Part 8

As soon as they got out, the party ran to the nearby beach, left their bags behind, took off their shoes, Kelin removed his armour and went for a swim. After hours of spending the time in the volcano, they needed to refresh themselves. They didn't care that they were still fully clothed, they needed to cool down. They even played with the water like children. While if anyone had seen them, they would have thought they were idiots, no one cared about that. They earned their right to behave stupidly. After an hour, they collected themselves and made a camp to dry off for the night. The next morning they prepared the canoe, loaded everything they have taken from the volcano and went on the river back to the Crescent Lake City. After hell that was the volcano, the party felt far more comfortable fighting the river monsters who stood no chance.

The news of the defeat of Fiend of Fire reached the Kingdom as the volcano settled down so when the Warriors of Light arrived at the city gates, they were received as heroes so a celebration was held in their honour. The Twelve Sages and even the Queen herself congratulated the heroes for their successes. A party was held in their honour at the royal castle. While others were enjoying themselves, Lewyn was approached by many, including the Queen, to discuss his future plans. While he admitted that he currentky he had too much on his platter to do anything on the Calatian front, he wasn't ready to rule out any help others wanted to give him. During these conversations he had discovered what would become the next mission for the Warriors of Light. As a way of getting stronger, Queen Iroha suggested visiting the Cavern of Ice. It was said that following the fall of their civilization the Sky People hid something there called levistone and then merged with the local people with this becoming a myth. Lewyn had managed to get interest from others in this mission so they eventually agreed to visit that cavern as their next objective. As a thank-you to them Queen had promised to search the historical records to see what they could find on their end. With this the party had a new mission. Unfortunately, Sead was again forced to be left behind. While clearly sad about it, he did promise the party to remain there until they returned. He also sent a letter to Izumo to give the ship crew explanation on what was going on.

After preparations for the journey was complete, the party returned to the same place where they launched last time and, with another set of goodbyes, left for the Cavern of Ice. Hoshidans, realizing the small problem with this plan, managed to intercept the party before they went too far. As it turned out, due to poor map reading, the party was sent on the wrong river as that one didn't connect to the way to the Cavern of Ice. Realizing how big this blunder was, the party and Hoshidans promised to cover up this by saying that they were investigating a series of hydra attacks since the party already encountered several of them. With that, they returned to the city, slept in the inn one last time and together with Sead returned to Izumo. Crew was surprised to see them after Sead's letter, but they got quickly over that and went on their journey to the port of Kohga. After a nice reception there, they again said their goodbyes to the crew and continued on their journey. After reaching the river, they set up camp where Sead would be waiting for them and set forth on the right river this time. However, the river layout still caused them some issues as they ended up accidentally in Whisperwind Cove where they met a strange man that they couldn't understand. Finally, after several days of search, they have found the right place and entered the Cavern of Ice.

As part of the welcoming committee, two groups of piscodemons were awaiting the Warriors. This battle served as a nice test battle to see what kind of conditions would they encounter in the Cavern. Due to his preference for light clothes and often showing his bare chest, Lewyn was suffering a lot from the low temperature so he had to put on a lot of layers. Rosch and Mari, meanwhile, were handling the cold a bit better due to their cloaks so all they needed was one more layer. Kelin was suffering the least due to his Flame Mail he took from Mount Gulg which made the conditions liveable and even thriving. Overall, the temperature shock wasn't as severe as at Mount Gulg. Even the ice wasn't as much of a problem as it was expected. While you could still easily slip, which often they did along with the monsters, the thin layer of snow did make most of the surface safe for fighting. And fighting would happen often as a lot of monsters roamed the cave. As it turned out, a lot of dark elf wizards have been using the cave to create undead, mindflayers and cockatrices who tried to destroy the ones their creators deemed their enemy. By now they have learned about their king's fall and felt saddened by it. To think by complete accident his killers appeared in the same cave they were occupying was simply astonishing. With suicidal tendencies they stroke at the party. Meanwhile the party, unaware of what exactly monsters were doing in this cave, chalked this up to the animosity they have been drawing up and continued the exploration.

