the guardians

The first indication that something was wrong with autumn didn’t come from the changing of the currents (they were well regulated by Alaric’s magic, thank you very much). Neither did it come from any first-, second-, or even third-hand information from the shrine realms. What, did you think the temple guardians ever went to the shrine realms and thus leave their precious temple unguarded for people like Pluto or Stefan to get into? For shame.

No, the first indication that something was wrong came when he showed up.

It was the early morning, the brief half-hour period of time where only Estelle was guarding the temple when it happened. Alaric and Dipsi were spending breakfast together, an affair that was almost entirely fish except for the bread that Dispi had bought when she’d popped by some land market a few days ago. 

As the two chatted, a tile on the wall lit up vibrantly orange. 

“You get it,” Alaric said with a huff. “I had to fend off five divers last night, I don’t wanna deal with whatever this shit is.”

Dipsu stuck out her tongue in return, before tapping it. “What’s up, Estelle?”

“Farold’s back,” came Estelle’s voice through the tile. “Says he’s got some new wares and refuses to fuck off.”

“Farold’s back!” Dipsi’s one remaining crimson eye gleamed with excitement. “Tell him I’ll be right there!”

And with that, Dipsi was off like a shot, detouring only for a moment to grab a handful of emeralds from their personal currency stash.

Alaric was only a moment behind. “Oceandamn Farold with all his shitty ass junk, constantly fucking scamming my dumbass gullible sister.” And on and on like that.

Escaping to the front would’ve taken most ages thanks to the temple’s maze of an interior, but Alaric and Dipsi could manipulate the walls so they were there in no time.

And there he was. All smug grins and garishly colored fabric, Farold stood a respectable distance away from the entrance while the resident blue mahou-mimi scowled at him, her trident poised.

“Hello, ladies,” he said, his voice attempting to be charming despite the nervous twitch in his eyes. “Come to see the new stock?”

“Yes!” “No!"

Used to the conflicting responses, Farold simply grinned wider and within minutes there was a foldable table sitting at the edge of the temple’s porch. All manner of mostly useless things sat on it - cubes of “rare dirt” and trinkets that looked antique but were probably lovingly altered from a new state maybe yesterday. Most impressive of all, though, were the three glittering black shards in the very center that radiated with an unmistakable power.

Alaric’s eyes widened, and she bolted over to the table in half a second. Her head turned so her good eye stared directly at the shards (and conveniently ignored Farold’s terrified glance). 

“Are those fucking ringox shards?”

“Yup! They’re -”

But before Farold had a chance to explain, Alaric had already grasped his face in her clawed hands and lifted him up to meet her height. His feet dangled helplessly as she growled, “What. The. Fuck. Are. You. Doing. With. Core shards?!?”

“As I was about to explain,” wheezed Farold, pulling uselessly on her hand to get her off, “they’re Deidre’s shards. You know, after TEO shattered her core?”

Thunk. Farold fell to the ground, and he very nearly spit at the massive guardian before thinking better of it.

“Fuck. The autumn god?” Alaric scowled. “That’s fucked up.”

“You’re selling Deidre’s shards?” Dispi piped up, coming to join her sister. “Normally I’m chill with whatever, but this is a new low.”

“Yeah, well,” Farold said, dusting his cloak off, “I’m mostly trying to get them away from me so that Pluto doesn’t bully me into giving everything I find to him. Again. It’s not like I’m going to give them to Medysa myself.”

“What’s Medysa got to do with this?” Alaric asked, already scooping them up and walking away before Farold could even name a price. “Far as I’m concerned, broken core is broken core. Nothing to be done about that.”

“I’ll tell you if you pay for them,” Farold said, scowling back at the guardian. 

Dipsi stepped up and leaned against the edge of his table. “‘Fraid we’re not paying for those. That’s fucked up. I’ll pay you for information though!”

“How much?”

Pursing her lips, Dipsi held out her overlarge handful of emeralds. “All of these to tell us everything you know?”

Dollar signs sprouted in Farold’s eyes. “Done.” Within moments all the emeralds were safe in his pockets. 

“Basically,” Farold began, and Alaric and Dipsi both stopped to listen, “TEO corrupted Deidre at the Ceremony of Autumn and shattered her core. Medysa, Deidre’s avatar, says she can restore Deidre as long as she has most of the shards. Otherwise, Autumn’s going to be fucked up forever. The Cult’s been trying to stop that, of course. And! Pluto’s been bullying me to give him everything I find.”

“Great.” Alaric scowled. “You’ve done your bit, now fuck off!” This was punctuated with a low growl that resonated throughout the entire temple, startling both Farold and Estelle who’d long since returned inside.

With a very undignified squeak, Farold saluted and scurried off with his wares in tow.

Alaric and Dipsi returned inside at a considerably slower pace than they came out, contemplating. 

“Figure we wanna return these,” Alaric said finally. “Wouldn’t do to have autumn fucked up for good.”

“Nah, think of the poor fishies!” Dipsi said, her eyes wide. “The water’s going to be all wrong no matter what we do if we don’t fix this!”

“Right.” With a huge groan, Alaric sat back down at the table and placed the glittering black shards down. “The real question is who’s gonna go to the Shrine Realm and return these?”

Dipsi gave Alaric a look and sighed. “Me. It’s always me doing all the errands after all.”

“Right you are, Dipsi, right you are.”

Dipsi scooped up the shards and fetched an impenetrable pouch from their money vault. The shards were carefully deposited and the pouch was tied around her belt. 

“I’ll be back in a few hours!” Dipsi said, more cheerful than she felt. 

“You better be!”

And with that, Dipsi was off, leaving Alaric to contemplate how best to kill a god so she could get some peace and quiet for once without The Exiled One’s plots ruining everything.