Following the fight, there was no celebration or emotional conversation or clean up. No, we all trudged back to the campsite and promptly went to sleep.

Luckily, nothing came after us during the night, and the next morning we did get to do all those things we missed out on.

We repaired the camp, and talked, and got to know each other. We prepared the best food we could scrounge up and indulged in relief while keeping Minerva distracted from the very sudden change in her life.

Secretly, though, I was trying my best to distract myself from the loss of my eyes. I am an incredibly visual person. I love looking at things, I love reading, I always need something to look at to keep myself focused.

Without my eyes though…

I felt Cana’s arm wrap around me. I leaned into it.

I guess I wasn’t keeping my own malaise as secret as I thought.

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I wasn’t exactly feeling better the next day, but there was quite a lot that I had to do, so I was sufficiently distracted for the most part. These things mostly being the packing things properly using only my mist perception, and then actually walking out of the valley without tripping over my own feet or the ground while also not slowing down Cana and Minerva too much.

The fact that Minerva was also an expert at wilderness traversal, leaving me to follow them like a duckling after its mother didn’t exactly make me feel better either, and by the end of the day my head was splitting from the focus required. The pain kept me from thinking too much about what I’d lost though so I’ll take the silver lining where I could get it.

We continued in that vein for the rest of the trip. Cana did most of the socializing with Minerva – being generally more outgoing and social than I am even when I wasn’t fighting of depression – and myself trailing along behind.

We made a couple day stop in Crocus to hand Jiemma over to Arcadios and give Minerva her first introduction to actual civilization.

Handing over Jiemma went smoothly, and Gran Doma updated us on the research into the Great Heart (little that we didn’t already know, but apparently its ability to control the creatures it creates was far more impressive than its ability to actually create them). The tablet he had given us for that purpose was only readable by me and seeing (heh) that I had no eyes, I couldn’t actually use it for its intended purpose. Gran Doma was also nice enough to adjust the tablet such that Cana could use it as well.

She was, predictably, overwhelmed. The laughs we had at Minerva’s inability to comprehend even the most basic of things (shopping, government, bathrooms, etc.) were much needed and appreciated despite the incidents they almost caused.

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Following the stop at Crocus, the journey back to Magnolia was much more cheerful, and I got my part of the socializing in as well. Explaining my original world in the most outlandish ways possible, letting Cana confirm, and watching Minerva struggle to wrap her head around the concepts was great fun (to be fair, it doesn’t actually take any special language to make quantum physics sound completely and utterly absurd).

Ghareon had apparently upped its guard in the wake of our escape, and we had out first proper team exercise when we were spotted and had to run through the whole city while avoiding the Southern Wolves and causing minimal property damage.

Along the way I’d also gotten the trick of keeping my mist up constantly. My resolution still wasn’t fantastic, but at least it wasn’t causing me headaches anymore.

All too soon though, we arrived back at Magnolia.

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“Home sweet home” Cana said, when she presumably spotted Magnolia.

“It’s not that…big” Minerva replied after a moment.

“Well of course it isn’t” I said. “Magnolia is a nice and normal city – it’s not the capital of anything nor does it sit on a monster pit.”

“Yeah…” Minerva sounded abashed. “But still”

Cana and I shrugged in response.

A couple hours of walking later found us resting our feet and greeting out guild mates at the guild hall. Cana and I restrained ourselves to reasonable amounts of alcohol (by our standards anyway), though even that we barely had a chance to finish before Makarov called us up to give our report.

The office seemed…different without my eyes. Well, everything did, but the office especially. I tried to figure out the mystery while Makarov welcomed Minerva and Cana began giving the report.

I chimed in when necessary, then took on a more active role once I figured out that it was all of the magic items and wards in the office that were messing with my perception.

Eventually, we got to the fight against Jiemma. I couldn’t see, but I could still damn well hear the smugness in Makarov’s voice as he questioned me about the plan to get Minerva on our side.

“You’ve performed admirably” he told us after we’d finished, “I think you all deserve your rest so I’ll let you get to it.”

“Thank you, Guild Master” we chorused, and Cana and Minerva started heading back to the main hall.

Noticing that I wasn’t moving, Cana looked back at me, but I waved her off. She shrugged and continued away.

I turned back to Makarov.

“First of all, please never send me in this kind of mission again. I am not remotely qualified to deal with that level of trauma.”

“Ah, but Minerva seemed quite happy, I think you’re giving yourself too little credit.”

I pointedly did not respond to that. Makarov would have me thinking that I was the best therapist on the face of Earthland if I let him continue.

“Second of all, I lost my eyes on this mission” Makarov had the good grace to flinch a little at that, “and I want something for that that isn’t just money.”

“You have something in mind?” he asked wryly.

I pointed to a specific object.

Makarov followed my finger.

“No.”

An expected response. “It’s just to study, I swear!”

“No” not as strong this time.

“Please?” I said in my best impression of a sad puppy. “Its exactly what I need.”

A moment of silence.

“It doesn’t leave the guild hall – “

“Done!”

A tendril of water grabbed the object as I raced out of the office and slammed the door behind me.

I slowed to a more dignified pace as I worked my way down to what sounded like a party, but my fingers never stopped tracing the outline of the monocle.

A monocle that had let Makarov see my soul.