PftA Book 4 - Chapter 44 - Reminders

A/N: Parts of this might seem a little odd, but I'm writing it with the supplemental chapters (that I have yet to write) in mind. She would have met up with Ava and Jacob during those chapters.

Seeing the frost-covered flowers in my garden made me think of the ice sculptures that Riley used to make, which immediately made me wonder how the Ice Mage and his girlfriend were doing. They should have left the dungeon already if they were only aiming for Tier Eight.

“Are there any messages from Riley or Marra?” I asked Lisa.

I was still trying to get through all the messages that had built up during my time in the rift. It was a slow process.

“There were a few messages sent several years ago,” the purple-skinned avatar walking next to me said.

Since my abduction was hidden from the public, the couple probably thought I’d simply ignored their messages. I would have certainly thought the same if someone didn’t reply after I’d sent multiple messages.

With a mental nudge, I pulled up the relevant messages.

The first simply informed me that the pair, along with their party, had exited the dungeon and would be visiting Earth.

The second message was mostly from Riley. I could tell because he fumed over the destruction of pre-integration Earth. There was a bit from Marra that gushed about the museums and artifacts that had been preserved, but it was pretty obvious that she was just trying to make light of a bad situation.

The third message mentioned my lack of reply and referenced a meeting they’d had with Ava and Jacob. Their old teammates had settled outside the temporary portal leading to the dungeon and were set on ensuring every hopeful challenger knew the realities involved with entering the dungeon before they went.

It reminded me that I’d never followed up to see how that whole program worked out.

I knew Gabby had entered the dungeon and ended up settling on the sixth floor. Mom had filled me in on all of that during our first meeting.

Interestingly, Lester, Gabby’s little brother, had followed in his big sister’s footsteps, though nobody knew what became of him. Given the lack of communication, he likely died, but I supposed it was always possible that he was just ignoring or blocking outside messages.

I doubted it, though.

The last message from Riley and Marra was short and simply said: “I guess you’re too busy with the whole ‘tri-affinity’ thing to keep in touch with old friends. Good luck with whatever you’re doing.”

I felt pretty bad about my oversight. I really should have had Lisa prioritize my messages a little better during the review process.

I didn’t care so much about ignoring messages from people I didn’t really know, but Riley and Marra were friends. I didn’t want them to think poorly of me.

Similarly, I didn’t want Ava or Jacob to get the wrong idea.

“Are there any messages from Ava?”

I didn’t ask about Jacob. I’d never really exchanged messages with him. It was always through his girlfriend.

“There is only one. It’s an announcement about the birth of her child. It appears she is living on Atlantis now.”

“Really?”

I was a little surprised, both at how few messages she’d sent and the contents of said message.

The part about having a kid wasn’t so much a surprise. They’d mentioned trying once the portal from Earth to the Realm Dungeon closed, but the part about moving to Atlantis caught me off guard.

Ava and Jacob had seemed really focused on Earth back when we were in the dungeon. Even the last time I’d seen them, they hadn’t seemed willing to consider moving to another world.

“Is there anything about them on the network?” I asked.

The micro-portal into my apartment on Aegeas gave me access to the outside network, making it easy for Lisa to check. I could have done it myself, but it would have distracted me from my review of the garden.

“It looks like Ava is some kind of ambassador now,” Lisa informed me.

“Well, I guess it makes sense why she’s living on Atlantis, then,” I said. “I should probably send messages to Ava, Riley, and Marra, letting them know what happened. It’s a secret, but it isn’t one I care much about having get out. It’s not like it makes me or the sect look bad.”

“Are you going to name the Assassin?” Lisa asked.

She knew I still went back and forth on whether or not I blamed the elf. Just because it wasn’t personal to him didn’t mean I wasn’t still angry about his involvement. But since he was still a bit out of reach, calling him out for his involvement in the attempted murder felt like my only recourse.

“I think I might. I won’t go out of my way to make his involvement known, but I’ll definitely name him when I tell my fellow Earthborn about why I was out of touch for a quarter-century. If they feel like sharing the information…” I shrugged.

= = =

“Why didn’t anyone say anything?” Marra asked over the voice call.

I’d canceled the time dilation on the residential branch of my pocket dimension for the call, so I was able to communicate comfortably from my home.

I really needed to come up with a different name for the space instead of just referring to it as my ‘pocket dimension’ all of the time.

Maybe my demesne? The word captured the concept of home and domain pretty well.

“They probably didn’t want to draw negative attention,” I said. “My existence had only just been made public. Reporting that I’d been abducted by an Assassin would have caused a lot of stress and problems that saying I’d gone into seclusion wouldn’t.”

“But how did they know you’d survive?” Marra questioned. “How did they even know what happened in the first place, for that matter?”

“Fate Mages,” I answered.

There was a beat of silence.

