Buttopia
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Chapter 234: Twenty Minutes
🕑 Added 2025-09-15 02:39:04 +0000 UTCMel
Mel had told them to go take care of their shit while he checked the gate. It wasn’t like he had time to unpack yet, so he didn’t have anything he needed to grab. He had been looking forward to some time in his tree, but you don’t always get what you want, no matter how much you may want it.
The damned jesters had taken William, and he sure as hell knew how that felt. Even if he hadn’t been the closest with Alex, that was now a bond they shared, and he would march through hell side by side with her to rescue that baby. William was coming home, or he wasn’t. Mel had made that decision the moment Timon had alerted them.
“Mel!” a voice belonging to one of the dungeon cores called as it flew toward him.
Mel had no idea what the hell the core wanted. At least he didn’t until he spotted the four figures walking slowly underneath it. It seemed Gamma had found the first four with soul knots. Mel figured Dave had sent them to him to glean any useful information before they departed. He wasn’t sure that was the best idea, but they were already here, so he may as well ask.
“Do ya idiots even remember anything that happened?” Mel asked, annoyance in his voice. Even if rationally he knew it wasn’t their fault, it was hard to set that aside.
He wasn’t entirely sure how soul knots worked with the jesters. They could have been feeding an infiltrator information for months. Or it could have just been as simple as the jesters shut their souls down the moment they arrived, safely taking them out of the fight. Either way, he couldn’t risk letting them know any of his future plans. Hell he didn’t even want them to know who all was leaving the planet for the search.
“No. Well, not exactly. Now that I know what it feels like to be missing moments, I believe it’s happened before. I suspect the jesters have been using us to gather information for an attack,” Rabyn answered.
Damn, that made sense. Dave was gonna have to figure out a way to deal with these soul knots now as a priority. Had Mel known this would be the outcome of them getting into the Arena, he might have killed some people that day, but that was long past an option. Well, at least it was for the moment. He would be back with William one day, and maybe it would be an option again.
“Well, then there ain’t anything useful ya can do get fer me before I leave, might as well get yer asses ta wherever Dave wants ya,” Mel said, his color shifting.
“Wait, where are you going now?” Cecile asked with a look of guilt on his face.
“That’s obvious, but considering the facts right now, I can’t very well give ya any details. Prolly gonna be gone awhile again,” Mel answered.
“Mel I’m so sorry…” Elicec started to say before Mel cut him off.
“Ain’t none of ye faults. If anything, it’s mine. Should have found a way ta deal with this already. Gamma, make sure Dave gets it done.”
“Will do. It will be a high priority,” Gamma replied.
“At least take this, you might need it. It should help keep your strength up anyway,” Cecile said, a small cloudtree sapling in a pot appeared in his hand.
“How in the hell did ya manage that?” Mel asked as the latest in a series of shocking moments ran through his brain.
“Started working on it when you left, figured if you were going to have to spend more time away from your tree, you’d need something a bit more mobile. Don’t worry, it’s not the only one. I’ve got plenty of seeds and a few more saplings on the way,” Cecile said, giving the Cloudform a smile.
“Thanks, yer good kids. All of ya keep Dave save while I’m gone, now get outta here before I change my mind,” Mel said, giving them all one of his rare smiles. He also wanted them gone before anyone else showed up.
Cecile was the only one to smile back. The other three looked deeply ashamed. Mel hoped Dave could fix this problem sooner rather than later. This really wasn’t their faults.
Yorela
“Are you sure you can do this?” Pryte asked, looking into her eyes in a way only he ever could.
She loved it, and she hated it at the same time. How the hell had her life found its way back to this man? Worse yet, how had she missed him all this time? She was supposed to be over this stupid sappy shit, especially after the years in the hospital.
That thought pushed her back to the eyes in the darkness. That stupid, horrible calling feeling that ground its way into her mind when she let her focus slip on keeping it sealed had reared its head. No, she forced those eyes back down to their prison. The hospital had taken care of that much at least. She had the mental defenses to handle this part. Love was another thing altogether.
She took a deep breath, let her annoyance grow, and answered. “What the hell else do you expect me to do? I’m not going to leave a baby in the hands of the damn jesters. Squidlen has told me enough stories about his run-ins with them, and as much as I don’t want to go, I’m the only one here with the experience to chase them!”
