Mustache [https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/pw/AP1GczMXj7t_qG977_f1hwewB-wYKOKNJfYZyX1ie1ILGjkf9yqrn3gHvwVwgxECgMe-HJD8kWcDB-WnMb88BKnBA13UCdVAFbMYcaCGbOVublydZLu7ENn2pD0epUColBsiw-DfAiNTHblLoCJAA8QXVZ3F=w639-h958-s-no-gm?authuser=0]
Phoenix awoke to a heavenly scent and found Uriel brooding in the kitchen that morning while baking enough muffins to feed a small army. He seemed on edge, and when she asked if he was alright, he merely answered that he needed some space from Dazien after they had an argument. That made her even more confused and concerned as he kept baking while giving distracted half-answers to her questions until she decided to seek out the one who liked to talk more.
She found Dazien on the roof; half slumped across one of the smaller garden tables while deep in thought with a tress of his hair held between his nose and upper lip to look like a long, silky purple mustache. Her greeting came in the form of hysterical laughter at the sight, and he rolled his eyes at her.
“Glad somebody seems to be in a better mood this morning,” he said.
Once she managed to regain control of her diaphragm and walked over to sit beside him, she asked, “I heard you and Uriel had some kind of disagreement that resulted in a mountain of baked goods for breakfast and have come in search of details.”
She tugged at the lock of hair that had pretended to be a cheap disguise and asked, “Do gemites even have facial hair? I just assumed you and Uriel used some kind of magic item to stay clean-shaven.”
“Gemites don’t have any body or facial hair, thank the gods,” he replied, pulling his hair back. Then he asked, “Would you braid it for me? I wouldn’t mind trying it like you wear it.”
She nodded and readjusted her position to help do his hair as she asked, “Why don’t you like body or facial hair? Paul has a beard that I think looks pretty good on him. Might make you look older.”
“It’s not the appearance; it’s the maintenance,” Dazien clarified, “I think I mentioned before that I needed to use enchanted Crystal Caste shears to cut my hair as a Mundane kid. Imagine needing that kind of thing just to shave,” he gave an exaggerated shudder that made her chuckle.
“Uriel uses an item, though. Only needs to use it like once a month with the settings on max,” he added before falling silent again.
“That’s convenient.” She kept grabbing strands of hair to pull into the braid as she asked as casually as possible, “So, what did you and Uriel argue about? He seemed too distracted to say.”
Her brother gave a heavy sigh, “It feels stupid when I think about it… probably because it’s mostly a result of my own stupid choices. I broke his trust in me and threw a petty excuse back at him.”
“Petty?”
“I tried to blame my own actions on him breaking my trust first when he tried to run away from us,” he explained, and she paused in surprise, “Which was completely unfair of me to do, considering I had plenty of time to bring that up with him earlier.”
“Why didn’t you?”
He stilled under her as she continued to braid. After a moment, he said, “I think I was worried he might try to run away again if I pushed. That if I mentioned how much that hurt, he might break up with me just to not hurt me again in the future,” he gave a broken laugh as he added, “Looks like I was right about that much at least.”
That made her stop to bend and look into his face, “Wait, what do you mean?”
Dazien’s face scrunched as he said, “Pretty sure he broke up with me until I can figure out how to better explain why I did what I did, but the problem is that even I’m not sure about what I could say that would fix this.”
It felt like her mind stuttered to a halt at that piece of information.
They couldn’t break up.
Uriel and Dazien were partners. Loyal and inseparable. They belonged together.
“Nope,” she finally said when words returned to her.
“What?”
“Nope, it’s not allowed,” she declared.
“Not allowed?”
“You two are not going to break up over something dumb like making one wrong choice during a time of crisis,” Phoenix retorted as she tied off the end of the long braid now trailing down Dazien’s back with the leather strap he usually used.
“One mistake can destroy years of trust, Phoenix. It’s not something I can just go back and undo.”
She moved to stand in front of him and placed her hand on her hips as she asked, “Did you try apologizing?”
