What We Run From [ooc welcome]

[Naunet]

((Follows directly after the events in Just Two Minutes.))

 

***

 

An Ul'dahn morning was hardly different from an Ul'dahn night or afternoon. The air was still oppressively thick with the smells of the destitute and the ill, and the walls trapped an unhealthy heat even this early in the day. The mess of it confused Antimony's already strained and exhausted senses, and her mind gave up trying to make sense of her direction for a time. She could still catch the lingering scents of K'ile and K'luha in her nose, could still hear their voices, mingling with Illira's and, more dangerously, others from years ago, and her feet could not stop until they left her at peace. Until the screams and flames faded once more.

 

Limsa had not been far enough.

 

An hour passed until she slowed to rest one hand against the shaded wall of a quiet alley. The coat she still clutched close to herself, the fur of its collar tickling her neck and chin. Her eyes were swollen and itchy and she could feel a dry stiffness upon her cheeks, though she couldn't remember crying. She had told herself she wouldn't cry.

 

There in the alley, Antimony paused in her flight to catch her breath and hoped that her thoughts would not catch up to her in the meantime.

 

No matter how fast her thoughts were, something else caught up to Antimony first. Or it had been there waiting, as if it knew where she would run. One way or another, something brown and thin stirred in the deep shadows along the wall not even a meter away from where Antimony stood. To say it stirred was to overstate the movement. It shifted. It mildly swayed. The same amount of movement one might get out of a large tree by brushing it with a reluctant breath, the thin brown form moved its face.

 

It's voice was a whisper in the voice of a stone, "I understand."

 

The words rolled through her like a frigid, stormy wind, and her ears pressed back flat against her head as her eyes darted up towards its source. It took several moments to discern the blue-grey-brown from the rest of the early morning shadows, but when she did, she could not help the shiver in her tail, nor the way her arm curled a bit tighter around the coat.

 

He killed my mom. Was that true?

 

"What--" She breathed out, shuddered, found herself split painfully across three divergent fears. Too much. "Understand... what?"

 

The form lurched forward, leading with its shoulders and then swaying as the head and neck snapped into place. It stepped out of the shadows, light falling on the Duskwight's greasy heair, but leaving his face obscured. Dark lines settled into every crag of his face, left his eye sockets black pits from which silver eyes only faintly shone.

 

There was no expression in those eyes, and the words were coolly informative. "I understand why I could not kill you in the Shroud, despite my many, many chances. I recognize your torment."

 

"You recognize...?" The lurching of the Duskwight's form seemed more ominous, more threatening than it had in a while, though neither his appearance, or really his behavior had changed. It was almost enough to cut through the hurried panic, the desperation that had driven her steps away from people she knew held nothing against her, nor did she them. But that fire...

 

"There is nothing to recognize," she uttered faintly, sagging somewhat against the wall. "I am fine." She would be. Just like before. She only needed to get away, far away. Just like before.

 

"My family was immense," the Duskwight said. "Besides my brothers and sisters, nephews and neices, I had several children of my own. And granchildren, and more, and all of them are gone now. Except the one."

 

Something twisted in her chest, something writhing and burning. She closed her eyes against it for a moment before dragging her eyes back up, brow creased heavily in confusion as she demanded, voice shaking, "Then why would you try to kill her??"

 

With a sly, slow smile, Megiddo Desfosse said, "You know why. We feel the same pain, don't we? To answer your question, just ask yourself what you're running away from."

 

"I could never hurt them! Don't you--don't you suggest--!" Her tail lashed wildly behind her, and that stinging had returned to her eyes, though nothing fell. Her hand curled into a tense claw about the coat. He could not know! How dare he presume and judge, when he'd done such horrible... He couldn't-- "I didn't kill them! I couldn't--I just couldn't stay! I... can't stay..."

 

"You're far too gentle," Megiddo said, pacing out of the shadows and speaking patiently. "But I saw how they victimized you. Only family can do such a thing. Now one is disabled and the other clueless. if you'd like, I can make it so they'll never. Follow you. Again." With a small chuckle, "It wouldn't hurt, of course."

 

Nausea dragged on her gut, distorted the walls of the alley until all she could see was the impossibly tall shadow looming before her. Her head dipped at the sensation, but still she could see Megiddo's form, in her mind now a jagged silhouette cut into the flames that bore down with their endless hunt. They would never... "No one has victimized me!" she protested, voice shaking. "Not them--it's not... it's not their fault! They couldn't save... I couldn't stop them. I will not do what you've done!"

 

"Now let's calm down," he said, walking towards Antimony and reaching out to touch her shoulder. "You don't look to be doing well. Let's take a few seconds and steady ourselves, hm?"

 

Calm. The only way she could find calm, find peace, was to /run/. Her body swayed to one side as though to fulfill that need, but Megiddo's touch on her shoulder lodged her feet to the ground. She recalled suddenly that numb, empty realization she'd had in the dunes, that acknowledgement that she could throw herself to the sands and let them do with her what they will. She wondered if the ice and snow of the north would be as forgiving.

 

But she had told K'ile she would live.

 

Letting out a faint, dizzy moan, Antimony's shoulders shuddered. "You can't kill them," she whispered. "You can't kill her... they're family."

 

"As if you're not killing them right now," Megiddo hissed with an uncharacteristic bite. Then he took a breath and said more calmly, "That's what family does when things go sideways. The first people we turn on are blood. Some families are just more honest about it than others."

 

"That's not true," she protested dully. She thought of the first time she had lost, then. The first time things had "gone sideways". Her mind skirted around it, terrified of the memories even now, of nightmares older than the fire but no less sickening. Nothing would have gotten her through that except... "They will take care of each other. Without... I just can't--can't stay. You don't have to kill anyone."

 

Letting his hand slip off Antimony's shoulder, the Duskwight paced behind her, lumbering counterclockwise and staring at her head. "Your condemnation is not surprising, Antimony, nor is the hypocrisy. You're of two minds on this, maybe more. Which do I listen to?"

 

She didn't bother trying to keep him in her vision, just let her head pull down on her neck, her ears hanging low to either side of her skull. The stone of the wall felt like ice on her palm. "You're wrong. It is wrong," she muttered, blinking past the burning ache in her eyes. The frames of her glasses hung awkwardly on her face at this angle. "It's better... better to simply leave than to... to kill anyone."

 

"Nowhere is far enough," Megiddo said. "Didn't you learn that from my Granddaughter?"

 

"I don't understand!" The words burst from her throat viciously. "How you could kill them! Only a monster destroys their own family!"

 

"Loughree murdered my grandson, and her father," the elderly Elezen reported as he continued to pace. "Did she seem a monster to you? People use their families to advance their goals. If they cannot cooperate, they must compete. It is natural. There is a monster inside all of us."

 

"Why are you saying these things," Antimony whispered. "I won't let you kill any of them. It's not... that's not what I want. I just need to..." Go. She needed to go. Everything Megiddo said here was wrong, and she could sense the fire approaching, hear the echoes of their screams. She felt herself push away from the wall and then swayed on her feet directionless.

 

"That is your choice. I will respect it. After all," Megiddo stopped, breathed, "I had wanted to give such ways up myself long ago. If my Granddaughter had not done such terrible things, I would forget and endure. Perhaps I still can. Forgiveness cannot be so hard."

 

There was a weight in her legs as though they were wrought of iron, dragging on each step she tried to take. One to the left, but there was the wall, to the right but then... "You still can," she spoke quietly, tail curling low against her legs. "You can... there is a far enough. There must be."

 

Megiddo came up alongside Antimony and let his ancient face drop to her eyes level, looking sideways at her with a grandfatherly smile. "Did she mention to you, by the way, anything that is precious to her? If I am to convince her to forgive me, I must know what her soft spot is."

 

Megiddo's craggy features in view once more, Antimony wasn't sure who to believe - or perhaps both of them spoke the truth? She shuddered, tucked her ears further against her skull as her hands shook against the coat in her arms. "... No." She thought of Loughree's fear, the anger Antimony recognized keenly as the other spoke of those she was responsible for. Children. Her stomach churned.

 

"Ah, that is fine, then. Perhaps it's best to keep things between she and I for now." He stood away from Antimony, nearly double the woman's height, smiling. He said, "What are you going to do?"

 

She tightened her grip on the coat until she was practically hugging herself. "You won't..." She couldn't trust that he wouldn't, she realized, and thought then to warn Loughree, but of course that would do no good. The woman already knew who was after her, and Antimony had no means of stopping him. With this acknowledgment, the panic she had been battling earlier seemed to surge forward anew, breathing a dizzy energy into her exhausted limbs. "I need to go."

 

"Yes, let's not delay," the old man said cheerfully. "I think I'll have a bit of faith in family for a change and go pay a visit to my granddaughter right away. I don't think she's slept in a few days and she should be on duty about now. I bet she would like to rest." His great form turned away, leading with his rickety shoulders, to walk out of the alley.

 

Chilling realization clenched around her heart. Antimony spun then, eyes wide with sudden fear from his words and cried out, "Wait!" She lurched forward, reached out to grab for his clothing, dropping the coat in the process. "You can't. Don't--do not kill her, please!"

 

"You must not think very highly of me," the old man muttered, though mostly to himself, and then stopped to turn to Antimony, "Oh, another thing before we part! You should not fear Illira. The primary reason you got hired by the Agency is because I put in a good word for you with Ildur. And I've been working with the old man far longer than Illira has. I have more clout than her, I think."

 

Antimony blinked, craned her neck to look up at the Duskwight. Her hand shook in his dirty clothes. "I... I don't fear her. I just..." need to go, her thoughts finished, the words begging, hammering in her skull. It was all she could think of, nearly drowning out the implications of Megiddo's own words on his employment. Dimly, she wondered how he had known all these things he’d spoken of.

 

The old man said nothing to that, just watching Antimony's face passively.

 

Forcibly, she released her grip on his clothes, the joints in her fingers moving with an aged reluctance, as though rusted over. Or charred to useless nubs. Antimony shivered and took a step back, one foot brushing against the coat she'd dropped. Mitari's gift.

 

North would be far enough, right?

 

She found she could say nothing else to Megiddo, only watching him back, her arms limp at her sides while her tail twisted in confusion and distress.

 

With a strange, shrugging motion, Megiddo slipped from Antimony's grip as though she'd been trying to hold water, and began to walk away at his slow pace, his thin limbs seeming reluctant to move at all. "Good luck, whatever you do, Antimony."

 

Antimony stood very still as Megiddo drifted away, and for a time longer after he disappeared, seemingly once more becoming one with the walls of the city. She didn't move, despite the fear clawing at the edges of her vision, the scents that spurred on memories that spurred on grief and loss. Then finally, as though struck by lightning, her body jerked backwards, then bent to gather up the coat.

 

North. She needed to go north. The cold might hold the fire at bay.

[Naunet]

After leaving Ul'dah and leaving her very livelihood, Antimony set off on the path to Black Brush...

 

***

 

Antimony walked her rented chocobo to the porter, having recently arrived at Black Brush Station. Her ears hung low to the sides of her head, and her pace was of one distracted by thought. She offered a very brief smile to the porter and held out a thin ticket to her - him? It was hard to tell with the mask. The chocobo at her side kwehed and fluffed its feathers at the other birds loitering around.

 

Ulanan sat near the keeper, looking all dozy and bored. Her eyes discovered Antimony after a moment. Yawning, she raised both hands to stretch herself. “ Antimony!”

 

Antimony's tail stiffened, bushing out considerably before curling flat against one leg. Tensely, she turned to the voice. "Ah... hello, Ulanan."

 

Ulanan walked towards her, stumbling once thanks to the long time she had spent sitting in one place. “I heard you were leaving to Coerthas.”

 

Antimony smiled a bit weakly, not really putting any emotion behind the expression. "Where...ever would you have heard that?"

 

“I heard it from the people now living in your room.”

 

Antimony's smile fell immediately, her ears swooping back. "Oh. I see." She was quiet for a moment and then sighed before continuing without directly looking at the lalafell, "Then you will know why."

 

Ulanan let out a big breath. "I know." She reached for her pouch and, with both hands, offered it to the Miqo'te. "I'm not here to convince you to stay, just to ask you to be careful and get an escort in Drybone."

 

Antimony blinked at the pouch, then shifted her eyes to Ulanan, brow furrowing slightly. "What is this...?"

 

Ulanan smiled and proclaimed happily: "It's a pouch! With coin inside and a letter to the Brass Blades in Drybone to assign you an escort."

 

Antimony was silent for a long moment and then turned to drop to one knee in front of Ulanan, wrapping her arms around the lalafell in a brief hug. "Thank you. I don't know what I did to deserve you, but thank you."

 

Ulanan was confused by hugging protocols for a full second before realizing that the protocol was 'wrap your arms around the other person', so she did. “Just present the letter to an Immortal Flame officer and he'll get you my father's finest bodyguard!”

 

Antimony pulled away after a moment, standing with some effort, the pouch in one hand. She seemed to struggle with something for a time before finally managing, "If you could... I would ask a favor of you." She sighed, tail twisting anxiously behind her. "Miss Loughree... can you check and see if she is alright? Megiddo was..."

 

Ulanan frowned at the Duskwight's name. "That old, grey asparagus." she grumbled. "I will make sure Loughree is safe, don't worry."

 

Antimony bowed her head. "I will anyway, but... thank you." The porter gestured inquiringly then, and Antimony sighed. "I should... go now. I'm sorry."

 

Ulanan nodded and waves her hand shyly. "Have a safe journey! And enjoy Coerthas!"

 

Antimony lifted one hand in response, looking away. A shadow crossed her features at some thought and then she turned away suddenly, moving to the chocobo the porter had prepared for her. Ulanan turned around with her eyes closed and concentrated. The aether around her gathered, surrounding her in a dim blue light and lifting her. After a moment, there was a flash and she was gone.

 

Antimony's shoulders slumped at the dull hum of aether charging and then dissipating. She was still for a moment before pulling herself onto the chocobo's back and setting off for Drybone.

[Naunet]

Some time after arriving in Drybone...

 

Antimony emerged from the Immortal Flames office looking weary. Her clothes were dusty from a day and a half straight of travel, her fur and hair sweaty. The Blades officer on duty there had taken her money – or, the money Ulanan had given her – rather eagerly and instructed her to wait outside for her supposed escort. She descended the steps and stopped off to one side to wait, ears drooping tiredly. After a moment, she glanced briefly across the courtyard, towards the few merchant stalls set up, then frowned and looked away, shifting her weight. She had little money left after the impromptu journey.

 

A young miqo’te wearing the uniform of the Brass Blades rounded the corner of the office building just then, carrying a big sack with the words "Confiscated" written in bold black letters on one side. She passed by Antimony without paying her more attention that to avoid crashing into her. She entered the building, opening the door with a very weak kick.

 

Antimony blinked, looks confused for a moment, but soon went back to wearily waiting.

 

Inside the office building, it only took the Blade woman a moment to drop the bag in the depot and give the officer at charge a list. In return, he handed her a letter and pointed to the door, telling her that a new assignment was waiting outside. She saluted and exited the place from where she came in (kicking the door again), the letter open between her hands.

 

Antimony's tail twitched and after a moment, she looked back towards the merchant stalls, considering once again their foodstuffs, her empty stomach, and almost just as empty coinpurse.

 

The Blade woman climbed down the steps and with eyes still on the letter she asked: "Excuse me, Antimony? I'm the bodyguard that was requested for you!"

 

Antimony started, ears swiveling, and turned to the miqo'te looking as though she'd seen - or heard - a ghost. She blinked rapidly behind her glasses and then managed a faint, "... Yes? Ah, that's... me. Hello."

 

The Blade woman smiled and nodded to the letter. "Hello! I hear you want to reach the Shro-" she never finished the line. Raising her head to actually see the person in front of her, she froze in place with the oddest smile.

 

Antimony looked distracted for several seconds, a vague frown on her features. Then she swallowed, her ears shaking and ventured uneasily, "The... Shroud. Yes. Ah, I need to get to... Coerthas?"

 

The Blade woman’s following reaction was very professional. She basically lunged forward and surrounded Antimony with her arms before squeezing her in a hug of uncanny affection. “MOM!”

 

Antimony grunted at the force of the hug, eyes widening, and went very, very still in the Blade's arms. Her mouth opened, but no sound made it out.

 

The younger woman kept the hug going, nervously hopping in place. "We thought you died! But you are alive!" She pushed away without letting her mother go. "You are alive!"

 

Antimony just kind of hung in the woman's grip for several, long moments, looking utterly lost. Then, something clicked in her expression and her features were flooded with a mix of relief, disbelief, sorrow, and joy; her brain could not pick just one. Her arms moved to either side of the woman as though afraid to touch her. "Ai... Airos?"

 

K'airos smiled broadly and followed with yet another hug. "Yes! It's me! And this is you! Where have you been? And you use glasses! And a weird name...and...and you are alive!" she said, the words trampling over each other in quick succession. She sounded so happy you could almost touch that happiness and place it inside a bottle.

 

Antimony's hands shook. Her ears shook. Her whole tail shivered as though it were about to fall off. Then her expression crumpled and she simply threw herself against her daughter, wrapping her arms around the armored woman and sobbed.

 

K'airos placed one armored hand on her mother's head. She quickly retrieved it, as gauntlets made for poor hugging tools. She still hopped in place. "I missed you! You have to tell me where you've been!"

 

Antimony just shook her head, pulling frantically at K'airos's mask-bandana to take it from her face. Once it was off, she held her daughter's head, stared wide-eyed for several seconds, and then just pulled her tighter, sobbing. "My baby... my... you died...!"

 

K'airos's first reaction was to shut her eyes and exclaim "I know!" She only needed one second to process what was being said and corrected: "That's what everyone thought. But Aijeen found me and nursed me back to health!"

 

Antimony trembled into the hug, still crying desperately, and then a shock ran through her tail, the limb lashing. "... Aijeen...?"

 

“Yes! We live together! She's probably at the church. She's a volunteer there!”

 

Antimony looked very faint then and kind of sagged against K'airos. "My..."

 

K'airos tried to hold her on her feet. "Are...are you okay? Do you want to sit?"

 

Antimony clungs to K'airos as though she might disappear any moment now and took a long while in responding. When she did, it was only a weak, "Aijeen... too." One hand petted at K'airos's hair, reassuring herself of the woman's presence.

 

“We are both here! Well...she's not here -here- but...she's around here! So she's here but not...you know...” K'airos gave two small hops. "We should go tell her!"

 

Antimony sobbed at that, her shoulders shaking her arms around K'airos. "My babies," she repeated and then, after another long moment, she nodded.

 

 K'airos  took Antimony by one hand and pulled her away towards the ramp, sporting a bright smile. "I'm sure she'll be happy to see you!" Antimony looked as though even the slightest breeze might topple her, but she followed with K'airos, absolutely unwilling to let her daughter out of her sight.

 

K'airos kept pulling her mother to the ramp, seldomly turning around, walking backwards, then turning around and hurrying up before looking back and repeating the sequence. “You should see her! She's a lady, now! Fancy clothes, fancy vocabulary. She looks so pretty! Though she dyed her hair.”

 

Antimony blinked past tears at that, looking confused, but she couldn’t quite talk around the lump in her throat. Instead, she just watched her daughter and listened to her voice, a voice she'd never thought she'd hear again.

 

“Oh, and she studies! Magic, of course. I think she knows all branches of it! Though I don't get any of it, but I know she's talented!”

 

Antimony's ears drooped at old, ill memories, and she ventured quietly, "Does she still...?"

 

K'airos stopped briefly to respond to that. "No, there are no more monsters! She got past that. Those mages educated her well, I reckon!" And with that said she turned around, smiling, and walked up the ramp again.

 

Antimony let out a faint, shaky sigh but said nothing else.

 

“Oh! And she's good with people! She was friends with another tribe in Ul'dah, and they helped her with her education. It was quite nice! Though that was before the Battle. But she keeps in touch! Or...they keep in touch. Or one of them does, anyway!” K'airos's speech pattern was fast and excited, as if she couldn't hold any bit of information and had to get it out of her throat as fast as possible.

 

Antimony listened with a vaguely dazed expression. The tears had slowed, though not stopped completely, and they dragged pale tracks down her somewhat dusty face.

 

“After Aijeen healed me, I went into the Immortal Flames office, and they were 'But you are dead!' and so I told them 'But I'm not dead!'. Then they went 'I guess you are not dead!' and I was reintegrated. A bit later I joined the Blades. Less war, better work hours and less dangers overall. It's a good job!” As her daughter spoke, Antimony nodded weakly, but again, couldn’t really seem to manage much more than that. K’airos continued, “I haven't got enough for a home yet, but I'm saving enough! Oh, here we are. Aijeen should be around here. Let's go look for her, and you can tell me what you have been up to!”

 

Antimony looked up the path into the lichyard and hesitated, a worried expression crossing her face. "With... the dead...?"

 

K'airos failed to notice her mother's worry. "Told you, she's a volunteer at the church! Many refugees try to get to Ul'dah, but not all of them get here. And then there's the Amalj'aa, and the dead from the Calamity..." Some sadness leaked out of her words, and she sighed. "But it's good work! Giving peace to the families of those poor souls."

 

Antimony swayed slightly, her tail shivering, and then took a step forward. "I... where is she in this then...?"

 

“I don't know...oh! I have an idea! I'll go look for her and I'll bring her here!”

 

Antimony shivered and then turned immediately to K'airos with a nearly-shouted, "No!" Her hands moved to clutch her daughter. "Don't--I'll... I will go with you."

 

K'airos grabbed her mother's hand. "Alright. Then let's go find Aijeen! She can't be far!" With that said, she moved to the cemetery, pulling Antimony with her. As they walked, she looked around, searching for familiar white clothes and green hair. Antimony kept close to K'airos as they moved along the path, looking both extremely distressed and uncomfortable at their surroundings.

 

Very suddenly, K'airos stopped and pointed excitedly with one hand. "There she is!"

 

Antimony looked up sharply and followed K'airos's gesture with a desperate look. "Aijeen..?"

 

“Come!” K'airos tried to not run off, seeing how Antimony was probably too tired to follow suit. “She still has her temper, so let me talk to her first.”

 

The promise of seeing her youngest daughter again overrode any exhaustion she may have felt, and Antimony took several, uncertain steps forward, and then a moment later moved faster, at an almost frantic pace. “Ai... Aijeen...!” Her cry is hesitant, almost afraid.

 

“I guess that will work, too!” K’airos smiled at her mother’s back and followed.

 

Antimony frowned slightly as she approached, not recognizing the white-clothed woman several yalms off. She glanced at K'airos worriedly.

 

The green-haired woman dressed in white was lecturing a corpse that lay in the shade near a gravestone, "... and if you'd only taken better care of your eyebrows in life, you would've made a much prettier corpse and I'd have graduated you to the deluxe graves. Alas! Your imperfections have earned you a few gravemates that are- ... Hm?" She turned, looked back to who called her, and…

 

The girl squinted into the sun and brightened at one she saw. "Oh, doll! You've finally come!" She ran towards Antimony and attacked the woman with an intimate hug. Next to her, K’airos was so happy she almost expeled luminosity.

 

Antimony staggered under the white-clothed woman’s hug, wearing the same, dazed expression she'd had when she first saw K'airos. "My... Aijeen. It's you...?" Her voice shook.

 

The green-haired girl nodded, squeezing Antimony, "Yes. You're Aijeen. Oh, you've made me so happy!" She kissed Antimonys cheek and nuzzled into the crook of her neck.

 

Antimony blinked rapidly to try and fend off further tears, though she wasn’t particularly successful. She didn’t object to the girl's affections, and brought her hands up to try and get a better look at her face. "It's you," she breathed shakily. "You and... my baby girls..."

 

K'airos watched, delighted with the scene. She placed one hand on each one's shoulders. "I told you she'd be happy!"

 

D’aijeen lifted her face and beamed into Antimony's features. "Oh, doll. Don't call me that in front of Airos! It's embarrassing," she blushed accordingly. And dropped her hands to Antimony's lower back and squeezed. And leaned forward towards her face. "I like the glasses, but I don't know about the hair. Are you trying to look older? It's cute!"

 

Antimony's ears twitched along with her tail, a look of confusion passing over her features. "Aijeen? What do you mean...?"

 

K'airos chuckled in nervous confusion. "Why are you calling mom a doll?"

 

D'aijeen glanced towards Airos, a bit confused. She frowned for a moment, then smirked, "You two are conspiring together. I adore you both! So cute." She leaned forward to kiss the side of Antimony's jaw in a manner most inappropriate.

 

Antimony startled and half chides, "Aijeen! What are you doing...??" She set shaking hands on her daughter's shoulders, leaning back to look at her face worriedly.

 

D'aijeen let herself get pushed back, a little hurt. "Uhm. What do you..." She paused, appeared suspicious, and sloooooowly withdrew her hands from the hug. She looked over at K'airos, "This is D'ahl, right?"

 

Antimony's ears drooped, a sad look crossing her face for a moment. "Aijeen, you... don't recognize me?"

 

K'airos's intuition kicked in and she grabbed her sister from both shoulders, looking directly at her eyes. "Please do not freak out." She took a deep breath, and then added: "No, this is not D'ahl. This is mom. Our actual mother."

 

D'aijeen blinked, "Oh," and stepped away from Antimony. She manages a small smile at K'airos. "I won't freak out. It's fine." Antimony watched her youngest daughter silently, bringing her hands together in front of her.

 

K'airos let her sister go with a large sigh. "Well, I guess this wasn't the big happy family reunion I had hoped...so let's fix that!" And with those words, she lunged forward to hug both of them with a broad smile. "I'm so happy to have both of you!"

 

D'aijeen went stiff and yelped as she got bodily forced back up against her mother, "Airos! Please! Don't!"

 

Not resisting the hug – because whyever would she? – Antimony reached for her daughter with one trembling hand, touching the side of her arm. "Aijeen, I... I can't believe you're..."

 

K'airos kept hugging both of them, placing her head on her mother's shoulder, facing Aijeen. "Please don't ruin the moment!" she said lowly to her sister.

 

D'aijeen grit her teeth, flushing red in humiliation, "There is no moment! Airos, please, let go! I can't do this!"

 

Antimony's ears swept back with a brief look of despair, but she reached forward again, past K'airos, to hug her youngest daughter full-on. "I can't believe you're here," she breathed. "Alive. I...”

 

K'airos let Aijeen go. She used her best puppy eyes and let her ears drop down to the sides. "Please, please, please, please! Just his once!" she begged, hopping in place.

 

D'aijeen pushed against her mother, though her motions were exceptionally weak. "No! This is a lie! Let go of me!"

 

“A lie...? Aijeen, I don't understand.. I--You're here...! Airos is--she's alive...!” Antimony's words broke towards the end as the tears returned, and she clutched at D'aijeen.

 

“It's not a lie! She's alive and fine! I got hired by her employer to escort her to the Shroud!” K'airos waved the letter she was given back at the office, as if it was some kind of magical proof.

 

D'aijeen continued to struggle, shouting, "No! Let go of me! K'airos, please, I command you to make this woman release me!” At this, Antimony looked up at D'aijeen's face, confused and emotionally pained.

 

K'airos automatically stopped waving the letter to grab her mother and pull her away from Aijeen. "Let's...let's give her some space to process this, okay?" she said quite naturally.

 

“What--no! I'm not... I am not leaving... either of you!” Antimony's hands tightened on D'aijeen.

 

K'airos surrounded Antimony with her arms and pulled with more strength. "It's okay, mom! We are not leaving! She's just...confused! You know how she is."

 

Antimony did not willingly release her daughter, but K'airos was considerably stronger than her and so she was, eventually, pulled away. Then she turned to K'airos and wrapped her arms around her instead, burying her face in her older daughter's armored neck.

 

D'aijeen collapsed to the ground after being released, suddenly appearing very tired. She breathed deeply, clutching at her chest. "Liar. Deceiver!"

 

K'airos patted Antimony's shoulder slowly and repeatedly. She looked over her to her sister. “Aijeen! What are you talking about?”

 

D'aijeen groaned out, "Oh, my beautiful, perfect Airos, you're being deceived." And then she growled at Antimony, "Even D'ahl is a more convincing fake than you are! What is your name?"

 

“Stop that!” K’airos protested.

 

Antimony looked up and then half-turned from K'airos to blink in tearful confusion at D'aijeen. "What... what do you mean? I... I'm your mother!" The last sentence was practically begged from her throat.

 

D'aijeen laboriously rose to her feet, saying in a pleading voice, "Airos, please. You must listen to me, obey me, and reject this woman as your mother. She's lying!"

 

K'airos's grip on Antimony lessened, and she took a step away. She turned to her, her eyes wet. “She isn't! She smells like her! She sounds like her! It's mom! It's mom!”

 

“What--no!” Her legs shook. “No, I'm not--K'piru! I'm K'piru! I... I helped you carve your--your first spearhead, Airos. I--Aijeen, I let you take some of my... herbs when you were young, even when it was against the rules, because I knew--I knew you'd...” Antimony looked desperately towards her younger daughter.

 

“Stop this at once!” D'aijeen stomped her foot, "Airos, I command you to get away from that woman! Come here that I might protect you!"

 

K'airos let her mother go completely and went to Aijeen's side without further questioning. She looked deeply troubled, however. When she passed Antimony, the frantic woman reached out, took two steps to follow, and then just tried to grab at her. "No--! Airos, please you--don't leave me!"

 

D'aijeen intercepted the reaching hand and smacked it away meanly, "Stop! I won't allow you to continue!"

 

K'airos hopped in place, tapping her hands together with louds clanks. "But I have orders to escort her..."

 

When D’aijeen intervened, Antimony only redirected her attention to the younger girl, utterly desperate, and made to cling to her. "Please!" She all but sobbed, "Aijeen, it's me... Please, do not leave me again--!"

 

D'aijeen stiffened under the woman's grip, but served as a well between her mother and her sister. Oh so metaphorical. "I do not know your motivation in this deception, but do not repeat it. Airos is my sun and my fire, the most precious and valuable thing I have ever touched, and I will not let her be further damaged by constructed phantasms like you. If you chose not to relent, you will find nothing but opposition and defeat here."

 

Antimony shook her head furiously and just cried again, "Please don't leave me! My babies--my... Airos, Aijeen, it's me--please..." She did not relent in her grip on D'aijeen.

 

K'airos just stood awkwardly with her mouth open, unable to move and her eyes darting around the place.

 

“You will go and request a different escort. You will not bother us further. You will do this immediately. Understand?” The green-haired woman huffed in frustration.

 

Antimony did not seem to understand at all, for she only shook her head and repeated a sobbed, "No... don't leave me."

 

K'airos pulled on her sister's sleeve. "Aijeen, stop." she said weakly.

 

D'aijeen snapped her gaze to K'airos, "I'm not wrong, Airos. I'm sorry. Please, just... walk away and let me deal with this, precious Airos."

 

K'airos shook her head. "No, she's...she smells...she sounds...she's...she..." she mumbled, never finishing the idea. She bit her own tongue, literally, trying to say whatever it was.

 

“Airos, I command you to go to the church and wait for me inside. You know that it is right to trust me with this.”

 

K'airos dropped her eyes to the ground and walked away, just as Aijeen told her to.

 

Antimony half leaned away from D'aijeen, eyes flicking between her and K'airos frantically, utterly torn as to what to do. Suddenly, she ripped herself away and went to reach after K'airos with a pleaded, "No! Airos--not when... not when I've finally got you back!"

 

D'aijeen grabbed her mother's ear to restrain her, the action callous. She yelped at the sharp pain and desperately tried to extricate herself. "Airos! Please! I promise you--it's me!"

 

“I'm sorry...I have to wait in the church...” And she continued to walk away, her steps heavy and a bit erratic. Antimony let out a wail and tried again to follow her.

 

D'aijeen pinched down on Antimony's ear and held her as best she could. She was pretty frail, so it was very possible that Antimony could escape. "Stop it and talk to me!"

 

Antimony turned to D'aijeen suddenly, heedless of the girl's grip on her ear, and clasped her hands upon her shoulders. "Why must you do this, Aijeen! I don't... I don't understand--you know who I am... please!"

 

K'airos’s walking speed became unbearably slower as she got further away. She did not stop, though.

 

D'aijeen let go of Antimony's ear, putting her hands on the woman’s arms, and dropped her voice, "Airos is beautiful, perfect. Immaculate. I worship her. I love her more than my mother ever could have. And Airos loves me. Why would I let you intrude on our life? Even if you were our mother?"

 

Antimony's expression fell, along with her ears. "I... I love you, Aijeen. Both of you... How could you think that I don't...?" Her voice, quieter suddenly, shook.

 

“If you loved me you would leave me to my happiness. I saw that advertisement in the Tonberry's Lantern, so tell any other imposters you might have stashed around to stay away too. I'll defend my Airos. She's mine.”

 

The older woman’s hands quaked on D'aijeen's shoulders. "I'm not... I'm your mother," she protested weakly. "You're my..."

 

“Then I'm going to take Airos and leave, and you're never going to find us.”

 

Antimony's hands fell away then and her expression grew very distant. "Please, don't... don't leave me again."

 

D'aijeen dropped her hands and said in a commanding, biting tone, "Let go of me."

 

Swaying almost imperceptibly, Antimony brought her own hands close to herself. "Aijeen," she managed before her words choked off.

 

"Thank you. Remember my message for your associates." D'aijeen stepped away from Antimony, pausing to see if the woman was going to pursue her again.

 

Antimony did not follow. Instead, the strength in her legs gave way and she dropped to her knees in the dry grass. Green eyes watched D'aijeen retreat with a lost look.

 

Nodding, wavering, D'aijeen said, "I loved my mother, in a way, but she did not love me. She also didn't have glasses and her hair wasn't so gray, so your impersonation needs a great deal of work." With this, she turned on her heal to walk away.

 

Antimony did not move from where she collapsed in the grass, nor did her eyes leave the spot where D'aijeen had stood.

[Twinflame]

D'aijeen Thalen collapsed to her knees immediately in front of K'airos, suddenly crying uncontrollably, and wailed, "I don't know why someone would do this!"

 

K'airos Thalen seemed to have gotten hold of a bottle of something indefinite, probably some kind of wine. She stared blankly at the floor, her eyes wet.

 

D'aijeen Thalen lifted her head, turning to Airos, and reached out to pull on the woman's hands. "She was a liar! She was a liar! She admitted it all after you left! She was so cruel!"

 

K'airos Thalen grimaced. "What happened?"

 

D'aijeen Thalen cried while shaking K'airos' hands in her own. "She admitted it! She said she was trying to deceive you! That she wanted to use you to rob the Blades! She said she'd come back and talk to you again when I was gone and that you'd believe her and betray me!"

 

K'airos Thalen shook her head. "No. I mean to me. What happened to me? I didn't want to leave. But I left anyway...it doesn't feel right."

 

Panting from her tears, D'aijeen shook her head, "What? Airos, you won't betray me, will you? You won't believe her and leave me! I love you. Don't leave me."

 

" I don't want to leave you! I wasn't going to. She's...I thought she w-...she's...she was..." K'airos Thalen shook her head again and took a sip from her confiscated bottle. "If it was mom, then why can't we..."

 

"It's not! She's a liar! Believe me, K'airos! She's going to try to deceive you again! She heckled me! She said you would choose her over me. I'm scared, Airos!"

 

"How did you know she wasn't her?"

 

"Because mom is dead. I'm sorry, Airos, but she is! I wish she wasn't. I wish so much, for your sake. But she is.

 

K'airos Thalen looked away. "Couldn't you be mistaken? She was so like her!"

 

D'aijeen Thalen shook her head, "No, Airos. She admitted it. She told what she wanted! Don't you believe me? Don't you trust me?"

 

K'airos Thalen frowned at D'aijeen and stated with a severe tone. "You hated our mother when you were in the tribe. And you showed me you still hate her when D'hein showed up with that...paper...thing...the something's Lantern."

 

"I desire it for your sake, then!"

 

"That doesn't make sense!"

 

D'aijeen Thalen steped forward and pulled on K'airos hands, her face streaked with tears, "It does! I love you immensely and desire anything at all to make you happy, but this liar and her false hope will not! You must believe me. You must!"

 

K'airos Thalen let her hands be pulled, and after a brief moment of conflicted emotions she turned around, giving her back to D'aijeen. "I need to think! I'm sorry."

 

"Airos!" D'aijeen Thalen pulled her hands back to her chest, devastated, "No! Listen! You... Trust me, Airos!"

 

"I trust you, but...not in this. I'll see you back home."

 

K'airos Thalen picked up her scimitar and shield.

 

"You... can't! I'm not going to go home!"

 

D'aijeen Thalen stood stubbornly, "If you don't trust me then I'll just go to Ul'dah and visit D'ahl!"

 

K'airos Thalen turned around and smiled weakly. "Tell her hi from me, then." She then turned around and keapt walking towards the exit.

 

D'aijeen Thalen shivered a little bit, "... but... But you..."

[Naunet]

K'airos walked back to where she had dragged Antimony to. Her armor was quite loud, so her approach was heard even by the dead. The older woman did not react to the noisy approach. She sat slumped in the dirt and dead grass, half bowed over her knees and very still. K'airos kneeled behind her, placing one hand on her shoulder. "I'm sorry." she started weakly. "Aijeen's just trying to protect me." Antimony only shivered when K'airos's hand touched her, but she otherwise did not respond. “She's just...Aijeen's...she's like she is. I'm sorry, but...I'll change her mind! I'll remind her what it is to have a mother, and to love her. And then we may...we may find her and...be together...” She tried to pull Antimony up, her speech interrupted by intermittent sobbing.

 

Antimony accepted the pulling passively, standing half under her own power and half supported by K'airos. She did not look at the young woman; in fact, her gaze was not focused on anything immediate at all. K'airos took one of her hands between her own before continuing, "I will stay in Drybone and...and you can come visit! Even if I can't...if you aren't...we can share stories! And remind us of what it was back then. And maybe we'll...we'll think... Promise me you'll come see me! I don't care if you aren't mom. I don't care what Aijeen thinks. You are so like her! Please!”

 

Antimony let out a faint sigh and a few breathy words barely audible, "I need to..." Her eyes shifted slowly to K'airos's hand on her's and she quivered.

 

K'airos didn’t seem to be paying attention. "Please! Please come visit me! Maybe, when we get...to spend time we...we will banish any doubt and...and find it's real after all." Still holding her mother, she drops her head until the forehead hits Antimony's shoulder.

 

Antimony made a thin, strangled sound and, features twisting as though in physical pain, she tore away from K'airos and choked out a, "--go... I need to go..." And so she made to do so.

 

K'airos let her go, her mouth hanging open. She said nothing more. In the silence, Antimony fled and felt as though she were killing a part of herself.

[Naunet]

Antimony made her way across the desert-savannah of Drybone in a daze. Her feet stumbled beneath her every so often, though she usually caught herself before her body could fall. Dust clung to her clothing and skin, and her features were drawn with exhaustion and no small amount of dehydration. At some point her steps slowed until she'd come to a stop and then, with a faint exhalation, dropped to her knees next to a nearby rock and leaned against it.

