The Star 13

"Oh gods! It was this night!? No wonder you're so quick to be on your way... I'm so embarrassed I could die," a man's mental voice said while looking at a pair of dirty socks and an open book about the saucy misadventures of a promiscuous Marshlander maid.

Sonny, who had been frozen in apprehension, let out a muffled laugh in the woods. "I didn't notice until you said something. Now, I can't un-notice. Pardon me for not thanking you... Either way, what's there to be embarrassed about? What a guy does in the privacy of their own room is their business. An interloper has no room to complain."

Careful not to wake the teen, a substantial older ghostly copy of him picked up the book and carefully stuffed it under the mattress. "Tell that to my mom. All I'm going to say is that you saved me twice in one go. Nothing quite as bad as the horrified look of a mother forced to realize her baby has turned into one of the despised menfolk in her life. Let her keep her illusion for a little while longer."

When the substantial but still slightly transparent man walked up to where Sonny stood in the woods, he felt like he had said something wrong and had an epiphany. "Oh... right. Hey, I can't give you your mom back but I can share some memories of me with mine."

Adult Cray raised a transparent hand like he was offering a shake.

Sonny shook his head. "I appreciate it but I have specific instructions to follow. I'm already breaking them a little but it's not as if you're an enemy, right?"

The archer said, "I'll have to take your word for it. You were always doing things I didn't quite understand. Guess this is one of those. Ah... at least let me thank you for returning my bow to me. Or... would sneaking into my dad's hooch that he hid and forgot about mess something up somehow."

Sounding uncertain, the young adept said, "If you found it before you left for service, it might. Hiding that book to escape a scolding from your mother might too but..."

The man chuckled. "That's not technically the real me anymore. He'll follow along his predestined line as long as things don't get thrown too far out of whack."

The young adept shrugged. "You'd know better than me and this world tends to auto correct certain things anyway... Maybe we could swap a drink with no harm done but we need to do it farther away from here... Why does your house have to be so far from everything?

"The nearest Silent Order buried teleportation beacon is miles away. So much so that crossing a large chunk of mountain pass was faster than coming north from it. My instructions said that you lived off the beaten track but this is... something else."

Cray scratched his head. "I didn't realize you were hoofing it that bad. You want a lift somewhere?"

Sonny looked at the man uncertainly but relented. He didn't know quite why but something about Cray put him at ease. It didn't seem particularly supernatural but more an intuitive understanding of the man's wholesome nature and genuine goodwill.

"If I say I need to pick up Patrick and head underwater... would you understand?" the young adept said hopefully.

The next part of his instructions were tightly packed together and only asked him to make as much haste as possible. He wondered silently if the person who made the instructions had a premonition that this friendly fellow might end up giving a helpful hand. If so, he wondered why it wasn't in the instructions.

Cray looked a little confused and said, "That narrows it to two... Oh, you're going to go pick up Lily with Patrick in tow? That's an odd combination but sure. I can do that."

After quickly snatching a jar of clear hooch from some hidden place, the archer materialized a silvery bow that looked more real than himself. He closed his eyes and let loose an invisible arrow. Placing a hand on Sonny's shoulder, they traveled in a warp of scenery. The blur began to slow and they were standing at the foot of a broken down bed with a miserable architect's apprentice in it. With another closed eye release of invisible arrow, he grabbed a hold of the young adept and reluctantly reached for Patrick's poorly patched, wool sock covered foot.

In an underwater pocket of relatively clean air in a temple ruin, the archer attempted to mollify the wet and terrified guy as Sonny used one of the black opals to open, snatch bodies and close the gate. Surprisingly, the young adept's suit found the place where it was and the large island nearby chocked full of its favorite snack, grudge and curse energy. Restoring Lily to functionality within minutes was nearly as easy as breathing.

With a gently given command to follow the nice lady, Sonny turned from Patrick to Lily as she said, "Is there anything I can do for this kindness? I don't even know who you are? This has all been such a rush of events after so long of hopeless waiting."

Seeing her stare expectantly at his featureless helmet, Sonny said, "If it won't cause you discomfort, a simple hug and well wishes would be appreciated."

Smiling, she did just that.

She gave one to Cray as well and whispered a question to the ethereal man that caused him to blush furiously. "No mam. He's a friend I'd do nearly anything for but we ain't like that."

Giggling a little manically, she disappeared with a still confused Patrick in tow while Sonny shook his head and sighed. "She's such a nice lady too. Well, she's been through a lot. If it helps her live fully in spite of her personal tragedies, let her be, I guess."

Looking a little awkward, Cray said, "Is there something about me that would make her ask a thing like that? I know I ain't no Hefty but..."

Sonny mentally checked his list. "Is Hefty, Centurion Calix? I have a warning here not to reveal my face to him because of where we'll meet. He's not very picky what he'll swing his club at when he's not...satisfied..."

