Mac looked at his Komyu stone with caution. He put one of his hands in one of his pockets and pulled it out. He was holding nothing, but his hand was glowing brightly. The light was more powerful than the ones emitted by the fireflies.
The Komyu stone would only send a message if it was activated. Usually, one needed to possess a Small Orbis to use a rune, but Mac had his ways to bypass that blockade.
He touched the stone with his shining hand, and suddenly, the rune on it radiated a gentle cyan light. It was activated.
Hai looked from the sides without making any noises. With the light from the rune beaming Mac's face, she could tell that Mac was not comfortable with the situation. But he went on anyway.
Mac felt his throat dry up. He took the stone closer to his mouth and whispered. "Hey." He was a little glad that there was no response at first, but then he started to hear some blusters coming from the stone. In a panic, Mac went to his weird mode and tried to make a joke. "Hevi in the house!" He said a little louder but still in an awkward tone.
"Mac!?" A voice came right away from the stone. It sounded like it was a girl talking. "Mac, you piece of rotten shit! Is this really you!?" It sounded like the girl on the other side was being overridden by emotion.
"Eh... Nope." Mac felt cold sweat on his back. He thought about making some other stupid joke, but he was also emotional at that time. "Eh... Yes, it is me." His voice trembled even more. "What is up, Licia? How you doing?"
"Holy Hevi, it really is Mac!" The voice changed to a deeper one. It was a boy's. "Hey Guima, come check this out!"
Mac softly laughed and pressed the stone on his forehead as he tried to clean his tears with his hands still holding the stone. He had been "fine" this whole time without them, but hearing the voices of his friends almost broke him.
"What did you say, Blake!? Did you just say the Ma-." Another different voice came, but it was interrupted halfway by the one Mac called Licia. "MAC KEY KAST!!! WHERE THE FUCK HAVE YOU BEEN???"
Mac regretted putting the Komyu stone so closer to his ear. He tried to swallow the mucus formed on his throat and said with a faint but truthful smile. "Well, you know... around."
"Around? AROUND!? I will show you the @%#$." Licia's voice was cut short by some interference coming from the stone.
"Hey, calm down there, Licia." He softly said, giggling. "You will end up destroying your Komyu boulder."
"I will end up destroying you, Mac!" Mac could also hear the other voices trying to calm down the enraged girl on the other side. "Do you have any idea how worried we have been!? You disappeared for weeks!"
"I am sorry, I am sorry. I just wanted to be alone for a while." Mac could go on forever talking with the stone, but he then looked up at Hai and remembered the reason why he called his friends in the first place. "Huh, by the way, I kind of am in need of your guys' help."
"HE FUCKING CALLED US TO @%#$." And there were those interferences again. The Komyu stone went silent for a few moments until another voice came out again. "Mac?"
"Oh, hey Blake." Mac immediately recognized the voice. "How is Licia? I hope I didn't cause a heart attack on her."
"No, she is... well, Guima is trying to help her calm down," Blake said. "But about the help that you asked us. Don't tell me you have caused more problems that you can't solve by yourself?"
Suddenly, Hai felt a strong sense of sympathy and camaraderie with Mac's friends.
"Well, it is not like I can't solve this problem by myself..." Mac threw Hai a furtive glance but received an evil eye back. "But I guess a little help from my... helpful friends would not hurt."
"Oh, so now he wants our help!" Licia came back, still not calmed down. "I will tell you something, leader. We ARE gonna help you, we WILL go to wherever the fuck you are, and WE will get you back!"
Hai looked in awe. Mac's friend didn't even bother asking what kind of trouble they were getting themselves into. Also, she wondered what Licia meant by calling Mac "leader." He didn't look like one at all to her.
"Fair enough, fair enough." Mac laughed. He would not tell them, but he was looking forward to coming home. "So, how many of you guys will be coming?"
"It will be just us three." Guima's voice came. "The other ones are busy with different assignments. If we have time, we may be able to get the ones on New Landeia, though. Oh yeah, by the way, where are you right now?"
"Eh, you see..." Mac scratched the side of his left cheek. "I am by the Eternal Sea right now."
"Oh, my Hevi! How did you get so far?" Licia said. "Ok, never mind. I will deal with you when I get my hands on you. But by the Eternal Sea, where? It is fucking eternal I will have you know."
"Check the map," Mac explained. He did not believe that some faraway tribe like Hai's could be found there, though. "I think it is south to the city that I have been to before coming here, Sultan. You guys have to look for a tribe not far from the sea." Mac felt Hai pinching him. "Ah, yes, the sea is red, by the way."
"You think, huh? That is new." Licia commented, and Mac laughed. It seemed like making that joke was more important than the red sea to Licia. "Ok then, we will be on our way. We will probably reach the Eternal Sea in..." Licia did not continue. Instead, Guima took charge. "It will be around three hours after the sun engulfs the moon. Will that be enough?" But before Mac could answer, Licia started talking again. "You know what? Mac, Don't answer that question! I don't trust your judgment about what is enough or not. Just tell us what your problem is so we can get prepared."