 

The sky flashed white, and not a second later thunder crackled above her. Antimony looked up wearily as water struck her face, at first only sporadically, but then, in a sudden gust of wind, rain streaked down from the sky in a downpour. Ears drooping, she bowed her head to one hand.

 

“I suggest the shelter of these trees, meager as they are. Thanalan rain can cause pneumonia as easily as la Noscea rain.”

 

Antimony could not manage the strength or will to be surprised at the voice. She lifted her head slightly, eyes shifting vaguely in the direction it had come from, and didn’t respond for several, long moments. After a time, however, she lurched to her feet as though pulled by something outside her body and moved to the trees. There she collapsed again.

 

The Duskwight she recognized before she’d even seen him as Megiddo produced a Faerie apple from a pocket and extended it towards Antimony. "I've a friend in the Shroud who gathers these. They're a rather calming flavor, as apples go." Above him, thin branches swayed in a stormy wind.

 

Antimony looked to the apple, silent for a beat, and then something wrenched in her features and her shoulders and head bowed forward towards her lap with a single, choked sob. Once this was out, she fell silent again.

 

Megiddo hummed and withdrew the apple, "A good cry helps a lot of ills as well. Or so the women in my life often said."

 

“They... left me. My baby girls. They didn't...” Her voice was a hoarse whisper that cracked on the end. Her tail shivered and pulled close to her, fur soaked from the rain.

 

“Did you know that I was an Elder and religious counselor for my Clan for many years? I helped four generations of Duskwight contend with death, loss and anger. Never once did I see anyone face it straight-on. Always crooked, always terrified, never rational.”

 

Antimony hugged herself, feeling the chill of the rain seeping through her clothes, and looked up uncertainly at Megiddo.

 

Megiddo let his gaze slide away from Antimony and said, "Oschon had deposited me in the Lichyard before your arrival, and bid me to comfort a woman who had suffered loss. I was nearby and admit to having overheard your difficulty. Duskwight oft overhear such things, a curse of our Clan."

 

Antimony's eyes looked past Megiddo, unfocused, as she sagged a bit into the ground as though about to become one with it. "Twice," she whispered under the pounding of rain on leaves and rock and grass. "They were... they died. And now..." She couldn't finish the thought.

 

“Is it not better that they live than that they are dead, even if they live away from you?”

 

Antimony shuddered and then suddenly let out a wail, "I don't understand! My beautiful girls, why would they..."

 

“Your grief is familiar. I have felt such as well. My son turned against me and sowed much suffering in my clan, and I will never understand. There is no truth or answer that will satisfy you. Only our childrens' private thoughts, unbidden feelings.”

 

Her ears pressed flat against the sides of her head, disappearing in wet, disheveled hair. She'd gone silent again not long after the burst of grief and remained silent still, until, "... I do not know what to do except... run."

 

The Duskwight had hardly moved to even breathe beneath the boughs of the tree. “There may be some comfort in running. But I might offer you something more tangible, though you would not find it ideal upon first taste.” To this Antimony did not verbally reply, though her ears shifted somewhat from her head, which remained bowed low. Megiddo waited a long moment before inquiring, "Did not one of your daughters implore the other to accept you? Did she not beg to the point of tears to have her mother back?"

 

Antimony shivered and curled her tail up by her waist. Her voice, when she spoke, was low and broken, "And still she turned from me."

 

Megiddo continued placidly, “The intervention of the other is the only explanation. As my son turned many of my children against me, so the less faithful of your daughters stands between you and the daughter who desires to return to you.”

 

Shaking her head slightly, a low, pained sound worked its way from Antimony’s throat. "I don't understand," she breathed and shuddered. "I love her. I always..."

 

“There can be no understanding. Focus on this: one of your daughters loves and desires you. The other impedes. If not for the bitterness of the second, you and your daughter would already have reunited.”

 

Antimony lifted her head, an action that took visible effort, and watched Megiddo through the rain that made it down between the leaves. Exhaustion overrode much of the grief in her features. "What... are you saying?"

 

He replied very simply, “You desire two daughters, yet you have none. You could have one daughter, if the other were removed from your path.”

 

Antimony's face went slack. "You... You mean..." Her ears shivered, flicking little drops of water. Then in a sudden motion, she curled in on herself and shouted, "No! I'll do no such thing! Not to my... not to my girls. Not even if they--"

 

“As I said, you would not like the taste of it at first,” Megiddo conceded. “How comforted would you be, though, with even just one child at your side? Would not everything be bearable, then? Your tribe, your work, this world.”

 

Antimony murmured weakly, "Airos..." And then shook with a sob. "I will not kill my own children! I cannot. I would... I would sooner kill myself!"

 

“Let us not say 'kill', for such may not be necessary. Let us say 'correct'. Let us say 'discipline'. Let us say that we will seperate from the unfaithful daughter until she remembers the value of family, that she may then return on her own.”

 

“... I don't... know what you mean.”

 

“I mean to separate your daughters so that the one who wishes to be with you may make her decision separate from the bitter influence of the other. It's a bit much to assume I wanted to kill you child, isn't it?” It was impossible to tell if he was offended.

 

Antimony looked away, breath unsteady. "You... in Ul'dah... I only thought..."

 

Megiddo smiled. "You need not justify yourself to me. Now, think about what I've said. Your daughter wants to be with you. Should we not take action to give our children what they want?"

 

Antimony swayed somewhat, catching herself with one hand in muddy ground, and replied unevenly, "She does not think she is my daughter. How can I..."

 

“Children do not say what they think. You recall how she begged her sister to accept that you were her mother? She would accept you again were her sister not present.”

 

Antimony lifted her eyes to Megiddo, looking faint. "You truly think..." There was fear in her voice. "If she rejects me, I couldn't..."

 

“Be generous, gentle, and patient. I have faith you will outlast the seeds of doubt that were planted in her mind.”

 

Antimony stared at Megiddo for several seconds, tail writhing next to her, and then very suddenly her remaining strength fled and she dropped to the ground fully so that she lay then on her side. "I... will stay with her. For... her," she sighed.

 

Megiddo reached out and sat the apple next to Antimony. "I envy your opportunity, and that you have years left to reach for it. Even if one of my children were to arise from the dirt today, I would not have enough time to do anything for them."

 

Antimony moved her eyes sluggishly to the apple, feeling cool mud press against her cheek, and slowly processed Megiddo's words. "Does... Loughree not count?"

 

“The last of my family whom I loved was my grandson. Whom Loughree killed. Loss is one thing, but betrayal quite another. I hope you never have to feel the emotions which I do.”

 

Antimony sighed and moved her hand enough to grip the apple. "I am sorry," she replied tiredly and then found her eyes had closed. It took a moment to open them again.

 

Megiddo reached up to place a hand on the tree limb next to him, "I have not hurt Loughree if that is your concern. Pitiable as she may be, though, she will hurt others. Perhaps discipline is in order, but I won't overdo it." He lifted himself to his feet with great effort, exhaling heavily. He stood hunched, tired, thin.

 

Antimony didn’t shift to follow Megiddo's movements; exhausted eyes only watched his feet sinking slightly into the mud. "I... am glad to hear of it." She blinked, and the action lasted longer than it should have. She sighed. "Thank you."

 

Megiddo lingered against the tree, looking down at Antimony. "You would be better off not resting overly long in the wilderness. Illness and predators are not rare here."

 

The woman’s tail curled against one leg. The fur was matted with mud but she paid it no mind. After a long moment of silence, she slowly pushed herself up. "I do not... know how far I've gone," she admitted quietly.

 

“So I had assumed. If you had not gotten lost, Oschon could not have put me before you. However, I believe I can direct you back to Drybone. Or you can just follow the stink of death, as though aging, chasing the scent of your own future tomb.”

 

Antimony shivered and, after another moment, struggled to her feet where she swayed unsteadily. The apple dangled in one hand. "And if... Aijeen is there..."

 

Megiddo hummed, reaching up and pulling at his beard. "She did threaten to flee with your other daughter like a kidnapper if you returned, didn't she?"

 

Antimony paled and brought her hands close to herself, unconsciously clutching the apple. "She... she hates me," she whispered, strained, and looked as though the admission brought her physical pain. "She would not hesitate."

 

Megiddo held up a calming hand, "Wait until you have your daughter to comfort you before entertaining your grief. For now, think carefully, so that we make sure you achieve such ends."

 

She took several moments to, if not compose herself, then at least ease her grip on the apple and somewhat steady her breath. Then, with a sigh, "Drybone. Could you...?"

 

Megiddo smiled and closed his eyes. "Yes. A moment of quiet, please." He lifted his head to the air and concentrated for a time, and then opened his eyes to look at the sky. "Can't tell north from south in all of this rain, but," he lifted one long arm between the branches and pointed, "There's a good direction to wander, I think."

 

Antimony turned her head to follow his gesture, blinking slowly through the rain, then turned back to Megiddo. She tried for a smile, but the expression mostly failed. Instead, she wearily bowed her head and repeated a quiet, "Thank you."

 

“What are you planning to do, Antimony?”

 

Frowning slightly, Antimony seemed to struggle with something for a moment. A part of her still desperately wanted to run, and yet K'airos was only a breath away... She swallowed. "I... would simply see her again, first. Speak..." Her fingers shook around the apple. "I do not know, but I must see her again."

 

“Do you have a plan as to how you will isolate her?” He inquired.

 

Antimony winced, ears flattening. "Please don't say it so... But I... don't know. She has--" She looked strained at this, "--a life here. To uproot her..."

 

“I encourage you to start in the short term. Earn an hour, a moment with your daughter, and perhaps pry from her the information you need to construct a more sure plan. But be cautious to avoid a confrontation with the bitterness and despair that clouds your other child. You do not have the stomach for conflict that it would take to repair that rift. Not yet.”

 

She seemed to shrink at that, her tail drooping from more than just the rain and mud. "My Aijeen... she will come around. She must..." Her ears shook and then she turned to look off in the direction Megiddo had suggested.

 

“I hope that you are correct, Antimony. Do let me know if you require assistance.”

 

“... I will. Thank you, Megiddo.” The loss-worn, muddy woman then began to move in that general direction, steps weary and unsteady, but eventually she would make it back to Drybone.

[Naunet]

A few hours later...

 

Antimony trudged through the tavern door looking more like the corpses piled in the shadows outside than a living, breathing miqo'te. A thick, purple and brown coat hung from her arms and was strangely clean compared to her own mud-caked and thoroughly soaked form. She didn’t look around immediately when she entered, simply pausing to rest in the dim light, entire body drooping.

 

At a low, circular table on the lower floor of the tavern, K'airos, still garbed in her Blade gear, sat alone save for the company of a plate of pears, a jar of water, a mug, and a small bowl of sugar. She didn’t seem to have eaten more than one pear, despite the large amount still on the plate. Above, Antimony moved further in after a moment, turning to descend the stairs unsteadily. She stopped immediately, however, when she caught sight of the young woman alone at the table.

 

K'airos Thalen fails to notice Antimony. She's holding a pear covered in sugar between her hands. She stares at it with visible suspicion.

 

Antimony hugged the coat tighter to her chest, just watching K'airos for a time, and then took a slow breath and continued down the stairs. She stopped a couple steps away from the woman's table. When she spoke, her voice cracked with exhaustion and apprehension, “Air... ah, Ai--Excuse me.” Something stopped her from speaking her daughter’s name, and it broke her heart.

 

 K'airos's ears perked up. She faced Antimony, and it would seem like she was about to happily jump over the table to reach her. Instead, she shifted uncomfortably on her stool and smiled broadly. "Oh! You...look awful! Please, sit!"

 

Antimony wavered on her feet when K'airos spoke, as though the woman's voice were enough to topple her over. At the invitation, she warily took a seat, body folding down onto the bench slowly. Her tail shivered and twitched. “And... you look well.” She looked away from K'airos when she said this.

 

The red-haired girl poured a decent amount of water on her mug and passed it over to Antimony. "Here."

 

Antimony watched the mug for a time and then pulled an apple from the folds of the coat she carried, setting it on the table before taking the mug in two, shaking hands. Her ears drooped as she drank thirstily and then murmured a, "Thank you, Ai... ah."

 

“You are Antimony, I know! It's on the letter. And I'm K'airos! It's easy to pronounce. You should try!”

 

Antimony looked pained for a moment and visibly struggled with her next words, "I am... happy to see you, Ai--K'airos."

 

K'airos smiled again. "So...you are going to the Shroud, still? I...ah...I still have the orders here, so I -have- to escort you...unless you asked for another guard." She sounded disappointed in that last part.

 

Antimony took another, long drink from the mug, her dirty fingers around it not yet steady, and then manages a brief look in K'airos's direction. The sight of her curls her tail close to her body but she manages, "I would... like it very much. If you were to accompany me."

 

“Of course! Just..." and she lowered her voice, leaning closer. "...let's not tell my sister about it. She has a bad temper!" Quickly, she returned to her original position. "Let's meet tomorrow at dawn at the tunnel just outside the Immortal Flames barracks. If it's convenient to you?"

 

Antimony bowed her head briefly, setting the mug down before she dropped it. Her shoulders slumped and she sighed out, "Yes, that... would be alright. I could use a night's rest, as it is." A pause, another, small glance towards K'airos as she searched for words to continue.

 

K'airos picked up the jar and held it a few inches above the table. "More water?"

 

Antimony nodded after a moment, and her eyes shifted to the bowl of sugar near K'airos. She couldn’t quite help herself when she said, "I... hope that is not all you're eating."

 

K'airos served the water and spilled out some of it when she looked at the bowl, her ears dropping in shame. "Wha- no! Of course not! It's...it's a dessert! And to make...up for...the...uh...sugar loss of running around in heavy armor..." she mumbled.

 

Antimony smiled briefly, the expression more sad than anything. "It's alright. You... deserve a treat, I'm certain."

 

K'airos smiles back. “I do! But...uhm...so! I was wondering how have you bee-I mean where are you from? And what do you do? It's been so long...! So long since I...uh...saw...someone. Uhm.” She stared at the still unbitten pears on the plate.

 

The older, tired woman watched K'airos quietly for a moment and then looked to the table. In the yellow light of the tavern, only half of her features were lit as she worked over several, conflicting thoughts. “I... was working in Ul'dah, until recently. But... before then, I lived in a city called, ah, Limsa Lominsa. It... is by the ocean. West.”

 

K'airos leaned forward, looking at Antimony and raising both fists to shoulder level. "I've never been there! I just...kind of fell in Ul'dah and stayed here the past five years. You should tell me when you go back so I can escort you again! We'll see the ocean!" she said excited and hilariously ignoring that Antimony had probably seen the ocean a thousand times already.

 

Antimony seemed to lose her breath at that and took nearly a minute to recover, sipping from her water carefully. "That," she finally choked, cleared her throat, and blinked hard, "That... would be wonde--appreciated." Her tail stilled behind her and she added in a softer tone, "You would love the ocean, I think."

 

K'airos's tail, by contrast, had been slowly rising up until being basically touching the back of her neck, with a slight curve.  "I'm sure I will!" She taps the extremes of her armored hands together various times, her eyes closed with excitement. "And what do you are you going to do in the Shroud?"

 

At this unexpected – but perfectly logical – question, Antimony’s expression went suddenly blank for several seconds. Then her hands folded carefully in her lap, only to worry her fingers there. "I had thought to travel to Coerthas."

 

K'airos tilted her head. "Why? That's so far north! You...you should stay in Ul'dah! There's nothing anyone else have that we don't." she nodded matter-of-factly.

 

Ears lying flat, she gave K'airos a deeply apologetic look. "I... do not think I can stay in Ul'dah. But... there is someone I might see in Coerthas."

 

K'airos kept tapping her gauntlets together. It was either very irritating or mildly rhythmic. "Friends? That's good! I don't have many friends...if any...I guess I just work too much, and the rest of my time is spent with Aijeen."

 

Antimony pressed her lips together and brought her hands up again to wrap them about the mug. The gesture only somewhat stilled their shaking. "Perhaps..." She blinks rapidly behind smudged glasses. "Perhaps you could... continue with me, into Coerthas."

 

K'airos took a long breath, smiling at that proposition. But then she dropped her shoulders, her smile shrunk considerably, and her ears dropped a bit. "That would be nice, but I Brass Blades don't operate outside Thanalan. Besides..." She raised the pear she was staring at maliciously before. "...someone has to stay with Aijeen."

 

Her grip on the mug tightening briefly, Antimony cast her eyes about the tavern before settling them on the far wall. "I... understand." A pause, a shiver that ran the length of her tail. "I had hoped... it is an unfamiliar place. And dangerous, I've heard."

 

“But...you have friends there, right? I'm sure they can help you reach them!”

 

Antimony gave K'airos a brief look. "I do not... actually know anyone there. Aside from one, in Coerthas."

 

K'airos decided to stare at the pear in her hands. "Oh" she let out. "Oh!" she repeated, biting the pear and cheering up. "Ask your friend Ulanee to help you! If she could ask for an escort now she can surely ask for another there!"

 

Antimony drew in a slow breath and then turned her eyes to K'airos, what features that were lit in the partial light displaying her plea, "Are you certain you cannot come with me? It would mean the world to have you near once mo--" She cut herself off suddenly and ducked her head, dragging her focus to the mug of water.

 

K'airos bit sadly on the pear, right after dowsing it on the bowl of sugar. "I'm sorry. it could cause trouble between Ul'dah and the Gridanians." As she munched on the pear, her expression changed to one of disappointment. Maybe with the pear. "And I wouldn't know how to convince Aijeen to not follow me. It would be awkward."

 

Antimony's features trembled for a moment and she said, half to herself, in a faint voice, "Perhaps I... could stay here... But Aijeen..."

 

K'airos pondered for a moment. The pear, to her eyes, became a nasty fruit filled with bile and creepy eyes and a maw filled with teeth. It would be cute if it wasn't giving her a tummy-ache. Despite of that, she looked at Antimony and said: "I should be transferred back to Ul'dah shortly. I could ask for vacations! Do you think I need vacations? I think I need them! And you could come visit! And tell me about that city by the sea and how you've been for the last five years...for...for... no particular reason.”

 

Antimony let out a shaky breath, bowing forward until her forearms rested on the table and her head nearly touched her mug. "Ul'dah..." The thought of the city - or rather, who remained in it - sent a shudder through her tail, and an expression that could be guilt crossed her face. "Per...haps." She closed her eyes. "I... do not wish to leave you alone."

 

“I'm not alone. I have Aijeen! And...well, you have your friend in Coerthas. It wouldn't be nice if you let him hanging up there in...whatever architecture they have up there.” The younger woman startled at her own words. “Or her! It's a her? I didn't want to insult him by calling her a him! Tell him -I MEAN- her I'm sorry!”

 

Antimony smiled faintly. "He," she corrected and then sighed. "It was not a... planned thing. He would... well, he doesn't even know... ah."

 

“Oh.” K'airos cheered up visibly. If she was a torch, she would have exploded by now. "Then you can go back to Ul'dah! And when I go back I'll look for you and we can talk again!"

 

Antimony winced and then looked at K'airos out of the corner of her eyes. After a time, she just repeated, "... Perhaps." She blinked suddenly and dropped her head into one hand, murmuring, "I... may need a day or two to recover before any more travel, regardless, I believe. Do you..." She trailed off, unsure of the question she wants to ask.

 

K'airos picked up a pear and offered it to Antimony. "I have a room at the Eternal Sleep. With Aijeen. So let's not meet there!"

 

Swallowing, Antimony looked almost ill and managed, "Is there, ah, any...where else to stay in this town?" She took the pear after a moment, but only held it loosely in one hand.

 

Giving the older woman a long look of thought, K’airos eventually said, “K'airos Thalen: I don't think so. Maybe you could stay in the Church? It's close enough and the priests are good people. I'm sure they can let you stay there for a night.”

 

Antimony furrowed her brow worriedly. "Is not Aijeen... she was with the... dead there."

 

“Oh. Right! Uhm...” Again K'airos thought deeply by looking to a random point in the stairs. “You'll have to stay in the inn, then. There's no other choice and, if Aijeen's going to find you are still here, then you might as well be comfortable!”

 

Antimony Jhanhi shivered, the action continuing down into her tail, which curled against her hip. Its mud-matted fur cracked a bit. "I will... stay as far from your room as possible," she conceded.

 

K'airos nodded. “When we get back to Ul'dah, I'll show you all the things I confi-collected with the Blades! They are...ah...bonuses for doing a good work.” She nods again, mostly to reassure herself of that. Antimony Jhanhi blinks and shakes her head, somewhat dislodging herself from whatever haze she'd begun to fall into. She glanced towards K'airos and managed a weak smile. "I would like that. To... see your work."

 

K'airos hurried to pour more water in Antimony's mug. "I think you are falling asleep!" she smiles, amused. "You should get a room right away, before someone else takes them all away!"

 

Looking to her mug, Antimony forced herself to drink again and closed her eyes at the soothing liquid. When she finished, she cleared her throat and nodded slowly. "It has been d--well." She looked to the pear in her hand, the apple on the table, and took up the latter as well before gathering both them and the coat back into her arms. She looked to K'airos carefully. “You will... remain here for... two days?”

 

“Probably! It's hard to say. Sometimes orders just come and I have to run all over Thanalan! But...it should be easy to find out if I moved. Just ask at the Immortal Flames. I'll let them know to let you know so you can know!”

 

Antimony bit down on rising fear, displaying it only as a vaguely worried frown and a low set to her ears. "I do not wish to... lose you. Ah, lose sight of... well." Coughing, she stood suddenly, swayed in one spot and muttered, "I should rest. And... you as well."

 

K'airos stood up with a jump. She barely managed to not start hopping right away. “It was good to see you!”

 

Antimony leaned forward slightly, almost as though to hug K'airos, but with the items in her arms and her own anxiety, the action failed. Instead she smiled sadly. "You cannot know how much so." Then she turned and made to head back to the stairs.

 

K'airos started hopping in place as Antimony moved away. She said nothing more and made no sound, except for the clinging of her heavy chainmail and the noise of her heels stomping against the stone floor. Under yellow light and harsh shadows, Antimony left the tavern at a heavy pace, her thoughts weighing her down more than her exhaustion.

[Twinflame]

K'airos Thalen stood outside the door of her room for a while. She fumbled with her gauntlets, trying to get a good hold of her key. She couldn't, so she quickly took them off and held them under her left arm while her free hand takes the key and opens the door. She stepped in.

 

D'aijeen Thalen was crying in the corner, facing the wall. She held her hat in front of her face, and when the door opened, she flinched and went silent, burying her face in the hat.

 

K'airos did not speak at first. She sniffed the air briefly, and then sighed. She closed the door quietly behind her and faced her sister and her corner. "Aijeen? Are you alright?"

 

In silence, D'aijeen waited as if she thought she might not have been seen. When K'airos spoke, a few short sobs escaped before she collected herself, and then she said, "No! No, I am not. The light and warmth has been stolen from my world. I am cold and frozen. I am ice!"

 

Ears lowering, K'airos said, "Because of that woman? You shouldn't worry about her! I mean..." She took some steps closer. "You sent her away, right?"

 

D'aijeen flinched towards the wall, pulling herself up into a ball. "You have hurt me, Airos! I don't care about that other, except that you chose her over me. So simply. Like a beast she sweapt in and stole you, despite every promise you had made to me. I had not thought your promises so frail."

 

K'airos took the gauntlets that she had clumsily forgotten under her arm. She waved them around as if they could explain things. "Don't be like that! I was just confused by the shock! In fact..." She placed them down over one of the side tables. "I have a surprise for you!"

 

D'aijeen Thalen held her hat to her chest, wiping tears from her face. "Confusion. One does not say such very precise and hurtful things out of confusion. What is your surprise?"

 

K'airos Thalen placed down her blade against the wall. She wondered why scimitars didn't come with sheaths, but then she remembered the matter at hand. "I asked the captain and I got a few days off! I was hoping we'd go back to Ul'dah and spent some days together."

 

Chuckling, D'aijeen hid her face in her hat. She choked out another sob at the end. "That is your consolation for saying that you do not trust me? For saying that I would lie to you? A few days?"

 

"I'm sorry! I can't get more and pay for our living without using the savings for the house! And...and I trust you! I shouldn't have...I'm sorry!" K'airos looked down to the floor while she continued taking off her armor, making awkward clunkly sounds.

 

"Such simple apologies for such a cruel words. You demonstrated no sadness when I said I would leave. No hesitation! I had never felt less valued. My collapse was complete, and public, and humiliating. You mean to rebuild me with such simple mortar."

 

After she managed to get off her pauldrons and most of the belts, K'airos replied, "You said you'd go to visit D'ehl! I mean...D'ahl! You would have been off only for a few days...not indefinitely." Taking a deep breath, she added, "What do you want me to do?"

 

"I do not know, Airos. Yesterday I believed my happiness was of great importance to you, but today I feel like it is something you find cheap."

 

K'airos' voice broke a little bit. "That's not true! Your happiness is my only priority!" She took her chainmail off by pulling it up and above her head, bending forward considerably. When she was done with the motion, she dropped the haubergeon right on top of her gauntlets.

 

Though D'aijeen tried to stay still, her shoulders shook. "Then why do I feel that it is not? We are supposed to take care of eachother! I am to trust you and you are to reciprocate, both of us completely without hesitation. But you did not! And now I suspect you will betray me and return to that woman. You have made me doubt you! I feel ugly."

 

Sitting on a stool, K'airos started  to work on taking off her boots. "I'm saving money so we can have a house together. I'm not changing that plan. If I was going to run off with some weird, lunatic woman, I would stop saving it and spent it! Probably on that woman. But that's not what I want! I want us, both of us, to live together! In the same house. We'll pick the furniture together and pick the prettiest stools! And two large beds with the biggest pillows we can find...!" she rambled.

 

D'aijeen Thalen turned suddenly and threw her hat at K'airos, then turned back to her corner and curled up again.

 

The side of K'airos' body received the hat. "Ow!" she exclaimed, more out of surprise than any real pain. "Are you never going to forgive me? Is that...what you want to tell me?"

 

Ears shivering, D'aijeen shook her head, and her hair flipped about. "I will forgive you, because you are the only radiant and warm thing which I possess, and so captivating, so precious, that I will alway forgive you. I am eager and desperate to do so. But tonight I think that I am going to be angry at you, and this anger makes me very sad."

 

K'airos left her boots right next to the scimitar and stood up. "Well" she started, sniffing once and looking slightly above Aijeen. "Would a hug help?"

 

After a significant pause, D'aijeen whisper, "Only if it lasted for a very long time."

 

K'airos Thalen smiled and quickly fell behind her sister, dropping her arms around her and tightly hugging her. "I will not let you go until you tell me to." She said quietly.

 

D'aijeen Thalen sat quitely stoic for a time, letting herself be hugged while she stared at the wall. But in a sudden moment, she broke backwards against her sister and wailed, "Why can't we just be left alone? I already have everything I want!" And began to cry again, sobbing heavily.

 

K'airos Thalen combed her sister's hair with one hand. "Don't think about that! It will pass. Think about what a great time we'll have in the city! What would you like us to do in the first day?"

 

D'aijeen turned sideways and lay her head against K'airos, shoulder, gripping the girl's shirt-sleeve while she cried, "I don't care. We can do whatever you want. I don't care."

 

"We could go visit D'ahl. Wouldn't you like that? And there was that girl you liked a few weeks ago in the tavern...I think she had blue hair. She looked cute, and you were so interested it was even cuter!"

 

D'aijeen Thalen tried to still her sobbing, forcing herself to speak shakily, "No. I don't want to pay attention to anyone but you. I want to do things you want to do."

 

K'airos, placing one hand on the side of Aijeen's head, pulled her closer. "But I want to do things you want to do!" She said with a faint giggle. "This is going to be troublesome if we continue...oh! What if we go see the sea?"

 

D'aijeen smiled through her tears, and wiped her face on K'airos' sleeve. "Yes, let's do that. You and I can go to the sea. We can go right up to the water and then I will not push you into the surf. Although you'd be very cute all wet."

 

"And I will not pull you with me! And then will surely not fight in the water by splashing it all over each other....and then we can find some shells and try to see if it's true that you can hear the sea with them...! Though I guess we will if we try that right next to it."

 

Squeezing K'airos' sleeve happily, D'aijen laughed, "That sounds like fun. Your ideas are very silly, Airos." She sighed, lifted her head, and turned her face to look at K'airos. "I am less mad now."

 

"Good! Though I know something that will make you even less mad."

 

"Hm? What is it?"

K'airos Thalen pulled herself only a bit away and leaned just enough to look at her sister in the eyes. With a broad smile, she asked, "Have you heard of the ancient art of tickles?" And she did what anyone would have expected her to do: playfully testing her sister's tickling resistance.

 

D'aijeen prolly should have seen that coming, but for whatever reason didn't. She hadn't rolled very high for tickling resistance, so she curled her body away from K'airos and tried feebly to push her sister's hands away. Of course, the meek girl failed. She pleaded for her sister to stop while making embarassing laughter-like sounds.

 

K'airos Thalen did stop, sporting the most satisfied grin. "Did it work? Say 'yes'!"

 

Taking a moment to catch her breath, D'aijeen panted out, "Yes, Airos, it did." She reached out to poke her sister's soft side with a finger.

 

K'airos giggled, her natural reaction to the poking being to bend to a side. "Don't make me start again!" she threatened, one hand raising with the fingers curled. But she was quickly distracted. "You have a cactuar in your hair!"

 

D'aijeen Thalen blinks and bounced her ear, looking into the bangs on the right side of her hair, "Yes I do. I can make him dance." She bounced her ear some more, making the cactuar earring swing around.

 

K'airos laughed. "It looks good on you. I should get something for me...maybe a bomb! No, no...maybe it would set my hair aflame and then people would think I am a real bomb or something."

 

"I don't think you would have to worry about that for an earring, dear."

 

K'airos nodded. "Maybe you are right." Then, leaning forward, she added. "Do I keep hugging you here in the corner, or do you want to go to bed?"

 

D'aijeen smiled playfully at her sister. "You may carry me to be if you wish. I believe my exhaustion is catching up to me, and you know how tired I can get."

 

K'airos changed to a kneeling position. "Then let's go to sleep!" she said and reacheed to get her sister to literally carry her. However, before actually lifting her up, she frowned. "Do you want to sleep in those clothes?"

 

In a mischievous tone, D'aijeen teased, "Did you wish to take me out of my clothes?" But pushed on before K'airos answered, "A bath and a change of clothes would be exemplary. I'm sure I smell of corpses. But I really am too weary to care."

 

K'airos threw her head back at the first part of that, and then returned to normal. "That's true! And I must smell like sand and mole spines!" She stood up without carrying Aijeen, instead opting to scratch the back of her neck. "I should get us a tub and hot water."

 

"If you choose to. I will be here, waiting for you. I think we should do a displacement test for you while we're at it, so retrieve my clipboard from the dresser and place it near the tub, please."

 

K'airos Thalen taped her fingers together, smiling with her eyes closed. "I will!" she exclaimed. She spun around and went to the door, opening it and heading outside.

[Naunet]

Contrary to the demands of her body, Antimony did not immediately go to the single inn - more of a way-stop on the path to death for most in Drybone. Instead she returned to the Immortal Flames' building and tried to ignore the thick stench of corpses and the little, nightmare thoughts that fretted over her daughters' exposure to this shadowed realm. If one spent enough time in the company of shadows, one might eventually become them.

 

Keenly aware she had no money to speak of, the last of her on hand coins spent on the chocobos that had taken her here, Antimony sought the assistance of the Blade officer who had provided her "escort". She could no longer stomach the thought of traveling to Coerthas, not when K'airos refused to come with her. A small guilt towards Mitari and his kind invitation dragged on her thoughts.

 

"Sorry miss. No refunds, no exchanges." The reply was delivered in a largely cool tone, but with a hint of amusement that rankled Antimony's already frayed nerves to the point where she saw herself alternately bursting into tears or hurling the apple still clutched in one hand at the officer's helmeted head.

 

Perhaps luckily for Antimony, she did neither, instead returning to the open courtyard of Camp Drybone that was really little more than a particularly large hole dug into the ground. A grave, for all those yet waiting to die, or waiting for their own, smaller holes by the church, she thought with a shiver. This place was a nest for bad omens. That her daughters had...

 

As if on cue, the sky opened up again, and in the shadow of night, the rain that fell was icy. Her feet slapped through rapidly growing puddles as she hurried across the open chasm of the camp, clutching the coat and both the pear and apple as close to her chest as she could manage to keep them dry. The downpour soaked into her clothing quickly this second time, the fibers still damp from the previous rain, and when she finally made it through the door of what she hoped was the inn, she resembled more a drowned mole than any decent miqo'te.

 

The receptionist at the front desk gave her a wary, disapproving look.

 

Antimony took a long minute to catch her breath, feeling the chill of the rain weighing on her lungs as much as it did her fur and clothing. She stood shivering just inside the doorway, a small puddle collecting beneath her, until the woman at the front desk cleared her throat, startling her out of the semi-daze her exhausted mind had drifted to.

 

"May I help you, miss?" She sounded dubious; Antimony could not pinpoint why.

 

Approaching the desk, Antimony's feet left small patches of mud; she missed the annoyed frown of a nearby maid. "Yes, please," the woman sighed, wiping at her glasses only to find the gesture clouded them further. "If you have a room open..."

 

"We only rent to those who can pay, miss. Or the dying."

 

"Ah!" Antimony's ears lifted slightly and then fell again, following the exclamation with a slightly lower, "Oh. I..." She spent a moment searching the pockets of her dress, though she knew well the results before she'd even begun the action.

 

The receptionist seemed to predict them as well. She cast a sidelong glance towards the loitering maid and then gave Antimony a look that somehow managed to be both gentle and condescending, "As I said, miss. Only to those who can pay or are dying. If you cannot do either, I must ask you to leave. Some of our guests are in delicate positions."

 

Matted grey ears pressed back into equally soaked hair. "Oh. Yes. I... understand." She couldn't suppress the shiver down her tail; unfortunately the receptionist did not seem particularly sympathetic.

 

There was a long moment when the door to Drybone's inn shut behind Antimony where she wrestled with the numbing, powerful urge to simply walk back out into the desert once more, to turn her back on even her daughters and flee north, to run away. Then white light flickered and filled the deep ditch Drybone's citizens had carved out for themselves in harsh shadows, and a sharp, persistent pain in her stomach brought itself to her foremost attention. The coat and fruit felt suddenly impossibly heavy in her arms, and the flashing of lightning spurred a frantic dizziness that nearly sent her to the ground. Food, she thought wearily, for the first time in... two days? Three? She found she couldn't remember.

 

Eating in the rain did not appeal to her, even with the oppressive hunger, and so she left the steps of the inn to cross the brief gap between it and what appeared to be, judging by the signage, some sort of general goods store. The pounding of the rain was quickly replaced once more by the low sound of voices, the shadows and flashing lightning by warm yellow lanterns. To the right of the door she entered in, a pair of miqo'te hunched over a table, muttering between themselves over some bulging sack. Antimony blinked slowly at them for a moment before stepping off to one side and then sagging against one wall. There was a warmth to the place that offered some comfort, a respite from her darker thoughts.

 

She'd taken a bit of the apple and even had a moment to actually savor the coolly flavored juices bound within its flesh, before a firm sound interrupted her sluggish distraction. Her ears swiveled slowly, eyes squinting through foggy lenses before settling on a large, round shape directly to her left.

 

"We're not a charity," the blue-brown shape grumbled. "Not a picnic spot either. If you're not gonna buy nothin', get out."

 

The form loomed impossibly large suddenly and Antimony shrunk back in a sudden panic and confusion, the apple nearly dropping from her grip. She managed a weak apology before the shape all but pushed her out the door with its presence, and her stumbling retreat carried her down the stairs in a flurry of limbs. She thought she'd understood the value of money before, Antimony thought dizzily as the rain once again battered the top of her head in sharp staccato, but never had she seen such responses as these.

 

A painful chill settled into her bones as she hunched outside of the store. A man in the grey, red, and yellow uniform of the Brass Blades patrolled past her, and the disapproving frown he turned on her sent Antimony skittering away. Her limbs felt both too loose and as stiff as a corpse as she moved, and muddy water splashed up the hem of her dress as uncoordinated steps carried her to a small alcove on one side of the store. There she huddled and shivered, felt her ears and eyes burning with unbidden emotion, and began to let herself succumb to the heavy cloud that had settled over mind and body.

 

"Get yer own damn shelter," hissed a rattly voice, its tone threadbare and rough, like bone scraping against bone. "Lest ya wantin' ta really keep me company. Got somethin' ta keep us all nice an' toasty..."

 

A thin, high pitched noise escaped Antimony's throat, and she fled that alcove without even looking to identify the voice. Her panicked flight across Drybone did not go unnoticed by those poor few who remained out in the rain, but neither did it draw much pity. Preoccupied by their own plights, Antimony's was nothing new to the unwanted of Drybone.

 

The camp was not very large, and despite her hazy state of mind, she knew the dangers of wandering out once more into the desert, so she did not run for long. Exhaustion dropped her to her knees against the wall of a building she did not know of what. The tall stone somewhat buffered against the pouring rain, though there remained deep, muddy puddles that gave beneath her weight and stained limb and cloth alike.

 

Dimly, she realized she should eat even now, and so as she drew herself up against the wall, a sad and pathetic thing in the night, the apple once again came to her hands. She could not relish its flavor now, though, hardly even took note of the texture of it between her teeth; she ate numbly, mechanically, her body shaking and wrapping about itself to conserve heat. A part of her wondered if this was how Megiddo was treated, an unwanted intrusion on a society structured around keeping him out, keeping him separate. It churned her stomach.

 

This was all for K'airos, she thought and felt her bones tremble deep in her flesh. She would remain in Drybone for K'airos. She would go to Ul'dah for K'airos. She would even risk the judgment of the family she had left behind for her daughter, if only it meant she could have her back, and the guilt that now gripped her towards her abandonment of her brother almost brought her meager meal up onto the mud. 

 

A new thought joined this one not long after: if one spent enough time in the company of the homeless - the lost, the abandoned, the wanderers - one might eventually become them.

[Naunet]

To begin with, the bath was massively inappropriate. It probably is most of the time, so these very abnormal things should have been expected by K'airos, whether they were or not. It was nothing too scandalous; just D'aijeen being D'aijeen and having issues with boundaries and acceptable affection and such. Also there was a displacement test in which K'airos had to be repeatedly submerged and measured to determine her mass, and probably a lecture on sticking strictly to D'aijeen's planned diets.

 

For once free of the smell of corpses, D'aijeen wore white silk pajamas emblazoned with a "D" in several places. In case anyone doubted they were dodo pajamas. Bare-foot and bed-headed, D'aijeen would sleep for a few hours before rising from bed in a reluctant but practiced motion that did not seem at all asleep. Even though she was still asleep. She would pause for only a moment before taking small steps towards the door to head outside.

