“Robin, dear, it's time to eat!” A kind voice shouted from outside the guest bedroom.

Robin put her bookmark in her book. She didn’t close it immediately, instead looking at the bookmark. It came from her big brother as a gift and was a page from his journal folded into a narrow rectangular shape. Three symbols covered the page in thick black ink.

Her brother told her it was an ancient civilization’s language, whatever that meant. They apparently meant faith, hope, and love. Faith that he would return after every voyage beyond the gerg- gargaun- gargatuan? The big walls. Hope that he would remain uninjured even after facing the scary monsters. And finally love, so that she would always remember how much her brother loved her.

She wasn’t stupid. She realized how cheap of a gift it was since it was literally folded paper. Yet, it was one of her favorite presents ever since he gave it to her upon promotion to Orange Cross. Maybe because it was from his journal? The journal that he takes with him every time he heads out beyond the wall, or at least one of his journals considering how many he had filled up by now. Or maybe it was just because of the sincerity of the gift.

Robin closed her book and slid off the bed. She walked out the door, encountering the same layout as their own apartment. Where her big brother’s office would’ve been sat the master bedroom and the location of their bedroom was the guest room.

She walked over to the dinner table and sat down as a pretty woman carried over a plate of food. Her long blonde hair swung over her shoulder and her green eyes twinkled with life. The woman sat a plate of food down on the table before heading to the other side. “Thank you, Ms. Nicole.”

The pretty woman, her caretaker while her brother was away, laughed as she sat down. “You’re very welcome, Robin. And how many times do I have to tell you? Just call me big sis.”

“B-but my big brother says always to respect my elders.” It also felt weird to call her big sis since they weren’t related… though maybe that wasn’t too far off. As far as she knew, her big brother was only close with Nicole, so maybe they were dating?

What a funny word. She had only learned it recently from one of her books. Maybe she was using it wrong? She had a bad habit of that. Her brother liked to say she was book-smart, but not quite street-smart. Robin didn’t quite get what he meant by that. She knew most of the streets in Preshen, especially the no-no streets her brother warned her not to go on.

“S-still, we are close by now, aren’t we? I won’t be offended if you drop the formality.” Nicole scratched her cheek as she looked towards the young girl.

Formality. She learned that one when her brother taught her about respecting elders and saluting the legionnaires. Well, if she said she wouldn’t be offended, then it was probably fine, right? “Okay, big sis.”

They ate for a while in silence. Or about as silent as it got in Preshen. There was the constant hum of pipes, clicks of ticking gears, and the occasional whine of a horse. Oh, and there was something new that had popped up: cars. They were quite loud. They apparently weren’t all that new, but they lived on the far northern edge of the empire so it took a while for inoventions- inventions to get out here.

“So, how are classes?” Nicole ruined the peace.

Ugh, how she hated the school classes her brother was making her attend. Something about higher education is important. She didn’t get it. If the classes were so-called ‘higher education’, then why were they slower than her books? “I-its uh, it's fine, I guess.” Her head fell slightly as she looked at her food.

“Come now, you can be honest with me.” She raised her hand and leaned closer as if she was about to spill a secret. “I never liked school very much either.”

“R-really?” Robin looked up, surprised she wasn’t alone in her distaste.

Nicole laughed and nodded several times. “Of course! Of course! I didn’t like it for…” her bright smile dropped for a second before returning, “several reasons. Why don’t you like school, though?”

The young girl shrugged and pushed her remaining pasta around her plate. “It's just everyone there is so… slow? I get done with my work in a couple minutes and then just laze around pretending to work until classes are over.”

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

“Why don’t you read a book then? You like reading, right?” Nicole asked.

Her eyes pulled down into an irritated look exaggerated by her youthfulness. “I tried! My teacher gets onto me. He says I’m just lazy since I’m not doing my work!”

Nicole frowned. “That's not right. Have you tried to explain to him?”

