I was walking Celia and Eris down the corridors of the Royal Academy, showing them around. Devina had, as per usual, dumped the responsibility onto me to take care of them and get them acquainted with the school grounds.
The more I walked them around, the more I realized an issue. They absolutely despised humans, but their hatred was completely justified. What we humans did first to their Mother and then to their people, and now what Matiligax and the researchers did to them. It's not really a good first impression. But their guard seemed to lower whenever Aylin was around. Aylin was still uncomfortable being around Celia. Being around Eris and the kitten was completely fine, but whenever she saw Celia, I could just feel her retreating away.
It was a hard balance to keep but somewhat still manageable. Devina had arranged private rooms for them separated from the rest of the school, so most of the time they would just sit in their rooms. They wouldn't really attend any classes nor would they interact with any students. The only times you could catch them outside were during nighttime and when I actively asked them to come out. They were students only for temporary protection, after all. If I were them, I would also have no reason to mingle with people you hate.
Devina told me that they would stay like that until she could find out where their village was. She had tried asking them how to find their village, but due to a mage teleporting them away from their village, they didn't really know where they were.
I asked Devina if she couldn't just use the Aeon of Dexterity to figure that out. She said that she technically could, but there was an issue, and that was the lox domain employed around the Lusian village. It shrouded all interactions and made it completely invisible to the Aeon of Dexterity.
"Doesn't that mean that the Aeonic War was also inside a lox domain and therefore the Aeon of Dexterity can't see?" I asked.
"That's different. With a lox domain, everything passes through the scans and nothing shows up. But as for the Aeonic Wars, it is completely empty. As if someone has cut it off from history." Devina waved her finger at me.
"Don't assume things so easily without thinking."
"What if we just ask Aylin to know the location of their village?"
"Sounds like a good idea, I will leave it up to you then." Devina patted me on the shoulder before walking off.
Was she dumping all the responsibility on me again... sigh...
When I asked Aylin about it, she said it probably wouldn't be an issue and that she could wish for it. But in exchange for that wish, I had to help with something. I stared blankly at Aylin, wondering what she could possibly want from me.
Later that afternoon
Aylin and I were sitting together on a small dinghy with paddles. She hopped onto the front seat as I pushed it into the lake. It wobbled intensely as Aylin tried to balance herself as she tried to sit down. I got into the dinghy and used my paddle to push the boat off the shore into the water.
The lake was connected to the ocean, and there was a massive stream up ahead that ran out to the sea. So I started to paddle the other way with Aylin sitting there, just taking in the scenery.
"The waters here are much calmer than the seas."
"It's just the wind making the ripples in the water, after all. So Aylin, why did you want us to do this?"
Aylin clasped her hands together and tilted her head.
"Why not? It has been one of my dreams to do this, so it is just a check on my bucket list. And plus, I get to spend some quality time with you!"
"Not bad reasoning at all."
"See? Told ya I'm good at planning."
"Never said you weren't."
Aylin chuckled before asking me if Celia was truly pregnant. I guess Eris must have told her about it.
"Yeah, she is."
"Is she keeping it?"
"Yeah."
"I see."
Her hands now rested on her thighs as she took a deep breath.
"Vivshi, I have been wanting to apologize about me not being especially useful. You and Devina have been busy nonstop helping these Lusians, but I myself haven't done much. I'm sorry for being this way."
"I'm sure you got your reasons, and knowing you, it is probably a really good reason, so I don't doubt you. You really tried and you are useful in ways you don't even realize."
We continued paddling around the lake. Swans gathered around us, and butterflies attracted by Aylin's bright colors came and landed on her head.
"Aylin, your head."
She looked up with her eyes and saw a butterfly. It seemed like even animals seemed to recognize and love the Aeon of Desire. For how much she had done for the world, we humans are the most ungrateful creatures to ever exist.
"Vivshi, did you know, this lake was created by the Hero Hectima of Nautilus?" Aylin raised a finger and said.
"It is said that he once cast down a flaming meteor so big that it left a crater that filled up with rainwater."
"And who did he fight?"
"The Aeon of Nihility," Aylin said in a scary tone, trying to spook me.
"Isn't the Aeon of Nihility in the Luvian Empire, like really far east?"
"It is said that the Luvian Empire had declared war on the sovereign state of Nautilus in order to claim the coastal ports for themselves and cut off supply routes for Fukviyu, but because of the Hero of Nautilus, we fought them off. Because of this war, Fukviyu realized our importance and incorporated us into their state."
"Why is the Luvian Empire always up with some fishy? Like they always gotta have beef with someone?"
Aylin shrugged.
"From what I have heard, the Aeon of Nihility is their queen, so-called Tsaritsa. She is a weeping widow that feels nothing but despair and nothingness in her heart after losing her family in a great disaster. Fueled by grief, she would do anything to satiate the empty void in her heart left behind by her king."
"So basically a doomed milf?"
Aylin burst out laughing.
"Something like that, but HEY, that's serious. Why are you calling a widow a milf?" She hit me on the arm, making the boat shake.
We tried to shift our weights, trying to get the shaking to stop. But in trying to do so, the boat began to shake even more before it capsized, putting the both of us underwater.
Our heads popped out of the water, and we placed our arms onto the upside-down boat to float.
"You idiot, why did you hit me?!"
"You're the idiot, why did you make me laugh?!"
Then we both started to laugh, but after turning the boat over, we got a serious chewing-out from the owner of the dinghy.