“That wasn’t my question. My question was can you do this? What happens the moment you hit chaotic space? This isn’t even a question regarding my feelings for you. This is simply about your ability to remain useful the second you leave the Spiral,” Pryte replied, his eyes still focused on hers.
“I don’t know,” she answered, finally letting some of the insecurity she felt about this entire colossal disaster slip out. Yorela had absolutely no idea how she’d handle being back in that insanity. The idea was already terrifying her, and if it wasn’t for William, there was no way she would have ever volunteered for this.
But her friend’s child had been kidnapped. Alex had been one of the few people she had grown close to since moving to this planet. They had shared stories of their terrible exes over lunch for weeks. She had played hide and seek with William. She would find a way to force her brain to get over the memories. She had to.
Pryte didn’t immediately comment on her words. Instead, he leaned in and hugged her close. “Just come back, okay? I don’t want to lose you again.”
“I’ll try. That or I’ll kill enough of them that my name becomes a legend in their culture.” Before any of that, she needed to find her old friend and convince him to do something incredibly dangerous and stupid. The second part would probably be easy enough. The first, well, she really hoped Grom had some idea where he was.
John
“Is it a good idea to bring the cats? I’m not sure this will be safe for them.” John had been petting Big while Maud collected several items from their bedroom into her System storage when he asked the question. He just wasn’t sure how the logistics of trying to lug around two house cats, magical or not, in a search for his nephew would work.
“It should be fine. Part of how this bond works is that they are pretty tied to me. I’m not actually sure it would be good for the three of us to be super far apart anymore. Isn’t that right, Hecate?” Maud’s voice turned super cutesy as she leaned down and pet the smaller of the two cats, scooping her up into her arms to cuddle her. The cat purred loudly in response.
“If you’re sure, I’m in no place to argue. I wish I had time to say goodbye to Rabyn, though. He’s taught me so much, hell, he’d be the better one on this trip,” John said, doubting himself as he considered his own skills alongside those of his mentor.
He had come a long way since he reconciled with his dad, but not so long that he thought he really could fight an army to save his nephew. The idea of fighting at all still left him feeling like something was gnawing at his stomach. But that didn’t matter anymore. He couldn’t leave his family to those monsters, and even if he wasn’t as strong as they needed, his wife was. Maud was the real powerhouse of the couple, and he was so happy to be her husband.
“I won’t pretend he isn’t better at fighting than you are, because you’d just know I was lying stupidly to try and save your ego, and that would fail horribly anyway. Even if Rabyn were coming along, I’d still want you by my side. We are going into some horrible, dangerous, unknown that everyone seems afraid of. It’s gonna take both of us together to keep each other sane throughout this. Plus, your sister is going to need you more than she needs Rabyn,” Maud answered, handing John Hecate as she pulled more clothing from drawers.
John smiled in return, happy she wanted him around, even if there was a real chance they were both heading off on a hopeless rescue mission. Even if there was the real chance that neither of them came back. He would do his best, no matter what. He had to.
Maud
John’s question about the cats had been gnawing at her even before he had asked it. He was entirely right to ask it. She wasn’t sure bringing them was the right move. They were going into certain danger, but how long could she really keep them from that danger?
She had bonded them both, knowing this was the path they were all going down. These cats were no longer just their pets. They were slowly awakening as mana beasts. Both of them were already far more aware of the world than they had been when they had all first arrived on the homestead. No, they had to come. They had to all grow together.
Hecate was quickly growing into the perfect little spy, and that was likely to be something they would need on this rescue trip. Then there was Big. He would be a force to be reckoned with one day. She could feel the raw strength already radiating through their bond. That cat would make anyone quickly regret making an enemy of them.
She was going to miss this place. It had really grown on her. While John and she had had a place together briefly before the near end of the world, this had felt far more like her real home. This had seemed like a place they’d build a life together at. She would make sure they still got that chance.
As she was checking over their room for anything else she needed to bring, a thought had occurred to her. She had made a promise. She had no idea if she’d be back in time to honor it, and pulled up a chat window to make sure someone did.
__________
>Maud: Hey, I told the orca I’d be back to visit in the summer. In case we aren’t back yet, I need someone to go visit them for me.
>Dave: I’ll either do it myself or find someone who wants to go.
>Alpha: Will go again, liked them.
>Maud: Thank you, Alpha. Take care of yourself while I’m away and make sure you befriend more animals for me. :)
>Alpha: Promise. Lots of birds. Wish to meet all.
>Maud: Good, good, can you also keep the moose and Red company? With both Alex and me gone, they are likely to be lonely.
