Chapter 130: Chapter 129 – Cabin In the Woods

After minutes of intense sprinting, Boss stopped before the entrance of a clearing. The trees still towered over them and bushes blocked their path. In the clearing, Yuna spied a little cabin a few yards away made of wood that looked unoccupied. She took a quick glance at the forest around it and detected so signs of any monsters.

“This is the hideout,” Boss announced in a whisper. “I’ll go there first to scout it out. You all will spread out and hide until I come out and signal to you all to come in.”

“Your hideout looks pretty small,” Jackie commented. “It’s like one room. Is that enough for six people?”

“Seven people actually. And yes, it is big enough. Trust me.”

‘Seven?’

Boss didn’t elaborate and began to creep out of the trees into the clearing. Erica and Akira split and headed in opposite directions along the border of the clearing. Yuna followed their lead and found a large bush that she hid behind, laying flat on the ground. Jackie and Abel didn’t change their location but instead clamored up the trees.

Yuna watched as Boss crossed the field without a sound. She blended into the darkness around her and Yuna could barely track her movements. If she even looked away for a second, Yuna felt that she wouldn’t be able to find Boss again. Boss paused every few steps and looked around at the surroundings. When she was satisfied, she would move on and repeat the cycle. She did this until she reached the cabin where she cracked open the door and slipped inside.

‘She’s being very careful. But she detected that goat demon so easily. Is she unconfident in her skills?’ Yuna shook her head. That couldn’t be the case. ‘She’s probably really cautious.’

A minute later, Boss walked out of the cabin normally, the door opening wide and her stepping out calmly. Then she waved with her arms and Yuna saw Akira popped out of hiding and jog toward her. Yuna stood from her own hiding spot and headed to the cabin.

“So who’s your seventh person?” Jackie asked as she reached the porch of the cabin. 

“You should have seen her already,” Boss replied. “Sarah, the elf.”

‘Oh, I forgot about her. How did I forget about her?’ Yuna thought.

“She’s coming here later?” Jackie said.

“Yes. I contacted her while we were running here. She’s heading here right now and should be here very soon. Come on in.” Boss tilted her head toward the cabin and strolled in.

Yuna followed her inside and stopped and stared. The cabin was much larger than Yuna had expected. From the outside, the wooden place looked to be one room and big enough for maybe two beds and a small kitchen. But inside had a large living room with a kitchen attached to it. There was a small hallway that led to a few other rooms. She walked further into the cabin and saw that the rooms were a bathroom as well as two bedrooms.

‘How is this…? What?’

Akira went over to the couch that was in the living room and flopped down while Erica followed Boss into the kitchen. Jackie was looking around with an arched eyebrow while Abel seemed indifferent to their surroundings.

“Boss,” Yuna said, walking toward her in the kitchen. “What is this place?”

“It’s our hideout,” she said. “I did say that it was big enough for all seven of us didn’t I?”

“But how is a place like this possible?” Yuna said in disbelief. “Outside, this place was only one room. Inside, it’s like a small flat.”

“I honestly don’t know how,” Boss shrugged. “I was told of this place by Zoe and Tiar. They said that if I wanted a place to hide, this was the place. I’ve been here once or twice when I have some things I wanted to do but I don’t really understand what’s going on here.”

“Really?”

“Yes. I did some investigating of course, but I haven’t found anything concrete. I managed to find the spells that were cast on this place but I can’t figure them out completely yet. Erica, can you get the things out for me? I’ll be back really quick.”

Erica nodded and went to peruse the refrigerator that was sitting in the corner of the room. Boss beckoned to Yuna to follow her as she went somewhere in the cabin.

‘They even have electricity.’

“I found the spells here,” Boss said. She opened up a hidden panel within the wooden walls of the cabin. Inside the panel were a number of magic circles inscribed into a flat panel of wood that was a different color than the wood the cabin was made of. “I could understand most of them. This one generates electricity and this one manages the plumbing. This one then cleans the plumbing and normalizes it so that it could be released back into nature. But the important ones are the ones I don’t understand.”

She pointed toward the two biggest spells inscribed on the wood. Yuna examined them but could barely track what was going on within the spells. There was a jumble of lines and runes everywhere along with multiple spells that were integrated within other spells. But she could glean one thing from them.

“They’re quite beautiful,” she remarked.