 

K'airos was one of those people who instantly fell asleep as soon as she placed her head on a pillow and closed her eyes. One would have thought that five years of living inside the secure buildings of Thanalan would mean her sleep was on the deep end of the spectrum, but that was not the case. There was a terrible thing she did not like, something that terrified her: bugs. After witnessing an insect the size of her foot during one of her patrols, three years ago, something clicked in her brain. Since then, she was extremely easy to wake up. So when her sister rose from the bed, K'airos thought that a giant bug of the Shroud had made its way into her room. It was only a moment before she was sitting on the edge of the bed with her pillow raised, ready to throw it, when she noticed that the supposed bug was wearing clothes. She stared blankly at D'aijeen for a while, letting her do whatever it was she was doing.

 

D'aijeen opened the door with a very slow and deliberate motion. At once the cool air in the hall outside, not that different from the night air of Drybone, slipped in past her. Its smell was heavy with corpses and rain. Wet corpses, the best kind of corpse.  D'aijeen moved at a ponderously slow speed into the hallway and turned to head outside, humming as she went. There were few doors in the hallway, and the lobby of the inn was wide open to the outside. Rain blew in, the sound of the downpour like a dozen waterfalls in the distance.

 

Nights in Thanalan could get pretty cold, actually, and even though D'aijeen was not disturbed, goosebumps rose over her body. She shivered when her bare feet touched cool tile. Her long hair over her face veiled her blue eyes, but she caught sight of the light of the aetheryte in the courtyard a ways away.

 

The woman working the desk of the inn inquired of D'aijeen's well-being, but D'aijeen did not acknowledge her.

 

K'airos finally got out of bed and spent some time searching for her boots. She was wearing a hempen camise and trousers, grey in color, much more humble than the silky robe her sister was using. The sound of rain reached her ears, and so she took with herself her unfolded turban. She hurried out of the room and into the hallway, tripping twice with the shoestrings she forgot to tie.

 

Stepping into the rain, D'aijeen flinched, paused for a moment, but then continued down the steps of the inn. The rainfall was so intense that she was drenched in seconds, her green hair plastered against her mud-colored skin like a hanging plant, her silk pajamas slinging to her body. The girl's blue eyes were transfixed on the aetheryte, wide as though she'd never seen the light.

 

She began to hum, a slow tune, something sad but pretty. Just a few repetitive bars.

 

K'airos offered an apologetic look to the innkeeper before reaching the exit door and lingering under it. "Aijeen!" she yelled outside. "You are sleep-walking again!" she added uselessly, knowing the chances of it actually waking her sister up were similar to having Dalamud reconstruct itself and raise to the night sky again. Not waiting at all, she headed out into the rain towards her sister, covering herself with the unfolded turban as best as she could. "Wake up!"

 

D'aijeen did not acknowledge her sister's shouting. She walked down off the steps and into the mud, the rain lifting the stink of rot and stirring it in the air of the pit around her. Her fingers moved, curling into her palms and rubbing against one another, and after a moment the found her silk clothes. She kneaded the fabric of her nightshirt between her fingers absently.

 

K'airos was quite glad she had put on some boots on. She hopped down from the short stairs like a bunny and ran behind her sister. "You are going to ruin that robe!" she complained, trying to grab her by the arms.

 

D'aijeen had no power to resist K'airos' grabbing hands, but did not change her behavior, either. Staring and humming, feeling her shirt.

 

A ways across Drybone's open courtyard, in the shadow of a wall, a wet, muddy form stirred at the sound of shouting through the rain. Grey ears heavy with water shifted towards the noise, and with a shiver, Antimony lifted her head. She hadn't slept - the rain and the chill and the generally uncomfortable situation of sitting in a muddy puddle had doggedly prevented that - but she had managed to drift into a distant haze for a while after she'd finished the apple Megiddo had gifted her. For this reason, while the voice behind the shouting was familiar, she did not immediately recognize it.

 

Turning her head slightly, she squinted green eyes past the smudged lenses of her glasses and was able to make out two forms in the rain.

 

K'airos started dragging her sister back to the inn. "Are you going to wake up...? No?" she asked, not really expecting an answer. "You should wake up! I'm just saying. But let's head inside and dry you up. And then you can wake up!"

 

Unable to stop herself from being dragged, D'aijeen is equally unprepared to keep her balance, nor does she release her nightshirt as K'airos pulls on her arm. She pops a few buttons on her shirt as she is pulled, and talks tiny, stumbling steps backwards, eyes stuck on the Aetheryte.

 

Seeing two tiny round shapes flying away into the mud, K'airos concluded that her current approach would result in a wardrobe malfunction. So instead of pulling D'aijeen by the arms, she surrounded her below them and by the waist. "Wake up!" she insisted, pulling her again.

 

Antimony blinked slowly, watching the two forms move as one grabbed the other, and attempted to make sense of the scene. It was at the very least a distraction from the dull ache that had settled into her joints, the feeling of being soaked down to her underclothes, and the chill the kept her tail shivering against her legs. The winter coat Mitari had given her had become something of a blanket, slung across her shoulders, but even it wasn't completely immune to the wet.

 

Antimony jerked suddenly, eyes widening behind her glasses as her mind finally placed the voice, and a moment later she was stumbling to her feet. Stiff limbs were decidedly uncooperative, and it took her a couple attempts before she was up and hurrying towards the pair in the rain, clutching the coat to her shoulders.

 

She stopped very suddenly when she was about mid-way between her shelter and the two girls, however, recalling the cruel words her youngest daughter had spoken, the threats. The thought of drawing K'aijeen's attention once more, and likely losing K'airos as a result, froze her more than the rain ever could, and she found she could not get her feet to carry her further. She didn't dare even to speak.

 

D'aijeen is a very light and weak girl on a good day, and since she didn’t offer any resistance she's decently easy to move. She stopped humming when the movement squeezed the breath from her lungs, but her eyes stayed on the aetheryte, hands on her shirt.

 

"Did you eat a moth while I wasn't looking?" K'airos joked, mostly to herself. She dragged Aijeen until they reached the steps leading into the inn and, once there, she bent backwards and lifted her sister so that her ankles wouldn't collide with the steps. Then she kept moving, entering the building and shouting to the innkeep: "All is fine! I got her! Ignore us! Ignore us!"

 

Watching her daughters - her daughters, she thought dizzily - return to the building while Antimony stood distant and unable to touch them, to speak to them, to help them, was almost as difficult as watching her family leave for war once more. Her eyes and nose burned as her legs finally managed to move, back-stepping her towards the shelter she'd left, and tried to remind herself of what K'airos - her sweet, resourceful, joyful K'airos - had promised her. It was a small but significant comfort.

 

D'aijeen kept doing that things she do.

 

"This would not happen if you slept with your mouth shut." K'airos continued, moving across the hallway and into the room with D'aijeen. "Or...did you eat one? Ew! Why would you eat one? You shouldn't eat bugs!" There was now a faint trail of mud all across the corridor leading to their room. The inn owner was not going to be happy. But then, it was an inn in Drybone: trails of mud were surely a daily occurrence. 

 

K'airos let D'aijeen go near the bed, but kept one hand on her shoulder in case she tried to walk away one more time. "Wake up!" she tried, shaking her.

 

Soaked head to toe, cold and shivering, D'aijeen stares at nothing and... pouts. She pouts just a bit, exhaling in frustration. She begins to hum again and moves to lay down in bed.

 

"Do not go anywhere! I'll get some towels." and with that said, K'airos quickly left the room, her clothers dripping and leaving a sizeable puddle right outside the door.

 

Unhindered, D'aijeen hummed to herself and rolled into bed, puling the covers over herself and essentially going to sleep. This of course makes the bed all wet, and she's still shivering.

 

Opening the door by walking backwards into it and slamming against it twice, K'airos entered the room carrying a large stack of dry towels. When she turned around, she saw her sister in bed and then /she/ pouted. "Oh, for Azeyma's bright pupils!" she complained. "Now we have to change the sheets and..." She shook her head, closed the door by softly kicking it back into place and dropped the towels on top of her own bed. "Stupid moths!"

 

D'aijeen did not snore because she's a lady.

 

K'airos shook her sister energetically and spoke loudly in a last attempt of waking her up. "Stop sleeping! You are going to get sick!"

 

At this D'aijeen jerked violently awake, her limbs flying to either side of her and straining against the blanket she's rolled up in. She half sits up wide-eyed, yelping in wordless surprise and no small amount of instinctive fear.

 

K'airos took a step back. "Are you awake?"

 

Falling still, D'aijeen panted in silence for several seconds, trying to catch the breath that K'airos scared out of her and waiting for the tiny wave of panic to wash out of her. She then declared, tiredly and with great offense, "Yes, Airos. I am awake, quite obviously."

 

Reaching her sister a towel, K'airos smiled. "I'm sorry! You sleepwalked into the rain and you seemed very obviously awake if not for the fact you didn't answer to my inquiries about how awake you were!"

 

"... What?" D'aijeen squinted at the towel as though it had insulted her, looking through the veil of green hair over her face. Gradually, she became aware of her situation, and she pulled the covers off of herself to look at her legs and the bed, all of which were soaked through.

 

She shivered, and when her tail popped up beside her she grabbed it in one hand, pulling it to her chest. "... Oh." After a time, she reached out and took the towel.

 

"Sorry, you were already outside by the time I reached you". K'airos took another towel from the pile and started drying herself up, starting by her hair. "You didn't accidentaly eat a moth, did you?"

 

"No I did not eat a moth," D'aijeen answered immediately, holding the towel up against her chest in knid to her tail. "What kind of question is that? Did I eat a moth. No. No, I did not."

 

"I don't know!" K'airos protested, throwing her arms, and hence her towel, up in the air before resuming to dry herself. "You were staring at the aetherythe while humming, so I thought...isn't that what moths do? Maybe you had one of those fancy dishes using animals from the Shroud or La Noscea or something!"

 

"That's ridiculous," D'aijeen muttered, burying her phase in the towel. She hasn't even started drying herself yet, her tail just shivering in her lap. "And I apologize. This is something that has been occuring recently in Ul'dah. I think I will blame the stress. Yes."

 

"Stress? Why? What happened?"

 

"In general!" D'aijeen stated, annoyed. "As of yesterday you and that woman. I cannot find peace from the many infuriating experiences I must endure."

 

"Oh." K'airos did a good job at looking sad. "But if it started in Ul'dah there must be something else!" she said, standing up and being quite proud of how dry she was now. This wasn’t really much, as her clothes were still quite wet. "In any case we'll forget about all that once we get back to the city, right?"

 

"I'd love to forget about it immediately." D'aijeen said, rolling off the bed with a grumpy huff. "Change the blankets for me, please, Airos." She threw the towel over her head to dry her hair. She has a lot of hair.

 

K'airos pouted. "You are the one remembering it." she mumbled, moving to the wardrobe and getting out some dry clothes. The only thing left for her was a rather heavy red dalmatica, unfit for sleeping; the brown trousers she wore constantly under her armor and some other dark grey trousers people kept telling her were called 'chausses'. She chose this last one and the only cloth she had to cover her upper body. "I'll go get your blankets. Don't forget to clean your feet!"

 

D'aijeen looked down at ehr feet and, seeing them muddied, took on a look of disproportionate distress, and began to clean them immediately.

 

***

 

At some point during the night, the rain stopped, and not long after this, Antimony finally succumbed to sleep, or simply passed out, but the end result was all the same.

 

Morning rose on Drybone as it always did, the quick warming of earth bringing out the smell of soggy corpses until the town was all but saturated in the smell of rot. This would ease as the day wore by and the land (and bodies) dried, but early in the morning, it made breathing especially unpleasant, even for those used to the phenomenon.

 

Antimony remained blissfully unaware of the smell, tucked against the wall she'd taken as shelter. In her sleep, she'd dropped down the wall until she lay on her side, and the coat Mitari had gifted her lay over her body like a blanket. She went largely unnoticed by those citizens of Drybone starting their day, as a sleeping homeless woman was not a particularly unusual sight for them.

 

K'airos left her room quite early that day, making sure Aijeen was asleep before departing. She had a small panic attack when the innkeep told her there was no "Antimony" registered. But she quickly recovered and as any level headed woman she ran out of the inn and started desperately poking all the refugees about a middle-aged Miqo'te woman with grey hair, glasses and probably no money at all. Luckily for her, there were almost no Miqo'te refugees in Drybone, so finding her 'fake' mother took almost no time. 

 

Once she did, she kneeled besides her and poked her once with her open palm. "Hey" she said. "Are you awake?"

 

Antimony had a very predictable reaction to this gesture for one who had gone nearly three days without sleep: She stirred slightly, ears shifting in the drying mud, and then promptly went quiet once more. Not exactly the most uplifting or responsible image to present to her daughter, but we can cut her a bit of slack at this point in time.

 

K'airos did no cut her any slack, sadly. "Did you pass the night outside? In the rain?!" She brought both hands to her face, eyes wide open. "Oh no! You have no money, don't you?"

 

K'airos was so very rude that one would think D'aijeen hadn't taught her any manners at all, especially not about disturbing sleeping people!

 

Ahem.

 

What the young woman's hand could not, her exclamation did. Antimony flinched at the dismayed voice and blinked her eyes open, coughing once as she awkwardly pushed herself up. She could hardly see anything through her glasses, but just over the top of them, slowly awakening eyes caught bronze skin and red hair, and the miserable night in the rain was largely forgotten.

 

"Airos!" As she spoke her daughter's name, she hastened to her feet, catching herself dizzily against the wall for a moment and nearly losing her grip on the coat. Her clothes felt stiff with drying mud, but she ignored them to thoughtlessly wrap her arms about the young woman, pulling her into a hug. "Ah, you're here. You're here. I wasn't imagining..."

 

K'airos returned the hug dearly, perhaps squeezing Antimony a bit too much. "Yes, I'm still here. And so are you...! All dirty and covered in mud. Didn't you get a room at the inn? Do you need money? I...I can spare some!" she said, not letting her go.

 

"It's fine, don't worry about me, I'm fine," Antimony murmured, leaning into the hug and breathing in her daughter's scent. All the rot and death in the world couldn't hide that, a smell she had known since the day she'd given birth. She found herself smiling, though her eyes stung and her vision seemed blurry now from more than just her glasses. "I am simply looking forward to traveling to Ul'dah with you," she breathed.

 

K'airos let the hug linger a bit longer. "Well, we can't go together as that would just make Aijeen mad, but we can meet there!" Moving to pull out of the hug, though not completely, and still leaving her hands on Antimony's shoulders, she said. "I'll be going to Ul'dah today to calm her down. I'll bring you enough gil for a day at the inn so you can pull yourself together and have some food, and then some more so you can travel back to the city tomorrow and meet with me once you arrive. Yes?"

 

A vague weight settled in Antimony's chest, and her brows knit together in distress. "... Aijeen will be there?" She pulled back from the hug a bit as well, grip loosening at the ill thoughts the mention of her youngest daughter stirred. She had been so caught up in the thought of finally spending time with her baby girl, her K'airos, after five years... She had not thought of what the other would do. Antimony drew a shaky breath, coughed when it hitched on something scratchy in her lungs, and then cast an uneasy look over K'airos's shoulder.

 

It felt strange, to be a mother seeking comfort from her children rather than the other way around, and she wondered dimly if she should be ashamed of it, if she should be taking more care of their own worries and needs. So if K'airos wanted to bring K'aijeen, then... "... Alright. I will, ah, see you there soon, then."

 

"Well, I can't leave her alone in Drybone. Even if I did, and knowing her, she'd just follow me." she smiled. "But don't worry! I'll find a way to have time to spend with you. I promise. Now..." K'airos let her mother go and untied the purse from her belt. "Here! I don't want to go back to the inn and find Aijeen awake, because then you'd have no money left and I don't think the refugee look suits you." She handed the bag to Antimony. "It should be enough for the inn and a journey back to Ul'dah!"

 

There was a very sharp, almost painful humility in accepting money from your own children, but Antimony managed it as graciously as one covered nearly head-to-toe in mud, half sick, and oscillating between grief and absolute joy for the lives of family she thought long dead could possibly manage. That is, she clutched at the purse in one hand and flung herself against K'airos once more, holding her daughter to her and just feeling, smelling, /knowing/ that she lived. Oh, and she cried, too, but that was to be expected.

 

"Thank you," she breathed. "I don't know what I... Oh thank you for surviving." Then she forced herself to pull away.

 

"That was Aijeen's doing!" she replied with a smile. She was now, too, covered in mud. She'd blame the rainfall from the last night and some poor refugees who were in too much of a hurry to see her while they rushed away from the plaza. Yes, that would do nicely. She kept smiling. 

 

"There's much we should tell each other, but if we start now we'll only finish when Aijeen comes like an angry thunder. Or maybe an angry moth." she said, trying desperately to groom her hair, even though it was already groomed. "I should get going now. Remember! One day at the inn, then get back to Ul'dah. I'll find you when you arrive! Or maybe a couple days later, but I will!"

 

Antimony nodded, keeping her eyes on K'airos as though the woman could simply up and disappear any moment. "I understand." She hugged the purse to herself and tried not to think of what she might do once she returned to Ul'dah, of who she might see.

 

She did not simply disappear. She first waved and said "I'll see you again in Ul'dah!" with the broadest of smiles, giving four steps backwards and turning around at the fourth. She walked away quite happily, and it seemed like she was having trouble walking. Or perhaps it was just her usual excitement manifesting in the form of rampant hopping. And then, she did disappear after taking a turn towards the inn.

[Naunet]

Clouds rolled in overhead, deepening the shadows cast by Drybone’s tall walls. A new smell joined the dust and corpses on the air, and it sent the few merchants eking out a living around the courtyard scrambling to secure the tarps over their goods. At one stall – more a series of crates stacked in rows to display an array of fruits and vegetables of questionable age – a young miqo’te, pale of skin and hair and dressed in clothes one might describe as “adventuring”, peered among the foods. "No chilies..."

 

She selected an apple from the tray and dropped a few gil coins in the stall owner's outstretched hand, offering her a nod and a smile before taking a big bite from the piece of fruit. The merchant went back to securing her goods, and not a moment too soon, for with a rumble and a crack, the sky very suddenly opened up. 

 

“Ah... it's raining...” The miqo’te shrugged and ignored the sudden squall, absently munching her apple while she looked over the rest of the produce.

 

A short hop away, Antimony kind of shuffled up to one side of the little grocery. She had a small bag tucked in the corner of one arm, up against a robe that was rather thoroughly stained with mud. She eyed the fruits, flinched when the rain started suddenly, and then shifted her gaze to the other miqo'te nearby. Pink… hair?

 

The – yes, that was pink hair, or maybe more of a lavender? – miqo’te caught the other's eye. "Hello."

 

Antimony wrinkled her nose at a thought and then took a half step towards her, "Ah, excuse me, miss... I don't suppose... do you know of any way to help with this smell...?"

 

“Smell?” The woman sniffed the air and wrinkled her own nose. “I have something that might work.”

 

Antimony looked around, catching the eyeroll of the merchant and wincing before saying to the miqo'te with an awkward wave of the hand holding the bag, "Yes, the... corpses. It makes it... well, it's rather difficult to do... anything with it as it is.”

 

The other miqo’te reached into her satchel and drew out a small crystalline vial filled with a clear liquid. "Understandable. Here. It's perfume made from the petals of moonflower." She handed the other the vial. “You can put a bit on your upper lip and it should block out the scent.”

 

Antimony blinked in surprise. "Oh! I didn't expect... what do you want in return? I've got--well, here, I have coin..." She shifted the bag in her grip and started digging around in it.

 

Waving her hand dismissively, the pink (lilac?) haired miqo’te, a Keeper by the looks of her all around, said, "Don't worry about it. I don't lack for coin." She turned back to the fruit and picked up another faerie apple, tossing a coin to the shopkeep. This she offered to the other miqo'te. "Have an apple?"

 

Antimony looked uncomfortable at the thought of accepting the offered perfume as is, but did so anyway. When the girl held out an apple towards her, she squinted in consideration. "I haven't... met you before, have I?" She blinked at the apple and then with some embarrassment, "Oh! Ah, I should... I assure you, I can pay for things myself!" She was suddenly keenly aware of her appearance, and of her reliance on the charity of her once-thought-dead daughter; the facts of it were rather shameful.

 

“It's okay. You look like you could use some cheering up.” She pushed the apple into the other's hands. "You also look familiar. I think I know you. Or have met you." She gazed upon the older woman in deep reflection. “Ah! The Shroud! At a tavern. I don't remember which.”

 

Antimony furrowed her brow at the apple but accepted it as well, then glanced back up at the other miqo'te. "I'm... sorry, my memory is usually much more--" She stilled, and then, "Oh! That was before--"

 

The lilac (definitely lilac… or white?) haired Keeper frowned as something rustled from within her satchel. She pretended not to notice this.

 

“Yes! In... Bus... Budders...” Antimony sighed and shook her head in resignation.

 

“That place. Buscarron's Druthers.” The Keeper brushed wet locks of pale lilac hair from her eyes. "Let's get out of the rain. It's not likely to stop for a while."

 

Antimony held the apple carefully against her. When the other spoke she nodded, "So I've... noticed."

 

Growling and muttering something unintelligible under her breath as the satchel rustled again, the younger woman said, “Come on. Actually... where is a tavern here? I don't know.” She looked around, seemingly lost in that thought.

 

Furrowing her brow in brief confusion at the woman’s muttering, Antimony shook herself at the question. "Oh, ah... I believe it was.." She turned around, squinted through the rain. "Ah yes, this way."

 

Behind her, the other miqo’te glanced down at her wet clothing and shook her head.

 

***

 

Antimony sighed with no small relief as she stepped inside, taking a moment to wring out one sleeve. The action was rather futile, considering the state of her clothing already, but that didn’t deter her efforts.

 

The other woman, the lilac-haired Keeper, closed her eyes and suddenly, steam began to rise from her clothing as aetheric energy was converted into heat. In moments, her clothing was dry. “I can dry yours, also,” she offered.

 

“Warmth. And shelter,” Antimony was saying. “Ah, an appreciation for this I... what?” She blinked at Aeriyn and then did a doubletake.

 

“Your clothes are soaking wet. You'll catch a cold. If you want, I can dry them for you.”

 

“... Oh! You're--you're one of... those!” Antimony exclaimed with no small amount of awe.

 

The other miqo’te nodded.

 

Her eyes went a bit wide with interest. "You must tell me how that works!"

 

“Okay. It's not a difficult casting. But don't you want dry clothes first?”

 

Antimony's ears twitched, dripping a bit of water to the floor. Then she shook herself and cleared her throat apologetically. "Ah, yes. That would... thank you."

 

Smiling, the younger woman closed her eyes again, focusing aetheric energy through her and into the world. She placed a hand on the other's sleeve and steam started to rise gently from the sodden robe. In the space of a few moments, the robe dried out.

 

Antimony watched where Aeriyn touched her with rapt attention, as though that single point were the center of a universe-wide puzzle.

 

“It's a good cantrip to know if you travel in Thanalan a lot during monsoon season,” the Keeper said as she completed the spell. “I'm going to sit down.”

 

“... Incredible!” Antimony stood still for a moment before remembering herself and hurrying after the other woman, looking a bit less ragged, though no less muddy.

 

Down the steps and off to a corner on the left, the Keeper woman had settled herself at a small table lit by a single lantern. There she yawned and stretched in her chair, her tail standing straight out before wrapping around her left thigh. “It's not really that impressive. It's useful, though. I've found that the most useful applications of magic are often the least impressive ones.”

 

Antimony watched the woman as she sat as well and, after a moment, cleared her throat, "I'm sorry, I can't quite... well, perhaps I should simply--I'm Antimony. If you don't recall. Which! You'd.. have no reason to! But just in case!" What a fabulous introduction that had been.

 

“I didn't remember your name, so thank you for reminding me. I'm Aeriyn. It's not a miqo'te name; I'm adopted.” She paused. “Was adopted, I should say.”

 

Antimony smiled just slightly, allowing for a moment the name – Aeriyn – to call up some rather comforting memories. It had been well before any of this... "It's no... matter to me. I recall you being quite... well! That spell alone says it all. Ah, if I had my notebook, I'd ask for details and..." She shook her head slightly, tail wriggling a bit before settling down at her side. She glanced at the apple Aeriyn had given her.

 

“You should eat that. It's at peak ripeness. Very good,” Aeriyn advised. “As for details, it's something that shouldn't be too difficult for anyone who has even the slightest knowledge of thaumaturgy. Aether absorbs heat easily, but it's not difficult to convert it to heat either.”

 

Antimony startled from some thought she'd inadvertently fallen into and blinked at Aeriyn for a second or so before seemingly recalling why she was there. "Oh! Yes. Of... course. Thank you." There was very little ceremony in her next action, which was to take a solid bite out of the apple. She closed her eyes as though it's the most rapturous experience ever. She spoke again after a moment of chewing, "Thaumaturgy... that... oh, isn't that some Ul'dahn..." She grimaced. "Well, I suppose warmth at least has little to do with corpses.."

 

“I don't know how much you know about aetherial manipulation, but there are generally three ways of utilizing aether to affect the world: thaumaturgy, conjury and arcanima,” Aeriyn explained. “Are you trained in any of these? My explanation will make more sense if you are.”

 

Antimony considered the apple in her hand for a moment and then, "Well, I wouldn't say officially trained..." Certainly it had taken her long enough to develop enough rapport with Limsan businesses that she could actually find employment, much less any sort of recreational education. “However... I've read a great deal from the libraries of the arcanists' guild in Limsa.”

 

“Can you utilize arcane geometries to manifest aether?”

 

Antimony blinked and looks strangely bewildered. "I... well." Her tail twitched, and though the woman beside her was significantly younger, Antimony felt suddenly like a student about to disappoint a teacher. "I've... never actually tried. Only... I just found the concept of it so fascinating, I suppose, and it never occurred to me that I could possibly... well, do any of that." She shook her head.

 

“Anyone can do it. Well, usually. Garlean hyur can't, as a general rule, but that's due to external factors.” She didn’t elaborate on that, instead continuing, “It's just a matter of training, knowledge and practice.”

 

“Ah, and you so young! It's a rather incredible thought.” Antimony tilted her ears at Aeriyn in interest. So much skill and knowledge. She reminded her of a more well-adjusted… no, no she would not go there.

 

Aeriyn seemed to wilt a bit in her seat. "I don't look my age."

 

Antimony blinked, frowned, and then, "I... apologize. I didn't intend to... well! Better... better subjects! No one likes to dwell on ill... ah. You were explaining aether!"

 

Aeriyn smiled and waved away Antimony's sputtered apologies. "Do you have a grimoire of arcane geometry? If not, I can teach you with mine."

 

Antimony's expression faltered slightly and her hands worried at the apple. “I'm... afraid I have not much of anything at the moment. But! It's no matter. It will all work out. I'd love to hear more from you, regardless.”

 

“You can't get very far without a focus, no matter what sort of magic you want to use,” Aeriyn shook her head. “The clothes-drying cantrip is easier for a thaumaturge, but I've managed it using all three methodologies. I'm a... I suppose you could call me a researcher, a scholar of magic. I have informal training in conjury and a... unique form of arcanima, but I was rigorously trained in thaumaturgy in my youth. At least I assume so.”

 

“I'm afraid I'm.. out of luck in that respect, then. Though if I knew the theory behind it, I'd be more than satisfied. To understand what manipulations you carried out... well, perhaps I'm not meant to do such things.” Antimony finished this statement with a slight, humble shrug.

 

Aeriyn took a sip from her ale. "Don't limit yourself."

 

Antimony watched Aeriyn for a moment and then smiled softly, the expression more in her eyes than the rest of her face. "I wouldn't call it that. Simply a healthy respect for... well. It's all a moot thought anyway. I've got none of my materials with me, much less any sort of focus."

 

“All right, well, I can show you using my grimoire. It would be easier, since you already have some foreknowledge and my staff is not... safe for novices.”

 

“... Not safe?”

 

Not giving an explanation, Aeriyn reached into her satchel and dug around. A small, feminine exclamation of annoyance emanated from inside the bag.

 

Antimony blinked at the bag. "... Was that..."

 

Aeriyn sighed and addressed the satchel, "So much for keeping you hidden."

 

“Uhm...? Miss.. Aeriyn?”

 

Aeriyn opened the travel bag widely and a burst of golden light flashed upward. In response, Antimony's eyes widened and she leaned back sharply in surprise. "What is--a demon in your--!" She froze and blinked rapidly at the... glowing... thing.

 

“It's not a demon. It's just Rinah.”

 

“Just... just "Rinah". Oh! Of... course…” Antimony's ears swiveled in confusion. "What... is it..?"

 

The creature, a vague humanoid shape visible through the bright glow of light, fluttered her wings and glanced at the other miqo'te, then turned toward Aeriyn. “Who's this? A friend of yours?”

 

“Antimony,” Aeriyn introduced. “You kept making noise in the bag and it was pointless to keep trying to pretend I didn't hear it.”

 

The light turned toward Antimony. “Oh. Hello.”

 

Antimony squawked at the small voice. "It--it... Oh dear. I've never... read anything about… this before.”

 

“Rinah is a fairy,” Aeriyn explained. “I rescued her from the old temple of Oschon near Camp Bronze Lake. She's actually why I'm here in Thanalan. Somehow she wound up imprisoned in a shard of corrupted aether many, many years ago, during the fall of the Nymian civilization. She's been disconnected from the flow of aether.”

 

Antimony stared wide-eyed at the bright light, within which she could make out the form of... a person? She blinked hard, her tail swishing once. "How is it... what.. is it made of...? Ah, her--her I mean!"

 

The fairy – Rinah! Fairies had names? Fairies could talk? Fairies were real? – glanced uneasily at Aeriyn. “You're being awfully free with information.”

 

“It's okay, Rinah,” the Keeper assuaged. “It's not you the Syndicate cares about, anyroad.”

 

Antimony frowned briefly at Aeriyn but very quickly went back to staring at the fairy in confused awe.

 

Rinah turned and glanced at Antimony. “My physical form is comprised of aether. I suppose you could say I am made of magic.”

 

“That's the problem. She's been disconnected from the astral flow. Rinah's only still alive now because I periodically infuse her with mana.”

 

Antimony's mouth works silently for a moment, Rinah’s glow casting harsh shadows on her features, before she, very slowly, reached out with one hand as though to touch Rinah. "Fasc--fascinating.."

 

Aeriyn shook her head in frustration. "If I can't figure out how to reconnect the shattered link, or somehow anchor her to this plane..."

 

The fairy fluttered forward and alighted on Antimony's outstretched hand. “I'm quite solid, as you can feel.”

 

The older woman startled but quickly recovered, squinting through the glare of her glasses. “How does she keep form..? Like a carbuncle?”

 

“The same process, yes.”

 

Rinah crossed her arms as her expression assumed a pout. “I'm right here, you know. You can ask me.”

 

Antimony Jhanhi flinched and gave both Aeriyn and the fairy a chagrined look. “... Ah! Oh! I'm... sorry. I didn't--well, I mean I've never seen... But carbuncles aren't sentient!”

 

“Carbuncles are not, no,” Rinah agreed. “But other astral beings are. The most obvious example an Eorzean would understand would be the primals.”

 

Antimony frowned, looking vaguely uncomfortable at that mention of the aether-hungry beast-gods. "Aether... taking form to make... thought? I suppose thought is similar to a spell... like a brain... oh, this is incredible! And you just..." she turned to Aeriyn, "Just found her?"

 

“Sort of.”

 

“Hm?” She gave the younger woman a confused look.

 

“I work for the Maelstrom. I was sent to the temple of Oschon to investigate strange magical phenomenon. What I found instead were Garlean soldiers.” Her expression sombered briefly before she continued, “After the battle, I searched their bodies to try and figure out what they were doing in the temple in the first place. I found a shard of corrupted aether in one of their packs. There was a... presence inside the crystal.”

 

Antimony shook her head, "It's no matter. This! Oh, you must be so... well!" The intrigue on her face washed it clean of many of the deep lines of anxiety that had plagued her features up to that moment. It made her look more youthful than she perhaps had in years. "This is fascinating! I must... how do you shape thought? And will? What equation drives you..." She half-spoke to Rinah, half to herself.

 

“Arcane geometry doesn't drive me or shape my will,” Rinah chuffed. “It only calls me to this place. Unfortunately, it also stranded me here.”

 

Antimony blinked at that. ".. Are you sure? There's... no shame in learning one's inner workings..!"

 

Aeriyn nodded at Rinah's explanation. "Practitioners of arcanima utilize their magical formulae to establish a link between the physical world and the aether.”

 

Rinah added: “Carbuncles are different; they're magical constructs. That's why they aren't sentient.”

 

“There are other methods of calling and summoning, taught and developed by different civilizations. The Allag summoners could call upon the power of the primals themselves. The scholars of Nym established pacts with fey beings much like Rinah.”

 

Antimony might have looked briefly disappointed at that, but the expression was gone quickly, replaced by a furrowed brow towards Aeriyn. "She is, ah, "dying" then. Why do you think Thanalan will help her..?"

 

“The Calamity left behind a massive area of corrupted, crystallized aether here,” Aeriyn gestured. “I need to obtain samples to study so that I can deduce how Rinah was cut off from the astral flow.”

 

Antimony's eyes widened briefly. "Oh, to be involved in such--" Her words cut off suddenly, her expression falling. "Ah. Well. I... have no doubt you'll find something worthwhile, even if it... isn't quite what you were after."

 

“What do you mean?”

 

Antimony shook her head and gestured with one hand, "Just as you said - a chance to study corrupt, crystallized aether! Even if what you find isn't directly applicable...! Well, it would be an interesting find regardless."

 

“Oh, yes. You seem to be very interested in these things.” Aeriyn thought for a moment. “If you're so fascinated by magic, why are you so reluctant to practice it yourself?”

 

Antimony's tail twitched. "Well, it is what I... I mean, it's not my job, but still.. it's good to have a hobby!" Antimony's features slackened somewhat into a more distant expression. "I'm not... entirely incapable of aetheric manipulation. Though, ah, I didn't realize it was precisely what I was doing until relatively recently." She shook her head slightly.

 

“I don't understand,” Aeriyn blinked round eyes. “How could you do something without knowing what it was?”

 

Wincing at that, Antimony struggled for a moment. How could one relate the kind of isolation from the world she’d spent her whole life in? In a way that wouldn’t make Aeriyn think she was some foreign… weirdo? "Well, it's just that I--well, we... had a different explanation. It's no matter, though! As it's all the same in the end."

 

“Oh.” A pause. “What is your job, then?”

 

Antimony answered that question with much greater ease, "I perform investigative accounting work for the Commerce Re--ah..." Her ears drooped. "For... freelance, I suppose."

 

Aeriyn didn’t miss the slip and her ears twitched thoughtfully. "Your employers aren't fond of publicity?"

 

The older woman winced. "No, it's not that. Just... Well!" She tried to inject some measure of cheer in her voice, but likely failed miserably, "I suppose one could say I've recently shed the chains of steady employment!" She tried for a smile, but it ended up  more of a grimace. There was nothing happy in being fired.

 

“I did the opposite, though I suppose "recently" is a matter of debate. I was an independent contractor before I signed on with the Maelstrom.”

 

The fairy, who had been rather quietly hovering between them during this, glanced at Aeriyn, her expression tired. “I'm going to rest for a while.”

 

Antimony furrowed her brow in thought, "Ah yes, right. I do recall you doing some kind of... contractual work in the Shroud for... oh, no matter." She looked up as Rinah spoke, watching her move with interest.

 

“Okay. How are you feeling?” Aeriyn questioned.

 

“Not good,” Rinah sighed, if fairies could indeed sigh. “But that's not any different than usual. I'm going to rest and conserve the aether I've absorbed...”

 

“I can try another infusion—“

 

Antimony pressed her lips together in concern.

 

Rinah shook her head. “Not so soon. You'll need your strength to deal with the creatures in the Burning Wall. If I rest, I should be fine.”

 

“All right.” Aeriyn opened her satchel and carefully helped Rinah back inside. With the flap of the bag open, a small wooden box-like object was visible, containing within it what looked like a very tiny, fairy-sized bed.

 

Still feeling a bit awkward talking to a manifestation of aether, Antimony still managed a genuine, "I do hope you feel better soon."

 

“Aeri will find the answer. I know it.”

 

Aeriyn watched Rinah tuck her wings in and curl up on the fairy-sized bed before closing the satchel's flap. “When I found her inside the crystal, it took me several suns to figure out how to free her without killing her. During the process, I discovered that she was conscious and aware while frozen within the shard. She had been that way for at least a hundred years. Possibly more.” Her's ears drooped and her tail curled tightly around her leg. "I know beings like Rinah view the passage of time differently than miqo'te, but I can't even imagine how horrible that was for her..."

 

Antimony watched the satchel in silence for a moment before letting out a slight sigh, "It is good she, ah, has someone who can take care of her, at the very least. Fortunate that one like you found her and not... well."

 

“I don't know exactly what the Imperials wanted with her, but it could not possibly have been good.”

 

Antimony nodded at that and then tried for an encouraging smile, the best a mother knew how to give. "This... burning wall sounds promising, at least. I wish you luck in your expedition." A pause. "And... perhaps I could hear of its results..?"

 

“I would not mind sharing what I learn. I travel all over for my work, but I live in Limsa Lominsa and will return there after my task is complete.”

 

“Ah, that.. is where I live! Or... well, yes. It is.”

 

Aeriyn blinked and tilted her head quizzically, "You live there... or what?"

 

Antimony shook her head, waving the hand still holding the apple a bit awkwardly. "It's not a concern. I'm simply busy elsewhere at the moment." She looked past Aeriyn, thinking.

 

“Oh.”

 

Antimony smiled and very deliberately took a bite of the apple.

 

Aeriyn stood up then and finished off the last of her ale. She doffed her satchel and offered Antimony a smile. "The rain's stopped for now. I should be on my way. The longer I remain in Thanalan, the greater chance my presence here will become known."

 

Giving Aeriyn a confused look for a moment and then, Antimony slowly brought her own thoughts back in alignment with the present enough that she processed the girl's words. She smiles. "Oh! Yes, of course. I wouldn't think to delay such an... well, an important adventure."

 

Aeriyn bowed courteously. “Thank you for your company. I'll look forward to seeing you again in the future.”

 

Antimony opened her mouth to say something, was at first at a loss for words, and then just smiled before finally managing, "And you as well. Thank you, Miss Aeriyn, for this much appreciated distraction."

 

Aeriyn started to walk away from the table, but stopped herself. "You seem to be busy with something, otherwise I would have asked if you wanted to accompany me."

 

“Don't worry!” Antimony made to hastily assure, forcing another smile. “I understand. I'll simply have to... well, I'll get the details from you at a later date.”

 

“I could use the help, to be honest... I hired an adventurer to protect me from the creatures that infest the area, but I will have to do the analysis and collection myself.”

 

Antimony furrowed her brow and looked away a bit guiltily. "I would... truly love to assist, I assure you, but... I cannot risk delaying my own, ah, adventure, so to say."

 

Aeriyn smiled back. "Ah, well. I will just have to manage on my own. We'll speak again soon, I'm sure."

 

Antimony watched Aeriyn leave in silence before returning her attention to the apple in her hand with a sigh.

