On Watch Duty

“Regulated to watch duty… phooey!”

Mercy murmured to herself while sitting at her post, high up on a platform built on the cliff sides of Wingwatch. From there she could see the hustling and bustling of mages and non-mages alike down below on the island and all around the Outpost. However, she was supposed to be keeping an eye on the horizon, where a dark smog surrounded the nearby island of Raydes. The dreaded Wither was in focus in her telescope and she was supposed to signal any changes using the flags she was supplied with. Nothing had happened so far.

“You mean relegated”, a voice replied to her.

This took Mercy by surprise. She tore her gaze from the telescope eyepiece and looked around. There were several other Faians around her, but in the dark hour of this night she could only make out vague silhouettes, even with the light from her ghost-like candle flames. Besides, all on watch duty were placed several meters away from each other to reduce distractions and maximize the vantage points of Raydes. So where was this voice coming from?

“What?” Mercy called out into the darkness.

Surprising Mercy again, the same voice answered. “You were relegated to watch duty. Not regulated.”

This time, Mercy could tell which direction the voice was coming from. She glanced around to make sure no one else was watching her, and she left her post. Mercy made sure not to trip over the small jutting rocks of the cliff’s plateau. She found herself at another telescope, this one being manned by a lumendra with traits she had never seen before. He had two pairs of long ears that were fused together at their bases, a wide rounded neck and… what seemed to be no legs at all?

Mercy put the strange sight to the back of her mind and asked her question.

“How could you hear me muttering to myself?”

“I have good hearing, and you are not as quiet as you believe yourself to be”, the lumendra replied without looking away from his telescope.

Of course the guy with extra ears would hear her from that far away.

“Phooey”, Mercy spat and began to walk away back to her post.

“…why were you relegated to this duty?”

This stopped Mercy in her tracks. Clearly this lumendra was as bored as she was, and Mercy was not one to squander an opportunity to let another Faian know of the injustices that she suffered.

“I was relegated to watch duty because the Adventurer’s Guild told the Mages that I was unfit to aid them in this project. That’s untrue, because I have experience with the Wither! I helped them clear it out directly during Reclaim Raydes.”

Well, that was only partially true. Mercy had snuck onto the Guild’s airship and ended up on Raydes with the rest of the Adventurers that were tasked with fighting the Wither with light. The candle noodle took off on her own and encountered a wither creature. She made a narrow escape, and when she found her way back to the island’s shores safely she was confronted by some higher ups of the Guild who wished to know what exactly she was doing there running out of the fog by herself. The candle noodle decided to confess everything then.

When it was revealed that Operation: Reclaim Raydes was a failure, Mercy was first in line to offer her help in the next project... but they turned her down. Even when she even offered to join the Adventurer’s Guild legitimately!

She had to beg them to let her help this time. Finally after all her badgering, and a few unsolicited visits to Pioette’s office, the authorities let her join the cause… as long as she stayed far out of the way of the mages. And so, watch duty was where Mercy ended up.

“Well, I can’t imagine the Archmages turning down help for this endeavor”, the lumendra said. “I suppose you are lucky that they decided to station you up here.”

Mercy frowned. “And what are you doing up here, then?” she questioned.

The lumendra continued looking through his telescope as he spoke. “I cannot exactly climb ladders to help tend to the lanterns, and I am not strong enough to carry about large crates of supplies. Keeping watch on the Wither is my best way of aiding the effort”.

Mercy wondered how exactly he would use the signal flags if something happened, but she kept that thought to herself.

There was silence between them for a moment. The outline of Raydes looked foreboding as usual. Hopefully the mages would hurry up and finish their spell so they could all go home, Mercy thought.

“Would you like anything to eat?” the lumendra offered, snapping Mercy away from her thoughts. “You can find fruit in my satchel. Help yourself.”

Mercy noticed the dark blue bag on the ground next to the telescope.

“Thanks.”

Mercy opened the bag and found some starberries inside. The pastel berries emitted a dim glow and made Mercy wish she was able to use the telescope for stargazing instead of spying on Raydes.

“What’s your name? I’m Mercy”, the candle noodle said between chewing on the starberries.

“Trance”, the lumendra replied.

“You ever use telescopes for stargazing, Trance?”

“I do. In fact, I have some suitable eyepieces that are also in my satchel.”

This got Mercy excited. She dug through Trance’s bag until she found the eyepieces.

“Then let’s swap these for the one you’re using now and point that scope up!” Mercy exclaimed. “They’ve got enough eyes on that fog. We could use a break!”

To her surprise, Trance did not argue. He looked away from the scope for the first time and Mercy took note of the golden markings on his face, as well as the jewelry he wore.

“Nice jewelry, Trance. The Arcane, right?” Mercy remarked. “Did you just start at the Academy? Is that why you’re not working with the more experienced mages?”

“Well… not exactly… I have yet to properly unlock my affinity to the Arcane”, Trance replied. He took the eyepiece Mercy offered him and began to replace the one on the telescope.

“So you’d rather be down there, powering up Alastor, then?” Mercy asked.

“Well, it is less that the mages are powering him up, and more like they are synching their connection to the Arcane with his own in order to keep the massive power of the complex spell in balance.”

“Uh-huh…”, Mercy muttered, uninterested in the details of the Archmages’ plan. She looked through the telescope and was impressed by the sight of the stars.

“Wow, you can see the nose of the Boosha constellation so clearly!” Mercy stepped back and gestured for Trance to take a look.

“Actually, I did not point the scope at that constellation”, Trance said. “I should have it focused on the tail of the Poosum.”

“What! Really?” Mercy looked up at the sky and then through the telescope again.

“Um… hey, I think I hear footsteps”, Trance tapped Mercy with his tail to get the candle noodle’s attention. “You should get back to your post before they catch us loafing off here.”

“Oh, shoot…” Mercy pulled herself from the telescope and saw a silhouette heading towards them. “I gotta run, then. Until next time, Trance!”

“It was nice meeting you”, the lumendra remarked before packing away his eyepieces.

Mercy trotted away, back to her own post. It was time to go back to the work of watching the Wither.

When this was all over, the candle noodle decided, she would try to find Trance again.