Taking the well travelled path that the monsters have made, the party descended down two floors fighting  lots of undead in the process. Mari's Diara and Diaga spells were very useful as they made the job very easy. Soon enough they have found an interesting room. There were two chests near the entrance and a big crystal on a pedestal. While others were checking the chests, Lewyn went to check the crystal. In the first chest they found just some clothes while in the second one Rosch found a flame sword. Similar magical blade to the one Kelin was carrying, he was very happy to show others his find. But before they could see it for themselves, they heard a crack and Lewyn's yelling as they turned in his direction only to find him missing. They started running to see what happened and noticed a hole in the floor Lewyn fell through. While they were surrounding the hole to see what happened to their friend, Lewyn already stood up and confirmed he was fine. Their moment of relaxation was cut as the cracks started expanding and this time Rosch fell through. As Kelin and Mari moved away from the unstable ice, Lewyn was checking on his friend. Rosch was thankfully mostly fine and quickly used Cure on himself and Lewyn for any injury they might have taken. They confirmed to the now upper team that they were fine. Hearing that, the upper team wanted to go around the hole to that pedestal, but Rosch talked them out of it. "It appears that whole section of the floor between you and the pedestal is quite thin and can crack easily. At least from what can we see down here." Kelin thought of maybe trying to jump over the thin section, but that was quickly shut down as he would most likely slip or not jump far enough. Mari tried to safely climb down with the rope she and Kelin had in their backpacks. But due to the distance between the wall and the current hole, they would have needed the rope from the lower team too.

While the upper team was trying to decide on what to do, the lower team heard the undead approaching. They ignored the sound of Mari's spell and were readying themselves to a fight when both Mari and Kelin suddenly fell down to their floor. Thinking the entire ceiling might be collapsing, they guarded themselves, allowing the undead to freely attack them. Mari, as soon as she stood up, casted Diaga to quickly wipe out the approaching undead. With that now over, Rosch and Lewyn looled at the ceiling and noticed that the hole wasn't any bigger so they were surprised. As soon they wanted to ask what happened, they noticed that the upper team was surrounded with bright light, a sign of Protect spell being active so they quickly pieced together the truth. In what could be considered as the dumbest brilliant idea, Mari, knowing others were about to fight a large horde of undead, casted Protega on her and Kelin and jumped down the hole. Rosch and Lewyn couldn't hold their laughter at that. They didn't expect they would have been so reckless. After a minute or two they composed themselves and then everyone continued exploring the cave as now they were searching for a new exit.

The floor that they fell to had some surprises awaiting for them. Namely the white dragons who used the environment to try and surprise the party in ambush as well as winter wolves who were among the rare brand of monsters capable using spells in form of Icestorm. Thankfully not all surprises were bad as they found two rooms with treasures in them. One filled with gil and the other one with Ice Armour and Mythril Gloves in it. While the armour could have been of great help to Kelin back when they explored Mount Gulg, at least now they could earn some good money for it. Soon enough they found the stairs that led them back to the first floor. While exploring the first floor, they entered that held quite a surprise to them. They found a group of dark elves there. While they were trying to realize what was happening, dark elves, realizing nothing that they have sent against the Warriors succeeded, prepared to cast spells while yelling: "FOR OUR KING!" Before the party could ask any questions, they were forced to attack them lest they be killed. While they stopped most of the casters from attacking, one had managed to cast Fire spell that hit Kelin and melted the floor below him, causing him to fall to the floor below. As soon as they finished killing the enemies, everyone went to check on him. Thankfully he was alright and, as it turned out, quite lucky as he ended up in the same room as that pedestal, but he was across and could now reach it. While he decided to pick up the stone on it, others took ropes from their bags and, with chests present in the room, managed to bring Kelin and the stone back up. After that they explored the room to pick up treasures and try to piece out what happened. From what they could gather, this group of dark elves was breeding an army here and by pure chance the Warriors of Light had stopped them in their tracks. As for treasure, they found more gil and a nice Ice Shield. With everything in room cleared, they returned to explore and find another exit. After discovering another set of stairs and melting the thin ice at the top of it, they discovered that this took them back to the entrance and soon enough they were outside.

