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As quick as a flash, the red hues and golden brickyard of Sunspire vanished and turned into the twilight blues and silvers of Evermoon. Micha'el felt the immediate calm and cool air touch his face, it was a familiar feeling, one that he welcomed even if he did feel their time in Sunspire was cut short. They found themselves in the city centre, a gigantic courtyard nearby Stelldrassil. Micha'el let out a breath as he watched the glow of runes beneath their feet disappear. He then let out a sigh as he ran a hand through his blond hair. "He just used us" Micha'el said, "It wasn't even for personal gain, he just wanted to see how strong Occulians are."

"Team Sun" a voice said fro behind them. Micha'el turned to find the pair of Star Elves that had said goodbye to them when they were sent to Sunspire. The man and the woman, the man with dark blue hair over his shoulders, and the woman with a ponytail of brilliant blonde hair. Both had glowing blue eyes, like small blue lights. They stared at him. "You're back" the male said "A day or two sooner than expected, did you finish your quest already?"
"That magic" the she-elf then said, gesturing to the place on the ground where the teleportation had faded. "It's the magic of King Sol. He sent you back personally?"
"... He did" Micha'el said, standing straight as he looked up to them. They were both taller than the rest of Team Sun, not only because they were adults, but because they were elves. Their High Elven cousins stood taller yet, but some of that slender height still existed within them after all these generations. "We defeated the threat in the plagued forest, then after thanking us he sent us back. Could you please tell us where Lucas Purevelion is?"
"Hmm..." the male said making eye contact with the she-elf. "Lucas Purevelion and the rest of.... Team Elixer" He said it as if the words were alien to him, "have taken a quest on behalf of the Orcish tribe of Kargoth'Rotar. I do not know when he will return."
"Oh..." Micha'el said. "Team Sun. Tell us" the she-elf then asked, "what is it like in Sunspire? How do the Sun Elves fair?"

The two star elves stood patiently, their complexion ever youthful and not ageing a day. Their beauty made them look mostly happy, or if anything humble at all times. That was one difference, one of many, that Micha'el enjoyed about the Star Elves now. The Sun Elves always looked complacent, with a smug grin on their lips or an eye-roll after every word that came out of their mouths. Whilst it was true Micha'el had met a few more interesting and less irritating Sun Elves, he had an overall bitter outlook on them. Tsuna spoke first, explaining how Sunspire was less than satisfactory. The elves, especially the she elf looked a little surprised, her head beginning to hang slightly with her shoulders, as if all hopes had been lost. At the king sending them back personally the male of the two cheaply exhaled as if he wasn't surprised. Before he could say anything Tsuna was leaving, though, and Lottie gaped her mouth a little, whilst Aoi almost cast out a hand as if to attempt to bring her back. But her eyes looked down as she peered at her own hand, she closed her empty palm into a loose fist before looking back to the elves. The male said "It doesn't surprise me. The Sun King has had a bad habit of spying on us through any means necessary. I imagine he was just judging the power of Occulians."
"Exactly..." Micha'el added in, looking away from Tsuna and back to the elves and their blue eyes. "It is a pity" the she-elf replied, "no matter what we try, they will never change, even if we do."
"Forgive me for saying this, but I believe your city to be better off without them - they're too different now. No matter the ancestry you have. Thank you for the mission however, it could not have been easy to organise with the Sun Elves. We have learned a lot."
"You are very welcome. As your teammate has already said, you have all finished much earlier than most other teams, you are free to enjoy Evermoon for the rest of the day. Orion'stiel shilari-meda" the male replied. Micha'el swallowed, and Lottie saw him almost squint before saying "Orion'stiel" in reply, passing them a wave as they departed. Lottie's eyes widened, "what did you say? I didn't know you knew Elentari!" Micha'el smiled and scratched the back of his head, saying "they said "look beyond the far horizons" i think... It's a farewell they use here. I replied "look beyond"... I honestly didn't wanna miss pronounce the other half" Micha'el laughed, admitting he couldn't really speak much of their language. "That's fascinating" Aoi added.

