Upon Vestia: Chapter Thirty-Three

First topic message reminder :

"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?"

Luka nodded "you uh... want to do it alone or... have company?" She didn't know.

---

Matt nodded. "yeah.. I need to contact Web too.. I don't even know how... " Would he be checking for letters after all this time? probably not.

"Jarral can send a message." Eva pointed out.

"I keep forgetting about the kid..." Matt shook his head. "Is he really Web's kid?"

Eva nodded "As far as I can tell, yes. but no, I don't know the full details. Web doesn't talk about a lot of things."

Matt tilted his head. "you actually chat to him?"

Eva laughed. "Sometimes. We worked together, trying to find you all. But his duties keep him away most of the time. " She looked at Matt thoughtfully. "You two are so alike...."

Matt snorted and poured another drink for everyone. "I'm usually more fun."

Eva chuckled. "Is that so?"

"I don't mind company, but I won't keep you if you need to go somewhere." Dawn said wit a smile as she put the letter away.

"Matt's a load of fun," Ellie said. "I can't compare him to Web though, we barely met." She looked hopeful, "If Web can come visit, maybe he can help the baby dragons teleport here! And you know, the rest of the people on that space station too." Priorities.

"okay, i'll help you." Luka decided.

---

Eva shook her head. "No, this isn't a place for civillians. You need to leave here as soon as your ship is repaired."

"but there doesn't seem to be any fighting going on." Matt protested.

"That's what I don't like." Eva looked grim. "it's too quiet."

Ellie looked disappointed. "Could we, like, have Web help us teleport to the station then? Using like, Nova's powers?" She frowned, "I mean, her and like all the star dragons?" Nova on her own probably couldn't move Vestia, but star dragons where insanely powerful, she figured. Or maybe her idea was 100% impossible.

"I don't know." Eva admitted. She really didn't. "talk to Jarral, he can put you in touch."

"Why is he even here with you?" Matt asked, curious despite his drunkeness.

"He shows up every so often to see how things are going." Eva shrugged. "I used to be his guardian. Now he doesn't need me so much. " She looked a bit sad, she kinda missed him. "He wanted to see for himself your return, I suppose he was curious."

Dawn smiled and headed for her room once more. It was one of the few that had held, which she was glad of.

~~~
"Maybe our return here closed something inside it?" Shane suggested.

Eva shook her head. "I don't know. I don't trust any of it. The anti magic generators help of course, stop them reaching across. Whatever your link to them, I think you're a danger being here and I want you gone before they notice your reappearance."

"well this is sobering." Matt declared and poured a new drink.

Ellie looked to Shane. "Could the dragons teleport Vestia if they worked together?" she asked. "I don't wanna stay here if we might get eaten by demons, nope."

"It wouldn't be easy, especially with holes in her hull. We could probably send one ahead with a stone or something." Shane said wit a shrug.

"the hull should be at least stable within a day or two. I'd really advise you to wait till your ship is at least space worthy." Eva cautioned.

"Okay," Ellie said. She just really didn't want to get in another battle right now, ugh. "We should think about our options to get out of here ASAP, but I guess we can wait." She downed the rest of her drink and poured herself another.

Shane frowned in thought. "Wait, Nova still has her stone, do we have the connecting one, or did it get lost in the ruckus?"

"I really don't know," Vestia said from overhead. "The floor where her stone was stored got vacuumed, but I don't know if the stone went with it or not."
She should check that, hmm. "I'll send a bot to have a look."

"Thanks Vestia." Sane said with a frown. He didn't hold much hope though

"Shane's the smart one." Matt nodded, patting Shane on the head drunkenly.

"Stone?" Eva asked.

"Magic teleporting stones." Matt told her dully, resting his head on the bar again. "if we can find Nova's then they can use them to teleport back here or one of us to them but it'd only be like.. one way... "

"oh."

"Nova could make another stone pair, and then bring one of them here with her when she teleports here, so that she can teleport back again," Ellie said. She tore a napkin into pieces, trying to show what she was thinking by moving napkin pieces around to symbolize stones. Maybe it didn't help much.

Vestia sent her bot to search, and shortly returned with news. "Bad news everyone, the stone isn't where we left it. Might be out in space."

"Well damn to that idea." Matt sighed.

"Where are your friends?" Eva asked gently.

"They're on Unity Station, wherever that is," Ellie said. She patted Matt on the back. "You heard of it?"

Eva thought about that. "Unity? that's not that far. It's just outside Imperium space, maybe.. a week or so that way?" She pointed.

Matt sighed.

"It's a research station if I remember right, xenobiology, astonomy, xeno anthropology... that kinda thing. Not sure what they do there but it's not exactly a big place. "

"how do you study aliens on a space station?" Matt questioned.

Eva shrugged. "I guess they have a lot of different races there, it's like a hub for cultural exchange or something."

"you know.. my mother was a xenobiologist..." Matt mused.

"yeah, Web mentioned that once.. she must have been pretty interesting. I'm sorry."

Matt frowned. "I wish I could remember her."

Ellie nodded. "Sounds like a weird place to raise kids, but whatever works I guess."

"you know what? We should do something! " Matt declared.

"Like what?" Sane asked, looking to Matt again.

"I dunno, something fun." Matt nodded. "let's do something FUN."

---

Luka helped Dawn with anything she needed carrying or sorting. "so... " She asked, curiousity getting the better of her AS usual. "are you gonna tell him you read it? the.. the letter." She couldn't help herself.

"Okay," Ellie said. She was more interested in getting AWAY from the demons right now, but this was about Matt right now, so he got to pick what to do. "FUN. We could have another party? I guess the others might kill us for being too cheerful though..."

"We could check on the water park." Shane suggested.

Dawn frowned a little then shrugged. "Why would I?" She asked curiously. It didn't seem like a big issue to her.