Chapter 6 – Heritage Searching
Hot cocoa, Gwen discovered, was an excellent stop-gap for dismal moods and unshed tears.
She hadn’t expected much or even thought about the promise of a drink after they left the Mayor’s Office, too preoccupied with the ugly feelings swelling up her throat. Her eyes were squeezed shut to maintain her sense of dignity, letting Ignis take her away to a cafe that overlooked the place where this all started: the Central Plaza and the Thyrsus Tree.
The boy had whispered something in her ear as he sat her down at a table, but the words were lost on her; a lack of understanding he picked up on, because the only thing he did after that was drape a steady weight over her back. It was his jacket, she realized after the fact. The texture of the leather and the fuzz of the wool was distracting enough to make her brain go quiet, giving her the courage to open her eyes.
When she did, she found a warm mug of something delicious, and the company of two fellows sharing similar drinks.
“Well, what do you think?” Ignis asked, expression tinged with unabashed interest.
Gwen pondered the question with the taste of marshmallows on her tongue. She concentrated on all the hot cocoa’s key points, discerning everything from its bittersweet tones to its milky aftertaste. Her taste buds flickered over her teeth to pick up the subtle dregs of smooth, darkly sweet syrup and the bubbling froth that made her saliva work overtime. This drink, she ruminated, was a masterclass of barista skill and decadent ingredients. She could sing praises of it to the heavens.
“It’s good,” Was all she said instead, conveying none of her more expressive thoughts.
“It better be. I paid for your cup,” Maya grumbled, her ears folding onto her head. She had taken her helmet off as soon as stepped inside, and the armor piece now lay discarded under the table.
At the mention of payment, Gwen became burningly aware of the pouch of Cole she had received mere hours before. “I can pay you back,” she said. “I have some spending money from my guardian.”
“Aw, yiss!” Maya cheered, pumping her fist up. “Slap ‘em on the table, Gwendolyn! Lemme see tha’ Cole!”
Her sudden exuberance made Ignis deadpan, his face nothing more than a flat stare as he said, “Maya, you don’t need to be so happy about being paid back for something you offered to pay.”
“I always pay for sad people out of principle.” Maya crossed her arms. “But have you seen the rent in this economy? Horrid. Especially with my slave wages. I’m the giving type, but I’m not gonna say no to a break-even profit.”
Ignis grunted in mock disgust. “Shameless.”
“Yes, but I’m a career girl.” Maya grinned smugly. “Something that you aren’t~”
“Well, I’m certainly not a girl, that’s true.”
As they launched into amicable banter, Gwen counted her Cole and slid the correct amount closer to Maya’s side of the table, content with waiting for her to notice the bounty she had received. The girl in white hoped that her gratitude was expressed alongside her coin, for with their bits, the dark clouds shrouding her head made way for clearer skies, letting her find the strength to smile quietly.
This was a day of ups and downs, but with this hot cocoa in hand, Gwen supposed she could say it was wrapping up positively.
“...And you better bring your wallet next time. I covered double, so it’s your turn– Ooh, money!” Maya swiped Gwen’s proffered coin into her pocket in one fell swoop. “Thank you, Gwendolyn. You’re much more generous than this spoiled boy, that’s for sure.”
“I’m not that spoiled.” Ignis rolled his eyes. “Gwen, I don’t come off as spoiled, now do I?”
Gwen thought very carefully about how she wanted to respond to that. She didn’t quite know what constituted ‘spoiled’ behavior, so she had no idea where to start answering his query.
Her thinking must have gone on for too long because Ignis’ face fell into unfathomable despair at her silence.
“Gwen…” He wheezed painfully, as though betrayed by a long-lost love. “You can’t mean that…”
This snapped her out of her internal debate and slam-dunked her into the throes of distress. “Mean what?” She whimpered, clueless to her crimes.
“Mean– Oh, you know what you meant!” Ignis dramatized in an over-the-top fashion.
“I really don’t though,” Gwen replied, not at all catching onto the play.
Meanwhile, Maya snickered in the background, her tail swaying absentmindedly behind her. “Aw, you’re priceless. I’m gonna have fun knowing you,” she said to Gwen. “That said, are you good? I had no idea what was happening back at the Mayor’s place, but even I knew he was out of line with you.”