He stared at her, slack-jawed for a moment, before admitting, “Well, no, but—”
“You know, while you were gone yesterday, I had a heart-to-heart with Tala about everything we went through. You think one mistake can break a bunch of trust, which is true, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be fixed. Tala pointed out that a good way to mend broken trust is a sincere apology. We were talking about the AOA, though, not you and Uriel. I wanted to bring it up with you today after hearing what you learned from the AOA yesterday, but we think that if the AOA doesn’t explain and apologize for their part in what happened, then we should break up with them.”
Dazien’s brow raised in surprise, “You want to leave the AOA? You don’t want to be an Adventurer anymore?”
She shook her head and flicked him on the forehead like he would do to her, “I said if they don’t apologize.”
He rubbed at the spot she flicked but looked thoughtful as he mulled over her words. She sat back down next to him and placed a hand on his arm as she asked, “So, what do you think? I want us all to still stick together even if we aren’t ‘official’ Adventurers. We can still do our part and fight monsters without that, right?”
Dazien didn’t answer right away, but finally, a smile spread as he said, “You’re right. Joining the AOA was meant to make certain things easier, but it’s not a requirement.”
“And about Uriel?” she prompted.
He gave her a grin and said with exaggerated pomp, “It will be the grandest apology you’ve ever witnessed.”
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Phoenix made her way back to the kitchen while Dazien went to hunt down Rayna and Saiya. They wanted to make sure that everyone was on the same page about how to deal with the AOA, and she had offered to talk to Uriel in order to avoid an awkward party meeting.
As she propped herself up on the counter, Uriel turned to her with a grin and held out a muffin, “Try this one and tell me what you think.”
Phoenix leaned forward and took a bite out of it while he held it. She almost choked on it as she saw the look of surprise on his face. “Sorry, but that look was so worth it,” she said with a laugh after managing to swallow.
He rolled his eyes at her and teased, “I didn’t realize I needed to treat you like a frolf pup too. I’ll have to make sure you don’t accidentally bite my fingers off next time.”
She chuckled, then held out her hand for him to set the rest of the muffin on while she took a more dignified bite. She hummed thoughtfully before saying, “The flavor’s good, but what’s giving it that weird grainy texture?”
Uriel gave a sigh, “The winterhazel nuts. I tried grinding them into more of a powder to get the flavor, but I can’t seem to balance out the texture properly, and they could likely shatter a Mundane’s teeth if I left them in whole.”
“Well, good luck with that,” Phoenix replied, “While I will gladly devour anything you put in front of me, I am absolutely zero help in actually making that deliciousness.”
He chuckled, “And here I thought the wannabe crafter might like to learn crafting muffins.”
She gave a heavy sigh of resignation, “There’s too much… feeling required with cooking, it seems like, especially after we made that monster stew together. It’s pretty far removed from the more puzzle-like programming of enchantments that other item crafting has. After all my forays and burnt hair, I can understand why having magic powers dedicated to the process would be better.”
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“Only took you about ten months to finally figure that out,” he teased, and she rolled her eyes at him again.
“Yes, I get it. I’m a slow learner.”
“I wouldn’t say that,” Uriel countered as he turned back to the oven, “Just stubborn about not giving up on something you want to accomplish, which isn’t a bad thing, in my opinion.”
She flushed at the compliment as she swallowed another bite of muffin. Hesitantly, she prodded, “Speaking of stubborn… You didn’t really break up with Daze, did you?”
His head snapped back to look at her in surprise, and he asked, “Is that what he told you I did?”
Phoenix nodded and was actually relieved by the frown on his face, “I just said we needed some space. We were both getting too upset, and it was even harder for me to deal with since my earrings weren’t helping me regulate properly at the time. They normally help me get through a Heart Check without it devolving into a shouting match.”
“Heart Check?”
“That’s just what we call them,” he said, shaking his head as he returned to his task, “It’s a check-in to see how each other is doing and to address any issues that may have arisen within our relationship. A chance to ask harder questions and air grievances with brutal honesty and, ideally, the mutual goal of resolving a problem and compromising. It’s worked well for us so far, but this time… well, like I said, it turned into a bit of a shouting match. I just wanted some time and space to process and let us both cool down.”
