Chapter 7: A Dusty City
The two-day trip to Avenata passed rather uneventfully. The only member of the crew who made an effort to interact with Brigitte and Yuuno was Astrus, who showered her with questions like, "Are you an Avenatan native? You have the right sort of name and complexion," and "How did you train your familiar to speak in animal form without telepathy?" After multiple attempts at prying into her personal life and equipment, Brigitte took to staying in her room to avoid him. From what she could see, his crewmates didn't like him much, though they deferred to him. Paula only appeared at mealtimes, and Polonez kept the helm silently. Of the ship's captain, there was no sign at all.
Yuuno had requested access to her borrowed reference materials within the first few hours of the trip. She allowed it, not having a reason to deny him. They spoke little to each other, she reviewing her plans and cross-checking them with her sources, he comparing the content of the documents to that of his memories. He would pause only to ask for particulars of Avenatan culture and archaeological history, of which she presumably knew more. The distance between them grated on her nerves, but it was her decision to limit the information she gave him. Yuuno's company was preferable to that of the Contractor's crew, but it didn't quite keep her from feeling lonely.
The two had but one conversation of note, on the evening of the second day. They were to land at their destination the next morning, and Yuuno's question took her by surprise.
[Have you met Henri Durand?]
She blinked. [Uh...I lived in the same district, but we haven't met yet.] She frowned. [What brought this on?]
[Well, you're dealing with the man's excavation site. Don't you think it would be basic courtesy to say hello and ask him to show us around?]
[Yeah...] She trailed off.
[I had expected you to bring this up already,] he said. [You were planning to get his approval to examine the site, were you not?]
[What? I mean, obviously! I was going to bring it up eventually. Just because I didn't do it with you doesn't mean I was planning to jump in without preparation.] She glared at him, daring him to contradict her. He chose not to press the matter and returned to his reading.
Neither spoke to the other until the time came to disembark the following morning. The ship docked at a small, clean airport with an air of legitimacy. Astrus ushered Brigitte off the ship with his usual smile. The more Brigitte saw it, the more awkward and sickly it seemed. She was restless, and the man annoyed her, but she forced her disgust down with some effort. Father was always polite, regardless of desert, and she might need to book a spot on the Contractor again.
Yuuno shifted on her shoulder, looking around the docking area. Only a few people were to be seen.
"Not many up and about, as you can see. It's only half an hour past dawn, local time. That's about six of twenty-eight Mid standard hours, accounting for the longer planetary rotation here. But I'm sure you studied up before coming home, didn't you? No need for my little reminders."
Brigitte forced herself not to glare at Astrus for interrupting her first breath of non-recycled air in forty-three Mid standard hours. Instead, she turned to him and said, "I'll thank you for you escort and your hospitality, Mr. Cobalt, if not your conversation. Our contract is here fulfilled, and I shall take my leave. Goodbye."
He smirked, the motion twisting his eyebrows into an odd shape. "Charming as ever, Miss Vert. If you ever require our services, please leave a message by the travel agency. It's on your right as you exit. We have a respectable clientele in this city, if you'll believe it."
Brigitte found the contract between his unkempt face and his earnest words rather ridiculous, but she only nodded, spun on her heel, and left the area without another word through the door he had advertised.
She turned left, making for the outside street. It was a short walk, but Brigitte was glad for the exercise. As she pushed open the glass double doors and stepped into Avenata's pale morning sunshine, Yuuno shifted on her shoulder. "You really don't like him, do you."
"I am celebrating the riddance of a man more annoying than you," she hissed. "Please, don't ruin this for me."
"Sometimes, I think that you don't talk like an eleven-year-old," he sighed.
She rolled her eyes. "Oh, really? I don't have many others to compare myself to. Perhaps you could introduce me to some?"
He shook himself and flopped prone on her shoulder. "Never mind."
At the first intersection of the street with another, Brigitte turned to a descending staircase built into the street corner and hopped down, two steps at a time. The staircase came down to an underground platform adjacent to a tunnel. Both were lit with dim yellow lights from the ceiling. A short row of turnstiles stood between the landing of the staircase and the platform proper. Brigitte shook the shoulder Yuuno was sitting on. "You might as well turn back now. Nobody's here because it's so early, but there might be people on the train."
