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Chapter Five Hundred and Eighty-Eight - The Why
"I have a question, if I may," Amaryllis said, raising one wing for a bit of attention.
The Black Avatars glanced at her. "Yes?"
"What is your organization's goal?" The ships you have are dated, but you have several. Your strength is undeniable--at the very lowest, you're in the upper levels of second-tier, but I think third tier is far more likely... perhaps even beyond that. You have a secret castle held aloft in a giant hurricane, which, while not the most secure position, is certainly intimidating, defensible, and awe-inspiring. Since you can sustain all of that, you don't seem to be wanting for wealth, either."
"Do you think that wealth is important?" Tristan asked with a little flick of one of his rodent ears.
Amaryllis paused for a moment. "Yes?"
"Hmm. I suppose there is something to say about having some amount of wealth, but past a certain amount, gold just weighs you down. Ah, tea?"
He pulled out a kettle from a small space beneath the table set before us. He swirled his hand over the kettle, summoning water out of the air with a quick spell. Another spell, cast just as quickly and silently, had the water boiling away.
"Do you have Teamaking?" I asked. "I had that skill for a while! It's handy!"
"Oh? No, I don't. Did you want to steep the leaves? Maybe you'll do a better job of it than I?" He smiled, then glanced over to Viviane. "Could you be a dear and fetch the cheese? There are two blocks in the cold pantry. Oh, and a serving board?"
"Sure," Viviane said. She brought her hands together, made a weird gesture, then poofed.
"Is she a ninja?" I asked with a gasp.
"That was just a teleportation spell, Broccoli," Amaryllis said. "Though, 'just' is perhaps underselling it."
"She is," Percy confirmed.
So cool! I grinned as I took over the tea-making duties. It gave Tristain a reason to sit further back in his seat. He took a moment to gather his thoughts before speaking. "Our goal... once, the Black Avatars served the world in a more active state. We decided, long ago, to conceal ourselves. To observe rather than interfere, unless our lack of interference would cause great harm, or intervention was demanded by the World."
"Why?" I asked.
He blinked. "That's a rather broad question. If I asked you nothing but 'why?' what would you answer?"
I tilted my head to the side as I thought about it. That was a rather fundamental question, wasn't it? The answer to life, the universe, and everything else. "My why is because I want to make friends, see the world, and be happy. I feel happy when I have friends. My friends being happy makes me happy. And travelling the world makes my friends happy and lets me make new friends and help people." I frowned a little. "Is that a little reductive? I feel like it's both more and less complicated than that."
"That is... a good answer, thank you, Captain Bunch," Tristan said. "As for your why, it started a long time ago. Several hundred years ago, before my time, or that of any living Black Avatar. It was a time of great strife and growth and expansion, a time of great risk, but one where some few people gained great power for that risk."
"Things are too safe, nowadays," Percy said.
Too safe? I had multiple encounters with pirates this year alone. But I supposed it could be worse.
"The original Avatars were a small group of strong individuals, some of them Riftwalkers--" He gave me a meaningful look at that. "--Who decided that they had three paths before them. Either fight each other, ignore each other, or work together."
"And you all chose to work together?" I asked, a little excited at the idea. So the Black Avatars were like... a friend club?
A friend club with a flying castle in the middle of a hurricane? That was so cool!
"Oh, World no. We mostly fought, and some of the more powerful individuals continued on their own path. A few did decide to form the original Black Avatars. Keep in mind that we had Quests to fulfil."
He said 'Quests' with enough emphasis that I knew it was important. Amaryllis had made a big fuss about quests before as well, but that was long enough ago that I'd basically kinda forgotten all about it. "What makes that so special?" I asked.
He regarded me for a moment. "I suppose maybe it's less important now than it once was?"
"No, Broccoli is just uninformed," Amaryllis said. "A true Quest, given by the World, is still an exceptional and rare thing."
"Ah, good. Well, in any case, we persuaded some people to join to help with our various Quests, reaping the rewards given by the World for the tasks, but also... this may not be something that is well known, but accomplishing one Quest for the World makes it far, far more likely that you will receive another."
