Restoration

HANNA MALIA FRIGATE SHIP, The sea of Ervana, East of the Elydrian Continent 2420 AA, After the Great Ascension. "Awesome! How is this even possible?" one of the crew aboard the HANNA MALIA frigate ship squealed with excitement. He was staring down at the rushing waters beneath them and Havillah smiled at his reaction and that of many others that had gathered all around him. "Havillah!" Killion's voice reached her ears and she turned around to find him. She had intended to go back into under but it seemed that her host had something else in mind. "Who is at the wheel?" She inquired of him. "That's what skippers are for." He laughed. 'Plus, I'm also sure that if there was any kind of trouble, you would be the first to now." "You are putting a lot of trust in me. " she thought to herself before adding audibly. "Yea, something like that." she replied surprised at herself for how quickly she was picking up their mannerisms. Thinking,  the shrug.  She had even managed an eye roll. She thought as she mentally checked the strength of her mind-link to the football sized Crystal at the helm of the frigate ship. With the size of the vessel, it had taken her a while to create it and even though she was good with this kind of thing,  she still did not trust herself to fly it. Not with the many lives that were now at stake.  After all, she was not fully restored and as such, she doubted her own abilities and her present level of glory. The great thing with wielding Virtue was that one could be flexible. Therefore there were many other ways you could apply the same basic Modus but tweaking one or two things with your imagination. Therefore, it became possible for her to increase the vessel's speed by reducing drag through further streamlining the vessel's contouring. That way it, was much safer and at least in this way, there was no risk of dropping fifty plus people into the cold depths of the dark ocean if or when her Virtue finally failed her. "How can I assist you Captain?" "Oh, so now we are referring to each other in that way, eh?" he challenged. "You are the captain here, so how is it that I am in the wrong for referring to you by your title?" "Fine then mi ‘lady. Would you like a cup of tea as we attempt to iron out some matters?" Her eyebrows shot up into her airline even as her silver eyes narrowed at the perceived insolence of the said captain. "You started it." he grinned back in response and she had no choice but to accept it. "Fine! What kind of things are we ironing out anyway?" "I'll tell you." He smiled back cheekily. "Come on now, let's go." He added as he gripped her hand and pulled her below deck.  Spotting the crazy woman that was now headed his way breathing fire and brimstone. "Hey, what is all these about?" Havillah protested as she struggling to remove her hand from the one that was now gripping hers. "Come on!" Killion tagged at her hand again and she rushed in after him, muffling the giggles that were now threatening to spill out. "Why does it feel like you are up to something sneaky?" "More like running away from trouble." Killion mumbled as he looked around cautiously and Havillah furrowed her brows with concern. "Trouble?" Killion nodded. "Did something happen?" "No!" The captain cried out and Havillah frowned at his adamant protestation. "Or maybe it did." He added after some thought. 'We grew up together and she followed me everywhere..." he said with faraway look in his eyes, "Then she lost her elder brother and it felt like I had to look out for her from that point onwards. My mother encouraged it, but sometimes it was really hard to shake her off especially when I had some private matter to attend to. It's still the same even now, to the point that I have to sneak around to do anything." He ended up with a torn and desperate mien that made Havillah feel somewhat sorry for him. "I understand." she said as she thought of her own brothers. "I have siblings like that and I kind of get where you are coming from." "Siblings?" "Annoying younger brothers. Anyway, let's get going before your cheeky little sister catches up with you!" she added with a laugh as she imagined Killion being chased around by a troublesome younger sister. All of a sudden, a new thought popped in her mind and she suddenly started running. Tagging his hand as she pulled him down the corridor. "Havillah!" Killion complained as  her long hair swished and smacked his face with the sway of her movements. "Do you even know where you're going?" He grumbled as he tried to remove the strands that had gotten into his eyes. "No!" She laughed and all of a sudden, she grinded to a halt causing him to stumble into her backside. "Havillah!" he complained and she turned to give him with a cheeky smile. "Are you okay?" she grinned. He nodded his head as he finally righted himself.  "This way," he said as he guided her towards the mess hall. "Sorry." She told him after some time. "I was just trying to help.When I was young, I used to play conceal and go seek." "Conceal and go seek?" he looked confused field moment. " Wait, you mean hide and seek?" Hide and seek? Hide? She thought to herself before coming to the conclusion that it was the human name for the same game. "Yes. I loved it. Right now I just remembered how good it was to be free." Right. She had been free.  Up until she had gotten Elder Lionel for a mentor and everything turned to sour, she thought bitterly to herself. "I am sorry I got carried away..." she added after some thought. "No, No. It's okay. We are here, by the way." he smiled as her into an almost deserted mess hall. There were empty tables and benches everywhere. They filled up the space leaving behind small spaces between the columns that acted as walkways. The wisest of these was the main walkway that led from the door all the way to the counter where Killion standing calling out for the cook to serve them. A lanky man with a greyed beard on a round friendly face ambled up to the counter as he wiped his hands on a white apron. 'Captain?" he smiled at her as well. 'The usual?"  Killion nodded. 'One pot of Sweet Elydrian herbal tea and the accompaniments." "What would you prefer?" he asked turning back to Havillah. "What do you have in the way of accompaniments?" "Elydrian muffins, buns and of course, doughnuts." The cook told her with a smile. Of course she has never had any of them. It being that she was unfamiliar with human food. "I think I will have all of them. " she replied realising to late that she may have sounded like a glutton. "Fine. Have Roland bring them over to our table." he said motioning to the cabin boy.  "This way." he added to Havillah as he explained his reasons of having brought her there. "I could have asked him to have it brought down to the cabin," he told her. "but, all the hands are on deck and we wouldn't want to distract them from their present occupation." he laughed as the cabin boy brought out their tea and accompaniments. "How is it?" he asked after her first bite into an Elydrian muffin. "So soft and fluffy! And what is this?" She asked as she opened up the gooey centre. Were muffins supposed to look like this? "Is it a pie?" "Haha! No. Cook likes to experiment. That is one of his specialties. The good or rather jam is made from wild berries native to the Elydrian forests hence the term an Elydrain muffin." "I see. What did you want to talk to me about?" she asked after sampling all the other treats. Apart from the muffin, the buns and the doughnuts were all standard and carried flavours that she could easily identify therefore there were no questions there. The tea however was a wonder, but as Killion had explained to her, it had been sweetened with the same berries derived from the Elydrian forests. "Yes!" Killion dropped his stirring spoon to look straight into her  eyes. "Tell me how did you do it?" "Did I do what?" Havillah's brows scrunched up in confusion as she took a sip of the scalding hot cup of berry flavoured tea. "The Terrors. Connors says that when the wyverns took you, you began mumbling gibberish before a bright light exploded from your chest. The light managed to singe them." "Sorry. Mumbling what?" she sputtered into her cup as she turned to face him. "I do not remember saying anything let alone mumbling gibberish." "Oh...what can you remember then? It could be helpful in formulating a new plan to defeat the terrors, when and if they come back that is." "I do not know." she said after some time. "All I remember is thinking that I was going to die and the next thing I know the dragon is crying out as vaporises right before my eyes." "So you thought you were going dying?" he asked as the wheels began to turn in his head. "Yes, that's what I just said and to think that the Great and Eternal Light heard me? That's a..." "Wait! The what?" "The Great and Eternal Light. The Light shining in darkness. The source of all life, the Creator of Time and Space to name but a few of the titles?" This time it was Killion who furrowed his brows. A moment of silent deliberation, and then, his face lit up as he turned back to address her. "That's it!" "What?" A confused looking Havillah answered him. "I am thinking of three things." He said as he enumerated each with his fingers. "One, it was your fight or flight response to the danger or two, the Great and Eternal bla bla bla....heard you..." "And what is three?" Havillah eyed his third finger with a mildly displeased look on her face. "Both." He replied with another sip of his tea. Havillah remained silent, contrary to his expectations and he lifted up his gaze to regard her more closely. "Why do I get this feeling that I have just said something to offend you?" "The Great and Eternal bla bla bla?" "Oh sorry, my bad. You see, we don't have deities. So, I am not that well versed in how one should speak in regard to such beings." "Beings?" Killion held his breath. For a moment, he was worried that she would take offence at that as well. "But, what about the temple? I saw it." Havillah seemed to move on from that and he was finally able to breath properly. "Those have been around for the centuries. No one knows much about them. It's like their history was totally wiped out..." "They? but I only saw one." her interest was now piqued. "They are more of them. All over the world I believe. Personally, I have only seen three in Erydria, but there have been reports of others ghost towns in bigger towns and ruins. There are smaller versions as well but most of them are found in the bushes of much smaller towns and villages." "Ghost town?" her mind went back to the empty mansion she had lodged in some time back. "It is possible they were not always empty. They may have been ravaged in a time before ours but astonishingly the buildings still stand. There is story that floats around though, one that my mother told me. It talks of a different time, though it all sounds fantastical." "What does it say?" the interest of the researcher in her was piqued. "It talks of a race of People who lived in the age before the terrors.Apparently when they one day vanished, the terrors appeared as well." Havillah thought about these words and the story that Killion had told her for their rest of their journey. That is, until the ship suddenly lurched forward and Killion was informed that they were entering in shallow waters. Slowly and still thinking on that matter, Havillah followed him up to the deck where the crew and the rest of the soldiers were now standing in waiting. Out of the periphery of her eyes, she could also see the female sergeant. The one she had heard off from Killion. The woman seemed to be approaching but with the task at hand,  she could not afford her time. Therefore, she paid her no heed. Her focus solely remaining on the crystal that she needed to disengage before the crew could disembark. Havillah could not decide which was easier. Creating the Modus or releasing it. Releasing it sounded easier but like with the case of the smiling boat, it could prove trickier. Luckily, this time they were not flying. Therefore she just had to release the Modus and that was it. Havillah reached out her hands and murmured her gibberish like Killion had called it. Only that it was not gibberish but her native language. The language of the Great. She would have translated it to what humans could understand but she had found earlier on that the vocabulary of the human language was quite lacking and missed the words that were needed to express some of the commands. As she ended the Modus, the wisps of light that had once surrounding the ship disentangled themselves from the hull. Withdrawing into the huge football sized crystal that had moved to the centre of the wheel. With each strand that was pulled back, the crystal seemed to glow. It pulsed even more until the crew could no longer look at it, but not Havillah her own eyes being as bright as the crystal that she was dismantling. "It's like a small star." she could hear the soldiers remarking and she smiled at that comparison. Yes, it was truly beautiful and it reminded her so much of the Hope. The bigger crystal that she had left behind in a place that she could not return to. She was glad though, to be able to possess even a small piece of home right there. And as the last of the strand of light embedded itself into the crystal, Havillah brought out her palms and pulled it towards her. As soon as it touched her the crystal exploded. Dissipating into a shower of lights that earned a choir of gasps from those that were watching her. It was done. She smiled as she turned around. "Shall we?" she said as walked towards Killion but he just stared at her. His mouth wide open. "What? " "Your robes Havillah." he sputtered. "They've turned brown." And as surely as he had spoken, Havillah looked down at her clothes to find the familiar brown that she had once donned at the beginning of her apprenticeship.