[Naunet]

((RP from in-game! Shortly after Anti arrives in Ul'dah.))

 

***

 

Beneath an open, star dusted sky, Illira Carceri made her way back to the Quicksand for the night, her gaze shifting around almost constantly.

 

A short distance forward along her path, Antimony bounced one knee as she sat on the bench outside the Quicksand, body poised as though any slight movement might make her flee. Her ears swiveled about as though searching for something, and every so often she snuck a glance towards the Quicksand's door, hastily. She still wore the same clothing she left Ul'dah in, but it was heavily stained with dirt. The rest of her was mostly clean at least, if a little dusty.

 

Eventually Illira’s eyes settled on the familiar, if not entirely unwelcome figure. The lanky elezen took in a deep sigh before purposely walking towards the elder Miqo'te. The unsuspecting woman wiped at her skirt in a nervous, habitual gesture and continued generally just kind of vibrating in place, clearly uncomfortable but also very set in remaining.

 

Illira quietly walked up to the woman, taking in her filthy garments, "Hello Antimony, strange to see you hear now."

 

Antimony nearly jumped out of the bench, her tail puffing out to a comical width before it curled tightly against one thigh. Her ears did the searching first, but her eyes soon followed, darting left, right, left, and then right once more to settle on Illira. Her lips worked silently for a moment, but only a faint squeak escaped her throat.

 

Illira gestured at the bench, "Mind if I sit with you for a moment?"

 

The older woman swallowed, grey ears pressing back against her skull. She shifted an anxious look towards the Quicksand once more, and then just nodded.

 

Illira forced out a slight smile, "Thank you." She proceeded to sit down on the bench, close to, but not within smothering distance of Antimony.

 

Antimony winced, ducking her gaze to her knees where her knuckles shook and pressed together. "Mi...iss Carceri," she finally managed warily, voice wrought with tension. "I'd not thought I'd... ah."

 

Illira spoke quietly, "And yet you're back. From your state of being, I'm guessing that running did not work so well for you?" She folded her hands neatly into her lap, her lips pursed as she looked down on Antimony.

 

The elder miqo’te wove her own fingers together, then lay them flat against her knees, then worked them into the cloth of her dirt-stained robe. "Ah. Yes. I mean--no--I mean... that..." She trailed off, gaze wandering back towards the Quicksand's door before darting away almost immediately once more. "I am sorry."

 

Illira shook her head slightly, "Are you really? It is in my experience that most apologies are simply to ease one own conscience and social appearance."

 

It was at this moment that a young, red-haired woman in a loose-fitting red shirt and dark grey bandana bee-lined towards Antimony just by smell alone. All those years being a tribal huntress served her for something more than finding somnus hideouts and very nice perfumes. "Hi!" she yelled, once she was two steps away from Illira. She smiled, oblivious of any conversation she might have been interrupting.

 

Antimony had opened her mouth to reply - though it was entirely possible she wouldn't have managed anything. She was saved the effort by K'airos's entrance however, and the relief that flooded her face upon the sight of her daughter overcame all other thought. "Airos!" She leapt to her feet and rushed to crush the young woman to her.

 

K'airos was successfully crushed!

 

Illira's eyebrows snapped together in confusion as Antimony's demeanor took a dramatic and sudden turn. Unsure of what situation she was now in the middle of, Illira simply sat still and straight watching the two in front of her.

 

Antimony's shoulders shook as she held K'airos to her, and there was a suspicious wetness to her eyes when she finally leaned back slightly to look the young woman in the face. “You truly made it to... ah, I mean of course you.. I never once doubted...!”

 

K'airos patted the crusher woman's back. She smiled. “Aijeen's visiting her dodo friends, so I thought I'd come see if you had arrived yet!”

 

Antimony's features fell slightly at the mention of Aijeen and then she very suddenly recalled the other woman she'd been... if not conversing with then at least... interacting with on some basis. Her ears shifted back and she eyed Illira uncertainly. “Ah, Miss Carceri... this... this is my..”

 

“If I'm now in the middle of something I can leave, Antimony,” the elezen stated plainly.

 

K'airos avoided the issue by hopping in place once, proclaiming "Oh! You must be Ulan-een!" and rushing to take the Elezen's hand and shaking it vigorously. "Your letter was the reason we found each other!"

 

Antimony blinked rapidly and held out a hand in helpless protest. "Ah, Airos, she... that's not..."

 

Illira let the girl take her hand and do with it as she willed without protest, "I'm not... Ulanan. Sorry."

 

Antimony winced and worried her hands together. "This is my... former... employer," she uttered quietly.

 

K'airos kept shaking the hand while throwing an inquiring glance to her mother and then another one to the Elezen. "Uh? OH!" she hopped back, releasing her.

 

Illira took her hand back, "Its fine. I'm sure Antimony has unfond memories of me and has passed them on. I'm rather immune to it at this point."

 

Antimony's eyes widened and she held up both hands, shaking them in denial. "No, no! No, I would never--I haven't spoken badly of... I have nothing ill to say of you at all!"

 

Illira shook her head, her braids moving with the motion, "I'm not your employer anymore Antimony. Its really fine."

 

K'airos sounded a bit too happy. "You had a job! What was it? Why did you quit? Wait...where you fired?" She then looked at Illira. "Why did you fire her?" Then back to Antimony. "Did they?"

 

“I'll let Antimony answer that as she wishes.”

 

Antimony shut her mouth sharply and glanced towards K'airos before ducking her head briefly in shame. "It's... nothing to worry yourself over, Airos. I am just... I am just glad I was able to find you."

 

“But you could use the money! You can't be in Ul'dah if you don't have a steady income!”

 

K'airos placed both hands together and lowered her head, facing Illira. "Please! I'm sure whatever it was wasn't her fault!"

 

Illira lifted up a long fingered hand, letting its palm face the girl in an almost lazy fashion, "That is a matter between her and I. Antimony made her own decisions."

 

Antimony shook her head, and then when K'airos began to beg Illira, her ears shot up. She reached out to touch K'airos's shoulder. "Do not worry over me! I'm fine. You're... you're alive. That is all that matters. Nothing else!"

 

“But you can't ingest that!” K'airos was clearly not thinking much about what she was saying.

 

Antimony gave K'airos an odd look and then became seemingly overcome with some emotion as she pulled the young woman back to her, into a tight hug once more. "You're alive and... and responsible! My baby girl..."

 

Illira’s brow lifted up at the display of affection, "Well... Isn't this sweet. So everything is fixed now then, Antimony?”

 

K'airos was crushed again. She muttered, "This is embarrassing," though she smiled.

 

Antimony buried her face against K'airos's shoulder for several seconds, but once she finally processed Illira's words, her body language drooped and she pulled back slightly. "Ah, it..." She glanced between the two. "Aijeen..." Conflict twisted her features and then, "I apologize, Miss Carceri. These outbursts are... I simply never thought I would see my girls again.."

 

Illira nodded her head, "Of course. I'm glad your departure worked out for the better for you. I should mention perhaps, that the rest of your... family left the Quicksand some time ago, I believe. I am no longer footing their bill anyway."

 

K'airos looked at Illira. "Wait." She looked mighitly confused. "The rest of the family?" she asked, looking at her mother in an even deeper confusion.

 

D'hein burst out of the QUicksand doors loudly, arms over his head, "Illira! I've found you!" He marched forward, declaring, "You  still owe me an in-depth discussion on Antimony's investigation! I won't settle for mere synopsis!"

 

Antimony had been struggling with a response to K'airos when D'hein exploded onto the scene and literally jumped at his voice, then flinched at the words. She seemed to shrink, as though to hide.

 

Illira looked around quickly at the outburst. Spotting the man at the entrance to the quicksand, she closed her eyes taking in a deep breath. She muttered quietly, "You should really slip away now with your daughter Antimony. Before D'hein sees you."

 

Antimony gave K'airos a wide-eyed, harried look, and then her expression changed very suddenly and very dramatically. She spun about, features pulled into a tight frown. “D'hein Tia!” she exclaimed, “You KNEW!”

 

D'hein looked straight up in the air, then behind him, then around, and then back to Antimony, his ears swiveling in various directions. After a moment, he flinched as though startled, "Knew? Knew what? What fresh accusation is this?"

 

K'airos’s reaction to D'heins entrance was to stare at him awkwardly with a half-smile and her tail lifted and curved. At her mother's words, she looked between them.

 

Illira stood and walked towards D'hein, she extended her arm as if to hurry him back into the Quicksand. "Never you mind. Let’s go talk business now, D'hein. Sorry I'm late."

 

Antimony's tail poofed out in some mix of distress and agitation and just confused emotion. In fact, the rest of her body seemed to be attempting to do the same as her tail, bristling as though about to pounce. She leveled a finger at him. "YOU sent me to Ul'dah!"

 

K'airos joined the accusations, though she sounded quite jolly about it, “And you told me you wanted me to help someone called Antimony!”

 

“Yes! You--what? What??” Antimony turned to K'airos and blinks rapidly at her. Her fluffed tail lashed to and fro.

 

Illira sighed deeply, dropping her hand. She quietly said, "Well... I tried." She turned back to face the others, a slight tiredness now over her features.

 

D'hein leveled Illira with a glare, "Do not attempt to dissuade me from important matters by making present previous important matters which you had dissuaded me from with... I forget what I'm saying. Listen, this is good, isn't it? I did a good thing."

 

K'airos lowered her tail and ears. She spoke quickly: "He told me someone was...and that it was a favor...and that I should help...and then this Nanalu person sent some people to look for me, and then Ulaneen wrote that letter for you and..."

 

Antimony redirected her own glare back to D'hein, mouth working and searching for words. "You... You...!"

 

D'hein stepped forward and crossed his arms over his chest, "Yes! I conspired to reunite you with your beloved daughters!" His tone dropped, and he looked to Illira, "The investigation into the Blades is no less legitimate, though, lest you suspect it's an excuse for time off."

 

“I knew it!” K’airos exclaimed.

 

Illira’s brow furrowed, "I know better than you its legitimacy, D'hein."

 

Antimony continued glaring at D'hein for several seconds, her whole body practically quaking. Then just as suddenly as she'd turned on him, she just collapsed with a sob, "My girls... you found..."

 

D'hein returned his gaze to Antimony, ears twitching. "Crying is... happiness? This is one of these extreme female joy expressions, correct?"

 

Reacting to her mother’s sudden swing of emotion, K'airos grabbed her before she hit the ground and made her sit on the bench. She then sat there, too.

 

Illira turned back towards Antimony, then to D'hein briefly, "It can mean many things. Though foremost she is exhausted I believe. It’s all muddied together."

 

Antimony didn’t answer D'hein, instead turning somewhat to wrap her arms about K'airos again. She'd never grow tired of that.

 

“Ah, yes, exhaustion. That's...” D’hein trailed off.

 

K'airos tried to comfort Antimony with random patting. “It's just a very stressful situation! That's all!”

 

“K'airos,” D’hein began, “Why have you let your mother degenerate so? Aren't you and D'aijeen able to take better care of her?”

 

“Ah...it's that...ah...I didn't...she's not...and then...Aijeen doesn't like her!” K’airos stammered. “I came here behind her back.”

 

Antimony lifted her head sharply at D'hein's words and then just as quickly pushed it back against K'airos's shoulder. "Aijeen," she sobbed.

 

Illira frowned deeply at D'hein. "You need to hold your tongue. Lest you make things worse. She needs space, not that you would ever give the woman it."

 

D'hein crossed his arms, and looked down at the ground, turning inward and muttering, "I'd hoped that removing D'ahl for the better part of several months would improve that situation, but I suppose not. How to proceed, I wonder..."

 

“D'hal?” K’airos queried. “Aijeen confused Antimony with her!”

 

Antimony shuddered. "My baby girl," she mumbled into K'airos's shoulder.

 

Illira clenched her jaw, "You shouldn't proceed. You're manipulation of lives will backfire, and I won't always be able to pick up the pieces."

 

D'hein popped up his head, and turned his eyes on Illira, "Manipulation? Why it is the duty of every being with even a fragment of soul to devote themselves to the happiness and well-being of others, especially since D'aijeen is practically my own daughter. I can't have her torturing her mother. And with Airos as a prospective future wife, all the more I should be concerned with their family!"

 

K'airos laughed nervously and her tail just went haywire. "Ah...what?" she managed to say.

 

D'hein canted his head at K'airos, "What?"

 

Antimony shot straight up, "Whaaat!" and spun around towards D'hein, stumbling to her feet. "What did you say about my daughter!"

 

Illira's mouth twitched at that, "Do you no hear yourself, D'hein? Even now all you speak of is how the situation directly affects you. All you know to do is manipulate. I've known you long enough to have learned that. It’s why I rather despise you."

 

D'hein waved Illira off, "Now is not an appropriate time for flirtation," and then to Antimony, he said, "I'm sorry if I've riddled you with jealousy, but don't worry. I'm just keeping a list of the most beautiful people I know, and they're all my potential wives. It's a hobby."

 

Antimony's tail bristled and she stomped right up towards D'hein, making to grab at his collar. "You will not lay a finger on my Airos!"

 

Illira clenched her jaw, watching Antimony take a stand against D'hein.

 

D'hein smirked, "A familiar protest. If only I were as loved as K'airos, but alas! You've nothing to worry about, Antimony. My joking aside, my only designs for K'airos were to get the two of you to meet. Now I'm fresh out of designs!"

 

Illira snorted at that, "Now you’re just lying, D'hein."

 

Antimony clenched her fist about his collar for a moment longer and then released him, stumbling back as though the action had come from a blow. She blinked past lingering tears and then flinched at Illira's words as though she'd only just remembered the woman's presence. "Ah, Miss Carceri... I apologize for..."

 

K'airos stood up and walked towards the location of possibly ensuing motherly violence. She placed on hand on Antimony's shoulder.

 

Antimony's lips pursed at K'airos's touch on her shoulder and then, very suddenly, she lifted one hand and landed a rather solid smack on D'hein's left cheek. "No more subterfuge!"

 

Illira pressed her lips together, "Nothing. That is not a way to live. I did hope to keep D'hein off of your..." She fell silent as Antimony smacked the man in question.

 

D'hein made no initial reaction to the smack. After a moment he looked confused, glancing around as though something had flitted past his face. He then settled his gaze on Antimony and said, "I told you your children were alive. You did not believe me and took incredible offense. My choice was to either employ subterfuge, or to surrender."

 

Antimony's ears flinched back, the slight wrinkles in her face deepening in conflict. “That... that is... not the point! No more of it! I'll have no more of it from you!”

 

“Well...” K'airos tightened her grip on Antimony's shoulder. "Maybe we don't like his methods, but I'm grateful for his conspiration!" She then looked at D'hein and, smiling, added a, "Thank you," along with some heavy blushing and a tail that couldn't curl upwards anymore even if it wanted.

 

D'hein flicked his gaze to Illira, "Despite the opinions of those who seem disproportionately invested in protraying me as a maleficent man," he looked back to K'airos, "Others know me better. I will see what I can do about D'aijeen's behavior. She's my daughter, after all."

 

Illira shook her head once more, "My investment is simply to ensure truth as I can, and protect those who need it D'hein."

 

Antimony's tail lashed. "Aijeen is not your daughter! She... She is my--my..." then she just crumbled, her head dropping to her hands, "... fault."

 

K'airos opened her mouth to say something but her words failed her. She tried again twice before simply stating: "D'hein took care of Aijeen when she first arrived in Ul'dah! Right after she...when she left the tribe."

 

Antimony flinched, the memories K'airos's explanation stirred drawing shadows on her teary-eyed face. "I..." She swallowed and then managed faintly, wavering, "I am... glad she was not lost to the sands."

 

D'hein took a few steps away from Antimony, looking at Illira, "They do need space, you know. You don't need to smother them."

 

Antimony shivered at some thought and turned back to K'airos to pull her close yet again.

 

Illira nodded her head, "I am not disagreeing with that. I was merely passing through and got caught in the middle of this."

 

K'airos was successfully pulled! She was failing all her saving rolls today. She gazed at D'hein and spoke up, "We should talk later about...you know." She paused, and then added with a sudden urgency, "Not about marriage! That's not...it's not even...and it wouldn't....it's about D'hall and my sister!" She hurries the final words as if there was a prize for doing so.

 

D'hein smiled at K'airos, "You don't have to wait for me to propose to you. You could just propose to me."

 

Illira walked towards D'hein, "You're obviously making the girl uncomfortable. Come, let us leave them to their space." She gestured towards the Quicksand.

 

Antimony tightened her grip on K'airos. "Don't--don't you give that man... a tia, Airos! From... another tribe! Don't you dare!"

 

“I'm not! I'm not! I'm just...clarifying that I'm not!”

 

D'hein crossed his arms and muttered, "I don't understand why everyone just assumes I'm a Tia. Maybe I'm a humble Nunh."

 

Antimony turned her head slightly and stated in a firm tone, "A nunh would not wander so."

 

“Hah!” D’hein chuffed. “You and I know different Nunhs.”

 

“Let's...not worry about that now!” K’airos attempted to interrupt.

 

“Were you saying something, Illira?” D’hein directed his green eyes towards the elezen. “You're not jealous as well, are you? Of course you are. My apologies.”

 

Antimony returned her attention to K'airos, though after a moment she mumbled into her daughter's shoulder a soft, "Thank you."

 

“I was merely suggesting that we leave these two alone. An Idea you seemed so keen on just a minutes ago.”

 

D'hein hummed, and smiled, "And what would you like to go off and do with just me, Illira?"

 

“We should get you a room and some clean clothes!” K’airos suggested then to her mother. “I think I can afford enough for you to stay while I'm in town.”

 

“Nothing,” Illira replied to the conspiratorial miqo’te. “Quite honestly. I just was hoping to get you to give them space.”

 

Antimony blinked and looked up at K'airos, silent for a moment, and then her ears pressed back in distress. "Oh... oh no. I can't possibly be a burden on my own daughter in such a way." She looked left, then right, then back to K'airos. "Ah, don't worry about me! I have... I will be quite fine! You just... worry for yourself. And... Aijeen."

 

D'hein wagged his finger at Illira, "Don't think I've forgotten that we have work to do. You won't be avoiding it again. We aren't on vacation you know!"

 

“But you don't have a job anymore,” K’airos protested. “I'll have to take care of you until you get a new one, I guess. After all, you are my...my...” Antimony watched K'airos in silence, looking almost hopeful. The younger woman failed to find words again however, "...and I would feel awful about not helping you." she finished, her eyes rolling to look up.

 

Illira lifted her thick brows, "Please, don't talk to me about such matters D'hein. I've been doing your job while you went for that weeks-jaunt."

 

“It was an all-important jaunt, and I thank you for helping yourself to my milk-bar while I was doing the important work you were all too lazy or afraid to do!”

 

Antimony's expression wilted briefly before she carefully recomposed herself - only partially successful. She squeezed her daughter slightly. "You do not need to take care of me," she gave the girl a small smile. "Just seeing you is all I need. Everything else will be fine."

 

“You're milk bar is disgusting, D'hein. And your jaunt was neither approved, wanted, nor useful in anyway.”

 

K'airos grabbed Antimony's hand and pulled her towards the Quicksand. "Nope!" she exclaimed. "Soon your stomach will complain. And then your other body functions will complain. So let's get you someplace to stay!"

 

Antimony opened her mouth to protest as K'airos began to drag her off, but she couldn’t find it in her. She snuck a very brief but genuinely grateful look D'hein's way before snapping her gaze back to her daughter.

 

D'hein was focused wholly on Illira now, "If it were approved it would not have been necessary! As for usefulness, well, we'll see! You all haven’t exactly changed the world in my absence."

 

K'airos kept pulling her mother towards the Quicksand and into it, with the firm purpose of getting to the innkeep. Antimony allowed herself to be pulled off without another word.

 

***

 

Having paid a room for her mother, K'airos continued to drag her into it. The room was one of the cheapest, not having many decorations or even much furniture. A bed, a table, a wardrobe and a sink. Perhaps you could consider the lone window above the bed to be furniture, too. K'airos did not ponder about this things, she just walked in like she owned the place. Because she had paid for it, of course.

 

Antimony had gone quiet as K'airos led her back towards the inn rooms, increasingly aware of her likely proximity to other people she still wasn't certain she could face. She slipped into the room after K'airos and closed the door behind her hastily and with no small amount of relief. Looking to her daughter, Antimony's ears drooped slightly and she pulled her into yet another hug. "This isn't necessary, Airos." 

She smiled, her eyes closed. "But it is! It might not be the prettiest place, but it has a roof and a bed! I've payed for a week in advance, so you can look for work without worrying about becoming a beggar!”

 

Antimony took a step back and looked around the room, expression humble, a touch shamed. "Thank you." She sighed, wrung her hands together. "I would never have wanted you to see me like this..."

 

"We all have bad days!" K'airos’s attempt at comforting Antimony was not very good. "So...what did you work as?"

 

Casting a weary look to the bed along one wall and the small sink across the room, Antimony stepped further inside until she stood in the middle of the inn room. She gave a small smile to K’airos, "An accountant. Not nearly as... admirable as... you protect people?" There's pride in her voice, though also some amount of old pain.

 

K'airos chuckled. "Yeah! From the beastmen and bandits. But it's mostly safe and boring, because what we most do is check cargo and people. Making sure they aren't funny or illegal, you know.”

 

Antimony blinked at K'airos for a moment and then, very quietly, lets out a weak chuckle. "My girl... protecting what is good." She sighed then and wavered on her feet somewhat before catching herself. Around this time, she stumbled on a thought and gave K'airos a searching look, "You wouldn't... happen to know who to speak to about, ah, confiscated goods in Ul'dah...?"

 

"Did the guards confiscate things from you? I'm sure I can get it back! Just tell me what to look for!"

 

Antimony opened her mouth but remained silent for several seconds, unsure how to approach the subject. Green eyes shifted anxiously around the room again before settling on K'airos. "Not... my things, no. But..." Her ears and tail drooped with guilt and she turned away. "K'ile and K'luha's. I told them I would assist them, but..."

 

"K'ile's alive, too?" she yelled, hopping in place repeatedly and tapping her hands together. "And K'luha too! Where are they? I should...I should see them! Tell them it's all okay! OH!" She pointed in what could be a victory pose. "And they can help you settle down...!"

 

Flinching, Antimony clasped her hands together at her waist. "It's not that simple, Airos..." Then she just shook her head, glancing back towards her daughter. "Ah, re--regardless, they had food... for the tribe. If you could..."

 

K'airos tapped her chin in thought. "How much food? And when did they get it confiscated?"

 

She shook her head. "I... am not sure. It sounded like a great deal. A..." She hesitated, a sad look crossing her face, "A feast."

 

"If it was food it's likely it has been eaten by now." K'airos said neutrally. "But maybe I can arrange something. Do you know where they are?" She started hopping again when asking that.

 

"Where they... ah." Antimony looked past K'airos, towards the door to the outside hall. "I don't... they were here, when I... I'm not certain if they still are."

 

"Here is a good starting point!" she stated, and then paused. "Here in the city or here in Thanalan?"

 

Twisting her hands about one another some more, Antimony shook her head. "Here. In the, ah, Quicksand."

 

K'airos stopped her incessant jumping. "Here here?" she repeated and smiled broadly. "That's fantastic! We should go see them! Exchange tales and remember the past! And get their food, too."

 

Antimony's ears shifted about. "I'm not certain... Yes, you should speak to them. I'm sure they'll be... K'ile will be happy to see you."

 

K'airos rushed forward to hug Antimony. "I'll go now and see if they are around! You should...get cleaned and eat some! I'll come back and let you know if I find them. Alright?"

 

Swallowing, Antimony leaned into the hug, pulling her arms about her daughter and relishing the feeling of the gesture. Then she sighed and nodded. "Alright. Thank you, Airos."

 

It took K'airos around a full minute before pulling off the hug. "I'll be back soon! If it gets too late I'll make sure to come by tomorrow, and we can talk about Limsa!"

 

Antimony let her hands linger on K'airos as she pulled away, until she finally stepped out of reach. She brought her hands close to her as K'airos moved to the door and replied simply, quietly, "I will be here."

 

K'airos left the room, waving in goodbye and closing the door once she was outside.

[Twinflame]

D'hein Tia is focusing wholly on Illira now, "If ity were approved it would not have been necessary! As for usefulness, well, we'll see! You all ahven't exactly changed the world in my absence."

 

llira Carceri smirks, "Maybe not, but things aren't falling apart, which considering everything is a good thing, D'hein."

 

D'hein Tia: Considering that Eorzea is in a state of peace and celebration, things very well may fall apart at any moment. You just won't see it coming because you've no vision for these things.

 

Illira Carceri: Oh no, you obviously listened to nothing in the meeting that we just had not so long ago. We're quite aware of the situation. Hence why its a miracle things haven't completely collapsed.

 

D'hein Tia: Yes, yes, and we need to hire adventurers to get some work done and fix everything. Now, then, as to that investigation.

 

Illira Carceri runs a hand over her face, "What more can I tell you about it? We need another investigator before it can move forward. Though Antimony had said she was close to nailing down the connections."

 

D'hein Tia: It would be a conflict of interest for me to do the legwork. Why don't you just do it so we know that it's done right?

 

llira Carceri tilts her head to the side, brows deeply furrowed. "Are you really not listening to me? I've already told you that neither of us can. Even if we did have the skill sets neccessary. I'm merely telling you why it stalled for the moment."

 

D'hein Tia: I'm afraid a delay in this investigation is unacceptable. It's already taken far longer than it should have. You'll just have to take Antimony back on as a contractor and work with her more closely this time.

 

Illira Carceri glares steely eyed at D'hein. "Absolutely not. She is far too volatile for such, even in normal circumstances. And under the present one, she is of a singular mind, to be with her new-found child."

 

D'hein Tia: No one is of singular mind. An employee is only as good as their supervisor. Whatever approach you took with her obviously failed.

 

Illira Carceri: That is simply absurd D'hein. It is not my fault that women is so crippled by her anxieties as to not do her work in a professional manner. I've seen this time and again with her.

 

Illira Carceri: You merely wish to manipulate her back into closer contact with you again.

 

D'hein Tia frowns and speaks straight, "You've a hideous paradigm for asset management. Employees are assets which collapse if mismanged. I've mind to investiagte your mismanagement of Antimony as an asset, but I'll not insult you with such formality. I'll simply assume that your disability to experience empathy rendered you unable to deal with Antimony's human needs."

 

llira Carceri clenches her jaw, "You have no room to speak D'hein. I have offered her chances and support. I stopped today when I saw her to give her the later. Simply because the world does not turn exactly as you wish it does not mean that you have the right to lay blame on others. To speak plainly, Antimony has a right to live her life and her choice lead her out of our employment."

 

Illira Carceri: There is no "blame" to lay. It is merely time to move onward.

 

D'hein Tia: By your own admission the investigation is stalled through lack of a viable investigator, isn't it?

 

Illira Carceri says, defensively, if not a little angerly, "Because I have not had the time to find one, since I've been cleaning up the mess you left! I'm about done with you. You have taken absolutely no repsonsibility for anything you've done, all the while ordering others about. Apparently you've forgotten that you cannot order me about. I am not -your- employee."

 

D'hein Tia: No, but you are very helpful, and without even being asked! Thank you for that. Now, as the workload thins, I've no doubt your stress will retreat. IN the meantime I cannot emphasize enough the importance that this investigation move forward immediately.

 

Illira Carceri the anger still in her voice, she responds, "I've merely been doing work. And as it became obvious that you were not returning from you vanishment anytime soon I had to take over your post, while still continuing on with my own. You think I'm here in Ul'dah by choice, D'hein? I'm here because of you negilgence. Ildur may be forgiving. But I am not."

 

D'hein Tia: What you call negligence is actually me artfully dealing with unforeseen circumstances. Let's get back on that bit about there being no blame to plce, and see about getting done what must needs be done, hm?

 

Illira Carceri narrows her eyes, "It'll get done when its able to. I think you forget I have a stake in that particular investigation as well, D'hein."

 

D'hein Tia: I'm not concerned with your personal stake, Illira. This is professional, and I'd thank you to keep that in mind.

 

Illira Carceri: You say that, and yet its the Dodos that you're hoping to catch in this. My stake is that I know full well that the Brass Blades are full of corruption. And that the Pearl Lane Post is worse than most."

 

D'hein Tia: Don't assume my associations when you don't know. My tribe's relationship with the SYndicate does give me a decent view of the Syndicates dealings with my tribe, obviously, but that's why I'm insisting you head the investigation.

 

Illira Carceri: And my own involvement with the Blades is why I cannot do the investigation myself. So you see why we need a replacement found.

 

D'hein Tia: Yet you don't have one and the asset that was perfect for the job and practically finished the job has been terminated.

 

Illira Carceri: You need to clean your ears better D'hein. I've already explained the circumstances to you. Antimony quit. She left Ul'dah to run away from personal problems with the intention not stopping until she reached Mor Dhona. Her finding her daughters and returning to Ul'dah now is unrelated. I stopped this evening to talk to her not as an employer but as someone concerned for her health."

 

D'hein Tia crossed his arms and smiled, "Not unrelated. My doing. My skills at asset management returned the asset to Ul'dah despite your failure to keep ehr here. She's the best asset I have in Ul'dah, so I'll just have to put her back together. I assume you won't go out of your way to interfere."

 

Illira Carceri grimaces, displeasure cast on her face, "It is unrelated in that it is no longer the business of the CRA. Your own cheap machinations aside. Her return does not change anything. If she wishes to involve herself in a personal way again, I can do nothing about that. But she is not a fit for the CRA. Not in any reasonable span of the future at least."

 

D'hein Tia: Your opinion is noted. Unless you have a way to make the investigation move forward RIGHT NOW, it is not a helpful opinion.

 

Illira Carceri: Bringing back an unstable probationary former employee is not an option.

 

Illira Carceri: And that is a fact. Not merely my opinion.

 

D'hein Tia: Of course it is. It's not like she isn't elligible for rehire. Even so, it would be best to take her on as a contractor until this single investigation is done. What is not an option is further delaying this investigation in any way.

 

Illira Carceri shakes her head. "I disagree with -your- opinion D'hein. The woman is in no state to work. You are merely blinded by your own desire for her and her daughter. Which given your.... proclaimed parental status over her other daughter is... strange and dubious in intention at best. You're personal interest in her is to close to have any definitive say in her employment status."

 

D'hein Tia shrugs, "You'll have to take it up with Ildur."

 

Illira Carceri: No. You'll have to take it up with him. Her rejoining the CRA is not a given as you seem to think it is. In fact its the opposite. She hired on a three month probationary period. She had issues on both of her initial assignments, the first could be looked over, this one though... absolutely not."

 

D'hein Tia turns to the side and looks up at the sky, "I'm not sure this conversation is going anywhere. You've nothing to offer me to solve the problem, do you?"

 

Illira Carceri grits her teeth. "Now that you can start pulling your own..." she presses her lips together hard, as if holding herself back," ...weight again, I can begin putting forth energy back into it, since I don't have to carry all of your work for you anymore."

 

D'hein Tia turns one ear towards Illira, the other laying down on his skull. He stares at the sky as though it's said something odd to him. "Energy back into what?"

 

Illira Carceri takes in a deep breath. "The bloody investigation! I'm done here. You can look me up again once you've cleaned those furballs out of your ears." The Elezen turns on her heels and stalks away, not bothering, or wanting to wait for any sort of response.

 

D'hein Tia looks distressed and paws at his ears, "Furballs? That's unsettling."

[Illira]

((EDIT: Hurgh. This is what happens when you don't refresh a thread before you reply. Someone else posts the same thing you were going to! This one is edited to match Naunet's posting style though. So uhh... I dunno. I guess I'll leave it here?))

 

((Continued outside of the Inn after Antimony & K'airos leave))

 

---

 

Illira smirks, "Maybe not, but things aren't falling apart, which considering everything is a good thing, D'hein."

 

“Considering that Eorzea is in a state of peace and celebration, things very well may fall apart at any moment. You just won't see it coming because you've no vision for these things,” said D’hein straight-faced.

 

“Oh no, you obviously listened to nothing in the meeting that we just had not so long ago. We're quite aware of the situation. Hence why its a miracle things haven't completely collapsed.”

 

“Yes, yes, and we need to hire adventurers to get some work done and fix everything. Now, then, as to that investigation.”

 

Running a hand over her face Illira asked, "What more can I tell you about it? We need another investigator before it can move forward. Though Antimony had said she was close to nailing down the connections."

 

“It would be a conflict of interest for me to do the legwork. Why don't you just do it so we know that it's done right?”

 

Illira tilts her head to the side, brows deeply furrowed. "Are you really not listening to me? I've already told you that neither of us can. Even if we did have the skill sets necessary. I'm merely telling you why it stalled for the moment."

 

“I'm afraid a delay in this investigation is unacceptable. It's already taken far longer than it should have. You'll just have to take Antimony back on as a contractor and work with her more closely this time,” insisted D’hein.

 

Illira glares steely eyed at D'hein. "Absolutely not. She is far too volatile for such, even in normal circumstances. And under the present one, she is of a singular mind, to be with her new-found child."

 

“No one is of singular mind. An employee is only as good as their supervisor. Whatever approach you took with her obviously failed.

 

“That is simply absurd D'hein. It is not my fault that women is so crippled by her anxieties as to not do her work in a professional manner. I've seen this time and again with her. You merely wish to manipulate her back into closer contact with you again.”

 

D'hein Tia frowns and speaks straight, "You've a hideous paradigm for asset management. Employees are assets which collapse if mismanaged. I've mind to investigate your mismanagement of Antimony as an asset, but I'll not insult you with such formality. I'll simply assume that your disability to experience empathy rendered you unable to deal with Antimony's human needs."

 

Illira clenches her jaw, "You have no room to speak D'hein. I have offered her chances and support. I stopped today when I saw her to give her the later. Simply because the world does not turn exactly as you wish it does not mean that you have the right to lay blame on others. To speak plainly, Antimony has a right to live her life and her choice lead her out of our employment. There is no ‘blame’ to lay. It is merely time to move onward.”

 

“By your own admission the investigation is stalled through lack of a viable investigator, isn't it?” D’hein accused.

 

Illira replied defensively, if not a little angerly, "Because I have not had the time to find one, since I've been cleaning up the mess you left! I'm about done with you. You have taken absolutely no repsonsibility for anything you've done, all the while ordering others about. Apparently you've forgotten that you cannot order me about. I am not -your- employee."

 

“No, but you are very helpful, and without even being asked! Thank you for that. Now, as the workload thins, I've no doubt your stress will retreat. IN the meantime I cannot emphasize enough the importance that this investigation move forward immediately.”

 

The anger still in her voice, Illira responds, "I've merely been doing work. And as it became obvious that you were not returning from you vanishment anytime soon I had to take over your post, while still continuing on with my own. You think I'm here in Ul'dah by choice, D'hein? I'm here because of you negilgence. Ildur may be forgiving. But I am not."

 

“What you call negligence is actually me artfully dealing with unforeseen circumstances. Let's get back on that bit about there being no blame to place, and see about getting done what must needs be done, hm?”

 

Illira narrows her eyes, "It'll get done when its able to. I think you forget I have a stake in that particular investigation as well, D'hein."

 

“I'm not concerned with your personal stake, Illira. This is professional, and I'd thank you to keep that in mind.”

 

“You say that, and yet its the Dodos that you're hoping to catch in this. My stake is that I know full well that the Brass Blades are full of corruption. And that the Pearl Lane Post is worse than most."

 

“Don't assume my associations when you don't know. My tribe's relationship with the SYndicate does give me a decent view of the Syndicates dealings with my tribe, obviously, but that's why I'm insisting you head the investigation.”

 

“And my own involvement with the Blades is why I cannot do the investigation myself. So you see why we need a replacement found, ” insists Illira.

 

“Yet you don't have one and the asset that was perfect for the job and practically finished the job has been terminated.”

 

“You need to clean your ears better D'hein. I've already explained the circumstances to you. Antimony quit. She left Ul'dah to run away from personal problems with the intention not stopping until she reached Mor Dhona. Her finding her daughters and returning to Ul'dah now is unrelated. I stopped this evening to talk to her not as an employer but as someone concerned for her health."

 

D’hein Tiia crossed his arms and smiled, "Not unrelated. My doing. My skills at asset management returned the asset to Ul'dah despite your failure to keep ehr here. She's the best asset I have in Ul'dah, so I'll just have to put her back together. I assume you won't go out of your way to interfere."

 

Illira Carceri grimaces, displeasure cast on her face, "It is unrelated in that it is no longer the business of the CRA. Your own cheap machinations aside. Her return does not change anything. If she wishes to involve herself in a personal way again, I can do nothing about that. But she is not a fit for the CRA. Not in any reasonable span of the future at least."

 

“Your opinion is noted. Unless you have a way to make the investigation move forward RIGHT NOW, it is not a helpful opinion.

 

“Bringing back an unstable, probationary former employee is not an option. And that is a fact. Not merely my opinion.”

 

“Of course it is. It's not like she isn't eligible for rehire. Even so, it would be best to take her on as a contractor until this single investigation is done. What is not an option is further delaying this investigation in any way.”

 

Illira Carceri shakes her head. "I disagree with -your- opinion D'hein. The woman is in no state to work. You are merely blinded by your own desire for her and her daughter. Which given your.... proclaimed parental status over her other daughter is... strange and dubious in intention at best. You're personal interest in her is too close to have any definitive say in her employment status."

 

D'hein Tia shrugs, "You'll have to take it up with Ildur."

 

“No. You'll have to take it up with him. Her rejoining the CRA is not a given as you seem to think it is. In fact its the opposite. She hired on a three month probationary period. She had issues on both of her initial assignments, the first could be looked over, this one though... absolutely not."

 

D'hein Tia turns to the side and looks up at the sky, "I'm not sure this conversation is going anywhere. You've nothing to offer me to solve the problem, do you?"

 

Illira Carceri grits her teeth. "Now that you can start pulling your own..." she presses her lips together hard, as if holding herself back," ...weight again, I can begin putting forth energy back into it, since I don't have to carry all of your work for you anymore."

 

D'hein Tia turns one ear towards Illira, the other laying down on his skull. He stares at the sky as though it's said something odd to him. "Energy back into what?"

 

Illira Carceri takes in a deep breath. "The bloody investigation! I'm done here. You can look me up again once you've cleaned those furballs out of your ears." The Elezen turns on her heels and stalks away, not bothering, or wanting to wait for any sort of response.

 

D'hein Tia looks distressed and paws at his ears, "Furballs? That's unsettling."

[Naunet]

Carrying a square parcel as wide as his waist and a dubiously contented smile, D'hein trod through the Quicksand with his tail swinging back and forth. He wacked several patrons right in the face, earning a number of confused glances which he returned with a wink and a flash of a brilliant smile. All in all he had winked almost two dozen times by the time he left the tavern for the inn, and his eye felt weird.

 

The innkeeper remarked, "Whatcha got in the box?"