Yuuno obliged, hopping off her shoulder and transforming into his human form. He swung his shoulders to loosen the muscles. "An underground train, then? I've heard of something similar on UA-97, but I always flew or teleported there. I didn't expect to see one here."
Brigitte rolled her eyes. "Sure, we don't have a lot of magical infrastructure, but what we do have is efficient. Even if Avenata's a backwater compared to Midchilda, Lascaux is still a well-developed city." She tapped her bracelet and retrieved several coins from Calliope's dimensional storage. Skipping over to the ticket machine at the wall, she counted out the right amount for two tickets and returned the rest to storage. She glanced over her shoulder at Yuuno. "What, are you going to say something about how we still use physical currency?"
Yuuno shook his head. "No, I was just thinking that I don't get out enough. I haven't had to deal with currency for about two years."
Brigitte grabbed the tickets as the machine spat them out. "Wow, get a social life already."
Yuuno hummed and put a hand to his chin. "I've met four new people on this excursion, including yourself, so I would say that I'm taking steps to correct that deficiency, even if only one of the four promises to be more than a passing acquaintance."
"So you plan to be pals with that Cobalt guy?"
Yuuno raised an eyebrow. Brigitte flashed a completely innocent grin and handed him one of the tickets.
They found Dr. Durand's home address easily enough. His home, office, and laboratory rested all on the same lot near the outskirts of the city. The train only carried the two to where the suburbs just began, and Brigitte refused to pay for a taxi, so the two were faced with nearly an hour's walk along dusty sidewalks and increasingly brown surroundings. A patch of grass or a tree appeared here and there, though they were dry and desert-like.
Yuuno found himself glancing at the girl periodically, expecting her to complain about aching feet or the like, but Brigitte seemed resilient to the demands both of the road and of her stomach. On second thought, he was projecting; his physical condition was not the best, despite his recent training, and he knew nothing of Brigitte's normal eating habits. Also, undoing his transformation always made him hungrier.
"How much longer, do you think?" he asked.
"We'll get there when we get there," Brigitte answered. Her perfectly serene countenance was disturbed only by her muttering, "Oh, I've been waiting for a chance to use that one."
Yuuno frowned. "Please don't talk to me like I'm an impatient child."
Brigitte pouted. "When will I have another chance to say it?"
"Have you no children among your acquaintance?"
"Not really," Brigitte mumbled. Her face fell.
Ah, thought Yuuno, I've touched a sore spot. He wasn't ready to say that he knew her well after less than a week, but he seemed to flip her bad-mood switches a little too easily for comfort. She hadn't repeated the angry display from the airport, which was heartening. However, even coming close to the banned topics would cause her to clam up, and it worried him. Emotional trauma, I suspect, almost certainly related to her family. I may have to get her to let it out for her own good...who am I kidding. I'm no therapist. If I were any good at this, I might have been able to talk Fate down during the Jewel Seed incident. Having Nanoha as my partner...I didn't deserve to be that lucky.
Brigitte was looking at him out of the corner of her eye and fidgeting with her bracelet. He hurriedly shifted his attention to her. "Yes? What is it?"
Still fidgeting, she mumbled, "Could you..." The rest was too low for him to hear.
"I'm sorry, could you say that again? I didn't quite catch it."
"Could...could you do the introductions when we arrive? It would seem strange for me to take the lead when you have seniority and an official position." Her ponytail bobbed behind her with the motion of her head.
Yuuno nodded. "Certainly, if it would make you more comfortable. What do you want me to say?"
"Just say..." Brigitte made a vacant gesture. "Just use the cover story about wanting to look into the ruins. Maybe bring up how much you like his papers on theoretical dimensional physics? And say I'm your distant relative, or something. It's normal for Scrya kids to go on official excavation trips at this age, right?"
Yuuno stopped walking and examined her with a more critical eye. It was true that she could pass for a relative. Her build was slender like his at that age, and she had the same green eyes, though her hair was darker than his by a few shades.