“Right. Your sect specializes in Time and Fate. I should have probably guessed that,” she huffed. “So, what happened to the Assassin? Did he get in trouble for attacking a tri-affinity mage? Everyone saw the change to the Accords. We got the notification while we were still in the dungeon.”

“Nothing happened to him. Cin’Specter is a Tier Ten Time Mage. I’m not sure if he’s an actual Pinnacle yet, but I doubt anyone can really do anything to him,” I replied. “Technically, he didn’t violate the Accords since I survived. Even if I’d died, I had enough chance of surviving that he wouldn’t have been held accountable by the system.”

“That’s bullshit,” Riley’s voice interjected from the other side of the call.

“It’s a loophole,” I said, unwilling to criticize said workaround when I’d used it so recently to punish the former disciples of the disbanded Sovereignty Sect. I already felt like a bit of a hypocrite already.

“It’s still bullshit,” he insisted. “The system can read our minds. It’s not like it doesn’t know our intentions.”

He wasn’t wrong, but it wasn’t like there was anything we could do about it. I doubted anyone would want the system to judge them based on their thoughts instead of their actions.

“Anyway, hardly anyone knows I was abducted, much less who did it,” I said.

“Why not tell people?” Riley asked.

“Some mix of tradition and politics, probably,” I answered. “I’m not really sure about their exact thought process since I wasn’t there at the time.”

“Well, I’m glad that you survived,” Marra said, shifting the tone of the conversation. “We thought you forgot about us with all of your fame.”

“Not a chance,” I assured them. “Have the two of you reconnected with Ava and Jacob?”

“Eh, we saw them shortly after we got out of the dungeon,” Riley said. I could almost hear the shrug in his voice. “They still have hard feelings about us staying until reaching the eighth floor instead of leaving as soon as we were eligible. I thought that Ava’s new position might change her perception a bit, but it hasn’t.”

“I haven’t talked to her since I escaped,” I admitted. “I plan on sending her a message soon. She only sent me one message while I was trapped, and it was basically a birth announcement.”

“Oh! She had a child?” Marra said with a hint of jealousy. I was surprised to hear it in her voice. “That’s… well, good for them. It’s so much harder to conceive at higher tiers. They must have been trying for a while.”

I suspected Marra was projecting, but it didn’t mean she was wrong. Since I hadn’t communicated with Ava in more than twenty-five years, I had no idea what the circumstances behind their new family were.

“I’ve heard it’s a real issue,” I said. “I’m actually working on a conception charm for Zavira. She’s getting married in a couple of years, and I know she wants to have kids.”

“You’re crafting a conception charm?” Marra repeated hopefully. “Do you think—”

“Marra, no,” Riley hissed in the background.

I could hear him saying something else, but I couldn’t make out the words. The connection was muffled for several seconds as the couple went back and forth.

“So… it’s probably really rude to ask you this,” Marra began when the connection cleared. “But could you make us a charm? We’ve been trying for years and haven’t had any luck getting pregnant. We’d be willing to compensate you. We’re not asking you to just give us anything for free.”

I’d created several simple conception charms already. The system identified them as fully functional [Womb Enhancement] charms capable of encouraging and maintaining a healthy pregnancy, but I hadn’t gotten around to having them tested yet.

“Oddly enough, I kinda need someone to test the designs I’ve made,” I said, the implication clear. “Obviously, you can only test one charm at a time, but—”

“We’d love to! Thank you, Emie!”

I cleared my throat awkwardly. “Um, you’re welcome. Where are you two living now, anyway?”

“Oh, we’re living on Celtor. We’re working as professional adventurers for the Adventurers’ Guild, so being on a world in need of Tier Eight delvers was a logical choice.”

“I figured Earth wouldn’t hold the two of you for long.”

“No. The rest of our party appreciated the break, but the mana on Earth is too thin for comfort,” Marra replied.

“Going back was an interesting experience,” Riley added. “Seeing how everything changed just reinforced that the past is gone. Holding onto it doesn’t do anyone any good.”

“That’s… a lot different from what I expected to hear you say,” I admitted.

“Well, people change,” Riley replied a little stiffly. “You’ve been gone a long time.”

I rubbed my hand over my face at the reminder. He wasn’t wrong, but sometimes I let myself forget how much time had passed and how much had changed.

The thought instantly brought Justin to mind, and I once again felt sad and ashamed that I’d already started moving on. It wasn’t at all like the first timeline, where I’d spent a year mourning and struggling to adapt.

The Mind Healer I’d gone to see had theorized that a part of me had already dealt with the trauma of losing my brother. Going back in time had returned him to me, along with the rest of my family, but my subconscious had already dealt with the trauma of losing him, so it wasn’t as impactful this time.

It was just a theory, but I felt like the man was probably right.

We made plans for me to meet them the following week. The Council’s ball was coming up, and I still needed to prepare for it.