 

"It's a gift," D'hein answered as he walked over, his voice excited, "Or is it a key? A great, sparkling key that will open a beautiful heart to me? It's a wonderful yet simple token, which all the best are, and a genius pur-"

 

"Stop," the man said. "With that stupid smirk you got I just wanted to make sure it wasn't, like, somebody's head or something."

 

"Ah, no."

 

"Kay, then."

 

"Which room is Antimony's?"

 

"I'unno."

 

D'hein stared at the man, patiently. After almost an entire minute, the innkeeper rolled his eyes and checked his book. "Uhm. Room seven."

 

"Thank you, good man! I'll tip you on the way out!" He turned and trotted happily down the hallway.

 

"My shift ends in five minutes!"

 

D'hein was already too far gone, either down the hall or into the deep labyrinth of his own mind, to hear the innkeep. He counted down seven doors and turned to knock, finding himself at door ten and deciding he had miscounted. So he went back three doors and found himself at soor five, then forward two doors and found himself at door eleven. With a frustrated huff he turned and walked back to door two, and then began to look more carefully at the doors as he counted up.

 

Finally at door seven, he turned, smiled, and lifted his hand to knock. He realized too late that the lifted hand had been a load-bearing hand, and the package he was carrying toppled from his grip to the floor and thudded against his foot. A lingering chill shot up his leg from his toes as he re-gathered the box.

 

He leaned forward and knocked three times with his forehead.

 

***

 

For a long while after K'airos had gone, Antimony had remained in the middle of the inn room, staring at the door as though her daughter, so strangely, so impossibly wonderfully back from the dead, would reappear. Though K'airos had left with a promise to return - either later that night or tomorrow - Antimony couldn't help the fear that either this was all a dream and the mirage she had crafted from her own grief would never return, or it wasn't a dream but her other daughter, the one who struck fear into her heart, had learned of she and K'airos's continued interactions. K'aijeen could take her beautiful K'airos away.

 

The thought brought a deep ache to her chest and a burning to her eyes as she recalled the vicious words her youngest had flung at her. She nearly crumpled to the floor then and there, but instead only swayed unsteadily, overcome by dizziness she only half-realized was not entirely due to her worry.

 

K'airos had suggested she clean up and feed herself. The former she might be able to manage, but the latter... it would require venturing out into the Quicksand, and such a prospect frightened Antimony more than she cared to admit. Not only could K'aijeen be wandering the inn halls or the scattered tables of the tavern, but other family... K'ile...

 

The faint, fuzzy feeling in her extremities returned, and Antimony managed to stagger towards the bed before she collapsed. Once down, she found her body unwilling to get up and her mind unwilling to release itself from its worry and fear, so she remained there for an unknown length of time.

 

...

 

At some point, the endless wait for the return of her daughter was broken by an unusual sound Antimony did not initially place. A banging? Was the Quicksand undergoing construction...?

 

Realization energized her limbs, and she shot to her feet, nearly fell at the wobbliness of her limbs, and then hurried towards the door. A moment later she'd flung it open with the relieved exclamation of, "K'airos! You're back!" and thoughtlessly flung her arms about the one waiting just outside.

 

The box was pressed uncomfortably into D'hein's ribs. He let himself be pushed backwards a bit and stared down in wordless surprise at the woman who had thrown her body against his parcel. His ears swiveling back and forth, wide eyes blinking, he muttered through quirked lips, "Ah. Incorrect."

 

At the very non-K'airos voice near her ear, Antimony stiffened and then, a moment later, completely recoiled, her tail fuzzing out and ears laying back in both shock and embarrassment. "I didn't--that is, I meant--I'm sorry I--aah! D'hein!"

 

Swaying on her feet briefly, Antimony caught herself on the doorframe, looked about anxiously, and then managed a squawked, "What are you doing here? How did--how are you here!" Then, a sudden fear, "K'airos! Is she alright? Did she get hurt? Did Aijeen find out? She's gone isn't she? My baby girl, she--she's gone!"

 

D'hein let one ear fall against his skull, the other quirking forward in confusion. His brow dropped and he said, "I asked the innkeeper which room you were in and he told me. I haven't seen K'airos, but I wouldn't worry about her. She's not one to just up and run off on people. She's a good girl."

 

For a long moment, Antimony blinked at D'hein, a frazzled expression on her face. Then she sagged, though the expression remained, and averted her gaze from the man. "Ah. I... yes, of course." Her hands worried themselves unconsciously at her waist. "If... if you'll excuse me, I should return to my... room." And she turned as though to do just that.

 

Watching the woman with a bemused expression, D'hein did nothing to stop her. He said, "That's alright, but I brought this parcel for you. And I would hope you have time to share a meal with me, or even a drink, as friends. Now that you know I was being truthful with you when I said I knew K'airos and D'aijeen, I would hope that you don't hate me so much."

 

Antimony stilled mid-step when D'hein spoke, her ears drooping out to either side of her head. Her tail, which had smoothed down considerably since moments before, curled limply behind her, and when she spoke her voice shook, "You have... no idea how much I've... I have wanted this with every fiber of my body since the moment I..."

 

She swallowed, drew in a breath that came with painful difficulty. "I owe you perhaps more than just a meal and a drink. For this."

 

D'hein balked, "Well I'm sure we can-" he shook his head, "I mean! That you don't owe me anything. I did this for K'airos as much as for you. Parents and children should have every oppourtunity to be together."

 

Her brow creased, watery green eyes casting about the inn room as though searching for an answer. There was one child, however, who seemed bent on ensuring none of them were together, and it broke her heart. "Aijeen... I don't know what.. what I've done..." Her tail shivered and she shook her head before half turning back to D'hein and giving him an anxious look.

 

"If I venture outside this room, she could.. Aijeen might... If she knows I'm here, I could lose my girls forever. Again!"

 

"Aijeen's with D'ahl in the commune today, so I doubt she'll go out of her way to slum around the Quicksand." D'hein hefts the box in his hands, "Can I put this down somewhere? It's for you."

 

Several seconds passed where Antimony blinked at the box as though only just realizing its presence. Then she processed D'hein's words and jumped slightly. "Ah! Oh. Well.. what? For me?" A bewildered look crossed her face and her ears shifted about in confusion. Why on earth would this troublesome tia bring her a...

 

"I... suppose anywhere would do? There's a table or.. a bed. Or the floor. Or... a sink? No, that wouldn't... I mean, yes! Yes, you may put it.. down."

 

"Thank you," D'hein proceeded into the room, setting the box on the nearby table. "Anyway, I'll have a talk with Aijeen and figure out what her problem is. Hopefully she's just jealous that K'airos is doting on you."

 

Antimony's ears shook as she turned in place to follow D'hein's movements. "You... you didn't hear what she said when... She commanded Airos to not acknowledge me as her mother!" Her voice broke on those words, her features crumpling. "The words she spoke to me - they were not new, but they still.."

 

"She's always been willful. You should hear how she talks to me!" D'hein said, smiling and turning to face Antimony with one hand on the box. His smile wavers after a moment of thought, "Actually, no. Such terrible words should enver be heard. And yet I'm sure I'll hear them again."

 

"That she would choose you over her own...!" Antimony fell silent then and turned away, half-ashamed of her own words but hurt nonetheless. "Apologies. I... don't know what else I can do anymore."

 

With a sigh, "If you look for the bad in things, you're going to find it every time." He clicked his knuckles on the box, and then said, "You've missed a few years. I can fill you in or K'airos can. Whatever the case, I wanted to ask you to go back to work on the investigation once you've had a few days to find your feet again."

 

Blinking rapidly, Antimony twisted her head around to look at D'hein. "What?" The concept of it loomed menacingly overhead, and she fought a wave of dizziness. "I can't possibly... Airos needs--but I quit.. I mean, was fired.. or... Miss Carceri would certainly not approve...!"

 

Shaking his head, D'hein said, "So what if she doesn't approve? The investigation needs to happen and you're the only skilled assessor I have in place."

 

"You don't have me in place if I'm not... all of my clearance--my... my paperwork! The files and..." She looked left and right uselessly. "I-I must be here for Airos!"

 

"K'airos lives and works in Thanalan. If you're going to live around here, don't you have to work around here, too?"

 

"Live...?" The question caught her off guard in an uncomfortable reality kind of way. She had been so wrapped up, first in her desperate breakdown of escaping from the past, and then in holding on to the daughter she'd thought long lost, that Antimony had all but forgotten... well, her life. The realization struck her hard. "Ah... my... in Limsa and... oh no, has the next moon passed already..? My rent and--"

 

She swayed and kind of half-stumbled over to the bed, where she sat down heavily on the edge. "I can't leave Airos."

 

"I'm sure you'll be just fine whatever you decide," D'hein said, the words giving a passive once-over to every half-spoken concern that Antimony had attempted to speak. "Like I said, you should take a few days to get back on your feet. Discuss things with K'airos, maybe. You've audited the accounts of entire companies, so taking stock of your own situation should be no problem at all. From my outsider perspective, it looks like you have everything you need, now. And as for luxuries," he rapped his knuckles against the box again, "That's where I can help."

 

Looking up from where she'd briefly dropped her face to her hands, Antimony watched D'hein with a vaguely worried look - this time not just for herself or K'airos, but for what the tia might have hidden in that box. "What do you... mean by that?" she asked warily, green eyes shifting to the box, the faint creases at the corners of her eyes deepening in confusion.

 

Mistaking Antimony's confusion for suspicion, perhaps catching on her worry a bit, D'hein leans back a measure and looks at the woman sideways. "It's just some basic gear. Simple clothes and first-aid supplies and canteens and other assorted items of comfort that don't come with hotel rooms. I noted your dilapidated appearance earlier and we keep packages like this at the commune for whenw e travel. Do you find it an inappropriate offering?"

 

"What, ah--no!" She lifted her hands in consolation and cringed at the implication of offense. "No, that's not... I'm sorry, I shouldn't assume any ill--ah! Forget I said..." Her tail twitched a bit wildly against the bed and she closed her eyes to draw in a deep breath.

 

"Thank you," she sighed out, and pressed her hands down along her current dress, suddenly much more self-conscious of its muddied, ruined state. "You didn't need... you shouldn't have felt obligated to do anything for me. Aah, but I.. do appreciate it."

 

"Don't feel like you've imposed. It was as simple as carrying it here from there." He lifted a hand to knock aside all of Antimony's disparaging sentiments. "Now, I must impress one issue a bit further: I am in a deep, compromising need of an assessor to finish the work that was started. I have all the paperwork -- assuming Illira hasn't hidden it from me -- so you can start up where you left off as soon as you're feeling able. I think it would be a prudent course of action, especially considering your daughters."

 

The frown she leveled D'hein with then was significantly more concerned at his last words, almost painfully so. "My daughters? Are you saying--are they involved in that... mess??"

 

"Oh! Not... not precisely." He pulled his tone back significantly, holding up his hands in a sort of halting motion to allow himself to start over. "What I mean is all of Ul'dahn society is in a state of disrepair. K'airos is a Brass Blade and D'aijeen is..." He tried to contruct an explanation of D'aijeen's status that would not in some way upset Antimony, and when he failed, he went on, "So far I think I've been able to steer them away from trouble, but Ul'dah is rife with troubles, and I'm only one man."

 

"They are involved!" Antimony, true to form, took D'hein's words and assumed the worst. She pictured her girls huddled in dark alleys, amidst darker men with leering faces, either accepting or giving money in return for actions she just couldn't-- "Oh no! I must--" She lurched to her feet suddenly. "I will stop this! I'll resolve the investigation immediately!"

 

D'hein's expression dropped into a frown, "Your daughters are not involved. I won't have you moving forward under some false pretense of emergency. And I'm certainly not letting you lift a finger to work on the investigation for at least a few days."

 

Either due to D'hein's words or the very sudden, dizzying rush of blood to her head that took the strength from her legs, Antimony dropped back to the bed with a thump. "Oh," she uttered faintly. "Al..right. If you are certain."

 

"I am. I've been keeping in an eye on your daughters as though they were my own." He smiled, thumped his knuckle on the box, and said, "Now take some time, rest, clean up, help yourself to the new clothes and some comfort. You'll feel better. Then we'll do dinner, alright? K'airos can come, too, if she's back by then."

 

Antimony's ears drooped at something in his words, perhaps the reminder of years she'd lost, of years he had had with her daughters, years that had been taken from her, even though they had been, unknowingly, so near. She pursed her lips and nodded. "I'm unsure if Airos will return tonight. She... well, I asked for her help with... other things."

 

D'hein shrugged, leaning a bit more on the box, "We'll just play it by ear. I'm alright with that. I'm not expecting Aijeen to leave the commune until tomorrow, so there's nothing to worry about there."

 

Antimony just nodded, going quiet on the edge of the bed. She wove her fingers together in her lap.

 

The blond dodo just smiled statically, watching Antimony in silence.

 

Antimony continued to not do anything particularly interesting other than just sit there. After a few moments, she looked up and blinked a bit in weary confusion at him. "Ah... yes?"

 

"Yes what?" D'hein said, then looked around, ears swiveling. "Oh. Oh, yes! As in, yes. In that case, I'll leave you to your comfort and return in one h-... two hours?" He pushed himself off the box and shuffled towards the door. He pointed to the parcel and said, "Make sure you open it. It has some very nice soaps and such!"

 

She glanced to the package, then at D'hein as he moved to exit. Her breath caught in her throat suddenly and she kind of choked on words a moment before clearing her throat and managing, "Thank you."

 

Beaming briefly, D'hein waved high over his head, "See you soon!" and then spun out the door, whacking his hand on the doorframe with a painful crack but seemingly not noticing. He closes the door behind him.

 

Antimony winced at the sound and then just settled back into the silence of the room.

[Naunet]

Terrified of losing track of time, D'hein of the Dodos returned to the Quicksand after fifteen minutes and settled into a bar-stool, where he crossed his arms very tight and stared at the bar-top feverishly trying to remember how long he had said he would give Antimony. His default was one hour, but had he given her more time? Half an hour? An entire hour? Two? Was he mad!?

 

The bar-tender tried to speak with him, but D'hein did not notice. He sat in silent, still panic, staring at the bar and beginning to sweat, growing more agitated as time went on. After what felt like an eternity of trying to feverishly recall the time he had stated, D'hein realized he had been lost in thought over the conundrum for a disproportionate amount of time. Struck by sudden terror that he was late, D'hein leapt to his feet, throwing his barstool back on the ground and whacking an adjacent Lalafel with his tail so hard that the poor man was thrown awkwardly into the lap of the Roegadyn he had been sharing drinks with.

 

D'hein checked the time with shaking hands, finding it had been half an hour. He reset his barstool and apologized to the Lalafel, but the tiny man just smiled and shrugged and settled into the lap of the unexpectedly welcoming Roegadyn. So everything, it seemed, worked out.

 

He ordered a drink. And set his gold-crafted watch on the bar in front of him And stared at it. He never touched his drink.

 

After exactly one hour and forty-five minutes (figuring he had said either an hour and a half or two hours, and figuring that in between he would either be fashionably late or charmingly early) D'hein stood from his barstool and paid off his tab as well as the Lalafel's, who had since passed out and been carried off by the Roegadyn. Good for him!

 

D'hein proceeded down the hallways back to Antimony's room.

 

***

 

The four walls of the inn room K'airos had so generously rented for her were both comforting to Antimony and agonizing - comforting in that they kept her hidden from people she wasn't certain she had the strength of will to face again, and agonizing as they kept her separated from K'airos, something she did not want to experience ever again. D'hein's gift loomed ominously on the table a short distance from her perch on the edge of the bed, and for a long time after he left, she simply watched it and tried not to think of all those other people, or of losing K'airos.

 

He had described the gift as traveling supplies, which, Antimony had to admit, sounded like things she could very much make use of. Though she'd managed to wash herself during her brief stay in Drybone, she still imagined she could smell the stink of corpses on her skin, and the journey back to Ul'dah had left her once more feeling grimy all over. The state of her dress didn't help matters, unfortunately. It occurred to her that she must look absolutely awful, and her ears flattened, tail flicking in embarrassment at what Miss Carceri, D'hein, and most of all her daughter must think of her in such a state.

 

Well, the least she could do was fully appreciate her former (current? future? it was all very confusing still) boss's gift.

 

Antimony stood with a sigh, wincing at the dull ache in her joints. The strain of travel and stress was not doing them any favors, and she didn't think she'd ever felt more like her age than in these moments. Not delaying further, she allowed her curiosity to carry her the few steps to the table and proceeded to unwrap the oblong package.

 

The first item she saw brought a deep flush to her cheeks and she nearly pushed the entire thing off the edge of the table in her shock. The cloth was folded, but the cut of it was unmistakable, even less when she lifted it slightly in shaky hands. The soft purple fabric ran like water across her skin, and perhaps at any other time she might have admired the dress, but not now, and especially not considering who had given it. It brought to mind another gift, come all the way from Coerthas, and she grimaced with mild guilt before setting the dress - was it supposed to be tight? It certainly looked far too small for her - to one side.

 

The rest of the items inside were less provocative, though their quality left Antimony feeling guilty for accepting such a thing: several finely crafted soaps in fragrances she couldn't identify, a set of grooming implements and other assorted toiletries, a few washcloths and a towel so thick and soft her fingers disappeared in its fibers, a pair of water flasks made of intricately engraved metal wrapped in impossibly supple leather, and at the bottom, a set of clothing, thankfully more acceptable than the dress she'd found first, though following pattern, they were made of fabrics far nicer than Antimony had ever seen.

 

"And all Dodos receive these?" she muttered to herself and then shook her head. She was well aware of the tribe's accrued wealth and status; she only hoped that using these gifts wouldn't draw the ire of any other tribe member she might happen to run into.

 

At that point, Antimony became aware she had not kept track of time. This realization startled her so much that a number of the toiletries were sent clattering to the floor. Time! How long had she dawdled? When had D'hein said he'd return? One hour? Two? What if he walked in through the door right that moment? And she'd done nothing!

 

She wasted another several minutes agonizing over her delay, then recognized said agonizing was delaying her further and sprang into action. Though this room did not come equipped with a bath (not that she would have asked K'airos to spend more money on her for such a thing), she recalled the Quicksand having a publically available washing area not far. She only needed to locate it.

 

A few minutes later, Antimony had bundled the towels, clothing, and soaps in her arms and was making her way down the halls with quick but cautious steps. True, D'hein had assured her that K'aijeen was not currently on the Quicksand's premises, but she did not quite trust those words, and there were of course others she did not wish to run into immediately...

 

***

 

Some time later, Antimony walked back through the halls with the towels and toiletries bundled in her arms again, but this time the towels were damp and joined by her old, mud-stained dress. She had to admit that the bath had greatly refreshed her, even if her thoughts continued to wander madly towards places of worry. She couldn't smell corpses anymore, which was comforting, and the grime that had gotten seemingly everywhere - even under her nails and between her toes - was scrubbed clean as much as she could manage. The change of clothes D'hein had provided fit her fairly well, though the pants - loose and gathered in the style of Ul'dah - were a bit too long, as were the sleeves of the wrapped shirt. At least the detailing on them was pretty, though it still felt uncomfortable to wear a stranger's clothing. Her mostly greyed hair hung wet against her neck, messy from the shower but she would deal with that once...

 

Antimony froze mid-step as her eyes caught sight of an unmistakable fluff of blond hair hovering just outside her room. She nearly turned around and fled right there, utterly mortified at that tia seeing her like this, but no - there was nothing to be done for it. How had she lost track of time? She'd been so certain she had at least a quarter bell until...!

 

Clearing her throat anxiously, Antimony's still damp ears swiveled with uncontrolled nerves as she ventured, "Excuse... me. You're, ah--you're... early!"

 

D'hein spun to the strange-looking Miqote, thin hair wet and nice clothes but ill-suiting her frame. It didn't really do to wander around wet like that, especially if one couldn't even bother to dress appropriately to one's own size!

 

Oh, no, it was Antimony. That changed everything! What was that thing she had just said? Some series of words artfully broken like the fake breaks in a stained-glass window. With a smirk, he imagined what a deliberately broken greeting like that must sound like, letting his fabricated substitute fill out his memories since he'd missed it.

 

And then, with a smile and a bow, he said, "And I’m sure I share those beautiful sentiments, miss Antimony." And then, leaning back, "If you had required or still require time, you need only say so. I'm in no hurry to rush you."

 

His response confused her enough that she was left stammering for several seconds, clutching the towels and her old clothing to her chest. Sentiments? That he was... early? Did he mean to be early? Had he thought to catch her unawares? How long had he been lurking here? What else had he done while she was bathing??

 

"I don't--that is, I haven't--I... just wasn't expecting you so... ah! Excuse me!" Face flushed bright red, she hurried around him to the door, "I'll just--just be a moment!"

 

Retreating a measure with a chuckle, D'hein held up his hands, "Take your time. I tell you what: I'll linger in the tavern and you come fetch me when you're prepared."

 

"Yes, yes, I'll do just--" the door opened and shut behind her in a flurry, "--that," she finished to the empty room.

 

With a pained sigh, Antimony trudged over to the table and began to try and put herself back into some semblance of order.

 

***

 

Stritching his arms to either side of him -- whacking the walls without noticing -- D'hein began his way back to the tavern and fixed his fingers behind him as he went. He did not bother to get a table once he had set foot in the tavern, though. He just stood and lingered. It was a terribly common place and it was far below him to actually eat the kinds of food they sold here.

 

***

 

Once she'd managed to brush out her hair and pin it up into something acceptable that didn't resemble a drake's nest - a process that took very little time, considering the decades of practice she'd had, and her own tendency toward economy of style, rather than fancy flair -  Antimony tried to give her thoughts a chance to cool. Closing her eyes, she drew in a few, slow breaths and then set about the task of very carefully laying out the damp towels and, more carefully, folding her old clothes. She set the former on the floor next to the bed, alongside the equally dirty winter coat she'd somehow managed to keep ahold of throughout all of this chaos. She wouldn't forgive herself if she lost it, of course; Mitari's gift had been nothing if not heartfelt.

 

She wondered not for the first time what it might like to take K'airos with her up north. But with K'aijeen as hateful and dangerous...

 

Antimony forced herself to ignore the sharp ache in her chest those thoughts stirred, as well as the stinging in her nose and behind her eyes. Taking a moment to wipe her glasses with the hem of the clean shirt and, finally, adjust the new articles of clothing in a way she hoped at least looked decent, Antimony finally took her exit of the room in search of D'hein.

 

***

 

She found him fairly quickly, near the entryway into the open tavern that led from the inn halls. She approached him quietly, hoping to keep her composure more than the last time they'd interacted, and clasped her hands in front of her.

 

"Now, I am ready," she stated, standing slightly behind him. Her tail swished in slow arcs behind her, brushing against the loose fabric of her pants.

 

Watching the working-class mingle was an interesting past-time. How they managed to indulge on such paltry, ugly things, he wasn't sure. The liquor was all essentially the same, except for the quality of the ale which was completely uncoscionable, he was sure, but the food and the environment and just the stink off all the other working-class people should have made contentedness impossible.

 

All of which was not actually a thing he thought. Was this how the Dodo Nunhs passed their time? Staring down from their towers and lamenting the lesser beings? No, not lamenting. Heckling. Or something.

 

"Hello!" He finally announced several seconds after Antimony had arrived, spinning around, his tail fairly flailing behind him. Only one of his ears managed the turn to Antimony; the other got lost and ended up listening for the ceiling for some reason. "You look so much more comfortable, now! Collected, prepared. You look like an otherworldly genius descended from some ivory tower, still glistening with divine light!"

 

"I... what?" Her own ears twisted uncertainly at that description. Certainly he wasn't talking about her. What in all of Eorzea was he talking about? Her tail gave a firm swish and she drew a breath, "Ah, that's... not necessary. I apologize for, well, earlier. I must've lost track of... time or some sort of... well. Regardless."

 

Her fingers wove together as she looked past D'hein to the tavern, a small twinge of anxiety tightening her chest as she half-expected to spot K'luha or K'ile amongst the throng. Of course, if K'ile were here, he would have smelled her long ago... and perhaps left in disgust. She wouldn't blame him for such a thing. He had no obligation to her, an outsider, twice over. At least she'd thought to sent K'airos to help...

 

Antimony realized she'd grown quite distracted with these unhappy thoughts and shook herself, returning her focus to the blonde tia in front of her. She tilted her head slightly at him and, for the first time in days, allowed herself to acknowledge the extreme hunger that had been pestering her balance, concentration, and just general being, "You, ah, mentioned we could eat...?"

 

Watching Antimony passively as she seemed to sink into a comfortable shell of distraction for a few seconds, only to rise out of it suddenly, D'hein at length smirked and said, "Have you ever eaten near or around the hustings strip? Or any of those very red-and-gold interior places of the city?"

 

She frowned at that. "Of course not. It would be an exorbitant waste of agency resources."

 

Leaning a bit back, one ear standing up and his eyes flicking around as if to see if he is being spied upon, D'hein said, "It would? Really? Since when!"

 

Confusion softened her expression, and her ears tilted back somewhat. "Since... well, I have--I mean, had a budget, you should know! It didn't seem proper to spend it on... not that I'd ever considered such a thing."

 

"Budget? Really? I... Well," He crossed his arms and bit his thumb, looking conflicted. "I guess budgets are a thing we work off of. That must be more common for business dealings than I had suspected. Budgets for contractors is such a mad idea, though, I'd never thought of it! Draconian, but perhaps in a good way."

 

"In a... what way?" Perhaps it was her hunger getting the better of her, but Antimony found following D'hein's train of thought increasingly difficult. "Everything and everyone has a budget of some kind."

 

She didn't feel like arguing the point, however, so instead she just twisted her hands together and questioned, "Is that where you wish to dine, then?"

 

Taking a long time to pull his thoughts away from the revolutionary budgetary paradigms Antimony had invented, D'hein said with some difficulty, "Yes. Unless you have some special wish to remain here."

 

Green eyes flicked past him to the tavern once more, and Antimony decided then that she was indeed not ready to face any of those she'd run from just yet. She recognized this as cowardly, and the acknowledgement was not without a strong sense of guilt; however, to D'hein she just nodded. "That would be fine." A pause. "The, ah, Hustings Strip, I mean."

 

"Excellent! I know this place that purports to serve literally the best Ourobon in the entire world!" He spun, pacing his way towards the Quicksand's exit to head off to Ruby Road and, from there, to the Hustings strip. He fixed his hands behind him as he went, smiling upwards and speaking without reserve, "Then, maybe you don't want Ourobon? I'm sure that's a main staple of one's diet in Southern Thanalan!"

 

It took her several seconds to pull her thoughts together enough to follow him, and when he spoke again, they scattered just as quickly. And she had hoped to maintain order over this dinner...

 

Antimony flinched and looked off to one side, watching the brown stone wall pass as they walked instead of the man who'd decided to speak of uncomfortable things. "That's... well, yes, but I haven't..." She cleared her throat, trying to free it of the lump that had begun to form, and finally finished, "There's mostly fish in Limsa."

 

"Oh, right," D'hein said, moving his hands from behind his back and clapping it in front of him, "And an Ourobon is a kind of fish! Inferior to anything you get in Limsa." He put his hands back behind his back. "Although once you've eaten at the Bismarck, well, you'll have a hard time at similar establishments elsewhere! Heed this warning, Antimony!" He brought his hands forward and clapped them again. "Do not order the fish here in Ul'dah. You'll be disappointed."

 

His gesturing drew her attention from the wall, and she watched it with an almost-fascination at how theatrical they were. "I will keep that in mind," she acknowledged. At this point her stomach made a small, hollow sound and she ducked her head briefly before adding in a hurried tone to cover the embarrassment, "I doubt they have the true staple food, however."

 

"Ah, but what is truth?" Began D'hein, then shook his head. "Forget I said that." Stupid change of topic! He needed to pay more attention to what he was saying. His tail was churning like a piston behind him as he walked onward, trying to get his brain to work its way back to... food, they had been discussing? Regional food.

 

He cleared his throat, "Ul'dah itself isn't known for anything of any interest, unfortunately. Unless you like spices. Lots and lots of spices!"

 

"I'm certain it's all delicious," she replied neutrally and couldn't help but brush against a memory - faded in its age - of a rare venture of trade with the outside world. Spices were one of the treasures their huntresses had returned with, and their flavors had excited the children for weeks. Antimony's ears drooped. She should not think of such things, not when she no longer had right to them.

 

Think of the present.

 

The rough stone streets had given way to more delicately carved paths, and many of the walls they passed were now softened with richly colored tapestries. Even the lighting in these inner paths of Ul'dah shifted, gaining a warmer hue, and though she could still catch the pervading scents of sweat and dirt and sickness that covered the city like a shroud, they were more distant here. "Where precisely is this, ah, place...?"

 

The Dodo stopped in his tracks as the surprised by the question. He looked up, then around him, then down at Antimony wordlessly, his thoughts churning as though through some kind of clanking machine. D'hein blinked.

 

Antimony frowned, trying to stifle a niggling suspicion; it wouldn't do to make assumptions so frequently. Even if he did seem a bit... "... You do know where we are going, yes?"

 

D'hein went slightly wide-eyed. Was Antimony trying to test him? Then he must do his very best to pass! Taking a moment to ponder, only a moment so that it did not become awkward, "To... the..." Oh, food!

 

"It is a magnificent place!" D'hein declared, spinning to walk forward again and turning them up a flight of stairs, "You will marvel at how humble it can be while still evoking such incredible regality! Quite like myself, actually. Or yourself, now that I think about it!"

 

There was no real way to avoid the heat in her cheeks at that. "I am not... I wouldn't call myself regal in any..." Her ears shook vigorously at the thought. These compliments he seemed to be constantly armed with were really going to be the end of her.

 

The stairs were a bit more difficult than they should have been, perhaps credit to her scant rest of late, but she watched his ears to distract herself. Always mobile, she half-wondered if they were even a part of his head. It would... well, that was a silly thought.

 

"Oh, I would call you regal by most definitions," D'hein said with a laugh, "And I'm an expert on the definitions of that word. Here!" D'hein cut off half-way up the stairs into a relatively thin hallway, dashing into it as though diving for cover. In truth, he almost hadn't noticed it, so acted quickly when he did.

 

The suddenness of his action caught Antimony off-guard and she half-stumbled to keep up with him before realizing he probably wouldn't go running off without her. So she took a moment to catch her balance and her orientation before also turning down the hall he'd dove into, looking up as she did so. The ceiling vaulted high above them, making the narrow hallway seem strangely confining, or perhaps just very far below ground. Either way, it was a bit claustrophobic, and Antimony quickly returned her gaze forward to D'hein.

 

"I'll admit I'm a bit relieved," she said as she followed him. "Food has not been a high priority for... ah! Not that I--I don't intend to rush or... it's not as though I accepted this invitation only to take advantage of you, well, your.. ngh."

 

D'hein paused, staring up at the high vaulted ceiling, where it was eerily consumed by shadows. The eccentricity of the hall was charming to him, like a friend with a dark sense of humor. D'hein dropped his gaze to Antimony, and inclined his head in a tiny faux bow, "Antimony, there's an honor in having one's hospitality take advantage of. If you accepted for only that reason, I would be delighted." And then he was marching happily down the hallway again.

 

"Oh. That's--ah... alright." She followed him in silence for several moments. The strange, sideways flattery kept throwing her off, and she wasn't entirely sure what else to say to such things. She certainly didn't understand where they came from.

 

"Airos," she spoke suddenly, slowing her steps briefly as she pictured her middle daughter before hurrying back alongside him and adding in a quieter tone, "She... looks well."

 

"Oh, she's very well! Charming and beautiful beyond the right of any flower or star," D'hein glanced back at Antimony as he walked, "And if you point it out her face glows red as a sunset. Industrious. If I had half the virtues she did I'd own all of Ul'dah by now."

 

He took another sudden, sideways turn, through an even darker entry than the previous one. This took him not into a hallway, though, but instead into a modest and low-ceiling'ed room. More of a den than a tavern, it had a small number of long, maple tables on a dark clay floor, the walls tiles a deep rust red. The firelight was a soft orange, kept dim and calm.

 

The shadows were deep, but they were warmly so. The handful of patrons, well short of a dozen, spoke in low, amicable tones. They were all people who knew how to speak softly, calmly, and their words carried well in this silent place so far from the roads.

 

Further talk of her daughter - such as that she wouldn't stand for him to hold any designs on her K'airos - stilled in Antimony's throat as they entered this new room, the unexpected shift in decor and mood pausing her steps a moment. There was a certain understated but very clear wealth to the room that left Antimony feeling out of place; she only hoped it didn't show too much in her face.

 

Well, she certainly would not be seeing K'ile or K'luha here, at the very least.

 

"I assume this is... it?" Her hands fidgeted with the sleeves of her borrowed shirt. "It's certainly, ah, cozy."

 

"Pause for a moment," D'hein said, spinning on Antimony and holding up his hands. "Close your eyes and imagine a sunset."

 

"I... what?" She blinked rapidly behind her glasses at his hands, then up as though she could see the sky - which, of course, she could not - and then back to D'hein. "Whatever for...?"

 

Frowning for a moment, D'hein said patiently, "The decor of the place makes no sense unless you play along."

 

Glancing around the room at the other patrons, most of whom seemed content ignoring her and D'hein to her relief, Antimony finally sighed in acquiescence. "Very well. If you insist..."

 

Standing very straight, legs and arms together, Antimony closed her eyes and tried to picture a sunset. At first, she thought of oranges and yellows over broad spans of rolling water, the tones softened by evening mist rolling in, but such a scene didn't seem appropriate for the setting. And she couldn't help... the slow waves became rolling dunes, and the mist pulled back to a clear sky, the sun blazing with a mighty fury low on the horizon. Her chest ached.

 

"Alright, now," D'hein lifted his hands to gesture as he spoke, watching Antimony's features, "Fix the sunset in your mind. The place and time don't matter. But the light, the color, the warmth of the day. And then let the sun set beyond the horizon. Just that instant after the sunset, where everything is blue and purple except the lingering red in the sky. And the scent of the day is still there, the heat of it before the cool comes, and everything is dark and shadowed. Kind shadows that leave beautiful lines on everyone's faces."

 

Her ears tilted at the request, confused at the purpose that remained obscured behind it. "Are you certain this is necessary," she muttered, but did her best to play along. Drawing a deep breath, Antimony watched Azeyma's eye dip and fade, and as she did this, she wondered how many sunsets she had missed with her daughters. She swallowed at the thought and tried to focus on the cooling sand, the cool shadows that were not yet sharpened by moonlight.

 

Letting a truncated sigh slip at Antimony's question, D'hein pushed forward anyway, "Just fix that time and setting in your head. Cool, warm, comfortable, when the light is easiest and the air comfortable, and the shadows make everyone appear deep, mysterious, fascinating." He dropped his hands, "And that's it. Minutes After Sunset. That's what this place is called."

 

She was silent for a moment, eyes still closed, and gave an honest effort to indulge in the feelings D'hein sought to engender. They were tempered, however, by the familiarity of the vision she'd called up, and after a time she sighed, her tail drooping to hang low behind her. "It's quite lovely," she admitted, which was true despite those other things. The small establishment had succeeded in what it had clearly set out to do. "Though I tend to prefer night once it's fully set in and the stars are clearly visible. Better to chart constellations that way."

 

She frowned with her eyes still closed, not sure why she'd volunteered that information.

 

"If we could see the stars from in here, I might agree. Except that nights can be so cold, and I'm a man who prefers to stay warm." He reached out and briefly brushed her shouler with one of his gloved hands, "You can open your eyes now. I'll find us a seat." He turned to the soft lamplight and deep shadows of the place, finding that he had his pick of every seat. He went for one that looked comfortable, near a wall, away from people.

 

She'd never minded the cold, not when she'd had her charcoal and the few, precious sheets of hide she'd managed to beg off the huntresses, bits of worm skin too worn thin or too stiff to be used for other purposes. The weight of the memories D'hein had unknowingly stirred nearly staggered her, and Antimony opened her eyes swiftly at his notice, looking around the room once more to try and dispel them.

 

She followed him to the corner he'd chosen quietly, looked over the low, round table and its rather comfortable looking chairs, and settled into one with no small amount of appreciation. She didn't speak immediately, torn between wanting to bring K'airos up again or venture for something more neutral.

 

Before beginning any conversation, D'hein turned to wave over towards the long, narrow bar that huddled patronless against the wall. He received a nod from the bartender, and then D'hein turned back to Antimony and said, "A place like this doesn't really have a static menu. Their selection is smell and varies greatly, so I usually just forego picking something out and let the kitchen do so for me. Do you have any reservations or allergies?"

 

"Uhm," her brow furrowed at the question, though it was straightforward enough. "I don't... think so, no." Green eyes shifted towards the bar D'hein had made some wordless communication towards, wondering what had been exchanged, and then back to the miqo'te before her. "Do you?"

 

"No," D'hein said. "I don't think so. Do you drink?"

 

Oh, that question. She recalled unhappily those unfortunate two evenings with Captain Lamandu, tried to remember if she'd managed to get a taste of whatever he had ordered for her. The memory of Ulanan growing louder and more overtly scandalizing was more prominent in her mind, however, and she fidgeted a bit before admitting, "I haven't. Though... I'm not sure I'd be averse."

 

"It's more of an after-dinner thing for me," D'hein said, open palms on the table between them, "But different people do so differently. If there's anything that you're in the habit of or that you desire which doesn't rise to the top of my head, please just say so and let me take care of it. I don't want you to hesitate at all."

 

Glancing around the warmly shadowed room, Antimony shook her head slightly, ears shifting at the various levels of conversation. "I'm sure none of my habits are... well, necessary for this kind of place."

 

"All that's necessary is whatever makes one comfortable and relaxed. Case and point." D'hein withdrew his hands as two large glasses of chilled milk were placed on the table, one near him and one near Antimony. "I myself am simple. All I wanted after two months away on business was a cup of milk, so of course that witch of an Elezen pillaged my poor, helpless milk bar while I was gone. Fresh stock is difficult to come by in the desert."

 

"Away? What were you--ah, not that it's... any of my business." She blinked at the glass, watched the condensation settle in a ring on the coaster it had been placed upon. Her tail shook. "I will be quite alright with whatever they have to offer," she ventured to reassure, and certainly this was true. She hadn't eaten much more than a few fruits the past few days; even sun-rotten worm meat would seem appetizing at this point, she was so far beyond being picky.

 

"Alright, then. I'll stop worrying." D'hein said, holding his glass of milk in both hands immediately in front of him and staring at it fondly for number of seconds before indulging in a long, slow sip.

 

"Thank you." Not an entirely appropriate response, but it was the best she could do. She watched D'hein sip from his milk for a moment, then glanced to her own, recalling the last time she'd had milk. Such a disastrous interview... though apparently not too disastrous. Her hands moved grip it, letting the condensation sink into her palms for a moment, before she lifted it to her lips for a small sip. It wasn't food yet, but it was something, and she couldn't resist another, and then a third.

 

D'hein smirked over his own cup of milk to watch Antimony drinking hers.

 

Catching D'hein's look, Antimony stilled and then cleared her throat, flicking her eyes away briefly and setting her glass down. "Ah, excuse me. Overcome with... well." Her ears twitched in discomfort.

