt looked unsure about that but he slumped onto the bed and lay there, letting the crutch drop to the floor. "maybe i'll just sleep..."

[Alana's doing well. I think she's wished her parents were there a lot, but I don't think she's been unhappy,] Asher hoped not, that would be awful. He remembered she'd been acting different today, likely because of Matt's return. He should talk to her about that probably, hmm. [She's had all of us to look after her, we've all tried our best to be a good family.]

~~
Ellie frowned, and sat next to him to pet his hair. "Whatever you need. We'll be here."

[I'm sure you've been excellent parents. You always were better with kids than me.] Kay wrote.

---

Matt stared up at the ceiling miserably. Everything was falling apart. "I just... don't understand. Inari said Keepers couldn't do real emotion but I didn't want to believe that. I didn't want to believe it was all a lie." He sounded so defeated. "Why did she keep up the pretense?" Why have a baby? why get engaged? if she really didn't love him, why go to all that trouble? What the fuck was wrong with that woman?!

Asher smiled sadly reading that. It was impossible to judge your own parenting as far as he knew, parenting seemed to mostly be a list of things you looked back on and wondered if you'd handled them right. [Thank you. That means a lot.] He added, [Speaking of kids though, I'm sure Danika would love it if you'd send her a message sometime. She's so glad you're back.]

[Send her a message? What's her address? ] He assumed Asher meant email as he couldn't really do the whole long distance dragon telepathy thing. He smiled softly, he missed Danika. He wondered what sort of a person she'd grown into. [We're going to try to get to you as soon as reasonably possible, I promise.] He hoped.

Asher sent Kay Danika's email address. [She's looking forward to your arrival, but I'm sure she'd love to get a note from you before then. :) ] He knew Kay would never be comfortable talking to Danika via Starr, but maybe an email would be just as good.

That made sense in a way. Starr nodded though it wasn't quite what she wanted to hear. "She was from a different universe, but then so was Ethan and he's still with us. Maybe it is that she wanted to go home someday when and if a way was made and he didn't?" Fate could be weird sometimes. "I just hope she's alright."
As for where they had been, she wasn't so sure. "I tried to funnel the excess energy into a pocket realm so it wouldn't hurt anyone. I didn't expect the gem to shatter in the first place." She added softly.
~~~
Shane came back over to sit with Matt and Ellie. "Thalia made the choice, right or wrong to leave your kid with 'family' of sorts to wait for our return. Try to focus on your daughter and getting to see her."

Ellie nodded, Shane sounded sensible to her. "We don't know what she was thinking, but she must have loved you. Everyone loves you, man." She sighed. "Your kid is gonna be great though, I just know it."

Matt shook his head. "I dunno if I can believe that." he told Ellie. For all he'd defended her, now this was all starting to unravel. His excuses felt just like that, excuses. Nobody else had liked Thalia, maybe because they could see the truth and he couldn't. It sucked.

---

Kay wasn't sure what to say to Danika, but he'd try at least.
[thank you.] He wrote to Asher, he hoped they'd all be together again soon, but at the same time he was nervous. It was unrealistic to expect everything would just slot back into place and be how it was. Those left behind had, whether they realised it or not, changed. Grown older. While the people on Vestia were still exactly who they had been 10 years ago.
What if they couldn't reconsile that?
It scared him.

---

"Ethan?" Jarral paused, the shadows were explaining again. It seemed they knew an awful lot. "He is an android, a machine yes? It is likely he simply was not noticed, that Fate could not percieve him." He nodded to Starr. "Pocket realms are not created from nothing, more often than not, they are small sections of the space between worlds. Even the Kevali flit through the Abyss when they shape space." Curious he referred to his own people as 'they' not 'we' wasn't it?
"I know of only one other example of such a tear. Legend has it that it was formed when a great number of devils tried to escape the abyss and entered this realm en masse. I am still researching this." He gestured to the very large book he had been reading. "There are not many written records of this event, least not in this realm. My Lord's library is extensive, but I have struggled to find any concrete information about either the demons or the so called devils of the Abyss. " He shook his head, it was frustrating. "What I have learned is that those who formed the first rift cannot leave the asteroid belt in which the found themselves, though nobody seems entirely sure why. They keep others from following them, but they also fiercely protect their borders. Attempts to contact them have proven unfruitful."

Starr nodded, it did make sense, though now she was curious about that book. "That makes sense since all the androids were offline when we went through however we came to this time." It was so strange to her, but that wasn't all they were here to talk about either. "Do you know where Hytal(sp?) is, or how we can get ahold of him?" She did want to check on Esk's father and see if he was with her people or not.

~~~
Shane reached over to pat his back where he could again. He didn't know what to say. Thalia had seemed to love Matt and they had had that soul bonding thing.

"The Star Mashal's father has been missing for... almost 8 years now. She has attempted to locate him but to no avail. He is... very good at hiding. " Jarral looked thoughtful. "I believe he is running from something, or someone."

"What about the Star Dragons?" Armin asked.

"The Star Dragons? What about them?" Jarral asked.

---

Matt closed his eyes. What else was there to say? this just all around sucked.

"Are they free, or are we still fighting for legal freedom here?" Starr asked with a frown. Who would make him run like that?

Jarral consulted his shadows, admittedly the freedom of alien races wasn't something he usually paid a lot of attention to. (So are they free? I assume Hytar would have completed his contract at least but your call lol)

(Sure, why not? lol)

Jarral nodded as the shadows whispered to him. "The Star Dragons have been liberated, at least, a large proportion have. The shadows say they have made a home for themselves, but I do not know where." shadows weren't good at directions unfortunately, they didn't really understand them.