It is interesting to note that the oceans of Avani are inherently brimming with Water Affinity Ether. What kind of effects does this have now with the Realms separated by the Great Fragmentation, with each having an Affinity rooted in them?

  -Note by the Archavist

  Galen, upon arriving at Seameet with the two Shadows, was ushered immediately towards a mansion like building at the far side of town. The two elites appeared to be nonchalant, but after spending more time with them than he would have liked, he could see through the facade.

  The two were keen and on high alert, no doubt using their Ether senses to keep an eye out for anyone coming their way. After all the trouble they’d gone through to nab him, they weren’t going to give him up so easily.

  Which unfortunately meant that it will be that much harder to escape them on his own. For the umpteenth time, he sent a prayer that Aleksi and Tufani were tracking him down.

  The townspeople gave them more than enough space to walk, many muttering among each other at seeing the Shadow that wore his signature dark armor. He’d put his face obscuring helm back on as they neared town, so none could see his expression.

  Galen saw more than a few pointing at him and whispering. No doubt wondering if he was the Champion that had been oh so wrongly kidnapped by the treacherous Rebellion.

  Actually, now that he thought about it, he wondered just what falsehoods the citizens of the Dominion have been fed. Were they, in fact, told that he’d been kidnapped by the Rebellion following Ignis’s destruction? Or had they been told that he’d gone of his own will?

  No… can’t be that. That would wreck morale too much if people thought I left the Dominion of my own accord. It would also raise too many questions against the Dominion. No… they were likely told I was either kidnapped or tricked by the Rebellion. Hell, perhaps they even pinned some of the blame of Ignis’s destruction on the rebels. That seems like the smart thing a tyrannical regime would do, he mused.

  As they approached the mansion at the far end of town, he turned to overlook the settlement. Since the building he was heading towards rested atop a hill, he had a fine view of the entirety of Seameet.

  And that included the ocean.

  “Whoa…” he muttered, stopping briefly to admire the view of the sparkling and blue sea.

  “Hmm? Champion?” the unarmored Shadow turned, wondering why he stopped. “Ah. Yes, magnificent sight, isn’t it?”

  “It’s… normal?” he noted, half questioningly.

  The unarmored Shadow frowned in confusion. “Ah… yes? I suppose it is…”

  “Somehow that’s both comforting and underwhelming,” he muttered.

  “Champion?” the armored Shadow asked.

  “What?” Galen asked.

  “Ehrm… just what exactly did you mean by what you said?”

  “Well, I mean…” he pointed up at the sky filled with its usual orange-yellow, swirling lights. “The sky of this world is strange, for one. I mean, it’s normal for YOU, but to me, it’s basically alien. Even after having spent over half a year in Avani, I still can’t quite get used to the sight of the skies here.”

  The unarmored Shadow raised a brow. “Really now? And just what are the skies like in your world?”

  “When there’s no clouds, the sky is a light blue,” he answered.

  The unarmored Shadow looked at him strangely.

  “See,” Galen pointed out. “Whatever you’re thinking is likely exactly how I feel about the skies here.”

  “The writings left by the First Champion mentioned how the skies of his, and by extension your, original world were blue,” the armored Shadow mused in remembrance.

  “Did you doubt his word?” Galen asked, partly to mess with them since the First Champion was seen as a sort of saint if not something more.

  “Of course not!” the unarmored Shadow barked a little too quickly. “It’s just good to get confirmation from a first hand source, is all.”

  “Riiiight,” Galen responded.

  “Bah! Let’s keep moving,” the unarmored Shadow urged.

  “We can talk as we walk,” the armored one pointed out. “Now, Champion, what exactly did you expect our oceans to look like?”

  “I don’t know,” Galen shrugged. “The skies here are orange and yellow instead of blue. I guess I expected somewhat of the same? Though, that would make the water here look more like lava than water…”

  The armored Shadow chuckled. “An amusing train of thought. However, as you can see, that is not the case. Fire and water are opposites, you see. So while Fire Affinity Ether does permeate the oceans, it is neutralized instantly. The Ether is still there, mind you. However, it is simply left in a more neutral state.”

  “Like how it is whenever the power enters our Capacity?” Galen asked.

  “Very astute of you, Champion,” he confirmed.

  “Huh… neat,” was all he said in response.

  While he still had questions, he didn’t quite feel like conversing further with his kidnappers. No chance he was going to get them to warm up to him to the point that they questioned their loyalty to their god and empire, after all.

  Stolen story; please report.

  In fact, he better be careful to not let them poison his mind. He shuddered at the thought of developing Stockholm Syndrome.

  As they neared the mansion’s gates, Galen saw an all too familiar face. Two of them, in fact. Both clad in the dark armor of the Shadows, but with their helms removed and held in their arm. Their armor looked quite scratched up, no doubt from their battle against Aleksi and Lusha. He hoped Aleksi had been correct and that Lusha had managed to escape.

  “Milton. Callista,” Galen spat at the pair. “I’d say it’s a pleasure to see you again, but that would be a lie. My mother did her best to make sure she didn’t raise a liar.”

  “Milton” smiled at him, nodding. “Your mother sounds like a wise woman, Champion.”

  He rolled his eyes at the Shadow. “Cut the bullcrap! We both know I’m here against my will.”

  “For now,” Morpheus’s smiled widened ever so slightly.

  Galen wanted to punch him in the face, maybe break his nose. However, he’d probably just hurt himself if Morpheus was anywhere near as tough as the two Shadows who kidnapped him. Which was likely considering he and Callista fought both Aleksi and Lusha and came away no worse for wear.

  He moved his glare from Morpheus to Callista, and asked, “So? What of you, Callista? Is that even your real name or-”

  “It is,” she answered, giving an equally infuriating smile. “Though, as a Shadow, my name is Venus. I’d rather you call me that instead when I don this armor.”