At the mention of the mayor, the good mood evaporated a little, leaving Gwen staring into her mug and Ignis masking the grit of his teeth. It was still a sore subject, but after a moment or two, Gwen slowly shook her head.
“I do feel better,” she stated, scratching her claw across the ceramic. “But if it’s okay, I’d rather not think about answering that.”
“Right. Sorry.” Maya coughed into her fist. “I’m just not sure how to read you, so it’s hard to tell. We can think about something else, maybe?”
It was apparent that she was grasping for straws, but her suggestion did send Gwen’s thought train down another railway. Namely, what she was supposed to do for the rest of the day. She and Ignis had set off in the morning and returned not even halfway through the afternoon thanks to Maya’s escort. That meant there was plenty of time before Primrose got off her shift, and Gwen didn’t quite feel like returning to her house just yet.
“...Are Instruments common in Cassius?”
Ignis nursed his drink as she asked her question. “Not really? We have enough material to outfit a whole corps with them with the Thyrsus Tree and Sephirah Mines, but Instruments are… What's the word, touchy? They’re sensitive even without being Attuned like yours is, and the only people who can make them are alchemists.”
“We’ve only got two in the whole Tradesman District,” Maya jumped in. “A couple from Hagoromo. So even with easy-to-get materials, the waiting list is long and their fees are expensive. You’re lucky to have met even two people with an Instrument in this town.”
“I see…” Gwen mumbled, reaching for her weightless staff and presenting it to the table. “I don’t know much about the materials used for Instrument creation, but do you suppose that this is… Sephirah, was it?”
“Sephirah Steel, yeah.” Maya squinted at the bone-like black. “And it’s not. My lance and Ignis’ fancy sword are made of Sephirah, and it is certainly not that.”
“It’s more like bone than wood,” Ignis said, having examined it closely many times in the past. “Meaning it's not made from a Seed of Light. I’m no expert though. Why are you asking, exactly?”
Gwen bounced the staff on her lap. “I thought that I could discern where I came from through my Instrument,” she explained. “If they are made of rare materials, and can only be crafted by certain people, that means that it might be unique to a certain region. I thought… that maybe it could lead me to the places where I used to be.”
The girl in white hugged the staff close, her expression pensive. The Mayor’s denial of her presence in the investigation was… disheartening, to say the least. But Gwen was well aware of the facts. She was as he said, a civilian with no training and no right to burden others while on dangerous expeditions. But with answers so tantalizingly close, and memories so tangibly real in her head, how could she simply accept that man’s harsh order?
At least let her explore one last avenue. Just one more.
Let her have one more sliver of herself, she pleaded to the only remnant she could still grasp.
The sight of her visage made Maya’s tail go limp, devoid of all joy as she pursed her lips and glanced away, unsure of how to handle the situation. In contrast, Ignis breathed out a sigh and smiled. He was definitely fatigued, it was obvious in the way his posture went slack, but he reached out and pat Gwen’s shoulder anyway.
“Sounds like a plan,” he said, chugging the rest of his cocoa and rising from his seat. “Lucky for us, the alchemists were travelers before they settled down here, so if anyone knows anything about that Instrument of yours, it’s gotta be them. Maya, you coming?”
“Wha?” Her startled voice was heavy on the accent. “Why am I being included?”
“I want to hang out with my friends and watch you guys try to get along,” Ignis replied casually. “I like this. I want it to continue. But if you’d rather not, you can say no. Gwen and I can handle the mystery of her past from here.”
“Uhh…” Maya glanced at Gwen. “And you’re cool with that?”
Gwen was already standing at her hooves when Maya asked, the gears of contemplation visibly whirring inside her head. “Yes,” she said. “It’s fun watching you talk and I like having you near.”
That plain declaration of truth blindsided Maya, who looked upon Gwen with intense doubt—the time between their meeting and this hang-out barely reached past two hours, not long enough to even count as a good acquaintance. But the girl’s expression, while lacking in exuberance, was quite earnest, something that Maya could only accept as sincere.
Even so, she glanced at Ignis, trying to figure out what he made of it. Predictably, the boy was smiling, genuine joy wafting out of him in a pleasant heat.
“...Alright then.” Maya rose from her chair, picking up her helmet along the way. “I’ll follow you two a while longer. Those two and I get along quite well, so they’ll definitely answer any questions if I’m around. Plus, it’ll give me the chance to hustle some overtime pay from the Captain~”
“Shameless,” Ignis repeated.