 

"I'm glad you like it." D'hein said, setting down his own glass and giving Antimony a full smile, "You'd be surprised some of the looks I get!"

 

His words didn't quite follow, and she furrowed her brow at him. "For... what?"

 

He tilted his head, "For drinking so much milk. People think it's strange, but I'm unsure why. It's good for a person. I'm always telling everyone that they should be sure to drink plenty of milk!"

 

Her ears followed the tilt of his head. "Surely it's not so vital. I lived without it for decades, after all."

 

"It is absolutely vital!" D'hein said, strongly, "That you lived without it is tragic, but it must be an artifact of your cleverness, a testament to mankind's will to live, that you somehow managed to substitute its presence in your diet. Such miraculous alchemy is beyond my comprehension, but where I walk there shall never be need of it. From now on, you will have just as much milk to drink as I've always provided my own family." He punctuated this speech by downing some milk.

 

"That's... very kind of you," Antimony mumbled, looking bewildered by the passion driving his words. Still, it was... She could at least appreciate the sentiment behind it. Her eyes dropped to her glass, and she couldn't help the sad tone to her voice when she said, "As you've done with Aijeen and Airos?"

 

"Precisely," D'hein said, leaning back in his chair and swirling his milk like a glass of wine. "Although D'aijeen is as stubborn about it as anyone and got it in her head that it's bad for K'airos as well."

 

She looked up worriedly at that. "She's got ahold of--" Her words cut off suddenly though, as she finally caught on to something she had perhaps heard numerous times now but had refused to acknowledge. "... She truly changed her name?" She said a bit quieter and then looked down. "She hates me that much."

 

"Eeeh," D'hein sat his milk down and thrummed his fingertips against the glass, creating a rhythmic plunking sound and rippling the surface fo the cream. "She became a Dodo so she could abuse our resources. She did keep her given name, which I think counts for more. And I would say that she does not have any straightforward emotions about anything, so..." He bit down on his cheek to silence himself.

 

"Her words in that corpse yard were very straightforward," Antimony muttered lowly, ears laying back. She couldn't help that despair, that there was nothing she could do to change her youngest daughter's mind. She'd tried for years. She'd done everything she could to protect her, and in the end it had meant nothing. And that she now threatened to take K'airos from her... "Please," she spoke suddenly, giving D'hein and earnest look, "Tell me how they've lived. What you've... done."

 

The Dodo watched Antimony's features, and couldn't help but to let his own emotions be moved downward by them. Her frown deepened his own. The softness of her eyes took the edge of happiness from his own. But he watched her stubbornly, even as a server arrived to decorate their table with a number of fresh dishes: breads, vegetables, a medley of dark meats from desert animals.

 

Giving neither the food nor the server a moment's consideration, he said, "Your daughters are doing well. I think you would be proud of them. Both of them."

 

"I want to believe you," she ducked her head, eyes dropping to the food placed before them and finding her appetite gone despite the emptiness in her gut. "But Aijeen, I don't... know her. I'm not sure she'll ever... allow me to." And there it was. She'd thought enough time had passed that perhaps it had grown dull, or at least distant like the grief for other lost family, but that emptiness she'd felt when she'd awoken one morning to find her youngest daughter gone, lost to the dunes... She turned her head away sharply, blinked hard.

 

"I'm sorry," she choked out. "This isn't... the best time for these kinds of words, I don't think. You shouldn't have to--that is, I shouldn't be... ah, I will try to just enjoy the food."

 

"Here," D'hein spoke with a patient smile, setting a piece of meat on a plate, placing some vegetables with it. "See if you can tell me by taste what is what. And how good a job the culinarian did." He pushed the plate towards Antimony.

 

Pulling in a few, unsteady breaths, Antimony turned back to the table and tried to focus on D'hein's words, the varied smells of food. "Ah, I'm... not nearly so skilled as to presume to judge an esteemed culinarian," she mumbled but took up the utensils by the plate anyway. Something familiar settled in the scents wafting up from the plate, something she recognized almost immediately, "Sun drake." This quiet announcement was followed with a small bite, and sure enough, that's what it was. Some of the flavor was different, heftier than she was used to, likely because most meat she'd ever eaten had first been dried and cured. Unmistakable, however. Antimony frowned; it seemed the past was not about to let her go.

 

"Ah, I do love Sun Drake," D'hein said, taking a plate and snagging some of the meat for himself. "Something about eating a predator is just so... Does justice have a taste? If it did, it would be Sun Drake."

 

Momentarily distracted from her previous nadir or emotion by D'hein's challenge and unusual comment, Antimony found herself struck by an almost desperate urge to... well, to eat. For this reason, her only response was a slight nod as she continued with bites of the seared drake flesh. The culinarian who had prepared it had dusted it with a crust of seasonings that sharpened the gamey taste of the meat.

 

"I'll admit, I'd not realized it could be quite so... well, not stringy," she admitted after a moment, before going back to finally (finally!) filling her stomach.

 

"An Ul'dahn culinarian can shock you with their ability change the shape and form of a thing. They have to. Not as much to work with as in Limsa Lominsa. Well," he rolled his eyes while absently piling random vegetables on his plate, "Unless they want to import, but usually that is restricted to Syndicate kitchens."

 

Noticing his partaking of vegetables drew Antimony's attention to those on her own plate she had been erstwhile neglecting. It was strange what hunger could do to one, for suddenly those vegetables - green, stalky things and others that looked like roots of some kind - seemed the most delectable items she'd ever laid eyes upon. She only barely restrained herself from all but diving into them. Her tail twitched at the very end as she ate, flicking against the side of her chair in a rapid rhythm.

 

Still having not begun on his own food, D'hein set his prepared plate in front of himself and once again enjoyed watching Antimony for a moment. "Don't eat too fast or you'll make yourself sick," he cautioned, "And remember to drink your milk," he hefted his own glass in illustration.

 

A flinch knocked her fork against the edge of the plate, the sound uncomfortably loud to Antimony compared to the hushed tones of the rest of the dining area. She almost looked around, half expecting the other patrons to be staring agog at her mad rush to consume the food placed in front of her, but her own chagrin kept her frozen staring forward and down. Very deliberately, she slowed her pace and stammered, "Very sorry, I--well, it's just that I haven't had... I mean, there was the apple Megiddo gave me... and that pear of Airos's, and--well, Miss Aeriyn's apple as well and... that's.. mmm--" She trailed off, ducking her head slightly to chew on a bite of root vegetable.

 

"There's nothing to apologize for. Unless you make yourself sick, in which case I'll make you apologize for ignoring my warnings." The Dodo pulled his plate over and began to push his vegetables around in the juices from his meat. Without looking, he took a serving of sauce and poured it over the mix as well, fairly ruining the artful presentation of the food he'd been given.

 

Some of the edge had been taken off her hunger by then anyway, so Antimony found it easier to keep her eating at a slower pace; however, this also resulted in more periods of awkward - at least to her - silence where she neither ate nor spoke. Her knee bounced anxiously under the table until she set one hand one it to still the limb, but then her tail picked up the slack, flicking back and forth along the side of the chair.

 

In this silence, more nagging thoughts presented themselves, and against her better judgment, she ventured another question regarding her daughters: "Ahm," she coughed to clear her throat and then continued, "Aijeen, has she... She was never very satisfied with my... well, has she continued, ah, studying? Under your care?" The last few words were difficult to say, acknowledging D'hein's role in her daughter's life, but she thought she managed them without too much dubiousness or jealousy. She hoped so, at least.

 

"Maybe?" D'hein said, taking a moment to chewy on a stringy, tough vegetable as he thought, green eyes cast towards some candles a few tables away. After he swallowed, he said, "Under my care, not so much. I paid for her to study Conjury in Gridania for a couple of years, and after she decided she was done with that, Thaumaturgy here in Ul'dah. I think she's studying Alchemy now?"

 

Green eyes widened slightly at the mention of thaumaturgy, recalling the Ul'dahn guild's proximity to the Ossuary as well as K'aijeen's proximity to the death all over Drybone. The thought left her feeling ill and she set down her fork carefully. A memory tugged at one corner of her mind, of an incomprehensible beast of bone and sinew and... "Vultures," she mumbled faintly and then shook herself while her hands shook in turn. "Does she... do you know if she sti--ah, if she studies the... dead?"

 

Pausing as he cut through a piece of meat, and then giving it a distasteful look as though it had transformed into something ugly, D'hein frowned up at Antimony and said, "That's an odd way to say it. If you mean Thaumaturgy, there's more to it than simply death, and I don't think she is still studying it."

 

"No," Antimony shook her head slightly, ears shivering before setting back against her head. Her tone dropped, "I mean the dead."

 

"... Like, history?"

 

The creases around her eyes deepened with an anxious, worried look. "No. The... dea—corpses. She used to..."

 

"I don't know anything about that," D'hein said, rather quickly, and forced himself to return to cutting the piece of meat on his plate. "Conjury and Thaumaturgy each deal with death in their own ways and times, but as far as I can tell, that's the extent of it. And I'm told she helps in Drybone sometimes, but Thaumaturgy has its uses there and they do need lots of help."

 

Her meal had become utterly unappetizing somehow, and she blinked down at his with a heavy look. "Before she--" Antimony winced, forced herself to pick up her fork and knife, but she couldn't manage to do anything with the utensils. "--left, she would... take them apart. Bodies. Of... hunted prey. I thought it was just, ah, harmless curiosity at first but..." Antimony swallowed dryly.

 

"I..." D'hein began, his voice falling away as he stared at Antimony, struggling for words, "I am not aware of such a hobby myself. There are so many good things that D'aijeen does. Should we not discuss those? She takes excellent care of K'airos, for instance."

 

Her hands tightened about her fork and knife, her features following suit. "It--it's just that I worry... if she still... the night before she--left, she summoned a /beast/, a demon!" Antimony flinched then, ducking her head as her voice lifted and cracked, chancing a nervous look to one side, but she couldn't tell if she'd drawn attention from any other patrons. "If she's putting K'airos in danger, or herself," she managed after a moment, quieter, in fact barely above a whisper. "I... worry."

 

His hands motionless around his silverware, D'hein delayed a great while with his eyes fixed on Antimony, before finally saying, "I've seen no indication of that she's putting anyone in danger. She's a bit argumentative, sure, but that's... all. Pretty much."

 

The set of her mouth and brow spoke of how little his words did to convince her that her daughter had turned away from the dark practices she'd glimpsed that horrible night. She wanted to press him further; if he were truly taking care of her, surely he'd have spent enough time around her to notice? She couldn't fathom K'aijeen ceasing action on the very thing that had caused her to leave the tribe in the first place. Unless... it had been something else that had driven her away. Someone else

 

Antimony's ears drooped low to the sides of her head, and she forced a bite of the drake steak though it now tasted like little more than parchment to her distracted mind. "If you... are certain," she finally said and then fell into a sad, brooding silence.

 

"I think you should ask K'airos about that," D'hein said, taking a vegetable, a piece of meat, another vegetable on his fork. "If anybody knows D'aijeen better than anyone else, it's her. They've been firmly attached to one another ever since D'aijeen brought K'airos to us."

 

Antimony sighed, "I am not surprised. They... were always close." She glanced away again, then toward D'hein but found she couldn't quite look him in the eyes. Instead she settled for the collar of his shirt, a neutral point. Her tail twitched and she muttered a bit despairingly, "I am sorry. I must be horrible at dinner conversation."

 

"That just means you need practice!" D'hein proclaimed, finding a happy tone again. He let his head lean down to try and catch her eyes with his own, "Or lessons. One thing I am greatly skilled at teaching is etiquette and conversation! I'm sure you'd take to lessons with an exceptional talent. You do seem talented at all things."

 

"What? That--ah, that isn't--" The compliment caught her off guard - yet again, he seemed to be making a pattern of it and she still couldn't catch on, apparently. She stammered for a moment, flicking her eyes up to his and then down to one side. "Lessons. It's--it's not as though I'm some un--uncivilized savage!"

 

Perhaps not an entirely fair retort, considering the spirit in which the offer had been made, but his words recalled the difficulty she'd had blending with Limsa Lominsa's society in those first few years following the nightmare of the Calamity. Antimony felt a heat in her face.

 

"No, Antimony," D'hein gesture to himself, "I am the savage, for if I were a more honest and smooth man, better trusted and reputed, I could have reunited you with your daughters with so little effort. And Ul'dah is uncivilized, or else we would not wish to hide from it in such a place as this."

 

"Well." She wanted to cross her arms, but she still held her utensils and her hands seemed unwilling to release them. Instead her lips pursed and she leaned slightly back from the table, actions meant to buoy herself in the face of uncomfortable embarrassment. "You certainly could have--if you hadn't been so... invasive about it!" Ears swiveling, Antimony furrowed her brow and pulled her tail close to one leg.

 

"Precisely. I was such a beast about it. An accident!" D'hein gestured with his fork, "An accident caused by a lack of information, but also a lack of respect for your incredible delicateness. Both genius and incredible beauties are reputed for demanding cautious interaction and a gentle touch. I should have shown much greater care for you, who are both those things, and a mother besides."

 

Bowing his head, D'hein said mournfully, "Rare was she, like the shadow cast in a lonely heart by a lovely song, and my words so hastily spoken. IN my eagerness to place the rose in her hair, I left the thorns upon its stem, and she bled so tragically! Forgiveness for such a thing is a flower as well," he lifted his face again, "Perhaps one I can never grow."

 

Silence greeted D'hein's words for an elongated minute. She felt as though he'd spun her round and then set her loose to wander dizzily through the restaurant, though she remained seated at the table. After a time, she opened her mouth to try for a reply, but found nothing that could suit the nature of his declaration. Incredible delicateness? A rose? What in all of Eorzea was he intending with such words?

 

That wasn't to say she couldn't glean his meaning, but his manner of speech... well. It certainly made the only reply she could come up with feel all too inadequate, "It is... alright." She sighed slightly, glanced towards him. "As I said to Airos, I'm... just happy to have her back."

 

Stabbing a leafy vegetable dripping in some kind of brown juice, D'hein said, "Forgiveness is a sweet-smelling flower. So sad that it bloom only in misunderstanding, but it is so brilliant as to chase away all lingering unpleasantness."

 

"Ah, that isn't... I'm sorry?" She felt as though she'd missed something, though she was also reasonably certain she'd understood his flowery language. Did all Ul'dahns speak in this way? No, she'd heard plenty by now during her stay. This seemed rather uniquely D'hein, for whatever it was worth.

 

She found her fingers fidgeting with her fork then as she sought for something to change the subject to.

 

"No reason to continue apologizing," D'hein said, seeming to remember he had food to eat and returning to it.

 

Had she been apologizing? Antimony really couldn't be sure anymore. Instead, she welcomed his distraction with food as an opportunity to try and re-center herself - and perhaps find her appetite again. She did not volunteer another topic of conversation; the last few times she had, it had not exactly turned out well.

 

After eating for a bit -- something he hadn't actually gotten around to doing yet -- D'hein paused and ventured, "Iiiiiincidentally, I haven't seen Ulanan around you. Has she finally gone off and began some grand adventure of her own?"

 

Guilt chased her thoughts at the mention of her lalafell friend. "No, I don't--well, that is, the last time I saw her was--I'd left for.. ah..." She sighed after a moment and then just shrugged, looking regretful. "I don't know. I asked her to, ah, check in on someone but after that..."

 

"Ah, well. I should like to talk to her. Oh, I have a question," D'hein leaned forward and smiled like a mischievous voidsent, "How did you eventually 'stumble' across K'airos, anyway?"

 

"I didn't stumble!" Antimony protested automatically and then flushed, ducking her head for a second before adding in a calmer, if reluctant tone, "Ulanan had, ah, arranged an escort. To... well, it doesn't matter where."

 

"So it was Ulanan's doing after all," D'hein leaned back, nodding to himself, "So I had guess. My plan would have had you discovering K'airos much sooner, but obviously it ran afoul. I'm glad Ulanan decided to help it along."

 

"Yes, yes, and I wish you two hadn't conspired so...!" She let out a rough breath through her nose, closed her eyes, and then after a moment in a calmer tone that seemed to shrink as her words went on, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to bring that... up... again."

 

D'hein held one hand up and across the table, fingers poised as if holding a slender object and offering it to Antimony, "Do you want that flower of forgiveness back?"

 

Antimony frowned sharply, but the expression was tempered by the chagrined set of her ears. "I wouldn't take back something like that."

 

"That statement is just as good as a renewed apology," D'hein said, placing the imaginary flower upon his breast and fixing it there with some kind of invisible pin. "Thank you. I think its color goes quite well with the rest of my outfit."

 

She couldn't tell if she were being made a fool or if his elaborate phrases were genuine. The possibility of the former kept an uncomfortable warmth to her face and an anxious twitter in her tail. Once again there didn't seem to be anything worthy of use in a retort - none that she could think of, at any rate. Antimony, the uncivilized savage, it seemed.

 

Poking at what remained of her meal, Antimony chose silence again.

 

Returning to his meal again, he said, "Make sure you drink your milk! Perhaps if you set an example K'airos will take after it."

 

"She isn't here to observe the example," Antimony pointed out, then winced and took the glass in hand as though in apology.

 

"True, but habits do rub off in the long-term. Or so I've observed."

 

"Only if the other is truly receptive to the habits," Antimony found herself bemoaning rather pathetically. "How many times I tried to get Aijeen to... ah." She fell suddenly quiet and averted her eyes once more. Could she not go ten minutes without bumbling back onto that cursed topic?

 

"I understand your reluctance to discuss Aijeen," D'hein stated, somberly, "It seems there is some great regret between the two of you. And have no doubt that it is mutual; I've observed that much at least."

 

Perhaps regret was one way to describe it, yes, though... "I'm not certain what I would regret," she replied lowly. "I... tried everything I could to reach her. But every time, I'm the--the crone. The stupid one." She let out a faint sigh. "Holding her back. From summoning demons? I--I don't understand it."

 

"I'm not sure she thinks through hurtful things before she says them."

 

"She thought them through plenty, if their frequency was anything to judge by," she replied morosely.

 

"I don't believe it is," D'hein answered, his grin a static thing, his tone serious. "It's not something we can see more than one angle on -- she makes sure if that -- but there is more than one angle on it. There is with everything."

 

"Mm," was all the response Antimony could muster to that. She dropped her gaze to her plate - food mostly consumed by now - and tried to think of happier promises K'airos had given her.

 

"I envy K'airos the adoration she receives from Aijeen. As long as that remains strong, though, I'm sure the girls will do fine."

 

"And--if Aijeen sees fit to--to take her from me? She's already tried...!"

 

Pushing his plate aside and poking at some food on one of the serving platters, D'hein states, "K'airos provides for Aijeen more than I do these days. I doubt Aijeen could force K'airos to go anywhere she didn't want to. And besides, K'airos is a Brass Blade. That job comes with responsibility. She really /can't/ go anywhere."

 

Antimony wavered for several moments between further despair and acceptance she very much wanted. Finally with a sigh, her posture opened up just slightly. "You... are right. She--I must believe she's far too responsible to do anything... anything rash like... that."

 

Smiling a bit wider, D'hein says, "K'airos makes a good city Miqo'te. She keeps track of her money and sets goals."

 

She looked up to D'hein at that, one side of her mouth shifting in a very faint smile. "I'm--I'm glad. I'm sure it was... well, it's not all that different from... ah. She gives me hope."

 

"I'm sure she'll give you more the more you talk to her. She's very good for that. She may even give you hope for Aijeen, if you ask her for it."

 

She had to wonder at that, and guiltily she recalled a conversation under a tree in a Thanalan downpour with an old Duskwight. But no, she couldn't give up on her daughters so quickly. "Perhaps. We'll see."

 

"That's the most optimistic I've heard you all night!" D'hein said, leaning forward on his elbows, "Are you the type to partake of dessert? You'd be surprised the cornucopia of baked sweets that one can prepare with access to good milk. And most of it goes well /with/ milk as well!" One of his ears bounced. The other turned about.

 

"I..." She watched the uneven turning of his ears and then his face before letting out a small breath. "I think I'm getting rather tired, truth be told."

 

"That's probably because you ate so much," D'hein said. "If you leave now you'll be wide awake by the time you get back to your room. A bit of a dessert will leave you ready for sleep!"

 

How could one protest that? Probably easily, but Antimony couldn't bring herself to regardless. Instead she just nodded once. "... Alright. I suppose it can't hurt to learn what, ah, might be in that cornucopia."

 

"Excellent!" D'hein said, one ear rotating to broadcast the turn of his head which came a moment later, point his gaze to the bar. His other ear never quite caught up. His tail swung around beneath the table, whacking the legs loudly, and probably whacking Antimony's legs as well. "We'll just see what they have baked up today." He waved.

 

Antimony ignored the wayward whacking of his tail for the moment and did her best, once more, to stay in the present. A good desert might indeed help.

[Naunet]

((The Awakening has been going on concurrently to that meal. Now, a meeting of threads.))

 

***

 

K'luha hobbled with much difficulty back through the streets to her inn room. Her hip was probably back to where it had been before Anti healed her again. She just couldn't keep the damn thing healed. Dead people kept showing up and knocking her over and... K'luha sighed rather heavily, panting a bit as she paused at the door to the Quicksand. She leaned against the door and clenched her fists. 

 

K'hai... she used to have a much better relationship with him. But that man that came back? As far as she was concerned, he was not her brother. Brothers did not hit their sisters. Nor did they obsess over their daughters. 

 

Luha scowled darkly and pushed off the wall. Struggling to hobble along the wall, she continued down the way towards her inn room.

 

Keeping her hands folded at her waist in front of her, Antimony walked sedately next to D'hein as they returned from what she could honestly say was the most extravagant meal experience she had ever had. Though she'd stressed herself with worry enough that the main course had grown dry and tasteless in her mouth, by the time D'hein had ordered them dessert, he had managed to distract her such that she'd actually enjoyed the sweet treat. "Ice cream" had been a new concept for her, not only because it represented a level of extravagance in a dessert clime that she'd never had access to but also because of its milk component. Desserts in general were not something she was entirely familiar with, though the concept itself she'd run into a few times in Limsa.

 

If Antimony hadn't spoken much during the walk back, it was because she dwelled on these things far too much. She hardly noticed as they entered the Quicksand and passed into the halls leading to the inn.

 

D'hein was talking plenty, however, "Honestly, I think this is something we should make a habit of! What could be more appropriate than your daughters' two primary role models modeling roles for each other? A person as humble and adept as you, I say I could learn a great deal from!" He walked with his arms and tail swinging wide, whacking the walls, big smile on his face. His motions were grand and ceaselessly energetic.

 

K'luha of course, was pressed tight to the wall. Namely the wall that D'hein and Anti were walking by. Also namely, the one he swung his arm and tail into. K'luha knocked her head against the wall with the push with a loud thud and snarled. Luha gripped the wall and focused on staying upright for the time being.

 

Grey ears sticking straight up and then flat back, Antimony jumped at the thud and the growl, blinked confusedly at D'hein for several seconds, and then realized the sound had not come from him. At this point she turned to the left - nothing - and then the right - and nearly fainted.

 

She tried to speak but could only manage a squeak. She tried to move to do something - anything - but could only manage a cringe away from K'luha and a manic fuzzing of her tail.

 

It took D'hein a few seconds to realize that there was anybody near him, because he honestly had neither felt himself hit the woman nor heard her protest. He'd just continued walking at first, then noticed Antimony's reaction, then looked around him. When he finally did see K'luha, he appeared confused for a moment and then flinched away from her, saying reflexively, "Apologies! I hadn’t realized-!"

 

K'luha heard a squeak and heard a familiar smell, shortly followed by an apology by some male. She turned her head slowly and observed D'hein and Antimony, but only for a moment. By now, Luha had gripped her claws into the wall to hold herself up and scowled at the both. 

 

Luha opened her mouth to speak, something rude and angry and bitter at K'piru, but the words died in her mouth. What was the point? She shook her head and slowly released the wall, getting a better footing beneath her. "Forget it." Luha waved a hand dismissively at D'hein and continued to limp painfully down the hall.

 

"You appear injured!" D'hein said, holding a hand up in vague protest, before looking at Antimony imploringly.

 

K'luha proceeded to ignore D'hein and continue hobbling down the hall to the inn room. She already knew that Anti wanted nothing to do with her, and she was all too happy to oblige the woman at this point.

 

Antimony felt absolutely trapped. She'd not prepared herself to interact with anyone one might consider family except K'airos, and maintaining her composure around her daughter took every ounce of her will (and even then it seemed to fail her half the time). Frozen, she stared with wide, terrified eyes at K'luha's retreating back and then, in a voice forced out through an almost impossibly tight throat, she choked, "Wait," coughed and then quieter, "You don't... look well."

 

Energized by Antimony's apparent philanthropy, D'hein surged forward ahead of K'luha and declared, in very fast words, "Indeed! You exude strength and fury as the radiant sun burning through a cloudy day, but pause a moment and profess to us that you are pained. I cannot let one pass me in such a state without the hooks of respect and mercy stinging at my heart!"

 

K'luha paused, mildly surprised to hear her aunt even address her. With an obvious statement of course, but apparently that was all that was left of her aunt. Fear and obvious statements. Of course, Luha found herself actually looking at a complete stranger who threw up words like so much vomit. 

 

Her face remained unimpressed by his rapid vomit of words and she scoffed loudly. 

 

"Yeah. I haven't looked well in months." Luha replied in an irritated and deadpan tone before stepping forward, moving around D'hein and continuing to walk.

 

"Did I not--" What? She wasn't entirely sure what she'd intended to say there, but it refused to come out. The almost relaxed, almost pleasant atmosphere D'hein had managed to cultivate at least superficially around them had shattered and Antimony could not possibly know where to look to gather up the pieces. As the younger woman continued to walk away from her, Antimony's mind flashed back to K'airos - her beautiful smile, her joy, her strength. What did she owe to her daughter? What debt could she possibly pay?

 

"K'luha, I--" The young woman's movements were stiff, clearly pained. At the very least, she could... "I am sorry. I was--I was wrong. I--don't walk away hurt."

 

Walking backwards to stay in front of K'luha, D'hein said, "If you've been like this for months, then Nald owes you as many months of comfort and beauty." He paused and one of his ears twitched, pointing at the wall, while his other angled at Antimony. "Especially if you're a friend of my friend's. The voice of holy mercy beckons! Merely pause and collapse into its waiting arms!"

 

At D'hein's words, Antimony flinched and half-turned away, unable to look at K'luha further.

 

This man and K'piru were just like the dream team of shit on her nerves now. After being criticized, ignored, slapped, and now knocked into a wall, K'luha was officially done with this shit. She was going to go home. And never leave it again. And if K'ailia wanted to be stupid she could do it elsewhere. Luha was sick of this shit and she was furious that she was probably never going to walk properly again, much less run. She was going to be a burden on the tribe the rest of her damn lift because of this shit. 

 

"Limping away K'piru. I am limping away because my hip is back to where it was before you healed it again." K'luha promptly informed her aunt, her voice dry and cold. Her eyes glowered at D'hein and scoffed. "And the only holy voice of mercy is Azyema when I die. Which at this rate, I am hoping for soon." Luha snapped irritably at D'hein and continued to limp to her room.

 

Her legs would not move, her feet frozen to the floor, an icy chill inching up her spine. Antimony listened to K'luha's door creak open, listened to her footsteps, even listened to her words, but she hid her face. "I'm sorry," she mumbled, likely too quiet for the younger woman to hear, though it was just as well for Antimony wasn't even certain what she would be apologizing for.

 

"I'm afraid such an attitude does little to show oneself mercy," said D'hein, who really doesn't know when to stop talking, "No matter what occurrence has rendered you this way, dear stranger, you deserve to show yourself every mercy, kindness and comfort. At least admit that much." He positioned himself near K'luha's door, arms crossed, expression stubborn.

 

If K'luha had one thing, it was excellent hearing. Which was yet to be damaged, but Azyema knew it would be soon enough just like everything else. Luha paused at the door and stepped inside, looking out at D'hein and Anti for a moment. Words died in her mouth again and all Luha could do was shake her head and close the door on D'hein's face.

 

Ears and tail drooping, Antimony flinched at the sharp crack of the door and fell silent.

 

More like on D'hein's foot, which caused a tingling up his leg that he frowned down at, seeming confused. "Hrm." The door popped open a moment later. "I think that hurt." He raised his gaze, looking at something inside the doorframe or something, canting his head, "Apologies if I'm being invasive, but it's too far outside my nature to gaze into suffering and distance myself."

 

K'luha frowned as the door opened again. Just. fucking. Ugh. Luha rubbed her temples and limped back to her bed reguardless. "Leave me alone creeper."

 

"D'hein," Antimony muttered a bit weakly, not really sure where she was going with that.

 

Crossing his arms over his chest and putting his fingers to his lips, he muttered the word, "Creeper," to taste it, and then dropped his gaze to Antimony. "Yes? It certainly can't be held against me that I have difficulty not assuaging pain when I perceive it. What kind of uncanny world is it where the suffering refuse treatment and those who would aid are made to feel guilty for daring to have humanitarian inklings? Such a world would be truly twisted!"

 

"Look. Antimony wants nothing to do with me, so just go deal with her." Luha scoffed irritably at D'hein, slowly seating herself on the bed and rubbing at her hip.

 

 

Working her jaw around words that refused to find a way out of her chest, Antimony hugged herself and breathed to no one, "I didn't know."

 

"Deal with her," D'hein said, pondering. "And she doesn't know. Well, I don't think I'll be able to do anything about that. But it seems to me, just from looking, and guessing, that the problem isn't about either of you not caring enough, or not wanting help."

 

K'luha was too tired to give a shit about this man or the aunt that abandoned her and then didn't care. She just lay back on the bed and pressed her hands to her face, hoping if she ignored them they would just go away.

 

Antimony could not find the strength in her to deal with this in a healthy way. She may have owed it to K'airos, but perhaps her daughter would forgive her. Rather than speak or do more, the older, worn woman stood still as a statue, several steps from and facing away from the doorway.

 

"I see," D'hein said. "Very well, then. Goodnight, miss Antimony," D'hein stepped away from the door and began his way down the hallway, leaving the door open and moving around Antimony.

 

The grey-haired woman didn't seem to notice D'hein; at least she made no sound or motion to suggest such.

 

And so D'hein, wordlessly, exited the scene.

 

Luha was grateful for the one's exit, and simply waited for the second to leave.

 

As Antimony was well outside the door still, not even within visual range, she didn't so much as leave as continue being gone. She didn't move from her spot in the hall though, staring down to where the wall met with the wooden paneling of the floor with a distant look. Her tail shivered and curled.

 

Eventually, Luha got up off the bed and struggled terribly to get to the door so she might close it. In her struggle to make it to the door, Luha collapsed near the door and hissed. She braced the floor, her hip agonizing her entire body. Luha glanced up hazily towards Anti, only to turn her head away.

 

The thunk of a body hitting the floor shifted Antimony's ears, and she hunched her shoulders as though in physical pain before spinning around and taking quick, stumbling steps to Luha's room. She paused only a moment before bending down to move the woman by the shoulders, saying nothing as she acted.

 

Luha winced, feeling rather delirious and lightheaded as she vaguely felt something touch her shoulders. All of this nonsense just wasn't something her body could keep handling. Even with all of the rest she was trying to get, it never seemed to be enough. Almost as if there was something else wrong, preventing the healing process from taking hold like it should. Whether it was in insane family or something else, was still unclear. 

 

Still, Luha weakly opened her eyes and looked at her Aunt. "Don't do it if you're just doing it on instinct K'piru." Luha warned hoarsly.

 

That was a stupid demand. K'piru would have chastised K'luha for it, but Antimony only set her jaw as she hooked her arms around the younger woman's shoulders and moved her as carefully as she could away from the door, into the room. Lifting K'luha to the bed would take more strength than she had, so instead she took the pillows and blankets from it and wordlessly began to cushion the woman's hips so as to not strain her spine.

 

"I'm too old for all of this dramatic shit..." Luha mumbled half-heartedly as she was dragged over to a better resting spot. She faded in and out of complete consciousness most of the time, but she at least was able to pick up on a slight more comfort around her hips.

 

When she'd managed to construct a supportive "nest" of sorts for K'luha's hips, Antimony let out a slight breath and sat down on her knees, ignoring the way the position left her joints aching. If K'luha had said anything to her, she hadn't heard; she couldn't allow herself to focus on anything other than helping the woman physically. It was the only apology her mind seemed willing to allow.

 

Gaze lowered, she forced her thoughts to K'luha's hips, tried to recall the nature of the injury, what she'd done to assist it previously, what might have happened over the course of days to reduce it to such poor condition. She knew there was little she could do for such an injury that she hadn't already. It needed rest. Antimony wasn't certain K'luha would listen to her if she told her so; she wouldn't blame her for not.

 

Bending forward slightly, Antimony fought back an ache in her chest. When she'd run, she'd never imagined what she might find. She hadn't thought she'd ever catch up to her past again. But then her beautiful daughter...

 

A thick cough forced its way from her throat, and Antimony set her hands lightly on K'luha's hips. Her ears and tail shivered, the low set of them communicating apology, submission, fear. Then she shut her eyes, pulled her focus inward, and began an attempt to ease the twisted aether in the younger woman's ruined bones.

 

K'luha failed to understand her aunt in pretty much every way. She ran away from their family when K'ile practically obsessed, and still did, over her every whim and desire. She came supposedly to the cities and did something with money. And now, after those long five years, the moment she saw Luha she couldn't function. She wouldn't talk, she wouldn't do anything but apparently silently force herself to heal Luha's hip. 

 

And certainly although she had been rather dark about it earlier, Luha did not want to die. Luha only wanted the dramatics to die down so she could get back to a more normal life. But it seemed they had only increased in severity and frequency leaving her, once again, unable to do much but lay there. 

 

Luha had to fight down a bitter taste in her mouth that threatened to make actions against K'piru. Why would her aunt, that loathed her so much she couldn't look at her, continue to help heal her? The question slipped past her lips in her delirium before she even realized she said it out loud, "Why do you keep healing me when you hate me?"

 

K'luha's voice reached her from a great distance, the concentration the ancient technique required keeping Antimony from responding for a long time. Her hands moved just above K'luha's hips, tracing patterns in the air that even after five years took little thought, they had been so ingrained into her being over the decades. She did not have any of the supplies she'd brought to bear on K'luha's injury before, but even without them she could soothe the tangled, angry mass of aether, pulsing like an infected cyst about K'luha's pelvis. It was no cure, but it was all she could do.

 

She owed K'luha that much. She owed K'luha so much more.

 

'I don't hate you,' she wanted to say, but her voice remained locked behind the iron wall that had slammed down to ward against the other woman's angry rejection. She didn't hate K'luha. But K'luha should hate her - for leaving, for staying, for grieving, for thinking of no one but herself, for fracturing remnants of family into nothing. Antimony bore her shame in silence, just as she continued to cling to that fear of memory, that fear of family long dead.

 

The silence was deafening. There was only nothing. A void that her leaving had opened, and the void that remained. For all her aunt's 'living', she might as well have been dead to K'luha. For all the things she could do or say to her aunt. It was like talking to K'ailia. Or a brick wall. Or K'hai. They all resembled walls of one sort or another. 

 

K'luha let out a short hollow laugh, delirum getting the better of her as she stared upwards at the ceiling. "I don't think I'm going to make it through this..." Although they were said with a weak laugh, they were genuine. With the severity of the injury and such frequent re-injury, it was really only a matter of time until it simply killed her.

 

In deceptive silence, K'ile Tia walked through the still-open door into the room, actually closing the door behind him. His bright red ears lay back against his head, his lips in a frown, though the expression on his face was controlled. The blueness of his eyes seemed darkened, almost gray, as he paced over to the side of K'luha opposite where K'piru was and dropped to his knees.

 

"Stop that," he said, having heard K'luha's previous statement. He doesn't look at K'piru at all, instead watching K'luha. "Seriously. Why are you in the floor again?"

 

K'luha heard K'ile before she saw him. Not the sound of his feet moving across the hallway and into the room, as she was too far delirious to really listen or acknowledge those sounds. Instead she heard his voice chastising her for being on the floor and saying her fears aloud. For a moment, she thought only to have hallucinated hearing him somewhere in her mind, but then she realized she didn't care if she only hallucinated him. 

 

Luha blindly groped a hand out towards K'ile and found his leg, or what she thought was his leg. She left her hand on him and shivered faintly. "K'ile?" She called quietly, letting her eyes half open hazily and search for the color of his hair or eyes if nothing else could be seen.

 

Antimony might have predicted K'ile's appearance eventually, but that didn't change the way she shrunk before him, hunching down by K'luha's hips as though she could hide behind the woman, hide in her meager offer of assistance. Her tail tucked between her feet and she told herself that it was good he hadn't acknowledged her. It was better than listening to anger.

 

She didn't look at him, kept her attention glued to K'luha's body.

 

Leaning his face down close to K'luha's, he said, "Yeah, it's me. One of these days when your hip is better you and I need to team up and kick K'hai's ass, okay?"

 

Luha smiled faintly, and then frowned. She couldn't tell what emotion she was feeling more of. Angry because K'ile left her and ignored her again, Angry at K'hai for hitting her in the firstplace, Angry at K'piru for being a dead body walking; and yet she was also relieved K'ile was seemingly okay and had returned. And this time without dead people, not counting K'piru. Part of Luha was tempted to tell K'ile her fear that she wasn't going to make it through this injury, but instead she decided to be angry and scared later and just accept his return for now. 

 

"You've got to stop ditching me K'ile... dead people keep showing up and throwing me around..." Luha mumbled half-heartedly.

 

Putting a hand on the side of K'luha's face, noticing the bruise there and avoiding it, K'ile said, "I didn't ditch you. I just wanted to find the food and get that taking care fo so we could go home."

 

K'luha faintly turned her head towards K'ile's hand. It was comforting to feel him there. Even if it was a hallucination, if she could feel and hear him, for now she accepted the comfort it brought. "You could've gotten in a lot of trouble just going to get it. You don't know hardly anything about the Ul'dahns. I told you to take me with you or just leave it...."

 

"Yeah, well, K'hai found me and had some dumbass plan. And you know me: all kinds of trusting." Finally, K'ile lifted his gaze and set it on K'piru, noting her withdrawal. He reached out to put a hand on her arm, but didn't know what to say to her.

 

Her ears flinched down, sought to bury themselves in her grey hair at K'ile's light touch. For a moment, Antimony almost wished D'hein would return and pull her away from K'luha and K'ile, two markers of the past she'd wronged. There was no forgiveness for outsiders, especially after she'd abandoned them a second time.

 

The twisted knot of aether about K'luha's pelvis had smoothed somewhat, though she could sense points where its flow remained obstructed, where it turned in on itself with an infected fury. She couldn't do anything about that here. K'luha's instincts to go home were rightly placed; a healer could help her better, family could help her.

 

She let her hands drop to her knees and muttered, "She shouldn't be here."

 

Nodding, K'ile said, "I don't know how to move her."

