26 Incoming Celebration

"... Are you alright?" Teak asked after a pat to Callu's head.

It had been three days since their confrontation with Yurel. He hadn't made any effort to contact them since then. The silence was both welcome and off-putting. On one hand, they did not want to deal with him. No Yurel, no Lyk, no more escapades with the city's underbelly.

On the other hand, it meant that something was up. Kyvas was not something that Lyk's group would just give up on. They were definitely up to something, and their silence meant that it was something that Seph and her group were not a part of.

Seph knew the four of them were expendables in Lyk's eyes. But if Lyk's group doesn't want to use them when they were so close to the target, that meant that they were no longer of any use to them. And, well, useless expendables were nothing more than liabilities.

Seph hoped that she was just overthinking things. Maybe Lyk was still planning, or waiting for something. Maybe he didn't feel the need to get rid of them, he hadn't done anything to them after the heist a couple of years ago either.

"Is there something on my nose?" Callu responded.

… That was not a response that Seph had expected. She blinked, and found herself staring at Callu's nose. Callu was looking right at her. Her hand was raised as if ready to wipe her nose.

"Uh... No?" Seph said. "I was just lost in thought."

"Fantasizing about her nose?" Teak's hand fell on her shoulder.

Seph shoved the hand away and scoffed. "Yes, dreaming of bathing in boogers and snot."

Callu snorted.

"A snort powered snot Jacuzzi?" Teak suggested.

"Gross!" Callu covered her mouth and laughed.

Seph pondered for a moment before turning to Teak.

"Yeah, sounds good! Maybe a Mucus Martini in hand?" She swirled an imaginary martini glass.

"Mucus Mar-" Callu hit the bench she and Seph were sitting on and snickered. Her grin now on full display.

Teak grinned. "Yeah! Looks like Callu doesn't mind either!"

Seph broke into a smile. She poked Teak in his side. He was standing behind the bench, as they waited for Hiila in a park near the base of the Tower.

"Why am I friends with you people?" Callu jested.

The four were about to roam around the market, doing some shopping for the Festival of Nark that was bound to happen at the end of the week. They could definitely do with something like that after the disaster the rest of the week had been.

Seph's smile faded, replaced with a soft sigh. She glanced at Callu again, and found her looking back at her; her eyes questioning Seph's sudden mood shift. Still, seeing the remnants of her smile... Seph couldn't help but feel that there was yet something wrong. She couldn't put a finger on what made her think this way, but Callu seemed to be on edge still.

"You... are okay, right?" She asked Callu. She saw a movement in her periphery, Teak had nodded as if to echo that question.

Callu blinked, then let out a nervous chuckle. She looked away, "Yeah... Yeah, I'm fine."

"Really?" Teak repeated. Seph rested her hand on Callu's.

Callu hesitated as she turned to them.

"I..." She looked at the two, before resigning herself to a shake of the head. Another moment of hesitation, followed by a small nod.

She glanced at Teak and then turned to Seph. "I will be, I think..." She gave a resolute nod, more confident than her tone at least.

Seph wasn't happy with that answer, but thank the Immortal, at least Callu was faring well enough to come out with them on this trip. She had feared a worse state for her when they had escaped Yurel.

Grass and leaves crunched behind Seph.

"Hiila's here," mumbled Callu.

Seph turned to greet the newcomer. Hiila approached the three, somewhat overdressed for the weather, and carrying an overly stuffed satchel. Filled to the brim with snacks, no doubt.

"Who died?" Hiila called out before Seph could. "You guys look like someone died."

"Hey Hiila," greeted Seph.

"Seph's dignity," responded Teak almost simultaneously.

Seph retaliated with a glare.

"I mean, you did say you wanted to bathe in my snot," Callu pointed.

Hiila cackled. "She did what?"

Callu and Teak gave Seph a sly look.

Seph sheepishly turned away and grumbled. "... S'pose you've got a point."

===

For a port city, the markets of Dihovas lay quite a ways away from the shoreline, instead populating themselves in the area between the other two major landmarks in the city: The Royal Palace, and the Tower. A series of large avenues connected the port and the market strip. The incline meant that one could usually see a hint of the port, even from the far end of the roads.

