"Celedon, set the crate down right here." Jade had led me over to a large tent where I could hear various clangs and bangs. I also detected a horrible aroma from the inside.
The 'kitchen,' I assume.
After putting the cold box down, I saw Star working over a small cauldron. I walked over to her side and saw that she was stirring what looked like a light tan-ish soup.
"I didn't know you cooked," I stated.
She barely looked at me before returning to her work. "You never asked. But, being the only magic user in C Squad, I can do it with much more ease than the rest of the guys."
"You can use magic?" Sure enough, her left hand was glowing a light pink, and a knife covered in an aura of the same color was chopping up some meager vegetables on a wooden board. After it was done, the board gained an aura of the same color and it was lifted over the stew while the knife scraped the veggies into the pot.
"Yeah. Makes things quite a bit easier. Duck." Instead of questioning why, I immediately crouched. The box that I had set down flew over my head, covered in the same pink aura as before. Then I saw the top of the box being sliced perfectly around the edges by an invisible blade before being lifted into the air and set aside.
"Other than telekinesis, I can also separate things from each other, like a saber slicing through a material. Can't put them back together though." I stood up and watched as some of the fresh meat floated out of the box and was minced by the knife from before. Then it was put into another pot that was full of boiling water.
"Besides my ability, I do actually use a saber as my weapon."
"Huh."
"Either way, I need you to move, this place is about to become a storm of blades once Rock and Berserker are here." A cursory glance allowed me to see that there was, indeed, at least ten various knives scattered at strategic places.
"Alright. Talk to you later." Star 'mmhm'-ed as I walked out of the tent.
"Perfect timing, Celedon! I need you to help me set up a tent over here," Jade suddenly called from my left. She was sitting at one end of a flat piece of canvas, fitting some metallic tubes together.
I walked over to her when she pointed to the opposite end of the flattened tent. A few steps, and then I was sitting down, hunched over the same fittings as Jade.
"Say, Jade, why was your dad in the market? Does he live here?" I suddenly asked.
I looked up a little to see that she was still concentrated on her work, but she replied, "My family kind of goes around several places in a circuit. We hunt vermin and bigger game, selling the good stuff to people for good prices. The run-off we use in our traps and stuff. My Dad has a good sense for the time to move, so whenever he said it was time to pack up and move to a different location, we did so. That helped replenish the population of the animals so we didn't over-hunt. It wasn't super stable, but we lived well enough." She had a small smile on her face as she recounted her life to me.
"How big is your family? From the skill I saw last night when you shot...whatever that was, you were probably one of the better hunters in your family, right?" I didn't want to intrude too much, but her story seemed just too interesting for me to stop asking questions.
"I guess you could say that. I mean, right now I would probably best my older siblings in a target shooting contest, but back then I was only average compared to them."
"Oh, that's interesting."
She snorted. "Yeah, I only had to go through C Squad training to get past them. Not that I blame them for being good with their methods, we had to have at least competent hunters in our family to get our money. But I've been rambling too much, we need to get these tents up." The rest of the time we worked in silence.
Eventually we had the tents all ready in a ring around a fire pit, where Star had put a small pot full of stew that I assumed would have tasted good. Then again, my nose was biased against everything that wasn't gold.
I just sat around the campfire eating my blocks of pure ecstasy.
Shouldn't this stuff have stopped tasting so amazing by now? Not that I'm complaining.
Without the Elements of Harmony or Discord, the atmosphere was decidedly more relaxed, if silent.
"C Squad, it's time." Snow suddenly said. Wordlessly, the squad set down their food and looked straight into the fire. They were all stone-faced, no expression could be seen.
After a few minutes, Tim, who was sitting next to me, looked like he was about to say something. I put my hand on his arm to stop him. Once he looked at me I held a finger over my lips and pointed to Jade. I could see tears streaming down her face even though her mood looked neutral. After a few minutes of silence, at an unspoken signal they resumed eating.
"Thank you for staying silent during our Time of Remembrance," Snow said. I even saw a single tear on his face.
"Lost friends?" I hypothesized.
"Yes, and strangers who died under our watch. C Squad has this monthly ritual, forcing us to remember that we are not all powerful. It keeps us from becoming too inflated on our own strength," Rock explained.
"It hurts, but then again, exercise hurts. It humbles us," Jade continued. This almost seemed like a practiced speech.
"And remembering them gives us a reason to become even stronger, so we won't lose any more people," Star finished.
I couldn't really think of any words to say on that. The atmosphere around the fire had turned a little sullen.
I decided to do something about that.
"Snow, would you mind if I played a song to commemorate those who've gone on ahead?" He looked up from his barely touched food and nodded once.
Putting away the gold I had been about to eat, I concentrated and summoned my harp. As I put my fingers to the strings, instead of them moving by themselves, I could 'see' the notes in my mind's eye. I knew exactly how to pluck, pull, and strum the harp. Thus, I began to play.
I began plucking the lower strings constantly. The notes rose into the night like a new sun. I could hear some other stringed instruments underneath my harp, playing softly. Then a wooden pipe flowed into the song, like the high points of someone's life. It continued in that way for several dozen seconds, the pipe blowing powerful but soft notes until it faded away. My harp and the strings played together for a long while, neither of us overpowering the other. We filled the silence with beautiful music. A light crescendo with some guitar chords sounded through the night. Then I was left alone with my harp, playing softly. It sounded like the end of life, slowly fading away, surrounded by family. There was never a moment of true silence during my song, until the notes kept getting softer and softer. With a final strum, I finished the melancholy song.
The song reminded me of life; starting slowly, bursting forth, and then a slow decline until a peaceful death.
If only that had been describing how Alice's life had been...
There was silence in the camp as C Squad and Tim took in the song. My harp disappeared with a flash as I felt something running down my face.
I gave a sad chuckle on finding out that I could actually cry. Golden tears ran down my face, but I could tell that this was completely different from the golden ichor that I had spilled during the battle with Gilgamesh.
"Celedon..." Snow began.
"That was beautiful," Star finished. There wasn't a dry eye in the camp. Even Tim had a few blackish tears rolling down his face.
With a short breath, Snow said, "I believe that's enough remembrance for one night. Everyone, let's get to bed. We need to be rested for the final leg of the journey tomorrow."
And so we went to sleep.