 

Antimony had no immediate answer save to twist her thin fingers into the loose cloth of her borrowed pants. Her thoughts kept wanting to twist about, return to reasons K'ile should be telling her to leave, telling her she was not welcome. Instead she managed, "A flat board. Padding. Ties to minimize movement."

 

"Tie her down to a board? I'd had that thought a few times actually." He gave K'luha a strained smirk, "If the healer says so, I might have no choice."

 

Luha frowned again. K'hai came up with some stupid plan? How had her brother become so... Luha didn't have a word for the anger she felt at him. He suddenly just appears after five years and dunks her head in water and criticizes her and tries to tell her K'ile didn't care about K'ailia and then abandons K'ile to K'hai's very own stupid plan?  Luha didn't much pay attention to the conversation between K'piru and K'ile, as she was too busy delirious being furious with K'hai. And then after another moment, angry with K'ile for telling K'aila to go back to the tribe. And then at K'aila for being stupid enough to do it without waiting for K'ile!

 

Luha shifted and took note of the conversation when K'piru mentioned something about a board. She hazily lifted her eyes to look at K'ile before frowning again. "K'ailia went back to the tribe without us."

 

"I heard," he replied to K'luha, "And we'll do something about that. Both of us. As soon as we can." He stood, then, "First I think I'm going to break this bed into boards, though."

 

"No, don't." K'luha frowned immediately and grabbed tightly at K'ile's leg. "I can't pay for you to break it. Don't. Just use the blankets or something. Don't break anything."

 

"Do not bother yourself with it," Antimony murmured to K'luha, green eyes shift towards the woman's face for a brief moment. Then to K'ile, "Do what you need to."

 

"You need to be completely immobilized, K'luha," K'ile said as he walked over to the bed, "I'm not going to do this half-way. You're getting tied down to a board and staying there until your hip's completely healed."

 

K'luha grabbed at K'ile's leg again to try and stop him from leaving, but it didn't seem to even remotely help as he walked off to the bed. Tied down to a board for what could be something like a year? How could she be anything but a burden to the tribe unable to even sit up? 

 

"No I... stop. Stop!" K'luha called loudly, turning her head in K'ile's direction and weakly reaching for him again. "I'll go. To a healer. A proper one. If you just... can you promise not to leave me that day?"

 

There was a certain insult, or perhaps just plain hurt to K'luha's words than Antimony winced at. A proper one. What could she mean by that? Were her recommendations no longer sufficent? But then, she wasn't family now, so of course they weren't. "You'll find proper healing at home," she stated flatly.

 

Luha looked sharply at K'piru, frowning. "Not like that. A conjurer. Or a white mage. One of those ones. Not at home. I can't go home like this."

 

Applying a foot to the flat footboard of the bed and laying his weight against it until it creaked, K'ile glanced towards K'piru, "Could a magical healer do better than the shaman back home?"

 

"No," the answer was easy, though truthfully Antimony hadn't seen conjury in practice. She had seen conjurers the few times she'd been to Gridania, however, and what she'd seen had been rife with pitiless racism. She couldn't imagine a healing practice that employed such tactics would ever come close to the methods she'd learned and taught for years.

 

K'ile's reply was to press down on the footboard until it cracked free of the frame with the sound of splintering wood and metal bindings tearing out of place.

 

K'luha opened her mouth to protest but K'ile was already breaking off the board. How could she remain tied to a board for so long? How could she go back to the tribe like that? K'ailia had said she could heal it, and K'ailia was at the tribe right? What did K'piru even know anymore? "Don't tie me up if you're just going to haul me back and then dump me there again! You asked me to trust you but you keep blatantly ignoring me!" Luha pleaded with K'ile, fair well knowing she wasn't going to get an answer she liked.

 

"I'm not dumping you or ignoring you," he continued to pry the pieces of wood apart, hauling on the footboard with his hands and kicking off the supports. "And I'm not tying you up. I'm trying you down. So you don't hurt yourself. So relax."

 

Frowning slightly, Antimony looked away as she worried her fingers into the loose cloth of her pants. She had no place in this argument, not after delivering medical advice.

 

"You dropped me on the ground and vanished for two weeks!" Luha protested frantically. "Without a damn word! What am I supposed to do if I'm tied down and you just figure you'll fucking vanish again, huh!?"

 

Freeing the footboard and laying it down so that the unblemished side was facing up, K'ile spoke calmly, "You don't get to be mad at me twice for the same thing. That means you were either lying when you forgave me the first time or you don't have anything to actually be mad at me for now." He rose and looked at K'piru, saying, "How's her hip for now?"

 

Antimony flinched at K'ile's voice before processing his words and even when she replied, her tail tucked further between her feet, "Likely infected again. Or... heading that way. Scar tissue has started to develop, I think, which... it's going to make it heal wrong."

 

"I'm mad because I forgave you and then you turned around and did the same fucking thing!" Luha fumed, waving a hand somewhat dangerously and very uncoordinatedly around before it flopped back onto the floor. "First K'hai shows up after five years of being dead. Then your exiled brother K'zhuzu's kid shows up and then freaking K'airos AND K'hai show up and K'hai tells me you've abandoned K'ailia and don't care about her! And THEN HE SLAPS ME IN THE FACE! I. Can't. Do. This. Shit. Anymore."

 

"Then don't do shit," K'ile said, his tone rather on the pitiless side, "Obviously I don't not care about K'ailia or I wouldn't have talked to her at all, and I've only been gone a few hours. The only person you should be angry at is K'hai and we can gut him as soon as you're up to it."

 

Antimony looked up sharply, a worried look crossing her face at K'ile's words, but then she was ducking her head again, away from the quarreling pair.

 

"Well obviously I already know that he was wrong to begin with." Luha replied her voice dying down as she felt suddenly dizzy from yelling and flailing about with her arms. Her arms dropped over her chest and she looked up hazily at the ceiling. "K'hai has suddenly somehow become obbessed with K'ailia now. And far more violent than I remember him ever being... I don't want him near K'ailia. Not that I can stop them but.... " Luha trailed off for a few moments because she could open her eyes again. "K'ile, is it so much to ask that after you sudden vanished for two weeks, that I could keep you close for a day?"

 

"K'hai's alive...?" Antimony murmured, words barely over a whisper and more to herself than anything. She bit down on her tongue the moment they escaped.

 

"The tribe is starving," K'ile answered, leaving the board where it is and returning to near K'luha and K'piru, "We can be all emotional later. Right now I need to make sure I get you and the food home as soon as I can."

 

"I went back to the tribe you know." Luha mumbled, again closing her eyes. "We're going to move to Eastern Thalan."

 

"That's nice. I'm glad you decided to come back and get stranded in Ul'dah again. You need to be more careful, but I guess that's what the board is going to be for, now." The tone of his voice dropped to something more somber, "K'piru, is there anything else you can do for her here?"

 

Move? They were going to... Antimony struggled with a moment of breathlessness until K'ile's tone addressing her dragged her back to the present. She dipped her gaze and ears in apology. "No. Not... not without--they will be able to do more at.. home."

 

"Can you help me rig up the board, then?" K'ile turned back to it, "I'm sure she won't actually be on it all the time, but still. It should be comfortable."

 

"I came to give K'ailia her things in the first place... and to look for you K'ile. I took responsibility for your disappearance... among other things... I cannot return without you and your bracelet unless you want K'yohko to come looking for you." K'luha mumbled half-heartedly.

 

Wordlessly, Antimony stood and after a moment stepped over to the now broken bed. The blankets that remained on it weren't the nicest - the Quicksand wasn't going to splurge on amenities for its usual clientele - but they would have to do. She took one corner of them in hand and began to pull them off the bed.

 

"Why are you taking responsibility for random things?" K'ile said to K'luha, annoyed, "That makes everything worse and nothing better!"

 

"Because you were already in trouble and if I hadn't they would have sent K'yohko to drag you home!" Luha protested. "Isn't me coming better than sending K'yohko!?"

 

"I don't know. Is K'yohko going to run out in the desert, break his hip and die?" K'ile paused at that, looking at the ceiling and thinking, "Actually, that would be kind of great."

 

Antimony's grip tightened around the blankets and she forced out in a strained voice, "What has become of--wishing death on your own...!" She tore the blankets from the bed and moved stiffly to the board K'ile had laid out.

 

"I don't... K'ile I..." K'luha paused, whimpering in a moment of despair. But only for a moment before she frowned. "You know what? No. Fuck that. I made some bad decisions, but I am not going to sit here half dead and feel bad. You were wrong K'ile. Take some resonsibility for that."

 

"Okay! Awesome! We're all on the same page." He then flinched at K'piru's growl and the violence she inflicted on the blanket, "I'm just joking! I don't want anyone to die or anything."

 

Antimony didn't reply. Her hands shook slightly as she laid one of the blankets over the board and said only, "Lift her onto it now."

 

"Okay!" K'ile said, clasping his hands together in front of his face and turning to K'luha, "How?"

 

K'luha sighed heavily and pressed her hands to her face to as to cover her eyes. "Painfully."

 

A few, silent moments passed while Antimony took the board and dragged it with some effort alongside K'luha. Straightening, Antimony said in a flat tone, "Take her shoulders and support her back," and then moved to one side of K'luha's legs, bending so that she could hook her forearms beneath them. "Do not lift her high."

 

K'ile moved accordingly, pulling K'luha up so that her shoulders rested on his upper arms and his hands extended down to her lower back. Putting his face against the top of her head, he said, "You can bit me if you want. I can't do anything to stop you right now. You smell like alcohol."

 

"One, two," Antimony breathed in and strained her muscles as she made to lift K'luha's legs, "three." She would then move the woman swiftly, and as gently as possible, onto the board with K'ile's assistance.

 

K'ile did the thing.

 

K'luha inhaled shakily, preparing to be moved and for the extreme pain that was going to go along with moving. At least K'ile was kind enough to distract her with his suggestion and pointing out of the obvious. 

 

"I would do so many things to you right now if I could." Luha muttered back in a hushed whisper. "And I was drinking earlier. Although K'hai and your exiled brother's son decided to interrupt me." Luha spat the words out before inhaling sharply again as they lifted her as gently as possible and moved her over onto the board. Luha tried not to howl, instead biting down on her lower hip and hissing in a surprising display of self-control.

 

Thoroughly confused, K'ile said, "My exiled who's what?" As he settled K'luha onto the board.

 

"K'zhuzu. That kid. I was really little when it was exiled. I thought he was your brother." Luha replied after a few moments of regaining her breath.

 

"What? I don't know. Whatever. Just relax so we can get you strapped in all comfy."

 

Antimony refrained from comment, forcing herself to focus on adjusting blankets and pillows over and around K'luha's hips. After a moment she sighed and spoke reluctantly, "I've... nothing to hold her in place."

 

K'luha dropped the subject, not really caring about the stranger in the first place anyway. She instead whined softly at being tied up. "Can't we wait until we're about to leave to do that part?"

 

Leaning back, K'ile pulled the leather ties from his shoulders and back, which would normally hold his lance or bow. He offers them to K'piru, "Use this for now. We'll get some rope and cloth and tie her down more firmly before we load her up to head home."

 

She took the straps without looking at K'ile, found his talk of home more distressing than it should have been. Did he know yet? Should she...?

 

The first strap she stretched across K'luha's waist. With the width of the board, it was just barely long enough, but she managed to tie it with some effort. "I--K'ile, I found--" She tried to start, head ducked low as she worked to arrange K'luha's body in a way that was both comfortable and secure. Distract her hands. Distract her thoughts. He deserved to know, didn't he?

 

K'ile watched K'piru working patiently. "Found...?"

 

K'luha frowned at the feeling of bindings going across her waist. This... this was not... What if she needed to use the bathroom before they left? Under normal circumstances, K'luha had always been a little heavier than most of the girls. She had curves and a small tummy, but lately with all of the starvation and her intense lack of food she had all but lost most of her weight and was starting to look a little gaunt. She let them work, albeit obviously uncomfortable with it and frowning. Looking to keep herself occupied, she reached a hand out towards K'ile.

 

Antimony choked, working at the second strap, this one just below K'luha's hips to prevent the joints from rotating overmuch. "Found--" She blinked hard, her hands and the leather strap they worked blurring. Why was this so difficult? Sharing this should bring her so much joy, she should just-- "--Airos!" she blurted suddenly.

 

Rolling his jaw in thought, K'ile said, "I saw her. I'm still trying to decide if it's real or not. It doesn't feel like it can be."

 

"It's real," Antimony breathed and sagged over K'luha's legs, her shoulders shaking. "Real. She--she must be--she's real, and here and--and--" Her hands had forgotten K'luha's straps at this point, though luckily both had already been secured.

 

K'ile reached out and put a hand on K'piru's shoulder.

 

"Where is Airos now? She came to the door with K'hai earlier." Luha remarked, dropping her hand in front of K'ile's leg and giving up.

 

Antimony just shook her head and muttered, "She's real. My baby girl."

 

"She's with K'hai still," K'ile answered K'luha. "I guess K'airos is one of those sword people? She thought she could get the food."

 

"A Brass Blade?" Luha questioned.

 

"I asked her to--to help you," Antimony whispered in strained explanation.

 

"Then she's doing so." He moved his hand to test the straps on K'luha's legs, "How does it feel, Luha? Good?"

 

Luha glanced down to the straps K'ile was testing and grunted. "Tight enough I think."

 

Antimony sat back on her heels, tail still tucked between her legs, and rested her hands on her knees once more.

 

"Is it comfortable?"

 

"Sort of...." Luha grumbled, her ears flattening. "As comfortable as being strapped down can be I suppose."

 

"Well you're going to have to get used to it." K'ile said, standing, "Because it's going to take a good bit until your hip heals up and I'm not showing you any mercy this time."

 

"Can you at least stick around then? I'd feel better strapped to a board if you aren't running off getting into trouble and getting yourself hurt."

 

"I'm not going anywhere. The only thing I care about out there is K'airos and K'hai getting that food, and there's nothing I can do about that for now."

 

K'luha looked incredulously at K'ile for a moment before giving up and just staring back up at the ceiling.

As the two spoke back and forth, Antimony found the anxious desperation to share her news fleeing, leaving behind an exhausted isolation. K'ile and K'luha were family, she told herself. She had done all she could here. Her joints ached when she stood, tail tucked close to the inside of one leg still.

 

As K'piru stood, K'ile silently walked around K'luha and then pulled K'piru into a very sudden, very firm hug.

 

Grey ears pressed back as K'ile's arms locked around her in an entirely unexpected gesture. Several seconds passed where Antimony simply stood stiffly in the hug, until her lungs burned and her throat ached, and then she drew in a short gasp of air before turning to him and clutching at his shoulders. "My baby girl," her voice shook. "She's real. She's--she's my... I am so sorry--"

 

"It's okay," K'ile said. "I get it. I don't understand how she's..."

 

"She's alive," Antimony said with vehemence, hands shaking against K'ile's shoulders. "I don't--I don't care if she won't--if she can't accept me as--she's my--K'ile, she's alive! By the tw--By all that is good..."

 

"I'm afraid she's going to disappear."

 

Antimony stilled, his words like ice down her spine, all the more terrifying for the truth they struck in her. K'aijeen's threat loomed like a malicious cloud over her thoughts then and she forced herself to look at K'ile. Her eyes shook. "She--she won't. She's real. She must b--she's real. She'll stay. I won't lose her again. I can't lose her again. She's real."

 

Giving K'piru a renewed squeeze and nuzzling her a little bit, K'ile said, "There's enough people coming back to life. About time the Twelve gave you back one of your girls." With that, he let go of her, stepping back. Almost onto K'luha, but not quite.

 

'I am RIGHT HERE YOU FUCKER. IF YOU STEP ON ME I WILL SIDE WITH K'AILIA ON THAT FUCKING ROCK NEXT TIME!' That would be what K'luha would have screamed out, if she wasn't so burning furious and completely dedicated now to giving all of these idiots her absolute hatred and silence.

 

"The Twelve had nothing to do with it," Antimony forced out suddenly, with unprecedented venom, feeling like an island suddenly when K'ile stepped away. "Only D'hein and Ai--Aijeen. The Twelve will not take her from me again."

 

Looking more confused than anything at K'piru's first protest, his expression suddenly dropped into a frown and a squint afterward. "Aijeen? You mean K'aijeen is...?"

 

The older woman flinched violently then, visibly shrinking under K'ile's words. "She--" A flash of fear churned her gut. What if K'ile sought out K'aijeen? What if she took that as another excuse to take her daughter away? Antimony froze.

 

"Is she here? Does she know?"

 

Her thoughts danced back to those terrifying moments in the lichyard, her youngest daughter looking at her with such an impossibly cold gaze, speaking words she never should have been able to speak. "Aijeen," she choked and then spun on K'ile with a desperate look, "You must not let her know you're here! You--you must stay away! If she knew, she--she'd take my--she'd take Airos away...!"

 

K'ile immediately raised his hands, "I'm not telling her. K'aijeen scares me." He looked around then, noted K'luha behind him and then turned towards her and dropped down into a crouch. He still addressed K'piru, though, "I'd rather K'luha and I get out of here without running into her."

 

She watched his back with wide eyes for a moment before drooping and half turning away, going quiet.

 

K'luha bitterly turned her head away from K'ile and K'piru when he finally decided to acknowledge her still being alive. She didn't forget to cross her arms over her chest either.

 

Frowning at K'luha's behavior, he glanced back at K'piru and noticed she was truend away as well. He turned forward and stared at a wall, looking confused.

 

The relief that K'ile was not about to trigger a devastating reaction from K'aijeen was short-lived. Her thoughts returned to K'airos, to the one connection with family that she still had a right to maintain, to the family in the room she no longer had a right to. Her hands worried at the too long sleeves of her borrowed shirt. "Airos is--she will return... soon...?"

 

"They were just going to get the food and then come back," K'ile said, glancing down to watch K'luha ignore him. "I wonder if K'airos will want to go back to the tribe with us."

 

Antimony's breath caught in her throat, her face paling as she flicked her eyes towards K'ile. "She... my girl--she... misses everyone," she managed faintly.

 

"But she does have a job, right? She appeared very much an Ul'dahn when I saw her."

 

"A Brass B--" Antimony choked, coughed and murmured, "In Drybone."

 

His ears perk up. "Oh! That's... good..." He looked down at K'luha, "Do you think K'airos counts as having left the tribe?"

 

Luha took a long moment of silence before looking towards K'ile. "No. She died. She didn't leave it because she wanted to. She was separated. Have her come and at least find out from the elders if she wants to come back."

 

"And what if she can't? Because of the Blade thing?"

 

Antimony listened to this exchange with a frail expression, as though she were about to blow away on the slightest of winds.

 

"Ask the elders for a special permission to come and go as needed. It's not her fault about what happened after all." Luha suggested with a small shrug.

 

"That could work!" K'ile nodded, "I'm sure the Elders won't be able to say not to her. It's Airos, after all!"

 

"She could go home," Antimony murmured faintly.

 

"You could come back as well K'piru. In light of the dead returning, I doubt they would much begrudge a few wandering tribe members at this point."

 

K'ile's tail flipped and shivered, but he didn't speak.

 

Antimony seemed to lose all color at that and her tail sought to hide further against the inside of one leg. "I--"

 

K'luha let out an annoyed sigh and tightened the arms across her chest. "No one's going to kill you or get angry after five years. If you want to stay with K'airos, go back with us. You want an excuse just to see everyone? Just say you're coming to keep me stable while we travel. You don't even have to stay."

 

For a long moment, Antimony remained frozen, pale features locked into an odd terror. Then, she shuddered and bowed her head, murmuring in a low tone, "Ai--Aijeen would never allow such a thing. I know it."

 

"Aijeen doesn't control you or Airos. What's she' going to do? Track you down and try to kill you? If she does, she's out numered and dead." Luha huffed again, interjecting before K'ile could say anything else.

 

Clearing his throat, K'ile leaned down and whispered very quietly into K'luha's ear, "K'yohko threatened to hurt K'piru. So, she might be afraid of that."

 

Luha glanced over at K'ile at the whisper. K'yohko? Really? "Yohko won't hurt her. Not if she's supposed to be keeping me alive. And he would never disobey K'takka. If she says K'piru can stay and is family again, he will begrudgingly accept it. Of that, I am absolutely sure."

 

Though K'ile's words may have held truth to them - and no small amount of it - Antimony found her primary concern for one other: "You don't--you don't understand," Antimony all but whimpered. "Aijeen... it--it must be some sort of... d-demon magic...! Airos won't--she won't--"

 

K'ile sat up straight and turned to look at K'piru

 

Antimony just quailed and brought her hands to her face.

 

"She won't what?"

 

"She won't call me her mother!" Antimony forced out with a half sob. "Aijeen won't--won't let her... I--I tried.."

 

"If there is anything I have learned about having my hip shattered by my daughter, it’s that there is a limit to even the bond of a mother and a child. If Aijeen is threatening your life and refusing to acknowledge you're her mother, it's time to painfully cut some ties." K'luha insisted, frowning at K'piru.

 

"Don't say such things!" Antimony breathed raggedly.

 

K'ile wasn't going to go anywhere near that. Nope.

 

"K'piru, look at me! I'm DYING because my kid broke my hip and tried to maim K'ile! There are limits! There our boundaries! Do you want Aijeen to kill you and Airos? Because that's what it sounds like she's going to do. You can't just run away from this unless you want to endanger Airos. We're going to be here for you to stand up to Aijeen. And it's going to be painful. And you're going to think you're doing the wrong thing, but it's not. Because even though you abandoned us, you're still my aunt and I still love you and I don't wanna see your own daughter hurt you anymore!"

 

"Stop," Antimony whispered. "I will fix this. I--Airos will be able to go home. I won't--"

 

Putting a hand on K'luha, K'ile says, "Maybe it's a bit soon to be calling it quits on any daughters."

 

"If she's already threatened your life, you take backup with you when you go to fix it then." K'luha demanded sharply. "Take K'yohko or K'ailia or someone with you."

 

"I'm not--" What - hunting her daughter? She wasn't even sure she could risk seeing K'aijeen again. She didn't know how she would get her K'airos back completely, but she had to try something. Anything.

 

An old Duskwight's voice echoed in the back of her thoughts and she shut her eyes. Not that. Just, not that. "You don't understand," she managed in a small voice.

 

"Hell, get that Mitari guy to go with you! He sound strong whatever he is." Luha waved a had somewhat dismissively and frowned.

 

"Uhm. No, I don't like that suggestion," K'ile put, frowning down at K'luha, "Why aren't you suggesting she take me?"

 

"No." Luha sharply put the idea down and looked to K'ile. "You stay with me."

 

Shaking her head, Antimony shut her eyes, kept her hands shielding her face.

 

"Don't encourage my family members to start conflicts and then forbid me from interfering," K'ile said, dryly, to K'luha.

 

"Don't ignore me and almost step on me when you tie me to a board with a broken hip." Luah shot back in an equally dry tone.

 

"Don't break you hip and make me tie you to a board!"

 

"The least you could do is not ignore me! What do I have to do to get your damned attention!" Luha hissed back, ears flattening.

 

"You have my attention! I was gone for all of five minutes! Do you want me to carry you around everywhere?"

 

During all this, Antimony remained quiet. Perhaps wishing for a hiding place. Perhaps contemplating fleeing. K'luha and K'ile were frightening.

 

"You were gone for hours and yes! I do! You were just gone for weeks! I was so worried! The least you could do is let me calm down about that before you run off again!"

 

"You never calm down! I'm not going to sit around for a week waiting for you to cool off before I do something about the tribe starving. You need to take care of calming down your own damned self, instead of just running off and hurting yourself every single time you're left alone for more than a little bit." He stood, arms crossed over his chest, tail shivering behind him.

 

"I wanted to go home after it first happened! The thing we can do about the tribe starving is get the hell home so we can move! And this time it wasn't my fucking fault! I had dead people banging on the door demanding to enter or they were going to break it down and then they went and said you were in trouble! And if people would stop breaking my doors down and then getting in my face, I would stop falling over when I try to walk away!" Luha hissed, ears flat in her hair and tail frizzed out to her side. "And where do you get off being cruel to me!? Don't tell me you love me and then constantly go out after K'piru and refuse to be near me! How am I supposed to feel!?"

 

K'ile just shook his head really hard and said, "What!"

 

Antimony was quite certain she shouldn't be here anymore, intruding between family, fracturing family. Anxious eyes flicked towards the door.

 

Luha could practically feel Anti thinking about leaving and sharply turned her head on her aunt. "You sit down! No leaving or so help me I will track you down and drag you back to the Sagolii!" Luha stared K'piru down for a moment, her glare a most frightening and intimidating one for a woman with a broken hip, half delirious, and strapped down to a board she couldn't move.

 

"Don't yell at her," K'ile chided, his voice cool but heavy, his gaze falling on the woman, "It's not cruel for me to tell you to pull yourself together."

 

"You'll tell me but you won't tell her!" Luha shot back at K'ile. "I've been trying to pull myself together goddamnit! It's cruel to LIE about something like that!"

 

"You two aren't the same person, Luha. Sorry."

 

"That's not what I'm talking about damnit!" She frowned again, losing the anger in her voice. "I'm trying to pull myself together, but I need help. And so far, all you've done is told me you loved me and then ran after K'piru. How is that fair to me? I was there all of those years even when she left and now I need help but you'd sooner leave me for her and tell me to do it myself than... " Luha felt hot tears at the corners of her eyes. She blushed with embarrassment and pushed her hands to her face. "Just forget it... Do what you want. You never listen to me anyway."

 

Cringing away from both K'luha and K'ile, Antimony couldn't manage a reply to that tirade. Her body leaned as though wanting to move, but her feet remained frozen in place.

 

"Yeah. Because I didn't spend like two weeks straight trying to hold you together only to be thanked by death-matches with Ventus, broken hips and complete disregard." He turned away, "I'm not having this conversation."

 

Luha lifted her hands to watch him turn away from her. She felt shattered. Was that it? The end of it all? That was how it ended for her? She wanted to run, but she couldn't. She'd lost that ability now. And now that it was gone, it was all the more precious a thing. Why couldn't she be like K'piru? K'ile loved her properly. Everyone loved K'piru. Even K'ailia loved K'piru more than she loved her own mother. And K'piru could run away and everyone still loved her. Somehow in all of the mess, K'luha had become the bad guy. And the weight of all her decisions fell hard upon her broken head and she cried again. 

 

"Can you two please leave the room for a while...?" The request was timid and broken and hoarse, but there was no alternative. As she had always been but now to an extreme, K'luha was at the mercy of people who somehow had come to hate her but at the same time compelled to keep her alive.

 

"Of course I'm not going to leave," K'ile said, "Just leave you strapped to a peice of wood on the floor and walk off? Really? No."

 

Antimony's tail quivered with fear and indecision. She wanted desperately to flee through that door, but at the same time... she wasn't sure she could leave them behind willingly a third time. Swallowing, Antimony just kept herself turned away.

 

Luha could do nothing but keep her hands pressed to her face and try to cry as quietly and subtly as possible. Her once strong and muscular form seemed shrivelled and sickly from only a month or two ago. K'luha both looked and felt frailer than even K'takka and K'deiki.

 

K'ile just lingered with his arms crossed, not knowing what to do. He gave K'piru a very 'I have no idea what to do' look.

 

Antimony would not be very helpful, unfortunately. "Perhaps... perhaps I should g--if you want me to, I will go," she murmured down towards her feet.

 

"She doesn't need to be left alone right now," K'ile said, "Anyway, K'airos is coming back soon, and I won't believe she's actually alive until I see her interacting with someone other than K'hai."

 

K'airos. Antimony could stay for K'airos, for her daughter. Her tail shivered against her leg and she hugged herself. "Alright." She stood like a statue between K'luha and the door.

 

"Alright," K'ile said, turning around and pacing back over near K'luha, crouching down next to her. "Does it help to tell women to stop crying or does it not help?"

 

Luha was far too upset to respond to K'ile question. To which the answer was a, 'Of course it doesn't help you idiot'. Not that she said that, but part of her wanted to. Luha remained crying as quietly as possible, face hidden by her hands.

 

K'ile just made a face and swung his tail around behind him, looking up at K'piru and saying, "You think K'aijeen is using some of her magic somehow?"

 

Antimony's ears shifted uncomfortably, echoing her expression which she angled sideways at K'ile. "I... I don't know. She just--when Airos took me to her..."

 

"I wouldn't put it past her. If she's around there's something to be wary of. Don't trust her. Don't believe what she says and don't let down your guard around her."

 

Antimony flinched. "She's not--she's not a... a monster!"

 

"I didn't say that," K'ile said, "But she is dangerous."

 

"She's my daughter," Antimony half-begged for understanding. K'ile was right, though. K'aijeen terrified her.

 

For a while, K'ile stayed silent next to K'luha, not speaking at all. Then he just slumped his shoulders and dropped his head, "I'm just going to stop talking."

 

His tone drew a tightness to Antimony's expression. "... I... am sorry. I know what--I know..." She let out a shuddering sigh. "I know what... she can do. I remember."

 

As far as Luha knew, and she was pretty sure about this, there were no magical spells making her feel like this. Just the insanity around her and an inability to cope with it all on top of being sick and having a miserable sickening injury that made her more sick. So in the silence K'luha just cried until she ran out of tears and then she just sniffled and choked and coughed every so often.

 

K'ile eeeeeventually reached out and put an arm around K'luha.

 

Antimony remained quiet where she stood, body language closed off and apologetic.

 

K'luha took a long moment after K'ile put an arm around her to drop her hands from her face. She dropped her hands lightly to the board, moving one to weakly grab at K'ile's wrist. Luha looked pale and shaky again, her eyes a bit bloodshot and puffy from the crying.

[Naunet]

((Woo RP from in-game!))

 

***

 

Lingering near K'luha but without anything to say to the crying, injured woman, K'ile frowns awkwardly in K'piru's general direction. His sister has gone quiet as well. These women. There's no winning.

 

Antimony had indeed gone quiet, for some time now as her thoughts roiled about her grey-haired skull. Every so often, she'd cast a sideways glance towards K'ile and K'luha, but watching them only reminded her of how she did not belong with their family. No matter what K'luha said. That was how it had always been.

 

K'airos arrived with K'hai to the door and knocked. "We have the food!" she told the door, melodically. K'hai walked behind her, growing dizzy, but he did his best to not show it as he followed K'airos.

 

K’luha shivered with the knocking of the door and a bright cheery announcement. 

 Antimony first jumped at the thunking on the door, then blinked dumbly at K'luha and K'ile as though they had caused it, and then processed the voice that had sounded shortly after the knock. The dull expression she'd worn for the past hour or so shifted suddenly to unadulterated joy and she spun around, rushing to the door to fling it open with a, "K'airos! You're back!" She greeted her daughter in the same manner she had the past few times - with an overwhelmingly desperate hug.

 

K'hai just stood behind K'airos stone faced.

 

Observing K'pirus reaction, K’ile muttered, "Guess I can accept it now."

 

K'piru's daughter was about to say something to K'hai, but a sudden hug made her forget all about it. "Hi!" she said, patting her mother's back. Noticing K'ile and K'luha over her shoulder, she waved at them without leaving the hug. She is then scandalized. "Why's Luha tied up?"

 

K'hai looked where K'airos was observing. Hmm so the squirt did something right at least. There was definitely no getting out of that bed for her.

 

Burying her face against her daughter's shoulder for a moment, Antimony allowed herself to revel in K'airos's scent and presence. Then she blinked, looking past the girl to spot the man behind her. Her weight sagged somewhat against her daughter in shock.

 

K'hai looked down at K'piru, smiled, only to be struck by another dizzy spell and staggered.

 

K'ile called out an answer to K'hai's question, "It's holding her hip in place so it can heal. Should be firm enough to move her back home." Then, quieter, "I hope. That's me hoping."

 

K’hai shook his head and, recovering, he answered back "You did good K'ile. Even I can see she won’t be moving."

 

K'luha scoffed loudly, seeming coming to life for a moment. "What? He holds me down so you can slap me around some more?" She muttered bitterly.

 

Still hugging her mother, K'airos said: "We could get her a healer before you leave!" And then she pointed at Antimony. "She's a healer! And I bet she's free!"

 

"Sister, I apologize. I have not been well,” K’hai acknowledged. “Your insults at me, and lack of caring for family made me do a terrible mistake. I will not let myself lose control like that again."

 

K’ile spoke up quickly, "Nobody cares more about family than K'luha. I doubt a man who would hit a crippled woman even knows what the word 'care' means. But the Elders will have their go at you. You're lucky I don't need one."

 

Antimony leaned back slightly from K'airos, setting her hands on the girl's shoulders as she looked past her to K'hai, confusion pulling on her features. "What is--what is this talk of... first wishing death and then--lack of caring? What... has happened to the family...?"

 

K'luha bristled. Even his apologies were insulting. The hair on her ears and tail stood up on ends as she even tried to dignify him with a response. But to some surprise, K'ile spoke up for her. She bit down on her tongue and kept her eyes averted from K'hai. "Well K'piru, most of the family died and apparently I turned into a horrible monster who can't raise children."

 

K'hai growled, "Crippled women should not be picking fights. And it's funny She seemed so concerned with her daughter when she sent me to find you. Then when I return to her, you'd swear her daughter was some demon needing destroyed. If that is caring then it is awful funny way of showing it."

 

"Hold your tongue, K'hai. With your hand, if your mouth is too weak," K’ile snapped.

 

K'hai then looked to K'piru, "I do not know. I only know I woke up about a year ago, and regained my strength enough to start heading home. Only to find... chaos..."

 

Antimony flinched, looked to K'airos worriedly, and then took a step back with a frown. "This is not right," she stated, tail lashing. "None of you... you should not be turning on each other so."

 

K’luha bristled again, her head turning sharply towards her brother. K'ile spoke again before the words left her mouth, but the fury in her gaunt and bruised face. Her lips twisted into a trembling scowl. "You LIED to me and you're obsessed with my daughter! She's got NOTHING to do with you K'hai so don't come back after five years of sleeping and tell me how I should have raised her!"

 

K'airos sadness wasn't evident; one of the advantages of wearing a mask as part of the uniform. "You shouldn't be fighting! You should be happy that each other is alive! This is not healthy." she pouted.

 

"Stop this, now!" Antimony demanded, turning between the two on the floor in the room and the two at the door. Her ears shivered anxiously and though her words were forceful, she still looked as though she wanted to bolt.

 

K'hai fell back against the back wall and sighed, "K'ile, did you not say you did not care what her foolish daughter did? You were more concerned with food." He then slid down the wall into a sitting position holding his head.

 

Weathering K'piru's snap well, he replied in a dry tone, "K'hai does not appear well."

 

K'airos kneeled next to K'hai, poking him with a gauntleted hand. "Are you alright? Did you eat this morning? Anything hurts?"

 

K'hai looked at her, "I been sick since I awoke. The maiden that nursed me back, said it is some sort of sickness.”

 

Her ears laying back, Antimony looked away from the pair on the ground once more and, after a moment, directed her attention to K'hai through the door. Her tail shook and pressed against her legs but she spoke, "The... maiden didn't specify...?"

 

K'hai looked to K'piru "She said it was something with them big crystals. Ather... or whatever."\

 

"Not too sick to muscle around," K'ile muttered, and then raising his voice, "K'airos! Come here a minute."

 

Antimony blinked. "Aetherytes...? But... ah? I don't understand."

 

K'hai took a deep breath ,"Aether sickness..." finally standing, his tail whipping back and forth hearing K'ile speak once more.

 

Antimony frowned as he stood, ears shifting uneasily. It was not an affliction she'd encountered before, and so she worried. "You should not... be running about either, I think," she said after a moment.

 

K'airos stood up very calmly, letting out a sigh of relief and turning towards K'ile. "It’s not lethal! Good. He should be used to it, though..." she said, walking to the other two Miqo'te in the room.

 

Smiling up at K'airos, he said, "Hey, take that thing off your head."

 

K'hai looked at K'piru, "I found I felt better when I was away from them crystals. It's when I got to this outsider city that I felt dizzy once more."

 

Antimony blinked, giving K'airos a baffled look as she walked past her, reached out as though to hold onto her daughter and then, after a moment, let her hand fall back to her side. K'hai's voice dragged her attention back to him and she furrowed her brow. "It... is good then that you are to... leave soon. At least," she paused," that is my understanding."

 

K'hai nodded, "Though this whole situation has me confused. But now, I am even more confused. And all I've gotten for answers is to 'fuck off' from my sister."

 

Worrying her hands together, Antimony dropped her eyes away. "I doubt they've... if everyone would just... be family." She sighed, ears drooping. "There's little I could tell you, though."

 

Confused by K'ile's request, K'airos took off her turban and mask and examined them. "...they aren't dirty..." she spoke to herself.

 

"I just like seeing your face," K'ile said, "And it's weird to say your name and then hear your voice."

 

K'hai nodded, "So far, you and K'airos seem to be the only sane ones in this messed up world. I admit, my temper got the better of me, and I never meant to hurt Luha..."

 

"You fucking backhanded me. I have a broken hip you ass," Luha hissed across the room at K'hai.

 

K'ile put a hand on K'luha's shoulder and squeezed it, "You don't need to respond to him."

 

Antimony gained a strained look. "Please. The both of you... Family is above this kind of... whatever this is."

 

K'airos was a silly woman, and so she smiled to K'ile's previous words while blushing and not having a clue what to say. Thankfully, Luha and Hai's argument fixed that. "I propose you stop hating each other until Luha's back on her feet again and the food's on the tribe... or...with the tribe..." she quickly amended.

 

K'hai remained silent, his tail thrashing with annoyance, "When I was told one thing then suddenly the opposite is true... I wish my sister never sent me to find K'ile."

 

"K'airos, did you two get ahold of the food? And my spear?"

 

K'luha bristled furiously again, her tail swishing angrily about. Her ears twitched at K'ile's touch, and again at Antimony and Airos's words. But lost her temper when K'hai opened his mouth, "I asked you to do me a favor because you appeared after being dead for two years and told me K'ailia ran off to the tribe on her own without K'ile who had invited her in the first place and-" K'luha's frustrated angry words were broken by an equally frustrated and somewhat piercing shriek, also by K'luha.

 

K'hai stepped past K'piru, "Yes, you had an urgency to your town. And I could tell you cared about her. And when you care, I care."

 

Flinching, Antimony half-stumbled into a turn towards K'luha at her scream and begged a harried, "You must not try to move!"

 

K'hai continued and looked to K'ile, "When I found K'ile, I am positive he said he does not care what your foolish daughter had done, his priority was getting the stolen food back"

 

K'airos just looked between them, answering to K'ile's inquiry about spears with what came more as mumbling than proper words. "I left it with the cart...next to the chocobo keeper.”

 

Antimony cringed away from the bickering group and added in a quieter voice, "You must not argue like this."

 

"Forgive me K'piru,” K’hai acknowledged. “I am not arguing. I am merely giving my side. If I am mistaken in what I heard, then he can tell me himself."

 

"That you would all presume the--the worst of each other..." Antimony trailed off in a strained voice, unsure what else to say.