Though the spells were a mess, it contained a certain chaotic beauty within it. The intricate lines wove patterns within the spell so complicated that a person wouldn’t be able to track one line without their eyes hopping to another. 

“They are,” Boss agreed. She stared at them for awhile before continuing. “Whoever created them is a master spell creator. They managed to make something so chaotic become something beautiful. They embraced the craziness and made it its shining trait. That’s why it works so well.”

She closed the panel and turned her head toward Yuna.

“It’s this beauty that makes it so difficult to understand. I can’t even track where each line ends and where it begins. I understand the parts that make it up, but I lack the knowledge on how it works. It’s like having the pieces of a really complicated piece of furniture but not having the instructions.”

‘She knows what these runes do?’

“So now you see why I don’t understand this place. I’m still trying but right now isn’t a good time to do that.”

“Thank you for showing me,” Yuna said. “I don’t normally get detailed answers for things like this.”

“No problem,” Boss replied. “I don’t know who you’ve been speaking to, but it’s normal to get complete answers to things like this. That’s why I said you could ask anything. We’re not going to try and hide things from you.”

“I see. So I can ask about even little things?”

“Yes, you can,” she said. She started to walk back to the kitchen and Yuna followed her. “But please try not to ask me to much little things. If it’s small, Akira would be a much better person to ask. Even some of the bigger things. She can explain them so much better than I can.”

“Thank you,” Akira said in reply, her voice muffled a bit from the pillow her face was laying on. It seemed that she hadn’t fallen asleep. “I try.”

“I know,” Boss said. “What do you want for dinner? I’m going to cook right now.”

“Anything really.”

“You always say that. I’ll ask Erica then. She’s a bit picky at times.”

“Go ahead. I trust her tastes.”

Boss went back into the kitchen and talked to Erica for a bit before firing up the electric stove. Yuna went to sit on the loveseat that was next to the couch that Akira was laying on.

“How were the spells?” Akira asked, propping her head up. “They’re not something you see everyday.”

“They were something to say the least,” Yuna replied. “I’ve never seen spells like them before.”

“That’s because they’re ancient,” Akira said. “I did some testing and dated them back to about a thousand years old. The other spells were much more recent. Only a few hundred years ago.”

‘One thousand years?!’

“In the modern day, we can’t make spells like those anymore,” she continued. “We’ve lost all of the knowledge for spell crafting and now only reuse the simpler ones. Since we don’t understand the ancient spells, we can’t visualize them and give them intent and so they would never work.” Akira gazed off into the distance as she spoke. “Imagine if we could. The things we could do today. What we could have. It’s an amazing thing isn’t it? We lost everything within a couple hundred years. We don’t even know who created spells in the first place.”

“I see.”

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Akira apologize with an embarrassed smile. “I tend to go on and on about things like this. I’m probably boring you.”

“No, no it’s fine,” Yuna waved. “It’s interesting. But don’t we know who made these spells? They came from the gods didn’t they?”

“Ah, that’s what people say but that isn’t necessarily the truth,” Akira answered, her eyes brightening. “What is of popular belief isn’t always correct. They may have come from the gods, but we have proof that people can create spells as well. If spells are possible to fabricate by mortals, then what’s to say that we didn’t make the spells we know today?”

“That’s true. But where’s the proof for this? I’ve never heard of such things. I’ve heard of people adapting spells but never creating new ones.”

“The proof is standing in the kitchen right now,” Akira smiled. “Boss is the proof.”

Yuna tilted her head and gave her a questioning look.

“I won’t elaborate on that, sorry. But just, you know, keep an open mind. The world is mysterious. There’s many things we don’t know about yet. And that’s what makes living so exciting.”

Yuna nodded and Akira fell quiet. The sounds of cooking invaded the silence and Yuna watched Boss as she threw together a meal. When she was done, she called everyone over. 

“Also, Sarah should be here just about now,” she said. “So if you hear knocking, that’s probably her.”

She gave out plates to everyone and they began to eat. There was a dining table but everyone scattered about as they ate. A minute later, knocking came from the door. Boss opened it up and Sarah walked in, panting lightly. She was handed a plate of dinner and everyone ate in silence.

‘Keep an open mind,’ Yuna repeated in her head. It was a phrase she was hearing a lot recently. ‘I thought I always had an open mind.’

But it seemed that her initial feeling was wrong. Her old ideas were being constantly challenged in the last day, sometimes directly and other times indirectly. Yuna recognized her own resistance to these attacks on her old ideas.

