Chapter 12: Chapter 11 – Cid

"Impressive as always. But now that it's over, when do we plan on leaving Master?" Jasper said.
"Hmm, tomorrow we should set off. Hera, are you coming with us, or going back to the guild? As for you Eve, I'm going to set you up with one of my graduates who's here in Bellevue already. He's... a good hunter. A bit of a pain to deal with, but you shouldn't have too many problems." Master said with a smile.
Hera was silent for a few moments before responding. "This will actually be goodbye for me... for good. I was planning on leaving you a letter at the guild Master Godwin, but me and Master Yura are leaving with the next group heading through the portal. This was my last job here."
For about 15 seconds everyone there stared at Hera trying to get their heads wrapped around what she just said. Jasper was the first to react.
"Both of you are leaving?! Wait, I know things are bad here but I'm sure we'll figure it out. Neither The Church of Rai'ga, or the king and queen of the Seraph kingdom have given up yet. Lord Vincent is still holding the line in the mountains too!" Jasper replied, clearly exasperated.
Hera's expression grew a little more conflicted, softening slightly. "Jasper... it's over. I understand loving this moon, your home, but it's drawing its last breath. We've scoured everywhere we could, trying to find the source behind the vegetation dying and the clouds blocking the sky. Although the trees and grass might've been doomed from the start since Gaia has started going dark every 43 days, creating the freezing cold blackout. The only place we can't check is the frozen wastes, and now that the dwarves are dead we'll never be able to take the fight to the god in the north. Furthermore with the dwarves gone, who is creating and repairing the crystals Jasper? The answer is obvious... nobody is. I understand there is a huge undertaking from both the church and Seraph kingdom to figure out how to grow crops from magic for when the crystals start to run out, but the crystals are quickly diminishing in numbers, with no sight of anyone coming close to fixing the problem with magic. It's over Jasper... I don't see any hope for this place, no matter how much I love it."
"............"
Jasper looked down, his face pained more than I had ever seen it thus far.
"How often do people leave through the portal?" I shouldn't cut in here, but I'm curious if I should also be jumping ship. Especially after what I think I saw in the clouds earlier...
Master turned to look at me, "Barely anyone for the first ten years after everything changed. However, the past two years has seen a huge uptick in people fleeing the moon. The situation with the two Eldritch in the north and Rai'ga incinerating one town after another might have been the final straw for a lot of people who were too scared to jump through a portal that leads to an unknown location."
Hera told me the other day that Yura is his ex-wife. Things didn't quite work out with them, but they handled guild business together just fine. They also had several children who had already left through the portal, with the grandchild who died yesterday being the last one here (who promised to leave after this last hunt). If Yura leaves, doesn't that mean Master is the only one left? Odds are he'll leave too, I really should plan to follow them.
"Eve, your new master here is going to be perfectly honest with you. If I had found you ten or more years ago, I would have had you locked down in the guild with eyes on you at all times. Whatever is happening with you, is something that could answer several important questions regarding the nature of Eldritch, I can feel it. But now..." Master paused for a second, looking at Hera. "I don't blame my ex-wife or Hera for leaving, but I'm going to stay here till the end. I can die fighting in my home knowing that Yura will look after the rest of our family, hopefully in a much better place. As for you Eve, I'll let you choose to stay or leave, but my opinion on the matter is that you should stay for now. I'll have one of my older disciples teach you what he can, and then we'll put you to work in the guild while keeping an eye on you. We'll make a detailed diary of any changes that occur, what you're capable of, what you turn into, etc. etc. And when you decide you've had enough, I'll personally escort you to the portal, deal?"
I can understand the conflicted look on his face, he assumes it hurt me when he admitted to the fact that I'd be in a cage right now under normal circumstances. But honestly, I don't blame him. In fact I found it weird how open and friendly these three were with me. These two were probably just following his lead, which means ten or more years ago all three would've happily put me in chains somewhere.
"It's fine master, there's no ill-will here from me. I'll be staying here as long as I can. Anyways we can talk about me later, this is the last time you two will see Hera. Judging from Jasper's attitude, he will also never be walking through that portal. One last question though, how do you guys even know it's a portal if nobody ever comes back?"
