Aeiyioul opened her eyes and streched herself. She had not felt so good since sleeping for a few gautulgaen back-to-back. If only she could sleep for a thousand years more, but alas, duty calls. In fact, she recalled that her best slumber was a good hundred years, in a carriage somewhere near nowabo city. It was dark and cozy just like a coffin.
She passed through her blanket and hovered up from the bed, and then onto the floor of the selfroom. As a ghost, she had no feet, but she was in a joyous mood today so she hovered in a jutting-like fashion almost as if she was walking. She moved around the room and started singing gracefully.
A few steps towards the bedside table, and the blue birds sang with her. A few more steps towards the other side of the wall, and the mice danced to her words. There, just across the room, she could see the glimmer of morning dispersed straight to her eyes. Just a little more humming and trotting, and she untied the curls that kept the curtains and window closed.
She walked out of her room into the balcony overlooking the ocean. The horizon was clear today. It had only been a few days, but she was getting used to staying with luxury at the royal castle. She took in the sights and sounds, but then she saw something in the corner of her eye. She turned to see it and was shafted.
Vaktoejuiz waved to her while he walked shiningly and brimmingly on the air. He had a dark blue zeyouzh that draped down to his right leg, and had sturdy gymiv trousers on. The colour scheme of his clothing matched her frontal stripe and apparitional hue today. He then walked onto the balcony and leaned against the curtained wall to talk to her.
"Aeiyioul, guess what I did today?" Vaktoejuiz loudly spoke to her within earshot as if carrying a package of fan mail.
"Vaktoejuiz did, hmm..." Aeiyioul brushed a few strands of hair coming down her left cheek with her fingers while pre-empting his next words.
"Nothing!" Vaktoejuiz said brashly with a wide smile. Aeiyioul merely looked away non-chalantly, though this was not anything surprising to her. She was already familiar with her friend's personality, and tried to be slightly uplifting.
Though they had been friends since many years ago, this was pretty much the first time any one of them were working in any capacity amongst official ranks and with the associated task force within the royal castle. It was work whenever there was work on the scene, but never any sort of long-term responsiblity on such a large scale. In his younger years, Vaktoejuiz worked with a lighting maintenance crew on an intermanifoldal ship as his day job, while she herself dealt with organising the nuts and bolts of alignment arrays from the stars and the moons to harvest cosmic energy for these sorts of vehicles. They were just like everyone else. Useful people with useful skillsets, for the grand nature, one and all.
He gesticulated another time. The Garejarhoarst spell. He raised himself forward onto an imaginary step while kouloer curving and stringing out from it. The waters that sprout out from the avasi final destination of yonder had an ethereal gleam on its apparently thin surface which spread out from the balcony towards the furthest edge of the bed in the selfroom. All this in under half an uzhaen.
It was one of Vaktoejuiz's region magic. In the air, wherever he stepped on, it materialised into a translucent walkable surface, but only for him. He could walk on yet-to-be-materialised air just like a platform or walk upwards and downwards as if walking on a staircase. In other cases, he is able to form magical bridges, rivers, hills and chasms from afar, but that is not all he can do with it. That, and he has lots more of abilities than just region magic that change some facets of the field spatially, but this is the one thing that most people know him by.
Incidentally, the miyaete ovklavspludsaen (enchantor's workers guild) is an organisation whose members practise region magic as one of their main magic branches of choice while also distributing such services to the public, and they are established all across the country and beyond its borders.
Vaktoejuiz had never attended school, and she had always known this. While education in aseritonum is relatively freestyled compared to other places, and indeed it was not uncommon at all to see someone who just learned things on-site, aeiyioul had never heard of any king who had never completed at least some sort of academic tutelage with accredited curricula. Science and magic make up the world, and creatures utilise various skills to improve the lives of others, what more a person of grand importance.
She stared at him hovering in front of her, just slightly less than 1 jithaen above the balcony. She was not impressed, "Your form factor is clumsy. And, your methodative cast is too long. Just a few ashzhoul uzhaen more, and you could be ended!"
After all, Vaktoejuiz had never learnt how to teleport. From her perspective, it would seem silly that one would learn such type of terrain-based magic yet not complement it with another suitable type. Sure, there are people out there who don't usually do so, but as king, such simple defensive measures ought to be required for safety. For one, a king falling to his own death is just embarassing, and would be a played-up joke in a historical textbook.
"Yes, well, what do you want?" Aeiyioul gave a cold yet neutral talk showing no interest whatsoever.
"I'm here to invite you to come with me on the specel quest."
