Khloe was bored.
When Aunt Rowena let her set up shop opposite the Hard Place, she'd thought, great! Lots of people will come by on the way back and forth. So she and T'kebbe moved all her notebooks and prizes and certificates out of her room and under the awning, and she waved and smiled at everyone who came by just like Hismena and Sabina had told her was good for attracting attention.
Maybe it was because the stall was on a high walkway. Maybe she needed a big fancy sign to make people notice? Khloe had been here for two moons, now, and only handed out three Tails. Three! That was barely anything!
Sighing from her seat on the stepstool behind the counter, Khloe let her head droop down to rest on her crossed arms. The big Roegadyn in the black armour hadn't come back, either, and she didn't know why: she'd asked him to help her out super politely, but he just ran away, and didn't even take a Tails with him when he did!
"Um, excuse me?"
At this rate, she was never going to have enough material to make enough stories to cheer T'kebbe up again. She'd been doing so well, too...
"She might be napping, Triss. We could come back later?"
T'kebbe had stopped smiling two sennights ago, and even Uncle Adkiragh's best oinking couldn't inject enough life into 'The Boar and The Hog and The Little Lost Dzo' to make it not a story Khloe'd told a million zillion times before. What she needed was-
"Are you Khloe...Ae-le-ah-oh?"
"That's not how-"
"Customers!" Khloe squealed, bolting upright as she realised that the voices were talking to her. (They usually weren't - she had good ears.) Frantically windmilling her arms to avoid falling over, she managed to brace her hands on the counter and blurt out, "Yes! I'm Khloe. Khloe Aliapoh! Who might you be, misses?"
The heavily-armoured Miqo'te she'd interrupted blinked, then clapped a shiny silver gauntlet to her chest with a clang. "Poki Hetaryal, free paladin extraordinaire, at your service!"
The other girl, an Au Ra in the pretty white ice outfit that Aunt Rowena started selling a few moons back, added, "And I'm Triss. A Sea Wolf wearing black and blue told us to tell you that we're "here to help", so..."
Poki and Triss, Poki and Triss, Khloe thought, scrunching up her face. Why does that sound familiar? Out loud, she said, "It's nice to meet you! And I do need your help - with telling stories! I have this friend whose mommy and daddy went away and never came back, which made her lonely, so I tell her stories to cheer her up!" She winked, ears twitching. "That's right - stories of brave adventurers like you!"
That made Miss Poki snicker, but Khloe ploughed on; it was nice to get to use the pitch she'd practiced for a sennight. "She likes my stories, since I'm really good at telling them. She stops crying, and even starts smiling and laughing..."
By the time she wound down her speech, both adventurers were paying proper attention: Miss Poki's mirth had cut out the moment Khloe mentioned how T'kebbe had been getting worse, and Miss Triss scrunched up her face when she started talking about her plan for getting new stories. "What kind of stories do you need?"
"All of them!" Ducking under the counter, she continued, "Oh, and Rowena gives me all sorts of things when I work hard, so if you do this for me, I can give some of them to you!" A few of the tone-stone thingies, a cracked crystal cluster bigger than her fist, the cute white-haired mammet girl; she piled them cheerfully onto the counter, making sure to turn off the latter before it tried to stab anyone. "See?"
Khloe grinned. Miss Triss raised an eyebrow. Miss Poki poked the mammet, before asking, "Do you think Tataru knows that Rowena's reselling her stuff?"
"Probably not."
"Yeah, that's what I thought. We can tell her later," she added, grinning wickedly before turning back to Khloe. "Anyway! Squirt, do you just want us to tell you whatever or do you have requests?"
"I have-" Khloe began, sneaking a hand under the counter, -"these! Tah-dah!" She whipped out a pair of her most recent Tails, handing them over with her best winning smile. "Remember all your bestest stories, and write them in this notebook here. I call it Khloe's Wondrous Tails. Because I have a tail, and I write tales - get it?"