‘But I can’t be stupid about this. I have to at least consider those positions. Otherwise I would just be sitting in a little bubble.’

Though she thought that, in reality, she knew that it was easier said than done. The idea of working with criminals bothered her. The idea that killing can be justified disturbed her. And the idea of demons she just didn’t know any more.

‘I wish there was a way I could just snap my fingers and everything would just fall into place,’ she sighed. She shoved her thoughts aside for the time being and finished her dinner.

“If you want to shower or anything, the bathroom is completely outfitted with all of your basic needs,” Boss announced to everyone. They had finished eating and were placing their plates in the sink where Erica was washing them. “We’ll be heading to bed in about an hour or two.”

The others voiced their understanding and began to do their nightly routines before bed. Yuna headed to the bathroom where she took a quick shower. She found clothes inside a closet that fitted her decently well and put them on. Then she brushed her teeth and went back into the living room. There, she saw Erica, Akira, and Boss sitting in a circle on the floor. They were playing what looked to be some type of digital board game that was being projected from Boss’s watch.

“Oh, Yuna,” Erica said as she approached. “Want to join us? We’re going to play a few games before going to bed.”

“No, I’m fine,” she replied. “I want to go to sleep right now actually. It’s been a, um, busy day.”

Her mind was in a chaotic mess. Half of her wanted to ignore it and deal with it later while the other half wanted to straighten things out right now. 

‘I just can’t do this right now,’ she thought. She started scratching an itch on her back. ‘I need some place quiet.’

“I just wanted to know where I could sleep,” she said out loud. 

“Anywhere you want,” Boss answered. “I don’t really care. I’ll be sleeping in the living room anyway.”

“You are?” Akira asked. 

“Yes.”

“Then let me sleep here too.”

“If you want,” Boss shrugged. Akira smiled and went back to the board game.

‘She seems happy to not sleep on the bed.’

“If both of you sleep here then I am too,” Erica announced. “I can do that right?”

“Sure,” Boss said. “But I just have one sleeping bag.”

“We’ll just have to share then,” Erica replied brightly. 

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“I don’t care. If you want then that’s fine.”

“Share?” Akira said, an odd expression on her face. “You mean, we’re all going to be in one sleeping bag?”

“You can sleep on the couch if you want,” Boss said with another shrug. “You don’t want to sleep with us?”

“No!” she said. She covered her mouth and spoke again in a more neutral voice. “No, I’m fine with sleeping together. We do it all the time anyway.”

“But this is in a tight sleeping bag where we’re all going to be pressed together,” Boss pointed out. “Are you sure?”

“Yes,” Akira said, nodding her head. She looked a bit red but Yuna couldn’t tell why. “It’ll be more comfortable anyway.”

‘Really?’

“Anyway, Yuna. You can sleep anywhere,” Boss repeated. “There will probably be a room open since I assume Jackie and Abel don’t mind sharing. You might need to share a room with Sarah but each room has two beds so I don’t think that will be a problem.”

“Okay. I’ll be going to bed then,” Yuna said. The three bade her goodnight and she headed to bed.

Laying in bed, she stared at the ceiling of the cabin. She said she wanted to sleep early, but actually sleeping was an entirely different task. She listened to the chirping crickets as they called out for their partner. She heard the shower running inside the bathroom, Sarah inside it. And inside her own mind, Yuna could hear the clamoring of thoughts struggling to break out. 

‘Please stop head. I need to sleep.’

‘No. You need to answer,’ they responded. ‘Look at us. What if everything you’ve been taught was a lie?’

‘That’s impossible. Being a good person isn’t wrong.’

‘But do you have the right motivations? Does being a good person just to be a good person really make you one?’

‘Maybe not to yourself but to others it would.’

‘Who cares what others think.’

‘I care. Captain always said to be the ideal you to others even if you yourself don’t believe it.’

‘But why? Why make yourself better for them and only suffer on the inside for yourself? Boss said to be who you are.’

‘That’s impossible. I’m part of LIA. I’m supposed to be a role model.’

‘Do role models lie? Do they turn their eyes away from injustice?’

‘Those were necessary. Murder was necessary for the greater good.’

‘No, not that. How about the demons that were imprisoned so cruelly? You barely thought about it.’

‘That’s. That’s true.’