"Oh there is two other portals we've found on our moon. One is an exit portal, and there is one other entrance portal in the frozen wastes. It hasn't happened much that we know of but we've had visitors from the exit portal. The most amazing visit was a group of beings known as 'elves'. They showed us how wrong we were to pursue only magic in our world. After all, if you train enough you can do anything with it, but thanks to that our technology never advanced at all. We never even considered that to be an issue till the elves showed up with weapons called 'guns'. Plus their armor was so unbelievably powerful that I recreated it in my mental palace just so I could marvel at it from time to time." Master regaled with a smile brighter than I thought possible on him. He looks happy like a child marveling at the unknown... I bet he really does want to leave this moon to meet more people like these 'elves'. Is it obligation keeping him here? It's not my place to ask so soon after meeting him. Still though, before I leave I will try and convince him to come with me.
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I wasn't sure what to make of their relationship but they must have been pretty close.
"Jasper hasn't come out of his room since then huh? Is he not planning to see you off?"

Hera turned to me and smiled. "Probably not? He was a student of Master Godwin's while I was a student of Master Yura's. Back in those days they both had way more kids learning under them. Fifty or more per master every year, with all of us competing against each other every chance we got. Me and Jasper were at the top of our class, which as you can see is how we ended up serving directly under our respective master. He's always been driven by his emotions above all else." Hera continued, dropping the smile. "Listen Eve, I'm still not sure what the best course of action is concerning you, and honestly, I'm more concerned with what is going to happen with my group when we pass through that portal. So for now I'll hope that Master made the right decision and pray that we all meet again one day. It probably won't be long before Rai'ga puts out a mandate suppressing anyone from leaving through the portal. He's looked the other way so far, but eventually that thing which believes this is his moon will no longer allow anyone to abandon him. When that time comes, do your best to convince those two to leave okay?"
"When that time comes I'll do my best Hera." I continued. "Now how about a goodbye kiss? Preferably full lips."
Hera smiled and ruffled my hair. "I'm not into girls silly. I should have told you sooner, but who doesn't like a little flirting?"
Behind Hera I could see Master and an older lady walking this way. So that's Yura... one of the most important people on this moon who's about to leave it for good.
"Well now, she's way cuter than you described Godwin." Yura said, smiling brightly.
She has long white hair that looks like it's well treated, barely any wrinkles on her face, a slim figure about 5'11... How is it that both Master Godwin and Yura are both old yet look middle-aged at the same time? None of the old people I've met so far have looked like this.
"Nice to meet you Master Yura. It's a shame this is also the last time we will see each other for many years."
"And good manners too! Are you sure you don't want to leave with us right now? Godwin's idea isn't bad, but I can train you as we explore other moons looking for a place to live." Yura replied.
"Leave the girl be Yura. I hate to cut this short but Cid is waiting for us, along with your own group doing the same back there. Jasper isn't gonna show up either so no point in waiting for him." Master cut-in, shaking his head.
"That boy always was too emotional. Oh well, nice to meet you Eve, and goodbye for now!" Yura waved as she walked away.
"Goodbye Master Godwin, so long for now Eve. Don't forget what I told you please." Hera bowed slowly before turning around and joining Yura near a long group of carriages.
Well that was... fast? I expected a goodbye party or a lot of hugging and crying.
"Master is it okay to say goodbye like that? We parted ways as if we were going to see them again this weekend."
"HA! It's completely normal for us Eve. Monster hunters die all the time, so we are use to loss or losing contact with people entirely. I still love that woman but instead of being sad, I'm glad she's heading to where our children are to look after them. Also I need to hurry and drop you off at Cid's, something very dire came up. I realized that if time was only rewinding for our moon, that would explain why the blackout would randomly start way too soon sometimes. We were taken completely by surprise soon after any Wrath of Rai'ga events, now I know why..."
So the church chose to keep that ability a secret, regardless of how many people died because of it. Everything I'm hearing makes them sound like monsters, but the people from the church who visited the compound were the only nice guests who ever showed up there.
"Eve before we leave, I'm sorry to tell you that the bookkeepers found absolutely nothing related to darkness spells. For now you'll just have to make-do with invisibility, which by itself, is already insanely powerful. You said it got better after absorbing Siv?" Master said, putting a hand to his chin.
"Yes! Isn't that amazing master?! At first I had to be in near pitch-black darkness and I couldn't move much without losing all my ether. Now I can sneak around at a decent speed and barely lose any ether at all. Light still drains it at an abnormal speed, but even that is way better than before."
"You called it evolving before... I think that might be a good term for it. I'm not exactly going to tell you to go out there and start absorbing powerful casters, but if you happen to eat people like Steward or Siv, I won't say anything. But try not to eat the innocents Eve, okay? We're already losing too many people as it is."