Brigitte kept going, turning her head to keep talking at him. "And it wouldn't technically be a lie, because I have some Scrya ancestry."
"Wait," he said. "Back up. You what?"
She stopped. "Scrya ancestry," she repeated. "On my dad's side. I wasn't trying to keep it a secret; you just didn't ask."
"After you specifically requested that I ask no questions about your family history," said Yuuno, an edge of disapproval slipping into his tone.
"Oh, right." She slapped her forehead. "Sorry, I'm not at my best right now. My critical thinking is less effective when I'm hungry."
"Ah, so I'm not the only one." Yuuno closed the distance and patted her on the shoulder. "That's good to know."
She rolled her eyes and resumed walking with him. "I hope we can get through the first introductions and have time left over for lunch. I bet you're the type to talk for hours and forget all about basic necessities."
Yuuno smiled. "I doubt that will be quite as much of a problem as you think, since I expect you to discuss things with us. You have a proper educational foundation, if the difficulty of those texts means anything."
Brigitte blinked in surprise. "Oh, uh, thanks." The corners of her mouth twitched upwards.
The rest of the walk passed quickly. Brigitte directed him past a rectangular building decked with an array of communication dishes to an older-looking, dusty house. The ground around the foundation held patches of windswept sand, but the porch and the first few feet of the walkway were neatly dusted off.
Yuuno knocked on the door three times, very precisely. Brigitte stood at the edge of the porch, swaying on her heels as she waited. A few seconds later, the sound of footsteps came from inside. Yuuno stepped back to allow a polite distance just before the door opened and a girl with reddish-brown hair poked her head outside.
"Ah, hello," Yuuno began. "We've come to see Dr. Henri Durand out of an interest in the archaeological site nearby. Would he be available to discuss some things?"
The girl quirked an eyebrow at him and opened the door a little more. She looked about sixteen and wore a plain, ankle-length dress with a green apron over it. "I'll let him know. May I ask who's calling, please?"
A light thud behind him showed that Brigitte had lost her balance and had to step down from the porch. Sparing a glance to make sure she was all right, he returned his attention to the young lady. "Yuuno Scrya, Infinity Librarian. That is, head researcher and archivist for the Infinity Library on Midchilda. Archaeology is really my first discipline, and I've read several of Dr. Durand's papers, so I thought I would like to pay a visit, you see."
The young woman tilted her head. "Interesting. You know, I almost expected you to be shorter, in person."
Yuuno raised a finger. "Um, what?"
The young woman laughed. "Oh, I'm sorry. Cousin Henri is quite a fan of your work, and he's shown me several things you've written. It's a bit above my comprehension level, but the parts I can understand are very clear and concise. I've seen you in pictures before, but most of them are from when you first received your position at nine years old. I'm sorry, this is turning into a monologue, and I haven't introduced myself. My name is Madeleine Vert; I'm Henri's cousin and acting housekeeper."
[Use Scrya for my family name. Please.] Brigitte's mental voice was tense. [It'll be much less awkward.]
Yuuno shook Madeleine's hand. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Miss Vert. Ah, this is Brigitte. She's a relative of mine and very interested in visiting the Montignac ruins."
"So it's true that you all start that young," Madeleine mused.
Brigitte squinted with one eye. "I'm not a child."
Madeleine smiled. "My apologies. You're eleven, twelve? That's almost old enough for a weapon license here. Anyway, won't you come in? I'm sure Henri would be delighted to talk with you." She stepped back and opened the door the rest of the way. Yuuno and Brigitte followed her inside and wiped their shoes on the mat. "He won't have much time to show you around the excavation site, unfortunately," Madeleine continued. "He'll be busy writing research grant proposals for the next half a fortnight. If you'll wait here a moment, I'll tell him you're here." She scampered up a wooden staircase to the second floor, calling, "Cousin Henri! Cousin Henri!"
Yuuno watched her go. "She seems...nice, if excitable."
"Oh, you have no idea," Brigitte muttered.
"Pardon?"
"Nothing. I said nothing."
