The pairstone in Ryuzio's hand kept him from getting lost inside these twisting caves. His head was tucked while walking through a tiny tunnel, the soft green glow of the half-a-sphere pebble leaking out from his supporting hand onto the stony wall that was cold to the touch. His shoulder rubbed against the enclosed space for a final time as he stepped into a new area, a broad tunnel with too many lamps posted on the walls to light it.
Miners running to the right in frenzy.
Ryuzio fixed his headband as he met the confused gazes of the panicking miners who seemed to be carrying away tools and carts. The pairstone on his palm was telling him to go left. Ryuzio turned away from the confused miners, casually walking the other way.
"Where you going, kid?" a miner coming from ahead stopped to ask. "That way's dangerous."
"Then I should hurry," Ryuzio said absently, pocketing the pairstone. "Ethersurge!"
The miner put a forearm in front of his face as he backed away, a wave of Ether bursting out of Ryuzio. "W-What's this?"
The blazing energy coat surrounded Ryuzio as he stepped onward.
"What a strong Surge…!" the miner said. "You're no ordinary researcher, are you?"
"I'm not a researcher!" Ryuzio claimed, turning to him, his Ether coat growing. "I'm a Volant!"
"A Volant?" the miner said as two more ran past them, both hauling the same cart. "You, a kid?"
Ryuzio thinned his eyes at one of the two that brushed past him. "Wait…is that…?" He ran after them to confirm. One of the miners hauling the cart looked over his shoulder and his eyes popped.
"Why're you chasing us?" he asked loudly.
"I have something to ask you," Ryuzio said as they stopped, Ether coat shrinking thin.
The lights flickered and the cave shook.
The one Ryuzio was not talking to simply ran away. "I'm not dying today!"
The man still holding the cart wiped the sweat on his forehead with the towel around his neck as all the miners behind him also hurried off. "Now's not the time, kid," he said, out of breath. He pushed the cart, face red.
"Are you Kaleb's father?" Ryuzio asked.
The man stopped immediately, turning to Ryuzio, eyes wide. "You…know my boy?"
###
[Two days ago – The park in Tryst's Street – District One – Sonas]
"I'm Ryuzio Smyte," Ryuzio announced with a big smile. "The man who's gonna be the Sky King!"
"WHAT!" Tryst said, sharply jolting onto his feet.
Benji looked away, holding his head. "I know, Mister Tryst. He's crazy!"
Ryuzio laughed.
"You can't be serious, can you?" Tryst asked. "I mean… A kid like you, a Volant?"
"I'm awesomely serious!" Ryuzio said, showing him a fist.
Tryst rubbed his cheek nervously as he sat back down. "Remember what I said about the fire in you?"
"Nope." Ryuzio looked at the kids eating all sorts of tasty stuff and his stomach revolted with a growl. He sighed. "I wanna party too…"
"Just get into Sonas Academy and I'll throw one," Tryst said with a laugh.
Ryuzio turned to him, pointing to the kids. "Is that why they got to eat all those bunmeats?"
Tryst nodded, then looked at the brown-haired boy with tan skin. He smiled, though his eyes didn't reflect happiness. "We're celebrating Kaleb passing the entrance exam for first grade. Since you're new here you might not know but getting into Sonas Academy is quite a big deal.
"A student graduated out of Sonas Academy has so many doors open to them it's not even funny. From a skyguard to a researcher to an engineer, you name it." Tryst returned his eyes to Ryuzio.
"I'm not lying," Ryuzio was saying to Benji. "I heard that commander guy talking to his boss."
Tryst sighed at being ignored. He turned his eyes to Kaleb again.
"There's no way," Benji replied with a dismissive wave. "The distance you created between us and them in mere seconds was too great for you to overhear their conversation."
Ryuzio's eyebrows furrowed, nose wrinkling. Then he smiled, flicking up Benji's glasses and then poking him in the eyes.
Benji fell off the bench. "Ow!"
Ryuzio laughed as he turned to Tryst. "Did you see that, heavy guy—?" He cut himself off.
Tryst wiped the tears in his eyes. "I apologize…" he said softly. "It's just… It has been over two years since Kaleb's father left… The boy wanted to get into the academy so that he can be a researcher, working alongside his father. The man's a skyguard, on duty in an area cut from communication. But Kaleb just doesn't understand it. He thinks his father has abandoned him. He's growing more hateful toward other grown men for this reason. I don't want him to grow bitter due to this. But…I just don't know what I can do…"
"Kaleb needs to meet his father," Ryuzio pointed simply.