“Money. Is. Almighty!” Maya rebuffed.
And as they left the building and began turning down the streets, Gwen glowed with silent happiness all the while.
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The Tradesman District was a hub of endless activity even amid an approaching eve, the din of labor present in the billowing hearths and the squeak of spinning wheels weaving out their threads. Conversation of all sorts coiled through the background seamlessly, the trading of gossip and the inquisition of business wreathing into an intricate grapevine from which the people would pluck their advantages. Amongst the smoke and steam and scents, the Tradesman District could be nothing less than a lively place.
Or so Gwen perceived, fully distracted by the ambient noise. More than once, Ignis and Maya had to set her on the straight and narrow, pulling her away from the houses and guilds that constantly raved with the sound of work. It was a place that contradicted her knowledge of the town’s fading economy, and within the bustle of various day lives, she wondered how Cassius could ever fail.
“It is pretty neat, huh?” Ignis said, unabashed in his pride. “I used to come here all the time before Mom and Dad started working full-time at their jobs. It really is a shame that so many of the old guys had to start branching out.”
“What do you mean by that?” Gwen asked, curiosity rearing its head again.
“Well, when people stopped coming over here, the tradesmen lost a lot of clients.” Ignis waved his hand as he started to explain. “Cassius Town is close enough to the White Tower that we don’t have to pay taxes to Prydwen, but that also means we’re far enough away from everyone that when we had to go independent, we had too much.”
“Goods surplus. Ma told me about it.” Maya began to add her own two-Cole. “Apparently, it means that you spent too much on production and now you have to deal with it before it all goes bad. Workers had to get laid off because the guilds couldn’t pay them. Everyone then kind of fell into a rut in this place, so lots of masters got up and left. Took their apprentices with them too.”
“Yeah, and then everyone that stayed had to start taking up long-distance trading to Prydwen. Now the guilds do bulk shipping down the way.” Ignis scratched his neck. “Not gonna lie, compared to what I remember back then, this place is deserted.”
Maya kept up a smile, but her tail was drooping. “Depressing, innit?”
“Well, that’s a word for it. I’m just glad it’s not completely empty, though that might have to do with the Shelter Act more than anything.”
“Mr. Mayor’s got his head screwed on right when it comes to being a competent governor. It’s just his everything else that needs work.” Maya glanced up, catching sight of a sign of two oddly curved blades crisscrossing each other. “This is the place. Yawarakai-Te, it’s called. I dunno what it means, but I hope you get some answers here, Gwen.”
The girl in white clutched her Instrument tightly, giving Maya a firm nod of gratitude before entering the building. A shop bell rang in tune with the clang of metal against metal, the smoky scent of coal and sparks adding a touch of ruggedness to an otherwise quaint shop-front. Gwen looked around, taking in the displays of sharpened blades and well-rounded pots, every implement a testament to the blacksmith’s expert skill.
“Customers? Oh, Maya! You’ve brought friends with you!”
And from a well-lit side room behind the shop counter, a small yet muscular woman emerged. She was pale yet spry, her slanted red eyes glittering behind messy nape-length lavender hair. Her clothes did nothing to hide her figure, with a sleeveless white crop top and loose blue long skirt dripping with a style of foreign make. It was suitable for the stuffy temperature of the shop, but as she inclined her red-tipped twin horns at them in a short bow, Gwen began to suspect that it was more of a fashion choice than a survival-based one.
How she stood there without breaking into a sweat, the girl in white would never know.
“How nice to see new faces in this shop,” The woman said sweetly, her joy revealing the crow’s feet that hid at the edges of her eyes. “Not often we get customers as young as you. I’m Seina Ku, the whitesmith of Yawarakai-Te. What can I do for you all today?”
“Hi, Seina.” Maya returned the greeting warmly before gesturing to her two companions. “We’re not here to buy anything, but Gwendolyn over here has some questions we were hoping you could answer. By the way, Ignis is just here for moral support, so don’t mind him when he inevitably starts running around the place. That’s just him being bored.”
“Hey, I might resemble that remark, but it still hurts!” Ignis exclaimed. But considering he was already abandoning their party for the products closer to the counter, he probably took her words as tacit permission to start wandering about.
