Chapter 264: What's Your Worth? Pt. 2

Cyrus Solaris

Sora walked ahead of me, but her words lingered in my mind.

I had been alone for a long time. It was all I had ever known.

My family had taught me to rely on my training and the power it would bring, not on other people. Solaris Starbound were few in number compared to other clans, often stretched thin by the conflicts they faced. As a result, learning to live with solitude had become second nature to me.

But is working together truly required?

Looking back on the midterms, I think I finally understood what they were trying to teach us. They had gone about it a roundabout way, but it all seemed to boil down to three things.

Three things that everyone else seems to comprehend and implement with ease.

Trust.

How can I truly trust people? Trust got my father betrayed by Adam, one of his longest friends. Trust almost got my father killed by Theron.

Communication.

I can barely talk to these people; every conversation is climbing the summit of a mountain.

Understanding.

Mira was the only person I barely understood, and even that understanding was limited. I had trained with her, and she had helped me gain access to the robots. Beyond that, I barely knew her.

How did Dad do it all?

Maybe I wasn’t cut out to be the next ruler?

As Sora and I continued along the path through the vast jungle, we spotted three figures up ahead, seemingly sorting through some objects.

As we drew closer, their features came into focus.

Two of them were Voen and Simon. The third was a girl with sandy brown hair and tan skin I didn’t recognize.

They sorted seeds, berries, and different plants into piles.

The girl paid me no mind.

Voen gave a faint smile, dropped his things, and walked towards me.

“So the sleeping behemoth has woken from its slumber,” he said, patting my shoulder, his eyes fixed on my wounds.

“I thought you had crazy healing powers, or was I hallucinating before?”

“Not anymore. I seemed to have misplaced the relic.”

Voen frowned.

“How is that even possible?”

I looked at Sora.

She wore a blank expression as she ignored us and continued walking ahead.

I glanced back at Voen.

“I really don’t know?”

“Whatever. Sit down and let me patch you up. Sora didn’t want me to earlier because she was worried you wouldn’t react well to me tugging on your body.”

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Good call.

I sat down, lifted my tattered combat top, and let Voen place this weird ointment on my gashes.

“You know, everyone else might not say it. But I’m glad we found you. We needed someone like you, a crazy loose cannon with abilities like yours. You would’ve come in handy in plenty of situations. Besides, you’re one of the strongest people I know at the academy.

We need you, Cyrus. Especially now that Nerena’s gone.

So don’t you dare ditch us again, or I'll spike you with laxatives. You’ll have diarrhea for days. The explosive kind. Got it?” Voen said, imbuing his hands with cosmic energy before giving me a wink.

Did he just threaten me? Why did Nerena, of all people, leave?

“Noted.”

“Good, and now that you're here, I need a favor from you.”

I raised my eyebrow.

“I don’t have dimensional storage, and my living satchel doesn’t have enough room to carry everything I harvested… So could you use your ability to carry the rest?”

I wanted to decline. My brain was still recovering from overusing my abilities, and I had no idea what type of damage using the well of madness caused.

“Ok, maybe not the rest. You do look horrible, but at least some.” Voen said, putting the tube of ointment back into his utility belt.

“Come on, it's for the betterment of the whole group.”

The other three looked over their shoulders as they heard Voen plead for my help.

“Fine.”

“Knew I could count on ya. Just don’t go eating them and pull a Stravos on us.”

Voen finished patching me up, accelerating what the scale of hydra must have started before I lost it.

We walked over to the others. Simon acknowledged me with a nod.

I really didn’t know what to say to him; I couldn’t shake the image of him being useless from before.

Sora was talking to the girl who was wrapping the harvest of plants in a shimmering thread.

“Alright, Jossie’s truth seeker just sent her the coordinates for us to follow. We will be heading out in the next few minutes. That should be enough time for you to get situated with our haul, Cyrus.” Sora said.

“Yeah, it should be.”

“Good, we will need to move fast; we're lucky nothing has come at us yet.”

While everyone gathered their gear, I tried to calm my mind and focus on the four things that needed my utmost attention.

My moon, and the three shimmering sacs of cargo.

When I lifted them all with gravity well minor, I was pleased the sacs were lighter than the piles of celestium from during the exam, but there was still a lingering dull ache that presented itself in the front of my skull.

I was far from one hundred percent, and I was sure everyone else was in the same boat. So I just had to deal with it.

While creating a layer of cosmic energy around me, I noticed that my cosmic energy was no longer black. It was back to magenta.

Maybe I could no longer access the well of madness?

A few minutes passed, and Sora took point, sprinting ahead; Voen and Simon went next, and the new girl and I took the rear.

I was sluggish, my body stiff and sore, so I couldn’t run at my fastest and lagged behind more than I'd like.

It didn’t help that my focus was split, almost making me trip over an unseen branch in our path.

The new girl caught me and stared for a moment.

“I really hope you were worth all the trouble.”

The statement nearly made me drop my moon and the sacs.

“Who exactly are you?”

“Jossie. An Arbiter from Sora’s class. I'm only here because I trust Sora’s judgment, and she seems to think we need you. So don’t squander her good faith.”

‘Whatever. I don’t need to prove anything.”

“You really are stubborn, as they say,” she said, letting me go and sprinting ahead.

I gathered myself and continued after the group.

Not a single conversation was had the entire way to the mines, which was fine. I needed more time to think anyway.

When we arrived at the mines, a couple dozen students sat near a cave entrance.

No teacher was present either.

So the rift got her too?

“It’s a good thing you’re back. We have to hurry and make a plan.” A student said, running up to Sora and Jossie.

“What's the matter?” Sora asked.

“The concordants have sensed two large signatures that are on the move, and the signature of one of them seems to be growing faint, almost as if it's being hidden.”