"But we can't communicate with the Legion he's in," Tryst said with a shake of his head. "This Legion system is so flucking bad…" He brushed down his beard. "Sorry…"
Ryuzio's eyes lingered on Tryst—
Benji hit him in the back of his head. "Never do that again!"
Ryuzio turned to Benji, rubbing the back of his head. "You better run!"
"Huh?" Benji said with a gulp. "Are you actually mad at—?"
Ryuzio got up from the bench. Benji screamed and ran.
Tryst sighed as the kids laughed.
###
[Two days ago – Junia's home – District One – Sonas]
Tryst was a good person, Ryuzio had decided. What would you call a man willing to invite complete strangers into his house and feed them?
"Please take your shoes off, Ryuzio," Benji said as Tryst walked into the room to the left, a staircase leading up over to the right. Ryuzio removed them did as the blue-haired boy said and he smiled. Ryuzio started putting his shoes back on with a smile. Benji sighed. Ryuzio took them off again with a chuckle.
He walked into the house as Benji arranged all the shoes in an orderly manner at the entrance. Ryuzio was walking to the kitchen as his eyes fell upon the several photographs on the wall leading to it. They were all family photos with three individuals in them.
Tryst emerged out of the room, holding a giant bowl of stew in his hands. "Dinner's upstairs. Follow me." He paused as Ryuzio pointed to the photo. "Yes. That's him," he said quietly.
Ryuzio nodded. Tryst walked toward the stairs.
Inside the kitchen, the lady who'd welcomed them was feeding that dumb baby of hers who couldn't even speak Selesion. The kid named Kaleb was sitting on one of the four chairs of the dining table, his back to Ryuzio. Of these three, the baby was the only one not in the photos on the wall.
Kaleb ate with his head turned to the chair opposite to the one on which the baby sat—though the baby's chair didn't match the other three.
The chair Kaleb was looking at was empty.
"You coming?" Benji asked from the stairs.
Ryuzio turned to him and gave a nod. Benji followed Tryst. Ryuzio climbed the stairs, getting closer to the tasty smell.
He entered the upper floor, Tryst blocking his view. The large man walked forward, finally revealing one of the chairs of the dining table. Ryuzio quickly claimed it; Benji helping Tryst set the plates up.
Ryuzio sat with a smile—
"Heh?" Ryuzio blinked. "You?" He pointed ahead.
Hitryel sat opposite from him on the table, a confused look over his face as he pointed at Ryuzio.
"What're you doing here?" they both said to each other.
###
The tan-skinned miner took off his helmet, revealing his dark brown hair. "Do you?" he asked, shaking Ryuzio's forearm. "You know my Kaleb?"
"Not that well, but yeah," Ryuzio said with a nod. "He's waiting. They're all waiting for you."
Tears started rolling down the man's eyes as he fell to his knees. "Really…? They're waiting…for someone like me…"
Ryuzio squatted beside him as the cave shook again and a loud noise erupted out. "My friend's in danger, so I gotta go. But while I beat that Lexnal guy, you go home and meet Kaleb. Okay?" He started rising.
"My boy…" Kaleb's father sobbed, covering watery eyes with his palms. "If only I could meet him…"
"Heh?" Ryuzio squatted again, tilting his head. "You can't?"
"I have rock lungs," Kaleb's father said, looking up at Ryuzio. "Just like every skyguard here. It's not a myth."
"Oh, yeah," Ryuzio said, nodding to himself, imagining a stone statue of lungs—balloons carved from rock. "That thing, everyone knows what rock lungs are."
"It's a deadly disease you develop the more you stay around lucentums," Kaleb's father said. "It's a flucking nightmare because it potency gets leveled after a while. But a change in the environment shifts that and your lungs start to feel heavy. Until…it starts feeling like you have two giant rocks growing inside your chest."
