Devvyn's palms itched, just like they always did when he was doing something wrong.
Devvyn wiped his hands against his pants. Somehow, they came away still wet. He blamed it on the heat and the crowd, and how fast he was walking.
The device he had stolen from his grandmother rested neatly in the threadbare leather satchel hanging from his shoulders. He gripped the satchel tightly. Mizuho take it, Devvyn thought. He had worked on the device with his grandmother, gotten all the parts, screwed in the nuts and bolts, so that made it half his right? Technically, he didn't steal it. The itching in his palms reduced, just a tiny bit.
He pushed through the festival's crowd, making liberal use of his elbows to jab and nudge people out of the way.
Behind him, Aela and Jelric followed.
They were headed to the railway road for the tech competition. Jelric was characteristically quiet while Aela panted as though they had travelled the entire holdings of Thaloria on foot, and not taken a train from Sinai's Lower City to The Golden Fields, then to Eternis, where Port Azure was.
Devvyn was also out of breath, but more from guilt and anxiety, and a discomforting feeling he couldn't place his finger on. However, these were quickly melting away into excitement as he took in the sight at Port Azure.
On a normal day, the Port would have whale-sized ships for Sinai's quarterly exports to other holdings idly bobbing in the clear, cerulean waters of the deep-water berths, their sails fluttering in the wind. Trawlers and Longliners belonging to the city's fishermen would either be going out to sea or coming back with tons of fish in the Livewells.
Today, the Port's belly bustled with more people than usual. Highborns, the middle class, and people from the Lower City mingled due to the festival spirit. The sails of the ships danced alongside festival banners embroidered with images of water Echos, water Echo wielders, and the great water Primordial, Mizuho. There were no fishermen or Hunters at the port either, only guards still on patrol. Merchants hawked wares, shouting prices at the thrum of festival-goers.
The festival attendees were mostly people from Sinai, but Devvyn recognised pirates from Redemere mingling in the crowd, their skin reddened and darkened from the harsh Redemere sun. The other holdings in Thaloria preferred to keep their distance from Sinai, except when something terribly important, like a war, was about to happen, but the Redemere Pirates were at every festival in Sinai.
Devvyn picked up his pace. Blue confetti crinkled under his boots, where it covered every surface of the ground. Balloons floated in the air along with the sound of music from a show happening nearby. Someone twisted a party popper, releasing sticky streamers that landed on his hair and clothes. Devvyn rolled his eyes and walked even faster.
"Can you slow down? The festival's not going anywhere until midnight." Aela yelled above the noise, breathless. She slipped and turned under and around people just to match Devvyn and Jelric's pace.
"The tech competition might be," Jelric said. "You know something that's also not going anywhere?" He asked, half-smiling as he patted her head.
"Say my height and I swear by Ignisara's flame, I'll gut you like a fish and roast what's left of you." Aela glared up at him, eyes blazing.
Jelric raised his hands. "I didn't say anything."
"You were thinking it," she snapped, "I saw it in your stupid, smug face."
"It's not smug. It's scared." He muttered. "Which is a very normal reaction to someone threatening to flambé my intestines."
"Good," Aela said, satisfied, then turned around with a dramatic swish.
Jelric muttered a curse under his breath.
She spun back around. "What was that?"
"Nothing." He said quickly.
Aela was small—shorter than most girls her age in Thaloria—but what she lacked in height, she more than made up for in intensity. Jelric honestly found her scary sometimes, and her unhealthy obsession with Ignisira didn't help. She'd taken a liking to the fire Primordial from the stories they listened to when they were children.
"Anyway, the competition doesn't start until two. We're at least, what—?" Aela glanced shortly at an imaginary watch on her wrist, "—thirty minutes early."
"Never hurts to be early," Devvyn said.
Jelric pushed past him with Aela. "I smell food, let's get something to eat."
Devvyn slowed down as they finally broke through into a less crowded space close to the railway, where vendors had set up their food stalls.
The air smelled divine, like sweet treats, soup, barbecued hot dogs, roasted meat, and popcorn, all bathed in sugar. There was food everywhere Devvyn looked. To his left, a vendor flipped jiggly pancakes and slathered them with honey syrup. Another cut Ube cheesecakes into neat, thin slices and arranged them on foil plates. Aela tapped him, pointing at a vendor deftly dropping circles of dough into hot brown oil.
