022 – 748 Years Ago (Part Two)

022 – 748 Years Ago (Part Two)

“—you have brought the gift of fire to us, o keeper of the [Bonfire]. We are but [Kindling] to the great flame that [Burns]in your name. [Fire-Bringer], [Lightning-Starter], [Mountain-Crusher], we bear your [Brand] in our sacred covenant, a fire to set alight all of [Humanity] and free us from the [Dark] and the [Shadow] and the [Veh]. We shall set aflame the very foundation of the Varran Republic, just as we did the Varran Empire before it, and with the [Kindling] that will be the Karr-e-Varr, we shall become our own [Liberation].”

—Unknown

“Guess what I brought, guys!” [sunny_side_up] exclaimed cheerily as the Glassway shattered open again.

She landed on the Karravaran pavilion in a light saunter, her dark brown hair flowing out behind her as she entered the space. She was as effortlessly graceful as always, a skip in her step and a smile on her face. She was carrying an absolutely massive sack, filled to the brim with some sort of food.

The tensile strength of the clearly magically strengthened material aside, it was easy to forget that [sunny_side_up] played a physical brawler type character build who, when she wasn’t casually casting spells from multiple hermetic traditions at once like the Karravar [kava] guild member that she was, had put every spare point she could into leveling her Strength stat. It was a point of pride for her that her Strength was SS-Rank, at any given moment having one of the Top 5 Strength values in the entire meta. Combined with her high S-Rank Dexterity and Agility stats, though her Semblance was technically weaker than the others in Karravar [kava], she was a force to be reckoned with.

She and [Ayle] were the only undefeated members of their guild during the all-consuming war that was Titanomachy. Aedan had personally seen [sunny_side_up] punch a mountain in half. Nobody in [kava] would ever dare piss [sunny_side_up] off, maybe except Haddy. But his literally unbelievably high Wisdom score was clearly bugged and therefore didn’t count.

It had only been fifteen minutes since Aedan, [Hadrian’s_Fyre], and [Fenocian] had begun pre-gaming this year’s reunion. Aedan was already feeling a bit—a lot—tipsy, and he’d only been sipping at his drink. Even [Fenocian] seemed to be the sort of happy one only got after imbibing a little bit of alcohol despite his utter lack of booze tolerance. Did [Hadrian’s_Fyre] spike the man’s flask when he wasn’t looking, somehow?

Say what you would about Haddy, but that man knew his booze. Wait, didn’t he just think that five minutes ago while taking another sip?

Whatever. Still tasted good.

The drink turned out to be some sort of fruit mead, infused with wonderfully floral notes and a woody aroma. [Hadrian’s_Fyre] said something about it being made of a fruit called kasar, from out across the Tranquil Sea in Angari lands, a sort of prehistoric precursor to a kumquat, if it was green and smelled vaguely of minty citrus. How he’d gotten behind the Angari ancestral lands deep enough to forage for local fruit undisturbed was beyond Aedan. But then again, [Hadrian’s_Fyre] was a multifaceted man of many talents, despite his singular disposition for mischief.

“I said, guys, guess what I—” [sunny_side_up] repeated, this time more insistently.

[Hadrian’s_Fyre] burped.

“…I brought actual cheese, you weirdos!” [sunny_side_up] harrumphed indignantly, “I guess if you guys don’t want me to make you guys cheese fondue and mozzarella sticks and real cheese burgers and actual pizza, then you can keep drinking and not help me set up all my stuff!”

The boys—and they would always be boys, at least for the yearly Karravar [kava] reunion—blinked in unison.

“Holy shit,” [Hadrian’s_Fyre] wheezed out. “I’m sorry I ever doubted you Swedes.”

“Shut up, Haddy.” Aedan sighed, shoving his shoulder. “That’s awesome, Sunny! What do you need us to do?”

“At least someone knows what’s good for them!” [sunny_side_up] huffed. “King said we could go into his hammerspace and fish out his [Portable Super-Kitchen], just for tonight. Could you go grab it for me? I’m gonna make sure I have all my ingredients laid out.”

Aedan nodded as he stood up, suddenly looming over [sunny_side_up] as he did. He forgot how tall his avatar was when he got drunk. How tall he was. He could never quite get over his dysmorphia, not even after ten years in this body.

“Sure thing, Sunny. Come on, Haddy. Let’s go get King-o’s big ole kitchen out of storage.”

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

[sunny_side_up] had Aedan flipping Golga burgers while she had [Laureate_King]’s [Portable Super-Kitchen] knead up some pizza dough out of kalan flour. Kalan wasn’t as glutinous as wheat was, so it was a whole different sort of texture and flavor, but [sunny_side_up] had assured them that she’d gotten it almost as good as the real thing.

The fact that grass hadn’t evolved yet, and therefore no wheat or rice or any other modern grain existed in Varrah, still sat strangely with Aedan. Even kalan was a selectively bred cultivar of a Cretaceous cycad that had somehow, over painstaking millennia, been made non-toxic enough to safely eat without too much fuss.

[Fenocian] was tearing up some leafy greens and something that was kind of like a paprika or bell pepper if you squinted at it into a salad over in the corner, somehow scowling at the veggies like they’d murdered a beloved pet or something. Honestly, that man could get hung up on the weirdest things sometimes.

Aedan hummed to himself. He couldn’t remember specifically what it was—probably some pop song he vaguely remembered from back on Earth.

“P-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-poker face!” He took a swig of [Hadrian’s_Fyre]’s wonderful fruit mead. Delicious.

Soon enough though, the other Karravar [kava] began to arrive, filtering in through the Glassway one by one until the pavilion felt, if not full, then at least populated. All thirteen Karravar [kava] never really gathered in one place anymore, never at once, at any rate. But enough of them had showed up today that it felt like the old days.

They ate, they chatted, and made merry.

Their conversations blurred into one another, the way they always ended up at these sorts of reunions. Who was building what. Who had found what new thing. What the various factions across Varrah were up to.

It was during a lull in the festivities as Aedan stepped away from [else_eption], [Fenocian], and [Prometheus] arguing about whether or not Semblance transfer was possible, that [Hadrian’s_Fyre] found him again.

Aedan’s earlier buzz had faded by this point, and they sat amiably near the edge of Karravaran, looking out over Varrah below.