362 A Brief Respite (1/2)

”You must be feeling better.” Fajii' sat on the beach with Mina, both of them wearing swimsuits that Nix had made.

Nix held up a hand and shook his head slowly. ”Amazing, isn't it?” His hands and feet were both slightly elongated and webbed. His gills faded away when he left the water, but the other effects of his new Mariner's ability lingered for nearly a minute.

Fajii stared at him for a few moments before nodding. Mina looked away without answering; her pale face seemed unnaturally red.

”I'll shower quickly, and then we'll get going.” Nix smiled pleasantly and headed toward the Turtle House. It had been two weeks since he recharged the Krayven totem, he had spent most of that time recovering from the effects of Phoenix blood poisoning.

Mina watched him walking toward the house, wishing for once that she could spend some time alone with him. ”He used to be a lot less busy.”

Fajii nodded in agreement. ”Everspire is pulling him a dozen different directions. He needed the time off.”

Mina smiled at her friend. ”Don't let him use that 'Mariner' form around any Aquarion women.”

The dark-skinned Aquarion laughed good-naturedly. The beauty standards for the Aquarion race centered mostly on the hands and feet. ”You were staring shamelessly.”

Mina bit down on a laugh but didn't deny it. Her personality in recent weeks had significantly changed. She laughed and smiled much more than she used to. ”I know.”

Fajii reached over and stroked her friend's head, a regular occurrence between Aquarion friends. ”How's everything?”

Mina smiled, her eyes moving toward Soup, who was sunning herself on the beach. ”I already agreed to live in Haven with you guys; you don't have to worry.”

Fajii shrugged slightly but didn't deny her concern. ”I can't help it. You are important to me.”

*************

After a quick shower and light lunch, Nix spent a few minutes updating orders for the Auction House. Although his taxidermy skill was maxed out, his animation ability needed to improve. His current knowledge couldn't make anything near as impressive as the ones made by the Eidengal Taxidermist.

/Inferno: Jun Li: Don't forget about the meeting today, Nix.

/Inferno: Nix: Fairly difficult since Semmi, Pon, and now you have reminded me this morning.

/Inferno: Jun Li: Sorry for nagging.

/Inferno: Nix: I'll be there.

*************

Nix entered the HQ courtyard an hour later, Muncie was hard at work with the huge dragon puppet. ”Progress?”

Muncie nodded. ”I can open its eyes.”

Nix covered a laugh since that was progress. The two of them were slowly repairing the Dragon puppet that Vega used in the Mountain Pass camp. The wings were still detached, but Nix had used his Taxidermist skill to repair the severed head. The cost of doing so had used nearly all of his personal stock of dragon scales, dragon blood, and dragon bones. When Nix attempted to use the puppet, he would receive a generic message saying that the dragon was dead. ”Keep at it, Muncie.”

He ran into Pon and Wind when he walked into the conference room of HQ. ”How did that quest from Mocai go?”

Wind gave him a thumbs up. ”We found what we were looking for.”

A breach appeared next to the table, and Leva stepped an instant later. She took a seat on the other side of Nix after bowing respectfully to Pon and Wind.

/Inferno: Pon: Why is Leva here?

/Inferno: Nix: I invited her since our decision on Chyanama will directly affect her territory in the Nether.

Wind nodded in agreement, suppressing the shudder he felt. Beta had told him what was involved in creating a minion since the albino rogue also had one. ”Nice to see you again, Leva.”

A second breach opened, and Tai'Qui stepped through. Since her first visit a week ago, she had been regularly stopping by Ionova to visit.

Pon stood up when she stepped into the conference room, his old face creased into a smile. The Earth Dragon made a good impression on everyone at Inferno. She had taken the time to create two different mud baths, one at the Turtle house and the other outside of HQ. The Scorched Earth Elementals of Inferno absolutely loved them.

Wind also stood and greeted Tai.

[Whisper Wind to Nix] Since when is that old man so friendly?

[Whisper Nix to Wind] No kidding.

Shae was the last of the Officers to arrive; Leva gave up her seat so that the Salamander could sit next to Nix while she stood behind him.

/Inferno: Jun Li: Going to start a temporary channel so our guests here can discuss the topic.

You have joined the HQ channel.

/HQ: Jun Li: Welcome Guests, thank you for taking part.

/HQ: Nix: The first topic today are the fallen cities. I invited Tai here since she will be the one helping us move them.

[Whisper: Jun Li to Nix] I thought you wanted to hold off on that.

[Whisper: Nix to Jun Li] I wanted to, but I have to recover the Spectrum I used in recovered cities. I can't do that until they are linked with Inferno City.

[Whisper: Jun Li to Nix] Understood.

/HQ: Tai: Moving cities through the planes isn't especially difficult. No more so then sending troops through a Breach.

/HQ: Nix: Filamina, Alliance City, and Chyanama are all ready to be moved.

/HQ: Semmi: Filamina and Alliance City were formerly known as Aquarius and Dyrekstad.

/HQ: Fajii: Chyanama is part of Leva's territory in the Nether. Won't this cripple her power base?

/HQ: Leva: The Nether has changed dramatically in the last few months. With free passage throughout the planes, there have been no border skirmishes of any kind.

/HQ: Nix: I won't push it if you don't wish to move Leva. However, I would like to link Chyanama with the other Dragon Cities and place you in the City Master position.

/HQ: Leva: Wouldn't creating a Nether City cause problems with the Dragon Masters?

/HQ: Tai: A few months ago it might have, but since the peace treaty, there have been quite a few Nether citizens who have passed the planar trials and become residents of the other Dragon Cities.

/HQ: Semmi: I worry that there might be some hold-over bad feelings.

/HQ: Nix: You may be right, Sem. We can wait a bit longer on Chyanama.

/HQ: Pon: There shouldn't be any issues with Filamina or Alliance City. Many of the 12 Pillar Alliance members have taken up residence in Alliance City.

/HQ: Mina: Filamina is empty.

Nix laughed at her words; it spread to a few others before stopping. Mina's Aquarion sense of humor wasn't able to find the amusement in her own words.

/HQ: Nix: Filamina is in Northern Colonial while Alliance City resides in the seed world of Elementia.

/HQ: Semmi: What does moving them entail?