Chapter 12 Relocation and Placement

A few hours later, Elysia awakened. As usual, Ione curled up near her head, causing her first view to be fluffy white, but after a gentle nudge, Elysia dislodged the fur ball before sitting up.

An annoyed low pitched meow sounded from behind her but she ignored it as she crawled out of bed and plodded to the door.

Upon reaching the top of the stairs, she found the endless bags missing from the living room and kitchen, bringing a smile. Unfortunately, the moment she stepped into the control room, she found mountains of them haphazardly piled on every surface.

With her hands on her hips, Elysia glared at the culprit currently inspecting a scale covered purse unaware of Elysia. Joe sat next to Eva, looking up at Elysia with an apologetic smile.

Static sparked off Elysia’s arms as she glared down at Eva, but she still appeared oblivious, at least until Joe gave her a nudge with his elbow.

Eva jumped and squeaked, broken from her trance only to pale upon spotting her angry captain.

“I gave you several chances, but you seem determined to leave a mess. Consider your control room sleeping privileges revoked. However, as a merciful captain, I’ll allow you to commission your own room in the open space below deck as long as you can afford it.”

Elysia shifted her attention away from Eva to scan the mountains of bags. “You have thirty minutes to store all of this in our storage room before I start throwing things overboard.”

Under Elysia’s glare, Eva jumped to action, dashing around the control room like energizer bunny eyes wide in panic.

Somehow, less than five minutes later, she transported her purchases to the storage room below deck before collapsing onto the floor, gasping for breath.

Elysia nodded her head with satisfaction before leaving the room and wandering out to the front deck. Putting her shopaholic crew member out of mind, Elysia sat cross-legged on a sunbathing pad. Her eyes drifted closed as she took a deep, unneeded breath.

Like she had tried before, Elysia focused on her core and grasped a few threads. With the help of her focus encircling her finger, Elysia wrangled two threads, but a third escaped her mental fingers. To avoid another mishap, Elysia gave up on a third, instead moving the two threads she had control of through her body.

Her outward senses dimmed as her mind focused all its attention on the task. Sweat formed on her brow, but she continued to push the threads faster and faster. Soon it became effortless to shoot the threads through her veins, but unsatisfied, Elysia returned her threads to her core before attempting to pull three.

Unlike before, the third thread joined two others, though much less stable. Afraid to lose it, Elysia clamped down on it with her mental fingers, but it slipped through. An idea sparked, causing her to braid the three strands together. Almost instantly, the strain on her mind eased, returning to her previous to thread level.

She inspected her new, much thicker strand with a satisfied smile, but only for a moment. The thread shot through her veins at dizzying speeds, spearing a headache through her mind, but determined to regain her control, Elysia ignored it.

Her body had other ideas, however, as a few seconds later the thread wobbled. Eyelids clenched in concentration, she attempted to wrangle the thread back under her control but it refused, shrugging off the weakening mental fingers. In a panic, Elysia clamped down with everything she had left and propelled the distorted thread back to her core before it exploded.

Fortunately, it returned to her core without trouble, as if that was what it wanted all along.

Afraid to attempt anymore training, Elysia opened her eyes, blinking at the bright sunlight as her violet eyes adjusted. Her stiff legs uncrossed in a slow and stuttery motion, causing a groan. A moment later, her headache presented itself in the form of a drum solo. Note to self, avoid over training. It wasn’t worth it. She doubted it was healthy to force a headache. Maybe she should focus on short sessions throughout the day instead of training until fail. She almost wished she had another elemental to ask, but she would rather keep her life. Who knew what they would do to her if they found out what she was? Or maybe the Chrotile misunderstood the elementals. Though they had to know more than she did. For now, she would continue under the assumption that elementals would take issue with her origin.

While trying to ignore her headache, Elysia glanced through the windshield to find Joe and Eva missing. With her sensitive hearing, she picked up muffled conversation below deck. Curious, Elysia ventured forth with a slightly wobbly stride, legs still stiff. Fortunately for her image, her legs regained their usual grace by the time she reached the stairs leading downward.

At the bottom of the stairs, she found Eva shooting around a taped off square butted up against the storage room. She pointed at the wall separating the open space in the storage room as she stared back at Joe. “That’s where we will put our bed. The light from the windows should miss our eyes, still we should pick up some drapes.”

Elysia approached the square, which was a fair bit smaller than her own bedroom, with an amused smile. “Already taking the next step? Didn’t you skip a few steps between holding hands and moving in?”

Eva froze with her reddening face, but Joe just looked on helplessly. A moment later Eva recovered and stammered, “It will save on if we shared a bedroom.”

Elysia smile widened. “Sure.”

After letting Eva stew for several long seconds, Elysia shrugged her shoulders, “It really doesn’t matter what you two do in your free time as long as you keep quiet and do your job. It’s not like we are in the military.”

She returned her focus to the taped off square. “Am I right in assuming this is your planned bedroom?”

Both Joe and Eva nodded their heads. “Okay, I approve. However, remember you have to pay for everything yourself. This will be your space in Umbra. I won’t intrude unless in an emergency. Still, if I find your purchases scattered about the ship again, they will find themselves at the bottom of the ocean.”

An involuntary shiver ran through Eva as she paled, proving Elysia’s threat struck home.

