Iris and Milo enjoyed a leisurely lunch in the park. While they ate, Abby's tentacle held up the lens cube to the sunlight and experimented with the different effects it could make. After lunch they spent the bulk of the day at Milo's apartment, where Littletooth was released to roam free. It was a quaint place, tucked away in a narrow building with windows on only one side and just wide enough to accommodate a desk, a couch, and a bed in the back corner. It made sense to Iris that he spent most of his time in his shop at work rather than at home, but their intent had been to go somewhere Littletooth could run around and play and the machinery at the Badger seemed like a bad idea in that regard.
As the sun grew low in the sky outside the window, Iris sighed.
Milo looked up from her shoulder, where he leaned against her on the couch, "feel like telling me what's wrong yet?"
"I'm leaving soon," she said somberly.
"That's fine," Milo replied, "we'll be seeing each other again in a few days, right?"
Iris let out a long, deep breath, "No, I mean, I'm leaving the city. When the Shark Titan's ship departs in a few weeks, I'll be on board."
"Oh," Milo's voice was tinged with shock as he straightened up and pulled away from her, "you're-- leaving."
"Yeah," she almost whispered.
"Why?"
"Because that's what adventurers do," she looked at him with genuine sadness in her eyes, "there's too much out there to see, too much to do. I can't stay in one place forever."
"Yeah," he looked away, "of course."
"Milo --" she hesitated, "surely you knew. You had to have known that I would leave one day."
"Of course I knew," there was bitterness in his voice, "you never even meant to come here, of course you’d leave. I just thought we'd have more time. I thought we had months, not weeks. Why did you wait so long to tell me?"
"Because I didn't know for sure yet," she said, "and-- because I was afraid to say it. I've been dreading this conversation since the moment it became a possibility. Even longer, really. Since the day we met I knew I'd have to leave."
"It's not fair!" Milo shot to his feet, "I've spent my whole life locked away in this city! I can't even leave the walls without fear that something out there might kill and eat me. I walk the same streets every day, I slave away at my job, and I come home to this empty apartment and I wait for the next day to come. That's been my whole life, Iris. Finally something good happens to me and in the blink of an eye it's all going to sail away on a ship to never be seen again!"
"You don't know that--"
"So you're telling me you'll come back?" He argued, "to this shitty town in the middle of an empty continent? Even if that's true, how long will that be? Years? Decades?"
Iris didn't know what to say.
Milo clenched his fists and turned away to hide the tears in his eyes, "just leave."
"Milo--"
"Go!" he shouted, "go have your adventures, that's all you care about anyway."
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She wiped the tears away from her eyes but more fell quickly after them, "fine," she whispered.
She scooped Littletooth and Abby off the floor and blipped to the window, "I'll-- I'll come see you again before I go."
Without waiting for a reply, she climbed out the window and blipped away.
_____
The evening winds were heavy and cool, and errant clouds passed leisurely in the darkening sky overhead. Iris ran across the roof tops as fast as she could, leaping and blipping across gaps as the wind wicked tears from her face. She was running away, even if nothing was chasing her. When she finally grew too tired to run she had crossed the entire city, and now found herself standing on the furthest roof top along the southeastern edge staring out across the moonlit lake. The Shark Titan's ship rested far out on the waters, and she saw the last schooners of the evening sailing towards it. She didn't care, in that moment it didn't matter to her where she slept that night, only that she had outrun her problems as far she was able.
It was her own fault, she knew that. She could have been more honest with Milo from the start, but it never felt like the right time to bring it up and she hadn’t wanted to worry him about something that wasn't even certain yet. It all had seemed like such a fanciful idea that she herself had trouble imagining it would actually work out, and that she would actually be sailing away on a pirate ship in just a few short weeks. Memories of old story books came to mind, the lives of the characters she grew up idolizing never seemed to change slowly. Things were always the same, until all almost at once they were different. So far, her life as an adventurer was going much the same way, and she knew she would somehow have to learn how to live a life that changes with the wind without hurting those around her.
She sighed, deciding she would apologize to Milo in the morning. She could do it now, but she didn't want to show up and apologize before immediately asking if she could sleep there because she missed the boats. No, she'd find a roof top somewhere to sleep on and find Milo in the morning, she deserved that much punishment, at least. Not now, though, she needed a walk. Not a blip across rooftops, but a real, regular walk, like she used to take back home. A blip brought her to the side walk below. She was in a residential part of town, and the streets were already quiet and empty. She walked slowly and solemnly, lost in thought and emotion. Her senses noticed someone on the sidewalk ahead of her, but she kept her head down and kept walking. It was only when she passed them that she looked up to see that no one was there. Errant glances around the street revealed nothing, and the shape she detected disappeared.
She kept walking and turned down an alleyway to cut towards the center of the city. Maybe she'd make her way to the bar district and spend her last few coins on a drink, she mused. There were others in the alley. Her eyes shot up to see four shadowy figures standing in a line, blocking her path. She recalled the first time the thugs of this city had tried to rob her, and how thoroughly she had handled the situation even then. She was a lot stronger now, and a smile crossed her face. A fight might just be exactly what she needed.
"I hope you brought knives this time," she called out, "I'm in the right mood for danger."
She highly doubted it was the same thugs as last time, but she didn't care. A good line was a good line.
Two of the figures disappeared. Her eyes went wide when she realized they had powers. Shapes materialized behind her, and she whipped around as she drew her great sword. The shadow she aimed for stepped away and leaned back, narrowly dodging the swipe as a glint of moonlight reflected off a rounded brass mask. She blipped behind him and struck forward with the tip of her blade, but the shadow twisted and a swipe of its arm pushed her blade aside. Abby's tentacle erupted from the bag and wrapped around the neck the second shadow, choking it tightly as she pulled it down to its knees. The robes of the figure collapsed under the crushing force of the tentacle as the person within disappeared.
A kick from behind caught her wrist and knocked the sword from her grasp. Cold metal clasped tightly around her other wrist, which was soon grabbed and contorted behind her back along with her other arm, which was soon clasped as well. Someone kicked the back of her leg and knocked her to her knees. Her wizard hat was ripped from her hand and a dark hood was shoved down over her face to replace it.
It was as if time didn't pass until the hood was removed, and an instant later Iris was kneeling in a dark, featureless room. Before her were four figures, she couldn't see them in the dark but she could feel them with her senses. Behind them and to the left a bird cage hung from the ceiling and in it was her bottomless bag. The figures kept a wide berth from the cage as Abby's tentacle reached through the bars, whipping around frantically in futile attempts to reach them.
"Iris Orion," one of the figures spoke, "you have something that Morose desires."