Chương 606: Chapter Five Hundred and Ninety - Back From Black

The Black Avatars gave us two options; stay in their guest quarters, which--while a little dusty--were still very serviceable, or remain on the Beaver while we waited. I kind of wanted to sleep in the castle, since staying the night in a flying castle seemed like the kind of thing that wouldn't come up very often, but I also didn't want to be separated from my friends.

In the end, we decided that returning to the Beaver was the safest bet, so with Percy escorting us, we left the sitting room and made our way out and up. He mentioned, offhand, that we would meet up again in the morning. Apparently, Guinevere cooked breakfast for the entire group, and it was their way to keep up with each other.

"Are there more of you guys?" I asked. Percy gave a shallow nod.

"There are more Black Avatars then you have thus far met, yes."

"What about those three outside, in the skiff? Are they with you?"

"They are," Percy confirmed.

"There are others spread out across the world, as well." He paused.

"Though some of us are very... private. We keep to ourselves. The members of the Black Avatars who aren't as comfortable with silence and solitude tend to only visit the castle at odd times before departing again." Oh, so they had a sort of rotation, then? Or something like that. I bobbed my head in a nod.

"Thank you, Mister Percy. I hope you have a nice evening!" He paused a little before replying.

"Percival. And you as well, Captain." Oops? Had I gotten his name wrong this whole time? Percy is what Viviane had called him, but maybe she wasn't the one whose example I ought to follow. With Percival gone, I turned to my friends, then glanced up to the Beaver. Calamity was perched on the edge of the deck, and he gave me a small wave as I caught sight of him. The ship itself wasn't fully tethered.

There were two ropes holding it in place against the dock, but they were both tied down so that a simple tug would undo the lashing and the ship could be pulled away with ease. I supposed that that was for the best, if anything went wrong. I scanned the skies for the skiff, and eventually found it on the far side of the island. There was a second, much smaller dock over there. More of a plank sticking out of a hanging porch than a proper dock, really, but it was suitable enough for such a small vessel.

"How'd it go?" Calamity asked as he helped us aboard. It was nice being back on the Beaver. The moment I set a foot down, it was like I was back home. There was a small bit of weight that was instantly lifted off my back.

"It went good!" I said."'Well.' It went ' well,'" Amaryllis corrected.

"And yes, it did. The Black Avatars are... more collected than I had hoped." Calamity let out a breath.

"So that guy Broc was talking with, in the all-black armor..."

"Black Avatar," Caprica confirmed.

"In the flesh, as it were."

"That's... well." He laughed.

"This sure is somethin' alright. To think they're not just real, but still alive and kickin'." I nodded. Fortunately, there had been no actual kicking involved yet,"So, now what?" Calamity asked.

"I guess we got our confirmation. We leavin'?"

"Nope! We're staying, at least the night and into the morning. They invited us for breakfast. Is Desiree here?"

"She's a deck down," Calamity said.

"Why, need her for something?"

"There's a foxkin Black Avatar!" I said.

"No catfolk avatars yet. Sorry."

"Huh. Reckon my sort wouldn't do well with that kind of group anyway," Calamity said.

"Want to get everyone together?"

"That'd be perfect," I said before I shifted a bit and realized that the tea was a bit much.

"I could use a washroom break, and then we all meet up in the dining room?"

"Whole crew?" Calamity asked. I nodded.

"Anyone that wants to show up! I think we're safe, though."

"If the Black Avatars meant us harm, it would only take two or three of their members to obliterate this ship," Bastion said.

"And I'm being generous about our ability to put up any sort of fight."

"Yep! But that's not gonna happen because we made friends!" I gave Calamity a thumbs up, even as I revealed my ultimate secret strategy for winning every situation--just have lots of friends and never make any enemies! Calamity snorted.

"I'll get everyone together. Might even cook something up. The crew will be happy if we don't need to be on full alert the whole time." The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

"I'll have someone secure the ship properly," Amaryllis said.

"The last thing we need is to get unmoored and drift off in the night. The weather here is calm, but we're not too distant from the storm's walls." She gestured with a wing towards the storm, and yeah. We were still very close to the edge of a powerful storm. I tromped downstairs, then (after getting changed into something a little more comfy,) I slipped into the dining room and took a seat by the far end of the table, with the bigger bay window right behind me.

I lit one of the small magic lamps we had, so that the room was bright and cheery. It wasn't dark yet, but the perpetually cloudy sky outside made it rather gloomy, and a bit of light was a good way to chase that mood away. It wasn't long before everyone was gathered.

"Okay!" I said.

"Good news or bad news first?"

"Bad news, please," Desiree replied as she adjusted her seat next to Awen.

"The bad news is that there is no bad news!" I said before breaking into giggles at my own joke. Amaryllis didn't even huff, she just sighed.

"Broccoli isn't entirely correct. There is some news that isn't ideal. Rainnewt, for example, did make contact with the Black Avatars, and they did, voluntarily, work with him."

"Even knowing what sort of person he is?" Desiree asked. Her eyes narrowed.

"I'm not certain I'd want to work with them, if that were the case. One can always judge someone by the quality of friends they keep." I wasn't sure if I entirely agreed with that, but I understood the basis of the sentiment.

"Let's not be too fast to judge," I said.

"I got the feeling that a few of the Avatars didn't like him all that much."

"Ah, he um, is kind of sleezy," Awen said.

"Like a bagful of lice, that one," Calamity added.

"You mentioned good news?" Desiree asked.

"Oh, yeah! So, first thing, they're pretty neat, the Black Avatars. We had tea. It was very... civilized, I think. We met some of them, and they're all very strong. I think third tier and above. There was another who was the same, ah, species as you, Desiree."

"Truly?"

"Yup! Her name was Guinevere. Does that ring any bells?" Desiree gave me a strange sort of look.

"Do you know every Bun in existence just because you yourself are one?" I felt a bit of warmth blooming on my cheeks.

"No no, sorry? She was very pretty. Oh, and she had four tails!" Our own resident fox-girl stood up sharply at that, her twin tails twitching.

"Four? Are you certain?"

"I counted four, yeah," I said.

"She seemed very proud of them."

"As well she might," Desiree replied.

"There may only be a dozen of my kin who have reached that level of strength in this century, and there are only a handful that have more tails than four."

"Four tails means that she's at the fourth tier, correct?" Caprica asked. At Desiree's nod, she continued.

"So, a person whose cumulative level is at least sixty. She may well be in the low triple digits of levels. That puts her at a great advantage over nearly everyone in any realm."

"Is the advantage of each level that big?" I asked.

"Individually, not so much, but cumulatively, yes," Amaryllis said.

"There's something of a curve when it comes to the value of your individual statistics."

"Oh," I said. I hadn't known that.

"I imagine that the others might not be too far behind her. They didn't treat her special. She was the only one with a very obvious sign of her tier."

"I would like to meet this Guinivere, if possible," Desiree replied.

"I think that should be doable!" I replied.

"We're having breakfast in the morning. We can only leave tomorrow, at the earliest. Apparently there are times when crossing the storm is safer than others. That, and I'd like to ask the Black Avatars some more questions."

"And, ah, what about Rainnewt in all that?" Awen asked. Amaryllis scoffed.

"Apperently he should be on his way back. I'd like to see the look on his face when he finds us here, revealing to his 'friends' the sorts of trouble he had been causing across the world. The Black Avatars seem to respect strength, but more than anything they revere the World itself. More so than laws or nations."

"That's fair enough, ain't it?" Calamity asked.

"The king's laws are only imitations of the World's Laws. Caprica and Amaryllis didn't like that answer, but it was true enough as far as I was concerned.