Awakening of the Shadows [COMPLETE]

Guardians of the Navigator

Eldernova

Slowly, my sight returned to me as I drifted out of my unconsciousness. Sounds began to fill my ears; smells began to sweep through my nostrils. My eyes opened, and I instinctively bolted upright. This elicited a startled shriek (I thought it was from Nocta, though I could not tell); "Gods, who wakes up like that?!"

I glanced around. I appeared to still be on the bridge, with a few minor differences (Being, of course, the multiple humanoids sprawled across it in random positions). Displayed on the viewscreen was a large, mostly blue ball, with a solitary moon in sight, though I couldn't tell how many the planet actually had. It appeared to be a primarily ocean world, even more so than Earth itself; I counted only a few small island chains. The water itself was a tropical cyan color that reminded me of my trip to the Caribbean back home on Earth - Not home, anymore, I had to remind myself of that despite the inexorable pain that it brought - and was speckled with darker patches as my eyes drifted further from the islands. Unbidden, a quiet laugh rose to my throat as I remembered my trip to the Caribbean, what felt like a thousand years ago; my original plight to see the beautiful wildlife before I unfortunately contracted food poisoning from a poorly-prepared fish. I was told that I was lucky not to have contracted a parasite instead; that I was 'lucky' to instead have to deal with three days of intense vomiting and other unsavory conditions. I hadn't thought about that trip in so long; it was almost... nostalgic, to think of it now. And if nothing else, the nostalgia did remind me that my home was gone; that it didn't exist any longer. It reminded me... that I was homeless, now.

I shook myself. This wasn't the time (Or the place) to have another breakdown. I had to be strong, had to not show my emotions; weakness had no place in a mission like this. With these thoughts came a pang of sympathy from Eternity's mind, reminding me of her mental words that she'd spoken to me only just a few... wait.

It occured to me then that I didn't know how long we had been unconscious for. I took a breath to begin my speech. "How long were we out?" My throat was scratchy, but not unusable.

Nocta, having recovered from the bout of fright accidentally dealt by my own hands, immediately answered: "Nebula said about three hours. Not ideal, but... at least we didn't lose too much time." Shit. I hadn't even thought about how it would impact our remaining time, and Nocta's words finally jarred me into complete wakefulness.

"Actually, Nocta, that very much is a fairly large time loss," Rynn corrected. "It's past midnight now." Her unspoken words almost seemed to faintly glimmer in the air:

Three days left.

"Well, alright then," Eternity said, returning to her seat and giving me a comforting glance. "Let's get started. We've got a highly lethal, magical vault to rob."

. . .

Antares

The six hours that followed were not exciting, to say the least. We spent roundabout the first half-hour deciding who would be on the fireteam. At first, Eldernova had gone on about not wanting to be on the fireteam, because, in his own words, 'I only caused problems last time'. Both Eternity and Alaspakta (Alaspakta, who'd been far less subtle about it) had hushed him, which finally allowed us to continue the discussion rather than fall down another Skhorpyion hole of self-doubt. Quickly, I'd volunteered to join them, knowing that my Hydro/Biokinetic powers would be invaluable on an ocean world such as Ryph, and Eternity had more or less immediately agreed. Eternity herself, of course, elected to be part of the fireteam as well. She then asked Eldernova, in a far more gentle manner than Alaspakta had previously addressed him, to join us on our quest. Reluctantly, the Human agreed. For reasons unknown, Nocta had insisted that Rynn remain on the bridge - something to do with providing a third opinion for Helix and Arcturus, she'd said.