 

"Don't ACT like your innocent!" Luha snarled viciously, clawing herself so she might look more properly at K'hai from her binded prison. "You LIED to me, LEFT K'ile with some assasine plan, OBESSED over my daughter, PHYSICALLY ASSUALTED me, INSULTED my entire character, and to top it all off you act innocent!?" Luha snarled, gnashing her teeth at him.

 

K'ile pulled on K'luha's shoulder, "Don't even try to move," and then to K'hai, "You can't really hit people and then expect them to listen to your side. If you really can't stop talking, you need to leave."

 

"Listen to yourselves!" Antimony choked out, her voice raising in pitch on the trailing syllables. "Stop, please! No one--none of you should--stop!"

 

K'hai waited long enough for K'ile to tell him he was wrong and looked back at K'luha, "You sent me to find him because you were worried about her. When I returned, suddenly you hated her, and you told me to fuck off and that I should stay dead. Fine then, I shall remain dead. You can find someone else to pull your cart and your sorry hides home." with that he turned and left the room.

 

"DON'T YOU RUN AWAY YOU SNIVELING COWARD!"

 

K'airos looked stumped as K'hai bolted and left. 

Antimony spun, expression shifting into something closer to panic. Her body leaned towards the door, and then back to the room, completely torn as to who to stay with.

 

"It's fine," K'ile said. "He can take his time and cool off and go back to the tribe if he wants. If not, then he was never going to anyway."

 

After a moment, Antimony shook, brought her hands to her face, and fought back a sob.

 

K'airos put her turban and mask back on. "Uhm...wait here! I'm fixing this awful family situation!" She did not wait for anyone to speak up, running off behind K'hai and doing her best to catch up to him.

 

"Yeah, good luck with that," K’ile muttered.

 

Antimony jerked up as K’airos rushed past her, throwing out a hand after her daughter and then just wilting again.

 

Luha fumed as that shit of a brother ran off again spilling lies and making her some evil villain again. Why was she always the evil fucking villain? Luha slammed her hand furiously down on the board beneath her and snarled again.

 

"Chill," K'ile said, and then looked past towards K'piru, "THere was nothing to really be done about that."

 

Shuddering, Antimony pushed her face against her hands, feeling the metal frame of her glasses digging into her skin. "I can't find family again only to... watch it fall apart," she whispered half to herself. "I can't..."

 

Luha scowled darkly at the ceiling and shivered. "Yeah well I'm not going to be told how I did a shitty job raising my daughter and get slapped around."

 

"The family isn't falling apart," said K'ile, "K'hai's just got a bit too much of your other brother in him all of a sudden."

 

Antimony's tail twisted at that, shoulders hunching as though to hide from the words. "I'm sure... this was all a misunderstanding," she murmured faintly.

 

"Tell that to my swelling face." Luha muttered bitterly, looking away from Antimony and towards K'ile.

 

"Much as I'd like to let him borrow one or two of my own bruises," K'ile rolled his shoulder, reminding himself of the injuries he still wears from being beaten down earlier, "I don't think that would be super healthy."

 

K'luha shuddered again, ears flattening to her head as she felt rather sick. Too much exhertion from the anger most likely. "I can't keep doing that..."Luha muttered, shaking visibly.

 

Antimony turned her head slightly at that, ears shifting in worry. "Your... own?" She blinked and then finally took a good look at K'ile, blanching. "What--! Oh no, I'm so sorry, I didn't even--I thought to help K'luha and I never thought to even ask if--"

 

"Huh? No, I'm fine. A few bruises and cuts are good for a guy every once in a while."

 

Antimony frowned, looked unconvinced, and then just looked exhausted, ears and tail drooping in surrender.

 

"I'm seriously just fine."

 

Luha glanced up towards K'ile's face and noted the state of his injuries. No one was getting out of Ul'dah very healthy were they?

 

Glancing to one side, Antimony was silent for a moment and then in a quiet voice, "... You have the food back now, at least. You'll be able to go... home soon."

 

"Uhm. Yeah. That's..." He looked down at K'luha, "Pretty much required at this point."

 

Antimony nodded, looking quietly to the woman on the floor - or, more specifically, to her padding and the straps holding her hips in place.

 

"And I'm guessing that you're staying in Ul'dah, K'piru. I'm sure K'deiki would let you come back. How could she not?"

 

Her tail hung low, tucked down between her legs, as she replied in a small voice, "How could any of them." A pause and then, "... I can't leave Airos."

 

K'ile's ears drooped down near his head, and he muttered, "Yeah. I guess she’s staying too."

 

K'hai stepped up behind K'piru in silence then. A second later, "I brought him back!" K'airos proclaimed behind K'hai. "Promise me you will all be nice to each other!"

 

Antimony’s own ears shivered. "I'm so--" Her words cut off suddenly at the voice behind her and there was a moment where she looked as though she were about to cry before she forced relief to her face and spun around. "Oh Airos, you..."

 

K'hai smiled, "Aww I didn't know you cared!" and picked K'piru up in a big bear hug.

 

K'ile frowned in the general direction of the doorway.

 

Antimony let out a faint "Oof" as she was lifted and, after a moment, managed to work her own arms around K'hai. "I'm... glad you've returned. Both of you," she mumbled in a shaky voice.

 

Kluha's eyes glanced back down to the floor in the calm. A small thought struck her, and before she had time to stop herself she had already mumbled it in a hushed whisper to K'ile. "If you wanted to, you could stay with them too. I have an inkling how much they mean to you so..." K'luha was interrupted by K'hai and Airos's return and promptly shut her mouth.

 

K'hai set K'piru down and stepped into the room, approaching K'luha then kneeled, "Sister. I deeply regret my actions. I never meant to hurt you. I love you and if you told me to step into the maw of a sandworm, I'd ask which one. I am sorry."

 

K'airos just smiled in their general direction, very proud of something.

 

Luha listened quietly to K'hai's apology. It seemed genuine. She lifted her head weakly and turned it back to look at K'hai. "I wouldn't ask you to step into the maw of a sandworm idiot..." Luha mumbled, although it was clear now that she was not angry. It was the usual way she begrudgingly forgave people.

 

Antimony let out a faint breath as the two interacted on much more friendly terms finally.

 

K'hai nodded, "I am an idiot. I was slow on learning, but I mean none in our tribe harm. I was only confused."

 

Kile maintained his silence throughout all of this.

 

K'piru's daughter was also quiet, but she looked ready to jump in and interrupt the conversation at any moment.

 

K'luha bit her bottom lip. She wanted to forgive him, but the slap still stung on her face and made her bitter and angry. "You hit me again and I will never forgive you. Got it?" Luha wasn't entirely happy with the words she had settled on, but they were there now and she stuck with them.

 

K'hai nodded, "Never again will I hit anyone in our tribe unless ordered by the elders."

 

"That's still my job," K'ile finally put in, "And I expect you to confess what you did to the Elders as soon as you get back."

 

K'hai looked to K'ile and scowled and said nothing. Only stood and turned to K'piru, "Shaman... is there anything you can do for this illness?"

 

Antimony swallowed, looked away from K'hai as though uncomfortable under his sudden attention, and replied after a moment, "I cannot take such a title anymore. But... I don't know. If I had..." She drew in a breath, looked pained, and then, "The tribe's shaman would be better equipped to help you."

 

K'luha let out a heavy breath. She felt... better. If only a little. But K'ile's reminder of elder confessions made her uneasy. K'ile most like would also face punishment... perhaps as severe as K'hai's.

 

K'hai sighed, "Your daughter mentioned you were still a healer. It is why I ask."

 

Pulling his gaze from K'hai and K'piru, K'ile looked to K'airos and said, "The Tribe is still there in the Sagolii. Why didn't you come home, Airos?"

 

"I don't know what aether sickness is," Antimony murmured. "But--I... don't have any supplies to treat... anything anymore."

 

K'hai nodded, "I see. I don't understand it either... all I can tell is what I experienced…” He then took a seat on the floor.

 

Antimony's ears and tail drooped in silent apology.

 

K'airos looked troubled. Or she would have, if she wasn't wearing her mask again. "I thought you all had died. And...Aijeen found me. I couldn't leave her alone here, even if she managed to...become Ul'dhan. I thought I had nothing to go back for!" she managed to say.

 

"And now that you do?"

 

K'airos turned her head to look at Antimony for a long while. "Mom's still..." She shook her head. "And I can't leave Aijeen. She won't go back, and she would be devastated if I left."

 

K'luha lifted her tail slightly and reached it back to lightly touch K'ile's leg. As if to remind him that he could stay with them as well if he wanted to.

 

Antimony blinked, looked up sharply at K'airos's initial words, flicking her eyes towards the girl with a strange expression.

 

K'hai looked at his sister, at her tugging, then looked between them all, "Wait... K'piru and K'airos are... exiles?"

 

"They are not," said K'ile, sternly, "They're just..." He didn't even know.

 

"There is nothing else I can be," Antimony replied in a low tone, still watching K'airos with a distant expression.

 

K'hai stood, "Those who know they cannot return to the tribe, left. There is no return." Antimony flinched at that, turned her face away from all of them, towards the door.

 

K'airos clapped her hands. "Well, the food is waiting outside! I can go with you until you reach the Sagolii Gate."

 

K'ile dropped his gaze to the floor in front of him, "I'm not sure if it's wise to leave immediately."

 

K'airos' ears dropped to the sides of her head.

 

K'luha turned her head back towards K'ile and looked up to meet his gaze. "K'ile..." She murmured quietly to him. "If you want to stay with them... I know they mean so much to you..."

 

K'hai looked at K'airos, "I will always have fond memories K'airos. And it warms my heart to see you've made such a good life for yourself."

 

Lifting his gaze to K'hai, he says, "I didn't ask for your opinion on it," and he dropped his gaze to K'luha, seeming unhappy, but not having words for her either.

 

Tail shivering, Antimony found breathing suddenly difficult and she forced out, "You... you are right. I'm sorry I--I will go now." She moved towards the door.

 

"No K'piru. We are the ones who must go." K'hai intercepted her and gave K'piru a soft hug. "Thank you for your help." He then turned to beckon to K'airos.

 

Antimony shrunk into the hug and remained very small once K'hai released her. "I can't watch any of you leave," she whispered and continued to exit through the door.

 

"Uhm. One thing!" With her ears still down, she struggled to take off her left gauntlet. Once she accomplished that, she took off the Brass Blade identification ring from her finger and handed it to K'ile. "If you run into Brass Blade patrols and they give you trouble, just show them this and tell them you are me. They'll let you go in peace." she said.

 

"K'ile...?" Luha urged quietly as Antimony began to leave.

 

K’ile still didn't acknowledge Luha's prodding, but he didn’t reach for the ring either, "Thought you said you'd go with as far as the Sagolii Gate."

 

"If K'hai doesn't mind..."

 

K'hai sighed, "Our laws dictate the moment I found out you both were exiles, I should of picked my sister up and left the room without any further words." He shook his head, "Thank you for your assistance K'airos."

 

"You can just go back without us, K'hai," K’ile announced.

 

K'hai looked at him plainly, "So you are staying then? Is that the wish of sister?"

 

Antimony exited without further interruption, an almost panicked haste in her steps. She would continue a good ways down the hall before sagging against the wall for a time.

 

"No, you,” K’ile explained. “If you don't want to interact with K'airos, that's fine. But she needs to take us to the Sagolii Gate so we get past those Blades people safely."

 

K'hai frowned, "Very well. I will tell the elders all that has transpired here. Including my violence against sister." with that, he turned and exited the room.

 

K'airos put the ring back on. After K'hai left, she looked down at K'ile. "When do you want to leave?"

 

"It doesn't matter anymore. Whenever. If you bring the cart around I can load K'luha up on it."

 

She nodded. "Alright. It's right outside the Quicksand, so I'll help you get her on it!"

 

"K'ile...?" Luha called quietly, shifting her head to glance back up at him.

 

"Hm?" K'ile looked over to Luha, pretending to be oblivious.

 

K'airos moved to the other side, crouching and getting ready to lift K'luha.

 

"You really can stay with them if you want... I know I got mad earlier but... it was wrong and I was being selfish."

 

Making a face of displeaure, K'ile said, "I hear you," and then moved to help K'airos lift Luha off the ground. The woman’s ears flattened again and she quietened down.

 

K'airos smiled at some thought. "At the count of three. One, two, three." and she lifted up K'luha.

[Naunet]

Not long after half fleeing and half being driven away from K'luha, K'ile, and K'hai (though the latter may not have been an entirely fair interpretation), Antimony had retreated to her inn room where, stomach churning with emotion, she found herself overcome and simply dropped to the floor once inside. There she cried.

 

Ulanan bashed her tiny hand against the door. In some cultures, this was called "knocking". In this lalafell's mind, though, it was a "Ritual of Announcement" and it involved a complex rhythm and careful timing. So, naturally, this meant she just hit the door with her knuckles four times in a row.

 

The knocking sent a shiver through her ears and she looked up in a hurry. K'airos? Back already....? No, she'd gone to say goodbye to... Antimony's breath hitched and she wiped hastily at her eyes beneath her glasses before stumbling to her feet. When she opened the door, she did her best to look composed but likely failed miserably. She blinked at the empty space in front of her for several seconds before dropping her gaze to Ulanan.

 

In that moment, the lalafell thought she should find a taller, pointier hat. She smiled at the woman, not showing much concern for her state initially. "Hello!" she said, waving a basket filled with papers, jars and a half open bag filled with fruit.

 

"He...llo," Antimony mumbled, coughed once to try and clear her throat, and watched the swaying basket with some measure of confusion. "Ulanan," she sighed. "It's good to see you."

 

Ulanan stopped smiling and raised her eyebrows. "You look terrible! Is everything alright?" she asked.

 

Antimony was silent for a moment, looking way from the lalafell, and then in an unsteady voice, "It seems family is... common these days." Her tail shook and she looked again to the basket.

 

"I'm sorry. I thought you'd be happy to see your daughters again." Ulanan said, pouring disappointment all over the place.

 

"I'm sorry, I don't mean it like--" Antimony gave Ulanan a pleading look, searching for understanding. Her hands twisted about one another until she finally dropped to one knee to pull Ulanan into a hug. "Not that at... I'm so grateful. So, so..."

 

She was completely confused by the hugging woman. "Then what happened?"

 

Antimony's arms shook around Ulanan. She didn't respond immediately, instead biting back tears that wished to spring up once more. "It's all a such a mess," she finally breathed. "I... should have stayed away from them the moment I knew they were in Ul'dah."

 

Ulanan continued to be confused. "Can I come in? This situation and squeeze have a scale that requires privacy."

 

Grimacing, Antimony pulled back slightly and ducked her head away before nodding. "Yes, yes of... course," she muttered and stood unsteadily. "I'm sorry, I..." She took a few steps back into the room and made way enough for Ulanan to enter.

 

"Thank you." Ulanan said while entering. Once inside, she left the basket on the floor, very close to her. "Now tell me accurately who are the acting actors of this account?"

 

"The actors," Antimony echoed as though confused by Ulanan's words, and then shook her head slightly. "They... They're from the tribe," she offered quietly before suddenly exploding, "I didn't intend to--didn't mean to... seek them out but it just--first K'ile was there and then K'luha was hurt and I tried to run from them but then Airos! My baby--my little girl! And she came back to Ul'dah and I couldn't not follow and they were still here and I know I should not want to see them, not when they still remind me of--I can't see them, I'm an--an exile! And they still--they still... I should never have even spoken to them, Ulanan!" She felt very, uncomfortably childish in that moment, and her words dissolved into sobs as she dropped to her knees.

 

Two small hands rose from the lalafell and clutched Antimony's shoulders. "Calm down! It's not so bad, is it?" she said. "If these people were forbidden from speaking to you, they would not have done so in the first place, right? So no rule was broken!"

 

Antimony shook her head and moaned. "K'hai knew. He knew--he told... told them just so. Told me--"

 

"I'm sorry." Ulanan said after a long pause of uncertainty. "But your daughters are still around, right?"

 

"...Yes," Antimony breathed. "But Aijeen.."

 

"That's the one who's angry with you?" Antimony's only response to that was a short sob and a nod. "I'm sure she'll come around. Just give her time! Or...give D'hein time, I guess. How's K'airos?"

 

It took Antimony several long moments before she could calm herself enough to respond. When she did, her voice was low and thick but carried a sense of awe, almost worship, "She's beautiful. She's... got a job and... happiness. I still can hardly believe she's..."

 

"Then not all is bleak tribal laws and related sillyness. You should be happy for this!" Ulanan took off her hat and dropped it on top of the basket.

 

"I... am," she admitted in a choked voice. "It's just..."

 

"...your tribe's terrible timing." Ulanan finished, in a tone that denoted grumpiness but some degree of joke at the same time. "I'm sure they are fine. You should focus on your daughter being alive. Alive and happy!" she added.

 

"It's just that I can't help but wonder if... I should try to hold on to them as well," she whispered and then immediately regretted it, saying quickly, "But you're right. Airos is--is alive. That's all that matters."

 

"You can only focus on one thing at a time. We both know your daughters should be first." Tha lalafell turned, taking the basket and her hat into her hands. "Now I stop crying and tell me about your daughter while we have an appetizer!"

 

 Antimony watched Ulanan move to the basket, blinked at it dully for a moment, and then let out a shuddering sigh. "I'm... certainly not being the best model for behavior right now, am I," she muttered and carefully folded her hands in her lap. "... Appetizer?"

 

Ulanan pulled a jar out and shaked it. "Olives! With cheese and thyme. I have forks!" she declared.

 

"... Olives, of course," Antimony smiled faintly. Ulanan's familiar antics were comforting in their own way. "Airos... I'm not sure where to... I've had so little time yet to even speak with her..."

 

Ulanan looked around for a table, instead finding a nightstand. She walked to it and unloaded various jars. All of them had olives, mixed with different fruits and vegetables. It was almost like a collection of olive recipes. "Surely, she'll find time to share with you. I imagine her sister is being less than ideal for that, but we can work something out!"

 

"I don't dare risk Aijeen even... suspecting my presence," Antimony muttered weakly. "But Airos, she... she seems to be doing so... well."

 

"That's good!" Ulanan said. She placed a small bowl on the nightstand. A fork quickly followed and not long after that, the bowl was filled with olives, cheese and various unidentifiable veggetables. She walked to hand them to Antimony, smiling and all. "I don't know many happy Brass Blades, but it looks like she enjoys her job."

 

Antimony pressed her lips together briefly. "She's... dedicated." A sigh. "I'm very proud of her."

 

Ulanan held the bowl in front of Antimony. "These olives will catalyze that proudness and make you even happier!" she smiled. "And don't forget you have to make her proud, too."

 

The older woman took the bowl after a moment, hands only somewhat shaky. She looked away. "There is little for her to be proud of," she replied. "Though... at least I... think I am not unemployed anymore. Or... for now? It's... confusing."

 

"Oh! You...got the job back? Did that Elezen peiste show sympathy for once?"

 

Antimony winced at that. "No, ah... D'hein offered to... well, he wants the investigation finished and--I'm not sure it's actually my job back or if... it's something at least." She sighed and added in a quieter tone, "Airos deserves more than a mother who needs more caring for than she."

 

"You'll work on that!" Ulanan picked up her own bowl. The olives inside it seemed to be mixed with chocolate bits. "First order of business is finding out if your job is stable or not. And secondly you have to not run from your past anymore." she said, speaking strategically and using a spoon to take a bite out of her weird appetizer.

 

Antimony's ears drooped low and she said in an equally fallen tone, "That won't be an issue anymore. They're... leaving."

 

"What if they come back?"

 

The only response to that Antimony could give was silence. She bowed her head and looked to the bowl in her hands.

 

"We'll have to work on that." Ulanan mumbled to herself. Then, in louder tone, she changed the subject. "I checked on Loughree and she was quite fine. Though she didn't want my help."

 

Antimony greeted that announcement with vivid relief, letting out a long sigh. "Good. That's... good. Not--not that she didn't want your help but that... ah."

 

"That she's fine, yes." the lalafell smiled. "I have the feeling Megiddo is only trying to keep her terrified. He won't kill her, or he would have already

 

Antimony frowned, looking away. "No, he's trying to..." She trailed off then and shook her head before taking a deep, only somewhat unsteady breath. Her eyes returned to the bowl with its strange mix of olives and she said rather apropos, "I'm unsure how you maintain a balanced diet on all this, Ulanan."

 

"It's the olives." she explained, munching.

[Naunet]

((The following occurs almost immediately after the events in the first post of Mind Over Breakfast.))

 

***

 

Ulanan took a chunk out of the day to show Antimony all the marvels of Ul'dah's ridiculous riches. She failed to mention that all the empty lots in the Goblet could be used to build houses for refugees instead of wealthy adventurers, though. But that would not bother a true Ul'dahn.

 

Antimony was not a true Ul'dahn, however, so she would indeed have been bothered by such things. It might even have occurred to her, but she'd been rather quiet this whole walk so far, smiling briefly at Ulanan's explanations. With a distant look, she wondered half to herself, "Airos spoke of saving to buy a house... I wonder if this is the place she imagined."

 

Ulanan shrugged, pointing at a random, meaningless point of space. "I hope so, because this place is much nicer than the city. Look at that waterfall!" she said, actually pointing to it this time. "A house with a window to it would be very nice. Just...not close to it, though. That would be too noisy."

 

“It's all very impressive. Grand. Ul'dah does seem to love their stone walls...”

 

“It keeps the peistes away.”

 

Antimony turned her head to look across the small, likely man-made pond below. "I'm sure she would love it here," she murmured.

 

“Well, it would certainly be one of the safest neighborhoods! Especially now that it's so...empty.”

 

Antimony's ears drooped at some thought and she went quiet, making her way down the stairs of the path they walked.

 

Ulanan tapped her chin. "I wonder if it's legal to plant crops in this place."

 

Antimony blinked, brow furrowing behind her glasses in confusion, and looked down at Ulanan to her left. "What would you do with that..?"

 

“Plant olives, of course!” The lalafell’s white, broad-brimmed hat bobbed with her gesturing. “Then I'd have all the olives I could ever want without having to pay. Though I guess the process of making the oil is a bit cumbersome.”

 

Antimony's ears fidgeted one way and then the other. "I... am not entirely sure what goes into such a thing at all. Wouldn't you need a great deal of space..?"

 

Ulanan turned to the right at a fork in the path, towards an arching tunnel. "Maybe. I don't know. This begs investigation! We need to find an olive farmer."

 

Antimony looked up as they round the corner, wrinkling her brow at the towering walls above them, palm trees peeking out from behind balconies at improbable heights. “I... suppose they must have one. Somewhere.”

 

Ulanan took a sharp turn in subject. "Where did you get those clothes? They do not seem to be your usual style."

 

Antimony's ears flattened in embarrassment. "Ah, well, that... these were... well, my own clothes are rather ruined and--I suppose he meant well and... they were from D'hein," she finished at a bit of a mumble.

 

Ulanan frowned. "He has terrible taste. We'll get you some actual clothes from the Weaver's Guild when we get back." She raised her head up, noticing that she walked into a tunnel.

 

“Oh! They're really not... that bad,” Antimony protested with a wince. “They're comfortable! And I wouldn't want to seem ungrateful…”

 

“Did he give you an entire wardrobe, though?”

 

“An entire...? No! I'd never ask for such a thing.”

 

“Then you'll need more varied clothes. You don't want to wear that every day.” Ulanan's words came out as a true, valid statement that could not be questioned.

 

Antimony couldn’t really argue with that tone, though her ears lay back uncertainly as she continued down the tunnel. “It still feels... strange, this whole... situation.”

 

Ulanan nodded with a weird air of understanding. "Running away does that. But good things come out of it, if the gods are willing!"

 

Antimony frowned at that, unsure whether she should feel offended. “It was not the gods that... brought Airos back, certainly.”

 

“Do not be so sure. You fled to wander, and the gods bless those who lose their way. In your panic, Oschon brought you to your daughter. Or perhaps it was chance, but these are all the same.”

 

Ulanan was about to say something, but and old, male voice came out from a corner. She turned her head towards its source: an old man in the corner.

 

Antimony's tail shivered spastically behind her, and she turned first her ears towards the voice, and then her eyes. Megiddo's dark skin blended well into the shadows he sat within, cast beneath the lanterns lighting the tunnel.

 

The old Duskwight smiled.

 

“... If chance and the gods are one and the same... ah, you... always pick the best times, Megiddo, “ Antimony sighed, ears relaxing just a bit.

 

“Oschon picks the place and Nymeia picks the time,” Megiddo corrected. Antimony pressed her lips together.

 

“Oschon is fond of giving you all the shadowy corners of the world,” Ulanan observed.

 

“I do have some preference. I spent most of my life in tunnels beneath the Shroud. So when I arrived in the goblet, I sought the place most comfortable for me.”

 

Antimony looked away, clasping her hands together and weaving her fingers between one another.

 

Ulanan placed her hands on her hips. "That sounds awful. Why did Oschon bring us to you?"

 

“Why do any people ever come into contact, Ulanan? It is because they have something to say, or to do, or to hear from one another.”

 

Antimony's tail flicked against her legs and, after a moment, she managed in a quiet tone, "It's... good to see you well, Megiddo. What do you need?"

 

“I require nothing,” Megiddo replied. “If you do not appreciate my presence, then you may choose not to suffer it.”

 

Antimony's ears pressed back. "That's--not at all what I meant..! It's only that--well, you implied.. and I thought.. ah."

 

Ulanan chose that moment to intervene, “Maybe it's the tunnel. Lalafell and Sun Seekers are surface dwellers. Let's get out of your featureless cave.”

 

Megiddo hummed, and then braced himself against the wall to stand. "Ever must I walk in places that are unnatural to me. Oschon guides me to them as well, though. I should not lament."

 

Antimony held up both hands, turning to Megiddo, "It's alright, you don't have to--I wouldn't want to put an undue burden on you.. Ah, this tunnel is just fine!"

 

Ulanan remained unconvinced. "Is it?" she asked, then shook her head. "Let's assume it is, then."

 

“Don't be ridiculous. Obviously you were on your way somewhere. Do not pause underground on my account. If I value your presence, then the least I can do is walk a ways.” Megiddo stepped away from the walk, not looking particularly weary on this specific evening.

 

Antimony glanced to Ulanan. "Ah, I... don't think we had a particular..." She sighed. "I was simply trying to clear my head."

 

“That is a particular goal we had! So, Megiddo, tell us where Oschon has sent you since the last time we saw you.” Ulanan gestured to the exit of the tunnel, trying to convey the idea that everyone should start walking towards it.

 

Megiddo hummed, stepping forward to comply with Ulanan's gesture. "I do not pay attention to where I am most times. That is the point of wandering. I believe I walked through Ul'dah several times, although once or twice I was in the Shroud visiting a friend."

 

Antimony ventured a small smile. "That sounds lovely. I hope your friend was well."

 

Ulanan got going. She was so impatient! Antimony blinked and started after Ulanan as the lalafell said, “I assume he must not be a Gridanian. Or maybe an exceptional one.”

 

Megiddo walked patiently, "He was well, thank you. As for if he is Gridanian, no. I have no friends native to that area, for obvious reasons."

 

Antimony frowned. "Yes, well... ah, at least Ul'dah isn't... hm."

 

Ulanan let out an amused chuckle. "Yes, nobody can say anything nice about Ul'dah."

 

“I can say I have more friends here, and that -- although it is hot -- it has many convenient shadows. At the risk of re-cluttering Antimony's head, I hope things have not gone too badly since our last meeting. You look like you are doing better, actually.”

 

Antimony looked down to the cobblestone path beneath her feet, brow still furrowed. "Ah, yes, well... I suppose. There's still..."

 

“Difficulties,” Ulanan finished. At that, Antimony winced, tail shifting uncomfortably.

 

“Life is a long series of difficulties,” Megiddo observed.

 

Antimony simply went quiet and continued walking through the tunnel. After a moment, Ulanan spoke up, “And who's your friend, if you don't mind me asking?”

 

“Simply a man, no different than any other. I have many friends across Eorzea.”

 

Ulanan looked away from the Duskwight. "He sounds very interesting."

 

Antimony blinked, ears tilting. "He does...? How do you..." Her tail shivered then and she hastily added, "Ah, I mean, I'm sure he's wonderful! If he knows you, well..."

 

“You are being polite. It's fine,” Megiddo acknowledged. “I'm curious how Ulanan has been keeping busy. I've begun to imagine that she retires into an enchanted cupboard, most days.”

 

“... I certainly hope you're staying in more than a cupboard!” Antimony gave a worried look to Ulanan.

 

The lalafell frowned and pouted, "Do not get silly ideas only because I'm small! I've been busy making paper constructs, and before that I was busy locating your daughters." She sped up then. The exit was just ahead! Oh, glorious daylight!

 

“... Those do not sound like occupations.”

 

“Your wandering isn't an occupation either,” Ulanan replied.

 

“Oh, it is.”

 

Antimony looked even more worried then. "Ulanan, you really shouldn't... there's no need to waste your time on my troubles--I don't want you to end up... well, homeless! Or.. anything else!"

 

“I was homeless before we even met! But I have family in the city, and they do have homes. So don't worry.” Ulanan smiled up at Antimony.

 

The older woman's ears lay back unhappily. "I would just hate to distract you from... well, everything more important." She blinked, catching on the lalafells words, and then, "... paper constructs?"

 

Megiddo lingered back in the shadows for a moment, watching the daylight and letting his eyes adjust to it.

 

Ulanan nodded and said, "Yes." as if that somehow explained the concept.

 

Antimony hesitated in her steps, caught up in the thought and confusion around paper constructs, then hurried to follow after Ulanan before suddenly stopping and turning to check on Megiddo.

 

“There is a saying,” the Duskwight began, “’Do not trust a homeless person who has much money.’ I suspect it does not apply to Lalafel, though. For who has ever heard of a Lalafel without money?”

 

“... That's a saying? From whom?”

 

“Envious people, clearly,” Ulanan declared as she spent some time standing on her toes and peeking over the railing just outside the tunnel.

 

“I believe it is meant to be a political statement. Ul'dahns have a lot to say about money and station.” With that said, Megiddo finally emerged from the tunnel.

 

Antimony pursed her lips. "I suppose so... It's an unfortunate place." She sighed, looking troubled. "I'm glad Airos doesn't seem to have been... bothered by it."

 

“I have a bigger question, though. Ul'dah is a city built by lalafell. Yet all our architecture seems to be made by extremely tall people.” Ulanan made her point by standing on her toes to look over the railing.

 

“I offer no explanation,” Megiddo shrugged. “Perhaps they wished to be welcome to very large guests. Overestimating the size of Roegadyn.”

 

“Truly, we are a very charitable kind.”

 

Antimony brought one hand up to her mouth to stifle a very inappropriate laugh. Clearing her throat, she added, "Or simply to be intimidating."

 

Ulanan found the railing too tiresome, so she turned around and stopped bothering with it.

 

“I doubt it. Once something gets too big, it is no longer intimidating, and simply ridiculous,” Megiddo shook his head. “Now, how does one clear a head? I'm unfamiliar with the process.”

 

Antimony's ears twitched. "Ah, well. I..." A small shrug.

 

“You distract them with diminutive but decidedly delightful dealings so they can dismiss the dull dealings that dirtied their determination.”

 

“That may be beyond my abilities,” Megiddo admitted. “All of my dealings are dirt, and I'm far too tall to do anything diminutively.”

 

Antimony looked between the two and, after a moment, let out an uneasy, faint chuckle. "It's alright. This walk is... well, the fresh air is nice. Without having to worry about... ah."

 

“I should show you my paper constructs right after we get you a proper wardrobe.” Ulanan's change of subject was swift like the shadow of a dove that had been tied up and catapulted towards a wall.

 

“A paper wardrobe...?” Antimony looked thoroughly confused.

 

“Proper, she said,” Megiddo corrected.

 

“... Ah. Yes. Of... course.”

 

Ulanan burst out laughing.

 

“I belive it being proper means it cannot be paper,” the Duskwight added.

 

Antimony wrung her hands uncomfortably. "You truly don't have to go spending money like that, Ulanan. Paper or... proper."

 

“Paper would be a pain to put on. And I can't let you walk around like this. It's an outrage against proper manners and the basic fashion instincts of mankind.” Ulanan gestured broadly towards Antimony, “Specially the trousers.”

 

“From my point of view, it's an amusing thing to be preoccupied with.”

 

Antimony went a little warm in the face, her tail wrapping itself against one leg. "Ah, well, they're--I mean, they're a bit over-large, but... they're not that bad!"

 

“He could have at least asked for your size. But typical of men, he thought he could take one look at you and guess it,” Ulanan scoffed.

 

“... It was a gift! And--I hardly think he had the... opportunity,” Antimony winced.

 

“I suspect it is rude to ask another person their measurements,” Megiddo commented. “I'm from a cave in the woods and even I know that much.”

 

“Yes, and that's why you don't just give clothes to people. You bring them to the Weaver's Guild with you...why are you standing so far?” Ulanan waved one arm from where she stood several fulms away, at the top of another flight of stairs.

 

Antimony jumped and moved to close the distance between herself and the lalafell.

 

“Why did you walk so far away? I thought we were resting. That tunnel was a very long hill,” Megiddo replied.

 

“Because there are benches down here.” The lalafell gestured to the benches.

 

Megiddo nodded, "I see," and walked on over.

 

Antimony perked up somewhat.

 

“Didn't you have benches on your cave?” Ulanan questioned.

 

“I did not. There's little difference between a bench and the floor once you're down, though. One is just easier to get up from.” Megiddo went straight for a bench and sat himself down.

 

“And aren't you glad we are sitting on the easy to get up from one?”

 

“For now. I learned a while ago to only sit on the ground when I don't intend to get up for a very long time.”

 

Antimony offered a small, brief smile to Megiddo and Ulanan. "And the cleaner one, I imagine."

 

“Ulanan,” Megiddo said after a moment of easing into the bench, “if you can afford an entire wardrobe made by the Weaver's Guild, why are you homeless?”

 

“Are you implying only poor people can wander?”

 

“I encourage all to wander,” the Duskwight acknowledged. “But it is also good to have a home to return to, and I know of few who choose to wander without that behind them.

 

Antimony dipped her head slightly. "Wandering isn't... well, for a long time my own home was constantly on the move."

 

“You must have missed the part where I said I have a family in the city.”

 

Antimony furrowed her brow. "But... you don't like your family." Flinching she added quickly after, "Not that--I mean, I was only assuming based on what you've previously... said.."

 

Ulanan seemed confused. "I don't?"

 

“Do they wear linen cloth?”

 

“What? No! Gods forbid that!”

 

Antimony's ears quirked in different directions.

 

Megiddo's ears did not move. "Would you say any of your family's homes are your homes?"

 

“Home's where the family is.”

 

“Then you are not homeless.”

 

At that, Antimony looked down to her lap, tail wrapping against one leg.

 

“Was that ever in question?” Ulanan seemed to have lost track of the matter at hand.

 

Antimony's mood seemed to have taken a downward turn, but she still said, "It's comforting you do have a place to go, then, Ulanan. I'd worry for you.”

 

Ulanan changed the subject of the conversation once again, "This side of the Goblet is awful. All these cliff faces ruining the view. The other side must be much nicer."

 

Antimony made a distracted sound and glanced at Ulanan sideways.

 

Megiddo spoke then, “Is the head-clearing working?”

 

Antimony was quiet for a moment, ears drooping with whatever thoughts dogged her, and then she turned with a warm if faint smile to Megiddo. "Quite! As clear as.. the... midday sky!"

 

“You are a terrible liar,” Ulanan said with a joking tone.

 

Antimony's eyes widened. "Why would you--no, you both have been very helpful!"

 

Ulanan squinted with suspicion. "Well, what kind of clothes do you like?"

 

“Ah, well...” Grimacing, her ears twisted uncomfortably. "... Clothing clothes? I--really, I can't be picky."

 

Megiddo looked up from where he was staring at the ground, turning to Antimony and saying, "If you don't mind my curiosity, were you successful?"

 

Ulanan didn’t understand the question, so she just raised her brows in complete silence.

 

Antimony shifted her gaze to Megiddo, green eyes blinking rapidly behind her glasses. "Ah...? Successful in... oh." She went quiet at that.

 

“You look well, so I had thought you might be,” Megiddo explained. “But then you seem upset as well. I cannot tell if it's something I can help with or not.”

 

Antimony gained an odd, unsettled expression, breathing a few, short times through her nose, and then managed quietly, "It will just take some time."

 

“I'm afraid we don't need you to stab anyone in the eye with exploding dolls, no.” Ulanan’s tone was bitter for no reason.

 

Antimony winced. "Ulanan..."

 

“Hrm. The statement is very specific. I am guessing the event did not meet with your approval.”

 

The lalafell shrugged, “It's just not he method I'd use, that's all I'm saying.”

 

Antimony ducked her head. "Perhaps, ah... perhaps something else will... work."

 

“We should concentrate on your clothes,” her smaller friend announced. “Unless you don't mind wearing blankets with holes for the limbs and head.”

 

Furrowing her brow, Antimony protested, "They're not blankets..."

 

“I've worn blankets. The difference is vast,” Megiddo concurred.

 

“Then what kind of clothes do you like? Long dresses? Skirts? Trousers? Big hats? Small hats? Pointy hats?”

 

Antimony worried her hands together in her lap. "It... truly doesn't matter, Ulanan. Whichever--ah, whichever doesn't put too much burden on you."

 

Megiddo lookeddown at his lap when he remembered he actually was wearing a blanket. It just rested against his pants, but was Ulanan insulting him?

 

“Mm. Fine, then,” the lalafell huffed. “When would you like to get that done?”

 

Antimony sighed, looking to Megiddo and then skyward, squinting through the glare. "... Alright. I suppose it can't hurt."

 

“It's good to accept your friend's help, even if it is with such a thing as clothing,” the old man added.

 

Her ears shifted back slightly as she glanced towards Megiddo. "Yes, well..." Then with a sigh, she stood.

 

“Specially when you need it,” Ulanan said.

 

“Go on without me,” the Duskwight offered. “I think I'll sit here a time longer. Though, a question, before you go.”

 

Antimony looked to Megiddo with a quiet expression. Ulanan was suspicious but waited for the actual question before doing anything more than raise both brows.

 

“What method would you have used, Ulanan, since you seem to have an opinion on these things.”

 

Antimony's tail flicked, thrown off by the question, and she glanced sideways at Ulanan uncertainly. The lalafell gave Megiddo a thoughtful look. “Olives.” A pause. “...and maybe a well-balanced, non-poisoned breakfast.”

 

Antimony let out a short, quiet chuckle.

 

“Olives. I wise answer, I suppose. Perhaps next time I will try olives.”

 

“You should!” the lalafell nodded, her hat bouncing. “You can't go wrong with them.” Ulanan smiled at Antimony. "Should we get going, then?"

 

The older woman nodded after a moment, then offered a brief smile and a bow of her head to Megiddo before turning to leave with Ulanan.

 

“Fare well.” The Duskwight remained on his bench, looking older by the minute.