Usually, the smell of fresh, steaming buns would make Devvyn hungry, but his stomach was already stuffed with excitement at the thought of winning the tech competition with his device and finally getting money to buy an Echo for Aela, Jelric, and himself. The prize money from the competition would bring them one Lux Echo each.
"I really can't wait for us to get our Echos." He said to no one in particular.
Devvyn patted his satchel to make sure the device was still there. After a split second's thought, he shifted the bag from his side and clutched it to his chest instead. His grandmother would not forgive him if he lost the Locator, but more importantly, he wouldn't forgive himself if he wasted this opportunity.
When he looked up, Aela and Jelric were at the buns stall. Jelric ordered six sticky buns and passed two marks to the vendor. Devvyn joined them, quelling the impatience bubbling in his guts. They deserved to have fun at the festival even if he wasn't in the mood. Aela especially.
"Want one?" Aela asked, shoving a sticky bun in front of Devvyn's face. She stuffed it into his mouth before he could answer, then collected two more buns from Jelric, jamming both in her mouth.
Devvyn slowly chewed on the bun, going over his presentation for the competition in his head. Someone nudged him, and Devvyn instinctively tightened his hold on the satchel, but it was just Jelric. "The competition?" Jelric guessed. "Don't overthink it. We're going to win for sure with Maelis's device. She's the best inventor in the whole of Sinai."
Aela nodded in agreement. "And you've been practising your speech for months. It's smooth sailing to Echo town for us."
"Yeah, I guess." But this was Devvyn's only chance of getting an Echo, so he couldn't bring himself to relax. His grandmother could easily afford to buy an Echo for him, but she despised the idea of bonding and how dangerous it was. She wanted Devvyn to follow in their family's footsteps and become an inventor.
Devvyn liked building things with Maelis, but he wanted more from life, knew he could be more. He inhaled sharply and relaxed his shoulders. He was going to get that Echo no matter what it took, even if it meant breaking Maelis's heart.
"Want an ice pop? My dad gave me extra pocket money just for today." Jelric asked, tilting his chin at the next stall.
"Your dad is the best!" Aela answered.
Jelric's jaw tightened, and his eyes narrowed with sudden heat. Devvyn debated asking about it, but the expression melted off Jelric's face as soon as it had appeared.
"You said Devvyn's grandmother was the best just yesterday," Jelric noted, following Aela.
Aela looked back and shrugged. "A girl's loyalty is as slippery as a worm. Hold on to it while you can."
The ice pop vendor was a water Echo wielder. Devvyn distracted himself by watching him make their order. The vendor made an exaggerated show of cupping a handful of water in one palm.
Then he threw it up and kept it floating in the air. The vendor opened a barrel filled with sugarcane stalks and, using the power of his Echo, extracted the liquid from one of the stalks. Then he spun it into the floating blob of water. The water turned a smooth milky colour.
"Can he go a bit faster?" Devvyn muttered under his breath, earning him a sharp jab to his ribs from Aela.
The vendor opened a packet of gelatin and added it to his mixture, twirling and twisting the water, sugarcane juice, and gelatin mix until they bonded into a gooey jelly-like mess. He finally dropped the mixture onto his table, cut it into three pieces, and rolled them into the shape of a lollipop, then froze them.
Jelric paid one copper mark. Ice pops were ridiculously cheap. Then again, they were just sugared water and gelatine. Devvyn imagined he could earn money on the side if he learned how to make them after he bonded with an Echo.
He collected his ice pop and stuck it in his mouth. It was so cold at first that it stuck to the roof of his mouth, but it melted into soft goo after a few rolls in his mouth. He chewed the rest of the pop until it dissolved on his tongue, leaving only a whisper of the flavour it had borrowed from the sugarcane.
"Isn't that your dad?" Aela pointed at a head moving swiftly through the crowd, as if it were leaving the festival. "I thought he wasn't coming."
Jelric stiffened, almost painfully. Again, that look crossed Jelric's face, and Devvyn knew that something was very wrong. Jelric gave his ice pop to Aela. "I'll be back soon. I just want to er…check that he's…fine."
"Weird," Aela said, miffed. "Should we follow him?"
"No. Let's go. It's almost time for the competition."