Uriel pulled out another tray of muffins from the oven, these ones laden with some kind of fruit by the looks of it, then turned back to face her after setting them down, “If he’s telling you we broke up, though… I wonder if that’s actually what he wants.”
“Nope,” she instantly replied, “I told him it’s not allowed, and you two are going to make up.”
His eyes went wide in surprise before he broke into a bout of deep, rumbling laughter.
“What?” she asked, crossing her arms defensively, “It’s not funny; it’s true!”
“It’s funny because you ordered Dazien to do something.”
“Well, he listened to it,” she replied with even more embarrassment, then grinned and asked, “Does the King normally take orders from the Princess, or does that make me like some kind of Empress now?”
Uriel shook his head as his laughter abated and said, “There are no more empires on Makera. That was a mistake the world only saw once, and now the magic itself won’t allow for it.”
He picked up two of the fresh muffins and walked closer to her as he continued, “I’m glad to hear that he listened to you, though. I don’t want to leave him; I just want to be able to trust him again.”
“You were both being too emotional about this, obviously. You both made mistakes, just like I have, but you’re not abandoning me because of them. You apologize, admit you were wrong, learn from the mistake by never doing it again, and trust that they’ll do better, right?”
His smile warmed her heart as he agreed, “You’re right.” Then he held out the new muffin for her to take and softly said, “I don’t remember if I did that before, especially after Dazien’s reaction this morning. I’m sorry if I made you feel like I didn’t care about you or him when I tried leaving before. That was the opposite of my intentions. I was wrong and won’t ever do it again. I’m trying to do better by standing beside you, even if I’m mildly terrified by the idea.”
Those fiery eyes met hers as he asked, “Will you forgive and trust me?”
Phoenix ignored the muffin as she leaned forward to wrap him in a hug. “Always,” she answered before adding, “Now, tell that to Dazien once we get back.”
He chuckled and asked softly, “You’re giving me orders, too, now?”
Her eyes widened as she realized what she had accidentally said, “I— I’m sorry!” she stuttered, trying to pull back, “I didn’t mean to say that word. I just—”
“Hey, calm down. It’s fine,” he tried to reassure.
“No, I know that triggers—”
“Phoenix, please,” he interrupted, stepping forward to return her initial hug as he said, “I know you didn’t mean it like that. Please don’t beat yourself up for it.”
“I’m sorry,” she repeated, and he chuckled into her hair.
“I know, and I’ll do as you ask, but are you going to tell me where you’ll be coming back from?”
“Oh, right. Dazien and I are planning to go break up with the AOA if they don’t apologize and promise to rectify their policies for hiring cultists and practices with both personal privacy and access to official documents so something like this can’t happen again.”
He pulled away to look at her as he asked, “Wait, what do you mean by break up here? Like disbanding our party or just leaving the organization?”
“The latter,” she replied, “We don’t have to be Adventurers just like we don’t have to be Waylands either, so that gives us some leverage and freedom in what path we want to take. Aside from telling you to make up with Dazien, I mainly came to make sure you were okay with this plan or not.”
“I’m fine with that,” he replied, to her relief, “I’ve actually suggested it to Daze in the past when… well, never mind.”
“When what?” she asked, her curiosity piqued by the sudden glow of a blush alighting his cheeks.
“I don’t really want to say. Looking back now, it seems really idiotic, and I know you’ll just laugh at me for it. Anyway, I’ve never been the one dead-set on being an Adventurer. That was Dazien’s goal. He wanted the benefits they offer for a more efficient means for us to cultivate our abilities and travel.”
“He mentioned that to me, too. From what Paul told me before, it’s more efficient since they can provide a pretty constant stream of well-matched challenges to progress with, right?”
“Exactly. The licenses they provide also help with traveling between nations. It’s a formally recognized form of identification in most major cities and comes with quite a bit of prestige. There are other options out there for all of that, though.”
“Well, we might have to look into those if this impromptu meeting goes poorly.”