After more marching and canoeing across land and river and more fights with monsters, they finally returned back to Kohga where they showed their prizes from the trip. The next morning the ship sailed forth towards Izumo in order to return back to the capital. A few monsters messed up by thinking Sea Queen was an easy target which was quickly rectified. In the end the journey ended up mostly peaceful without too many distractions. The party was warmly welcomed back at the palace where the Twelve Sages had scoured through all known records to see what they could they found about the levistone. They also confirmed that the stone the party brought along was indeed the levistone. From what could they piece together from the official records the story was this: 400 years ago the Fiend of Air suddenly appeared out of nowhere and destroyed the civilization in the sky. While the fate of most of the population was unknown, there was records of one airship escaping to Feinan to avoid the destruction. In order to hide their presence from the destroyer of their civilization, they removed the power source of the ship, the levistone, and hid it in the Cavern of Ice. Meanwhile, they hid the airship somewhere to the south. Eventually they blended with rest of the Hoshidan population which made tracking down information that much harder. While others had a curious look as they were listening, Lewyn started to get annoyed as he continued listening. It seemed like he realized where they should look and he wasn't too happy about it. As the party was going back to their inn to rest, they were surprised to hear that Lewyn was called to the royal palace. Thinking it might have been another mysterious political meeting, they left him to his advices. Lewyn passed through the palace gate, climbed up several flights of stairs and arrived at the door to the royal throne, expecting another long meeting about Calatia. He was surprised to see that there was only one person awaiting for him. The Queen Iroha Kazama herself.

Iroha: "Finally. I have been waiting for you."

Lewyn: "I am at Your Majesty's service."

Iroha: "Can we please drop the honorifics? I just wanted to talk alone to you."

Lewyn: "Are you sure, Your Majesty?"

Iroha: "I just want someone from my Academy days to address me as a regular person for once."

Lewyn: "Very well, Iroha. What did you want to talk about?"

Iroha: "About your plans for the future. As I understand it, you have been gathering support to restore the Kingdom of Calatia."

Lewyn: "That wouldn't exactly be true. I was offered the support, sure, but I have no current intentions to actually do it. I still need to consult with my sister to see what she thinks."

Iroha: "Have you spoke to Lianna recently?"

Lewyn: "No, I haven't been there since I left 18 months ago. How is she?"

Iroha: "From what I saw on the last clan heads meeting, she was fine, just distressed. Apparently, there is a large influx of people wishing to learn martial arts and self defence from across the world. I don't blame them with everything that is happening, but it is putting some clans on unease since they could easily be used as the clan's army."

Lewyn: "I guess fear from 10 years ago hadn't disappeared as many people had hoped. Speaking of which, how is your father?"

Iroha: "He is finally doing better. It seems the abdication was the right choice."

Lewyn: "Can you blame him? The decisions he was forced to make about the war 10 years ago never sit well with him. Being forced to order the deaths of your in-laws because they were part of the conspiracy will leave a bad taste in your mouth, no matter who you are or your relations with the in-laws."

Iroha: "Do you wish to enact revenge against the conspirators or their families?"

Lewyn: "And what would be the point? The conspirators were all executed, their families stripped of power and banished and the dark elves driven back and are now nearly extinct. To whom exactly can I make my revenge?"

Iroha: "Aren't you one of 4 Warriors of Light that have slain Astos?"

Lewyn: "Well, yes, and I loved every second of pummelling him in that hideous form of him. But that was fate, not my search, that led me to him. If he wasn't an idiot and tried to trick us with an obvious trick, I don't know if I would ever met him otherwise. The same thing I can say about the elves from Cavern of Ice. We had no idea they were there."

Iroha: "I see. I guess keeping your life as simple as possible does have some advantages."

Lewyn: "Speaking of other people's lives, how are you holding up? I haven't seen you since your coronation."

Iroha: "Somehow I am managing. Managed not to collapse the country into a civil war in my first two years of rule so that's a plus."

Lewyn: "Have you spoken with your brother?"

Iroha: "Rai? Yeah, he often visits the capital so I always try to find time for him."

Lewyn: "Does he miss his old role?"

Iroha: "Yes, he does. However he doesn't regret his actions. He wanted to protect our cousins from further harm that their parents caused."

Lewyn: "And so the promising Crown Prince resigned and became the official ambassador. Any idea where he is now?"