"Yeah, that makes sense," I said. "Plus you can negotiate and ask for more stuff."
My ears twitched as everyone in the room--even Viviane, who'd returned when I wasn't paying attention--fixed me with hard stares.
"Oops?"
"So, like Rainnewt, you have a Quest," Tristan said.
"Wait! You did speak to him?" I asked.
He raised a hand. "Let's finish one question before moving on to another? Ah, and the cheese is here."
Viviane deposited a wooden platter onto the table. There were two big wedges of cheese on it. She reached to her side, pulled out a small stiletto-like blade, then the knife blurred and the cheese tumbled out into an artful pile of perfectly cut cubes.
I checked on the tea. It was nearly done. "Do you have cups?"
Tristan found some while Viviane sat back down. "Guinevere went to check on the three that just came back. Met her in the kitchen. She'll be here in a few," the elf said.
"Good good," Tristan replied. "Ah, here we go. And we have honey as well! You'd be surprised at how difficult it is to acquire some common foodstuffs."
"I think we wouldn't be," Amaryllis said. "You're not exactly next to a big metropolis. You'd need to go buy everything and ship it back personally."
"It's a challenge," he admitted. "Now, where were we?"
I started to give everyone who wanted tea a cupful. The leaves they had here had a strong, herbal scent to them, with some sort of dried flower mixed in to give it a slightly less bitter taste. Otherwise, it was really just some hardy tea.
"You were talking about how the Black Avatars came to be?"
"Ah, yes yes. Well, it's nothing too complicated. We grew, decided that subtlety was a valuable commodity, and continued to serve the World as best we could, without taking sides in any national conflict. There were offers to work for or with one nation or another, but we've steadfastly avoided those."
"Coordinating with a nation would have some... advantages..." Caprica said, her words sounding a bit cautious.
"And disadvantages," he said with a gesture to Bastion. "For example, this young Paladin seems like he has the requisite power to contemplate taking up the mantle of a Black Avatar, but he is tied to the throne. What if the World requires that he pick one loyalty over another? No, being unmoored is far superior. In any case, that has been our mission ever since."
"I only joined like, ninety years back," Viviane said. "I missed a lot of the fun."
"You have been quieter," Amaryllis said. "For you to sink into myth like you have..."
"That's true, but the World has been mostly quiet, and so what use for us was there? That is, at least until recently. If my suspicions are correct about your Quest, Captain Bunch, at the moment, our little corner of Dirt is playing host to two Questers," Tristain said.
"You met Rainnewt," I said. "Where is he? What did he tell you? I don't like talking about someone behind their back, but I have to warn you, he is a bad influence. Was he the one that made that device that you put in the dungeon next to Southerfell?"
"You discovered that?" he asked.
"It was hurting the dungeon," I said.
Tristan's smile sort of loosened around the edges first, then fell away, leaving him looking older than he had a moment ago. Viviane stopped with a cube of cheese halfway to her mouth.
"That," Tristan said, "is an unfortunate way to describe it."
"It was hurting so much that the dungeon's monsters asked us for help," I said. "We took the device out. It's better now. Uh... I guess you can have it back?"
The room grew very quiet. The wind howled outside, and somewhere far away, the castle creaked in a long, slow way, like an old ship shifting in rough waters.
I looked down at my tea. There were little bits of flower floating on top. They spun around the surface in slow circles, bumping into each other whenever my hands shook a little. I put the cup down before.
"Why?" I asked.
Tristan took in a breath, then let it out through his nose. "Because Rainnewt told us it would prevent something worse."
***
A note from RavensDagger
Hi!
Two things: Save Scumming is out on Audible and Amazon!
https://www.amazon.ca/Save-Scumming-Book-1-RavensDagger-ebook/dp/B0GYV22CGY
And Cinnamon Bun's next volume is out for Pre-Order for a release this month!
https://www.amazon.ca/Cinnamon-Bun-7-Wholesome-LitRPG-ebook/dp/B0FH8176NZ/