“Questions? For us?” Seina regarded Gwen, her gaze lingering on the crown of horns that encircled her head. Likewise, Gwen was drawn to Seina’s own horns, which were dissimilar to her own but were still the only other pair she had seen in all her time. “Does it have something to do with that Instrument you’re holding so fastly? Does it need repairs?”
Gwen started to shake her head, before realizing that she didn't actually know if her Instrument was undamaged or not. It didn't seem to be, but considering her state from when she last possessed it, it wouldn't be a stretch for it to be a little battered. "I… am hoping to find out," She confessed. "Truthfully, I have no clue where my Instrument originated from. Only that it is Attuned to me and that it isn't made of anything from this area. If I may borrow your services, could you inspect it for me?"
She held out the Instrument, Seina's eyes taking on a fascinated gleam when it hovered perfectly above her outstretched palms. That fascination only intensified when the whitesmith gave the staff a cursory once-over, though there was a blip of bewilderment there too.
"Might I hold it, Gwendolyn?" She asked a request that Gwen adhered to easily. Taking hold of the staff, it immediately lost its supernatural buoyancy, falling lamely into Seina's grip. "This is… It isn't wood, but it's hard to tell if it's metal either. Looks and feels like calcium and keratin, but it's much too dense to be anything other than a monster's bones."
Staggering optimism bloomed in Gwen's chest. "Can monster bones be made into Instruments?" She asked eagerly.
Seina nodded, flipping the staff over to examine the guard. "They can, but like everything else that qualifies for Instrument creation, they're exceedingly rare. Back in my homeland, the royal family would sacrifice Suiko to create Instruments for their successors. If Hagoromo has examples like that, then I'm sure the West has its equivalents."
‘Suiko?’ Gwen mouthed before shaking her head. “Then it had to have come from a Western monster?” She gripped the string of inquiry tightly.
“I’m sorry, but I’m not too sure.” Seina handed the staff back to Gwen. “All I know is that it can’t be from Hagoromo. Only a few monsters there have enough strength for their body parts to be of use in alchemical processes, and none of them had naturally black bones. Also, before you ask, yes the black coloration is natural. There’s not a hint of varnish, paint, or finishes anywhere. Trust me, I would know.”
Gwen hummed, quietly satisfied with Seina’s answers. It might not be an exact location, but if what she said was true, then that meant her Instrument was made of rarer material than she thought. If she could track down word of a black-boned monster, then she would find another clue forward.
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‘But who would know that?’ Her brain interjected, running the line of logic against her. To hear word of mouth or news about a black-boned beast would require her to have channels outside, and last she checked, Cassius Town was a near isolationist colony. ‘There’s no way I can get enough information from here…’
She glanced at Maya, who was conversing animatedly with Ignis over a stack of ingots. If the investigation went smoothly, then more people would be attracted to Cassius, giving her a wider web to work with. It would be faster and easier to simply head to Ground Zero again and question the collective populace of people from all around the world, but she had been…
She shouldn’t. Probably. Maybe.
How tempting it was though…
“If you want to try asking my husband, he might have some clues for you,” Seina stated, snapping Gwen out of her internal monologue. “He studied the forge and alchemy in Fusang, a mono-polis renowned for crafting legendary items. He also traveled to many places to perfect his craft before we married, so his knowledge range should be more complete than mine.”
That did sound quite promising. “Thank you,” Gwen said to the whitesmith. “Is he out back?”
“Yes, his hammering is quite loud, isn’t it?” Seina laughed, exposing her sharpened teeth. “Don’t fret about disturbing him. He’s just working on some decorative shapes for me to polish later. Go out back and explain. I’ll keep your friends company for a while.”
Suddenly and inexplicably, a sharp panic wrested her veins. Heavy worry weighed down her hooves, rooting them to the floor. Gwen didn’t know where such anxiety came from, but it lasted only a moment; just a faint pause in her steps towards the back door.
“Good luck, Gwen,” Ignis called from his side of the shop,
“Heh, not like she’ll need it. Tai Hao’s a bleeding heart,'' Maya rebutted light-heartedly.
Gwen sure hoped so, because as soon as she crossed the boundary of that door and let it click shut behind her, the incessant hammering that rattled the walls of the shop all day… simply stopped. And when it did, the ensuing silence left plenty of space for a strong baritone voice to make its way to her ears.
