Læraðr smiled to himself as he finally had the opportunity to go to his Wonder again. This would be something very nice to do for himself, after dealing with all the alien s**t. And then getting his a** kicked by that snake man. Ugh, that had sucked. He inhaled deeply and spoke the words that would take him to his Wonder, grinning as he appeared there, this time much closer to the castle-coral than before. Water was no longer at his feet, not the way it was when he'd been here once before, anyway, and he hummed in excitement. The boots built into his uniform had protected him, of course, from any nasty gross bad wet feet problems the last time, but it was nice not to slosh through the dirt paths. There were smooth cobblestone paths too, he realized, on what must have been the more main roads, and the occasional side road. As he looked around a bit more, just at the scenery, he noticed that a lot of the damage seemed to have been... sponged out?

Someone just put this whole place in rice, he thought before snickering. Rice wouldn't explain broken windows suddenly being repaired or the stone streets, but that was cool, too.

Looking around to make sure he was alone, before smacking his forehead at his own stupidity, he knelt down and removed a glove, feeling the smooth, cool rock under his bare fingers and palm. He couldn't help himself. He saw a good rock and he just had to touch it. he grimaced, though, as he realized now he had that tingly feeling that meant he was "uneven" and removed his other glove with a sigh, touching a stone the same way he'd just had done with his other hand. The tingly feeling vanished and he quickly put his gloves back on. At least the rock felt nice, even if he'd had to briefly deal with his brain being bullshit.

He breathed in, looking around him more and noticing that there were also some kind of water paths carving their way around the areas in different ways. Much different compared to the dirt and cobblestone paths. From what he could see they were wide and deep, with a gentle slope from the edges to the very deepest parts. Like a giant swimming pool going from three feet deep to twelve, but he wasn't sure how deep the waterways were. He walked over closer to try and figure it out, peered inside, and then took a step back, clutching at his chest in shock.

"What?" he said aloud to nobody but himself, stepping forward again. There were... blueish glowing things in the water. Some kind of algae? Plankton? The longer he looked, the more he saw through the water and—wait, was that... shrimp? And a crab or two? He'd thought life wasn't... but then... He thought about the comet that had exploded, the energy that had boomed into the universe, and...

His eyes watered and he sniffed, rubbing the tears away. "Life," he breathed, "Life's coming back. I can't believe it."

He knelt by the water, removing his gloves again to stick his hands in the water, giggling as the glowing whatever-they-were stuck to his hands, making them glow, and reached further, watching the shrimp and the crabs dart away from the strange appendages entering their home until his hands settled at a part of the incline, elbow deep in. He held still, watching them come investigate his fingers and trying to hold in his giggles as it reminded him of that silly video floating around the internet, with some sea creatures jumping back every time the hands twitched.

But these creatures, these alien shrimps and crabs—whoa, as the plankton cleared up, he could see the pink shrimp also glowing, and the crabs—the crabs weren't red like earth ones, but a deeper blue than the plankton things, also emitting a soft glow.

Bioluminescence. He couldn't believe it.

He grinned as one particularly adventurous crab crawled right into his hand and didn't flinch at any twitches his fingers made. Aw, how cute. He tried petting it with his other hand, scaring off the shrimps, and squealed in excitement when it seemed to lean into the pets and didn't attack him with its claws.

He spent several long minutes here, playing with the life that was flourishing on his planet, and finally stood up, shaking the water off his hands and carrying his gloves over putting them back on while his hands were still wet. He didn't have a towel and putting on gloves while wet would just suck.

He was so excited to tell Zayble. Shoving the gloves in his pockets, he skipped across the paths and up the stairs into the coral-castle. He entered and sang out, "Oh Zayyyble, I'm baaaack! And I've got gooood neewwwws!"

Grinning, he shut the door and stepped further into the foyer. Huh. Maybe he was deeper into the place. Following a gut feeling he had, he trekked deeper into the castle. He sensed something—perhaps his Code piece? He followed the pathways deeper to the heart of the coral-castle, deep enough that was sure he was under a new water line again, judging by the ways the walls seeped with seawater. Then there was a door in his face. Taking a deep breath, he opened it, and the sight inside took his breath away. Zayble stood somewhere nearby, but he wasn't paying attention to his alien ancestor right now.