Leaning over to point at the book, she indicated the very neatly-written - she'd been practicing! - headings at the top of each page. "Fill all the pages in then come and give it back, and every time your stories help me make up one of my own, I'll give you a present." Miss Triss nodded, eyes tight around the edges.
For her part, Miss Poki flicked through the sixteen pages and read out, "'A story about the dragons on the mountain.' 'A story about people from a previous era.' 'A story about the robot in the Thali-huh?"
"Is it talking about Alexander?" Miss Triss said, squinting at the heading. "That's a lucky coincidence."
Its movements were the talk of the town, and Khloe's big ears meant she heard all about how the Scions of the Seventh Dawn (and the Warrior of Light!) were working with the Garlond Ironworks to bring it down. It sounded so cool and interesting, but none of the treasure hunters were talking about what they saw inside; she couldn't tell a good tale without knowing what the setting looked like!
And she'd heard that some of the Scions were adventurers too, so she thought they might stop by her stall. And now these two knew its name! "Have you been inside it, really?"
"I-" Cutting herself off at the sound of bright, bell-like tinkling, Miss Triss turned just in time for a tiny little winged person carrying a rolled-up bit of paper to careen towards her, necessitating a quick sidestep as Miss Poki cursed and ducked. "Lily, careful! Is something wrong?"
The tiny little person spun in the air before holding out the paper in her tiny little hands, yellow-purple wings shedding glowing sparkles with every movement. Miss Triss took it, unfurled it, and stood there, in silence.
She kinda reminded Khloe of the younger kids around town, the ones having a hard time learning gobbiespeak so they could properly talk to their neighbours: her face scrunched up and her mouth worked in small ways, eyebrows pulled down in a hard, thin line and the paper crumpled awkwardly where the edges met her tightly-clenched gloves. It wasn't a problem she'd really expected to run into, running the stall.
Khloe hummed, her tail swishing back and forth as she thought. She'd assumed that all the adventurers she met would be good with words, but maybe not? If writing them down for her to look at wouldn't work as well as predicted, then maybe...
Eventually, Miss Poki sighed and stepped over. "Guess nobody told Backrix you can't read, or he wouldn't have written 'FOR EYES OF SHINYFIGHT UPLANDER ONLY, NO WIDE-EYES ALLOWED' at the top," she muttered, hooking her chin over Miss Triss' shoulder to scan the note. "Thal's-uh, butt. Time to get back to hero business, Triss - Mide found that da-astardly cat-"
"Poki."
"-Shanoa. Triss, she doesn't even come up to my armpits, Arielle'd kill me in my sleep."
While hurriedly retrieving stickers, Khloe noticed Miss Triss scrub a fist across her face out of the corner of her eye; the tiny little person fluttered down to land on her shoulder, and she nodded briefly before saying, "Khloe, Poki and I have to go. And I'm sorry, but-"
"Hold on!" Khloe squeaked, plastering the last one in place before scrambling around the counter to press her newest creation into Miss Triss' hands. "Here, take this with you! Special-issue!"
She kept an assortment of doodles and pictures at the stall, looking to them for a creativity boost whenever she needed to make up more Tails. She had a couple of duplicates in case some of them got lost, dragons and primals and Grand Company flags alike, so it wasn't too much trouble to use some of her stickers to tape them down onto the pages of a spare journal.
Tapping her finger to the drawing of an Illuminati goblin, she explained, "If the one with words won't work, then use this one with pictures instead! And if you're not good at letters, either, then just come back and tell me your story instead of writing it down. In fact, you both can!"
Miss Triss paged through the makeshift Tails, holding it up so the tiny little person could look too, then broke into a smile. "Thanks, Khloe. Is it okay to come back in a few sennights?"
"And we can tell the others to stop by too," Miss Poki added, crossing her arms. "That'll get the word spreading around about your thing here."
"Really? That would be a great help!" Khloe cheered, darting back around the counter to hop onto her stool. "Khloe will make sure to have lots and lots of Tails ready for then!"