“Are you in need of my services?”
So asked the smoke-tanned man as he twisted a clamp onto an oil-covered star. He was tall and athletic, draped in an almost warrior-like hanfu coat that sported the shimmering colors of black, red, orange, and beige. It was short-sleeved, as was to be expected, and it exposed the curl of gold-inked scales that wound up both of his arms, which reached down to dust off the sparks that hit his long dark pants. He also adjusted the red bandana that kept his bangs out of his face, the rest of his thick dark hair bunched up in a tight wolf tail that revealed his amber eyes.
He held her in a dead stare, his arms crossed intimidatingly. Had she not recently undergone one of the worst emotional experiences of her life, she was certain the man’s mere presence would have left her cowed.
“I am.” She still approached him gingerly though. “My name is Gwendolyn. Mrs. Ku said that you might recognize where my Instrument came from.”
The blacksmith held his hand out wordlessly, to which Gwen relinquished her Instrument to his care. He glided his thumb over the bumps and grooves of the thin staff, then stared balefully into the unlit eyes of the skull guard. He knocked upon it with the back of his finger, an almost wooden thunk echoing throughout the heated workshop.
And in the blink of an eye, in the span of an instant, the tattoos on his arms glowed. The ratcheting disassembly of polished amber appeared in her mind’s eye as golden scales ran up the shell of her staff, a pervading sense of definable truth shunting through her skin before disappearing into mist.
“This is Attuned to you, is it not?” Tai Hao asked rhetorically, smacking the staff into his hand like a weighted bat. “That means you were present for its creation.”
‘Its origins should be information you already know.’ That was what he was stating without words.
“I have amnesia.” How many times had Gwen said that? How many times would she have to explain before it became less true? “And I had no idea Attunement would need me present for the forging process. I just know what others told me.”
Tai Hao’s neutral expression eased up a little, though it only went as far as the unfurrowing of his brow. “I see. In that case, then I must apologize in full. I have no answers to give you.”
His sincere apols socked Gwen right in the diaphragm. “What do you mean by that? Your wife said you’d be more knowledgeable than herself, and she identified my Instrument’s materials!”
“Monster bone, she likely said?” Tai Hao’s clear-cut reply sliced her rising irascibility to ribbons. “Some odd beast with bones as black as the void? She wasn’t wrong about that, but her time as a whitesmith does not reach even a third of my time as a blacksmith. As such, she failed to discern another avenue.”
He offered Gwen’s staff back to her. “That this is no natural substance; this is transmuted matter.”
“...” Gwen slowly retrieved her staff, contemplative in her silence. “How does that factor into your inability to give me answers?”
Tai Hao’s gaze upon her was hard, not unlike the metal he forged. He held nothing back, neither the truth nor the disappointment. However, the bleeding heart Maya commented on must have reared its head, because he placed down a stool for her to sit on before pulling one out for himself.
“To give you a satisfactory elucidation, I must go over an explanation about the magical art known as ‘alchemy’ first. Tell me, do you have any memories of an education on it?” When Gwen shook her head ‘no’, Tai Hao continued, unbothered. “Then we start from the beginning.”
“As you know, our world is one that permits miracles, manifesting them by stimulating an unseen particle we call ‘mana’. Willpower is the true molder of mana, but most people don’t have the mental extremities needed to reject common sense for their own irrational reality. That is why they use Instruments; powerful conduits that make up for this shortcoming.”
Ignis’ flares of superheated passion and Maya’s calculated manipulation of gravity’s pull flashed through her memories. The recollection of how reality itself seemed to warp and weave at their behest now haunted her as this impromptu lesson brought them into the foreground.
“Intuition. Reason. Methodologies used to bend the unbendable. By calling up emotion or intellect while wielding an Instrument, one can finitely change how worldly laws apply to them, stretching reality like a rubber band. While it will hold its shape as long as one exerts influence upon it, the moment they stop, the laws will inevitably snap back into shape. This makes the nature of magic transient. Ephemeral.”
“Not so with alchemy.”
Tai Hao snatched a metal cap from the workstation, holding it out in his palm. In a flash of light, his draconic tattoos shone once more, covering the cap in patterned gold. Before her eyes, the metal cap dismantled itself into a myriad of scales, torn apart at the curves where iron made way for amber.