"Should we go after Tsuna?" Lottie asked, turning to face the direction where she came from. The others followed her gaze and honestly, Micha'el wasn't too sure. Aoi said "she might be lonely"
"Or glad to finally be rid of us" Lottie replied, crossing her arms. "I wouldn't... want to be rid of you" Aoi said, smiling sheepishly as Lottie turned to her and gave her a huge hug. "Honorary Team Sun member!" Lottie announced. As the two girls made a commotion, though, Micha'el continued looking. He was thinking about everything she's been through, and even after that he couldn't help but be selfish and think about how nice it would be to not have her around for a short while (when she hasn't ran off because of something bad). "She probably needs some time to process everything" Micha'el then said out loud, and the two girls stopped talking and giggling. "Tsuna lost her father back there, then she almost got herself killed. I don't think even she knows what to think. And that's not even mentioning all the food for thought I gave her." Micha'el could've gritted his teeth remembering how angry he was.

From out of the sky came a bird, well, it was what he thought was a bird. As it came flapping down closer to them it's wings didn't seemed to give a small gust of air, and it's body was not feathery. It was made entirely from sparking arcane magic. Aoi seemed excited to see it and jumped up to clasp it. As she did the magic turned to dust and vanished into the air and in her hand was a scroll wrapped in blue leather. "It's from my team back at Merlin Academy" she said without having to think about it. Lottie, with a smile, said "how about we go to the lake and read it there?" Aoi nodded, smiling back and holding the scroll tight to her chest.

The lake was at the western edge of the city. It was where a small port of three long wooden platforms had been built a long time ago for boats and fisherman to use moving from locations across the gigantic lake. The three of them took the end of the third platform where there wasn't a ship taking it up. The Ambition and Lightcleaver were docked together on the first, and Ravencrest's zeppelin was docked on the second. Each of them had their legs dangling off the edge, just above the water whilst Aoi read her letter from Entei. Micha'el was laying back, exmaining the clouds, whilst Lottie looked down into the water, watching strange fish with shimmering scales swim by. "Hey, i wonder what happened to those twins" Lottie said, "Psht" Micha'el replied, "I don't really care."
"And Tsuna? Do you think she'll find us here?"
"If she really wants to see us, she might. We'll go check up on her in a bit, if she doesn't show up, okay?"

The three of them where still waiting on the edge of the platform whilst they wondered whether or not Tsuna was going to show up. Micha'el and Lottie both listened to Aoi reading out her message. " So yeah, in all it's been pretty boring back here without you to keep things interesting. Training without your singing is actually a little harder than we thought it would be, we've grown so accustomed to you being here to help us, haha. There's rumours going round that Professor Magus-Bane is ill, he hasn't been out in public for a while. On a brighter note however, your sister dropped by, she didn't realise you stayed behind for a little longer in Otherearth. She wanted me to pass on her best wishes, and she's proud of you for helping out another team. So hi to them for us by the way, we're jealous they get to have you around. Camellia's been enjoying life without the twins, have you seen them? We got back here and were surprised to hear they left to do a quest in Otherearth. Kuroyuri, just, well. Kuroyuri. Anyway, we'll see you soon yeah?

Cya plum.

Sagisō"

"They sound awesome" Lottie replied, dangling her feet over the surface of the water. "So it's you, Camellia, Kuroyuri and Sagisō?" Micha'el then asked. Aoi nodded, "yeah. Camellia and Kuroyuri attack the front, i stay at the back and support them and Sagisō is the strategist."
"I'm jealous they don't have to deal with the twins, I've been waiting months for a day we don't have to know they're somewhere nearby" Aoi admitted.