Satisfied, Elysia turned to leave, only to pause at the bottom of the stairs. “Please don’t terrorize the Chrotile. Urus may kick you off her shell if you make too much trouble.”

Without checking if they heard her, Elysia climbed the stairs. She stopped in the kitchen and rummaged through the cabinets until she found her chocolate stash, which was much smaller than she remembered. Someone better not be eating her chocolate. From now on, she should hide her chocolate in her bedroom just to be safe. Who knew if they had chocolate on Urus?

Elysia froze as a terrifying thought came to her. Could she still eat chocolate? As far as she could tell, she didn’t need to eat anymore, but could she eat if she wanted to?

With trembling hands, Elysia opened a half-empty chocolate box and brought a small caramel chocolate to her mouth. Like a squirrel, she took tiny nibbles out of the chocolate, expecting her body to reject the chocolate, but after a few seconds she couldn’t resist and swallowed the chocolate whole. She gravitated toward the bathroom just in case, but after almost a minute nothing happened, causing her to sigh in relief.

Still, she waited another five minutes, focusing all her attention on her stomach, looking for any signs of discomfort, but none came.

A broad smile bloomed as she downed several more chocolates before gathering up her entire stash in her arms and descending back downstairs. As she turned toward her bedroom door, she gave a glare at the duo, then slammed her bedroom door closed with her foot.

In her paranoia, Elysia entered her closet and approached her safe but paused, worried the safe may ruin her chocolates. Though the idea of her stash being locked behind her bedroom door and in her safe gave her a strange sense of comfort, prompting her to continue.

After opening the safe, she surveyed the interior for the best spot to stash her chocolate, causing her eyes to land on a drawer near the bottom with a snowflake emblem. Curious, she gently set down her stash before opening the door and sticking her hand inside. A refrigerated drawer? Since when did safes come with a refrigerated option? Though it made sense. Some valuables needed to be kept cool.

Elysia opened the drawer before transporting her chocolate stash within. As she closed the drawer, her eyes landed on the scaly case housing her new armor, causing her next plan of action to manifest.

Before pulling the case out, she glanced down her body at the tank top and shorts. Should she try the armor naked? Last time her clothes interfered with the continuity but was it worth it?

Her eyes flicked between her clothes and the case in indecision for several seconds, but figuring it wouldn’t do any harm to try it out, Elysia stripped off her clothes. With a fair bit of stretching and wiggling, the armor snapped into place, followed by the wrist and shin guards. After flipping her head back, sending her hair down her back, Elysia strapped on the helmet. To her annoyance, several strands of hair fell over her eyes, forcing her to tuck them under the helmet. She needed to find some hair ties. Maybe Eva had some.

Lastly, she bent down to slip on the boots, marveling at how natural armor felt against her skin. It was like another layer of skin, zero discomfort anywhere.

Eager to test it out, Elysia peeked out of her bedroom door at the duo still planning their bedroom. A blush formed at the thought of what she had under her formfitting armor, or lack thereof, but she squashed it, as the armor didn’t show anything beyond what a tight shirt and skinny jeans would.

Still, she scampered up the stairs before the duo noticed her, then stepped out on the rear deck. As usual, the harbor appeared mostly deserted as Chrotile had little need for boats and were trapped on Urus until Mezo opened.

Her tense muscles slackened without an audience to watch her experiments other than a nosy turtle. First, she stretched her hands down to her toes, feeling only the gentle pull of her hamstrings and calves as the armor stayed glued to her skin as if it was part of her body.

Next, she hopped then dashed from one end of the deck to the other, again, finding no limits on her range of motion nor discomfort.

A satisfied smile bloomed, feeling at home in her new armor. Sure, it might not protect her as much as a heavy suit of metal armor, but it sure was comfortable. She didn’t want to lug around a heavy suit of armor anyway, especially with her system enforced lack of strength. Her mind flashed back to her previous armors remembering how short of life they lived. Hopefully, her new scaly armor lasted through at least a couple of dungeons. If it broke, she might have to sneak back into Port Alberni for more scales this time with the aid of a storage ring. Was getting eaten by a massive baby serpent worth it, though? Elysia did a little wiggle in her new armor. Oh yeah, definitely worth it.

Done with her armor experiments for now, Elysia grasped the whip anchored to her right hip and uncoiled it with a flick. Unfortunately, like her previous whip testing, instead of a satisfying crack, the whip fell limp on the deck.

Refusing to be beaten, Elysia flicked again, this time with much more force, but instead of flicking forward, the tip of the whip raked her back before lurching over her shoulder and falling limp.

A growl escaped Elysia’s mouth as she slammed the whip on the deck and sprinted to the bathroom. She twisted her back toward the mirror and looked down at the damage, only to breathe a sigh of relief at the lack thereof. A shiver ran through her as imagined what her back may have looked like if she wasn’t wearing armor. She would definitely wear armor while handling her new whip from now on. Should she get a practice whip that wasn’t so sharp? What was the point? She wasn’t taking a practice whip into battle. She had armor, she may as well put it to use.

Before she could turn to leave the bathroom, a buzzing sound filled her mind, as if someone had turned on an intercom in her head.

Attention all participants of Mezo. Team placements have been posted in City Hall.