And so he did. Very badly, though. Mac would more often than not forget about some parts of the story. Luckily for him, Hai was there to fill in the gaps.
"Huh, that is odd," Licia said. "Knowing you, I thought you would have summoned an eldritch beast from the depths of the Eternal Sea or something. This problem is surprisingly tame for you."
Hai waited quietly. She did not know if she should consider Licia's comment funny or concerning. Mac didn't have that problem, though.
"Heh, you flatten me." He said. "But you have to remember that I wasn't even trying." Mac talked like he was trying to protect his fame as a troublemaker.
"Mac, about those invaders." Guima, who stayed silent throughout the whole story, finally spoke. "I think I noticed something odd about them. Can you give the Komyu stone to your friend Miss Hai? I want to ask her some questions about them."
The trio on the other side naturally heard about Hai during the conversation. They didn't seem surprised that Mac had somehow found a Chosen in the middle of nowhere and dragged them to a short but exhausting misadventure.
Hai received the stone from Mac, who promptly gave it to her. She looked at the rock and timidly said. "Hello."
In turn, the trio responded to her with their own greetings. That is it if you can consider "Sorry about Mac." and its variations as greetings. Hai laughed in response. She felt understood.
"So, then..." Guima proceeded to interrogate Hai about the invaders. He asked expected questions, like when did they arrive, how many were there or how they looked. But there were also some uncommon questions. Guima asked about their accent and the weapons they used. He even requested Hai to check the unconscious Olito for unique marks on his body.
"Yeah, there is one weird mark here around his waist," Hai said. She was investigating Olito while Mac held the stone for her. Despite not being comfortable with this whole situation, especially because she was forcing herself to remember the day her father died, Hai did not shy away from Guima's questions and requests. "It looks like an arrow."
For a while, the Komyu stone went silent. Mac finally broke the stillness by calling for Guima.
"I think I may have an idea about who these invaders are," Guima answered, not sounding too sure about himself. "And I don't know if it is good or bad news."
"Hmph, talk away." Mac said shortly, trying to sound serious.
"I am sorry, Miss Hai, but I am afraid these next words will sound alien to you." Guima tried to be respectful. "But I believe that those invaders may be deserters from the Kingdom of Erapta."
"Kingdom of what?" Hai asked, confused, while Mac left a sigh of understatement. "I never heard of such a thing."
"Kingdom of Erapta." Guima corrected. "And I am willing to bet that, even though you never heard of the empire, they heard of your tribe."
Hai swallowed dry. For some reason, those words sounded ominous to her. Mac didn't seem to care, though.
"I will not be entering in details about the Kingdom of Erapta." Guima continued. "You only need to know one thing about it. In current times, this once prosperous empire is going through some turbulences due to... reasons." Mac giggled while Guima continued. "Because of that, some influential families inside the empire chose to distance themselves from all that chaos to hide in faraway lands. And considering the timing that those invaders arrived at your tribe and the suspicious mark on the kid, I have my reasons to believe these people actually belong to the Kingdom of Erapta. Or belonged, at least.
"S-so... You are telling me that we just kidnapped a child from an influential family from a powerful empire?" Hai trembled as she said.
"Yes, possibly." Guima said, only for Licia to continue. "Good work, Mac! You dumbass!"
Mac tried to argue with Licia to defend himself, but Hai could not hear him. She was afraid. And that fear came from her ignorance. She did not know much about the world outside her tribe. But in a single night, she learned so much about it, and she also had to fight much of what she learned. And now she was supposed to face an empire? Hai's mind was in disarray, and she couldn't think straight.
Alucinating that everything around her was out to get her, Hai started to look around madly. Her eyes came to rest on the old man Lapido, who she had almost forgotten.
"Why haven't you said anything this whole time?" She asked suspiciously.
"Mac Key Kast ordered me to not bother you, children." He said with a nod. He did not plan to continue.
Hai looked at Lapido intensely. She remembered how much he scared her before and how much trouble he caused her. But Hai also remembered how stupid and helpless Lapido became when he was not a cultivator anymore. This outsider was not more so weird to her now that she knew him. That was a calming idea for her. "There is also Mac, too." She thought.
Hai turned to Mac and was surprised to find that he was not wasting time joking around with his friends. He was actually looking at her with worry in his eyes. "Hai, are you alright?" He asked.
Hai did not know how to answer. Before she was someone so weird to her own world. She felt she did not know much about him, and the things she knew only made him odder. Suddenly, hope started to grow on her. Hai began to believe that if there was someone capable of facing her unknown, that person could only be Mac.
Ironically, Hai found comfort when dealing with the mysteries of the world in the most mysterious of them all.