Sure enough, she didn't see either of those two specific adventurers for ages, but business picked right up a few suns after they met: first in a trickle, then swelling up into a river of great Tails to squish and twist into her own special stories.
It brought lots of adventurers to town, which made Aunt Rowena happy, but - much more importantly - it made T'kebbe really happy! She was smiling for at least a minute every sun, and last sennight she'd managed to go without crying for nearly forty bells! They were making great progress, and Khloe's storytelling skills were improving to match.
While Miss Triss hadn't come back yet with her special picture journal, Khloe had decided to give all her customers the same choice of telling her tales or writing them down: some of them liked to add their own colour into their stories, but a lot of them liked being able to just drop off their Tails and go away again.
It was during a long streak of the latter, battered and stained journals piled high on the counter, that Alexander suddenly turned itself off.
It was kinda lucky timing, because Khloe got to hear all about it! She packed up a few of the journals, put her "Out!" sign out and went to sit on the fresh-cut grass by the Roundspot, where she could listen and work at the same time.
The treasure hunters couldn't wait for the Ironworks to pack up and leave, because whoever was quickest and sneakiest got first pick of their leftovers; Aunt Geimlona thought that she might make less money now that the Scions were moving out. The big Highlander in the fancy black suit didn't seem to care much, but he and his little mammet friend were busy decorating their new house.
Khloe was actually pretty happy with it! If there weren't any baddies left in the robot, then she might be able to persuade someone to take her on a trip inside, and that would be amazing for her storytelling ideas. Especially if she could get a camera like Miss Triss' to take pictures with!
Lost in her daydream of adventure and new ideas, she didn't even notice two shadows falling over her. They shifted back and forth, then one of their owners went, "Hey!"
"Eek!" Khloe squeaked, tumbling over backwards in a shower of paper and stickers. The taller adventurer - a Viera in a fancy leather jacket embossed with green and gold - immediately bent down, piling up her Tails and handing them back once she'd regained her footing. "Thanks, mister! Who might you be?"
Pulling his red-tinted goggles down to dangle from his neck, he stepped back as he bowed in order to avoid smacking Khloe with his long ears. "Ljomi Hadali, of the Skysteel Manufactory. This is my companion, Aki Hoshino-" the smaller adventurer, an Au Ra wearing a purple coat and identical headgear, waved, "-of the Scions of the Seventh Dawn. You would be Khloe Aliapoh, yes?"
"That's me!" she replied, striking a pose. Then she realised what he'd said. "You're a Scion! From all the stories!"
Miss Aki stared for a moment, then grinned. "That's me," she parrotted, "though I'm mostly still here on Manufactory business. Triss and Poki said you were after stories?"
"Yeah!" A real live legend! This is so exciting! "It's for my friend, T'kebbe..."
As the three of them meandered back to the stall, Khloe mentally repeated Aunt Rowena's lessons on business professionalism to avoid interrupting her pitch with curious questions. When they arrived, she picked the two topmost Tails off her pile, passing them over before darting around the counter to offload everything else.
And with the explanation out of the way, she could say, "If you're a Scion, you must have loads and loads of cool stories!"
"Hm? Oh, definitely," Miss Aki replied absently, yanking on the feather tied into Mister Ljomi's chin-length hair until he yelped and glared down at her. "Isn't this where we found the blueprints for your gun?" she said, pointing to what Khloe remembered to be a sketch of Alexander's right arm.
After batting her hand away, he reached up to rub his chin. "I do believe so," he agreed, patting the orangey-red metal box - almost identical in colour to his hair - strapped to his hip and turning to face Khloe. "Do you only wish for tales of Eorzea, then?"
"Ooh, good question!" Khloe cheered, which Uncle Adkiragh had said was a good way to seem like you knew the answer to a question you didn't. All the places I know are Eorzean, apart from Uncle Adkiragh's home, but... "If you have tales from other places, then they would work great too! But the Tails won't have any specific requests for them, because I don't know much about other places."