‘A decision needs to be made. Who are you? A role model or someone who does what’s needed? Those two things aren’t mutually exclusive.’

‘This is bigger than just that. My ideals that I’ve been raised with are being challenged here. It isn’t simply make a choice.’

‘But it’s at least a step in understanding yourself. Choose what makes sense and leave what doesn’t. No one is saying to only take one side. Like Boss said, be flexible.'

‘I want to. I really do. I don’t know how.’

‘Just start. Do you think demons are evil?’

‘I did but they seem normal. At least the ones I’ve seen. I don’t know about any others.’

‘Is murder justified sometimes?’

‘It can be, but murder is still wrong. Killing should be avoided as much as possible.’

‘Is right and wrong always black and white?’

‘It should be.’

‘But is it?’

‘...No.’

‘Can the Captain be wrong at times?’

‘He’s never been wrong before. I trust him completely.’

‘But can he be wrong?’

‘I, I guess. He is a person.’

‘So how do you know that everything he’s told you was right?’

‘Stop. That’s insubordination. That’s the first thing in the LIA that everyone is taught not to do.’

‘Just answer the question.’

‘Hypothetically no, but you aren’t supposed to question orders.’

‘Why? Don’t you have the right to know?’

‘It’s for efficiency.’

‘No, it’s just blind faith and you know it.’

“Yuna,” a voice whispered into her ear. “Is everything okay?”

She opened her eyes with a gasp and found Boss kneeling next to her with a curious expression on her face. It seemed that she had fallen asleep without realising it. And that the entire argument was just in her head.

‘Blind faith. That’s not what it is right?’

“Yuna?” Boss repeated.

“I’m fine. I’m fine,” Yuna replied. “Just some odd dreams, that’s all.”

Boss stared at her, her eyes piercing right through Yuna’s meek attempt to hide. She shook her head and stood.

“Come. I want to show you something.”

“Show me what?” Yuna asked, confused. She had expected another small lecture or a deep conversation. 

“Come,” Boss gestured. Yuna still didn’t understand and Boss sighed. She grabbed Yuna’s arm and pulled her up. “Come.”

Like a ghost, she drifted over the wooden floors of the cabin, her footsteps not making a single panel creak. Yuna followed her, her wrist still in Boss’s hand as she was led out of the cabin. They walked into the forest behind the cabin, neither saying a word.

“Here we are,” Boss said in a quiet voice. 

Boss walked out of the trees and was suddenly bathed in a silvery glow. She stared off into the sky for a bit, Yuna watching her with wide eyes.

“Look,” she said, motioning with her head for Yuna to follow.

Yuna walked out and gasped. Before her was wide lake with water so clear that it looked almost like glass. Small ripples danced across its surface, the water flickering as it reflected the shining stars that filled the night sky above it. And it seemed to glow. The lake emitted a silver light the same color as the light that surrounded Boss. 

“What is this?” Yuna breathed. 

“Celeste Lake or as it was called in the old days, Mirror of Heaven,” Akira’s voice answered. Yuna looked down and found her sitting at the edge of the lake. Erica was next to her. 

“It’s glowing,” Yuna said in amazement. “How?”

“It’s mana, Yuna,” Boss replied. “This lake is a beautiful mixture of mana and water. That’s what you’re seeing.”

“Amazing.”

“Come, sit with us,” Boss said. She sat between Akira and Erica and motioned to the empty space next to her. 

Yuna slowly walked to the spot and sat down stiffly, placing her hands neatly on her lap and crossing her legs. 

“Aww, don’t be like that,” Erica said.

Erica scooted closer to Yuna and she was pushed closer to Boss until their shoulders were touching. Then Erica rested her head on Yuna’s shoulder and stared at the shining mirror in front of them.

“I’m sorry,” Yuna said to Boss.

“Why?” Boss said. “I don’t mind.”

Then they watched the scene in front of them. The rippling water created mesmerising patterns that captivated Yuna’s attention. And the warmth that surrounded her kept away the cool evening breeze. 

“So what do you think?” Boss asked quietly. They didn’t take their eyes off of the spectacle before them.

“Thank you. For showing me.”

“I felt that you needed it. It’s the least I can do for my family.”

‘Family, is it?’ Yuna thought. ‘Is this a family?’

The warmth around her and the beauty before her. The companionship with the people next to her. And the caring people that only knew her.

‘Maybe it is.'

 

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