Somewhat shocked, Cray said, "I know he'd kid around, especially with Mellow but... I thought that was only him joshing."

Sonny shrugged. "I don't know him personally..."

Bitterly, he added, "She probably teased you because she liked you a little."

Thinking the young adept needed some kind of return compliment by the unhappy sound of his voice, Cray said, "If you took off that helmet, I'm sure she wouldn't have even noticed me."

The young adept wasn't about to embarrass himself by pointing out that his profile on her specifically mentioned that she was into powerful and mature looking men. It felt too much like losing. Instead, he pulled out his second to last bottle of Doc Agave, broke the ring out of the other mummy's rib and tossed a shot of the liquor down its throat after sticking the crude carving on its chest from the ring.

Sitting down, they shared each others' booze while waiting for the shyster monk to recover, as Cray said, "I feel kind of outclassed. Going off the message slapped onto my bow, I didn't think you'd have this stuff with you."

Sonny replied, "Your dad made that, right? How can you compare something with a special ingredient to something made by a special person? It's like comparing survival with love."

Giving Sonny a watery smile, Cray said, "I'm... glad you get it."

"The memories were taken from me but I carried a little bottle of my dad's degreaser, rust remover stuff with me just so I could keep something... you know, with me. How could I not get it? Besides, I might not be able to mess with his fate but you could if you wanted to. Just a warning, though. There's no guarantee that it would make things better," the young adept said.

Cray shook his head. "He's a simple man and mom's a simple woman. They're... happy for now and they die with clean souls ready for another simple but good life. How could I drag them into our world?"

Suddenly feeling like he might have done a bad thing, Sonny asked, "Do you regret being dragged into this world?"

The archer said, "I have once or twice but... overall, I wouldn't go back. I didn't have what it took to make it on this side of things before but now I do. I wasn't so happy with a simple, good life. That's why I signed up for the army.

"I see the past the same way I saw basic training, this bad and miserable thing that opened up a whole new mess of roads to walk. Now, without... a certain person, I would have ended up regretting that, much less the other. But every time I really needed help, he was there. Well... you know, it's not like I don't see you but..."

Sonny chuckled. "Hey, I'm just checking off my list. When it comes down to it, you know who to thank. But I have to say, I'm grateful to you. This has been the most fun I've had doing this in over a year. And, you're the only one who's offered to help me back. Not that I've given anyone else a chance to. I'm not really supposed to, you know... I'm glad I did, though."

The moment was inevitably ruined by a shameless monk but the young adept sent him packing pretty quickly with news of a path back to cultivator territory. Offering to check for him, Cray went to yank Duran early and send him over to Halda with a message to Gan to let his wife help the boy as much as possible in return for the anonymous help he received.

Sonny's tasks weren't done with the boy but there was no reason to hold off for a couple of months. The disappearance of a single child wouldn't throw off events overly much. He only wished that he could have taken care of things on that depraved island sooner but he couldn't risk it all and find himself without direction. It hurt his heart to turn his back on those children but he had a specific day to take care of the whole lot at once and really make the entire group behind Avenar pay right along with the sick man himself.

Cray decided to keep him company in the seaside cave for awhile, a point that Sonny was secretly overjoyed about. Being a little more modest about alone time activities was a small price to pay. The resulting mild frustration did lead to an interesting and slightly revealing conversation, however.

The archer asked, "You going to go pick up Venito at some point?"

"Uh, he's not on my list," Sonny said in confusion.

After a quick check, Cray came back stumped. "He doesn't exist. Either he was filled over with someone else or he wasn't real. He was a really girl greedy and mean spirited guy anyway. Come to think about it, so is Hefty for that matter... Are there any plans for the cultivator treasure by the other abyss gate?"

Sonny said, "That's a job for Daniel to figure out... You don't know who that is? Well, it's a complicated thing but I'll let him explain if he's able to. I don't want to get too loose with the rules just in case I accidentally mess something up.

"Speaking of messing up, I really wish I could be a little free with making friends and all that. Don't get me wrong. I'm really grateful to have any company at all but... It'd be nice to have, you know...well, a girlfriend. But, that one was super underlined. Creating too much for fate and chance to grab onto could hurt my chances of returning safely and getting my memory back or whatever."

Cray gave a pained look and said, "Yeah, you'd think that getting more powerful and having Greater Reality opened like an oyster would mean finding a good girl would be loads easier. But the more power you have, the harder it is to find a solid girl who can stay by your side. Climbers' lives are kind of up in the air unless they give up the climb or... at least take a breather."

A little stunned, Sonny said, "But it says here to help you with Iliyani if you end up needing it."

Cray looked confused for a moment and then his face cleared. Oh... right. That sounds like something he'd do. As if either of us would be happy with just us two. We could only get... wait that was Winter... Gods, things get confusing after awhile and it feels like so long ago, both long agos feel like long ago.