"Well!" Mister Ljomi clapped his hands, having tucked the Tails into a huge black pouch hanging low off his belt. "Miss Khloe, I will return within the moon to deliver tales both near and far. My homeland borders ancient Ivalice-"
"Like in the Zodiac Brave Story?" The big Roegadyn and little Lalafell from the Ironworks had told her lots and lots of Garlean stories- they were super interesting!
"Indeed! That glorious realm of the past, torn asunder by war and betrayal, the vaunted predecessor to Ser de Haillenarte's modern machinistry-"
"And in the meantime," Miss Aki interrupted, rolling her eyes at Mister Ljomi's indignant squawk, "I can tell you some tales right now!" Glancing at the Tails left open to a specific page, she swung a huge black and bronze gun off her back and onto the counter. "Now, this is Ferdinand. Scintillant double-barrels set into a base forged from a special alloy of wolfram, titanium and one of the boss' trade secrets...with a living soul inside."
Khloe's eyes widened, leaning in as Miss Aki's touch caused Ferdinand to come alight - bright ribbons of gold and red spiralled along its length, accompanied by a near-silent mechanical hum. "Wow," she breathed, hands braced on the counter. "Where did you get him?"
It was clearly the question she'd been waiting for. Miss Aki's mouth curled into a smile as Mister Ljomi moved to lean against the stall. "That's the tale! Mine's not as advanced as Rhet's, so the story's not that long yet, but his girls are as much overachievers as he is," she added, flicking her own goggles up onto her forehead to reveal yellow eyes glinting with mirth.
"Now, the Echo would make this sound weird if I did it properly, since Ishgardian verse metrics aren't much like Eorzean Common-"
"By which you mean you've been reading too many cheap romances again."
"Ex-actly. Anyway! There was once, in the wake of Archbishop Thordan's death, a girl. A Scion of the Seventh Dawn, hero of the Dragonsong War, slayer of gods and monsters alike." Mister Ljomi snorted faintly, drawing a dirty look. "But while she was powerful and amazing in lots of different ways, the girl's dear friend - a mage and fellow Scion, always seeking to push his limits - believed that they weren't strong enough for the battles to come, and asked her to help him with his project."
"And my-the hero agreed," Mister Hahavit said, legs crossed neatly on the counter, "because she had always been a pushover who insisted on trying to aid anyone who ever asked."
He was wearing the thick fluffy armour today, apparently immune to the boiling heat that had Khloe sweating like crazy, but the big bloody axe he usually used with this set was nowhere to be seen. Maybe it was being fixed up right now?
Khloe tugged on her choker, asking, "Isn't being helpful a good thing? That's what all the stories say."
With a mighty roll of his pale eyes, Mister Hahavit retorted, "Sure, until someone with a twisted brain takes advantage of your good nature. Regardless, the hero agreed, and her br-friend explained his plan. You know what the Battle of Carteneau is?"
"Yep!" Lots of the adventurers she talked to had either fought there or knew a story about someone who did, and Khloe thought it sounded awesome. (And scary.)
"Good. He had heard stories from merchants and travellers passing through their home about the treasures abandoned by retreating armies, among which was sure to be rare items and equipment that would sell for plenty of gil apiece. And the hero thought it was a clever idea, aside from one major problem."
"You must surely know what Frontline is by now."
Khloe nodded, chin resting in her hands. "I hear about it a lot! It makes for good war story ideas, since T'kebbe doesn't like tales where tons of people die."
"Very well." Miss Fleurie sat primly on a borrowed stool, her deck placed to one side and a selection of cards arranged in combat formations on the counter. "A Gridanian expedition into the Coerthas Eastern Lowlands recently discovered the remnants of Rivenroad, a Garlean attempt under VIIth Legion Legatus Nael van Darnus to call down Dalamud and destroy the world. Among the wreckage lay tomeliths full of information which would be of great benefit to all members of the alliance."
Surrounding a central card marked with a white snowflake were three groups, each arrayed behind a picture of a lady: a smiling Lalafell in pink, a severe Roegadyn in black, a serene Padjal in white. "Negotiations failed to induce resolution, and as such, they decided to wage battle each umbral moon to determine rights over the territory."