Some more time passed until suddenly the light over Micha'el's closed eyes vanished. So he opened one eye and noticed a silhouette above him, holding something out. "Uh?" he began, and then it was Tsuna's voice that made him pull up to turn and face her probably. Looking up he looked between her and the nearby ice-cream stool. Lottie gasped, "Ice-cream?! Thanks Tsuna"
"That was kind of him" Aoi said, accepting the sweet gift with a smile. Micha'el then took his and after a brief pause he looked to a space on the platform beside him and patted it. "Are you going to sit down, or just take up all my sunlight?" at first he sounded deadly serious, but then he smiled and tilted his head to the space, gesturing that she should join them. "We were just reading Aoi's message from Entei. Her teammates said hi."
"Thy sound AWESOME" Lottie said, swallowing some of her ice-cream. "Especially Camellia, she has this dark foreboding yet super stylish personality about her."

Micha'el stared beside him, looking at the ice cream that Tsuna was doubtfully ever going to touch. It glistened sweat-drops in the sunlight, and thought it will be a shame it might go to waste, at least Tsuna was attempting to be sociable. Aoi then explained her group to Team Sun, and Tsuna seemed... if anything, sad. Micha'el saw it, yet Aoi and Lottie both saw the charade she was attempting to make. At Tsuna's comments, Lottie couldn't help but pull a smug face and say "It's the battle-skirt, no doubt", she believed they were the most stylish and battle-ready piece of armour a girl could ever have. "Hey" Micha'el replied to him being sensitive, but Tsuna continued and mentioned transferring, suddenly making everyone go silent. Lottie then scooted over, closer to Aoi and whispered "oh my god, please, transfer." Micha'el's lips parted, wondering what she might say, and Aoi's eyes glistened for a moment. "You- you really believe im valuable to the team?" the young girl asked, and suddenly she was diving onto Tsuna, arms around her shoulders across the wooden platform. She had a great smile on her face and over Tsuna's shoulder she said "I'm so glad, more than glad, that im not a burden. And though I would love to..." Aoi pulled away slowly and leaned back, giving a soft smile back again. She then looked to her scroll and added "No matter what... my friends at Merlin need me. But until the end of tomorrow, im in your team. And after that... our teams should work together on a mission! You'll always be welcome at Merlin Academy!"

Aoi made a small "eh?" noise and tilted her head as Tsuna smiled and turned, the breeze brushing through them all, carrying the fresh scent of trees from the city. Micha'el liked her words, he didn't really say anything, but he couldn't help but smile. As Tsuna turned back to them Aoi smiled again and said "I think it's a wonderful saying..."
"You father would be proud... I'm sure he still is." Micha'el said, putting a hand on Tsuna's shoulder and giving a firm squeeze.

Lottie was then looking down into the water, examining the fish swimming by silently beneath the water, make it ripple above and across the stretch of water beneath her feet. She had half finished her icecream now, enjoying the sweet taste in her mouth. Then she noticed something odd, a ripple beneath the port slowly stretched towards the centre of the lake. Then again, and again. She thought nothing of it until she noticed the ripples were stretching outwards at all, but were getting small towards the centre. "They're... moving in reverse..." Lottie muttered, leaning further over the edge to get a better look. But as she did so the water not that much farther into the lake splashed up, not aggressively, but enough to arch up a few metres. The water touched the lake again and as another ripple pulled inwards the water splashed up again, as if covering and outlining a tall oval bubble that began to shimmer and swirl. By now, the others had noticed the quietly forming anomaly. "What's that?" Lottie asked, coming to stand, unsure of what to make of the situation. "It's magical, but not arcane" Aoi said, squinting to get a better look through her pale pink hair. "A portal?" Micha'el asked, and Aoi nodded. The air around them then shifted, as if a beam of magical energy had suddenly passed through them like an ethereal cannon, yet it did not harm them. Instead the world around them felt cut-off, it muffled out the sound of Evermoon behind them and everything stretched and distorted as they felt their bodies being magically drawn closer to the portal. Micha'el felt his stomach twist as suddenly his head was flying towards the portal and he felt the plunge of liquid all around him. He couldn't see anything, just darkness. He felt like he was floating, gasping for air as if he couldn't breath though at the same time there was more than enough air for him to live. He couldn't make a sound, no cry or call worked, nothing came out. When he finally began to see a light, he blacked out.

((Next post in Archon Promenade of Liu))