Ryuzio gulped, sweat forming underneath his headband. "So if you leave the Ezlus Mines…"
"I'll die…" Kaleb's father said, tears dripping off his chin. "There's no cure… Commander Lexnal, who also suffers from rock lungs, gives us test medicine after test medicine on a regular…but none has worked so far. Most of my fellow skyguards have been here on duty for much longer than my own two years… Some haven't met their families in over a decade…"
"A decade!" Ryuzio blurted, eyes widening. He hadn't eaten together with Xen for around four years now and he thought that was long.
"I don't know how they still hope…" Tears burst out from Kaleb's father's eyes again. "I don't think I can go much longer like this…"
"Don't be so selfish," Ryuzio shouted and the cave shook—though his loud voice was certainly not the reason for it—the lamps flickering again. "What about Kaleb who's been waiting for you for the past two years! He got into that big school to be with you! How long are you still going to make him wait—!"
Kaleb's father slammed his forehead into the cart. "I WANNA MEET MY FAMILY RIGHT NOW!" He started crying. "I really do… But the only thing I actually can do is hope that the next dose works… That's all…"
Ryuzio clenched his jaw, the man's cries echoing around him. If someone who'd been down here for two years was in this much pain…what of the others? How deep would be the misery they must've been drowning in?
"I wanna ask you how they're doing…" The man sobbed as he put his helmet back on. He used the cart to support his weight, standing on weak legs. He rubbed his eyes with the towel around his neck. But the tears didn't stop. "But I can't… Just knowing that Kaleb got into Sonas Academy…and I wasn't there for him…
"I'm better off dead…"
"I already told you," Ryuzio shouted, standing. "Don't be so selfish!"
"You're young, kid," the man said, tucking his chin. "So just…leave while you can…before these caves take even that away from you."
The cave shook harder this time.
A stone cold chill cracked Ryuzio's blazing Ethersurge just as he heard the man's words. They reminded him of his conversation with Arold.
'Just…' Arold had said, wiping his watery eyes. 'Leave, Ryuzio. Take your friend and leave while you can.'
'Why're you even afraid of me getting close to you?' Ryuzio had asked with a shrug.
'Because if you get close…' Arold has said, hesitating, the arrowhead shaking around. 'It'll only hurt me when you leave because of my curse—!'
Arold's curse…was rock lungs? Ryuzio had to hurry.
"I can show you the way out…" Kaleb's father said absently as he rolled down the empty steel cart. "All of us go to it once in a while to see if the medicine worked. But even taking a single step out of the Ezlus Mines makes my chest…heavy…" He fell. "Probably got a concussion from banging my head on the cart. I deserve it…"
The cave shook once again.
"Seems the day has come," he continued, holding his head. "At least the flucking curse didn't take me…"
Ryuzio couldn't look away from the muttering man.
"You must be the Angelic who came to take me away," the man muttered to himself. "That explains the peace you've brought me. I'm…happy. Happy to know that my boy got into the school he was working so hard for. Happy that the woman I love still waits for me… But I'm not like them. I'm taking the easy way out." Tears and snot ran down his face as he put his back against the wall, the lamp over his head flickering. "At least from up there I'll be able to see them—"
"Shut up!" Ryuzio shouted, punching the wall above the man's head, chips of stones bursting off. "I'm not some lame Angelic!" he announced proudly. "I'm Ryuzio, the man who's gonna be the Sky King! And you know what? Just watch me!
"I'll destroy the entire Ezlus Mines if that's what'll take to get you to Kaleb!"
The man gulped, bits of broken stone bouncing off his helmet. "You're not ordinary, kid, I can see that," he said quietly. "But I sure am. It's sad to say this but these last two years have numbed me to false hope…"
"Stay here." Ryuzio turned away. "I have an awesome squadmate who can heal others. After beating that Lexnal guy, she'll take care of you."
The man didn't say anything, but tears were trailing down his face once again.
"Don't make the wait bigger than it needs to be," Ryuzio said, walking where the pairstone had shown him.
"I refuse to hope," Kaleb's father said, voice weakening. "But before you leave, just tell me one thing please…
"Is Junia's…our baby…a boy or a girl?"
Ryuzio glanced over his shoulder…and smiled. "I don't know."
The man inhaled, closing his eyes as he looked up, the back of his helmet touching the wall. "So that's how it is…huh…?"
Before Ryuzio turned his head forward and left, he was certain the miner was smiling, but he couldn't tell for sure…
Rage had blinded him. The same rage that was now fueling the blazes of his Ethersurge.