Iroha: "Pravoka. Thanks to your effort, the city state is now free, so we are free to use northern land routes for trade again. He has been sent to negotiate with City Council and reopen the embassy."

Lewyn: "Good to see our efforts are paying off."

Iroha: "As for me, as you can see I am struggling with the current crises that have risen recently. Not to mention the potential suitors wishing for an audience."

Lewyn: "I can only wish you good luck on that front."

Iroha: "I wouldn't need it if a certain someone would accept my advances."

Lewyn: "You still on that? I beg of you, please forget about me and find someone better than me."

Iroha: "Easy for you to say. Even after knowing about my feelings, you still reject me so coldly. Look at me. A queen of a nation is practically throwing herself into your arms and you wouldn't even consider it."

Lewyn: "Of course. I know fully well that if I spend even one night making love with you, one of us would regret it, if not both."

Iroha: "You truly believe that?"

Lewyn: "Remember what happened when I failed the exam from history? You, Lianna and a few other girls forced me to appear on your study session, otherwise you would volunteer me for cleaning duty. Remember that?"

Iroha: "Oh, yeah."

Lewyn: "During that session, I had to step out for some time and then returned back. Well, I never told this to anyone until now, but I returned earlier and just stayed back until you finished with your conversation."

Iroha: "Really? Wait, what were we talking about then?"

Lewyn: "Now, I don't have the full context, but by the time I got there, you were talking about romantic partners and what you wished about them."

Iroha: "Wait. You heard that?"

Lewyn: "Yes. And I still recall what you wanted out of your one. A kind, gentle man. One that you could count to be there for you always. One that would make you unique, like you were the most special person in the whole world."

Iroha: "I can't believe you still remember that."

Lewyn: "That's because you reminded me of those words as soon as you started showing affections towards me. That was the day I swore never to have any sexual relations with you."

Iroha: "But why? Am I so repulsive to you you would take any other girl over me?"

Lewyn: "You answer me this. You know me. You know my sister. Hell, you know how my clan works in terms of sex and marriage. So tell me, what traits do I have that you want in your ideal romantic partner, hm?"

Iroha: "Well, I have seen you being gentle and kind."

Lewyn: "Alright. What about other things? Can you accept me going out there, sleeping with other men and women while you remain here? You would happy with me bringing more spouses to our home?"

Iroha: "Well, I wouldn't be too happy, but I am willing to accept the true you."

Lewyn: "Stop lying to yourself. If this was easy to accept as you now claim it is, you would have slept with Lianna by now. I understand that this isn't easy to accept. One of the main life lessons that every clansmen has to learn is that while we accept polygamy and bisexuality as normal, it's not something that is common outside our domain. Many end up choosing just one gender or even just one spouse and that is perfectly fine. No need to force someone be what they are not. Look, you are a beautiful woman and any guy, whether you choose him or arrange for him to marry you, will be lucky to have you. But I don't want you to settle for me when there are better options than me."

Iroha: "And what if we still get married and then I find another guy for us or me to marry? What about that option?"

Lewyn: "I have yet to see you even try that option so excuse me if I don't trust you at all on that."

Iroha: "So where does this leave me then?"

Lewyn: "Somewhere with an important experience, I hope. As a queen of the biggest nation in the world, you need to learn how to handle rejections and how you won't get everything you want."

Iroha: "You think that will be easy?"

Lewyn: "No. All I can give you is take one step at the time. I am sure you will eventually find someone just as much as me."

Iroha: "I hope so. Speaking of steps, I assume your next move is going back home?"

Lewyn: "It seems so. There aren't too many places you can hide something like that airship south from here. Ryukahn Desert is our most likely bet. Even if that means we have scour the entire desert for it."

Iroha: "You don't seem too happy."

Lewyn: "It's one thing to go there and train. It will be another thing searching that big haystack for the needle."

Iroha: "Well, I wish you luck."

Lewyn: "And I to you."

Iroha: "Hm? Does this mean you won't be coming back here?"

Lewyn: "Oh, no. You will be seeing more of me. I am talking about the journey you will be undertaking. Am I wrong?"

Iroha: "..."

Lewyn: "Anyway, I will see myself out. Good night, Iroha."

Iroha: "Good night."