"Don't worry Master! I had touched people before Steward and none of them turned me into some sort of stalker-killer."
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We made our way from one Inn to another building that was clearly just another Inn.
"Uh master, I thought you said this Cid guy lives in town?"
"He does, this is his lodging." Master bluntly replied.
"... He lives in an Inn? Isn't this really expensive?"
"Oh no no, this is his moms Inn." Master said, shaking his hand.
Master Godwin reached out and opened the door before heading inside, I followed suit soon after.
It was completely silent in here besides one older lady sweeping the floor.
"Godwin!! So nice to see you again! The bum told me you'd be stopping by but I thought he was just making things up again." The lady exclaimed.
The bum? Is she talking about her son?
Godwin laughed, "No he's telling the truth this time Angela. I have someone here I want him to look after."
'Angela' looked at me. "You're still taking trainees? I don't know what you expect the extremely unemployed man upstairs to do for her, but he barely looks after his own daughter." Angela sighed. "Well in that case give me one second. CID GET DOWN HERE!! YOUR MASTER IS HERE!!!"
Not long after that I could hear multiple feet coming down the steps. A Kitsune girl with small brown braids who looked to be about twelve emerged, pulling the hand of a Kitsune man in a scraggy beard and uncombed long brown hair, wearing the baggiest clothes I have ever seen. I didn't even know clothes like this existed.
"Mr.Godwin!" The girl ran up and hugged Master's knees.
"Hoho look at how cute you've become! Has your father been treating you well?"
"Yes both father and grandma have been treating me well. Father has been trying to get a girlfriend, but it hasn't been going well..." The girl said, looking down.
"Hey! No need to tell them that Sachiko. I've just had a run of bad luck, that's all it was." The man said before looking at me. "So this is her huh..." A few seconds later he turned to the side and exhaled the biggest sigh I've ever heard.
...................................
"Oh quit your bitchin. They just got here and you're already sighing? Master Godwin forgive me for asking but is he going to get paid for this? He hasn't paid rent in quite awhile." Angela said with a hand to her face.
This is who he's going to have look after me?
"Don't worry Angela, that's exactly the amount he'll be getting paid. Directly to you of course." Master replied, smiling right at Cid.
"Are you kidding me? So I'm getting nothing for this??" Cid jumped in, looking offended.
Boy I can already tell I'm going to love this guy.
"Master seriously? Is there no one else to look after me while you go Eldritch hunting? I'd rather you brought me and trained me on the job over whatever this is going to turn into."
"Oh wonderful, you managed to make her reject you in a couple of seconds. How in the hell did you ever pass Master Godwin's training?" Angela said, looking like she was about to punch Cid.
"As I've said before Angela, despite how lazy he is, Cid was very good at investigative work and scouting. This is in response to you as well Eve. Considering your abilities, that's what role you'll take on when you join a monster hunting group. Either that or pure solo work when you've advanced enough to feel comfortable." Master said, looking between me and Angela.
"Solo work...? This girl?" Cid cut-in while staring at me.

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"Interested?" Master smiled again.
Cid stared at me for a good ten seconds before replying. "...... Alright fine. I do owe my wonderful and forgiving mother some money anyways."
"WONDERFUL!! Now I must leave and prepare everyone for an early blackout, goodbye for now everyone!" Master said, dashing out of the Inn.
Well that was fast, just like the goodbye to Hera. I guess he wasn't kidding about these people saying goodbye as fast as possible.
"You hungry dear? I can make you something to eat, anything you want!" Angela said with a smile.
This lady is really sweet so far to anyone who isn't her son.
"Um, I've always wanted to try pancakes. I kept forgetting to order them at the previous Inn."
"You've never had pancakes?!" Sachiko said, her eyes wide.
"Goodness! I don't know what life you led till now, but wait at any table you want sweetie, it won't take me long to whip some up."
"......"
I pick out the nearest chair and sit down, with Cid and his daughter sitting down at the same table directly afterwards. He's still staring at me.
"Tell me of your life till now. Master only mentioned the part about your invisibility and other... form." Cid said, tapping the table.
"Other form?" Sachiko echoed, looking at me.
"Sachiko don't ask her and don't you dare show her Eve. She has enough nightmares as it is." Cid cut-in.
It's not that nightmarish... I think? The tail is pretty gross but it's way harder now and not smelling so bad anymore, even when opening the tip.
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Needless to say, those pancakes and syrup were fantastic. Food didn't taste bad in the compound, but compared to the food I've eaten the past two weeks it definitely wasn't all that great.