Aeiyioul just stared at him. She then proceeded to school him, "You do realise, Vaktoejuiz, that you are now king of aseritonum. You don't have time to pursue frivolous trifles such as these. You are not a tramp anymore. Eventhough, you know, the bounty is good. But everything is free! Besides, the OE277 quest and its related specel subquests are never completed because they are almost impossible. Look, point is, you are a king. You have duties, you can't just do anything you please."
OE277. She recognised that quest filing number. In fact, she and most of the daring heroes in eraethysoer city would of come across OE277. It involves a long journey to udaeirsh, to the false shrine at the ijpraeibae ijgrougtasend (Edge Of Sanity), amongst other things. Too difficult to be worth their time. Most folk see the omnipresent listing through their zadnget or equivalent browser devices. However, she still prefers to check the wooden boards inside her light chest of wonders, mail delivered to her personally by gyry, small burrowing keys with wings. She considers it important to not lose the intimate creature-to-creature interaction.
Thuasdriazh false shrine
Vaktoejuiz thought for a little while then raised his finger to respond to that, but before he could even do that, aeiyioul cut him off "Yes, yes, I know, technically, you can do whatever you want. Including, taking on this quest."
"As king, that would be my first self-appointed duty. This quest has been on the board for so long, surely, if it was that difficult, it meant that nobody could complete it. We should totally resolve it for the sake of the requesters," he tried to rationalise his choice with her but she seemed unfazed. She pursed her lips.
"And, just who are you going with on this quest?" She walked over to the small putation table by the wall, facing away from him near the curtain. She telepathically told the coffee machine which drink she selected. It proceeded to pour the brown liquid down into a handled polystyrene cup. It hopped onto her hands. She took a sip of rilaeij. Mm, the taste of rilaeij is unlike any other, especially when one could not obtain one in foreign lands, it is the perfect reminder of home.
"You, of course," Vaktoejuiz cheerfully said. She immediately spat her drink out miratively. Quickly, she tried to unchoke herself and grabbed a handkerchief from her luminescent clothes to wipe the stain from her mouth, then regained her composure. With a cynical tone, she asked "Me? Can't you go with zatharken?"
"I asked him already. There was no decision yet."
"And, what about thaegniot?"
"She is on friendsday vacation."
"Zelmith?"
"Same thing, ze never gets back on time."
She dabbed the flap on her collar a few more times. "See, this is a you problem. You reply to messages late yet you expect others to get back to you quickly."
"Well, I get things done quick, and I'm here upon you now, right at your window step" he looked at her straight in the eye with an amusementless confident stare.
She paused for a few seconds, before giving a somewhat diplomatic response "Well, now that you are here, I have received your...uh, invitation. I shall consider your request in due time. Let me think about it after my rejuvenation. Give me some time."
Vaktoejuiz did a double on-point gesture at her, affirming. Aeiyioul and vaktoejuiz looked at each other without any action from both, then she continued on from her previous sentence "and space."
"O, oh, alright then, sure thing. Call me when you do," his hands moved to show himself out. More illuminated glass tiles appeared on the side of the walls, and he walked on them, then turning right, disappearing from line of sight. The tiles magically disappeared as per him stepping up out of each with bright white particulates sparkling, matching the balcony tiles of aeiyioul's room.
She shook her palm and sighed after he was out of her sight. Then, she resumed her promenade and song that was before. One phrase after another, and the blue birds would continue to fly around her and onto her arms. Yet another floating and leaping, and ivies grew along the cracks of the brick wall in accord to the tune.
One more step and there was gallant floating all across the selfroom to the attached removalroom. Once, before moving in to the royal castle, she had always wanted a double room such as this one. It was told to her, however, that usually these are not available. It was only after a few bribes and wustas that she finally obtained the room. "By request only, my ass" she remembered telling to herself after finally obtaining said room. She longed for some wholesome me-time, the removalroom with her own jacuzzi, and little sachets of not-so-overpiercing freshments of the tuiag trees from aehiansh province, aeh, so soothing.
She opened the door.
Lifts and elevators ascended and descended the vertical rails on walls which supported them. The walls extended all the way to the left and right as far as the eye can see. Rats hurriedly crawl inside the transparent pipes, and shroilpuizh bulleting themselves up the tubes. Between the small platform from her room that she stood on was darkness in front of her and beyond.
Ectoplasmic blood raged very much within her until she let out a loud shout as far as the breath can reach, "Vaktoej!"*
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Note: *In native griushkoent culture, names are never shortened. Thus, here it is considered an insult.