Ul’dah is exactly the warm hug you remember it to be-- the dry heat is much more bearable than the humidity which you can experience both in Limsa and in Gridania, given that it’s the right time of year for it. As happy as you are to be home, you are also now painfully aware of the lack of greenery and life in the desert lands of Thanalan. Thank the stars you don’t live here anymore…

During your stay, you wear much looser, baggier clothes than you ever need to in Limsa, but you are more than accustomed to them given your childhood. Erden, on the other hand, seems to struggle with the heat and the clothes alike, but he doesn’t complain about it.

He seems amazed with the architecture of The Chamber of Rule, though you’ve seen the area so many times it just feels like part of home to you. It’s a lot of fun guiding him around the city and watching a fresh pair of eyes take it all in. By heading up an awkwardly out-of-the-way flight of stairs, you arrive in the resting quarters for the Paladins of the Sultana.

Along the way, you run into Jenlyns, a paladin who started training with the sword around the same time you did. Where you faltered, he thrived, which has seen him not only accepted into the sultana’s guard but also let him rise up quickly through the ranks. He is favored to be next in line for the position of Captain, at least whenever the current captain, Solkzagyl, retires or passes.

He’s excited to see you, but you keep the conversation very short, because he is in a hurry to arrive at his post. He welcomes Erden to Ul’dah and hopes you both enjoy your time here, however long that may be. You are tempted to invite him out for coffee, but you know that he’s far too busy for such things.

When you arrive at your old home, your mother’s quarters, the door is predictably locked. It is still only the late afternoon, so she likely won’t be home for a while. You feel bad dropping in unannounced, but your mother has also been passive-aggressively sending you letters since the day you left reminding you that you may visit at any time. So, here you are.

The lock is brilliantly designed by the goldsmith’s guild to respond only to a certain kind of aetheric signature, one identical to the energies required to cast Clemency, the most basic form of spellcasting available to new Paladin recruits. Originally the locks were designed to only register to Holy Spirit, but that usually only allowed for one or two uses before the lock broke from the force.

With a brief surge of healing magic through your forearm, the door opens easily. Every section of the house is just as clean and tidy as you remember, perhaps more so now that you aren’t around to mess it up.

You bring Erden into you and Ace’s room, which has two twin-sized beds that have been pushed together to mimic a queen-sized one. Between the time that Ace left and you left, you got to use both mattresses, though the gap in the middle usually meant that you ended up using one twin bed as intended. Erden sets his things down and you immediately realize that this bed is nowhere near enough space for a fully grown Au Ra man, but he insists that it’s fine and that he’s used to these kinds of things.

You take him out on the town to peruse the Sapphire Avenue Exchange, a large collection of stalls where many merchants and adventurers bargain for all sorts of things, from basic foods and dyes to high quality gear needed to brave the more deadly sections of Eorzea. Erden, bless his soul, is dreadfully bad at haggling, so you pull him away before he looks into buying a fresh axe that’s three times its base value, and instead point him towards a more reasonably priced one.

After spending some time discussing it with the Goldsmith’s guild, you manage to get him a finely made necklace for an astonishingly low price since the guildmaster Serendipity is close friends with your mother. She crafts a rose-gold choker with his initials, E.K., engraved into the base. An aetherologist within the Goldsmith’s guild is able to enchant it, imbuing it with a degree of aetheric conductivity. In practice, this means that it should help partially absorb any magical attacks made around his chest.

Erden thanks you for the gift and promises to pay you back, but you insist that the paltry sum of gil is not worth the effort. Despite this, he takes you out to eat at the Quicksand, but before you enter the building you are tackled to the ground by Mizu, who shakes you back and forth...violently? Excitedly? Either way, it’s enough to make Erden panic and rip her off of you.

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She doesn’t care for that shit at ALL. She gives her best flailing child impression in a bid to get Erden to put her down, but he seems largely unfazed, giving you ample time to get up and dust yourself off. Mizu then threatens to obliterate Erden’s entire bloodline UNLESS he releases her right now, thrashing the entire time as aetheric sparks of fire fly from her thaumaturgy staff on her back. He looks to you for some measure of approval, and you of course nod your head.