“Y-yeah… he just ignores me.” She looked away towards the shifting gears along the wall. They were so interesting in how they shifted and twisted for one reason or another. She wanted to be a Seeker like her brother when she grew up, but being a Mechanus and dealing with the metal bits also sounded quite fun.

Nicole looked irritated for a minute before attempting to hide her irritation behind a smile. Robin had grown rather good at seeing through people’s masks though, so she wasn’t fooled. “Have you told your brother? I’m sure Verlon could explain it to your teacher.”

Robin shook her head adamantly. “No. He’s busy all the time as a Seeker and I don’t want to bother him. Y-you uh, can’t tell him either, okay?”

Nicole sighed and gave a typical adult answer of nonanswering. “You can tell him. You’re his beloved little sister, you won’t bother him in the slightest.”

She could just tell him about it, but it was such a minor problem not worth the trouble. And he already did so much for her, even diving into a dangerous land to fight monsters. “I-I'll think about it.” It was a lie. Her brother said white lies were sometimes okay though.

“Where do you think he’s at now?” Nicole asked after they both finished eating.

She thought long and hard about the past stories her brother had told her about his excusions? His trips. She did some rough math based on that and her own lacking knowledge about Endenheim. “Umm… maybe already in the Graviton Highlands if he hasn’t met much trouble. I hope he’s okay…”

Nicole smiled reassuringly. “Of course he is. Your brother is a Seeker after all. A champion of humanity protecting the empire’s walls with every trip out there.”

Her brother was pretty heroic, even if he himself didn’t think so. If nothing else, he was her hero and that's all that really mattered. It was sad. Her brother thought he was just another worker, but she didn’t think he could be compared to the cowardly bums who worked in the cities. They even had the nerve to give her brother a hard time when he was one of the people out there conquering the enemies of humanity.

She liked the soldiers though. They were always respectful of her brother and were kind of like Seekers. Just they didn’t leave the empire often. They still conquered the enemies of the empire if they came around though. Of course, they couldn’t compare to her big brother. No one could for that matter. Well, maybe the legendary white crosses could, though by a small margin.

Big sis Nicole and her coworkers weren’t too bad either. She was a Mechanus, a smith of steam and gear who made the world turn. It must be quite fun to fit together the bits and bobs to create things. From what little she heard about the pretty woman’s job, she specialized in innovating and creating things to help Seekers and the Legions. Pretty cool.

“Umm… Nicole, w-would you uh, help me with something?” Robin nervously clasped her hands as she fidgeted.

Nicole’s smile turned all the more radiant. She truly was pretty, in Robin’s opinion. “Of course, sweetie. What do you need?”

“I, uh, I’ve been working on s-something for Big Brother. I-it's in my room.”

It was no hassle to cross the hall and enter their apartment after they finished eating. Her brother had left a key with Nicole just in case she needed anything. She entered her bedroom and ducked down under her bed to pull out what she had been hiding. Of course, she didn’t really need to hide it, but she wanted it to be a surprise for her brother.

She was rather proud of it. She had to read a lot of books to even piece it together, and even then it wasn’t anywhere near as complex as the things the Mechanus made. It was a clobbered-together mess of gears and copper coils held together by random nuts and bolts she had found on the streets. It was roughly shaped like a cylinder with a small wooden knob on the end.

“Oh wow… what exactly is it?” Nicole crouched down to get a better look at her invention.

Robin fidgeted nervously as she held it out. Her workmanship was far too poor to be of any worth, but she still wanted to give something to her brother. “I-its, uh, it's an electrical system. If you crank this nob, it makes electricity.”

Nicole looked it over a few times as she nodded to herself. “I’m impressed you made this. What do you need help with though?”

Robin knew she could trust the pretty woman. After all, her brother trusted her, and she had been her caretaker for the past two years while her brother worked. She was much better than the old lady that originally took care of her. She wondered what happened to that old lady. She just disappeared one day and her brother never spoke of her again.

Speaking of her brother, she really hoped he was okay. Just half a week more until he is supposed to return safely. Surely he would be okay.