>Alpha: Happily.
__________
With that worry out of the way, she closed the chat window and looked at her husband. Some of his earlier nerves seem to be showing less. Despite that, she was sure they weren’t entirely gone. How could they be? William had been kidnapped. They had monsters to kill. At least there wasn’t a goblin king involved. She didn’t want to fight a rockstar.
Sanquar
He wasn’t entirely sure why he had decided to go. He did know that he had been entirely useless here so far. He hadn’t even been able to help when this city that had welcomed him had been attacked. Jesters had invaded, attacking people he had grown to care for, and all he could do was flee for his own safety.
Every bit of mana he had used to hold the universe frozen before had been used up, and he wasn’t able to generate it at a rate to be able to do anything like that again for a very long time. He couldn’t help the city or his friends as he was now.
That left chaotic space. While he couldn’t remember a lot of his time in that deeply strange place, he could remember some of it. That at least made him potentially much more useful in the rescue of the baby.
There was also the matter of the diary. They had made little progress so far on the possible locations of Ronald Tammen, but they were sure he had left for chaotic space. That meant it was possible they could learn more out there, even if the vastness of it made that a very remote possibility. Still, he couldn’t stay here and do nothing anymore.
With the Spiral being too dangerous for him to search for clues alone, and the others being too busy to accompany him, this just seemed like the right move. As he had very little of worth to bring, he was second only to Mel at the gate, landing next to him just as those with the soul knots left.
“So didn’t expect ya ta be willing ta come along on this trip. Kinda figured ya were gonna stay here ‘til yer soul issues got figured out,” Mel said as he landed.
“Who knows how long that will be? I was given a quest, and it does seem that the quest pointed to chaotic space. Perhaps this is my fate,” Sanquar answered, not entirely sure he believed in fate, but Rabyn had continued to infect his thoughts there.
“Yer spending too much time around the Orc. Not that he don’t got a point, but still, we make our own fate,” Mel replied.
“Perhaps, though, either way I believe it’s my best course of action. It’s even possible that exposure to the wild depths of chaotic space could trigger my own memory. I doubt what was done to me was done so with an understanding of how it would be affected by the mana pockets out there.” He wasn’t sure that that was entirely true, but he hoped it had been a blind spot.
“Honestly? It’s possible, I suppose. Some of the powerful idiots overlook simple solutions, especially if it’s something they’d never try fer themselves. And going to chaotic space without a functional core sure as shit is something they’d never do,” Mel added.
Sanquar was about to reply when he spotted the others approaching. It seemed their time of departure had already been reached. Only Maud had anything resembling a smile on her face. But even that was much smaller than the usual one that adorned her ever cheerful self.
Once, when I was deep in the shimmering leviathan stretch, I encountered a creature I would never have expected. We had run out of our energy reserves fighting our way free of a cosmic maelstrom the likes of which I had never seen up close before and hope to never again. The crew and I had been adrift in the cosmic tides of chaotic space for two weeks now, and we had nearly accepted the inevitable when a loud song drew everyone’s attention from their worries.
Climbing aboard the deck, outside the atmospheric stasis shield, I saw it. It was a giant white whale. Behind it were hundreds of others, all much smaller, joined in a cosmic song that I can sometimes still hear in the best of my dreams. The creature came right up the ship, and one of its giant eyes, nearly the size of my entire vessel, swiveled toward me. It asked how we came to be lost here in such a dangerous place for people so small.
With no other real chance of survival, I took a gamble and told the creature the entire tale. We spoke for three days about our mutual journeys. It was apparently just passing through this existence on the way to the next and was leading its family on its last great migration. I took that to mean it was dying, but I wasn’t entirely sure that was what it had meant. The translation of the System seemed to have issues at times with its speech. That was also something I had never encountered before.
Finally, after our tales concluded, it offered to drag us free of where we were, and leave us in a shipping lane for one of the Urtel’s worlds. And while I wasn’t happy at the idea of what it would cost for us to buy our freedom from those damnable slavers, it was better than any other alternative I could think of. To this day, I still do not know what it was we encountered on the edge of our deaths within chaotic space. I’ve spoken to paladins, mana beasts, and even a dungeon core, and none of them had any idea what the creature could have been.
Another secret for deep unknowns, I suppose. Perhaps one day I will meet it again in another world. I would love to hear their song one last time.
Voyages of Chaos by Captain Squidlen