He chuckled at his own joke.

Seeing Sonny's confused face, Cray said, "It's another lifetime. Two of them, really. You'll understand eventually. For now, I'll say that some selfless prick of a busybody decided that we'd make a good couple not realizing we only got along because of him...well, 'her' at the time in one life.

"Winter was crazy and Iliyani was... curious and always hungry for new... experiences in a way I wasn't. In both cases, we tried to make the most of it and dragged out the parting for a lot longer than we should have. By the time we finally did, we couldn't even be friends. Kind of sad, really. She wasn't a ba... Well, Winter was bad but Iliyani had a lot of heart. Too much, really. Too much to love for just one person to be enough, anyway."

Sonny gave his friend a bitter look. "I'm not going to pretend I even understood half of that... What I do understand is that I was trying to tell you about wanting a girlfriend and it sounds like you're complaining about exes. I haven't even had one to be exes with! Are you trying to brag or something?"

Cray blinked vacantly at him and then started laughing. "I'm sorry. I know that probably... I'm not having fun at your expense, it's just... I never thought I'd see the day, you would look at me and think I was bragging about my love life. If I didn't laugh, I'd cry."

The young adept said, "I've caught it once or twice. It sounds like you know me. Do you?"

Cray nodded slowly. "And I wish I could tell you all I know but I'm afraid I can't. I might hurt the good things you're trying to do and the good it could do for you... I can give you some privacy if you want... It didn't really cross my mind that you weren't... advanced enough to be sort of over all the smaller distractions of the mortal form. Unless something's thrown in your face that gets you interested again, that is. At least, that's the way it is for me."

Ears turning a little red, Sonny said, "Yeah, it was just a little too hard to out and ask when you were going out of your way to keep me company, you know?"

Holding back a chuckle, Cray nodded and was about to walk out when a thought hit him.

Turning back towards the young adept, he said, "Is your soul ring shaped?"

Sonny was about to shake his head when he looked within out of a habit to verify things multiple times whenever possible. It was almost an OCD that he thought he picked up during his time as a controlled contract soldier. That turned out to be a needful thing since his soul had, at some point, started hollowing into a ring that produced trace amounts of the strange energy called magic from a small, bright pinprick hole in the middle.

Upon seeing the young adept nod, Cray said, "And have you ever... felt fuzzy around the edges, like the pattern of your existence was loose?"

The current Sonny didn't remember his time on the Enigma Plains and the first sad days within the lava tube but he had felt the sensation Cray described when he had first woke up on Amoril.

Getting the affirmative head wobble again, Cray said, trying to keep his mischievous intentions off his face, "Have you ever tried to do it on purpose?"

"Is that useful? Yeah, I'll give it a try," the young adept said, feeling a little excited.

With a little coaching from Cray, Sonny released the edges of his pattern. A casual touch later, the young adept was reeling in shock and a little awe.

"Now you know why I was laughing when you were talking about your hard time. A person who can change to fit anyone's ideal with a thought... and you were feeling jealous of my exes story!? Wouldn't you laugh a little too?" the archer said, airing a bit of his own bitterness.

Sonny examined 'herself'. "A few things that always bothered me make a whole lot more sense now. You know how people are basically like two? There's the person you were born to be and the person you were raised to be and all that?

"On a purely physical level I like girls but I could, you know, appreciate anyone, even if guys stayed firmly platonic in my mind. It was like I was wearing my body more than being it. IF I can be ANYTHING, then that's not nearly as confusing.

Losing herself in the analysis, she said without really thinking about WHAT she was saying, "Take for instance, now. The personality and spiritual consciousness parts of me are looking at you the same way. But the instinct and nature are seeing you with the eyes of a woman, responding to you that way.

"It's not like I stopped thinking about you as the friend I've come to see you as. It's more like, I've suddenly awakened to the realization that you COULD be more than that. With some time and acceptance, I might even start to see you differently on that other level."

Seeing the sudden complex look on Cray's face, Sonny quickly added, "I mean, it's not like I'm going to go out of my way to TRY to. Sorry if that was a weird thing to share so openly. I'm just getting a feel for this ability you helped me discover."

In an emotion thick voice that Cray tried unsuccessfully to downplay, he said, "Yeah, uh, no problem... I've got some things to look into. I'll come back when you can change back."

Blaming herself for the sudden awkwardness, Sonny tried to keep slightly hurt feelings from showing. "Sure. Do you, uh, know how long that takes? It feels like it would be harmful to just force myself to go fuzzy around the edges right away."

Unable to look Sonny in the eyes, Cray said, "About a week, maybe less."

Not waiting a moment longer, the archer disappeared in a blurring streak that was only visible on the spiritual side of things for a second or two.