Seph pointedly noted how that view of the sea was completely obscured by the large traffic of carriages and pedestrians. The bustle for the year's festival was... quite something.

"You'd think they were preparing for the Feast with all this." Teak bit into the muffin Hiila had handed him.

"Mmhm," Callu agreed.

The streets around the group were packed. Teams of people went about decorating the streets—affixing signs speckled with seashells and driftwood, repainting old facades, hanging banners of blue or white. Nearly every shop dabbled in the business of selling decoratives. Vendors roamed the streets with blue-green crystal flowers (Hiila bought one to add to her garland. The vendor gave her a second for free). Merchants from other nations were busy with their little stalls. There was also the occasional tourist group lost in the crowd, often led by a student of the Academy not native to the Dihovas, as well as the groups of students like Seph's own.

"Last Feast wasn't this busy." Seph nodded.

The Festival of Nark was a major celebration in nearly all coastal nations near Dihovar—Nark was the Goddess of the Sea after all. But Dihovar was different. Dihovar was the home to the Immortal, the home to the Immortal's Tower. Sure, he wasn't a member of the Thirteen, but he was a living legend. And he hadn't left the world for Elihar.

Every two years Dihovar held the Immortal's Feast in his honour. Considering the Immortal's status nearly reached that of a local God, it was strange to see his festival draw in less commotion than that of Nark.

"One day I'll see that too." Hiila sighed. She wasn't from Dihovar and made trips back home during that time. Seph gave her a reassuring pat, before turning to her own muffin.

"S'cuse me-" An old lady approached them, followed shortly by a figure obscured by the mountain of bags in his arms. She walked out from a nearby shop, and the tunic marked her as a shop owner as well.

"It's more 'n enough, ma!" The figure with the bags complained. "We don need no more, ae knows if the rumour ae true!"

'Certainly not locals,' Seph noted.

The shopkeep just poked the figure with her cane.

"Ae!" The figure complained and poked his bearded, bald head out from behind the mountain. His gaze landed on their group. He froze momentarily before breaking out into a smile.

"Ah, blue robes!" he exclaimed. "Thas great! Can ae help a question?"

Seph found that rude, the way he asked. But Callu laughed at it. She turned, finding that only she felt the way of speech foreign to her.

"Oh, go on!" Callu urged him on.

"I'm tellin', these old bones don lie." The old lady chuckled.

"Ae ae, I'll see 'em bones." The man flashed the group with a toothy grin. "Her old bones tell er Immortal's come round."

"Yeah, he's here!" Callu nodded.

The mountain of bags shuddered as the man nearly dropped it in surprise. "Really!?"

"He's been here for a couple of days," Hiila informed him.

"Well, I gotta hand it to ae bones!" The man laughed.

"More 'n enough, Bo kavi." The old lady snorted. The man uttered an apology. "Get ae feet moving."

The man gave the group another smile. "Vig Kasnik!" He bid his farewell and left with the old lady.

"Kasnik?" Teak asked.

"'Light up your path.' Something like that." Hiila offered.

"Ah. Makes sense."

Seph noted the excitement at the confirmation of the Immortal's presence. The man with the bags had been reporting his finding to the other shopkeepers he passed. Some cheered, some just continued working but with a greater intensity, and some left to spread the news further.

"It's all for the Immortal," Seph mumbled.

"Hm?" Callu questioned.

"He hasn't been coming to the Feast for a while, but he's here during this festival. They're just diverting their effort here." She explained.

"It'll be a grand festival, then!" Hiila grinned.

Callu chuckled. "Yeah, I could do with a grand festival. Especially after this week."

Seph nodded. Her thoughts drifted to the knife. She wondered whether he had made it back home. She hadn't seen him for a while, and Krys seemed to be... kind of angry these past few days. Their group wasn't the only one who had had a terrible week; that knife hadn't been in a pleasant spot either.

She nodded. "Yeah, we all could."