{-Lyrei-}

Eventually they were all ushered outside and, amidst the mumbles, she had to wonder how many books were now lost. At least she could take reassurance that that wasn’t the ancient history wing, and that most of those books could be replaced..? Nope, still not any better. She had the brief panic that something had happened to her own fables before the guards reported the fire hadn’t spread that far.

“We are currently running an investigation about the cause and any other damage that it may have caused,” one of the guards present announced. “We would advise everyone, including the archivists, to stay outside until this matter is resolved.”

Another tried to make it all sound a little better. “On the bright side, lots of markets on the west side of the city are hosting sales. Several restaurants have promotions going on as well. Perhaps it’s the perfect time to stretch your legs and occupy yourselves with something else..?”

They were answered with a begrudging mumble, but Lyrei couldn’t help but pity them.

Still, as the others began to disperse, she turned to her parents. “What do you plan on doing until this is over?”

Her dad shrugged.

“I suppose we’ll oversee things here,” her father responded thoughtfully. “They might’ve evacuated everyone out of the Archive for the time being, but there’s still things we can do here.” He smiled. “We won’t stop you, though. Remember to stay safe, even if you have Seldir with you.”

She decided not to mention how it may or may not have happened because of them. Still, she figured she’d take the opportunity while she had it—and before Vaeri learned about all of this.

“If what that guard said about the sales is true, I want to look around,” Lyrei announced. “I’ll come back in an hour or so, unless they decide to send everyone home sooner. Would that be okay?”

Her dad nodded. “Sounds good enough to me.” He turned to Seldir. “Be sure to keep an eye on her, alright? Who knows what could’ve caused that fire…”

“Yeah, who knows…” Seldir mumbled, giving what felt like a rather pointed look at Lyrei. She chose to ignore it until he sighed and said, “You don’t have to worry. Nothing’s going to happen to her as long as I’m here.”

Lyrei was already grabbing Seldir’s hand to lead him away. “Great! Now I want to see if they’ve got any of those fancy pens or journals.”

“You’re just going to ignore everything that happened, then?”

“I don’t see a point in dwelling on it. He was a weirdo. Probably insane.”

“And we’re perfectly capable of running into him again without a single means of defending ourselves.”

“I’ve got you! That should be enough, right?”

But something else distracted her. A familiar feeling—and a voice she had mixed feelings about hearing.

“M-may the two of you wait a moment, please?” A boy—no, he was older than he looked—walked up to them. She knew by looking at that face that he was the sparrow.

And behind him, following a bit more wearily, were the dove… and the wren, Songbird.

Lyrei tried, and possibly failed, to hide her excitement to see these otherwise-strangers. If they hadn’t been right in front of her, she would’ve immediately turned to Seldir and forced him to apologize for thinking they weren’t real. He realized soon enough, though, after a couple of glances between her and them.

He didn’t seem to like it as much as she did. “Do you not remember what happened literally thirty minutes ago?” he mumbled to her. “I don’t think this is what your parents have in mind when they say to stay out of trouble.”

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The “sparrow,” for lack of a better name, rushed to say, “Please don’t go yet! I know it’s weird to have a bunch of strangers come up to you, but… we want to ask you something.”

“You’re going to ask if I recognize you, aren’t you?” she asked.

He seemed about ready to say it before realizing she just did. “Wait, you already knew that? Does… that mean the answer’s ‘yes?’”

“You’re serious?” Songbird muttered. She tried to find some of that kindness she vaguely remembered—but she found none of it. “What if they’re just someone Dhymos made to try to trick us?”

“I recognize them,” “sparrow” defended. “And it seems like they recognize us, too.”

“I’m Lyrei,” she said first. She really needed to know their names before she always referred to them by their fairytale counterparts. “This is Seldir.”

“I have no idea what’s going on…” Seldir mumbled. “This is weird. What happened to finding pens and journals..? Can we go back to that?”

She smirked, unable to deny herself the chance any longer. “Do you believe me now?”

“Kind of hard not to when they’re staring me all in the face. At least… it is them, isn’t it?”

“Sparrow” nodded. “I’m Noa and these two are Rennyn and Kaylin.”

Lyrei offered a smile to Rennyn. “Or… Songbird, right? Isn’t that what we all used to call you?”

“Maybe.” He was quiet and suddenly seemed a lot more distant. “But just Rennyn is good for here. No need for a nickname.”

She couldn’t help but wonder what she missed, then, between those hazy memories and this moment.

“Do you have some time to talk?” Kaylin prompted. “It’ll be a lot easier to explain everything somewhere better than here. There’s still some information that we could use from the Archives…”

“That… might be a minor problem,” Seldir remarked. “They don’t want anyone in there right now. Some guy started a fire and they want to check everything before letting people back in.”

Rennyn paled at the thought. “Is it safe to guess that saying someone ‘started a fire’ is a bit more literal than what it sounds like?”

Seldir cautiously nodded. “He was trying to ask Lyrei about you. He didn’t tell us why, though. The fire was a distraction, more or less, to let him leave once he realized she had nothing to tell him.”

It was Kaylin that gave a response—it seemed like Rennyn wasn’t paying attention at all. “Well, that makes it even more important that we get everything sorted out. Is there somewhere else we can talk? Preferably where we won’t draw any attention and where there won’t be a lot of people?”

“Kinda hard to do both in a place as big as Zaitha…” Lyrei remarked. “Usually it’s pretty obvious when you’re looking for a quiet place.”

“None of us want to drag regular citizens into this. Just use your best judgment in finding a spot.”

“It won’t matter anyway,” Rennyn said in a near-whisper, almost panicked. “If Dhymos has sent someone asking about us, then he knows that we’re around here. We’re not going to be able to hide from him for much longer.”

“I didn’t really understand any of that, but we can worry about that part later.” Seldir gestured towards one of the streets. “I know a couple of things about possibly-dangerous people. If they’re really a threat, we’re safer when there’s other guards around us. It’ll help us blend in to be a part of a crowd.”

“Just show us to a spot,” Kaylin repeated.

They didn’t speak of anything before they’d settled down at an outdoor cafe somewhat nearby; there weren’t an incredible amount of people here, but more guards were out as news of the fire continued to spread. Vaeri always seemed on top of these kinds of things.

“I don’t think you have to tell the story from the beginning,” Lyrei remarked. “I… remember, kind of, what we used to be. We were all old companions—but somewhere along the line, we got separated from each other. I’m guessing you already knew that part, though?”

Noa nodded. “I was the one to recognize them, and I recognized you earlier, too. That’s how I knew…”

Kaylin glanced at Rennyn but, when he didn’t give a response, she went on to explain the details. “We don’t know the specifics of what happened to us then, either. But we do know what we need to do now. Noa’s mother told him a story about us—and how they couldn’t defeat the villain the first time, but they could after reuniting. We decided it’s better if we all found each other, so that we were prepared for what Dhymos did. Since it seems you’ve already encountered someone working for him… it seems we’ve found the right person.”

“You’ve mentioned this Dhymos before,” Seldir pointed out cautiously. “Who is he, exactly?”

Finally, Rennyn spoke. “The kind of force we don’t want to run into right now. Which leads me to my next question: you’re absolutely sure you don’t know where this fire-manipulating guy is?”