"While in prior situations, the battle took place as a three-way contest between Grand Companies, the geographical location of the Fields of Glory lent itself to local interest." From the deck, Miss Fleurie drew three cards - a dark-haired man in blue, leading two Elezen knights into battle - and played them into position to take possession of the prize. "Newly returned to the Eorzean Alliance, Ishgard demanded a fair and equal opportunity to claim the tomeliths as their own, and thus gathered their troops for war."
"The thing about Ishgardians, though, is that they've spent so long shanking nothing but dragons and heretics that they forget how to deal with anything else." Miss Melala spun on her heel, flashing a vicious smile to her left. "Right, Wyrmblood?"
Mister Estinien grunted, his arms crossed and back pressed against the wall next to the stall. "I hardly think your first meeting with demonic magicks was as graceful as you imply."
"Oh? And what would YOU know about that?"
"I know that the Warrior of Light informed me of your trip backwards off the edge of the-"
"You know the Warrior of Light?"
Their argument interrupted, both dragoons turned to face Khloe's sparkling eyes. Miss Melala glanced at Mister Estinien, then said, "Uh, yes? So do you."
Khloe scrunched up her face, thinking extra-hard about everyone she'd met here, before replying, "I don't think I have. Khloe would have remembered meeting someone in so many amazing legends!"
That just made Miss Melala extra confused. "Khloe, I know you know Triss. She's the one who TOLD me about you."
Wait.
"Miss Triss is the Warrior of Light? Really?"
Over Mister Estinien's snicker, Miss Melala asked, "Did you really not know?"
The Warrior of Light is a Scion - which Miss Triss is - and fought against Garlemald and in the Dragonsong War - which Miss Triss did - and is an Auri girl always followed around by colourful elemental spirits. The tiny little person with the tiny little wings was pretty colourful, but she didn't look like an elemental.
Besides, the Warrior of Light's name is-
"A-ken-triss," Miss Melala sounded out as Khloe squeaked and buried her face in her hands. "If it's any consolation, there are much smarter idiots than you who talk to Triss a lot more and still haven't cottoned on yet; that's a different story, though. Can I keep going?"
"Mm-hm." So that's why Miss Poki and Miss Triss' names sounded familiar! ...She's even cuter than I pictured her from the stories.
"Great! So Wyrmblood and I took the job from Yloise to hunt down Stolas for money, yeah? Big sentient owl, stole a book of evil from its Sharlayan master. We split up and spent half a sennight schlepping around the two halves of the Hinterlands before finding it."
"At which point Mela, having learned naught from prior experiences-"
"Bold words from you, Mister Vanish-Without-A-Trace."
"-foolishly engaged Stolas on her own without saying a word, leaving me to discover the battle when I felt her twisted nightmares leak through the Eye."
"I said I was sorry! Anyway, it turned out that the evil bird was learning dream magic from some voidsent's tome, and when I tried to stab it-"
"-he put me to sleep." Mister Nikol growled, punching a wrapped fist into his palm with the force of remembered indignance. "Magical slumber is far more disturbing than the natural kind - like being strangled with ropes of cotton wool and down, unable to move or fight or scream - and Diabolos wielded it on a scale heretofore unknown."
Khloe tried valiantly to not yawn at the thought, struggling against the late hour and the busy day, then asked, "Did it get everyone?"
"No, only those who, like me, either didn't hear or lacked the wherewithal to heed the warning signs. I've never been very good at paying attention to my Echo," he chuckled. "Those victims still accounted for nearly a quarter of our number, and our awakening cost time that Diabolos used to channel more of Scathach's power into falling boulders of night and shadow that ravaged our alliance. Khloe, should we continue this tomorrow?"
"Khloe is fine," she did not yawn, blinking rapidly to prevent her eyelids from drooping. "I want to know how it ends!"