After he places her down, she immediately turns to give him a piece of her mind, but before she can do so she is caught up in the simple fact that he is an Au Ra, just like her. They are a bit exotic in Thanalan, if not just Eorzea in general. Before she can get angry again, you invite her to tag along with you and Erden for a quick bite to eat.

At the table, she explains that she is sorry for tackling you so aggressively, she was simply excited to see you back in Ul’dah, especially since it had ‘already’ been so long since you left. Before you can tell her, she says that she already knows exactly why you are here, and pulls out an article from the Mythril Eye detailing the rising success of Arcanistry in Limsa, though it only takes up half a section and is a few pages into the newspaper itself.

The paper even goes as far as to credit you specifically, though it also gives a lot of respect and attention to your guild as a whole. She explains that based on this information, you have no doubt returned to the city to learn Thaumaturgy from her! You politely explain that she is half-right-- that you have returned to the city on business, though that business is primarily concerned with the magic used by Paladins, not by her and her guildmates.

You do admit it would be worth the effort to at least peruse the library of the Thaumaturge’s guild. If you recall correctly, they use no shortage of complex sigils and runes for their spellcasting as well. She seems to be perfectly satisfied with this, right up until the subject of the books Erden borrowed comes up.

She gives Erden the nastiest stink eye you’ve ever seen, and you know exactly why. For her entire life, Mizu has faced no shortage of judgement from those around her for her spellcasting and destructive tendencies, a criticism which in your opinion is not wholly unjustified, though she does often get harassed for it much more than she truly deserves. She is a very hard worker, it’s just manifested in a way that is difficult for some to appreciate.

It would seem that in rejecting the call for thaumaturgy, Erden has been lumped into the same camp as the naysayers and bullies who have given her such a hard time. Not for nothing, but you do not even know for sure that he isn’t being judgemental of her. Given what was a fairly disastrous first impression, you can’t blame him for being skeptical of her either.

Erden tries his best to explain that he simply isn’t as interested in thaumaturgy as he thought, and that magic must be too complex for him. Though you’ve only been in the arcanist’s guild for a short time, experience with terrible new recruits leads you to concur that magic isn’t for everyone, and that it’s perfectly okay-- skills come in many forms.

Mizu, as expected, isn’t hearing it, and demands that Erden attend a live demonstration of how cool and powerful it is. After a lot of strong-arming, he caves and agrees to attend one tomorrow. Riding the high of success, she decides that she will cover the entire bill of the meal, especially since she dropped in at the last second.

When you return to your mother’s apartment, she is so excited to see you that she picks you up and spins you around like an infant. Though she will never admit it, you can tell that living in this apartment by herself has begun to take a toll on her. When she looks at Erden, her warm smile wavers for the briefest of moments, but she is polite and cordial regardless of whatever feelings she evidently has.

You introduce Erden to her, and they shake hands. It’s a little bit stiff and awkward, but Erden doesn’t seem to have any particular feelings on the matter. She asks if you’ve already eaten, and you of course have, so she simply warms up some leftover stew from the night before for herself.

Not seeking to cause a scene or unnecessary drama, you push past your observations and instead affirm your intentions for coming here, at which point she hands over to you her blade. Though you never gave them much credence before, you now notice the runes and sigils carved along the blade. She says you can keep it until the morning, but she’ll need it back then as part of her uniform.

Since it’s late, you both retire to your room for the evening…But you of course spend the next several hours diligently copying down every symbol on the blade and try your best to sketch out a full drawing of the sword. Erden is very impressed by your calligraphy and your artistic merit, gushing over your attention to detail. You keep thinking about his kind words for the rest of the night on loop.

By the time you finish your transcription work, it is already late enough that you decide to simply call it a night. You return her sword to the living room so your mother has easy access to it the following morning, and lie down in bed right next to Erden, who is soundly asleep. For a while, you watch him peacefully breathe in and out before falling asleep yourself.