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The meeting was going very poorly, in Phoenix’s opinion, as Dazien stood beside her with Patricia on her other side. Across from them sat Director Agatha Trayvious, Assistant Director Timothy Varros, Assistant Director Helen Porter, and the Head of Personnel Resources, Fitz Finnigan.
Phoenix doubted she would remember all of their names, but apparently, they were the most important people in this branch of the AOA and were the ones that both Dazien and Pati insisted on being there to get verbally stripped down by the pair.
It was not pretty.
Dazien went through the details of what had transpired leading up to that point, not just Ramir giving a fake mission that looked official but also the interference from an Emerald, who they still hadn’t identified, during the mission beforehand.
He also went into even more accounts of his treatment over the entire year from the traitor and a small handful of other staff members who serviced the front desks. She hadn’t realized the extent of verbal abuse and discrimination he had been dealing with this entire time as her party leader and was mildly horrified that he hadn’t told her before now.
By the time he had finished, she wasn’t sure that they could give an acceptable apology that would make her want to stay associated with them. It looked like she wouldn’t need to either, as Mister Finnigan, who had been the one responsible for vetting and managing their staff members, said, “I have followed our policy to the letter. We do not invade our staff’s privacy by investigating what they do in their personal time, just as we don’t go following you Adventurers around.
“We trust our staff to perform their duties as outlined, and while it is unfortunate to hear you speak of disparaging acts towards you, it is all hearsay. We have heard no such complaints from the many other people we serve. Perhaps you are simply being too sensitive and seeing insults where none was meant.”
“And I supposed I was imagining the blood cultist while locked in his cage?” Dazien asked with venom in his voice that rivaled Patricia’s.
“It is hard to believe that the AOA has had zero complaints from visiting Adventurers for being treated unfairly, nor is it easy to swallow the idea that an entire sect of the Scarlet Banquet has been operating within this city without anyone reporting their suspicions to the AOA.”
“We are a single organization that accepts mission requests, Ambassador Wayland,” the Assistant Director of Mission Assignments, Helen, replied, “If nobody paid us to create a mission, then we are not obliged to investigate every rumor we might come across. Perhaps you should look at your own faction and ask the duke why the Guards haven’t heard anything or requested the mission from us.”
“I don’t think they’re going to apologize,” Phoenix whispered mentally to both Dazien and Patricia. “I didn’t realize that the AOA was so driven by money.”
“Most organizations are if they hope to keep thriving. A lot of people might not join the AOA if a reward wasn’t offered for completing missions and risking their lives. The government subsidizes a lot of their work and funds a majority of the monster hunting to help keep the nation from getting overrun,” Patricia explained. “That said, neither of you have that monetary incentive anymore. If they can’t ensure you won’t be hunted or set up whenever you accept one of their missions, then I see little use to not just acting on your own.”
“So, you are refusing to adjust your policies to better ensure the safety of Saint Wayland?” Dazien asked aloud from Pati’s prompt.
Director Trayvious frowned but spoke before the others, “While we always try to safeguard our member’s privacy and match them to missions best suited to their capabilities, we cannot ensure their safety, Noble Wayland. We send Adventurers into danger to fight monsters, after all.”
“True, but if you can’t ensure that the information surrounding a mission won’t further endanger us unnecessarily, then I believe we have reached an impasse.”
The director’s frown deepened, and she looked slightly confused as she asked, “What do you mean?”
Dazien reached into the pouch at his waist and pulled out a small pale blue card made from stone. He took a few steps forward to set it on the table the officials sat at and said, “I mean that we can no longer continue being members of the Alliance of Adventurers. The AOA itself has become an unnecessary risk for us. We will work with the Ducal Guard’s volunteer force for the remainder of the blood moon.”
“You’re not going to be Adventurers anymore?” the director clarified, looking dumbfounded by the idea.
Phoenix walked forward to stand by her brother and set her own license down next to his, “We don’t need to be part of an organization to still have adventures and protect the innocent from harm. We might not be part of the AOA, but we’ll still be adventurers at heart.”