“Alchemy is a Reasoner’s art taught through either schools or passed down as a philosophy from master to student.” Tai Hao said, making the floating pieces spin in overlapping rings. “It interacts and interferes with the Law of Substances by forcing materials to change and reform in ways that shouldn’t be possible. It does so by breaking down the base components of already existing materials and transmuting them with mana as a binding agent.”
And to emphasize his point, Tai Hao made the endlessly looping rings click back together one by one. He brought the spectacle closer to Gwen, letting her see the way the broken metal sorted itself out like a puzzle, the gaps between the pieces disappearing with no traces of imperfection to be found.
Magically, just like that, it was whole again.
“As mana is susceptible to any change, using it in this way will naturally cause it to transmute itself into the same material it’s binding,” Tai Hao pocketed the now reassembled cap. “And as mana has no ‘self-property’... What stops alchemists from adding on more properties before the process completes?”
“Nothing.” The natural response to wielding such power instantly clicked in Gwen’s head. “Nothing except their own limited influence.”
“Mhm. Alchemy can turn an herbal mix into a potion, make ships weigh lighter than a bag of feathers, and craft nigh unbreakable armor by instilling magic itself into the transmuted object.” A brief look of gratification crossed Tai Hao’s face. “This is how alchemy makes magic indissoluble. It takes the world’s substances and merely rearranges them into a different shape. But much like the Siege of Nymphalidae, what was accepted with open arms carries a hidden secret, remaining undetected even as it invades their very walls.”
His last poetic statement resonated with her, even though she knew nothing about the Siege of Nymphalidae. It must have shown on her face, because the tiniest of smiles crossed Tai Hao’s features, giving him a handsome glow before forced austerity knocked it out from underneath.
“But the fact that alchemy remains a magic is exactly why I cannot give you the answers you are seeking.” His words once again blind-sided her, mugging the wonderment from her in the back of a dark alleyway. “The touch of magic upon the world is based on the hearts of each individual that casts it. Everyone has their own specialties. I could analyze the design of your Instrument and ascertain the properties of the transmuted matter to the best of my ability, but that will not tell me anything about the origins of this material or the name of the craftsman skilled enough to bind it.”
“In other words… I shouldn’t have gotten my hopes up,” Gwen muttered, feeling foolish. “Is that really all you can tell me?”
Tai Hao glanced to the side. “The materials involved must still be Will-conductive for the Instrument to work properly.” He stood up and walked over to a table, grabbing a long-neglected pen and paper. “So giving you a list of creatures whose bones were used is well within my ability.”
That was better than nothing, but in this stew of bitter thoughts, it still felt like nothing. “Thank you,” she said regardless. “What about its design? Have you seen it before in your travels?”
To this, Tai Hao, unfortunately, shook his head. “Staves are a favorite Prospero, but that is all I can say. Your Instrument has no outstanding cultural inclinations, but its design could also be a side-effect of your ownership. Attunement does not only fetter an Instrument to a caster; it resonates with their Willpower and takes on intrinsic attributes that reflect the caster’s character. One of these attributes could potentially be its appearance.”
Gwen hummed at that, her intrigue stirring again despite being beaten down as it was. She had learned many things in this short period, from fundamental knowledge to potentially personal information. And the more her mind sorted through the onslaught, the more she realized how lucky she was to have another memory for herself: That the second of her two possessions was one she commissioned, made for her and only her, perhaps at her request.
Compared to her dress, this was a far more tangible string, and the overwhelming emotions caused her to hug the staff tightly. ‘I can’t let this go again,’ she swore to herself. ‘It’s too preciously mine to lose.’
The sight of that girl carefully clutching the last vestige of an evaporated past would have broken the heart of any person who valued one. And Tai Hao Ku, for all his wrought-iron firmness, was very much in the custody of a breathing humanity.
He scribbled down the last of the names, holding out the paper for her to take. But when she did take it, he did not back away. No, he stood there with his hand outstretched, his presence of smoke and steel well within her space yet somehow noninvasive. The offered palm reflected in her eyes, which traced the calluses of toughened skin and short-trimmed nails that still sported a hint of oil grime.
Sympathy for her circumstances, and contrition for his inability to relieve them. His face may have betrayed nothing, but actions spoke louder than words anyway.