He was staring at the floating ball of light, filling the room with a gentle sort of touch and warmth that made him feel really good. Mostly in awe. This was the Code? This was what he was protecting?

"Wow," he breathed, inching closer, feeling the power, and giving it a little pet. Okay, whoa, that felt weird. He wasn't gonna be doing that again, that was for sure. It wasn't like it felt bad, necessarily, but it did feel just this side of weird and strange to make him decide to never ever touch it again.

Zayble chuckled. "Yes, it is rather strange to touch, isn't it?" he said, amused. "You should've come to see this on your first visit, but you were, quite understandably, already in quite the emotional state... Speaking of things you should've had on your first visit, the signet ring..."

Recognition flashed across his face, and he pulled away from the Code piece. "Right, right, I'd forgotten all about that... It's been a... an interesting month," he said, "We had aliens, real, live aliens, come visit Earth, and there was this whole thing with the Negaverse and..."

He shook his head. "I don't think I could explain it even if I tried," he said ruefully, "And I was right there for a lot of it."

Zayble frowned in concern, but accepted he wouldn't be hearing the story in its entirety. "Yes, well. At least now you know exactly what it is you're protecting here," he said with a comforting smile, "And this is surely a lot more normal compared to whatever went down with those aliens, eh?"

Læraðr laughed. "Yeah, definitely," he agreed, "As normal as big glowing thingies can be, anyway. You said, uh, my signet ring? Where would I find that?"

"It's likely to be in what used to be the Knight's main quarters. I suppose it still can be, if you could ever live here," Zayble said with a sad, somewhat wistful smile. "Alas, as far as I know, life is incredibly difficult to sustain here."

"Oh!" Læraðr exclaimed, grinning so wide he was sure that, if he was someone who didn't take very good care of himself and his skin, his lips would've split open, "You'll never guess what I saw outside in these little waterways near the walking paths!"

Zayble blinked. "You mean—the outside isn't flooded anymore?"

"You live here, you didn't know? I'd've thought you could at least see out windows, even if you were, like, I guess, stuck in the castle area? I dunno how your ghostie stuff works," Læraðr said with a frown.

"...Well. I don't live here in that sense," Zayble said with a snort, "But... That is very good news. The Wonder is healing. The flooding is clear and our waterways are open again."

"And there's life, too. Some sort of shrimps and crabs. And glowing... thingies. Small little flecks in the water. Not sure what they were, or even what all the real names are, since I can only compare it to stuff on Earth..." He trailed off.

"Oh, you're calling them something close enough, I think. The glowing flecks... I believe those might be some kind of plankton," Zayble said, stroking his chin. "Not certain, though, not without seeing it. Could very well also be algae, but. Oh, this is wonderful news. Life! Life again! I do believe you'll be able to fulfill that Oath of yours, lad."

Læraðr smiled proudly, watching Zayble get emotional over the fact that life was coming back. He stepped forward, and while he didn't expect to actually hug Zayble (he realized this about two seconds into the motions, but too late to quit the attempt), he wanted to at least make the gesture.

Surprisingly, he met something solid, and Zayble gave him quite the bear hug for a long moment before the solidness of the ghost disappeared and they were forced to let go.

"I'm glad. That you could see life back here again. Besides just me," Læraðr said quietly. "I don't know how long you'll stay..."

"As long as you shall need me," Zayble said. "There is still much to do, after all. Training is very important. Though I sense you need to return soon."

Læraðr nodded, sighing. "Yes, I... As much as I'd like to stay for a very long while," he said wistfully, "I spent an awful lot of time dawdling before even getting here today, much like last time. It was just so nice to see everything... perkier."

Zayble smiled. "We can wait another three weeks for you to come back again and get started. I've waited a thousand years, a small amount of time like that matters not. However, we should at least get your ring, no?"

"Ah—yeah." Læraðr smiled sheepishly, and they quickly retrieved the ring, taking no time to take in any of the sights, though Læraðr would've liked to. He just... spent too much time doing that already. And, with a sad sigh and goodbye, he went back home.