Mister Nikol tilted his head, and patiently pointed out, "You already know how it ends. I have personally told you about Dun Scaith once before, and I know you've asked some of my friends about it as well."
"But that's different!"
"How so?"
"It's, um..." she trailed off. It is different, she knows it, but she doesn't know why.
Night in Idyllshire, on her stall opposite the Hard Place, was very loud: both adventurers and treasure hunters liked to get drunk, and Uncle Adkiragh (according to her customers) ran the best place for it in the whole Hinterlands. Now that Zhloe had set up Menphina's Arms underneath it, the noise was always there, like the orchestrion roll Zhloe had that played the sound of rain on Twelveswood leaves.
She could hear them now, with her big ears, laughing and arguing and singing marching ditties. They were telling tales of their days in a dozen different voices, high and low and strident and soft, and then all of a sudden Khloe knew why.
After a brief scramble for her words, she said, "You all talk differently."
Powering on before Mister Nikol had the chance to object, Khloe gestured to where she kept today's returned Tails. "Miss Poki knows all the details about the battles, and Mister Hahavit tells me all about the icky bits other people skip over. Miss Fleurie really likes the politics bits and Mister Ljomi's really good at remembering extra history facts and you're really unlucky so I get to hear about what the bad things are like!" She went over the last bit in her head, then added, "Sorry if that's mean."
"No, no, I fully understand your sentiment." Mister Nikol smiled, rubbing his furry neck. "I'm glad I can be of some unique help to you."
"You are! And every time you tell the story you remember different things; when you told me about Dun Scaith before, you didn't mention being put to sleep. The first time Miss Melala talked about Shiva, she stuck to the story of the actual battle; the second time, she told me about the lady who summoned the primal as well." Mister Estinien hadn't been there that time - he was apparently busy visiting a friend in Azys Lla. "So it is different, see?"
"I do see. Truly." Reaching out one massive hand, Mister Nikol patted her head three times. "But the hour is still late and the story will still be there tomorrow, Khloe. I promise to come back first thing in the morning, okay?"
Khloe pouted, but nodded, handing back his Tails for now before piling the rest into one of her safe boxes and locking it tight. Notebook in hand, she padded around the counter and down the stairs, reviewing her ideas for T'kebbe's bedtime story in her head. "Are you staying at the Hard Place too?"
"Indeed I am." Mister Nikol held the door open for her, the inside lights washing out in a wave of colour and sound and warmth, then bowed neatly and set off to claim an empty table. For her part, Khloe wound her way around the main floor and through the door behind Zhloe's own counter, grabbing some pudding from the kitchen and heading for her shared room.
When she arrived, T'kebbe was already in her pyjamas. She hurriedly wiped her eyes, exclaiming, "Oh, Khloe! Are you finished for today?"
"Y'p," she mumbled in response through pineapple-filled cheeks, fumbling around for the too-big dalmatica she slept in. "G'd d'y?"
One of the lots of great things about T'kebbe was that she always knew what Khloe meant, and had no trouble understanding her through a mouthful of food. "I was helping Miss Zhloe sort the coins the adventurers brought in. They're from a place called Thavnair - have you heard of it?"
Swallowing, Khloe said, "I have! It's an island in the Near East. Do you want me to tell you a story about it?"
As usual, T'kebbe smiled, and as usual, she moved to perch on the end of Khloe's bed. "I'd like that."
A story in Thavnair, with a hero and her best friend against a-ooh, maybe an alchemist with a secret potion that gives you really bad dreams! That's good! And the alchemist learned it from an old book he found in a shipwreck, and he was hired to help the baddies cheat in a war game by tricking the hero into feeding it to the other team, and when they stop his evil plan the hero is rewarded with a pair of magic talking chakrams...
Yeah, that works! Let's go with that!
Khloe pulled up her feet to sit cross-legged, notebook safely tucked into her lap. "Okay!" she began, feeling a matching grin stretch over her face. "Once upon a time, on the island of Thavnair across the Jade Sea, there lived a hero who defeated gods and monsters alike..."