“...Thank you for your time.” Gwen took his hand with a wan smile. “As well as the lecture. It may not have been much, but it’s more than what I had.”
The girl in white spoke nothing but the truth, but in the deeper recesses of her mind, wherever her subconscious lay, something particular about his speech triggered the echo of a distant fracas.
What was this stirring, this incessant cacophony of thoughts lacking even candid lucidity?
What was this phantom call from the outer reaches, spinning in her gut like the chaos of a directionless compass?
Where was it leading, this instinct that once led somewhere yet now went nowhere, roused by these fleeting terms only now solidifying in her hands?
She did not know, and after the events of the day, she did not have the energy to fully care. It would simply have to wait for tomorrow. A wait that she could allow, because when she refused to heed the call, it settled down somewhere in her heart, patiently awaiting her summons.
Very, very peculiar.
Unaware of her ongoing mental gymnastics, Tai Hao accepted her appreciation with aplomb. “I am only sorry I could not do more for you. A young girl like you should not have to brave the world alone with so little to her name. It is a pitiless place, and even more so to those ill-prepared.”
“So I’ve relearned.” Gwen’s smile brightened. “But it’s not entirely apathetic. People like you and my friends exist. Even if it is only pity that drives you to meet me halfway, it's still more kindness than you had to give.”
Tai Hao huffed humorously at that. “People are concerned with each their own. It just so happens that ‘each their own’ may also involve many unrelated factors that they seem to attach themselves to at random.”
“Like beautiful things.”
“And adorable things. Like Seina when she crosses paths with a dog.”
“Do you let her keep the dog?”
“No, they wouldn’t be safe with our profession. We feed them scraps from a bag when we see them, however.”
A picturesque vision of the smithing couple feeding happy puppies appeared in Gwen’s mind, causing her eyes to sparkle. To see that expression of twinkling delight after looking so crushed just moments before gratified Tai Hao, who felt the weight of his perceived failure ease off his shoulders a little.
They chatted a bit more, the relaxed atmosphere letting the two often staid personalities open up to an easy banter. Warm feelings not unlike the ones she felt with Ignis and, to a lesser extent, Maya, made her lips curl up in an effortless smile.
Eventually, though, the time to part ways had come. Gwen tucked the folded square of paper away and gave Tai Hao a short bow. “Goodbye, Mr. Ku.”
“Don’t hesitate to come by if you need anything more, Gwendolyn.”
And with that, she was ushered back into the shop, where Ignis was making small talk with Seina. To her surprise, Maya was nowhere to be found.
“Maya’s mom lives in Morgan’s weavers’ cottage nearby, so she went to visit her,” Ignis explained once she rejoined him. The two of them waved goodbye to Seina, who returned it gladly. “Did you find anything?”
Gwen mentally replayed the long conversation between herself and Tai Hao. “Not the kind that I was hoping for, but more than what I expected.” She presented her staff to him. “I may never find the clues I’m looking for through this avenue, but I learned how special it truly is to me. That much is enough after everything.”
Ignis merely smiled, though it was a bittersweet one. “Sorry, it was a bust.” But then all of a sudden, that sullenness became cheeky. “But that just means we’ll have to go with my original plan!”
“You had a plan?” Gwen asked with mild surprise.
“Of course, I had a plan. I have to improvise them often, but I do have a brain up here.” He tapped his temple.
“Hmm, and what was this plan, exactly?”
“The same shtick I always pull.” The exuberant grin she had grown to adore lit up his face like the halo of a sunset. “Rebel against the patriarchy! Gwen, if you wanna come along with us for the next investigation, then just invite yourself to the party!”
Even after only a day of knowing him, such a call did not stun her.
“The Mayor had good reasoning behind his disinclusion of me though,” she said, now quite accepting of the facts. “I am a recently hospitalized civilian. I’ll only slow you down.”
“You are a recently hospitalized civilian for now,” Ignis emphasized those last words plainly. “But that can change pretty fast.”
He grasped her by the elbow, pulling her in close.
“What–?” Gwen blinked.
“My plan is this: Maya and I train your ass off until you can punch out monsters with the best of them. We spar, we exercise, we figure out how to use that Instrument of yours for actual magic, and then we stick it to the man!”
His grin was damn near ferocious.
“How does that sound, Gwen?”
That sounded… It sounded…
“...I think I’m too tired to think about it now…”