Unfortunately my meeting with the master hunter has been a bust so far.
"So you draw around the body before moving it? Why??"
"Because it helps us remember the monster in its entirety to make a log of it back at the guild. Monsters come in a massive variety depending on whether a new Eldritch has shown up, but some monsters make re-appearances. It's best we learn what we can for those times. We use these bamboo sticks for dirt, and chalk for stone."
This is some of the dumbest shit I think I've ever seen. The part about making a log for the guild makes sense, and he's the expert so I should be listening to him but... I really don't see how this outline would help.
"Think fast!" Cid tossed a small threaded sack at me and I barely caught it.
"This isn't some sort of test to see my response time I hope?"
"Nope, now the real test begins. Drop it and kick it with the side of your foot into the air, keep it juggled for as long as you can. This may seem ridiculous but *trust me*, this is a very important test for monster hunters."
"................."
I dropped the sack and started kicking it up with my right foot.
"No no you need to alternate feet each time!" Cid yelled.
Swapping between feet each time made it way more difficult for sure, but what the hell is the point of this? After about 30 hits I slightly nicked it and it fell to the ground. Plopping down right into the mud, much like my enthusiasm for this whole fiasco. Then to drive it home the unshaven mess of a man shook his head at me and began speaking with obvious derision.
"Nope, this isn't going to work. You'll die within seconds out there. I need an apprentice that can do that for at least 3 hours straight. Now go back to your mother and have her teach you something useful, like washing or weaving." Cid said, picking up the sack.
Master, I think I'm going to eat your disciple, no hard feelings.
"And with that, I must leave. I have a very important appointment to keep that I simply must not miss."
"You have to go already? We just got started!"
The bastard was already running away towards the inn we met at earlier.
"Dad's going on a blind date later! How does he look?" Sachiko said.
"I think a chalk outline of him would be better looking."
Sachiko looked down going silent for a bit before talking. "... You know my dad is lying to you right?"
"No way, really?! Drawing around the body isn't good for hunting?! I was waiting for him to tell me to skin the monster and wear it as a suit so the others think I'm one of their own."
"He doesn't want an apprentice, he just wants to quit and get remarried. Settle down again you know? He hasn't been the same after mom and his apprentice died." Sachiko replied.
So he had an apprentice before that died? Also I thought he was just supposed to look after me? I had no idea I was supposed to become his apprentice.
"That's sad but what am I supposed to do then? Bear said I could learn a lot from this man and he's already wasting my time so he can go on another failed blind date."
"Bear??"
"Uh, I meant Godwin. For now let's go check in on your grandma and get some dinner."
"Okay good idea, I'm starving!" Sachiko replied, grabbing my hand.
... Now this brings back memories. Serah used to take me on walks before we were sold. I completely forgot about that till now.
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A few hours later Cid was back and sitting across from me at one of the tables in the Inn.
"So, can you really go invisible?" Cid asked.
"Yes."
"...."
"......."
"Seriously?" Cid asked incredulously.
"Yes, I can go invisible asshole. I can walk around at a sneaking speed in the darkness nearly forever, but running or any source of light will drain my ether very fast."
I can't help but be annoyed with him right now. This entire day was a waste of time, and surprisingly I'm sad over Hera leaving despite only knowing her for a few days.
"There is no need for name calling here. Hunters are very mature adult oriented speakers who don't throw around curse words, little cunt."
Oooh I'm gonna lose it---
Cid continued. "But invisibility huh... I've only heard about Steward and his dorky apprentice being able to use that. I figured they were lying but there's no way Master Godwin would mistake what he saw."
"Well I can show you if you want but I'd rather not do it right here with all these people around."
"Later, for now let's talk about your first mission. With a spell like invisibility I don't need to worry about you randomly dying... probably. We'll head to the guild tomorrow and they'll tell you all about your trial mission. When I was out earlier I stopped by and leafed through whatever problems were plaguing the area. There's one that I think is perfect for a trial mission. Tell my mom what you want in the morning, she'll wake you up when it's time to eat and leave. I'll take you to the guild but after the debriefing, you're on your own. Understand?" Cid said to me, with the first smile I've seen on his face.
Oh wow, so he wasn't just going on a blind date earlier? Or maybe he... no, I won't give him the benefit of the doubt yet.
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In my new room I'm finding it impossible to sleep. Staring at the ceiling, thinking about stalking and eating again.
..... My first monster hunt. I can feel the excitement boiling up again. Soon... so very soon...

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