  “Yeah, sure. Whatever, Callista,” he responded dismissively.

  “Feeling rather combative today, aren’t we?” she noted.

  “Considering I’m among enemies, yes. I especially better keep my guard up around you. Who knows when you’ll play the harlot again and try to seduce me in a messed up ploy to get me to stay in this world for good,” he spat.

  She became incensed at that, flushing as her lips drew into a thin line.

  Surprisingly, it was Morpheus who stepped forward and barked, “Enough! Champion, if you want to make things difficult, then so be it. However, I strongly advise you to not take that road.”

  “Screw off, ‘Milton,’” he hissed. “Considering everything you people have done to me, I’d say I’m entitled to act as much of a jerk as I like. You lot want to kidnap me and force me into joining you all? Well, I’m going to make DAMNED sure that I’m as insufferable as possible throughout every minute step of that process.”

  Galen and Morpheus glared at one another. The tension between them was so thick that one could nearly reach out and touch it.

  It was the unarmored Shadow’s loud whistling that broke the tension and made both of them turn to regard him with a glare.

  “Well now…” the unarmored Shadow’s brows were raised high. “And I thought the Champion disliked me. Considering how I had-”

  He quickly cleared his throat, and smoothly corrected, “Considering what had transpired between me and the Champion… I have to question, Morpheus… Just what in the void did you do to him to make him hate you this much?”

  “Athanasius only knows,” Morpheus shook his head, then asked the unarmored Shadow with a frown. “Now, what happened between you and the Champion, Eshu?”

  “It’s nothing. He’s simply angry that I attacked those he perceived to be his allies,” the unarmored Shadow, now known as Eshu, quickly answered.

  “He stabbed me through the chest with a sword,” Galen snitched.

  “He what?!” Morpheus and Callista yelled in unison.

  Eshu glared at Galen for ratting him out. He merely shrugged and reminded the Shadow, “I warned you that I was going to be as insufferable as possible to you all, didn’t I?”

  The armored Shadow sighed and placed his armored hand on Eshu’s shoulder. “Too bad for you.”

  “Oh, and before I forget,” Galen pointed at the armored Shadow as he promptly threw him under the bus as well. “That one knew what Eshu did to me and wasn’t going to add it in his report. He agreed to help the guy bury the fact that he ran a sword through my chest!”

  That Shadow stared at him, and though he couldn’t see his face through is helm, Galen could FEEL the glare the man was giving him.

  He merely smiled in response. “Insufferable. Remember?”

  Morpheus pinched the bridge of his nose. “Void! What were you thinking, Eshu?! You could have killed him! Then we all would have suffered Lord Athanasius’s wrath!”

  Callista visibly shuddered and paled at the mere thought.

  Morpheus continued, this time to the armored Shadow. “And you, Agnar! As a fellow Shadow, I expected better from you than to try and leave out something so important.”

  “The Champion failed to mention that my strike wasn’t meant for him!” Eshu protested.

  “True, but considering the overwhelming power advantage you had, you could’ve easily left my friend alone and just nabbed me and left. But noooooo! You just HAD to try and stab her in the FACE!” Galen spat.

  “Perhaps,” the armored Shadow, Agnar, interjected. “We should all head inside and cool our heads. Morpheus, while I do not know why, it is clear both your and Venus’s presence provokes quite a bit of anger and hostility from our Champion. And Eshu, well, considering what you did, it’s best not to leave you in his presence either. That leaves me to watch over the Champion. The rest of you need to get inside and cool your heads.”

  “Agreed,” Morpheus rubbed his face tiredly. “Now that we’ve retrieved the Champion, we’ll need to head to the nearest city where we have far better defenses to keep him from getting taken again.”

  “And to make sure he doesn’t run off again,” is what went unsaid.

  “On that note, I believe an airship is coming for some maintenance work in but two days,” Callista chimed in. “Once its repairs are done, we can commandeer it and use it to fly. It’ll be much faster and more secure than us dragging the Champion along on foot. Particularly when he’s made it clear that he won’t exactly be… cooperative.”

  Galen did his best to remain neutral at that bit of news. It was difficult, since he’d just learned that the Shadows planned on commandeering the very same airship that he, Tufani, and Aleksi had been planning on stealing.

  As if things weren’t bad enough, he thought.

  Well, in the worst case scenario, he figured he could fling himself off the airship once it was high enough in the air to be lethal. If for no other reason than to spite his captors.

  Morpheus nodded to Callista. “I’ll consider it.”

  “Hold on, who put you in charge?” Eshu questioned.

  “Considering it was my idea to have some of us Shadows masquerade as normal soldiers, and considering how obviously successful that idea turned out to be, I’d say I earned the right,” Morpheus pointed out.

  “Fair enough,” Agnar shrugged.

  “As amusing as it has been throwing you guys under the bus and seeing you snap at each other, I’d like to get some rest somewhere where I can’t see any of you or where I can ignore you,” Galen interjected.

  Morpheus rolled his eyes. “On that, at least, we can agree, Champion. Inside, all of you! Now!”

  Galen didn’t need to be told twice. He made sure to appear excessively peppy if for no other reason than to annoy the Shadows. He fully intended to follow through on his threat to be as insufferable as possible.

  It wasn’t like he could do anything else besides try to find a way to escape and wait for Aleksi and Tufani to find and rescue him. Hopefully with a plan in mind.

  Next chapter will be released Thursday, February 5th, 2026 at 3:00 PM PST.

  A huge thank you and special shoutout to my Page Tuner tier Patron, LOOKOUT, and my Lore Master tier Patrons, Mountain Knight, Conman2731, ThoMiCroN, MCE 2 Munchen 2, and Voltrus. Your support is sincerely and greatly appreciated.